nnxioty, and boen free from the stains of great wickedncAs. Thflt fill men shl)u!,l belicvo In Jesus meant, in the esteem of the priests and Pharisees, that Jesus would be made a King nfter the fashion of men. They judged Jesus by themselves. They bad no ete.ndnrd by which to guess at hie motives and proceedings, snve their own ambitious hoe.rte. Each one of them would have been glnd to be a king if they could have "Ot tho multitude to accept them. They did not yet understand that human govemme';;t, an exceedingly important thing in its place, is but secondary and subordinate com- p11red with tho perfect subjection of the individual to Jesus. If .Jesue had had all the authority and power of the Roman empire at his back, he could havs done nothin"' wiili~ O
II. THm UNSUOCESSP'UL SCHEME. Successflll, and yet unsuccessful. The priests and Pharisees succeeded beyond their hopes. Jesus did not become the sort of kin"' they feared ho might be. They got him out of the way, and then they were happy."' But, for all that, the Romans did in due season come and take away both their place and their nation. It is the frequent delusion of men that if only they do certain things they will prevent or eecure certain other things. 'l.'he best way of providing for the future is to attend to present truth and present duty. IlI. THE UNCONBCIOUB PROPHET. Caiaphas knew full well how popular Jesus was in mnny quarters, and what a hold he had on the people in the country districts, so to speak. No doubt the national party was in a dilemma to begin with, and to this was added the deep feeling in the hearts of many that to attack him was to attack a really good Man. They would not have hesitated for a moment if he had been a mere dema- gogue, but being what he was they did hesitate. So Caiaphas comes to the front with what, from his point of view, was a statesmanlike proposition enough. What he says amounts to this, "We must not think of the character of the one, but the necessities of the many." You do not hesitate to demolish a fine building and scatter its contents if that will stop the burning down of many streets. .And the Father of Jesus has the 111me principle underlying his plans, only it is a principle carried out with true wisdom and perfect success.-Y.
EXPOSITION. • Greek Gram.,' p, 69).J The date from OHAPTER XIL which the caJcnlation is made is com- The twelfth chapter neither belongs in- plicated with the inbcate controversy trin!!ically to that which precedes nor to upon the day of our Lord's death, i.e. tho.t which follows. It is a paragraph of whether he suffered on the 14th or 15th of Nisan, and whether a "harmony" is high significance, as bearing on the con- possible or not with the statements of the struction of the Gospel. It is the transition synoptists, who all three assert that our between the public and the private ministry, Lord ate the Passover with his disci plea 1 the great pause between the two classes of (see Introduction, pp. xcii.-xciv.). How- manifeste.tion forming the cli.me.:s: of the ever this matter be finally settled, if the 14th of Nisan was the day on which the public ministry. Passover was killed, "between the even- III. CONStlmlATION OF THE PUBLIO nings," the 13th was reckoned as the first Mn..STBY. day before the Passover, and the sixth day 1 The month Nisa'II. Vera. 1-8.-1. The/east of love and gra• titude. The day when The Ver. 1.-Jesna therefore, au: de.ya before Paschal lambs Feast- were ala.in. day. the Passover. Every preliminary of that 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, H, 15, 16, 17 solemn feast is memorable to our evangelist. The coinoidence of the Passover feast and Sabbdthl Sa6bath / the killing of the Paschal lamb, with the SilBATH SAllBATH saorifice of " Christ our Passover," cannot If Christ were crucified on the Hth, the be conrealed. [For the grammatioe.l con- sabbath was a high day corresponding with struction with "'Pb. of, note, oh. xi. 18, where the great feast and convocation, and Easte:r a similar use of ,brd occurs; not, however, a was the 16th. If the oruoifu:ion took place Lntinism, as some have supposed, as similar on the 15th, both 15th e.nd 16th were phrases are found in good Greek (see Winer, sabbaths, and Ee.ster was on the 17th. JOHN.-ll. K 1:10 THE GOSPEL ACOORDING TO BT. JORN, [oH, XII. 1-60,