28 Strange inconsistency! They considered themselves defiled by holding converse with Gentiles; but they heeded not the defiling guilt of envy, injustice, and cruelty.

of

31 The Jews, being a conquered people, had no longer the power life and death. The sceptre had departed from Judah, according to God's word. (Gen. xlix. 10.) 32 Death by crucifixion. (Matt. xx. 19.)

hand, saying, Answerest thou the high priest so? Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou me ? Now Annas had sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest. And Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. They said therefore unto him, Art not thou also one of his disciples? He denied it, and said, I am not. One of the servants of the high priest, being his kinsman whose ear Peter cut off, saith, Did not I see thee in the garden with him? Peter then denied again and immediately the cock crew. 28 Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover. Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation bring ye against this man? They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee. 31 Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death: that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die. Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. 38 Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto

32

38 Pilate was amazed at the whole proceeding. Finding an innocent man charged with treason, he proposes the straightforward course of setting him free. But a mean love of popularity prevailed over justice, and honour, and conscience. The

them, I find in him no fault at all. But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover:

people cried out-"Crucify him ;" and he yielded to the clamour-a slave to the people he was set to govern.

will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews? Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.

3

CHAPTER XIX.

APRIL 1, JULY 31, Nov. 27.

And

THEN Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him.
the soldiers platted a crown of
and they put on him a pur-
ple robe, and said, Hail,
King of the Jews! and they
smote him with their hands.
'Pilate therefore went forth

thorns, and put it on his head,

5

3 Mockery and scorn! are they not, even now, modes by which the wicked persecute the faithful?

Even the judge who condemns him, finds no fault in him.

again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple

5 This was an appeal to the reason of the case-"Behold the man! can he, thus humbled and afflicted, can in you or in us? he be an object to excite fear either

his death!"

Why then desire

robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man! When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify unto them, Take ye him, and in him. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid; and went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? "Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were

6 Pilate knew that the Jews had no power to crucify Jesus. He probably sought thus to save him. him, crucify him. Pilate saith crucify him: for I find no fault

7 By charging him with blasphemy, "because he made himself the Son of God," the Jews evidently considered the Son of God to be equal with God.

11 Pilate was fulfilling his official duty as judge. Judas was at once

the servant and the traitor

the

friend and the murderer! Wide was the interval between their sin. 12 The Roman governor yields to fear of losing his high office. What

given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. 12 And from thenceforth Pilate a lesson to us all-that we cherish a sought to release him: but moral courage, be above false impethe Jews cried out, saying, tations, and scorn to be the slaves of If thou let this man go, thou expediency. No slavery so base ! art not Cæsar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Cæsar. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew. Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king bat Cæsar. Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away. And be bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of s skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. Ther said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, Th King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews. Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written. The the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also h coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, prophecy (Ps. xxii. 18), a thousa Let us not rend it, but cast years after its delivery, is alone suf lots for it, whose it shall be: ficient proof that the dispensation that the scripture might be which it forms a part is from God. fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them. and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When 26 Thus it is clear that the dying Jesus therefore saw his mo- Christian is justified in taking due

24

24 The minute fulfilment of this

ther, and the disciple stand

care for the support and comfort of survivors *.

ing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith be to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is

30 The trial of his faith was over, the wrath of God satisfied, the Jewish law and sacrifices done. He gave up his life: none took it away. The sacrifice was voluntary; such was his infinite love to man.

finished and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. 31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away t. Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already,

31 The Sabbath day in the Passover week.

34

34 Thus was shown the reality of they brake not his legs: but his death ‡. one of the soldiers with a

spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and

water. 35 And he that saw it bare record, and his record

35 St. John himself bare record.

is true and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced. And after this Joseph of Arimathæa, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of

*Here, as at John ii. 4, our Lord addresses his mother by the title, "woman." It was evidently, therefore, not a title of disrespect. The whole scene is most affecting.

The punishment of crucifixion was abolished by the first Christian emperor, Constantine.

As from the first Adam (Gen. ii. 21) was taken woman, his spouse; so from the second Adam was taken, by a figure, his spouse, the Church. Hence he sympathizes with her: "in all her afflictions he is afflicted;" her wounds he feels. In all the trials of the Church, it is "Jesus who is persecuted."

Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. 40 Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. 41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.

40 Surely our pious and grateful offices to the dead are for ever sanetified, since Jesus permitted and accepted them in his own person. This was providentially so ordered, that no caviller should pre

tend another body than that of Jesus to have risen from that tomb.

CHAPTER XX.

APRIL 2, AUGUST 1, Nov. 28.

What an affecting scene have we in this chapter! How closely does it touch your heart! You too perhaps know how soothing it is to the mourner to visit the place where some loved one reposes in the rest of the grave. You too find comfort in weeping over the tomb. The place itself is dear, for it holds your treasure. You weep there. Blessed be the hour, if you also find there a risen Saviour-if his Spirit there bring 66 peace to you."

THE first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. 2 Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple,

:

2 That disciple was St. John himself.

Mary had no thought of the resurrection.

whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.

8 Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to

8 John now believed the account given by Mary (ver. 2). Of the miracle he had as yet no idea.

the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.