John having left the stricken mother with me, he and Lazarus had gone
back to where they were unrobing the Prophet in order to bind him to
the wood. They caught the eyes of their Master, said Lazarus, who
gazed upon them calmly and affectionately. They said they had never
beheld him appear so majestic and great. He looked, as the centurion
afterwards said, "Like a god surrendering himself to death for the
safety of his universe!"
"Nothing but the ferocious madness of the chief priests and Jews,"
added John, "could have prevented them from being awed by the majesty
of his presence. And, besides, there sat upon his brow heroic courage,
with a certain divine humility and resignation. Not the rough hands
of the barbaric soldiers, nor the indignity of being stripped before
the eyes of thousands, not the sight of the cross, nor of the thieves,
nailed and writhing on theirs, moved him to depart, by look or bearing,
from that celestial dignity which, through all, had never left him.
"He made no resistance," continued John, who told me what follows,
"when bound upon the cross, but resigned himself passively into the
hands of his executioners, like a lamb receiving its death. 'Father,'
he said, raising his holy eyes to heaven, 'forgive them, for they know
not what they do.'
"Great drops of sweat, when they nailed his feet to the wood, stood
upon his forehead," added John, who remained near to see his Master
die, and to comfort and strengthen him; "and when the four men raised
him and the cross together from the earth and let the end into a hole a
foot deep, the shock, bringing his whole weight upon the nails in his
hands, tore and lacerated them, nearly dislocating the shoulders at the
same time, while every sinew and muscle of his arms and chest was drawn
out like cords to sustain this unwonted weight upon them. The first
thief fainted from pain, at the shock caused by the setting of his own
cross; and the second, cool and defiant as he had been, uttered a loud
outcry of agony. But Jesus made no moan, though the unearthly pallor of
his countenance showed how inexpressible was his torture."
Ah, my dear father, I would draw a veil over this scene--for it is too
painful for me to dwell upon. To the last John believed his Master
would not die--that he would not suffer! But when he saw how that pain
and anguish seized heavily upon him, and how that he suffered like
other men, without power to prevent it, he greatly wondered, and began
to believe that all the miracles that he had seen him perform must have
been illusions. He could not reconcile the calmness and dignity, the
heroic composure and air of innocence with which he came to the cross,
with imposture; yet his death would assuredly seal as imposture all
his previous career.
With his mother we all drew as near the cross as we were permitted to
come. Jesus then turned his head towards his mother, and, looking down
with the profoundest tenderness and love upon her, committed her to the
filial care of the weeping John, who stood supporting her.
There we waited, in expectation of seeing him do some mighty miracle
from the cross and descend unharmed, showing to the world thereby his
title to be the Messias of God.
The centurion, having placed a guard about the crosses, to keep the
friends of the crucified from attempting their rescue, stood watching
them. The soldiers who had nailed Jesus to the tree now began to
divide, with noisy oaths, his garments among themselves, as well as
those of the two thieves, these being by the Roman law the fee of the
executioner. This division being made after some time, but not without
high talking and drawing of their long Syrian knives upon each other,
they were at a loss what to do with the large mantle without seam,
which the sisters of Lazarus had woven for the friend of their once
dead brother. A group of the Roman guard being seated near, astride
upon the four arms of a fallen cross, playing at dice, suggested that
the Parthians should decide by lot whose it should be. This the latter
consented to and, taking the dice-box in their bloody hands, each of
them threw the dice. The highest number fell to the most ferocious of
the four fellows, who proposed to sell the cloak, which John joyfully
purchased of him at a great price, by means of the jewels of several
of the women, who gladly took rings from their ears and bracelets from
their arms, I giving, dear father, the emerald which you bought for
me at Cairo. But I could not see the robe which Jesus had worn thus
desecrated.
After Jesus had hung about an hour upon the cross, Æmilius came from
Pilate, and bore the inscription, which it is usual to place above the
heads of malefactors, showing their name, and the crime for which they
are crucified.
Above the head of Jesus, by means of a small ladder, was placed this
inscription, in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew:
THIS IS JESUS,
THE KING OF THE JEWS.
When the wicked Abner read this, he turned angrily to the centurion,
and to Æmilius, who stood sadly near the cross.
"Write not, O Roman, that he is 'King of the Jews,' but that he said he
was King of the Jews!"
"I have placed above him what Pilate has ordered to be written,"
answered the centurion.
Abner, upon this, mounted a mule and hastened into the city to the
Procurator, and laid his complaint before him.
"What I have written, I have written, sir priest," we have heard that
the Procurator coldly answered.
"But you, then, have crucified this man for being our king, which we
deny!" retorted Abner.
"I will take his word, before that of all the Jews in Cæsar's empire!"
answered Pilate angrily. "He said he was a king; and if ever a king
stood before a human tribunal, I have had a true and very king before
me to-day--and I have signed the warrant for his execution. But his
blood be on your heads! Leave my presence, Jew!"
Abner left his presence abashed, and returned to the place of
crucifixion. The Jews, in the meanwhile, mocked Jesus, and wagged their
heads at him, and reminded him of his former miracles and prophecies.
"Thou that raisedst Lazarus, save thyself from death!" said a Pharisee.
"If thou art the Son of God, prove it by coming down from the cross!"
cried the leader of the Sadducees, Eli.
"Thou who saidst if a man kept thy sayings he should never see
death--let us see if thou canst avoid death thyself!" said Iddo, the
chief of the Essenes.
"He saved others--himself he cannot save!" mocked Ezekias, one of the
chief priests.
Æmilius, finding it impossible to save the Prophet from crucifixion,
had come out to guard him from the usual insults of the rabble, while
he was dying. He had now lost faith in Jesus as a Jewish Prophet,
but he loved him still as a man, and pitied him for his sufferings.
He talked with him, and earnestly prayed him, as he hung, if he were
indeed a god, to show his power! Jesus at first made no reply; but he
shortly said, in a faint voice:
"I thirst."
The generous knight ran and filled a sponge with the preparation of
sour wine and hyssop, usually given to malefactors, after they have
suffered awhile, in order to stupefy them, and render them insensible
to their sufferings. While Æmilius was affixing a sponge, dipped in
this vessel of vinegar, upon a reed, split at the end to hold it
firmly, Ishmerai, the robber, who all the while, as he hung, had
uttered execrations upon his crucifiers, and upon Pilate, called,
howling fiercely, to Jesus:
"If thou be the Son of God, save thyself and us! If thou didst raise a
man once from the dead, thou canst surely keep us from dying! Thou art
a vile wretch if thou hast power as a prophet, and will not use it for
me, when thou seest how heavy I am of body, and how my great weight
tortures me, with infernal racking and rending of every joint."
But Omri, rebuking his fellow, said:
"Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? We
suffer justly for our crimes, and to-day do receive the due reward of
our transgressions; but this young man hath done nothing amiss, save to
preach against the wickedness of the priests, and for being holier than
they. Lord, I believe that thou art the Son of God! None but the Christ
could do the works that thou hast done, or suffer patiently as thou art
doing. Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom."
Jesus turned his bleeding head towards him, and, with a smile of
ineffable glory radiating his pale face, said:
"Verily, I say unto thee, this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise."
Omri, upon this, looked inexpressibly happy, and seemed to rise
superior to his sufferings. The other cursed the Prophet aloud, and
gnashed at him with his teeth, with looks of demoniacal hatred.
At this moment Æmilius came near with his dripping sponge, and
presented the reed upwards to the parched lips of the suffering Jesus.
When he tasted it, he would not drink, for he perceived it was the
opiate which was usually administered in compassion, to shorten the
anguish of the crucified.
The robber, Ishmerai, now eagerly cried for the oblivious sponge, and
the Prefect giving the reed to a soldier, the latter placed it to the
mouth of the robber, whose swollen tongue protruded! He drank of it
with a sort of mad thirst. The other man, also, gladly assuaged his
burning fever with it, and soon afterwards both of them sunk into
insensibility.
All at once, just as the sixth hour was sounded from the Temple, by
the trumpets of the Levites, the cloud which, formed by the smoke of
the numerous sacrifices, had hung all day above the Temple, was seen
to become suddenly of inky blackness, and to advance towards Calvary,
spreading and expanding in the most appalling manner, as it approached
us; and in a few minutes, not only all Jerusalem, but Calvary, the
Valley of Kedron, the Mount of Olives, and all the country, were
involved in its fearful darkness. The sun, which had before been
shining with noonday brilliancy, became black as sackcloth of hair,
and a dreadful, unearthly, indescribable night overshadowed the world!
Out of the center of the cloud, above the crosses, shot forth angry
lightnings in every direction. But there was no thunder attending
it--only a dead, sepulchral, suffocating silence!
Of the thousands who had been gazing upon the crucifixion, every one
was now fallen prostrate upon the earth in terror! Jerusalem was
blotted out from our view; only an angry spot of fire-red light, as it
were the terrible eye of God itself, was visible above the Temple, over
the place of the Holy of Holies. The crosses were no longer visible,
save by the fearful shine of the lightnings, flashing fiercely from the
dread and silent cloud. The form of Jesus, amid the universal gloom,
shone as if divinely transfigured, and a soft halo of celestial light
encircled his brow like a crown of glory; while the dark bodies of the
two robbers could scarcely be discerned, save by the faint radiance
emanating from his own.
Men talked to each other in whispers. An indefinable dread was upon
each mind; for the sudden overspreading of the darkness was as
unaccountable as it was frightful. Mary, his mother, and Lazarus,
exclaimed with awe, both speaking together:
"This is his power. He has produced this miracle!"
"And we shall behold him next descend from the cross," cried Rabbi
Amos. "Let us take courage!"
Three hours--three long and awful hours, this supernatural light
continued--and all that while the vast multitude remained fixed, and
moaning, waiting they knew not what! At length the cloud parted above
the cross, with a loud peal of thunder, while a shower of terrible
lightning fell, like lances of fire, all around the form of Jesus,
which immediately lost its halo and its translucent radiance, His face,
at the same time, became expressive of the most intense sorrow of soul.
A hundred voices exclaimed, with horror:
"See! he is deserted, and punished by the Almighty!"
We ourselves were amazed and appalled. Our rising hopes were blasted
by the livid lightnings, which seemed to blast him! Heaven, as well as
man, seemed to war against him! His mother gave utterance to a groan
of agony, and sank upon the ground, satisfied that her son was truly
accursed of God. At this moment, as if to confirm all our fears, he
cried, in the Hebrew tongue:
"Eloi! Eloi! My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Upon this, some, pitying his sufferings, ran to give him wine and
hyssop, to deaden them.
"Nay, let him live--let us see if Elias will save him!" answered Abner.
"He calleth for Elisha the prophet!"
Suddenly the darkness, which had filled all the air, seemed now to
concentrate and gather about the cross, so that he who hanged thereon,
became invisible. From the midst of it his thrilling voice was once
more heard, as clear and strong as it rang over the waters of Galilee
when he preached from a boat to the thousands thronging the shore:
"It is finished! Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!"
As he uttered these words, a supernatural glory shone around him, and,
with a deep sigh, he bowed his head upon his breast and gave up the
ghost!
The general exclamation of surprise that followed these clear
trumpet-tones, was suddenly checked by a terrible trembling of the
earth beneath our feet, so that vast numbers of people were cast down;
the rocks of Calvary were rent, and thrown upwards, while the whole
city shook with the convulsive throes of an earthquake. The Temple
seemed on fire, and above its pinnacle appeared a flaming sword, which
seemed to us to cleave the walls to their foundations; and while we
looked, the sword changed into the shape of a cross of dazzling light,
standing high in the air, over the altar; and from its golden beams
poured rays so bright, that all Jerusalem, and the hill country for a
wide extent, became as light as noon-day. The ground still continued
to rock, and the sepulchres of the kings, with the tombs of ancient
prophets, were riven by vast chasms, and the green earth was strewn
with the bones and bodies of the dead. The dark cloud, which had begun
to form first with the smoke of the sacrifices of the Temple, was now
dissipated by the light of the fiery cross, and the sun reappeared.
Before it the glorious vision over the Temple gradually faded out and
disappeared. The natural order of things gradually returned; and men,
smiting their breasts, began to move towards the city, filled with awe
and dread at what they had witnessed. The centurion, who stood watching
these fearful things, said, aloud, to Æmilius:
"This man spake the truth. He was a god!"
"Truly," responded Æmilius, "this was none other than the Son of
God--the very Christ of the Jewish Prophets. All things in the air and
on the earth sympathize with his death, as if the God of nature had
expired."
Sad and weeping, we left the dismal scene, hanging our heads in
despondency; having, even while wondering at these mighty events
connected with his crucifixion, abandoned, forever, all hope that this
was he who should have redeemed our nation and restored the royal
splendor of Judah and the throne of the house of David.
I am, my dear father, your loving daughter,
Adina.