r" is the prayer substituted for the
"Schmone-Esre" in the congregations of the Gentiles, is a question which
can hardly be answered.

In a subsequent passage of Dr. Wace's article (p. 356) he adds to the
list of the verities which he imagines to be unassailable, "The Story of
the Passion." I am not quite sure what he means by this. I am not aware
that any one (with the exception of certain ancient heretics) has
propounded doubts as to the reality of the crucifixion; and certainly I
have no inclination to argue about the precise accuracy of every detail
of that pathetic story of suffering and wrong. But, if Dr. Wace means,
as I suppose he does, that that which, according to the orthodox view,
happened after the crucifixion, and which is, in a dogmatic sense, the
most important part of the story, is founded on solid historical proofs,
I must beg leave to express a diametrically opposite conviction.

What do we find when the accounts of the events in question, contained
in the three Synoptic gospels, are compared together? In the oldest,
there is a simple, straightforward statement which, for anything that I
have to urge to the contrary, may be exactly true. In the other two,
there is, round this possible and probable nucleus, a mass of accretions
of the most questionable character.

The cruelty of death by crucifixion depended very much upon its
lingering character. If there were a support for the weight of the body,
as not unfrequently was the practice, the pain during the first hours of
the infliction was not, necessarily, extreme; nor need any serious
physical symptoms, at once, arise from the wounds made by the nails in
the hands and feet, supposing they were nailed, which was not invariably
the case. When exhaustion set in, and hunger, thirst, and nervous
irritation had done their work, the agony of the sufferer must have been
terrible; and the more terrible that, in the absence of any effectual
disturbance of the machinery of physical life, it might be prolonged for
many hours, or even days. Temperate, strong men, such as were the
ordinary Galilean peasants, might live for several days on the cross. It
is necessary to bear these facts in mind when we read the account
contained in the fifteenth chapter of the second gospel.

Jesus was crucified at the third hour (xv. 25), and the narrative seems
to imply that he died immediately after the ninth hour (_v._ 34). In
this case, he would have been crucified only six h