se; but the impulse of his own
false beginning carried him on to the fatal issue.

The first hand stretched out to him was a loving and helpful one: it
was the hand of his wife. She sent to tell him of a dream she had had
about his Prisoner and to warn him to have nothing to do with "that
just man."

Difficulties have been made as to how she could know about Christ; but
there is no real difficulty. Probably, while Jesus was away at
Herod's, Pilate had entered the palace and told his wife about the
singular trial and about the impression which Jesus had made upon his
mind. When he left her, she had fallen asleep and dreamed about it;
for, though our version makes her say, "This night I have dreamed about
Him," the literal translation is "this day"; and of course there might
be many causes why a lady should fall asleep in the daytime. Her dream
had been such as to fill her with a vague sense of alarm, and her
message to her husband was the result.

This incident has taken a strong hold of the Christian imagination and
given rise to all kinds of guesses. Tradition has handed down the name
of Pilate's wife as Claudia Procula; and it is said that she was a
proselyte of the Jewish religion; as high-toned heathen ladies in that
age not infrequently became when circumstances brought the Old
Testament into their hands. The Greek Church has gone so far as to
canonise her, supposing that she became a Christian. Poets and artists
have tried to reproduce her dream. Many will remember the picture of
it in the Dore Gallery in London. The dreaming woman is represented
standing in a balcony and looking up an ascending valley, which is
crowded with figures. It is the vale of years or centuries, and the
figures are the generations of the Church of Christ yet to be.
Immediately in front of her is the Saviour Himself, bearing His cross;
behind and around Him are His twelve apostles and the crowds of their
converts; behind these the Church of the early centuries, with the
great fathers, Polycarp and Tertullian, Athanasius and Gregory,
Chrysostom and Augustine; further back the Church of the Middle Ages,
with the majestic forms and warlike accoutrements of the Crusaders
rising from its midst; behind these the Church of modern times, with
its heroes; then multitudes upon multitudes that no man can number
pressing forward in broadening ranks, till far aloft, in the white and
shining heavens, lo, tier on tier and circle upon circle,