For several days there seemed to have been a lull in the persecution, to which Martha ascribed the smoldering of a diabolical plot, until one morning, while Jesus was engaged in conversation with several Rabbinical doctors, a group entered the temple consisting of twelve Fathers, attired in priestly garb, together with a squatty old publican from Joppa. They were followed by a middle-aged woman, who was in charge of four executioners; she at intervals falling on her knees imploring mercy and begging that her life be spared, while a Roman officer with a squad of six soldiers brought up the rear.

Magdalene, taking in the situation, rose up quickly and forgetting her weakness while the flush of maidenhood colored her cheeks, without hesitation boldly approached the Roman officer and begged an interview with the unfortunate prisoner, which was granted by the Roman, who admired her grace and courage.

The accusers squatted on the ground as the officer directed Magdalene and the terrified woman to the wall, where they could converse unmolested, which was in strict accordance with Roman law. The prisoner took much time to explain the situation, for by so doing she was postponing the awful moment when she should be shoved headlong off of the rocks, there to have her head broken by the heavy stones from the hands of the executioners. Her story was to the effect that she had been married to the squatty old Simon of Joppa when very young, and they lived happily until he had married a younger wife and she became their servant, for which she ran away and came to Jerusalem, where she served a man for three years, after which, as her remarrying would be unlawful, they began living as man and wife and had lived peacefully for six years, until this night she had been taken from bed to be killed for what many of her acquaintances had been practicing for years, a condition which was well known to the authorities.

Magdalene, undaunted, again approached the officer for the release of the woman whom, she said, was accused under an old Mosaic statute which had been a dead letter for many years; besides, it was improbable that Pilate would listen to the case if brought before him. The officer informed her that he had not the power to release the prisoner. Besides, he had been informed that she was to be tried before one, Jesus from Galilee, who had of late entered the city amid pomp and glory as King of the Jews.

Magdalene staggered backwards, bewildered, and glanced at Jesus. He stooped and wrote in the sand while the Pharisees drew near, saying, "Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act; Moses, in the law, commanded that such should be stoned. What sayest thou?"

When they continued asking he lifted himself up, and casting a disdainful look at Simon of Joppa he turned to the twelve accusers, giving each a scrutinizing gaze as though he were reading the page of their life history.

It was a moment of agonizing suspense; the guard and executioners stood as riveted to the spot; Magdalene pressed her hand upon her heart, while the other women held their breath. The disciples craned their necks, especially Peter, who never could hear very well with his mouth closed, dropped his jaw that he might catch the first lisp. The accusers seemed to shrivel under the search of his large eyes and move backward from the woman, who, on her knees before the Lord, was pleading for mercy.

"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." And again he stooped and wrote on the ground. When he arose he saw none save the woman, to whom he said, "Where are those, thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?"

"No man, Lord."

"Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more."

The effect of the scene so elated the disciples that for a time they forgot their fear and anxiety; but Magdalene, Mary and Nicodemus took a different view. Mary, his mother, saying, "Rebuff does not always mean defeat."

So the day passed until evening, when Mary came over to invite the Galileans to an evening repast. When supper was over they turned to the garden for devotion, after which Peter and John escorted the Galilean women to the house of Joseph, while Jesus and his disciples slept in the house of Simon.

The following day a strange group approached Zion; Jesus, with his tall stooping form, so emaciated that one could almost read through his hand, advancing with a far away look, as though beyond the doomed city he beheld the anxious father awaiting his son's return. He was followed by Mary and Martha, two large, dark sisters of the Hebrew type with swinging gait and sincere expression, who contrasted strangely with the pretty Magdalene, whose startled gaze gave her the appearance of a bird or fawn awaiting alarm.

At the brook Cedron they found the others awaiting them, when they all climbed the hill, turning to the left to avoid the crowd, and passed around the corner, entering Solomon's temple area by the south gate, where they were almost submerged by the throng; for the news had spread that Jesus had yesterday confuted the learned, who had sent to entangle him, without even laying himself open to criticism.

On entering the treasury, where all expounders were accustomed to teach, they found the front space again occupied by scribes and Pharisees, still keenly anxious to gain notoriety by wringing from Jesus a sentence which might be taken up by the throng as blasphemy, for which they might stone him to death without danger of punishment at the Roman Bar.

As Jesus approached the rostrum an aged scribe, of the Arabian type, cried out, "Who art thou?"

Jesus adroitly evaded a direct reply by asking, "What think ye of Christ; whose son is he?"

"David's son," was the reply.

"How, then, does David in spirit call him Lord? If David call him Lord, how is he his son?" Silence was the only response.

Jesus then turned to the multitude, and drawing their attention to his tormentors, said, "The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. All therefore, they bid you observe; observe and do, but do not after their works, for they say and do not." Then, to his accusers, he continued, "Ye blind guides who strain at a gnat and swallow a camel and say, 'If we had been in the days of our fathers we would not have partaken with them in the blood of the prophets'; whereof ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Ye serpents, vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell? I know from whence I came, and whither I go; ye are from beneath, I am from above; ye are of this world, I am not of this world. If you believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins. If a man keep my saying he shall never see death."

"Now we know that thou hast a devil, for Abraham is dead and the prophets are dead and you say, 'If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death.' Art thou greater than our father, Abraham and the prophets, whom makest thou thyself?"

"I came forth from the Father and am come into the world—again I leave the world and go to the Father. Your father, Abraham, rejoiced to see my day, and saw, and was glad."

"Thou art not fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?"

"Verily, verily, I say unto you before Abraham was, I am."

Jesus now discovered suspicious characters with rocks in their hands and stepped back among the Galileans and left the temple.

While the Pharisees were searching for him, he with the Galileans crossed the Cedron and climbed nearly to the summit of the Mount of Olives, where they assembled under a wide spreading olive tree, Jesus resting one arm on a branch of the tree as he looked down on the renowned city and wept as he cried, "Oh, Jerusalem! Jerusalem!"