Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/34

Caiphas, however, judged that the introduction of a new religion would overturn the government; that a new God would dethrone Cesar; and that the theological question involved the political. The multitude instinctively thought as Caiphas did, and with rude clamors accused Pilate of being an enemy of Tiberius. Such was then the condition of affairs.

Pilate, the immortal type of corrupt judges, in his timidity sacrificed Jesus, and delivered him up to the furious populace, thinking to absolve his conscience by the washing his hands of it. The Son of God was crucified, reviled, and derided. Then he was assailed by the rich and the poor, by the hypocritical and the proud, by the priests and the learned, by women of bad repute and men of evil conscience, the adulterers and fornicators. Jesus expired on the cross while praying for his enemies and commending his soul to his Father.

For a time tranquillity was restored, but soon afterward events occurred never before witnessed by men: the abomination of desolation in the temple, the mothers of Sion cursing their fecundity, the sepulchers burst asunder, Jerusalem depopulated, its walls leveled to the ground, its inhabitants dispersed throughout the earth, and the world in arms; the eagles of Rome piercing the air with their cries of terror, Rome despoiled of her Cesars and her gods, the cities laid waste and the deserts peopled; men clothed in skins, and who could not read, governing the nations, and multitudes obeying that voice from Jordan which had said, "Repent ye;" and that other voice which cried out, "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me;" and kings adoring the cross, which was everywhere erected.