r voice
and cry like a trumpet. But when it is clear that high-handed wrong is
bent on securing the condemnation of the innocent, and that the case is
prejudged, it is the highest wisdom to be as a lamb dumb before its
shearers, and not open the mouth.

There was a last alternative. Caiaphas might put Jesus on His oath,
and extort from His own lips the charge on which to condemn Him; but he
was evidently reluctant to do it, and only availed himself of this
process as a last resource. It was well known to this astute and
cunning priest that Jesus on more than one occasion had claimed, not
only to be the long-expected Messiah, but to stand to God in the unique
relationship of Son. Nearly two years before, He had called God His
own Father, making Himself equal with God (John v. 18); and again,
comparatively recently, at the Feast of Dedication, He had claimed that
He and the Father were one; in consequence of which the bystanders
threatened to take His life because that, being a man, He made Himself
God (x. 31-33). Gathering, therefore, the two claims in one, and in
the most solemn form, putting Jesus on His oath, the High Priest said
unto Him, "I adjure Thee by the Living God, that Thou tell us whether
Thou be the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" (Matt. xxvi. 63; Mark xiv.
61). There was no need for further hesitation. Charged in this way,
in the highest court of His nation, and by the representative of His
people, He could not hold His peace without inconsistency with the
whole tenor of His life and teaching. John, representing His disciples
and friends, must be assured that his Master did not vacillate by a
hair's-breadth at that supreme moment. Those high officials must
understand, beyond the smallest possibility of doubt, that if they put
Him to death He would die on the supreme count of His Messianic and
Divine claims; and, therefore, amid the breathless silence of the
court, without a falter in the calm, clear voice, Jesus said, "I AM."
The Father that sent Him was with Him; He had not left Him in that
awful moment _alone_, and it was a great pleasure to the Saviour to be
able publicly to avow the relationship, which was shedding its radiance
through His soul. Then, with evident allusion to the sublime vision of
Daniel, he added, "Ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right
hand of power, and coming with the clouds of Heaven." Though Son of
God, He was not less the Son of Man; and though one with the