"By thine agony and bloody sweat; by thy cross and passion;

"By thy precious death and burial; by thy glorious Resurrection and Ascension; and by the coming of the Holy Ghost,

M

ANY had risen before the sun on that next morning following the day of the Passover. It was early whispered

abroad that He whose miracles had become famous through the length and breadth of Judæa, and who called himself Son of God and King of the Jews, had been seized in the night, conveyed to the house of the high priest and there examined, again examined, at early dawn, in the Sanhedrim or council of elders, and was now brought before the Roman governor, Pilate.

"Early in the morning," after that long night of agony and watching, was Jesus led to the judgment hall; and, as the sunshine of the spring day beamed more and more brightly through the streets of Jerusalem, the news spread with increasing rapidity, so that a multitude of people had already assembled to see what should follow.

But Pilate could find no fault in that lowly prisoner. Never had the judgment hall held one so spotless or so pure. To all His false accusers he answered nothing. The King of the Jews, the

Prince of Peace, who dwelt in the glory of the Father before the world was, and at whose single word a royal guard of legions of angels would have appeared, was content to hear silently each lying witness who could invent a charge likely to bring him into condemnation with the Roman governor. "He answered never a word, insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly." Low and weak as was his character, Pilate shrank from sentencing one so manifestly innocent. He gladly seized hold of a pretext for avoiding the responsibility, and on finding that Jesus was a Galilean (of Nazareth), sent him to Herod the tetrarch or governor of Galilee, who happened to be in Jerusalem at the time.

That wicked king Herod had long wished to see Jesus. After he had beheaded John the Baptist, the fame of the prophet of Nazareth, who did yet mightier works throughout the coasts of Galilee, had come to his ears, "and he desired to see Him;" for he was perplexed, thinking that John must have risen from the dead. But Jesus had retired into a desert place with His disciples.

Now for the first time, on that sad Friday morning, surrounded by the angry priests and scribes, and followed by a rabble multitude of those who thirsted for His life, the Lord Jesus stood before him. He of whom he had heard many things was in his power. Now, at all events, his curiosity would be satisfied, and he would see one of His miracles.

But when still no answer to his questionings went forth from the lips of that divine Saviour, all the malice of a small mind was let forth upon him. "Herod, with his men of war, set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again unto Pilate." Thus two bad men became friends, and were united together in the bands of a common crime.

Before Pontius Pilate the trial was renewed. Vainly did he try to persuade himself that he had no part in the condemnation of the Lord; vain were his washing of hands and protestations of innocence : "Crucified under Pontius Pilate" is the verdict handed down throughout the Churches, and repeated by every child from century to century. "When he had scourged Jesus, he deli

vered him to be crucified."

In the study of our Bibles let us dwell much upon the sad events of the morning of the Crucifixion on the mockings, and the scourgings, and the bitter revilings of those amongst whom the Lord's miracles of healing and love had been worked on the crown of thorns, and the scarlet robe, and the shameful blows and spitting. then let us turn back to an ancient prophecy, written nearly eight hundred years before, and read what was therein foretold concerning the future Messiah:

And

"I was not rebellious, neither turned away