scarlet robe. Tliey platted a crown of sharp thorns, and in derision placed it on His liead. They then bowed the knee before Him in mockery, as nothing better than a pretended king. They spit upon Him. They smote Him on the head. And finally having put His own robe on Him, they led Him out of the city, to a place called Golgotha, and there crucified Him between two thieves.
But what was a crucifixion ? Let us try to realize it, and understand its misery. The person crucified was laid on his back on a piece of timber, with a cross-piece nailed to it near one end, — or on the trunk of a tree with branching arms, which answered the same purpose. His hands were spread out on the cross-piece, and nails driven through each of them, fastening them to the wood. His feet in like manner were nailed to the upright part of the cross. And then, the body having been securely fastened, the cross was raised up, and fixed firmly in the ground. And there hung the unhappy sufierer till pain and ex- haustion brought him to his end, — not dying suddenly, for no vital part of him was injured, — but enduring the most excruciating agony from his hands and feet, and unable to move. Such was the death of the cross. Such was the death that Jesus died for us 1 For six long hours He hung there before a gazing crowd, naked, and bleed- ing from head to foot, — His head pierced with thorns, — His back lacerated with scourging, — His hands and feet torn with nails, — and mocked and reviled by His cruel enemies to the very last.
Let us meditate frequently on these things. Let us often read over the story of Christ's cross and passion. Let us remember, not least, that all these horrible sufferings
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were borne without a murmur. No word of impatience crossed our Lord's lips. In His death, no less than in His life, he was perfect. To the very last, Satan found nothing in Him. (John xiv. 30.)
Let us observe, in the second place, that all our Lord Jesus Christ's sufferings were vicarious. He suffered not for His own sins, but for our's. He was eminently our substitute in all His passion.
This is a truth of the deepest importance. Without it the story of our Lord's sufferings, with all its minute details, must always seem mysterious and inexplicable. It is a truth, however, of which the Scriptures speak fre- quently, and that too with no uncertain sound. We are told that Christ " bare our sins in His own body on the tree," — that He " suffered for sin, the just for the un- just,"— that " He was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him," — that " He was made a curse for us," — that ^* He was offered to bear the sins of many," — that " He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities," — and that " the Lord hath laid on Him the iaivquity of us all." (1 Peter ii. 22, and iii. 18. 2 Cor. v. 21. Gal. iii. 13. Heb. ix. 28. Isaiah liii. 5, 6.) May we all remember these texts well. They are among the foundation stones of the Gospel.
But we must not be content with a vague general belief, that Christ's sufferings on the cross were vicarious. We are intended to see this truth in every part of His passion. We may follow Him all through, from the bar of Pilate, to the minute of His death, and see him at every step as our mighty Substitute, our Representative, our Head, our