whole scene beneath Him. Gone the scrub, the sand, the loneliness. Here He was in the pulsating centre of the national life where all the important people lived and worked. Here was the High Priest's home; there Herod's palace. There was the abode of Nicodemus, and beneath His feet His Father's House. If He could but impress them with some display of miraculous power He would find Himself a national hero, the fulfilment of all their age-long hopes.

'Cast yourself down. It will be quite safe if you are your Father's Son as you claim to be. There is Scripture to support you: "His Angels will bear Thee up lest Thou dash Thy foot against a stone". Here is your chance to make a grand entrance, an unforgettable debut. Israel has had other great leaders enabled by God to do marvellous things, which have accredited them to the nation. Moses held back the Red Sea; Joshua, Jordan. Barak defeated Sisera, Hezekiah saw Sennacherib discomfited. But this! This is unique! No one has ever done such a thing before. You will have the long desire of Your heart to enter Jerusalem granted in the most striking possible way. No one will henceforth be able to doubt that You are God's Son: You will be universally accepted.

'As a matter of fact, You won't doubt it yourself any more. You have waited a long time in obscurity; if I may say so, Your Father hasn't done much for You so far. Have You yet achieved anything except the ability to carve a pretty tenon? Strike out, Man, bring Your Father to the point: let Him know that You are straining at the leash, and want to be off upon Your life's mission. You're getting on, thirty years old aren't You—much older than Samuel or David. Let Him know that You are grown up now, and tired of playing about; force His hand: He daren't let You down.'

But the shaft had been too well polished to fly aside.