CHAPTER VII.
NO wonder, then, that a party shrinking beneath the terror lest power and affluence should depart from them for ever, should rejoice at the turn events had taken. The expected miracle of Lazarus's resurrection had not occurred. The Nazarene's want of sympathy, or, perhaps, His fear of the threats to take His life, which was believed to be the cause of His not returning to the house of the sorrowing sisters, had changed for the moment the current of popular favour. Several lukewarm believers fell back into the ranks of the sceptical, while others, like Nicodemus, struggled hard to believe that there was some good reason for Jesus' apparent indifference to the grief of those He was known to have loved so well. Of course, the base attributed it to the most cowardly of all motives, fear. It seemed clear enough to Caiaphas that Jesus, knowing that the miracle was expected, would be conscious that the home of Mary and Martha would be a likely place for His capture. This was what Caiaphas tried to persuade himself to believe; yet it did not coincide with the fearless attitude of the Christ till then, nor with the fearlessness of His words. In any case, this was an opportunity which, as a politician and a ruler of men, he must take advantage of. It was such an one as, perhaps, he would never
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