Page:The Eternal Priesthood - Manning.djvu/162

and rejoiced that He was one of themselves. He had rebuked them, and warned them, and irritated them by His example; and crossed their trade of wickedness, and defeated their plans, and, it may be, had saved the innocent out of their hands. It was joy to them that He could be blackened by accusation, which, however false, would still leave its stain, and never be forgotten. This is sharp enough. But it was worse when He saw that the good believed Him to be guilty: that they forsook Him, and shunned Him, and passed Him by. The animosity of immoral minds was easier to bear than the condemnation of the good; who, being deceived, believed what was said against Him. Then the rulers and guides of the people—the scribes and the priests, the men of strict observance and large knowledge of the law—they disapproved and discountenanced His exaggerated teaching and His unusual way of life: some times all night in prayer, sometimes eating and drinking with sinners. This Man, if He were a prophet, would know; but He does not know, therefore He is no prophet; and if not a prophet, then He is pretentious in His ways, and presumptious in His condemnations even of the scribes who sit in the seat of Moses. Have any of the rulers of the people believed in Him? If not, no one should believe in Him. Many a