him, because of his thoughts about her son, and his love for Him.
How grieved she must have been as she thought of her own sons who did
not believe as John did concerning their brother Jesus. The time was to
come when Jesus would make her think of John, not so much as a nephew,
as a son.

In that festive hour, Mary too learned the lesson that human
relationships to Jesus, however beautiful, were giving way to other and
higher. The words He had spoken to her at the feast, like those He had
uttered in the Temple in His boyhood, and the things that had happened
on the Jordan, showed her that henceforth she should think, not so much
of Jesus as the Son of Mary, as the Son of God.

In thoughts she must have revisited the home of Elizabeth, whose walls,
more than thirty years before, had echoed with her own song, "My soul
doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour."

_CHAPTER XII_

_John and Nicodemus_

"There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the
Jews: the same came unto Him by night."

"We speak that we do know, and bear witness of that we have
seen."--_John_ iii. 1, 2, 11.

"There is Nicodemus, who visited Jesus by night--to the
astonishment of St. John--but who was soon afterward Jesus'
friend."--_John Watson_.

"The report of what passed reads, more than almost any other in the
gospels, like notes taken at the time by one who was present. We
can almost put it again into the form of brief notes.... We can
scarcely doubt that it was the narrator John who was the witness
that took the notes."--_Alfred Edersheim_.

Three incidents mentioned by John only comprise all we know of
Nicodemus. In each of them he refers to him as coming to Jesus by night.
That visit seems to have made a deep impression on John. We may think of
Him as present at the interview between the Pharisee and the "Teacher
come from God."

We are not told why Nicodemus came at a night hour. Perhaps he thought
he could make sure of a quiet conversation, such as he could not have in
the daytime. Perhaps he did not want to appear too friendly to Jesus
until he knew more about Him, though he already had a friendly feeling
toward Him. Perhaps he was afraid of the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish
Court. Most of its members hated Jesus and had commenced their
opposition to Him, which was continued during His life, and resulted in
His death. N