Page:Morning, or, Action.pdf/9

Rh The priests and elders accused him. The High Priest cried out. “He is guilty of death.” Pilate, his judge, though conscious of his innocence, though he washed his hands from the guilt of his death, ordered him to be scourged, and allowed him to be crucified. The people, with a frantic ardour, sought his death. That very people, who, a few days before, upon his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, had strewed the way with palm branches, and cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” that very people, such is the giddiness of the multitude, now cried out, “Crucify him, crucify: him.” Thus in his sorrows, he stood by himself a wreched individual without a friend. When the Shepherd was smitten, the sheep were scattered abroad. He trode the wine press alone.— Or the people there were none with him.— When he died for all, he was pitied by none.

In the second place, He died in a state of ignominy. The death of ofof [sic] the cross was not only painful and tormenting, but ignominious also, and accursed,— a death that was never inflicted upon free men, but reserved for slaves and malefactors for the basest and the vilest of the human kind. There is implanted in the mind of man a strong abhorrance of shame and disgrace. The sense of ignomy is more pungent in a noble nature, than the feelings of pain. To want the appearance of innocence, while, at the same