Lucy. I am surprised that Pilate should suffer an innocent person to be thus cruelly treated!

Aunt. I do not think there is a similar instance in history for if an unjust judge has been willing to gratify the malice of the people, he has generally disguised his sentiments, and condemned under a supposed crime; but Pilate could not do this, being forced, from the convictions of his own conscience, to speak the truth, though, in so doing, he condemned himself. Pilate brought forth Jesus to them, with all his mock ornaments, his head and face imbraed in blood from the piercing of the thorny crown. Well might Isaiah in prophecy say of him, His visage was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men, Isa. lii. 14. Then Pilate said to the multitude, BEHOLD THE MAN!

Maria. How could they see such suffering innocence, and not relent!

Aunt. They still persisted in the cry of, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate then said, Take ye him, and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. They answered, that, according to their law, he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. This occasioned new perplexities in Pilate's mind; he therefore took Jesus back, and began a fresh examination, inquiring whence was his original: but Jesus returned him no answer. Then Pilate said, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power either to crucify thee, or to release thee? Jesus replied, Thou couldest have no power at all, except it were given thee from above. Pilate again sought to release him, but the Jews told him,

that if he let this man go he was not Cæsar's friend; for, said they, Whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Cæsar. This effectually wrought on Pilate, and he brought Jesus in the same robes to his public tribunal, in a paved place, called Gabbatha.

George. I wonder Pilate did not seize the opporpunity which the Jews gave him, of condemning Jesus for treason against the emperor.

Aunt. Wicked men, my dear, can neither act nor speak, but as they are permitted of God. We have sufficient evidence from history, that Pilate was naturally of a violent, furious, and cruel temper, which the Jews had experienced: his patience therefore, in the investigation of this affair, might, if the Jews had not been wholly blinded by the hardness of their hearts, have made them consider whether there was not something supernatural in it. Pilate, before he passed sentence, said to the Jews, Behold your king! But they cried out, Away with him, crucify him. He then said, Shall I crucify your king? They answered, We have no king but Cæsar.

This is the first time that we find they owned the Roman Emperor for their sovereign. Thus they themselves acknowledged the sceptre was departed. Pilate then called for water, and, washing his hands before all the people, declared himself innocent of the blood of that just person, and that they must answer to it. Upon which they cried out, His blood be on us, and on our children. Then Pilate released unto them Barabbas, and condemned Jesus to be crucified.

DIALOGUE XIII.

Aunt. AT our last interview, we left our dear Lord under the sentence of condemnation, forsaken by all the world. We are now to follow him from the tribunal to the place of execution. The soldiers took the purple coat off, and put his own garments on him, and then laid a heavy cross on his shoulders, making him, like Isaac of old, bear the wood on which he was to be sacrificed. Thus he passed through one of the principal streets of the city.

George. How must the enemies of Christ triumph! But where were his disciples and followers?

Aunt. Some of them followed him to Calvary, whither we will now attend him. Jesus being overcome with fatigue on the road, they compelled one Simon, a Cyrenian, to bear the cross the rest of the way. Thus was the great sacrifice conveyed out of the holy city, as an accursed thing; just as the scape goat, laden with the iniquities of the people, and the beasts for sin-offerings, were, by the law, carried out of the camp. Passing the gates, they brought him to a place called Golgotha and Calvary. Then, stripping him of his garments, they nailed his hands and feet, with his body stretched out on the cross, and lifted him up, as the brazen serpent was lifted up on the pole in the wilderness. It was now about the third hour of the day, or what we call, nine o'clock in the morning. To put him to the greater shame, and to obscure his innocence, they crucified him between two malefactors, one on each side; thus ac

complishing Isaiah's prophecy. He was numbered among the transgressors. On the top of his cross Pilate had written this inscription, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS, in three of the most universal languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. The chief priests were offended at this, and desired Pilate to alter it; but he answered them, What I have written, I have written.

Maria. Is not crucifixion a lingering death?

Aunt. It is; for the sufferer may endure excruciating pain for hours. The first sentence our Lord was heard to utter in this situation was a prayer for his enemies, saying, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Lucy. One should have thought, this would have drawn compassion from the most hardened.

Aunt. The executioners, who were four soldiers, were unmindful of the words or sufferings of our dear Lord, intent only on dividing his garments: but there arose a difficulty about the coat, which was woven from the top to the bottom without any seam; rather than spoil it, they agreed to cast lots for it, and so undesignedly fulfilled what David says in prophecy, Psal. xxii. 18. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

George. Surely our Lord found at least some pity from the multitude.

Aunt. None: for they added to his misery by their speeches and blasphemies, wagging their heads in contempt, and crying, Thou that hast power to destroy the temple, and rebuild it in three days, save thyself, if thou be the Son of God, and come down from the cross. The priests and rulers, from whom

one might have expected more liberal treatment, joined with the rabble in deriding him, saying, He saved others, but cannot save himself; if he be really the king of Israel, the chosen of God, let him come down from the cross, and we will believe him: he trusted in God, let him deliver him now, if he will have him, for he declared himself to be the Son of God. The soldiers also bade him come down if he were the king of Israel: and one of the malefactors who were crucified with him joined in the derision. Maria. I wonder our Lord did not strike them all dead! why should he endure their insults?

Aunt. Our Lord came not to destroy, but to save. And he gave a most glorious proof of it, in the salvation of one of the thieves; who, having rebuked the other, made application to Jesus, saying, Lord, remember me, when thou comest into thy kingdom. Jesus immediately extended his mercy to him, saying, To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. Thus did our Lord prove himself mighty to save, while in the most abject situation. Jesus, seeing his beloved disciple John, and the Virgin Mary, his mother, and other women, filled with inexpressible grief, he spake to his mother, saying, Woman, behold thy son! meaning Johu: and he said to John, Behold thy mother! and from that time John took her to his own house.

About the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land, whilst the Son of God hung in expiring agonies. The sun in the firmament hid his face, as if ashamed to behold so awful a spectacle, and wrapped himself in thick darkness. Thus was the frame of nature changed when the God of nature suffered. This was not a natural eclipse, because the moon