The Mena weekly star., 1911-04-20

lv read religious works is that of Ernest
 Renan on the life of Jesus. In the Dook
 is particularly vivid description or tne
 crucih xion. very appropriate reading ae
 this Easter season, and It is given here'
 At last the place of execution was reached. According to Jewish GUS tom, the sufferers were offered a strong aromatic wine, an intoxicat- ing beverage which, by feeling of pity, was given to the condemned to stupefy them. It appears that the women of Jerusalem frequently brought this death wine to the un- fortunates who were led to execu- tion: and when none of them at tended, it was purchased by the public treasury. Jesus, after hav- ing touched the edge of the cup to his lips, refused to drink. This sad consolation of ordinary sufferers did not accord with his exalted na- ture. He preferred to go from life with perfect clarity of mind, and Tn full consciousness to await the death he had willed and called down upon himself. He was then stripped of his garments and fastened to the cross. The cross was composed of two beams, tied in the form of the letter T. It was not very high, for the feet of the sufferer almost touched the earth. They commenced by fixing it, then they fastened the victim to it by driving nails into his hands; the feet were often nailed, though sometimes only bound with cords. A piece of wood like a ships yard was fastened to the upright portion of the cross, towards the middle, and passed be- tween the legs of the condemned, who rested upon it. Without this, the hands would have been torn and the body have sunk down. At other times small horizontal rest was fixed beneath the feet, and held them up.
 Jesus tasted these horrors in all their atrocity. The two robbers were crucified on either side of him. The executioners, to whom were usually left the small effects on ex- ecuted felons, drew lots for his garments, and sitting at the foot of the cross and kept watch over him. According to one tradition, Jesus uttered this saying, which was in his heart, if not upon his lips: Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do"
 According to Roman custom, an inscription was attached to the top of the cross, bearing, in three lan- guages, Hebrew, Greek and Latin, the words: The King of Jews" There was something painful in this inscription. The numerous passers- by who read it were offended. The priests complained to Pilate that an inscription which would have sim ply implied that Jesus had called himself king of the Jews should have been used. But pilate, already tired of the whole affair, declined to make any change in what had been written.
 The disciples had fled. Neverthe- less, a tradition relates that John remained standing at the foot of the cross the whole time. It may be affirmed, with more certainty, that the faithful women friends of Gal flee, who had followed Jesus to Je- rusalem and continued to tend him. did not abandon him. Mary Cleo phas. Mary Magdalen, Joanna, wife of Khouza; Salome and others stayed at a certain distance and did not take their eyes from him. If the fourth Gospel is to be believed
 Mary, the mother of Jesus, was also at the foot of the cross, and Jesus, seeing his mother and his beloved disciple together, said to the one, Behold thy motherl" and to the other, Behold thy sonl" But we do not understand how the synopic evagelists, who name the other women, should have omitted her, whose presence was so striking a feature. Perhaps, indeed, the ex- treme loftiness of the character of Jesus does not make such personal emotion probable at the moment when, solely possessed with thoughts of his work, he no longer