being superficial or strangely callous. Scarcely
any criminal is executed but we all have our opinion on the justice or
injustice of his condemnation. We may well be expected to form our
judgment in _this_ case, and to take action upon it. If Jesus was
unjustly condemned, then we as well as His contemporaries have to do
with His claims. If these claims were true, we have something more to do
than merely to say so.

FOOTNOTES:

[28] See Faber's _Bethlehem_.

XXI.

_THE CRUCIFIXION._

"The soldiers therefore, when they had crucified Jesus, took His
garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also the
coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.
They said therefore one to another, Let us not rend it, but cast
lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be
fulfilled, which saith, They parted My garments among them, And upon
My vesture did they cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers
did.... After this Jesus, knowing that all things are now finished,
that the scripture might be accomplished, saith, I thirst. There was
set there a vessel full of vinegar: so they put a sponge full of the
vinegar upon hyssop, and brought it to His mouth. When Jesus
therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He
bowed His head, and gave up His spirit. The Jews therefore, because
it was the Preparation, that the bodies should not remain on the
cross upon the Sabbath (for the day of that Sabbath was a high day),
asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might
be taken away. The soldiers therefore came, and brake the legs of
the first, and of the other which was crucified with Him: but when
they came to Jesus, and saw that He was dead already, they brake not
His legs: howbeit one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side,
and straightway there came out blood and water. And he that hath
seen hath borne witness, and his witness is true: and he knoweth
that he saith true, that ye also may believe. For these things came
to pass, that the scripture might be fulfilled, A bone of Him shall
not be broken. And again another scripture saith, They shall look on
Him whom they pierced."--JOHN xix. 23, 24, 28-37.

Possibly the account which John gives of the Crucifixion is somewhat
spoiled to some readers by his frequent reference to appa