ere must have been a projection above the bar on which His arms were
outstretched. The arms were probably bound to the cross-beam, as
without this the hands would have been torn through by the weight. And
for a similar reason there was a piece of wood projecting from the
middle of the upright beam, on which the body sat. The feet were
either nailed separately or crossed the one over the other, with a nail
through both. It is doubtful whether the body was affixed before or
after the cross was elevated and planted in the ground. The head hung
free, so that the dying man could both see and speak to those about the
cross.

In modern executions the greatest pains are taken to make death as
nearly as possible instantaneous, and any bungling which prolongs the
agony excites indignation and horror in the public mind. But the most
revolting feature of death by crucifixion was that the torture was
deliberately prolonged. The victim usually lingered a whole day,
sometimes two or three days, still retaining consciousness; while the
burning of the wounds in the hands and feet, the uneasiness of the
unnatural position, the oppression of overcharged veins and, above all,
the intolerable thirst were constantly increasing. Jesus did not
suffer so long; but He lingered for four or five hours.

I will not, however, proceed further in describing the sickening
details. How far all these horrors may have been essential elements in
His sufferings it would be difficult to say. Apart from the prophecies
going before which had to be fulfilled, was it a matter of indifference
what death He died? Would it have served equally well if He had been
hanged or beheaded or stoned? We cannot tell. Only, when we know the
secret of what His soul suffered, we can discern the fitness of the
choice of the most shameful and painful of all forms of death for His
body.[4]

The true sufferings of Christ were not physical, but internal. Looking
on that Face, we see the shadow of a deeper woe than smarting wounds
and raging thirst and a racking frame--the woe of slighted love, of a
heart longing for fellowship but overwhelmed with hatred; the woe of
insult and wrong, and of unspeakable sorrow for the fate of those who
would not be saved. Nor is even this the deepest shadow. There was
then in the heart of the Redeemer a woe to which no human words are
adequate. He was dying for the sin of the world. He had taken on
Himself the guilt of mankind, a