l of
Kingship above all royalty of earth had impressed the mind if not the
heart of the pagan governor with a conviction of Christ's unique
superiority and of His inherent right of dominion; but, whatever the
purpose behind the writing, the inscription stands in history as
testimony of a heathen's consideration in contrast with Israel's
ruthless rejection of Israel's King.[1312]

The soldiers whose duty it was to guard the crosses, until loitering
death would relieve the crucified of their increasing anguish, jested
among themselves, and derided the Christ, pledging Him in their cups of
sour wine in tragic mockery. Looking at the title affixed above the
Sufferer's head, they bellowed forth the devil-inspired challenge: "If
thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself." The morbid multitude, and
the passers-by "railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou
that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself,
and come down from the cross." But worst of all, the chief priests and
the scribes, the elders of the people, the unvenerable Sanhedrists,
became ring-leaders of the inhuman mob as they gloatingly exulted and
cried aloud: "He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King
of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe
him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him:
for he said, I am the Son of God."[1313] Though uttered in ribald
mockery, the declaration of the rulers in Israel stands as an
attestation that Christ had saved others, and as an intended ironical
but a literally true proclamation that He was the King of Israel. The
two malefactors, each hanging from his cross, joined in the general
derision, and "cast the same in his teeth." One of them, in the
desperation incident to approaching death, echoed the taunts of the
priests and people: "If thou be Christ, save thyself and us."

The dominant note in all the railings and revilings, the ribaldry and
mockery, with which the patient and submissive Christ was assailed while
He hung, "lifted up" as He had said He would be,[1314] was that awful
"If" hurled at Him by the devil's emissaries in the time of mortal
agony; as in the season of the temptations immediately after His baptism
it had been most insidiously pressed upon Him by the devil
himself.[1315] That "If" was Satan's last shaft, keenly barbed and
doubly envenomed, and it sped as with the fierce hiss of a viper. Was it
possibl