all be scattered from him, as sheep when the high-priest. After a mock trial before the shepherd is smitten (Zech. xiii. 7). This declaration roused the zeal of Peter, who, too full of confidence, avowed his determination never to forsake his master; but Christ assured him, that before the cock should crow twice on that night, Peter would thrice deny that he knew him. The event, as we shall see, proved the knowledge which Jesus had of Peter's weakness, and served as a warning to him ever afterward. And now, taking with him three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John, and retiring from the rest, Jesus began to feel that severe anguish of mind, which was the consequence of his taking our sins, and standing in the place of transgressors. Nor Nor was this all. Having withdrawn a small distance from the three disciples, he fell on his face in prayer, and being in an agony, "his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." In this conflict of soul, there appeared an angel from heaven, strengthening him; after which he returned and joined the company of his disciples. In the mean time, Judas, with a band of armed men, approached, with lanterns and torches; and giving them the appointed token, by kissing his Master, they took hold on the unresisting Jesus, and having bound him, they led him away to Caiaphas, the of Olives and the Brook Kedron: it was a place frequently resorted to by Jesus Christ and his apostles. Thither Judas proceeded, accompanied by a number of officers, to betray him; and here the Saviour endured his "agony and bloody sweat." (Luke, xxii. 39-49. Matt. xxvi. 36-56. Mark, xiv. 32–46. John. xviii. 1–12.) This garden is surrounded by a coarse low wall, of a few feet in height, and about the third part of an acre in extent. When Mr. Catherwood was here in 1834, taking the drawings for his beautiful panorama of Jerusalem, it was planted with olive, almond, and fig trees. Eight of the olive-trees are so large, that they are said to have been in existence ever since the time of Jesus Christ. Although we are informed by Josephus that Titus cut down all the trees within one hundred furlongs of the city, yet it is not improbable that these trees (which are unquestionably of very remote antiquity) may have arisen from the roots of the ancient trees; because the olive is very long-lived, and possesses the peculiar property of shooting up again, however frequently it may be cut down. The trees now standing in the Garden of Gethsemane are of the species known to botanists as the Olea Europa: they are wild olives, and appear pollarded from extreme age, and their stems are very rough and gnarled: they are highly venerated by the members of the Roman communion here, Jewish council · where he suffered the most shameful treatment he was pronounced worthy of death; but, as the Jews had not now the power of life and death in their hands, he was sent to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, in order that this sentence might be confirmed. We must not, however, omit to take notice of Peter, while his Master stood arraigned before the council. While all the other disciples, except John, had fled, Peter, following at a distance, obtained admittance into the palace of the highpriest. Here he was three times charged, by some present, with being a disciple of Jesus, and three times he denied the charge. But when, on the third denial, the cock crew a second time, "Jesus turned and looked on Peter." His heart was immediately smitten; he remembered his Lord's prediction, and "he went out and wept bitterly. When In the case of Peter there was hope; but in that of Judas there was none. the traitor saw that his Master was condemned, his guilty soul was stung with remorse; "he brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, and declaring that he had betrayed the innocent blood," he cast them down in the temple, and departing in despair, went and hanged himself. who consider any attempt to cut or injure them as an act of profanation. Should any one of them, indeed, be known to pluck any of the leaves, he would incur a sentence of excommunication. Of the stones of the olives, beads are made, which the monks of the Latin convent regard as one of the most sacred objects that can be presented to a Christian traveller. The ridiculous gravity with which the precise places are shown where the most affecting and important incidents in our Saviour's history occurred cannot entirely destroy the interest we feel, when we imagine ourselves to be near the spot where the disciples and their Lord so often met to converse about the things pertaining to his kingdom, and to receive instruction in the mysterious plan of redemption which was then opening so gloriously upon a ruined world. The prospect from the Garden of Gethsemane is one of the most pleasing in the vicinity of Jerusalem. The walls of the city are very distinctly seen hence, at the extreme edge of a precipitous bank. Through the trees, the bridge over the Kedron is clearly perceptible; and the Turkish burial-ground is a marked point, from the tombs being mostly white, with turbans on the top, to indicate the Moslem faith of the individuals whose remains are there interred. FROM the bar of Pilate, Jesus was passed to Herod, the tetrarch of Galilee who happened at that time to be in Jerusalem and from Herod he was returned to Pilate. His trial then proceeded; and, notwithstanding the persuasion of the governor that Jesus was innocent, the voice of the multitude and of the chief priests prevailed; and Pilate, having scourged him, delivered him up to their fury. The most cruel indignities followed. They crowned him with thorns, mocked him, spit upon him, smote him on the head, and ultimately led him away to be crucified. Pilate had, indeed, shown a desire to deliver Christ from the sentence of condemnation, and, as it was the custom at the passover to release a prisoner, he proposed him as the object of favor on this occasion; but such was the malice of his enemies, that they cried out for the death of Jesus, and for the release of Barabbas, who was a murderer and a robber; and such was the time-serving spirit of Pilate, that he could not resist the wishes of the multitude. The place of execution was called Calvary, a little without the city of Jerusalem; and thither Jesus was conducted, bearing his cross. It was the third hour of the day (or nine o'clock in the morning) when, arriving at the place, they crucified Jesus Christ, nailing his hands and feet to the cross, and raising him up between the heavens and the earth; while, full of divine compassion on his murderers, he prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" At the same time also, they crucified two thieves who had been brought along with Jesus the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. The cross of Christ is one of the most interesting objects which can be presented to the Christian reader. An eminent divine says of it: Let it be to the Jews a scandal, or offensive to their fancy, prepossessed with expectations of a Messiah flourishing in secular pomp and and prosperity; let it be folly to the Greeks, or seem absurd to men puffed up and corrupted in mind, with fleshly notions 1 RESURRECTION. ASCENSION. and maxims of worldly craft, disposing them to value nothing which is not grateful to present sense or fancy, that God should put his own beloved Son into so very sad and despicable a condition; that salvation from death and misery should be procured by so miserable a death; that eternal joy, glory, and happiness, should issue from these fountains of sorrow and shame; that a person in external semblance devoted to so opprobrious usage should be the Lord and Redeemer of mankind, the King and Judge of all the world; let, I say, this doctrine be scandalous and disdainful to some persons tainted with prejudice; let it be strange and incredible to others blinded with self-conceit ; let all the inconsiderate, all the proud, all the profane part of mankind, openly with their mouth, or closely in heart, slight and reject it: yet to us it must appear grateful and joyous; to us it is a faithful and most credible proposition, worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, in this way of suffering for them." In such a light as this must every true Christian look upon the cross of his blessed Redeemer. The cruel mode of punishment by crucifixion appears to have been in use from the earliest recorded period of history. Possibly it was the invention of some barbarous tribe to prevent the escape of a captive, by fastening him to a tree; or used to inflict death on an enemy, by leaving him exposed upon a tree, to be a prey to birds and beasts, or to die of hunger. In time, however, it was adopted by the most civilized nations of antiquity. Among the Carthaginians, persons of all ranks, even commanders of armies, were subject to it: among the Romans, however, it was considered as the punishment of slaves, and inflicted on that class only. With reference to the Hebrews, it seems doubtful whether crucifixion was a mode of punishment practised by them in ancient times. The putting the sons of Saul to death, as recorded 2 Sam. xxi., has been adduced as an argument that it was; and the term "hanged on a tree," which is used, Acts x. 39, to describe crucifixion, seems to favor painters; and certainly instruments of such such a view. Whatever the original form of crosses may have been, we cannot tell; but in the course of time they were made of two pieces of wood, and they have been divided by antiquaries into three kinds: 1, the crux decussata, or cross divided like the letter X, and usually called St. Andrew's cross; 2, the crux commissa, or joined cross, consisting of an upright piece of timber, with a transverse piece on the extreme top, at right angles with the first, like the letter T; and 3, the crux immissa, or let-in cross, in which the transverse piece of timber is let into the upright, but placed somewhat below the top of the upright, in this form t. It is the latter cross on which our Saviour is usually represented to have suffered, and though there may not be any absolute authority for ascertaining the precise form of the cross used on this occasion, yet the circumstance of an inscription being placed over his sacred head renders the conjecture probable. 66 dimensions would be unnecessary for the purpose. Pone crucem servo, Put the cross to the slave," is an expression used by Juvenal. It is probable, therefore, that it was the real cross which our Saviour carried, and that he was nailed to it before it was raised and fixed in the ground; which is in accordance with the general opinion. The manner in which this was done has "When been thus graphically described: the malefactor had carried his cross to the place of execution, a hole was dug in the earth in which it was to be fixed; the criminal was stripped; a stupefying potion was given him; the cross was laid on the ground; he was distended upon it, and four soldiers, two on each side, at the same time were employed in driving four large nails through After they had deeply his hands and feet. fixed and riveted these nails in the wood, they elevated the cross with the sufferer upon it; and in order to infix it the more firmly and securely in the earth, they let it violently fall into the cavity they had preAc-pared to receive it. This vehement precipitation of the cross must have occasioned a most dreadful convulsive shock, and agitated the whole frame of the malefactor in a dire These sevand most excruciating manner. eral particulars were observed in the crucifixion of our Lord. Upon his arrival at Calvary, he was stripped; the medicated cup was offered to him; he was fastened to the cross; and while they were employed in piercing his hands and his feet, it is probable that he offered to Heaven that most benevolent and affecting prayer for his mur derers, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' " It is said by St. John (xix. 17), that Jesus went forth "bearing his cross. cordingly we find painters representing our Saviour bearing the entire cross on which he suffered. This, however, if we take into consideration the great weight the cross is thought to have been, from its size, and from its being made of the hardest wood, generally of oak, could scarcely be possible; and painters themselves have also been practically sensible of this; for the same painter who represents Christ bearing his cross, gives a representation of one shorter and more portable, than that which he exhibits in a painting of the crucifixion. But this, some imagine, may be correct. They think that the cross which our Saviour carried was a representation of the cross of actual crucifixion; and that it was usual for prisoners to bear such, to suggest to the people in the streets through which they were conducted the kind of punishment they were about to undergo. Lipsius, on the contrary, explains that the heaviest part of the cross, the perpendicular beam, was either fixed in the ground before, or was ready to be set up when the condemned person arrived; and he contends, that the part which the prisoner carried was the large cross-beam to which the arms of the crucified were fastened. There are others, again, who think that the crosses of the ancients were not so lofty, large, and massive, as those depicted by Of whatever size the cross on which our Redeemer paid the penalty of our transgressions might have been, we learn from St. Mark that it was of great weight. He intimates to us, in a parallel passage to that of St. John, that the soldiers, finding that Jesus, exhausted by his sufferings, was no longer able to bear his cross, laid hold of one Simon, a Cyrenian, who happened to be passing, and compelled him to bear it for the sufferer (Mark xv. 21). The practice of a prisoner bearing his own cross, at least among the Romans, very probably arose from the deep disgust and horror with which they looked upon this instrument of punishment; the prisoner, accordingly, was |