over Jesus Christ's head the words--

'THIS IS JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.'

Three hours of fearful pain passed away. It was twelve o'clock. And
now it became quite dark and it was dark till three o'clock in the
afternoon. That was a dreadful three hours more for Jesus. It was a
time of agony of mind, like the time He spent in the Garden of
Gethsemane. He was having His last fight with Satan, and He felt quite
alone. When it was about three o'clock, Jesus cried out with a loud
voice, 'It is finished.' And He cried again with a loud voice, and
said, 'Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.' And He bowed His
head and died.

[Illustration: Calvary.]

And now wonderful things happened. The ground shook; the graves
opened; dead people woke up to life again; and a great veil, or
curtain, which hung before the most holy part of the Temple, was
suddenly torn into two pieces. The high priest used to go once a year
into that Most Holy Place to offer sacrifice for sin before God. But
when the great purple and gold curtain was torn down without hands, it
was just as if a voice from heaven had said, 'No more blood of lambs,
no more high priest is wanted now. Jesus, the real Passover Lamb, has
been sacrificed. Jesus has offered His own blood before God for
sinners, and God will forgive every sinner who trusts in the blood of
Jesus.'

Then a rich man, called Joseph, came to Pilate and begged Pilate to let
him have the body of Jesus to bury. Pilate said that Joseph might have
the body of his Master. And Joseph came and took it down from the
cross; and he and Nicodemus wrapped the body round with clean linen,
with a very great quantity of sweet-smelling stuff inside the linen.

There was a garden close to the place where Jesus was crucified, and in
that garden there was a grave which Joseph had cut in a rock. The
grave was not like those which we have. It was a little room in the
rock, with a seat on the right hand, and a seat on the left, and with a
place in the wall just opposite the door for the body. Joseph and
Nicodemus laid the body of Jesus in this new grave. Then they came
out, and rolled a great round stone over the door, and went away.

Jesus was crucified on Friday, and now it was Sunday. It was very
early in the morning. The soldiers were watching at the grave of
Jesus, and all was still; when suddenly the earth began to tremble and
shake. And behold, an angel came down from hea