e gave me
His Kingdom of Heaven and this is how I requite Him!" His life was now
so broken that he crept out into the desert. There he threw himself on
a stone, wrung his hands, and abandoned himself to weeping.

Jesus was at last brought into the hall before the Governor. When
Pilate saw Him in that unheard-of disguise, his temper began to rise.
He was not to be waked from His sleep for a joke. Well, the Jews had
mocked at their Messiah-King, and He would mock at them through Him.

He heard the accusation but found nothing in it. "What?" he said to
the High Priests and their supporters, "I'm to condemn your King? Why,
what are you thinking of?" Instead of terrifying the accused with his
judicial dignity, he desired to enter into conversation with Him.
Although the Nazarene stood there in such wretched plight, He must have
something in Him to have roused the masses as He did. He wanted to
make His acquaintance. In a friendly manner he put mocking questions
to Him. Did he really know anything special of God? Would He not tell
him too, for even heathens were sometimes curious about the Kingdom of
Heaven? How should a man set about loving a God whom no one had ever
seen? Or which among the gods was the true one? And for the life of
him he would like to know what truth really was.

Jesus said not a word.

"You do not seem to lack the virtue of pride," continued Pilate, "and
that's in your favour. You know, of course, in whose presence you
stand, in the presence of one who has the power, to put you to death,
or to set you free."

Jesus was still silent.

The crowd which already filled the large courtyard became more and more
noisy and unmanageable. Rabbis slipped through it in order to fan the
fire, and on all sides sentence of death was eagerly demanded. Pilate
shrugged his shoulders. He did not understand the people. But he
could not condemn an innocent man to death. He would let the Nazarene
just as He was step out on to the balcony. He himself took a torch
from a slave's hand to light up the pitiful figure. "Look," he called
down to the crowd, "look at the poor fellow!"

"To the gallows with him! To the cross with him!" shouted the crowd.

"If," said Pilate, preserving his ironical tone, "if you do not want to
miss your Passover spectacle, go out there; no fear of criminals not
being crucified to-day. What do you say to Barabbas, the desert king?
O ye men of Jerusalem, be satisfied with o