death which Socrates was condemned to die combined, we are told, the minimum of pain with the minimum of indignity. The form of death which Jesus suffered did exactly the opposite. It combined the maximum of pain with the maximum of indignity. And yet, with all this, His calmness is unruffled; and the springs of that calm are unconquerable love to man and loyalty to God. It is these that are triumphing; so that in depths of woe which the world shall never fathom He lavishes fond affection on friends ready to desert Him; with tender compassion prays for foes thirsting for His blood; to a repentant thief opens wide the gates of Paradise; speaks sweetest comfort to His agonised mother, and passes away with words of unwavering trust on His quivering lips-" Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."

XVI.

THE ROYAL CAPTIVE.

THE captive was a King. His enemies knew not. But they felt it; for He was leading it captivity captive. He had spoken to His apostles; He now addresses the chief priests, the captains of the temple, and the elders. As innocent and free till now, He points out the folly of their proceedings. As a King, He protests against His capture, and their mode of it, as an invasion of His royal rights and dignity. "Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me. But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled" (Matt. 26: 55). Possibly these last words are a continuation of what Jesus said. Mark's ac

count leaves that impression still more strongly. Luke adds words evidently spoken by Jesus : "But this is your hour, and the power of darkness."

What could these men think when they heard themselves thus addressed by their prisoner? They knew that He was speaking only the truth, and they must have felt that Hc was speaking it royally. As for Himself, it seemed to unburden His weary heart to give utterance to His feelings. He appeared to find rest in remembering that all the indignities heaped on Him were but in accordance with His Father's will and word, and the permission, for a brief space, given to wicked men and the rulers of darkness to do their worst. He felt that all that concerned Him was, as much as ever it had been, in the hands of His Father. Surely it must have been now that Peter and John gathered that inspiration from their Master, which led them, not many days after to declare: "Of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod

and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done."

Whether anything unrecorded happened at this point, we do not know; but now "all the disciples forsook him and fled." The request which He had made to the authorities in their behalf would so far protect them; but there are things to indicate that immediate choice. between flight or sharing their Master's fate had become essential. We have no means of knowing whither they fled in the cold dead of night; they would hardly know themselves. Judas must have slunk away—of all men the most miserable-to go to his own place. The apostles had no place except that which they had deserted-the bosom of their Lord. There He now stood, the Son of God, and the Son of man, a prisoner in the hands of His enemies, forsaken by all. He was treading the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with Him. He was not yet so alone as in a

short time He would be. A loneliness was at hand which would wring from Him the saddest cry the world has ever heard. As yet, however, amid universal desertion by man, He could feel that the Father was with Him. But to a soul so tender, so loving, so sympathetic as His, the gloom of present loneliness must have been terrible. Desertion undeserved wounds to the quick. It was like to break Paul's brave heart to find, on one occasion, that no man stood with Him, that all had forsaken Him. It would have broken it, had not the Lord, as he tells us, stood with him and strengthened him. The Lord came to Paul's rescue, not only because He was Paul's Advocate, but also because He knew, through actual suffering, the heart of a deserted man. Let the follower of Christ, who is exposed to the trial of desertion by friends, remember that in Him he has a brother who, from personal experience, sympathises to the

uttermost.

And yet, as they were leaving the Garden of Gethsemane, on their way to the judgment-hall