32 And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon 33 by name; him they compelled to bear his cross. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a selves merry with a stranger, and they dressed him in an officer's coat and mocked him, and crowned him with thorns, and called him king, and bent the knee, and spat in his face; Pilate only wished to be popular, and he adjudged him to die; the thieves only did as other people did, and they reviled him." 32-56. For parallel places, see Mark xv. 21-41; Luke xxiii, 2649; John xix. 17-30. The fearless honesty of the narrators is manifest from the differences in this history of the crucifixion. They write as we should suppose men would who had witnessed or heard of intensely exciting events; some relating one event, and some another; one differing from another in slight particulars, but all preserving a broad and general harmony, full of reality and truth. 32. A man of Cyrene, Simon. Cyrene was a city of Africa, lying west of Egypt, on the Mediterranean Sea, belonging to Libya. It was a great resort for the Jews, because they there enjoyed peculiar immunities and privileges. Whether Simon was a disciple of Jesus or not is unknown. Mark, xv. 21, speaks as if it were honorable to be known as the children of him who had aided the Great Master in his hour of faintness. Compelled. See note on Matt. v. 41. The verb in the original has the like force, as press or impress in our language, referring to the compulsion by public authority. - To bear his cross. It was one of the refinements of cruelty and ignominy in this kind of punishment, that the sufferer must carry the instrument of his own death. The cross usually consisted of two transverse pieces, resembling the letter T, and was about eight or ten feet in height. Some have supposed, that only the cross-piece was borne by the doomed man, though painters have usually represented Christ as carrying the whole. It appears, that Jesus, after bearing it for a time, John xix. 17, gave way under his weakness and wounds, and the burden was transferred partly or wholly to the shoulders of ́Simon. 3d, As our Lord had now left the tribunal of Pilate to meet his dreadful fate, it may be instructive to review that officer's many fruitless attempts to save his prisoner. 1st, He declines entering upon the case at all. John xviii. 31. 2d, He declares Jesus' innocence of the crime alleged. Luke xiii. 4; John xviii. 38. He tries to transfer the case to Herod's jurisdiction. Luke xxiii. 7. 4th, He hopes to release Jesus, on the ground of a festival custom. Luke xxiii. 16, 17. 5th, He strives to touch the hearts of the Jews, by the pitiable condition of Jesus after being scourged. John xix. 1-5. But, Roman as he was, he was unequal to the occasion. He was intimidated by the threat, that, if he released Jesus, he would not be Cæsar's friend. John xix. 12. How much more pitiable does the Roman procurator in all his state appear. with a craven, vacillating, and cow ed spirit, than the glorious prison er, calm, self-possessed, dauntless, above the fear of man, but compassionate towards human weakness and sin, a true Son of God! The moral cowardice we abhor, let us shun; the moral courage we admire, let us imbibe. 33. Golgotha. A Hebrew or Syriac word, meaning a skull. The place is so called, as some suppose, place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with 34 gall; and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots; 35 from its shape; but others, with more probability, from its containing the bones or skulls of executed malefactors. It was a slight eminence, outside of the walls of the city on the northwest. Luke calls it Calvary, which means the same as Golgotha. Some interesting events, which occurred on the way to the place of execution, which was a mile, or a mile and a half distant from the prætorium, are given by Luke, xxiii. 27-31. 34. Vinegar-gall. This was designed to operate as an anodyne, to dull the sensibility to pain, and render death easier. The observance, upon this occasion, of the various Roman customs common to trials and executions, affords an intrinsic evidence of the genuineness and fidelity of the history. Mark, xv. 23, calls the drink, "wine mingled with myrrh." To reconcile this discrepancy, some understand the drinks to have been distinct from each other, that of Matthew being offered by the soldiers in derision, that of Mark being the medicated cup administered by friends to alleviate the pangs of crucifixion. But the far more probable view is, that the same drink is referred to under different names, vinegar standing for a kind of sour wine, and gall denoting any bitter drug, as myrrh, or wormwood. He would not drink. He resolved to endure all without mitigation, and die in the full possession of his faculties. The cup, which his Father gave him, he would drink without shrinking. What admirable fortitude, worthy of our imitation in pain and death! He would strengthen us to bear all our sufferings without wavering. His infinitely greater agonies, so sub missively borne, should hush every sigh of complaint, under our SO much lighter afflictions, and fill us with a spirit of glad submission to the wise and kind will of our God. 35. As this verse brings us to the cross, let us look back from that point and see the tissue of injustice and cruelty, which was spread over the whole of the so-called trial of our Lord. 1st, He was beset with spies and informers. Luke xx. 20. 2d, His own disciple was bribed to betray him. Matt. xxvi. 15. 3d, He was seized and partially tried before the high priest by night, contrary to the Jewish law. Matt. xxvi. 74, xxvii. 1. 4th, He was carried before Annas first, and was all along kept bound, John xviii. 12, 13, 24, which were irregular and aggravating proceedings. 5th, He was exposed, uncondemned, to the brutalities of the servants. Luke xxii. 63, 65. 6th, He was brought before a prejudiced and passionate judge, who had already given his opinion, -a gross wrong. John xviii. 14. 7th, All proceedings were legally null and void, because it was the festival of the passover. 8th, He was called on by the high priest, and finally put under oath to criminate himself. John xviii. 19; Matt, xxvi. 63. 9th, John xviii. 22, He was wrongfully struck by an officer for a civil reply to the high priest, 10th, False witnesses were brought against him. Mark xiv. 56; Matt. xxvi. 59. 11th, His own words were perverted out of their true sense, to furnish ground for the charge of blasphemy, and for the sentence of death. Matt. xxvi. 65. 12th, The ground of accusation was changed before Pilate, from a religious offence, blasphemy, to a polit 66 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet: They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture 36 did they cast lots." And sitting down, they watched him there. 37 And set up over his head his accusation written: "THIS IS ical one, treason against the state. It was probably at the moment, the Luke xxiii. 2. 13th, He was treat- iron spikes were cruelly driven into ed with mockery by Herod and his his hands and feet by the brutal exmen of war, though he was not, in ecutioners, and he was raised aloft fact, under that ruler's jurisdiction. on the torturing tree, that he breathLuke xxiii. 11. 14th, A murderer ed that melting prayer, "Father forwas preferred to the Prince of Life. give them, for they know not what Mark xv. 11. 15th, He was con- they do." Luke xxiii. 34. Those demned contrary to Pilate's repeat- who were crucified were sometimes ed declaration, that he found him tied with thongs to the cross, but it not guilty; was scourged, mocked, is evident that nails were employed and crucified, because his judge had in this case. John xx. 25. — Parted not firmness enough to withstand his garments, casting lots. Those the fury of the priests and popu- who were crucified were divested lace. 16th, The injustice was done of their clothing. John, xix. 23, him, while on the cross, of repre- 24, mentions that the four soldiers, senting, by the inscription over his who fastened him to the cross, dihead, that he aimed at political pow- vided his other garments, but cast er. Mark xv. 26. We see, there- lots for his seamless coat or tunic, fore, that, if our Lord suffered the the inner garment, worn next to the most cruel and ignominious punish- body. It was customary for exement, it was through the grossest cutioners to claim the clothes of violations of legal forms, decency, those put to death. That it might and common justice. The cross was be fulfilled. Ps. xxii. 18. The rewet with the blood of the thrice in- mainder of this verse, including nocent, thrice injured.· They cru- these words, is uniformly declared cified him. Abbott remarks, that by critics of all sects to be an inter"crucifixion is perhaps the most in- polation, probably taken from John genious and the most perfect in- xix. 24. It is not found in most of vention for mingling torture and the early manuscripts, versions, and death which was ever contrived. It fathers.- Tacitus, the Roman hisis the very master-piece of cruelty. torian, confirms the Gospel narraLife is to be destroyed, but, in this tive of the death of Christ, in these way of destroying it, it is arranged, words: "Nero put those who comwith savage ingenuity, that no vital monly went by the name of Chris part shall be touched; the torturer tians to the most exquisite tortures. goes to the very extremities, to The author of this name was Christ, who was capitally punished in the reign of Tiberius, by Pontius Pilate, the procurator.' the hands and to the feet, and fixes his rough and rusty iron among the nerves and tendons there, and the poor sufferer hangs in a position which admits of no change, and no rest, until burning and torturing inflammation can work its way slowly to the seat of life, and extinguish it by the simple power of suffering." 36. They watched him. A guard of Roman soldiers was stationed by the cross, to prevent a rescue. 37. Set up over his head his accusation. This was in obedience to the custom of the times, verse 11, JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS." Then were there 38 two thieves crucified with him; one on the right hand, and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, 39 wagging their heads, and saying: Thou that destroyest the 40 temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself; if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the 41 chief priests, mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said : 42 He saved others, himself he cannot save; if he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, 43 words. He had said to the Jews, Destroy this temple," referring to his own body. Chap. xxvi. 61. The only ground, on which he was accused by the Jews to Pilate, was, that of a political offence against the state, by stirring up the people, forbidding to pay tribute to Cæsar, and claiming to be himself a king. -This is Jesus, the king of the Jews. This sentence was written by Pilate, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. It is given in different words by the different writers, a discrepancy which makes against the literal and verbal inspiration of the Gospels, as do many other passages. The accounts, however, agree in the main points of the inscription. Pilate upon this occasion, see John xix. 21, 22, appears to have manifested the irritation of feeling consequent upon being forced to condemn Jesus against his will. He would gratify no farther, complain as they might. The writing he put up was, however, calculated to mislead the people with the idea, that the aim of Jesus was a political one. 38. Two thieves. Rather, two robbers, or persons guilty of violence, perhaps the companions of Barabbas. It was usual to execute criminals at the great festivals, for the sake of example, in terror to evil doers. 39. Reviled him, wagging their heads. A gesture of ridicule and insult. 66 42. He saved others. As Cappe has observed, "Here is a very credible testimony to the reality of his miracles, the more credible that it is incidental," and because it comes, too, from the mouth of his enemies. - Let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. It was a cutting taunt, and, as Furness has remarked, "who has ever paused over these words for the first time without feeling that they contained a bitter force-without secretly saying to himself, O why did he not come down? If he had power to heal the sick and raise the dead, why did he not descend then from the cross, and dissipate all doubt for ever?" But he used not his extraordinary gifts for his own sake. He had already given sufficient proof to satisfy all reasonable and unprejudiced minds that he was the Messiah; and his descent from the cross would not have convinced the unreasonable and prejudiced. His object was not triumph, but truth, and a jeer or a sarcasm could not turn him aside from the cause of God, and the salvation of the world. His foes were so bound up in self themselves, that they could not comprehend that heroic self-sacrifice which would die for others. They knew so little of the human The 44 if he will have him; for he said: I am the Son of God. thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over 45 teeth. heart, that they did not see that by elevating Jesus upon the cross they had lifted him into the throne of his universal kingdom, and that he would now draw the hearts of all mankind to him by the cords of love. John xii. 32, 33. The cross! Instrument of torture; sign of ignominy! How gloriously was it now to be honored, hallowed by the unnatural burden it bore! Henceforward, its disgrace, deeper than the scaffold and halter, was to be wiped off. Henceforward, waving on the banners of nations, inscribed in the heraldry of honor, sparkling on the breast of beauty and the crown of kings, shining among the constellations of heaven, clenched by the hands of the dying, as their anchor of immortal hope, towering over the tomb and the cathedral, the speaking symbol and epitome of the Gospel, the cross was to gather about it the brightest halo of glory, and command the ever-increasing love and veneration of the human race. The love of the Father to wards his sinful and wretched children, in sending his Son; the love of the heavenly Brother for his erring earthly brethren, shown in his there pouring out his life-blood, to melt their hearts of stone, and reconcile them to their Father and his Father, were henceforth to consecrate the cross to all ages. "In the cross of Christ I glory!Towering o'er the wrecks of time, All the light of sacred story Gathers round its head sublime." 43. If he will have him. Translated by Carpenter, if he delighteth in him. There is in Plato, where he describes the credentials necessary to give weight to a teacher of virtue, this expression, singularly coin ciding with the history of Jesus: "After he has borne all evils, let him be crucified.” 44. The thieves. The robbers. It appears from Luke xxiii. 39, that only one of them was guilty of this abuse. Had the Gospels been composed by impostors, they never would have permitted such discrepancies.- Cast the same in his teeth. More elegantly, reviled him in the same way. Luke mentions, xxiii. 36, 37, that the soldiers also joined in these impious mockeries. - Soc rates, to whom some have been fond of comparing Jesus Christ, spent his last hours in quiet among weeping friends and disciples, and the executioner gave him the fatal cup of hemlock with tears in his eyes. But our Master, throughout his trial and crucifixion, was surrounded by a whirlwind of raging passions, blows, and insults. Yet with what self-possession, dignity, and kindness to those around him, did he meekly endure all, commending himself to the Father! Even Rousseau could say: If the life and death of Socrates are those of a philosopher, the life and death of Jesus Christ are those of a Divinity." The interesting events respecting the penitent malefactor, and the intrusting of Jesus' mother to the care of John, probably occurred here, Luke xxiii. 40-43; John xix. 25 27. 45. Sixth hour, i. e. twelve o'clock. Jesus was crucified about the third hour according to Mark xv. 25, but according to John xix. 14, about the sixth hour, though the original reading is thought to have been the third. He is supposed to have remained, therefore, upon the cross from nine o'clock in the morning to about |