not an unintentional condemnation of those who had affixed Him
there? It was in the name of religion they had acted and in the name
of God; but which of them was thus impregnated through and through with
religion? which of them could pretend to a communion with God so close
and habitual? Evidently it was because prayer was the natural language
of Jesus that at this moment it leapt to His lips. It is a suspicious
case when in any trial, especially an ecclesiastical one, the condemned
is obviously a better man than the judges.

The word "Father," further, proved that the faith of Jesus was unshaken
by all through which He had passed and by that which He was now
enduring. When righteousness is trampled underfoot and wrong is
triumphant, faith is tempted to ask if there is really a God, loving
and wise, seated on the throne of the universe, or whether, on the
contrary, all is the play of chance. When prosperity is turned
suddenly into adversity and the structure of the plans and hopes of a
life is tumbled in confusion to the ground, even the child of God is
apt to kick against the Divine will. Great saints have been driven, by
the pressure of pain and disappointment, to challenge God's
righteousness in words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. But,
when the fortunes of Jesus were at the blackest, when He was baited by
a raging pack of wolf-like enemies, and when He was sinking into
unplumbed abysses of pain and desertion, He still said "Father."

It was the apotheosis of faith, and to all time it will serve as an
example; because it was gloriously vindicated. If ever the hand of the
Creator seemed to be withdrawn from the rudder of the universe, and the
course of human affairs to be driving down headlong into the gulf of
confusion, it was when He who was the embodiment of moral beauty and
worth had to die a shameful death as a malefactor. Could good by any
possibility rise out of such an abyss of wrong? The salvation of the
world came out of it; all that is noblest in history came out of it.
This is the supreme lesson to God's children never to despair. All may
be dark; everything may seem going to rack and ruin; evil may seem to
be enthroned on the seat of God; yet God liveth; He sits above the
tumult of the present; and He will bring forth the dawn from the womb
of the darkness.

II.

The prayer which followed this invocation was still more remarkable: it
was a prayer for the pardon of His enemies