xxvi. r). The death of the cross, therefore, and that of course by public sentence and execution, awaits the Saviour; although such a design (and still more the attainment of it) is, even so late as the present time, far from the thoughts of his bitterest foes. The active counsels of the Pharisaic party, however, as we have said, had received a great impulse to-day from the unexpected adhesion of one of the apostles. They accordingly laid their plans for tampering with the populace, and they found effective helpers in those chiefs of the people,' whom we have already observed closely lea_gued with the malignants. With what success their efforts were crowned we shall soon discover. Jesus, who is now a free man, will be by to-morrow night a prisoner in the house of the high-priest, awaiting death.
Thursday, 14.th of Nisan (April 6). —The greater portion of this, like the whole of the previous day, was spent in private, either at Bethany or some other part of the Mount of Olives. The proceed ings of the Sanhedrim, no less than the actions of our Lord, are again veiled in obscurity. Never did history fail in her record at a more momentous period than at this great crisis, when the powers of darkness were successfully engaged in their fatal activity to accomplish the Saviour's death. How profoundly sacred were the meditations of Jesus, and how intensely malignant were the labours of his enemies, which this veil of history shrouds from view, we may in some deg,ree gather from the nature of the case and from the events which are revealed to us, on either side, on the resumption of the narrative. Among- the many astonishing occurrences which make this week the most won derful in all history, not the least remarkable is the conduct of Me people' towards our Lord. And now while the faction which rules at Jerusa lem is so engrossed in detaching the multitude from their lingering devotion to Christ, let us bestow a moment's reflection, in passing, on the probable cause of that revolution in the public sentiment which enabled the Sanhedrim to effect their deadly object From the capricious qualities of a crowd, which shrewd observers of mankind have so often noticed (comp. Eurip. Orest. 1157 ; Cicerodiro Plane. iv. ; Virgil, /En. ii. 39 [` incer tum vulgus ; Horat. Od. 16. 4o malignum vulgusl ; Oa'. i. 35. 25 r infiduml ; Shakespere, Coriolanus, 1), the Jewish populace was cer tainly not exempt. Nowhere could one find a more vivid portraiture of popular inconsistency than in the accounts which the evangelists give us of the change in the shouts of the multitude in the streets of Jerusalem, from the Hosannas' of Palm Sunday to the Away with him, crucify him' of the following Friday. Other examples are given us by St. Luke (Acts xiv. 11-19 ; xix. 32, sqq. ; xxviii. 4-6), but they are faint illustrations
indeed of the vast and fatal inconsistency of which we are writing. Startling, however, as it was, we have not far to go for the reason of the change.
Intense was the popular craving to exchange the Roman yoke for a native monarch who should restore the line of their glorious David ; and in spite of the Lord's studied efforts to check all political demonstrations in his favour, the great works of mercy, which he designed to instigate only spiritual adhesion to him, suggested to the wonder-stricken crowds which saw them the con clusion, that the Wonder-worker himself could be none else than the very Messiah, the restorer of their ancient kingdom. In vain did Jesus seek every opportunity of discouraging and reproving this mere worldly expectation. His very apostles were full of it to the last. How bitter then was the disappointment of all men, vvhen, instead of displaying the insignia of a revolutionary enterprise to which their Hosannas were intended, on the first day of the week, to invite him, he gradually withdrew himself from all intercourse and apparent sympathy with the people. Disappointment, .as is natural, begat a reaction of dislike and a desire of revenge. The higher classes, whom the Lurd's severe strictures had within the last day or two exasperated more keenly than ever, saw the change, and instantly embraced it by the help of the popular leaders whom they had already on their lide. In this somewhat speedy collapse of their Messianic hopes may we then trace the cause of the defection of the populace from the side of Christ, stimulated as it was by the artful mis representations of their subtle guides, who were too well practised in hypocrisy to be at a loss for means of converting a popular disappointment into a strong antipathy. What particular shape their persuasion took we shall have another opportunity of seeing. We need only here remark, that in the face of these considerations we shall feel no aston ishment, whcn to-morrow we find Jesus, whom any attempt to injure would four days ago have brought thousands to his rescue, led out to execu tion amid the execrations of a hostile multitude. To-day he is still at rest, probably in the company of his beloved disciples. In answer to their natural inquiry—where they should prepare for him the passover ?-11e, towards the end of the present day, dispatches Peter and John to a certain house within the city, where, as he had foretold, a ready welcome awaited the entire party for the purpose of their commemoration. Before, however, they had begun their sacred festival, the comparatively uneventful Thursday, in its civil sense, was ended, and that day had begun its legal course, which is in its issues immeasurably the greatest of all days.