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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 3
fensive in them. If he had been a mere man, as they assumed him to be,
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his declaration would only have indicated an unreasonable, boastful
spirit, but could not have been construed into blasphemy.
Caiaphas urged Jesus to answer to the charge made against him;
but the Saviour, knowing that his sentence was already determined,
answered him nothing. The evidence gained from the last two wit-
nesses proved nothing against him worthy of death; and Jesus himself
remained calm and silent. The priests and rulers began to fear that they
would fail to gain their object after all. They were disappointed and
perplexed that they had failed to gain anything from the false witnesses
upon which to condemn their prisoner. Their only hope now was to
make Jesus speak out and say something which would condemn him
before the people.
The silence of Christ upon this occasion had already been described
by Isaiah in prophetic vision: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter;
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his
mouth.”
The high priest now raised his right hand toward Heaven in a most
imposing manner, and with a solemn voice addressed Jesus: “I adjure
thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the
Son of God.” Thus appealed to by the highest acknowledged authority
in the nation, and in the name of the Most High, Jesus, to show proper
respect for the law, answered, “Thou hast said.” Every ear was bent
to listen, and every eye was fixed upon his face, as with calm voice
and dignified manner, he made this reply. A heavenly light seemed to
illuminate his pale countenance as he added, “Nevertheless I say unto
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you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of
power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”
For a moment the divinity of Christ flashed through his guise of
humanity; and the high priest quailed before the penetrating eyes of
the Saviour. That look seemed to read his hidden thoughts, and burn
into his heart; and never in after-life did he forget that searching glance
of the persecuted Son of God. This voluntary confession of Jesus,
claiming his Sonship with God, was made in the most public manner,
and under the most solemn oath. In it he presented to the minds of
those present a reversal of the scene then being enacted before them,
when he, the Lord of life and glory, would be seated at the right hand