Jesus guilty, yet he must take some sort of evidence before doing so. It is probable that the chief priests had given him the hint to question Jesus about a claim of kingship, as they had done concerning the Messiasship. It would save time, they thought; it would elicit the Saviour's frank avowal, and arouse the Roman's jealousy. Hence Jesus in His defence gave question for question: "Sayest thou this thing of thyself?" And hence Pilate's evasion: "Am I a Jew?" How lofty the scorn in that interrogatory! But Pilate followed it up with a more practical question: "Thy own nation and the chief priests have delivered Thee up to me. What hast Thou done?" He thus dismisses the question of kingship, which he perceives must be a spiritual or rather a theological one, and therefore a visionary matter to a practical Roman mind. But Jesus held him to it, and after showing that His claim to kingship had no worldly significance, He insisted upon His sovereignty, His real kingship, over men's minds: "My kingdom is not of this world." Pilate's curiosity about such things was feeble, but he asked, "Art thou a king then?" Upon which Jesus made His royal proclamation: "Thou sayest that I am a king. For this was I born, and for this came I into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth." By birth and lineage as the Incarnate Word of God and the Light of the World He was the head master of God's School and the intellectual monarch of the human race. One piercing word He added: "Every

My kingdom is not of this world."

Pilate

one that is of the truth heareth My voice."
had possibly dabbled a little in philosophy, but he was
a pagan, and he answered as if he were also a
sceptic: "What is truth?"

No one was so well fitted as Jesus to answer that
question, for He had said before "I am the
truth."" But Pilate did not want to talk
philosophy (so he must have considered it),
but only to be rid of Jesus and the clamoring
Jews. Therefore he went out to the chief
priests and stated his acquittal of their
victim; he did it emphatically and, he
hoped, finally: "I find no cause in
Him," exclaimed the Roman
Roman judge.
How different would his fate have been
had he but had the courage to
stand to that righteous sen-
tence!

"What is truth?"

When our Saviour said to Pilate, My kingdom is not of this world," the Roman could hardly have understood Him, though he felt vaguely that this explanation exempted Jesus from his jurisdiction, as the Romans knew of no other kingdom but an earthly one. There are not a few monarchs and other rulers who agree with Pilate, and yet will not suffer the Church of Jesus Christ to exercise or even to claim spiritual jurisdiction.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

PILATE SENDS JESUS TO HEROD

Matt. xxvii. 12-14; Mark xv. 3-5; Luke xxiii. 4–16.

THE chief priests were thunderstruck by this decision of the governor. Instantly "they accused [Jesus] in many things." The Saviour was then ordered forth to confront His accusers; but He refused to defend Himself further. "And when He was accused by the chief priests and ancients He answered nothing. Then Pilate saith to Him: Dost Thou not hear how great testimonies they allege against Thee? And He answered him to never a word, so that the governor wondered exceedingly." He could not understand why Jesus, having in him a judge inclined to be favorable, yet made no defence, no counter charges against His enemies. But, even so, Pilate was loath to yield to the conspirators. He said again "to the chief priests and to the multitude: I find no cause in this Man. But they were the more earnest, saying: He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place. But Pilate hearing of Galilee, asked if the Man were a Galilean. And when he understood that He was of Herod's jurisdiction, he sent Him away to Herod, who was also himself in Jerusalem in those days."

Instantly had Pilate found his opportunity in the word Galilee-Herod must judge this case, Herod the Tetrarch of Galilee. True, Pilate was aware that his own court had jurisdiction, but so had Herod's, for jurisdiction came from the domicile of the culprit as well as from the locality of the crime he was accused of committing. Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee,

had a residence in Jerusalem and was now present for the Passover, for he pretended to believe in the Hebrew faith. Pilate would force him, the murderer of the Baptist, a sensualist and a scoffer, but yet nominally a member of the Jewish religion, to make the final disposition of the Prisoner.

The heart of Rome was wolfish. The myth which told of its founders having been suckled by a she wolf was all too truly indicative of the pitiless Roman spirit; and Pilate had often shown the usual cruelty of his race. But he was not wantonly cruel, and he resented the attempt of the Jews to force him to kill Jesus. As to Herod, whom our Saviour himself had called that fox," he was as cruel but more crafty than the Roman wolf.

By Herod's cunning, hidden behind his buffoonery, and Pilate's impatience under compulsion, the fierce malignity of the Jews was for the moment baffled. Meantime the Saviour suffered many pangs of mental anguish and bodily pain while dragged along the public streets between the Roman garrison and Herod's palace, a distance of nearly a mile. The Jewish conspirators hurried Him back and forth, the hour being now about seven in the morning, devouring Him with their hatred and hotly debating among themselves what course to follow to finally destroy Him.

Herod probably believed not a word of the charges against Jesus. At any rate he refused to condemn Him to death. But constraining himself to think him no more than a skilful juggler under a religious craze, he would coax Him to give a performance. Jesus refused to answer a single word; He utterly ignored Herod.

And Herod, seeing Jesus, was glad, for he was desirous of a long time to see him, because he had heard many things of him, and he hoped to see some sign wrought by him. And he questioned him in many words. But he answered him nothing. And the chief priests and the scribes stood by earnestly accusing him. And Herod with his army set him at naught, and mocked him, putting on him a white gar

ment, and sent him back to Pilate.

Irritated at this, and noticing the accusation of the claim of kingship, Herod bade his military escort make sport of Jesus, and then returned Him to Pilate clothed in mockery with a white garment, which may have been a sort of toga. The two rulers had recently been at enmity; possibly because Pilate had slaughtered a number of Galileans some time before. "And Herod and Pilate were made friends together that same day, for before they were enemies one to another." They now exchanged peaceful messages and compliments by means of their prisoner's escort; Jesus was thus a mediator of peace even between these two most atrocious sinners.

Pilate's sole purpose was to rid himself of the embarrassment which the chief priests had thrust on him. All he gained was peace with Herod: war with his own conscience and with the Jews was still raging. He placated a personal enemy, but he paid dearly for it. Jesus was still to be disposed "Herod mocked Him!" of, the Jews were still to be managed.

Herod's conduct was characteristic. As the false Roman magistrate treats Jesus with cowardly subservience, and as the murderous fanatics treat Him with cruelty, so the sensualist prince treats Him with levity and derision. Jesus had never sought the courts of princes; rather He had preached His Gospel to the poor. His sermon to Herod and His court on this the only time He had a royal audience was patient silence. Some of the saintliest of His followers have been of kingly station, and have aided religion with regal generosity; but Herod was of the bad sort of kings, and was glad to mock at religion's Founder and Author.

This Man of divine words, who had been incessantly teaching day and night for three years, is ab