"It is the Messiah! God be praised. He has come!"

No one knew who had spread the news of His arrival, or who first
shouted the word Messiah. Perhaps it was Judas. It caught on like
wildfire, awaking cries of acclamation everywhere. When Jesus rode up
to the town, the crowd was so great that the ass could only pace slowly
along, and after He had passed the town gate the streets and squares
could scarcely contain the people. The whole of Jerusalem had suddenly
become aware that the Prophet of Nazareth had come! Strangers from the
provinces, who had already seen and heard Him in other places, pressed
forward. Now that He entered the metropolis with head erect and the
cry of the Messiah filling the air, people who had scorned the poor
fugitive were proud of Him and boasted of meetings with Him, of His
acquaintance. Hands were stretched out to Him. Many cast their
garments on the ground for the ass to step on. They greeted Him with
olive and palm branches, and from hundreds of throats sounded: "All
hail to Thee! All hail to Thee! Welcome, Thou long-expected, eagerly
desired Saviour!" The police, with their long staves, made a way
through the streets that led to the golden house, to the king's palace.
From all doors and windows they shouted: "Come into my house! Take
shelter under my roof, Thou Saviour of the people!" The crowd poured
forward to the palace. The disciples, who walked close behind Him and
could scarcely control their agitation, were surrounded, overwhelmed,
fanned with palm-leaves, pelted with rose-buds. Simon Peter had been
recognised as soon as the Master, and could not prevent the people
carrying him on their shoulders; but he bent down and implored them to
set him on the ground, for he did not wish to be lifted higher than the
Master, and he feared if they held him up like that over the heads of
the others many would take him for the Messiah. John had managed
better; bending down and breathing heavily, he led the animal, so that
the people only took him for a donkey-driver. All the rest of the
disciples enjoyed the Master's honours as their own. Had they not
faithfully shared misery with Him!

"Jerusalem, thou art still Jerusalem!" they said, intoxicated and
filled with the storm of exultation around Him. "However well it went
with us, it has never gone so well as here in Jerusalem."

Judas could not congratulate himself enough that, despite the poor
procession, the Master was reco