April 6

The worst of men are often anxious about the external and ceremonial parts of religion. Conscience as well as decency requires something; and forms and rites are not difficult, and they leave the state of the heart untouched. What a mixture was here! What superstition and wickedness! What regard to the Sabbath and the passover, and what swiftness to shed blood! The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Why do they not dispatch the sufferers at once, instead of only hastening their death by addition to their anguish? The violence and the pain probably produced the most dreadful cutcries. In this barbarous manner the soldiers came and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. One of these was the penitent thief. He had prayed to be remembered when Jesus came into his kingdom, and had received the assurance that he should that very day be with him in paradise; and the promise would now be fulfilled. Yet this does not exempt him from the same usage endured by his impenitent companion. All things come alike to all. But though outwardly treated alike, what a difference was there between them in their feelings and in their end—one passing from torture into torment—the other rejoicing that all his suffering was for ever ended, and he should instantly enter into the joy of his Lord!

Jesus had now breathed his last. Was it owing to the greater sensibility of his mind, and delicacy of his body, that he expired sooner than his fellow-sufferers? Rather we see here the voluntariness of his death. He had said, No man taketh my life from me: I lay it down of myself. As he was the sacrifice, so he was the priest, and through the eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot to God. He did not die therefore from a mere exhaustion of nature. He cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost: and Pilate, as a thing perfectly unusual, when informed of it, marvelled that he was already dead. When therefore they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: but "one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water." From hence we see that our Saviour had not been long dead; for had the flesh been cold, and the fluids coagulated, the effusions would not have taken place. Those who understand anatomy, and are aware of the membranous bag which contains the heart, can easily account for the flowing of water as well as blood.

But we have something of more importance here than any physical reflections. Let me, O my soul, consider the fact as—an instance of the indignity to which the Saviour submitted for my sake—as a confirmation of the reality and certainty of his death—as a symbol of the manner of my recovery by him—and as a display of Providence in fulfilling the Scriptures. Take your own thoughts first upon these remarks, and then read the illustrations in the following exercise.

"O the sweet wonders of that cross Where God my Saviour groaned and died! Her noblest life my spirit draws From his dear wounds and bleeding sido."