LECTURE VI.

THE WARNING OF PILATE.

MARK XV. 15.

"And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified."

THE image of Good Friday is impressed upon the whole of Passion week. There is no need to recapitulate the events that happened upon it. Day by day they have been read in our Church Service, and they are, or ought to be, familiar to us all. Even if it were otherwise, they are of too awful a character to be dwelt upon in a few words; and the train of thought

connected with them is deeper, and more full of mystery than that which we have hitherto been following. For the subject of the present Lectures has been, not the cross of Christ itself, but the group by whose hands it was raised; not the one unchanging source of comfort which this week opens to the penitent, but the daily warning which it affords to the sinner.

For this reason I shall not now dwell on the narrative of the Crucifixion, but confine myself to the circumstance that, on the external view which I have been taking, gives a peculiar feature to the events of the Friday. Hitherto the contest between good and evil, whether secret or open, had been going on within the borders of the Jewish Church; but on the morning of this day it broke forth and was brought into contact with the world. As yet we have spoken of Jews alone, whether in the wavering multitude, the traffickers in the temple, the emblem of the fig tree, or the false

Apostle; but this morning the scene was suddenly changed. A heathen ruler found himself obliged to take part in it, and a part of so fearful a prominence that his name became, from that hour, inseparably connected with the sufferings of our Lord. While Judas Iscariot, and Annas, and Caiaphas have been passed over in silence; one who was an alien from the house of Israel, and a stranger from the covenants of promise, has been selected from among all those who this day "took counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed 1" to be handed down to a lasting infamy in the Creed of the Christian. It is to his trials and struggles, affording in many respects a marked contrast to those of Judas, and to the warnings to be gathered from them, that I now propose, by God's grace, to direct your attention.

Pontius Pilate then was the Roman governor of Judæa, during the period of our Lord's ministry. We cannot doubt

are its lasting record. Yet few, perhaps, have considered the long and painful struggle which preceded it: for, though measured by a few hours in point of time, his was, in truth, no sudden decision. And this is one part of the contrast between the external aspect of his sin, and that of Judas; the latter went on in comparative obscurity to the end of his course, but we are able to trace each succeeding step of the gradual progress of the Roman governor; and it is the clearness and distinctness of the marks which they have left, that render his history in the inspired volume so full of practical lessons to ourselves.

In the first place, we read in St. John's Gospel, that after an ineffectual attempt to persuade the chief priests to take the responsibility on themselves, Pilate went into the judgment-hall, to question privately our blessed Lord, as he was thus compelled to examine Him. He there asked Him "whether He were the King

of the Jews"," "Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of Me?" Now it is remarkable that the question would really seem to have been his own; for the chief priests had as yet brought forward no specific charge. But as though the words had struck some hidden chord in the heart of Pilate, he is led by them at once to disclaim all personal interest in the trial. "Am I a Jew?" he exclaimed; "Thine own nation, and the chief priests, have delivered Thee to me; what hast Thou done?" "Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world;" and presently once more addressing Himself to the secret thoughts of Pilate, He added, “I came into the world to bear witness to the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice." Doubtless this warning also found an echo in the breast of Pilate. His own heart told him that it was not his Gentile origin, but his dread of truth which made him shrink