Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/241

dead to life, was rejected for a murderer! Then came the scourging, a punishment considered by all so shameful that Rome guarded by law her humblest or wickedest citizen from such indignity. In Christ's case, then, the tender body of the noblest of noblemen was subjected to chastisement usually administered only to rustics and to slaves. That His scourging was excessive, too, is evident, for to such pitiable state was He reduced that Pilate was led to hope the sight would move the people to repent and let Him go. But his expectation was not realized, for the multitude loudly demanded that the prisoner be further punished with crown and cross. The crown of thorns was a species of torture altogether new, unheard of before or since, the devil's masterpiece. The cross, too, was to the ancients what the gallows is to-day — an object of shame and horror. Modern justice is merciful enough to draw the black cap over the criminal's head and face to hide from his eyes the scaffold, but Christ was made to look upon His cross, to embrace it and to carry it. He, so dignified, so gentle, so modest, made to run half-naked through the streets, to be exposed presently quite naked on the cross! And through it all He never uttered a complaint. Animals that cry out in pain do not excite such pity as the horses and sheep that suffer dumbly, and loud-mouthed human sorrow meets with scanty sympathy. This is the secret of the Passion's pathos, that Christ opened not His mouth, or if He spake at all it was but to pray for His tormentors, to sympathize with Mary and John, or to beg for a little