member not that he himself carried to the place of execution the cross, or at least the transverse beam of it on which he was to be suspended. "Lacerated," says the pious Home, "with the stripes and bruises he had received, faint with the loss of blood, his spirits exhausted by the cruel insults and blows that were given him when they invested him with robes of mock royalty, and oppressed him with the incumbent weight of his cross; in these circumstances our Saviour was urged along the road. We doubt not but in this passage to Calvary every indignity was offered him. This was usual. Slaves and malefactors who were condemned to this death were compelled to carry the whole or part of the fatal gibbet on which they were destined to die. This constituted a principal part of the shame and ignominy of such a death. Cross-bearer was a term of the last reproach among the Romans. The miserable wretch, covered with blood, from the scourges that had been inflicted upon him, and groaning under the weight of his cross, was, all along the road to the place of execution, loaded with every wanton cruelty. He was pushed, thrown down, stimulated with goads, and impelled forwards by every act of insolence and inhumanity that could be inflicted. There is great reason to think that our blessed Redeemer in his way to Calvary experienced every abuse of this nature, especially when he proceeded slowly along, through languor, lassitude, and faintness, and the soldiers and rabble found his strength incapable of sustaining and dragging his cross any further.

With those three words, "It is finished," the Christian dispensation was commenced, and the old Jewish laws of types and ceremonies for ever abrogated.

Behold the Saviour on the cross,

A spectacle of woe!

See from his agonising wounds

The blood incessant flow.

Till death's pale ensigns o'er his cheek
And trembling lips were spread;
Till light forsook his closing eyes,
And life his drooping head!

"Tis finished-was his latest voice;
These sacred accents o'er,

He bow'd his head, gave up the ghost,
And suffered pain no more.

'Tis finish'd-the Messiah dies
For sins, but not his own;
The great redemption is complete,
And Satan's power c'erthrown.

'Tis finish'd-all his groans are past;
His blood, his pains, and toils,
Have fully vanquished our foes,
And crown'd him with their spoils.

'Tis finish'd-legal worship ends,

And gospel ages run;

All old things now are past away,
And a new world begun.

But at sight of this great sacrifice the earth shook with a great earthquake, and the sun gave forth no light; the veil of the temple was rent in twain, and the dead rose from their graves.

That sacrifice!-the death of Him

The high and ever holy one!

Well may the conscious heaven grow dim

And blacken the beholding sun!

The wonted light hath fled away,

Night settles on the middle day;
And earthquake from his cavern'd bed
Is waking with a thrill of dread.

The dead are moving underneath!
Their prison-door is rent away!
And ghastly with the seal of death,
They wander in the eye of day!
The temple of the cherubim,
The house of God is cold and dim,-
A curse is on its trembling walls-
Its mystic veil asunder falls.

Well may the mighty holds of earth
Be shaken, and her mountains nod!
Well may the sheeted dead come forth
To gaze upon a suffering God!
Well may the temple shrine grow dim,
And shadows veil the cherubim,
When he, the chosen one of heaven,
A sacrifice for guilt is given!

And shall the sinful heart alone,

Behold unmoved the atoning hour,
When nature trembles on her throne,
And death resigns his iron power?
Oh, shall the heart, whose sinfulness
Gave keenness to his sore distress,
And added to his tears of blood,
Refuse its trembling gratitude!

We may well imagine the consternation of the vast assemblage at these portentous signs: the vengeance of the foolish and mistaken Jews was quite accomplished now. And among the crowd were many bleeding hearts: for there stood at the foot of the cross Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the wife of Cleophas, those three women who so loved their heavenly master, with many other women who had followed from afar off to witness the last hour of the blessed Jesus. And when Jesus saw his mother and his beloved disciple standing by, he, even in his last agony, was mindful of her comfort; and looking down upon her, he said "Woman, behold thy son?" And to John he said, "Behold thy mother." And from that hour, we are told by the Evangelist himself, " that disciple took her unto his own home."

Of Mary, the mother of Jesus, nothing further is certainly known.

Oh, woman, in our hours of ease,
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please;
But when affliction wrings the brow,
A ministering angel thou!

And now when the evening was come, Joseph of Arimathea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him if he had been any while dead; and when he knew it of the centurion he gave the body to Joseph. And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre. And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James beheld where he was laid.

This, then, was the end of that tremendous tragedy! No, not the end, for he rose again! "Except ye believe that Christ died and rose again," says St. Paul, "then is our preaching vain."

Oh, cross! The time has been thy name
Was synonym for vilest shame;

Then was it written, "On the tree
Whoso shall hang accurs'd is he."

Unto the cross the scornful Jews
Conduct the Saviour they refuse;
Upon the cross his form suspend,
IIis days with infamy to end.

But centuries thence the cross was worn
On knightly robes, the cross was borne

On regal banners; rallying cry,
The cross, of Europe's chivalry.

When young and noble in our days
On their ancestral 'scutcheons gaze,
With pride they hail the cross, the sign
That seals the honour of their line.

Blessed Redeemer! Things most base
Failed to taint thee with their disgrace,
In thy full glory lost their shame,
And sacred to the world became.

PEARL VII.

THE RESURRECTION.

PON the first day of the week-henceforth and for ever the Christian Sabbathvery early in the morning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, with other women who loved him, came to the sepulchre of Jesus, bearing with them sweet spices to embalm the body of their Lord; and they found the stone rolled away from the mouth of the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments; and as they were afraid and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day he shall rise again."

Then Mary Magdalene ran to acquaint the disciples of this sad event. She knew not what to think except that the body of her Lord had been taken away, for she did not yet