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elders? A. Yes; They said, He saved others, himself he cannot save: If he be the King of Irsael, let him come down from the cross, and we will believe: He trusted in God, let him deliver him now if he will have him, for he said, I am the Son of God.—v. 41.

72. Did the thieves who were crucified with him say any thing? A. Yes; one of them also reviled him, (the other was a penitent', Luke xxiii. 39.) and cast the same in his teeth.-v. 44.

73. Did any thing remarkable happen at this time? A. Yes; from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.—v. 45.

74. What o'clock did the sixth and ninth hours signify according to our measure of time? A. The sixth was

twelve, and the ninth was three o'clock.

75. Did Jesus utter any exclamation while on the cross? A. Yes; about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama Sabachthani ?—v. 46.

76. What is the meaning of this? A. It is by interpretation, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me2?

77. In what part of the Scriptures are these words to be found? A. In the 22d Psalm, ver. 1.

78. What did some of the people suppose our Lord meant when he said this? A. Some said, This man calleth for Elias, or Elijah.

79. What did they do? A. Straightway one of them ran and took a spunge and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. 80. What did the others say?

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-v. 48.

A. They said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.-v. 49.

81. Did Jesus cry out again? A. Yes; and when he had cried again, with a loud voice, he yielded up the ghosts.

-v. 50.

1 It was very common in the Hebrew to use the plural instead of the singular; for various instances of this, see Gen. viii. 4. xix. 29. Judges xii. 7. Matt. xxi. 7. &c.

2 Some translate this, My God, my God, to what a degree hast thou forsaken me! others, My God, my God, among what persons hast thou forsaken me!

3 It is remarkable that in those circumstances of our Lord's life which are apparently most humiliating, there is always something related by the Evangelists connected with his divine character. Thus, though born in a stable, in a manger, we find the wise men coming to worship

82. What is the force of the expression, He yielded up the ghost? A. That he voluntarily gave up his life; that he resigned it willingly; and thus accomplished the great

end for which he came into the world.

83. What happened when our blessed Lord expired? A. Behold the veil of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints, which slept, arose, and came out of the graves after the resurrection, and went into the holy city (Jerusalem), and appeared unto many..-V. 51.

84. What was the veil of the temple? A. The veil or curtain, which separated that part of it called the Holy Place from the Most Holy. Heb. x. 19.

A.

85. What is meant by the bodies of saints arising, and coming out of the graves, and appearing unto many? That the graves of many righteous persons were opened at the time of the earthquake, and that they themselves appeared to many persons in the city of Jerusalem, after our Lord had risen from the dead. 1 Cor. xv. 20.

A.

86. What effect had all these things on the watch? When the centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly. v. 54.

87. What did they say? A. Truly, this was the Son of God!

88. What is a centurion? A. A Roman officer commanding a hundred men.

89. What persons besides the guard are mentioned as

him, and acknowledging him to be the king of the Jews. (Matt. ii. 6. Vide also Luke ii. 12.) Again we find him attended by an angel strengthening him during his agony in the garden. (Luke xxii. 43.) Again, when bound by the officers of the chief priests, we find him exercising his divine power by healing the ear of Malchus, (Luke xxii 51) and striking to the earth by the majesty and dignity of his appearance those who came to apprehend him. (John xiii. 6.) Once more, we find one of the malefactors bearing testimony to our Lord's divine character even whilst he was suffering the ignominious death of the cross; (Luke xxiii. 42.) and the centurion also astounded by the awful scenes he beheld when our Lord yielded up the ghost. (Matt. xxvii. 54.) Many other instances could be given to the same effect. Thus we see all through the Gospels the twofold character of our Lord as God and man clearly set forth.

beholding these things? A. Many women who stood afar off. v. 55.

90. Where had they come from? A. They had followed Jesus from Galilee ministering unto him.

91. What is meant by ministering unto him? A. That is, they had supplied him and his disciples with necessaries as far as in their power.

92. Are the names of any of those women mentioned? A. Yes; Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children.v. 56.

93. Who was the mother of Zebedee's children? A. Salome. John xix. 25.

94. Who buried our blessed Lord? A. A rich man of Arimathea, whose name was Joseph, who also himself was Jesus's disciple.

95. By what means did he obtain the body? A. He went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus: then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.—v. 58.

96. At what time was the body taken down from the cross? A. In the evening.

97. Why was it taken down in the evening? A. Because it was not lawful that the bodies should remain on the cross after sunset. Deut. xxi. 22. John xix. 31.

98. What did Joseph do with the body? A. He wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own tomb, which he had hewn out of a rock.-v. 59.

99. How did he secure the door of the sepulchre? A. He rolled a great stone to the door, and departed.

100. Who were at the sepulchre? A. There were Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre. v. 61.

101. What is meant by, the day which followed the day of the preparation? A. The day before the Sabbath, on which they prepared their victuals and other necessaries, for they would not do so on the Sabbath. Friday was the day on which our Lord was crucified, hence Saturday the Sabbath, was the day which followed the day of the preparation.

102. Why was the Sabbath changed from Saturday to Sunday? A. In memory of our Lord's resurrection, who rose from the dead on that day, being the third day, as he himself had prophesied.

103. What did the chief priests and Pharisees do on that day? A. They came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, after three days I will rise again; command, therefore, that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away, and say unto the people he is risen from the dead, so the last error shall be worse than the first.—v. 62.

104. What is meant by, The last error being worse than the first? A. That if the people thought Jesus was raised from the dead, they would believe in him more than they had done before, and thus, as the chief priests said, fall into a greater error.

105. What did Pilate answer? A. Ye have a watch', go your way; make it as sure as ye can.—v. 65.

106. What did they then do? A. They went and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone and setting a watch.— v. 66.

107. Of what importance to us was their doing so? A. That all mankind might know that he really did rise from the dead, and that so far were the disciples from being concerned in removing the body of our Lord, that they were prevented from going even near the sepulchre, by a guard of Roman soldiers appointed to watch the body; and, in addition to this, the chief priests, by sealing up the stone, and marking it with their own impression, were certain that no person could enter.

108. From the nature of the sepulchre, what may we infer respecting the possibility of there being any hidden door within it, by which the disciples might remove the body? A. It was impossible, as it was hewn out of a solid rock.

GENERAL QUESTIONS.

109. What reason may be assigned for Judas betraying our Lord? A. Some allege it was through covetousness to obtain the thirty pieces of silver; others say it was through covetousness also, but that it was to force our

1 Alluding to the Roman guard stationed near the temple to put down any tumults that might arise amongst the Jews.

Lord to make some exertion to escape the danger, and thus to assume the temporal power of King of the Jews; for Judas himself believed in him, and he hoped, that by our Lord's acting in this manner, that he himself would be exalted to high honours and rewards, as one of his faithful and sincere followers.

110. What fault did Judas commit by hanging himself? A. He despaired of the mercy of God, and thus by his conduct sent his guilty soul into the presence of an offended Judge, without his first endeavouring, by repentance and prayer to claim the benefit of that atoning blood which he had been so instrumental in causing to be shed.

111. Was Pilate guilty of any fault in suffering our Lord to be put to death? A. Yes; by consenting to it, after he had publicly declared that he was innocent, and that he found no fault in him.

112. Do we find in any part of the book of the prophet Jeremiah, the prophecy, describing the use to which the thirty pieces of silver, for which our Lord was betrayed, should be applied? A. No; we do not find it in any part of the book which is called by his name, but we read it in the prophet Zechariah. (xi. 13.) The mention of it as being in Jeremiah may be explained by supposing that it was said by him, but not written in his book; and that as Zechariah was fond of imitating the phrases of Jeremiah, he might have adopted this prophecy through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and inserted it amongst his own writings. Others say, that the Scriptures, which contained the Old Testament, were divided by the Jews into three parts, and that one part, containing the Prophets, began with the book of Jeremiah; thus, all the others taken together may be called by that name. Others again say, that the name of Jeremiah was inserted by mistake 1. In many ancient manuscripts the prophet's name is not mentioned.

113. What did the darkness which overspread the land, from the sixth to the ninth hour, portend? A. That gloomy destruction which was about to overtake the Jewish

1 The initial letters of those two names may be easily mistaken when written in the Greek character, and thus the names might have been confounded,

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