ur
is. With him are several members of the senate, the official body in
control of affairs. The plans have been carefully worked out. This night
work will get things in shape before the dreaded crowds of the morrow can
be aroused. Now begins the examination here. These plotters have been so
absorbed in getting Jesus actually into their power that they seem to have
over-looked the details of making out a strong case against Him. They
really didn't need a case to secure their end, yet they seem to want to
keep up the forms, probably not because of any remnants of supposed
conscience left unseared, but to swing the bothersome, fanatical crowds
that must always be reckoned with. Now they deliberately try to find men
who will lie about Jesus' words, and swear to it. They find some willing
enough--money would fix that--but not bright enough to make their stories
hang together. At last some one brings up a remark made three years before
by Jesus about destroying the temple and rebuilding it in three days. It
is hard to see how they might expect to make anything out of that, for in
the remark, as they understood it, He had proposed to undertake the
rebuilding of the famous structure if they should destroy it. And then
they can't even agree here. Clearly they're hard pushed. Something must be
done. Precious time is slipping away. The thing must be in shape by dawn
if they are to get it through before the crowds get hold of it.

All this time Jesus stands in silence, doubtless with those eyes of His
turned now upon Caiaphas, now on the others. His presence disturbed them
in more ways than one. That great calm, pure face must have been an
irritant to their jaded consciences. Suddenly the presiding officer stands
up and dramatically cries out, as though astonished, "Answerest thou
nothing? Canst thou not hear these charges against Thee?" Still that
silence of lip, and those great eyes looking into His enemies' faces. Then
comes the question lurking underneath all the time, put in the form of a
solemn oath to the prisoner, "I adjure Thee by the living God, that Thou
tell us whether Thou art the Christ, the Son of God." Thus appealed to,
Jesus at once replies, "_I am_." And then, knowing full well the effect of
the reply, He adds, "_Nevertheless_--notwithstanding your evident purpose
regarding Me--the Son of Man will be sitting at the right hand of Power,
and coming in the clouds of heaven, and ye shall see it."

In supposed righteou