the cross of her Son; she had probably followed Him through all His last trials, though she is not mentioned. She did not interfere, for she knew He was about His Father's business; but still she might watch Him, she might love Him, she might see Him die, she might stand and watch at His sad cross; she was His mother, and He was still her Son, and in His last agony He did not forget her; He watched her still.

From this we learn the high and sacred duty of obedience and love to our parents to our latest day, to their last hour. It was His last thought whose day of sorrows we speak of now.

And now here ends the second period. Such are the groups,-the soldiers, the priests, the people, the band of women watching silently, the cross, the thieves, and Jesus dying,-now hung three hours on the cross. It was twelve o'clock, noon.

3. And behold it became dark as night, and there was a silence for three hours. A long silence! all seemed terrified. But they were all there, the people, the soldiers, all, for we hear of them afterwards; the crosses were there, and Jesus hung there. But He spoke not; what He did in those dark three hours we do not know: perhaps He prayed; or perhaps He

thought of those for whom He died, and prayed for them. It must be a solemn moment,-the groups as they were on Calvary on a sudden surrounded by darkness, wondering if He still lived or were dead. But so it was. And now why did this darkness come? Our Lord's cross was turned with its back towards Jerusalem, and His Face turned to the west; at twelve o'clock, then, the sun would come full in the face of its Maker, and in shame it hid it, and the darkness came. And so the prophet announced: In that day, saith the Lord God, I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day." This was one of the first tokens, outwardly, of God's displeasure at what was doing to His Son; and the number three hours was like the three days He remained in the earth. And other prophecies were fulfilled too; such as: "It shall be one day which shall be known unto the Lord, not day, nor night but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem." Again: "I will cover the sun with a cloud; all the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over them"."

So matters were when the three hours had passed away. It was three o'clock in the afternoon, and in the darkness a Voice came from the cross; He cried to His Father. He had passed the three hours of Agony; it was now past; the last bitter drop of the cup was drunk, and He cried, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"

We know not, we cannot know, the agony of the three dark hours; they were hid from view then and knowledge now. We dare not remove the veil which God has thought fit to draw over His feelings and thoughts in those hours, or give the reason for this exclamation.

The soldiers thought He called for Elias,probably the Greek soldiers, for the Hebrews would have known that the word Eloi meant God, and would not have mistaken it for Elias. Their remark was, "Let us see if Elias will come." This is the last remark of His enemies, which we have mentioned, which they said, and it is remarkable that it is the same question they had so often asked through His life, "Will Elias come ?"

Now once more they offered the vinegar, the third time. You will mark, the sponge was put upon hyssop. Here was a meaning; though the

soldiers meant nothing by it, God did. The hyssop was a reed, on which the sponge was put, and the hyssop was always used at the Passover, a bunch of it being dipped in the blood of the lamb; and it was with the hyssop that the doorposts of Israel in Egypt were marked with blood; it was hyssop which was dipped in bird's blood to cleanse the leper; and David says, "Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean." It had, then, to do with cleansing, and so was full of meaning in being put to catch the drops that rolled from Him,—drops of atoning blood caught by the hyssop. Jesus

said, "I thirst!" The thirst of the crucified was always a chief part of their torment.

And now we come to the end, the last scene of the day of sorrows, the last sorrow of Him who was indeed "the Man of sorrows," the last grief with which He was acquainted. Nature now failed; He cried with a loud voice, “Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit." God was His Father and our Father, His God and our God. It was His last cry, and then He "bowed His head," as if to rest upon His Father's bosom. Beautiful expression !—commended to His Father! His happiness was to be with

• Exod. xii. 22.

a Lev. xiv. 4.

e Ps. li. 7.

His Father, to do His Father's will, to rest on Him, to take all His comfort there; on Him His thoughts had rested through six long hours of agony; three times He had spoken to Him, once He had spoken to His earthly parent; to the last His soul was full of filial love. But we must not, dare not, look further; we know no more; He gave His own Spirit up to the Father, a willing action. No man took His life from Him, He laid it down of Himself; and, with His back toward the holy city, the figures still gazing on Him, His face toward the sun, which now again broke out, He hung, the Lamb of God, which had taken away the sins of the world. It was the hour of the evening sacrifice, and as He died the Paschal lamb was bleeding in the Temple, and the millions gathered for the Passover were assembled there, little knowing that only those who had followed the despised band for the execution were beholding the true Lamb of that year's Passover; little knowing that on yonder hill of Calvary, He on whom, dead and quiet now, the evening sun was shining, was the only Being who could take away their sins; little knowing that that deserted cross, standing solitary and unattended on the silent Calvary, held all the sinner's hopes; little thinking that that