"There were also women looking on afar off."-MARK XV. 40.

his eyes rested upon, as they looked up to him from below. His ears heard the jeering of the people as they went to and fro along the highway, reviling him, and saying, "Ah! thou that destroyest the temple!" Now and then the blast of the silver trumpets and the voice of song from the temple. reached him. After a while the first pangs of bodily pain had dulled a little; and he could again show his compassion and tenderness for others. The thieves hanging, where James and John had wished to sit, the one on his right hand, the other on his left, had reviled him as well as his enemies. "If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us," they cried. But one of them, lifting up his dim eyes to the face of Christ, and to the title above his head, saw that it was Jesus of Nazareth who was suffering death with them. "Dost thou not fear God?" he cried to his fellow-thief, "seeing thou art in the same condemnation. And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done nothing amiss." Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews! There was one, even here, ready to own him King. "Lord," said the dying thief, "remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." "Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise," answered Jesus. Before the sun, which was now beating upon the shameful crosses where they hung, had gone down into the western sea, both of them would be in Paradise! His mother heard him say it as she stood beneath his cross.

But Jesus knew his worst anguish was yet to come, worse than the pain he felt in his body, or the bitterness of the contempt poured upon him, and he would not have his mother witness it. She had borne much, and perhaps could not bear more, and live. We can well believe no other being on earth was so dear to him. None had shared his whole life as she had done; none could understand him, and his purpose, so well. Did he not remember their home in Nazareth, where the peaceful, monotonous days. followed one another so quietly that she had almost forgotten whose son he was? All was over between them now: there was but one more duty for him to discharge: one more look for her to take of her son Jesus. John stood near to her: his youngest and best beloved disciple. Looking down upon them, with his matchless tenderness, he said to her, "Woman, behold thy son." "Behold thy mother!" he said to John. She looked up to him as his failing, loving voice fell upon her ear: and she understood him, and his love, better than she had ever done before. The look that passed between them was their farewell. John led her away from the cross to his own dwelling-place; and the last earthly care was gone from the heart of Jesus.

"And from that hour, that disciple took her unto his own home."-JOHN XIX. 27.

About noon a strange gloom spread over those skies, usually so blue and cloudless. There was darkness over all the land until the hour for the evening sacrifice. Probably the crowd melted away in fear of a coming tempest, or in dread of the inexplicable obscurity; and we do not find that the chief priests lingered longer on Calvary. An extraordinary anguish, a mysterious darkness, as of despair, filled the heart and mind of Christ. His soul, which in Gethsemane had been sorrowful even unto death, was now poured out unto death. He had borne the mockery of the people, had seen them stare upon him with cruel eyes, and heard their roåring against him. But now God seemed to hide his face from him, and to hearken no longer to his cry. This he could not bear; his heart was breaking under this sorrow. He cried with a loud voice, which rang mournfully through the darkness, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" There were still about the cross some Jews who could make jest of this awful cry. They knew Elias was to come to prepare the way for the Messiah, and they said, “Behold, he calleth Elias!" Jesus, whose last moment was at hand, and whose throat was parched, cried, "I thirst." One of them, touched with pity, ran and took a sponge, and, filling it with vinegar, lifted it to his mouth on a reed. But the rest cried, "Let him be; let us see whether Elias will come. to save him, and to take him down."

It was now the hour of the evening sacrifice. Once again Christ was heard to say, "It is finished." Then with a loud voice, he cried, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." He bowed his head and died. He gave up his spirit, bruised and tormented, and poured out unto death, into his Father's hands.

CHAPTER VIII.

In the Grave.

T the third hour, when Jesus was dying on Calvary, the priest was

AT offering up incense in the holy place of the temple. All the con

gregation, and the sacrificing priest in the outer court, were waiting for him to reappear. Suddenly an earthquake shook both the temple mount and the whole city of Jerusalem. The veil, which separated the holy place from the holiest of holies, was rent in two, from the top to the bottom, laying open the sacred spot, which none ever entered except the high-priest on the Day of Atonement.

On Calvary, those who had gathered to see the sight were at last terrified, and returned to the city, smiting upon their breasts. The centurion in command of the Roman soldiers, who had probably watched and listened to the dying prophet with interest, was struck with fear, and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!"

But before sunset, the Pharisees, always very scrupulous not to break the law, came to Pilate, and besought him that all three of those who were being crucified should be put to death at once, because the next day was a Sabbath, and their bodies ought not to be hanging on the crosses on the Sabbath day. The soldiers were ordered to despatch the dying men by breaking their legs; but when they came to Jesus, and found that he was dead already, they refrained from mutilating his body; yet, lest any spark of life lingered which might be fanned into a flame, one of them pierced his side with a spear. Thus they made sure that he was dead.

In the meantime another applicant had gone to Pilate. This was Joseph of Arimathea, a well-known man, rich, honorable, and good, one of the Sanhedrim itself, though he had not consented to the death of Christ. He was a timid man, and a secret disciple; but shocked by the deeds of his fellow-councillors, he went boldly in to Pilate, and begged that he might take away the body of Jesus. Pilate marvelled whether he were yet dead, and called the centurion to ask him if it were so. He then willingly granted the body to Joseph, who had already provided himself with fine linen for the entombment. When he returned to Calvary, Nicodemus accompanied him, bringing a large quantity of spices. The women from Galilee were lingering about the place; and now, in the cool and gloom of the evening, they took the body down from the cross, and wrapped it, with the spices scattered amid the folds, in the linen cloth. Close by was a garden belonging to Joseph, and in it a new tomb, which he had hewn for himself in the midst of his garden. No man had ever lain in it. No taint of death polluted it. Here they buried their Lord hastily, for the Sabbath was near. Mary Cleophas and Mary Magdalene sat close by, watching, but perhaps too overcome with grief to give any active assistance. The women from Galilee also saw the sepulchre, and how his body was lain. Then all of them returned to the city, to prepare spices and ointments for the embalming of the corpse as soon as the Sabbath was over.

The enemies of Christ had not been prepared for this honorable burial of their victim. If Joseph of Arimathea had not interfered, his body would have been carried away from Calvary, with those of the thieves, and care