KING OF THE JEWS," Luke xxiii. 38. This was written in three different languages, and the reason which has been given for this is, that none might be unapprized of its contents. It was written in Greek, which was the general language of commerce in western Asia, and which would be familiar to many Jews from Europe, Egypt, and elsewhere; it also was written in the Syriac, called "Hebrew," the vernacular language of Palestine; and it was written in Latin, probably for the use of the Romans, many of whom would assemble at Jerusalem during the paschal week.

Such was the cruel death which Jesus suffered for mankind. But this was not all that our Redeemer suffered for our sakes in his last hours. There was the withdrawal of his heavenly Father's Divine presence, and so intensely did he feel this sorrow, that he cried out, in the bitterness of his soul, and at the same time in the language of prophecy, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Psa. xxii. 1; Matt. xxvii. 46; Mark xv. 34.

To advert to the many passages of holy writ which point to the cross of Christ as the foundation of a sinner's hope, would extend our work beyond the assigned limits. It must suffice, therefore, to say, that it is the sum and substance of the Bible; and that, if we would be saved by it, we must look to it with an eye of faith, as eagerly and fixedly as the Israelites of old, when bitten by the fiery serpents, looked to the brazen serpent (which prefigured the cross) erected

by Moses to effect their cure. There alone is our hope of redemption.

The punishment of crucifixion, it has been said, was so common among the Romans, that, by a very usual figure, pains, afflictions, troubles, etc., were called crosses. Hence our Saviour says, that his disciples must take up their cross, and follow him, Matt. xvi. 24. The cross, therefore, is the sign of ignominy and suffering, yet it is the badge and glory of the Christian. Christ is the way we are to follow; and there is no way of attaining that glory and happiness which is promised in the gospel, but by the cross of Christ.

FUNERAL RITES, ETC.

BIER.

THE bier is first mentioned in Scripture in connexion with the funeral of Abner; see 2 Sam. iii. 31. Now the original word, from which bier is here translated, signifies generally a bed or couch, on which a man lies in sleep; and from this, some have supposed that it was usual for the Hebrews to carry their dead to the place of interment on a proper bed. And such may have been the custom among persons of distinction, for it is certain that the Egyptians adopted this practice; and Herod, according to Josephus, was carried to his sepulchre on a bed, or rather bedstead,

of gold, enriched with precious stones, upon which the body lay on a purple bed, and was covered with a purple counterpane, or pall. The great men of Rome were also carried after the same manner to the funeral pile on beds of state. It is probable, therefore, that the bier on which Abner was carried to his resting place was a kind of bed. The common people, however, may be supposed to have been carried on biers such as are still used in the East, and which

are little else than hand-barrows. Dr. Henderson, who witnessed a funeral in the Crimea, observes of them: "It" (the body) "had not been put in a coffin, according to the manner of burials conferred upon even the poorest person in Europe, but was simply wrapped round with a white cloth, laid upon a bier or board, and borne by four men to the grave. This

mode of performing the funeral obsequies obtains equally among the Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans in these parts, with the exception of the European families, who naturally conform to the rites of their ancestors."

On such a bier as this, there is

little doubt that the son of the widow at Nain (whom our blessed Lord, full of compassion for the afflicted one, raised to life) was carried, as recorded Luke vii. 11-18.

COFFIN.

It is not the custom in the East to place a dead body in a coffin, whether it is to be deposited in a sepulchre or a grave; they are simply wound up in

graveclothes, such as we read of in the gospel of St. John, ch. xi. 44. There are, however, exceptions to this general rule; for, in some of the sepulchres, stone coffins, with sculptured lids, are met with; and such appears to have been the precise usage of the ancient Orientals. In general, they were buried in graveclothes, but occasionally in coffins. The first notice we have of coffins, in the Bible, occurs Gen. 1. 26, where it is mentioned as a distinction from the common mode of burial. Speaking of Joseph, the sacred historian says, "he was put in a coffin in Egypt." But this may have arisen from his connexion with Egypt; for we learn, from "Egyptian Antiquities," that coffins were more in use in that country than any other in the East. Persons of wealth there had, indeed, two, three, or even four coffins, one within the other, as those made for persons of rank in our own country.

CEMETERIES.

Places set apart for the dead are called cemeteries, which is a Greek term, signifying" a place of rest.' Of these the Hebrews had two kinds, namely, public and private cemeteries. One of the former was placed without the walls of every city; and they were thus placed, because it was considered, that not only the touch of a dead body, (as the law speaks of, Numb. xix. 11, and as other nations thought,) but that contact with a sepulchre communicated defilement. The distance at which they were placed from a Levitical city, according to Lightfoot, was two thousand cubits;