ple. It may have been with
reference to the bringing of water from the pool, or to the omission of
the ceremony from the ritualistic procedure of the great day, that Jesus
cried aloud, His voice resounding through the courts and arcades of the
temple: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that
believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water."[845]

John, the recorder, remarks parenthetically that this promise had
reference to the bestowal of the Holy Ghost, which at that time had not
been granted, nor was it to be until after the ascension of the risen
Lord.[846]

Again many of the people were so impressed that they declared Jesus
could be none other than the Messiah; but others objected, saying that
the Christ must come from Bethlehem of Judea and Jesus was known to have
come from Galilee.[847] So there was further dissension; and though some
wanted Him apprehended, not a man was found who would venture to lay
hold on Him.

The police officers returned without their intended prisoner. To the
angry demand of the chief priests and Pharisees as to why they had not
brought Him, they acknowledged that they had been so affected by His
teachings as to be unable to make the arrest. "Never man spake like this
man," they said. Their haughty masters were furious. "Are ye also
deceived?" they demanded; and further, "Have any of the rulers or of the
Pharisees believed on him?" What was the opinion of the common people
worth? They had never learned the law, and were therefore accursed and
of no concern. Yet with all this show of proud disdain, the chief
priests and Pharisees were afraid of the common people, and were again
halted in their wicked course.

One voice of mild protest was heard in the assembly. Nicodemus, a member
of the Sanhedrin, and the same who had come to Jesus by night to inquire
into the new teaching,[848] mustered courage enough to ask: "Doth our
law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?" The
answer was insulting. Maddened with bigotry and blood-thirsty
fanaticism, some of his colleagues turned upon him with the savage
demand: "Art thou also of Galilee?" meaning, Art thou also a disciple of
this Galilean whom we hate? Nicodemus was curtly told to study the
scriptures, and he would fail to find any prediction of a prophet
arising in Galilee. The anger of these learned bigots had blinded them
even to their own vaunted knowle