CHAPTER XXI.

THE CRUCIFIXION.

It is not easy for us, at the present day, to conceive the terrible suffering of a death by crucifixion, or to understand the disgrace which was attached to it. It was the most shameful, as well as cruel, of all modes of execution. It was reserved for the most abandoned malefactors and for slaves. When we speak of the disgrace of being condemned to the gallows, we present no picture of ignominy to be compared with that which pertained to crucifixion.

The form of the cross is familiar to us. But it is commonly represented as of a far greater altitude than really belonged to it. It was rarely more than ten feet in height. The upright beam, which was planted in the ground, was called the tree; and hence the Apostle Paul uses that name for the cross. Near the top it was crossed by a bar at right angles, on which was written the crime for which the person suffered. To the extremities of this his hands were fastened by nails driven through the palms. Thus the whole weight

of his body was suspended by his hands, excepting as he partially sat on a small projecting piece of wood. His feet were nailed to the beam, but without anything to support them. In this torturing situation the poor sufferer hung for many hours, and died at last in indescribable agony. So terrible was the torment, that it became customary to give the victim an intoxicating drink for the purpose of deadening his feelings; and the executioners often hastened the time of death by suffocation or otherwise, especially if the struggle continued longer than a day.

This was the suffering to which the blessed Jesus was destined. No interval was allowed between the sentence and its execution. He was hurried away immediately, carrying on his shoulders the cross to which he was to be nailed; for it was part of the cruelty of this mode of punishment, that the condemned should bear his own instrument of torture. Thus he was led through the city by the unfeeling soldiers, and out of the western gate, on the side of the city opposite to the temple. It soon appeared that the watching and fatigue of the last day and night had rendered him incapable of sustaining the burden of his cross; and as he sunk under it, the soldiers seized upon Simon, a Cyrenian, who is commonly thought to have been one of the disciples, and Matthew xxvii. 32. Mark xv. 21. Luke xxiii. 26. John xix. 17.

compelled him to carry his Master's burden. Mark speaks of two sons of this man by name, as if it had been accounted an honor to be the children of him who had thus helped his Lord in an hour of need.

The crowd of spectators, as might be expected, was immense. The whole male population of Judæa was assembled at the city, and the history and character of the sufferer were too well known not to excite a universal and intense interest. The inhabitants of the city, being under the immediate influence of the leading men, had never been friendly to him, and they undoubtedly composed the principal part of the mob which had crowded around the tribunal in the morning, and intimidated the governor. Many too, without doubt, who had joined in honoring him when they thought him the Messiah, on the preceding Sunday, now turned violently against him in revenge for their disappointment, when they fancied him proved to be an impostor. Still, however, it could not be that enemies alone attended the melancholy procession. Multitudes there must have been whose attachment for a matchless benefactor survived the disappointment of the day, and who now followed him with heavy hearts and tearful eyes to the place of his suffering.

It was about the third hour, or nine o'clock in the morning, when they arrived at the place of

execution. This was a small eminence on the northwest side of the city, not far from the walls. It is commonly called Mount Calvary; but its elevation is so slight that it hardly deserves the name of a mountain. Here the Saviour was crucified in company with two malefactors, one on each side of him. The soldiers offered him the customary draught of stupefying ingredients; but he refused it; he would take nothing which should deaden his feelings or cloud his perception. He would die with his faculties in all their bright

ness.

The scene which followed is too painful to be dwelt upon. The soldiers sat down in sport at the foot of the cross, dividing part of his raiment among themselves, and throwing dice for his woven and seamless coat. The brutal mob, that crowded around, vented their enmity in cries of insult and derision. Even the priests and scribes and elders, men of distinction and dignity, joined in the mockery, and poured out their malignant revenge on the meek and patient sufferer. Nay, one of the malefactors, who hung groaning at his side, joined the dreadful ribaldry. But all this the meek and patient sufferer heeded not, except that it drew forth a prayer for their forgiveness. He seemed to have no ear for the cries that were filling the air. But to other things he was attentive, and exhibited the same readiness

to think and feel for others which he had displayed in his days of power. When, during the painful progress from the city, he observed the women in the crowd lamenting, he turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem! weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children." When one of the malefactors appealed to him for mercy, he answered him with ready words of encouragement and promise. When he looked round upon the crowd, and saw there, amid a group of weeping friends, his disconsolate mother, he remembered what she must endure at his loss, and felt for her bereaved and desolate loneliness. He turned therefore to his favorite disciple, John, who was standing with her, and charged him to regard her as his mother, - a charge which, John assures us, he faithfully observed, giving her a home in his own house.

At

At about noon, the day grew dark; not from an eclipse of the sun, for the moon was at the full. It was a supernatural obscurity, which extended over the land, and lasted for three hours. that time the Saviour's sufferings had continued for six hours. They were now drawing toward a close; and, as it is usual for the pains of this death to be growing constantly more dreadful to the last, they appear to have increased in severity. He cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" They are the words which form the