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IS "When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pave- ment, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.
14 And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour : and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King I
15 But they cried out, Away with Mm, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I cru- cify your King ? The chief priests, answered, We have no king but Caesar.
16 Then delivered he him there- fore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led Mm away.
These verses exhibit to our eyes a wonderful picture, a picture which ought to be deeply interesting to all who profess and call themselves Christians. Like every great historical picture, it contains special points on which we should fix our special attention. Above all, it contains three life-like portraits, which we shall find it useful to examine in order.
The first portrait in the picture is that of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
We see the Saviour of mankind scourged, crowned with thorns, mocked, smitten, rejected by His own peo- ple, unjustly condemned by a judge who saw no fault in Him, and finally delivered up to a most painful death. Yet this was He who was the eternal Son of God, whom the Father's countless angels delighted to honor. This was He who came into the world to save sinners, and after living a blameless life for thirty years, spent the last three years of His time on earth in going about do- ing good, and preaching the Gospel. Surely the sun never shone on a more wondrous sight since the day of its creation !
Let us admire that love of Christ which St. Paul declares, " passeth knowledge," and let us see an end- less depth of meaning in the expression. There is no earthly love with which it can be compared, and no standard by which to measure it. It is a love that stands alone. Never let us forget when we ponder this tale of suflering, that Jesus sufi*ered for our sins, the Just for the unjusjb, that He was wounded for our 12