He

'that just man.' Pilate's better feelings were aroused. began to reason with the priests, urging them to show what evil Jesus had done. It was all in vain. The more the judge hesitated and delayed, the greater their fury. 'We are not without law, though our power is small. By our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.' Again did Pilate go in and question Jesus. The innocent sufferer in a few words confirmed Pilate in the determination not to condemn him to death. In this state of mind he went forth to the assembled priests and people. Announcing his will, he was answered by a shout-'If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæsar's friend; whosoever maketh himself a king, speaketh against Cæsar.' Here was the old charge of treason brought forward, and in such a way as to compromise Pilate himself if he acquitted Jesus. Having, therefore, before his eyes the fear of an appeal made by the Sanhedrim against him to his superior, the president of Syria, or even to the emperor at Rome, Pilate, at length overcome, brought Jesus forth, and, taking his seat, formally delivered Jesus to be crucified. Yet, anxious to stand himself acquitted in sanctioning the death of one whom he believed guiltless, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, 'I am innocent of the blood of this just person;' whereupon the insane rabble, goaded on by the priests, exclaimed, 'His blood be on us and on our children!' This imprecation had an awful fulfilment in the woes which soon came on the land; and Pilate's attempt to exonerate himself was nugatory, for in allowing malignity to prevail against innocence, he incurred guilt, the stains of which no water could wash out. If Pilate was not greatly wicked, he was lamentably weak; and moral weakness, as is seen in his case, is free from criminality only so long as it is free from temptation.

A verdict of death having been pronounced, the Roman soldiers, always in themselves too ready to insult the weak, and perhaps hired by the priests for the express purpose, took Jesus into the pretorium, and, gathering together the whole troop, as if for some special sport, stripped him of his own garments, and put on him in derision a scarlet robe; and when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head, and a reed for a sceptre in his hand; and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' And they spat upon him, and took the reed and smote him on the head; when, having derided him as long as their employers pleased, they replaced his own garments, and led him off to crucifixion (Matt. xxvii. 1-31; Mark xv. 1-19; Luke xxiii. 1-25; John xviii. 24, xix. 1-16).

CHAPTER X.

JESUS IS LED AWAY TO CRUCIFIXION, WHICH HE UNDERGOES, AND IS BURIED.

From 9 A.M. to 6 P.M., Friday, April 7th, A.D. 30.

After the verdict of death had been pronounced, Jesus was led away to crucifixion. The place to which he was conducted bore the name of Go'lgotha, which lay just on the outside of the western wall of the city, near its more northern part, and alongside a frequented road (Matt. xxvii. 32, 39; Mark xv. 21, 29; John xix. 17, 20; Heb. xiii. 12). Now that we are speaking of localities, we may here add, that after his death Christ's body was deposited in a new tomb, hewn out of the side of a rock which was in a garden close by the place of execution, and belonged to Joseph of Arimathe'a (John xix. 41; Mark xxvii. 60; Mark xv. 46; Luke xxiii. 53). The road along which Jesus was conducted

is still shown in Jerusalem, and bears the appropriate name of Via Dolorosa (way of grief). It runs from St. Stephen's Gate in a general direction south-west across the city, leading onward to the Latin convent. Another street, beginning near the northwest corner of Mount Mori'ah, pursues a parallel course with the Via Dolorosa, and near its end has Golgotha or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on the south.

Some time for preparation must have elapsed between the sentence and the execution. Probably not much; for what was needful would, we may believe, be always kept in readiness, and the priests would hasten the completion of their purpose, the more because they wished to be at liberty for keeping the Passover, and were very anxious, by removing Jesus, to prevent an outbreak among the people. If he were once dead, they thought all would be safe and right. Therefore, 'no delay.' Accordingly, Jesus, being apprehended late on Thursday night, was denied by Peter at three o'clock on Friday morning, received sentence at six o'clock, whilst the priests and levites were preparing for the paschal service of the day (John xix. 14, Roman reckoning), was suspended on the cross at nine o'clock a.m. (Mark xv. 25), where he remained alive till noon (Matt. xxvii. 45; Mark xv. 33), when darkness prevailed over the land till three o'clock p.m., near which time he uttered his last words and expired.

Crucifixion was a most bitter death. It was the punishment of slaves. It was unnational, being a Roman custom, and adverse to the spirit of the Mosaic legislation. It was attended by horrible tortures and agonies. In affixing a victim to the cross, nails were driven through his hands and feet. The body was stretched out on a frame of wood, and suspended from the pierced hands, sometimes with a little, at others with no support from the feet. Thus hung and torn, the sufferer perished, after an endurance the length of which depended on the strength of his frame, and the nature of the additional injuries which a barbarous legal cruelty might inflict upon it. The sufferings of Jesus lasted six hours.

Our Lord, having been scourged, was, according to custom, compelled to bear his own cross, from which, as he appears to have sunk under the load, he was relieved by the executioners, who forced Simon of Cyrene' in Africa to carry it. As Jesus tottered forward, he was followed among others by some women who, in their pitying nature, could not refrain from bewailing his sad fate. But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and your children. For behold the days are coming in which it shall be said, Blessed are the barren and the breasts which never gave suck; and they shall say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, Cover us.'

6

Arrived at the eminence bearing the name of Golgotha or

Calvary (the place of a skull) the guard of four soldiers, to whom such executions were entrusted, fastened the loving Jesus to the cross, and, raising, fixed it on the mount. During this frightful process, what exquisite tortures must have thrilled through that finely-strung and sensitive frame! Yet this was the moment when Jesus uttered the words, 'Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.' Having stripped Jesus of his garments, the four executioners divided them among themselves. On the top of the cross it was usual to fix a board, stating the crime for which the crucified person had been punished. The policy both of the priests and of Pilate dictated the words which were placed above Christ's head, namely, 'Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews;' for thus both parties displayed their zeal for the exclusive rights of the Roman emperor. With Jesus there were crucified two thieves,—one on his right hand, the other on the left.

Insult followed torture. They that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads and saying, Oh! thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself and come down from the cross.' His executioners, having finished their brutal task, sat down, and, watching his agonies, mocked him, saying, If thou be the King of the Jews, save thyself.' The priests were of course ready, mocking among themselves with the scribes, saying, 'He saved others; cannot he save himself? Let Christ, the King of Israel, descend now, that we may see and believe.' The thieves, too, reviled him. One of them, however, with a heart less hardened than the hearts of the executioners and the priests, was by his sufferings brought to a change of mind, and, rebuking his associate, entreated and received favour from Christ.

In the midst of this darkness, far more terrible than that which came from the hiding of the sun's light, one bright spot appeared, like a solitary star, sparkling above the tempest. There stood by the cross, Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalen, and Mary the wife of Cle'opas; in other words, Mary the mother of James the Less, and of Joses, and of Salome'. They had long followed Jesus, ministering to his wants, and could not leave him in his last hour. John also was at hand. O how strong and enduring is love! Where is Peter-that man of intellect and strong feeling? Had his love been equal to that of John and these women, he too would now have been seen at the cross. 'When Jesus, therefore, saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour John took Mary into his own family.' How beautiful is this; how does it relieve the mind weighed down in sorrow, and agitated by indignation at the scenes just surveyed! Mary had just learnt what, in its poignancy, that speech meant which told her that in the history of her child events would occur which should pierce her own heart as with a sword (Luke ii. 35).

After thus consigning his mother to the care of his friend, Jesus was seized with a burning fever, which, occasioning a terrible thirst, was in a measure assuaged by a sponge filled with a kind of sour wine, employed on such occasions to dull pain, but which, when offered to our Lord at the commencement of his agonies, he refused, determined as he was to drink to the dregs the cup which, in a wise but mysterious Providence, had been set before him by his Heavenly Father. When Jesus had refreshed his lips, he felt his last moment on earth had come. Expressing his trust in God and tranquillity of mind by words supplied to him in the 22nd Psalm, he was interrupted ere he could finish it, when, with a loud voice, as if he would have all around hear, he said, 'Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit; adding, as if in a moment of thrilling joy, 'It is finished. The Saviour then calmly breathed his last.

Had this indeed been the end, dark would nearly all the scene have been; thick, impenetrable, and appalling the darkness which would have covered the event, when considered as exhibiting the dealings of Divine Providence. But there is another act in the drama. The darkness will pass away. The sun of God's love will shine in a cloudless sky. Jesus rises from the dead; the church is firmly established; Jerusalem is overthrown; priest and scribe are held in abhorrence; and the civilised world bows the knee to him whom they crucified. And these are but preliminaries-events preparatory and introductory of Christ's universal dominion, when, in the prevalence of a spirit of mutual love and good-will, and of holy obedience to the All-wise, God himself shall be all in all (1 Cor. xv. 24-28). The tragedy of Christ's death, which at first looked so dark, is found to be a display of benignity, and a means of rescue and of elevation for all mankind; and if so much indignity and suffering as that which the Messiah endured is compatible with the love of God and the prevalence of good, all who suffer for conscience sake, endeavouring like their Master to obey God and leave the result with him, may take courage and foster confidence, in the conviction that in their case, too, the clouds will pass away, and leave the landscape bright and lovely. If God spared not his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? (Rom. viii. 32).

Immediately on the death of Jesus, there happened prodigies which seemed to intimate that outward things partook of the horror felt by good men at the unnatural deed just perpetrated. The darkness increased till an earthquake, to precursors of which the darkness may probably be ascribed, broke suddenly forth, tearing rocks asunder, and, as if to declare the coming end of Judaism, rending the vail or curtain which hung before the holy of holies from top to bottom. A general alarm spread through the hearts of the spectators, who hastened away, beating their