Page:Lazarus, a tale of the world's great miracle.djvu/74

62 look at both sides of the question), he had asked himself what would be the result should he himself recognise the power of the Christ and join the ranks of the believers. No man versed in the prophets, as Caiaphas was, could well disbelieve that, even if the Nazarene were not the Christ Himself, He was an emissary from heaven whose coming had been predicted. Absently, as if to persuade himself for one moment, Caiaphas turned the pages of the book of the prophets that lay close to his elbow. He almost started at the words that seemed to give the answer to his unuttered question, for he was a superstitious man: "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? He is despised and rejected of men: a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not."

Caiaphas with breathless interest re-read the words He had so often read before. The stillness outside, the gloom within, the strange similitude of the picture drawn by Isaiah to the person of the Nazarene; for one brief moment all this impressed the man, who was shrewd enough to understand the prophecy, yet not to recognise the Saviour it foretold. Chapter after chapter he devoured in the hope that he would, at last, light on some passage that would justify the condemnation of the Man who called Himself the Christ, and was not; but the prophet was against him. Again his eyes fell on the book, and they lighted on the words: "Seek ye the Lord, while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near."