had done to the Master! Only for one moment did it seem to lie there; then it was
sucked up by the dark waters beneath. And again the cloud -curtain is drawn, only more
closely; the darkness is thicker, and the storm wilder than before. Out into that
darkness, with one wild plunge - there, where the Figure of the Dead Christ had lain on
the waters! And the dark waters have closed around him in eternal silence.
In the lurid morn that broke on the other shore where the flood cast him up, did he meet
those searching, loving Eyes of Jesus, Whose gaze he knew so well - when he came to
answer for the deeds done in the flesh?
And - can there be a store in the Eternal Compassion for the Betrayer of Christ?
Book V
THE CROSS AND THE CROWN
Chapter 9
THE FIFTH DAY IN PASSION -WEEK
'MAKE READY THE PASSOVER!'
(St. Matthew 26:17-19; St. Mark 14:12-16; St. Luke 22:7-13; St. John 13:1.)
When the traitor returned from Jerusalem on the Wednesday afternoon, the Passover,
in the popular and canonical, though no t in the Biblical sense, was close at hand. It
began on the 14th Nisan, that is, from the appearance of the first three stars on
Wednesday evening [the evening of what had been the 13th], and ended with the first
three stars on Thursday evening [the evening of what had been the 14th day of Nisan].
As this is an exceedingly important point, it is well here to quote the precise language of
the Jerusalem Talmud:1 'What means: On the Pesach?2 On the 14th [Nisan].' And so
Josephus describes the Feast as one of e ight days,3 evidently reckoning its beginning
on the 14th, and its close at the end of the 21st Nisan. The absence of the traitor so
close upon the Feast would therefore, be the less noticed by the others. Necessary
preparations might have to be made, even though they were to be guests in some
house - they knew not which. These would, of course, devolve on Judas. Besides, from
previous conversations, they may also have judged that 'the man of Kerioth' would fain
escape what the Lord had all that day been te lling them about, and which was now
filling their minds and hearts.
1. Jer. Pes. 27 d, line before last.
2. The question is put in connection with Pes. i. 8.
3. Ant. ii. 15. 1.
Everyone in Israel was thinking about the Feast. For the previous month it had been the
subject of discussion in the Academies, and, for the last two Sabbaths at least, that of
discourse in the Synagogues.4 Everyone was going to Jerusalem, or had those near
and dear to them there, or at least watched the festive processions to the Metropolis of
Judaism. It was a gathering of universal Israel, that of the memorial of the birth-night of
the nation, and of its Exodus, when friends from afar would meet, and new friends be