to them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM." "I and my Father
are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus
answered them. Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for
which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying,
For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and _because
that thou, being a man, makest thyself God_." "If I do not the works
of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me,
believe the works; that ye may know and believe that the Father is
in me, and I in him. Therefore they sought again to take him: but he
escaped out of their hand." "The Jews answered him, We have a law,
and by our law he ought to die,[A] because he made himself the Son of
God." "And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou
nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? But Jesus held
his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure
thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ,
the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless,
I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the
right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high
priest rent his clothes, saying. _He hath spoken blasphemy_; what
further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his
blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of
death. Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others
smote him with the palms of their hands."

[Footnote A: "And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall
surely be put, to death, and all the congregation shall certainly
stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when
he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death."--LEV.
xxiv. 16.]

Nor did the _friends_ of Jesus endeavour to undeceive His accusers.
They did not say, "You have misunderstood His meaning! He is not
guilty of such blasphemy! He is a man like us, and does not claim to
be one with God, as you understand Him to do." Instead of this, they
too recognised His claims as divine, and worshipped, loved, served,
and preached Him accordingly. I will return to this part of the
subject afterwards. I remind only the reader of it in passing.

But before the force of such teaching as this of our Lord's can in any
degree be appreciated, two things should be borne in mind: one is, the
previous tr