kept persecutions and condemnation and captivity at bay; and not by wiles, or power, or interest, but by the intensity of His earnestness, by the manifestation of His surpassing love.
Like bolts of fire launched from the midday sun, the glances flashed from the eyes of Jesus on the little, shrivelled Jew, perished and bent more from his own iniquities than from age. A charred soul stunted and consumed by its own inward fires. What a blissful opportunity was this to spue forth, toad-like, all his venom upon this diamond purity that by its very existence condemned!
"Are they all without?" he asked the guard.
"All save one," replied the man; "and he is kept in vigilance below, for he did smite the right ear from Malchus. "
"One of Thy disciples did this thing?" asked Annas of the Nazarene, glad of an excuse for the malice that was in his heart.
But Jesus made no answer; yet the patient gaze He turned on the rough soldier appealed to him with all the force of a command to tell Annas the truth of what had happened.
"Yet," he interposed, "this Man did heal the ear, like as the other, by His touch, while we stood and laid our hands upon Him."
But the merciful words fell on merciless ears. The old man made as if he had not heard, and, turning to the Christ, who stood there weary with the night's events and agony, he said to Him: "Who art Thou?"
But still Jesus answered not a word.
Taking no note of this silence, Annas went on:
