THE OLIVE LEAF. 



game could have happened in the actual presence of 

 the Sanhedrim, the highest tribunal of the land. He 

 imagines that the infamous scene took place after the 

 retirement of the high priest and his council, when 

 Jesus was left alone among the common crowd of 

 servants and guards. But there is nothing in the his- 

 torical sequence or spirit of the narrative to justify 

 this supposition. On the contrary, everything goes to 

 prove that the insolent acts with which the trial and 

 condemnation of Jesus were so largely interspersed 

 were performed when the council was actually sitting. 

 The forward official who earned for himself the notoriety 

 of having been the first to begin the illegal persecution, 

 struck Jesus with the palm of his hand in the presence 

 of the high priest, unreproved by that ruthless ecclesi- 

 astic. That act itself shows that the dignity of the 

 court was not even externally preserved, and the hor- 

 rible outburst of violence that followed was entirely 

 in keeping with it ; so that we may well believe that 

 the appointed rulers of Israel witnessed, approved of, 

 and even took part in the awful game taking and 

 giving license to do with Jesus as they liked. 



How long the buffet-game lasted we know not. The 

 Jews had to wait till the break of day before they could 

 bring Jesus to the judgment-seat of Pilate. And dur- 

 ing these miserable, lingering hours, the Man of Sor- 

 rows in all probability endured the insults and the 

 violence of His self-constituted judges and their brutal 

 band of servitors. What a contrast between His con- 

 duct and theirs ! How dignified His demeanour, how 



