Page:As others saw Him.djvu/165

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THE GREAT REFUSAL.
159

Passover was coming anear, and if aught was to be done to clear the city of the Romans, it must be done quickly, must be done on that day. Never saw I the courts of the Temple so crowded as on that day when I came thither, and found Jesus standing in the Court of the Gentiles, with almost all the leading men of Jerusalem and many of the common folk surging about him. Scarce room was left for the Roman sentry to march his guard in front of the Beautiful Gate. Yet he took no heed of us barbarians, but with shield and spear shouldered his way backward and forward, backward and forward, a sign to all men that the house of God was in the hands of God's enemies.

Never saw I the men of Jerusalem so exultant as on that morning. Wherever I looked, joy—a grim joy—was on every man's countenance, and there was no man there but was armed, save only Jesus himself and some ten or a dozen men who had come with him from Bethany, and these, indeed, were the only men who had not shown joy. Never had I seen the Nazarene with a countenance so saddened and