"As thou wilt; but it is the last time; my mind is made up," answered Caiaphas. And, while he spoke, he clenched his fists, and his features hardened into an expression that was diabolical.
"Yea, 't will surely be the last time," said Nicodemus to himself. But already the divine voice had begun to speak, and the crowd was silent, sitting, standing, kneeling around, while the little children clustered around the knees of the Nazarene, and looked boldly up into the face they loved and feared not.
His subject was that on which He had enlarged aforetime; that of the shepherd, the hireling, and the sheep.
When He paused, the cry went up, "What meanest Thou? Thou speakest in parables. Who is the shepherd, who are the sheep? Thinkest Thou that we are blind also, or fools like sheep, that these parables for children are for such as we? We are not beggars, we are not blind."
Caiaphas heard, and murmured in approval: "The Nazarene hath overreached Himself. The Jewish people love plain-speaking."
Then, in answer to the crowd, the voice of the Messiah rose again: "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin; but now ye say, we see; therefore your sin remaineth."
Then He proceeded to unfold the meaning of His parable.
When He ceased speaking, the Jews began discussing among themselves. Here and there a voice was heard crying out: "Show us Lazarus, and we will believe."
