fering indignities and humiliation at the hand of the tyrant,
He was remanded back to Pilate for trial, under Herod's orders.

Back to Pilate's court, followed by the crowd, went Jesus. Pilate was
greatly annoyed that Herod should have shifted the responsibility once
more upon his (Pilate's) court. Then he bethought himself of an
expedient. He took advantage of the Jewish custom, observed by the
Roman rulers, which led to the pardoning of a notorious criminal on
the occasion of the Passover. And so he announced that he would pardon
Jesus according to custom. But from the Jewish authorities came back
the answer that they would not accept Jesus as the subject of the
pardon, but demanded that Barabbas, a celebrated criminal, be pardoned
instead of the Nazarene. Pilate found himself unable to escape the
designs of the Jewish priesthood, and so, yielding in disgust, he
pardoned Barabbas, and condemned Jesus to death. The cries of the mob,
incited by the priests, sounded around the court. "Crucify him!
Crucify him!" Pilate appeared before the priests and the populace,
and, washing his hands in a basin, according to the Oriental custom,
he cried to the Jews, "I wash my hands of this man's blood--upon you
be it!" And the crowd responded with a great shout, "Upon us and our
children be his blood!"

Jesus, in the meantime, had been cruelly scourged by the barbarous
instruments of torture of the time. His body was lacerated and
bleeding, and He was faint from the torture and loss of blood. Upon
His head had been thrust, in ghastly mockery, a crown of thorns which
pressed deep into His flesh. He was refused the usual respite of
several days before sentence and execution--He was to die that very
day.

His cross was tied to His back and He was compelled to carry it,
fainting though He was from fatigue and torture. He staggered along
and fell, unable to bear His heavy burden. Finally Golgotha, the place
of the crucifixion, was reached, and the Man of Sorrows was nailed to
the cross and raised aloft to die a lingering and painful death. On
either side was a criminal--two thieves--His companions in suffering.

He refused to partake of the drug which was granted to criminals to
relieve their intense suffering. He preferred to die in full
possession of His faculties. Above His head was a tablet bearing the
inscription, "The King of the Jews," which had been placed there by
Pilate in a spirit of ironical mockery of the Jews who had for