“Give me my son, my Elchanan!” he cried. “Thou hast taken him from me last Passover, saying, ‘Father and mother, yea, all that a man hath, shall he give up to follow me.’ He left me to follow thee; what hast thou done with him?—my Elchanan! my Elchanan!”
“He died, and is at peace.”
“Then give him back to me again. Thou canst do all things, men say: make whole the sick, let see the blind, cause the lame to walk, and give peace to the troubled mind. Give me, then, back my Elchanan thou hast taken from me.”
“There is One alone that can quicken the dead,” said Jesus, and walked sternly past him.
IX.
JESUS IN THE TEMPLE.
But a few days after what I have narrated to thee, I had attended a full meeting of the Sanhedrim in the hall of hewn stones in the Priests’ Court of the Temple. When the session was over, we went forth, and, turning to the right, passed into the Court of the Israelites, and so through Nicanor’s Gate into the Court of the Women. Now, as we went down the fifteen steps that lead into this court, we could see, through the Beautiful Gate at the other end of it, that something unusual was occurring in the outer court of all, the Court of the Gentiles. So I and some of the other younger members of the Sanhedrim passed rapidly through the Court of the Women, and, hurrying through the Beautiful Gate, found Jesus preaching to the people under Solomon’s Porch. Now, it is usual for the people to make way when any member of the Sanhedrim passes by; but the people were so engrossed with the words of Jesus [pg 114]that they took no note of me and my companions, and we had to stand at the edge of the crowd and listen as best we might, and so great was the crowd that I could scarcely hear what the Nazarene was saying, until gradually those near us, recognizing the marks of our dignity, made way for us till we got nearer.
Never saw I Jesus in so exalted a state. Though he was not tall, as I have said, he seemed to tower above the crowd. The mid-day sun of winter was shining full upon the Temple, and though Jesus was in the shadow of the porch, the sunlight from the Temple walls shone back upon his eyes and hair, which gleamed with the glory of the sun. He looked and spake as a king among men. And, indeed, he was claiming to be something even greater than a king. I could not hear very distinctly from where I was at first, but towards the last, as I got nearer, I heard him say these words:—
“Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He [pg 115]that loveth his life shall lose it. If a man keep my word he shall never see death, but has passed from death unto life. He that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he do also. Yet can the Son do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do. I am the door: by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I am the Light of the world. I am the good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. I am the Bread of Life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger. I am the true Vine, and my Father is the Husbandman. I am the Vine, ye are the branches. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Before Abraham was I am.”
Now, as Jesus was saying these words, and many like unto them, his form seemed to expand, his eye flashed with the light of prophecy, and all men were amazed at the power of his words. Never had they heard man speak of himself with such confidence. If he had been very God, he could not have said more of his own power over men’s [pg 116]souls. Our prophets have spoken boldly indeed, but none of them had boasted of the power of the Lord in such terms as this man spake of himself. Could he be mad, I thought, to say such things? Yet in all other matters he had shown a wisdom and a sound sense equal to the greatest of our Sages. Or had he found that by speaking thus of himself, men, and above all, women, were best moved to believe as he would have them believe, to act as he would have them act? Might it not be the simplest of truths that for them, to them, he was indeed the Way, the Truth, and the Life?