Page:As others saw Him.djvu/96

 90 and four ordinary Israelites were summoned to hear it read, and again the crier called, "Let Rabbi Joshua, the son of Rabbi Joseph, arise." Now, it chanced that this time, I, as a member of the Sanhedrim, was summoned to the reading of the Law immediately after Jesus, and for a time, as is customary, we stood together upon the bema. I observed that, as the reading of the Law proceeded, the eyes of the Nazarene became fixed upon the ark, and a veil of mysterious tenderness seemed to come over them, as if he were in communion with the Shechinah, or Glory, itself. It seemed to me that afterwards, when he read the Haphtara from the prophets, and when he preached, something remained in him of this mystical communion.

Perhaps it was for this that we seemed to miss that sense of individual address which we had before observed in his eyes. No longer did these speak to us other and deeper thoughts than the words of the preacher; they seemed to dream of divine things, and so caused us also to be rapt in mystic musings. I cannot on this