214 JESUS ENTERING JERUSALEM. 



carried to the Temple treasury in solemn state ; and 

 at this time, also, the citizens of Jerusalem witnessed 

 a procession which they did not like so well. A 

 company of Roman soldiers escorted the lieutenant- 

 governor, who came up from Cesarea for the festival, 

 that he might give out the vestments of the High 

 Priest, which, being the insignia of government, the 

 Romans kept under lock and key. 



It was the nineteenth year of the reign of Tiberius 

 Caesar ; Pontius Pilate had taken up his quarters in 

 the city, and the time of the Passover was at hand. 

 Not only Jerusalem, but also the neighbouring villages, 

 were filled with pilgrims, and many were obliged to 

 encamp in tents outside the walls. 



It happened one day that a sound of shouting was 

 heard ; the men ran up to the roofs of their houses, 

 and the maidens peeped through their latticed win- 

 dows. A young man mounted on a donkey was riding 

 towards the city. A crowd streamed out to meet 

 him, and a crowd followed him behind. The people 

 cast their mantles on the road before him, and also 

 covered it with green boughs. He rode through the 

 city gates straight to the temple, dismounted and 

 entered the holy building. 



In the outer courts there was a kind of bazaar in 

 connection with the temple worship. Pure white 

 lambs, pigeons, and other animals of the requisite age 

 and appearance, were there sold ; and money mer- 

 chants, sitting at their tables, changed the foreign 

 coin with which the pilgrims were provided. The 

 young man at once proceeded to upset the tables and 

 to drive their astonished owners from the temple, 

 while the crowd shouted, and the little gamins, who 

 were not the least active in the riot, cried out, 



