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of his plans; accordingly, he decided to help his enemies, so that when the wily priest returned to the attack, saying, "Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" (Mark, XIV. 61), he replied,
"Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."-Matthew, XXVI. 64.
This was enough for the Chief Priest and other accusers of Jesus, who, after subjecting him to various forms of ignominy, marched him off to the residence of the Governor, and accused him of high treason against the Roman Emperor (Mark, XV. 12; Luke, XXIII. 2). In his statement .before Pilate, Jesus did not like to suffer him to remain under a wrong impressign, seeing that he was a righteous man, and told him that his kingdom was not of this world, whereupon Pilate was inclined to release him; but fearing that his releasing Jesus in the face of such a tumultuous clamour for his death, as Cæsar's enemy, might implicate him in the eyes of his own Emperor, he had to yield to their demand, for they had openly threatened to denounce him, saying:
RESURRECTION.
"If thou let this man go thou art not Cæsar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Cæsar."-(John, XIX. 12),
Here, again, we find the nobility of Jesus' disposition asserting itself. For the sake of truth and to avoid misleading a righteous man, he risked everything, even the very success of his plans, at the last moment. If Pilate had declined to crucify him, all his plans. would have been frustrated, but better that than the misleading of a righteous man.
From the judgment hall he was taken to the place
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