"They pierced my hands and my feet."--_Ps. 22:16._
[Illustration]
WHEN the judgment was over, Pilate gave up our Lord to the four
soldiers who were to crucify Him. His cross, a heavy beam of wood, with
another fastened across it, was laid on His shoulders, that He might
carry it to the place where He was to suffer--a place named Calvary,
outside the walls of Jerusalem.
He was so weak and worn out after the long sad night, the being taken
from one judge to another, and the beating and tormenting, that He
could hardly walk under it; and the soldiers met a man coming out of
the country whom they forced to carry it after Jesus.
When they came to Calvary, the soldiers made the blessed JESUS lie down
on the beam of wood, and they stretched His arms out on the cross-beam,
and drove a large nail through each of the palms of His hands into the
wood, and another nail through His feet; and then they lifted up the
cross, with Him upon it, and planted it in the ground, that He might
hang there till He should die.
And all He said while they were thus nailing Him were the words,
"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do!" That was the
great pain He bore to save us!