ee of improbability. There _is_ no
improbability. It's an _impossibility_. The thing is in a class by
itself, the hopeless class. And the four days give death its fullest
opportunity. And death never fails in grim faithfulness to opportunity.

It is no wonder that all Jerusalem was so stirred. The common crowds of
home people and pilgrims, the aristocratic families, the inner official
circles, among _all_ classes, this tremendous event won recognition of
Jesus' power and claim, and with recognition personal faith. Nothing
like this had ever happened. This is the superlative degree of
miraculous power revealed in this matchless wooing of a faithless
nation.

Love Wooing Yet More.

Now a look at the power at work _in the realm of the human will_, really
a higher power, or power at work in a higher realm, though not commonly
so recognized by the crowd. There are eight incidents here. And again we
shall find the steady rise of the power seen at work. Three of these
tell of the human will changed, and four of its being restrained
against its will from doing that which it was dead-set on doing.

The ruler who withdrew from the midst of the disturbed temple managers
for a night-call upon Jesus was radically changed in his convictions and
his life-purpose. He had an open mind. The work was begun at that first
Jerusalem Passover. Under the holy spell of John's presence he is drawn
away from his enraged brother-rulers to seek the night talk. The
frankness and fullness of Jesus' talk shows plainly how open he was and
how much more he opened and yielded that evening. And the after protest
in the official meeting of the rulers, and the loving care for the body
of Jesus reveal how radical was the transformation wrought upon his will
and heart by Jesus.[93]

The Samaritan woman is changed from utter indifference to a change of
will and purpose that makes her an eager messenger to her people until
they hail Jesus as the Saviour of the world. The change involved a
radical face-about in habit and life amongst the very people who knew
her past sinful life best. It meant more than change of conviction, that
change actually put into practice across the grain of the habits of
years, and of the lower passions, so hard to change. It is a distinct
step up from the change in Nicodemus simply because there was so much
more to change. The same power had more to do. And it did it.[94]

The story of the woman accused of the gravest offen