thing: calling
for a basin of water, he washed his hands before them all and said, "I
am innocent from the blood of this just Person; see ye to it." This
was an impressive act; yet its impressiveness was too theatrical. He
washed his hands when he ought to have exerted them. And blood does
not come off so easily. He could not abnegate his responsibility and
cast it upon others. Public men frequently think they can do so: they
say that they bow to the force of public opinion, but wash their hands
of the deed. But if their position, like Pilate's, demands that they
should decide for themselves and take the consequences, the guilt of
sinful action clings to them and cannot be transferred. This whole
scene, indeed, is a mirror for magistrates, to show them down what dark
paths they may be pushed if they resign themselves to be the mere tools
of the popular will. Pilate ought to have opposed the popular will at
whatever risk and refused to do the deed of which he disapproved. But
such a course would have involved loss to himself; and this was the
real reason for his conduct.

The populace felt their triumph, and in reply to his solemn
dissociation of himself from Christ's death sent back the insulting
cry, "His blood be on us and on our children." Pilate was afraid of
the guilt, but they were not. Well might the heavens have blackened
above them at that word, and the earth shuddered beneath their feet!
Profaner cry was never uttered. But they were mad with rage and
reckless of everything but victory in the contest in which they were
engaged. Still, their words were not forgotten in the quarter to which
they were directed; and it was not long before the curse which they had
invoked descended on their city and their race. Meanwhile they gained
their end: the will of Pilate was breaking down before their
well-directed persistency.

[1] "On the return of Jesus from Herod, the Sanhedrists do not seem to
have been present. Pilate had to call them together, presumably from
the temple."--EDERSHEIM.

[2] See Keim's note. Westcott and Hort reject it. Some have further
seen an impressive coincidence in the name Barabbas, interpreting it
"son of the father." Jesus was by no means a rare name.

[3] Hence the contrast, common in popular preaching, between the
multitude crying "Hosanna" and the same multitude crying "Crucify" is
incorrect.

CHAPTER VII.

THE CROWN OF THORNS.

Pilate had failed in his