are told that " they were instant with loud voices, re- quiring that he might be crucified."
This fact in the history of our Lord's passion deserves particular notice. It shows the strict accuracy of the words of the apostles in after times, when speaking of Christ's death. They speak of it as the act of the Jewish nation, and not of the Romans. *' Ye killed the Prince of life," says Peter to the Jews at Jerusalem. " Ye slew and hanged him on a tree." (Acts iii. 15 ; iv. 30.) *^ The Jews have both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets," says Paul to the Thessalonians. (1 Thess. ii. 15.) So long as the world stands the fact before us is a memorial of man's natural hatred against God. When the Son of God came down to earth and dwelt among His own chosen people, they despised Him, rejected Him, and slew Him.
The fearful responsibility which the Jews took on themselves in the matter of our Lord's death was not forgotten by God. The righteous blood which they shed has been crying against them as a people for eighteen hundred years. Scattered all over the earth, wanderers among the nations, without a land, without a government, without a home, the Jews show to this day that their own words have been terribly fulfilled. The blood of their slain Messiah "is upon them and upon their children." They are a standing warning to the world that it is a fearful thing to reject the Lord Christ, and that the nation which speaks stoutly against God, must not be surprised if Gh>d deals with it according to its words. Marvellous indeed is the thought that there is mercy in store for Israel, notwithstanding all its sins and unbelief! The