Page 21 Advertisements Column 1

Otago Witness, Issue 890, 19 December 1868, Page 21

Piiblio ffotioe aelve» went not into -the hall, but remained before "the pavement." Always notice, that Burners who can swallow camels will strain at gnats, crowds of men who will do great sins are Very much afraid of committing some little things which they think will affect their religion. \ Notice, that many a man who is a big thief during the week, will easg his conscience byrigid Sabbatarianism when the day comes round. In fact, most hypocrites run for shelter to some close obsei'vande of days, ceremonies, and observations, when they have slighted the weightier matters of the law. Well, Pilate receives him bound. The oharge brought against him was not, of course, blasphemy; Pilate would have laughed at that, and deolhied all interference. They accused him of stirnng up sedition, pretending to be a king, and teaching that it was riot right to pay tribute to Caesar. This last charge was a clear' afld manifest he. He refuse to pay tribute ? Did not he send to the fish's mouth to get the money? He Bay that Caagar must not have his due ? Did he not tell the Herodians— "JJender unto Csesar the things that are Caesar'a ?' He stir up ledition ? t— the man that had "not where to lay his head?" He pretend to snatch the diadem from Cffisar?— he, the man who. hid himself, when the people would have taken him by f ortfe and made aim a king ? Nothing can be more atrociously false. Pilate examines him, and discovers at once, both by his silence and from his answer, that he is a most_ extraordinary person; he perceives that the kingdom which he claims is something supernatural ; he cannot understand it. He asks him what he came into the world for ; the reply puzzles and amaaes him, "To bear witness to the truth," says he. Now, that was ft thing no Eoman understood ; for a hundred years before Pilate dame Jugurtha said of the city of Ronie, "a city for sale," bribery, corruption, falsehood, trdacherj', ViHatiy", ihese were the gods of Rome, and truth had fled the seven hills, the very meaning of the word was scarcely known. So Pilate turned on his heel, and said, ' ' What is truth ?" As much as to say, "1 am the procurator of this part of the country; all I care for is money." " What's truth ?' Ido not think he asked the question, " What is truth ?' as some preach from it, as if he seriously desired to know what it really was, for surely he would have paused for the divine reply, and not have gone away from Christ the moment afterWai'ds. He said. " Pshaw ; What's truth ?" Yet there v^as something so awful about the prisoner, that his wife's dream, and her message— " See that thou have nothing to do with this just person," all worked upon the superstitious fears of this very weak-minded ruler ; so he went back and told the Jews a second time, " I find no fault in him ;" and when they said, "He Stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning at Gallilee to this place," he caught at that word ''Galilee." "Kow," he thought, " I will be rid of this man; the people shall have their way, and yet 1 will not be guilty." "Galilee?" said he; "why, Herod is ruler there ; you had better take him to Herod at once." He thiu gained two or three points; he made Herod his friend; he hoped to exonerate himself of his crime, and yet please the mob. Away they go to Herod. Oh ! I think I see that blessed Lamb of God again hounded through the itreets. Did you ever read such a tale ? No martyr, even in bloody Mary's time, was ever hurried thus as the Saviour was. We must not think that his agonies were all confined to the cross ; they were endured in those streets— in those innumerable blows, and kicks, and strikings with the fist that he had to bear. They took him before Herod, and Herod having heard of his miracles, thought to see some wonderful thing, some piece of jugglery, done in his prefleme ; and when Christ refused to speak, and would not plead before "that fox" at all, then Herod treated him with a sneer. "They made nothing of him." Can you picture the scene ? Herod, his captains, his lieutenants, all, down to the meanest soldiers, treat the Saviour with a broad grin! "A pretty king," they seem to say j"A miserable beggar better ! Look at his cheeks all bruised where they have been smiting him : is that the colour of royalty's complexion?" "Look," say they, "he is emaciated, he is covered with blood, as though he had been sweating drops of blood all night. Is that the imperial purple ?" And so they "made nothing of him, " and despised his ldngship. And Herod said, "Bring out that costly white robe, you know ; if he be a king, let us dress him so ;" and so the white robe is put on him— not a purple one— that Pilate put on afterwards. He has two robes put on him— the one put on by the Jews, the other by the Gentiles ; seeming to be a fit comment on that passage in Solomon's song, where the spouse says, "My beloved is white and ruddy" -white with the gorgeous robe which marked him King of the Jews, and then red with the purple robe which Pilate afterwards cast upon his shoulders, which proved him Kirn? of nations too. And so Herod and his men of war, after treating him as shamefully as they could, looking at him as some madman more fit for Bedlam than elsewhere, sent him back again to Pilate. Oh J can you not follow him ? You want no great imagination — as you see them dragging him back again ! It is another journey along those streets ; another scene of shameful tumult, bitter scorn, and cruel smitings. Why, he dies a hundred deaths, my brethren ; it is not one—it is death on death the Savionr bears, as he is dragged from tribunal to tribunal. See, they bring him to Pilate a second time. Pilate again is anxious to save him. He says, " I have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him : no, nor yet Herod; I will therefore release him I" "No, no," they say; and they clamour greatly. He proposes a cruel alternative, which yet he meant for tender mercy. "I will therefore chastise him, and let him go." He gave him over to his lictora to be scourged. The Roman scourge was, as I have explained before, a most dreadful inutrument. It was made of the sinews of oxen, and little sharp pieces of bone, which, you know, cause the most frightful lacerations if by accident you ever run them into your hand; little •harp pieces, splinters of bones were intertwisted every here and there among the sinews ; so that every time the lash came down some of these pidees of bone went right into the flesh, and tore off heavy thongfuls, and not only the blood but the very flesh would be rent away. The Saviour was tied to the column, and thus beaten. He had been beaten before ; but this "Roman lictor was probably the most severe of bis flagellations. After Pilate had beaten him c gave him up to the soldiers for a short time' t they might complete the mockery, and so