murdered the Baptist, Pilate sent JESUS to him. Herod had long wished to see this wonderful person, whose miracles had excited so much notice in his country; and he was in hopes that "some notable miracle would now be performed by him in his presence. But when he could obtain no answer to the many questions which he put to JESUS, he treated him in a contemptuous manner, and sent him back again to Pilate, arrayed in a gaudy robe, as a mockery of his claim to the regal character.

From that day Herod and Pilate, who were before at variance, became friends. Thus the wicked, from worldly considerations, become bitter enemies; but when CHRIST and his church are to be opposed and persecuted, all private feuds are terminated, and they are linked in bonds of the closest amity.

When Pilate saw that Herod had inflicted no punishment on JESUS, he was the more confirmed in the conviction of his innocence, and therefore proposed to the Jewish priests to "chastise him and then release him." It was customary at the feast of the passover for the governor to release any prisoner whom the people should desire. As they were now clamorous that this privilege should be granted them, Pilate took the advantage of it by asking whether they would choose JESUS, or one Barabbas, who was a noted robber and murderer. By putting so vile a wretch in competition with JESUS, it is evident that Pilate thought the choice would fall upon the innocent person. But the Jews, at the instigation of their priests, preferred a criminal of the most atrocious cast to one whose whole life had been spent in doing good. Here we have a striking proof what little dependance is to be placed upon the disposition of the multitude. They who a few days before met JESUS with palms and olive-branches to welcome him into Jerusalem, now went to apprehend him with swords and staves; they who had hailed him with hosannas as the son of David, now cry vehemently, "Crucify him! crucify him!" and they who were eager to attend him as their king, now pursue him as a malefactor and thirst for his blood! Pilate resisted the clamors of the people for a long time, and repeatedly declared his intention of letting JESUS go; but there was a virtuous resolution wanting in him, and he had not the courage to oppose boldly the demand of the priests, though he was conscious that it was contrary to truth and justice.

At length they went so far as to threaten the governor, that if he refused to pass sentence of death upon JESUS, they would accuse him to the emperor as an abetter of treason. This declaration alarmed Pilate, who immediately placed himself on the judgment-seat; but still he felt a repugnance to adjudge a person to death of whose innocence he could not entertain the smallest doubt. Before he pronounced sentence, the reluctant governor caused JESUS, who had already been scourged, and whose wounds were still bleeding, to be presented to the view of the people, that by so moving a spectacle their hearts might relent. But they were steeled against all impressions of humanity, and when Pilate emphatically pointed their attention to the meek and injured sufferer, saying, “Behold your king!" they cried, "Away with him! crucify him!" John xix. 15.

The patience of Pilate was at last exhausted, but instead of driving the insolent and merciless rabble from his presence, he consented to their will, and delivered JESUS up to be crucified. Conscious, however, that he was shedding innocent blood, Pilate adopted a miserable device to free himself from the guilt of it. On pronouncing sentence, he took water, and washing his hands in the presence of the people, said, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it." Matt. xxvii. 24. The declaration was as false as the action was pitiful and superstitious: for with the power which was vested in him, and sensible as he was of the innocence of JESUS, it was his duty to resist the unrighteous demand of a misguided multitude, set on by their malevolent teachers. It is a shocking thing for a man to act against his conscience, and to be driven on in wickedness by the solicitations or threatenings of others. Pilate, in thus criminally consenting to the death of the innocent, entailed infamy upon his name, and in no long time afterwards was deposed from his government, at the instigation of the Jewish people, whom he had gratified at the expense of his conscience.

But the punishment of that nation was a still more striking display of the divine judgments. When Pilate endeavored to excuse himself from the guilt of shedding innocent blood, the people madly exclaimed, " His blood be on us and our children." The imprecation was most dreadful, but it was and is exactly accomplished in the destruction of Jerusalem, and may now be seen in the dispersed condition of the Jews

throughout the world. They are still a distinct people, "scattered and peeled among all nations," and though numerous and wealthy, yet despised everywhere, and without power.

Judgment being past, JESUS was delivered over to the Roman soldiers, who in derision of his claim to royalty, and at the same time out of contempt to the Jews, dressed him in a purple robe, put a crown of thorns upon his head, and a reed as a sceptre in his hand. Then they bowed the knee in mockery, saying, "Hail! king of the Jews!" But not content with insulting the innocent in distress, they treated him with the most barbarous cruelty, some of them smiting him with their hands, and spitting on him, while others took the reed from him and smote his head therewith, that the thorns might make a deeper impression, and occasion the most exquisite pain. In this mangled and wretched condition was JESUS once more presented to the view of the people by the Roman governor, who said, "Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him!" Unmoved by this woful spectacle, or by the emphatic declaration of the governor, the chief priests repeated their demand that he should be crucified, and Pilate, borne down by their clamors, gave up the holy sufferer to endure the agonizing tortures of the cross.

Let us now contemplate with astonishment and with sorrowful concern the blessed JESUS, led away amidst the taunts and reproaches of an inhuman rabble to the place of execution. Were it a poor persecuted man who had fallen a victim to popular phrensy, or to the jealousy of a tyrannical government, we should feel emotions of tenderness at the injustice of his fate. But when we consider that this person's life has been spent in doing acts of kindness to his fellow-creatures, and in preaching the most important truths that ever were revealed for the instruction of mankind; when we add to this that his character is spotless, and his virtues the most exalted, we must be impressed with the deepest sympathy for his suffering condition, and with the greatest indignation at the conduct of his enemies. But what must be our wonder, our concern and gratitude, when in this oppressed, afflicted, lacerated sufferer we behold the eternal Son of GOD, the only begotten of his Father, full of grace and truth, who for "us men and for our salvation came down from heaven," passed a life of poverty and labor, and at last endured all "this contradiction of sinners," (Heb. xii. 3,) that by "his stripes we might be healed" (Isa. liii. 5) of our mortal wound and live for ever. When we behold JESUS bearing his cross to Calvary, let us consider him as groaning

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beneath the burden of our imputed guilt, which brought him to this low and suffering state. In following him with these thoughts we shall receive profit and consolation, while our hearts are melted down in tender compassion and grief. By viewing him thus as our sacrifice, "bearing our sins and carrying our sorrows," we shall approach the fatal spot where he is to be offered up with the greatest detestation of our iniquities, as the cause of this dismal tragedy, and with an earnest desire to love him more and to serve him better than we have hitherto done.

But behold he faints, he sinks beneath the ponderous load! The accumulation of injuries is too heavy for human nature to bear, and his mangled and enfeebled body can support the cross no longer. The soldiers, therefore, not out of compassion, but to prevent his expiring on the road, lay the burden upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, who was passing at the time, and compel him to bear it to the place of execution. We hear but little of Simon; the statements of the three evangelists are concurrent respecting him; each mentions him with great brevity, particularly St. Matthew, who merely styles him, "a man of Cyrene, Simon by name;" St. Luke is almost as brief; St. Mark is somewhat more particular in his sketch of him, calling him, "the father of Alexander and Rufus ;" but one and all agree in the narration of what he did on that memorable day, when He who was the "eternal Son of the Father poured out his soul unto death."

If I might make my choice of these three statements, I should be inclined to select St. Luke's for my preference: "And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after JESUS." O, how I feel, when I read the words, " as they led him away!" Methinks I see Him, who was "holy, harmless, and undefiled," arraigned as a malefactor at the bar of Pilate, and then taken to the place of crucifixion, without resistance on his part, when he could have commanded legions of angels to descend to his relief; yet he quietly went forth to finish the work which had been given him to do, and then was fulfilled the saying of Esaias the prophet: "He was led as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." Yes, they led him away, clad in the scarlet robe, crowned with the pointed thorns, and holding the reedy sceptre; and he turned not back, but on he went to the mountain of Calvary, to shed his precious blood for a world of rebels, who else would have perished without mercy. And now appears the man of Cyrene, and the cruel and relentless Jews seize him, and force him to bear the cross after JESUS. Then JESUS bore it first. St. John saith: "And he, bearing his cross, went forth into a place called the place of a scull." His exhausted frame then was wearied with the terrible exertion; and it would seem that Simon was compelled to ease him of the load, and bear it to the place where the Son of GoD was to be crucified. But having done this, his part was done; it was the "Man of Nazareth," not the "man of Cyrene," who was to be shortly stretched upon that fatal wood; it was the Brightness of his Father's glory," that had veiled himself in a mantle of flesh, and was about to be made "an offering for sin;" it was not the blood of a mere mortal that was about to be shed-that could never placate Divine justice; but it was the blood of the " Only begotten of the LORD," "the everlasting Son of the Father;" that blood was sufficient to ransom the whole world, and win back the long-lost favor of an offended GOD; "the blood of JESUS