Jews?"--JOHN
xviii. 39.

Pilate must have felt mortified when he heard that Herod had sent Jesus
back to his tribunal. He had hoped that the Jewish monarch would so
settle the matter that there would be no need for him to choose between
his conscience and his fear of the Jewish leaders. But it was not to
be. It was decreed that he should pronounce the judicial sentence on
our Lord, and so on himself.

Now was the time for him to act decisively, and to say clearly that he
would be no party to the unrighteous deed to which these priests were
urging him. To have done so firmly and decisively, and before they
could further inflame popular passion, the whole matter would have come
to an end. Alas! he let the golden moment slip past him unused, and
every succeeding moment made it more impossible for him to retrieve it.

Pilate is one of the most notable instances in history of the fatal
error of preferring expediency to principle. He wished to do right,
but not to do it avowedly because it was right. He wished to do right
without seeming to do it, or making a positive stand for it. And in
consequence he was finally entrapped into doing the very deed which he
had taken the greatest trouble to avoid. Therefore, on the plains of
time he stands as a beacon and warning; and to all who do not dare to
oppose the stream of public passion and practice with the single
affirmation of inflexible adherence to righteousness, the voice of
inspiration cries aloud, "Remember Pilate!" However promising a
tortuous course may look, it will certainly end in disaster. However
discouraging a righteous one may appear, it will at last lead out into
the open. And in doing the right thing, be sure to speak out firmly at
once. It may be harder for the moment, but it will be always easier
afterward. One brave word will put you into a position of moral
advantage, from which no power shall avail to shake or dislodge you.

Such a word, however, Pilate failed to speak; and when Jesus was again
brought before him, he began to think of some way by which he might do
as conscience prompted, without running counter to the Jewish leaders.
He, therefore, summoned around him the chief priests and rulers of the
people. The latter are particularly mentioned, as though Pilate
thought that his best method of saving Jesus would be by appealing over
the heads of the priests to the humanity of the common people. When
all were again assembled he made,