Signs of the Times, Book 1 - Ellen G. White

demonstration, but remained in blissful silence too happy for words. The
light of Heaven irradiated his countenance, and the people looked with awe
upon the scene before them. Christ stood with a serene majesty that lifted
him above the dignitaries of the synagogue and the doctors of the law. The
Pharisees, the scribes, and the doctors had waited anxiously to see what
disposition Jesus would make of this case. They recollected that the sufferer
had appealed to them for help, and that they had entrenched themselves in
the sanctity of their office and refused him one ray of encouragement. They
had even expressed annoyance at being troubled with so disagreeable a
matter. They had looked with horror upon his shriveled form, and said, We
cannot raise one from the dead; dissolution has already commenced.
Not satisfied with the agony thus inflicted, they had declared that he was
suffering the curse of God for his sins. All these things came fresh to their
minds when they saw the sick man before them. They also perceived that the
people, most of whom were acquainted with these facts, were watching the
scene with intense interest and awe. They felt a terrible fear that their own
influence would be lost, not only over the multitude present, but also over all
who should hear the news of this marvelous event.
These lofty men did not exchange words together, but looking into one
another's faces, they read the same thought expressed upon every
countenance: Something must be done to arrest the tide of popular sentiment.
Jesus had declared that the sins of the paralytic were forgiven. The Pharisees
caught at these words as an assumption of infinite power, a blasphemy
against God, and conceived that they could present this before the people as
a crime worthy of death. They did not express their thoughts, but these
worshipers of forms and symbols were saying in their minds, He is a
blasphemer! Who can forgive sins but God alone? They were laying hold of
the Saviour's words of divine pardon, to use a means by which to accuse him.
But Jesus read their thoughts, and, fixing his reproving glance upon them,
beneath which they cowered and drew back, addressed them thus: "Why
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