Jesus Christ -- Fiction; Religious fiction; United States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction
"Jump in, then," said Gilderman, "and I'll take you up with me."
Just at that time the Son of Man, weary, dusty, wayworn, was talking
with the lawyers, giving utterance to those three great parables--the
last of all He gave to the world. The first parable--the man who had
two sons, the one of whom said, I will not go work in the vineyard,
and yet went; the other of whom said, I will go, and went not. The
second parable--the master of the vineyard who sent his servant to the
husbandmen, who stoned him; then his son to the same husbandmen, who
killed him outright. The third parable--that of how the king made a
marriage feast for his son and yet had to send into the highways and
byways for guests. Of how one guest came without a wedding garment,
and, as a punishment, therefore, was cast into outer darkness where
there was wailing and gnashing of teeth. The people listened and did
not understand, and Gilderman drove away from Divine Truth in his coupé.
"By George!" said Lawton, as the cab worked its way with difficulty out
of the press of vehicles, "isn't this a lovely state of affairs? I came
down from the country yesterday afternoon. I never saw such a sight in
my life. Half the trees in the park are stripped as bare as poles. We
went by one place where they'd been spreading branches in the street,
and everything all a-clutter. It's a beastly shame, I say, that Pilate
and Herod don't do something to stop it all."
As the coupé drove past the armory they saw that the authorities were
at last evidently taking some steps to prevent any fatal culmination of
the disturbance. The great armory doors stood wide open, and a crowd of
people were gathered about. A couple of soldiers stood on guard, erect,
motionless, endeavoring to appear oblivious to the interest of the
clustered group of faces looking at them.
"I am glad to see that, anyhow," said Gilderman, pointing with his
cigarette towards the armory.
XV
JUDAS
THE burden of prosecution having devolved upon the Ecclesiastical
Court, a decision was not long in being reached. Again it was the
universally voiced opinion that it was better that one man should die
rather than that a whole nation should perish. It now remained only to
arrest the creator of this divine disturbance of mundane peace.
That same afternoon Mr. Inkerman, the lawyer, called on Bishop Caiaphas
to say that a follower of the Man had been found who would be willing,
he, Inkerman, believed, to betray his Master to the authorities. It
would, he opined, be out of the question to attempt an arrest in the
midst of the turbulent mob that surrounded Him; such an attempt would
be almost certain to precipitate a riot. But if this fellow could be
persuaded or bought to disclose where his Master slept at night, the
arrest could be made without exciting any disturbance.
"How did you find your man?" asked the bishop.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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