hich he had not known how to make good use, and to let him rot on the
wood. The delicate organization of Jesus preserved him from this slow
agony. Everything leads to the belief that the instantaneous rupture
of a vessel in the heart brought him, at the end of three hours, to a
sudden death. Some moments before yielding up his soul, his voice was
still strong.[3] All at once, he uttered a terrible cry,[4] which some
heard as: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!" but which
others, more preoccupied with the accomplishment of prophecies,
rendered by the words, "It is finished!" His head fell upon his
breast, and he expired.

[Footnote 1: Petronius, _Sat._, cxi., and following; Origen, _In Matt.
Comment. series_, 140 Arab text published in Kosegarten, _op. cit._,
p. 63, and following.]

[Footnote 2: Eusebius, _Hist. Eccl._, viii. 8.]

[Footnote 3: Matt. xxvii. 46; Mark xv. 34.]

[Footnote 4: Matt. xxvii. 50; Mark xv. 37; Luke xxiii. 46; John xix.
30.]

Rest now in thy glory, noble initiator. Thy work is completed; thy
divinity is established. Fear no more to see the edifice of thy
efforts crumble through a flaw. Henceforth, beyond the reach of
frailty, thou shalt be present, from the height of thy divine peace,
in the infinite consequences of thy acts. At the price of a few hours
of suffering, which have not even touched thy great soul, thou hast
purchased the most complete immortality. For thousands of years the
world will extol thee. Banner of our contradictions, thou wilt be the
sign around which will be fought the fiercest battles. A thousand
times more living, a thousand times more loved since thy death than
during the days of thy pilgrimage here below, thou wilt become to such
a degree the corner-stone of humanity, that to tear thy name from this
world would be to shake it to its foundations. Between thee and God,
men will no longer distinguish. Complete conqueror of death, take
possession of thy kingdom, whither, by the royal road thou has traced,
ages of adorers will follow thee.

CHAPTER XXVI.

JESUS IN THE TOMB.

It was about three o'clock in the afternoon, according to our manner
of reckoning,[1] when Jesus expired. A Jewish law[2] forbade a corpse
suspended on the cross to be left beyond the evening of the day of the
execution. It is not probable that in the executions performed by the
Romans this rule was observed; but as the next day was the Sabbath,
and a Sabbath of peculiar solemn