JEWS.--For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. JESUS.--Is it not written in your law; I said ye are Gods? If he called them Gods unto whom the word of God come, and the scripture cannot be broken, say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent unto the world, thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. Then they sought again to take him, but he escaped out of their hands. (John x.) 3. The Law Against Blasphemy.--The law against blasphemy is to be found in Leviticus (xxiv:15, 16) and is as follows: "Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin; and he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him; as well the stranger as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death." The Jews claimed that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy, because he claimed to be the Son of God, thus making himself equal with God; when to their eyes he was merely a man. Therein consisted his alleged blasphemy. Christ's own defense against the charge (see note above) is the best answer to the sophistry of the Jews by {58} which they tried to make it appear that he had broken this law.--Roberts. 4. Character of Pilate.--If we now wish to form a judgment of Pilate's character, we easily see that he was one of that large class of men who aspire to public offices, not from a pure and lofty desire of benefitting the public and advancing the good of the world, but from selfish and personal considerations, from a love of distinction, from a love of power, from a love of self indulgence; being destitute of any fixed principles, and having no aim but office and influence, they act right only by chance and when convenient, and are wholly incapable of pursuing a consistent course, or of acting with firmness or self-denial in cases in which the preservation of integrity require the exercise of these qualities. Pilate was obviously a man of weak, and therefore, with his temptations, of corrupt character.--J. R. Beard, D. D., Member of the Historical Theological Society, Leipzig.