Leaving Him there, again he goes to the leaders waiting impatiently outside.  To their utter astonishment and rage he says, “I find no fault in this man.”  It is the judgment of a keen, critical, worldly Roman; an acquittal, the first acquittal.  The waiting crowd bursts out at once in a hot, fanatical tumult of shouted protests.  Is all their sleepless planning to be disturbed by this Roman heathen?  The prisoner was constantly stirring up the people all through Judea and Galilee.  He was a dangerous man.  Looking and listening, with his contempt for them plainly in his face, and yet a dread of their wild fanaticism in his heart, Pilate’s ear catches that word Galilee.  “Is the man a Galilean?” “Yes.”  Well, here’s an easy way of getting rid of the troublesome matter.  Herod, the ruler of Galilee, was in the city at his palace, come to attend the festival.  It would be a bit of courtesy that he might appreciate to refer the case to him, and so it would be off his own hands.  And so the order is given.

A Savage Duel.

Once more Jesus is led through these narrow streets, with the jeering rabble ever increasing in size and the national heads in the lead.  They are having a lot of wholly unexpected trouble, but they are determined not to be cheated of their prey.  And now they are before Herod.  This is the murderer of John.  He is glad to see Jesus.  There has been an eager curiosity to see the man of whom so much was said, and he hoped to have his morbid appetite for the sensational satisfied with a display of Jesus’ power.  He plies Him with questions, while the chief priests with fierce vehemence stand accusing Him, and asking for His condemnation.

But for this red-handed man Jesus has no word.  To him rare light had come and been recognized, and then had been deliberately put out beyond recall.  He has gone steadily down into slimiest slush since that.  Now, with studied insolence, he treats this silent man with utmost contempt.  His soldiers and retainers mock and deride, dressing Him in gorgeous apparel in mockery of His kingly claims.  When they weary of the sport He is again dismissed to Pilate, acquitted.  It is the second mocking and the second acquittal.

Again the weary tramping of the streets, with the chief priests’ rage burning to the danger point.  Twice they have been foiled.  Now the matter must be forced through, and quickly, too, ere the crowd that are friendly have gotten the news.  They hurry Jesus along and make all haste back to Pilate.  Now begins the sixth and last phase of that awful night.  Things now hasten to a climax.  The character of Pilate comes out plainly here.  He really feared these wildly fanatical Jews whom he ruled with a contemptuous disgust undisguised.  Three times since his rule began their extreme fanaticism had led to open riot and bloodshed, and once to an appeal to the emperor, by whose favor he held his position.  His hold of the office was shaky indeed if the emperor