m. He heard around him foolish
scoffs, and his greatest cries of pain turned into hateful jests: "He
trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he
said, I am the Son of God." "He saved others," they said again;
"himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him now
come down from the cross, and we will believe him! Ah, thou that
destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save
thyself."[1] Some, vaguely acquainted with his apocalyptic ideas,
thought they heard him call Elias, and said, "Let us see whether Elias
will come to save him." It appears that the two crucified thieves at
his side also insulted him.[2] The sky was dark;[3] and the earth, as
in all the environs of Jerusalem, dry and gloomy. For a moment,
according to certain narratives, his heart failed him; a cloud hid
from him the face of his Father; he endured an agony of despair a
thousand times more acute than all his torture. He saw only the
ingratitude of men; he perhaps repented suffering for a vile race, and
exclaimed: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" But his divine
instinct still prevailed. In the degree that the life of the body
became extinguished, his soul became clear, and returned by degrees to
its celestial origin. He regained the idea of his mission; he saw in
his death the salvation of the world; he lost sight of the hideous
spectacle spread at his feet, and, profoundly united to his Father, he
began upon the gibbet the divine life which he was to live in the
heart of humanity through infinite ages.

[Footnote 1: Matt. xxvii. 40, and following; Mark xv. 29, and
following.]

[Footnote 2: Matt. xxvii. 44; Mark xv. 32. Luke has here modified the
tradition, in accordance with his taste for the conversion of
sinners.]

[Footnote 3: Matt. xxvii. 45; Mark xv. 33; Luke xxiii. 44.]

The peculiar atrocity of crucifixion was that one might live three or
four days in this horrible state upon the instrument of torture.[1]
The haemorrhage from the hands quickly stopped, and was not mortal. The
true cause of death was the unnatural position of the body, which
brought on a frightful disturbance of the circulation, terrible pains
of the head and heart, and, at length, rigidity of the limbs. Those
who had a strong constitution only died of hunger.[2] The idea which
suggested this cruel punishment was not directly to kill the condemned
by positive injuries, but to expose the slave nailed by the hand of
w