examined him in open court, and could gather no proof to satisfy his mind that he was guilty of the things with which he was charged. It appeared also that Herod was of the same opinion with himself; for, having sent him to that prince, no punishment had been awarded to him. Pilate therefore proposed that he should order him to be Scourged again; and that the Jews should be satisfied with that lesser punishment; and then that he should be released as the prisoner annually selected for a free pardon, in favour to the Jews, at the feast of the Passover. The privilege, however, thus granted to the Jews by the Roman government, involved that the selection should be made by the people themselves; and this part of their accustomed privilege they now proceeded tumultuously to claim. They had already fixed upon a prisoner, then confined in the public jail, and probably intended for execution at that very time. He was an infamous man, named Barabbas; who had really been guilty of the very crime with which they were falsely charging Jesus-that of stirring up the people to rebellion; and in the troubles which had been the consequence of his sedition, Barabbas had committed murder. This was the person whom the Jews selected for the benefit of the free pardon; passing by those who had committed any of the lesser offences, of whom no doubt there were many. At all events, they might have chosen one of the two thieves who afterwards suffered with our Lord.

The crowd of Jews standing round the open part of the Pavement, readily took up the word suggested by the Scribes and Pharisees; and cried out to Pilate to give them the accustomed

privilege-Barabbas! Barabbas !-let Barabbas be sent for, was the yell amongst the people. On the other hand, Pilate presented the innocent Jesus before them, saying" Behold your king!" This produced a general cry amongst the people

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Away with him, away with him; let him be crucified"-down with him-death to him. Pilate asked whether he should crucify the man who claimed to be their king? Upon which the chief priests took up the word from the people, and declared, in their name, that they owned, no king but the Roman Emperor. The governor was well aware that it was nothing but the envy of the chief priests which had influenced the people to condemn Jesus and to call for his execution. He therefore contrasted the innocent Jesus with the infamous Barabbas; calling the former by their popular name of the Messiah :-which would they choose to be set free? Jesus, who was called the Messiah, or Barabbas, the traitor and murderer?

Many circumstances were made to concur in impressing Pilate with the conviction that Jesus was an innocent man. When he had sat down upon the judgment-seat, a message came to him from his wife, who sent to entreat him not, in any way, to mix himself up with the opposition against Je Jesus, whom she called "that just one."

The

reason she gave for this was, that in her sleep that very morning, she had been much troubled by a dream concerning him; which, to the superstitious mind of a heathen, must have been a very great cause of alarm.

While Pilate was receiving this message from his wife, the chief priests and elders of the people were doing all they could to influence the crowd

to claim the release of Barabbas, the rebel and the murderer, rather than that of the innocent Jesus so that when Pilate had heard the warning of his wife, his ears were at once accosted with shouts of, "Away with this fellow Jesus-give us Barabbas;-let Barabbas be set free."

Under the impression just confirmed by his wife's dream, Pilate was still more desirous to allow Jesus to escape; and therefore, without paying attention to their tumultuous cries, he repeated openly the question he had already put, which of the two prisoners he had named would the people desire to have released; he was answered by their shouting out the name of Barabbas. Though their choice had been thus distinctly made, Pilate was still unsatisfied; and asked publicly what then was to be done with Jesus, called both the Messiah, and the King of the Jews; at this the whole people shouted out, "Crucify him

crucify him." But the governor appealed yet a third time, and asked the people why capital punishment was to be awarded to this man? What had been his crime? As far as Pilate saw, he had committed no crime at all; at least, none that could reasonably be considered deserving of death he, therefore, proposed to inflict some lesser punishment upon him, and then to set him free, as the prisoner released at the Passover. These words of the governor set the whole people in an uproar; and the crowd rent the air with loud and earnest cries of Crucify him-crucify him.”

The cries of the people prevailed over the conscience and the superstition of Pilate; while still the lingering voice within seemed to claim some apology for the sin he knew he was commit

ting. It appeared evident to the governor that bis opposition to the will of the people was exciting them to a tumultuous riot; and with this set-off in his mind against the injustice of the act he was about to commit, he further quieted his conscience by a public protest against the very act which he, and he alone, had the supreme power to command. He ordered some water to be brought; and, according to the symbolical habits of the time and nation, he washed his hands in it before the people, declaring as he did so, that it was to signify that he protested he was clean from the guilt of having shed the blood of this person, whom he acknowledged to be innocent of any thing which could call for capital punishment. Thus washing this guilt from himself, he charged it upon the Jews, and bid them see to it. The whole multitude cried out in answer to this, taking upon themselves and their future generations the responsibility of the death, and its results-" His blood be upon us, and upon our children."

This awful scene having taken place, Pilate proceeded to finish the matter, by satisfying the clamour of the people, and prononncing the judicial sentence of death upon Jesus.

The sentence had passed, and it remained only to be executed. It was the time for the general gaol-delivery; and the order for his execution was given, along with that for the other prisoners who had been capitally convicted. Together with the warrant for the execution of these, the governor issued his order to release the condemned felon Barabbas.

The punishment of death upon the cross was of the most painful and disgraceful kind. None but the vilest criminals were crucified; and the manner

in which crucifixion was performed inflicted the greatest agony upon the sufferer. A cross was made of a long piece of timber, large enough to support the body of a man; near one end of which a shorter piece was fastened, long enough to receive his outstretched arms. The criminal was first scourged upon his bare back; and then, bleeding with his stripes, he was forced to carry this heavy piece of wood to the place of execution. During this painful journey, the unhappy person was exposed to all the insults and abuse of the crowd who usually assembled to witness such a procession. When arrived at the fatal spot, the cross was laid on the ground, and the criminal was stripped of his clothes, and placed on it upon his back, with his feet tied together, and his arms outstretched. Large nails were then driven through his hands and his feet into the wood. When this had been done, and a hole dug in the ground, the cross was lifted up by the executioners; who, to fix it more firmly in the earth, usually let it fall into the hole with great violence; in consequence of which the poor sufferer was shaken in the most dreadful manner, so that all his weight hung upon the nails with which his hands and feet were fastened to the wood. In this most agonizing situation the wretched man was left to die of hunger and suffering; and sometimes persons have been known to remain two days in this condition before death put an end to their misery.

It was to this inhuman punishment that the sentence of the Roman governor condemned the nocent Jesus; and the first part of it was istered immediately. The scourging took t once with his flesh torn by the stripes Pilate had already inflicted upon him, in