heart as the direct cause of death. If the
soldier's spear was thrust into the left side of the Lord's body and
actually penetrated the heart, the outrush of "blood and water" observed
by John is further evidence of a cardiac rupture; for it is known that
in the rare instances of death resulting from a breaking of any part of
the wall of the heart, blood accumulates within the pericardium, and
there undergoes a change by which the corpuscles separate as a partially
clotted mass from the almost colorless, watery serum. Similar
accumulations of clotted corpuscles and serum occur within the pleura.
Dr. Abercrombie of Edinburgh, as cited by Deems (_Light of the Nations_,
p. 682), "gives a case of the sudden death of a man aged seventy-seven
years, owing to a rupture of the heart. In his case 'the cavities of the
pleura contained _about three pounds of fluid_, but the lungs were
sound.'" Deems also cites the following instance: "Dr. Elliotson relates
the case of a woman who died suddenly. 'On opening the body the
pericardium was found distended with _clear serum_, and a very large
coagulum of blood, which had escaped through a spontaneous rupture of
the aorta near its origin, without any other morbid appearance.' Many
cases might be cited, but these suffice." For detailed treatment of the
subject the student may be referred to Dr. Wm. Stroud's work _On the
Physical Cause of the Death of Christ_. Great mental stress, poignant
emotion either of grief or joy, and intense spiritual struggle are among
the recognized causes of heart rupture.

The present writer believes that the Lord Jesus died of a broken heart.
The psalmist sang in dolorous measure according to his inspired
prevision of the Lord's passion: "Reproach hath broken my heart; and I
am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was
none; and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me also gall for
my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." (Psalm 69:20,
21; see also 22:14.)

9. The Request that Christ's Tomb be Sealed.--Many critics hold that the
deputation called upon Pilate on Saturday evening, after the Sabbath had
ended. This assumption is made on the ground that to do what these
priestly officials did, in personally supervizing the sealing of the
tomb, would have been to incur defilement, and that they would not have
so done on the Sabbath. Matthew's statement is definite--that the
application was made on "the next day, t