all was over, multitudes who had beheld the sight went away
smiting their breasts.[2] We have no reason to doubt, therefore, that
even in this direct sense the prayer received an abundant answer.

But this was a prayer of a kind which may also be answered indirectly.
Besides the effect which prayer has in procuring specific petitions, it
acts reflexly on the spirit of the person who offers it, calming,
sweetening, invigorating. Although some erroneously regard this as the
only real answer that prayer can receive, denying that God can be moved
by our petitions, yet we, who believe that more things are wrought by
prayer, ought not to overlook this. By praying that His enemies might
be forgiven, Jesus was enabled to drive back the spirits of anger and
revenge which tried to force their way into His bosom, and preserved
undisturbed the serenity of His soul. To ask God to forgive them was
the triumphant ending of His own effort to forgive; and it is
impossible to forgive without a delicious sense of deliverance and
peace being shed abroad in the forgiving heart.

May we not add that part of the answer to this prayer has been its
repetition age after age by the persecuted and wronged? St. Stephen
led the way, in the article of death praying meekly after the fashion
of his Master, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." Hundreds have
followed. And day by day this prayer is diminishing the sum of
bitterness and increasing the amount of love in the world.

[1] "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

[2] Luke xxiii. 48.

CHAPTER XV.

THE SECOND WORD FROM THE CROSS[1]

I.

It is not said by whose arrangement it was that Jesus was hung between
the two thieves. It may have been done by order of Pilate, who wished
in this way to add point to the witticism which he had put into the
inscription above the cross; or the arrangement may have been due to
the Jewish officials, who followed their Victim to Golgotha and may
have persuaded the soldiers to give Him this place, as an additional
insult; or the soldiers may have done it of their own accord, simply
because He was obviously the most notable of their prisoners.

The likelihood is that there was malice in it. Yet there was a divine
purpose behind the wrath of man. Again and again one has to remark
how, in these last scenes, every shred of action and every random word
aimed at Jesus for the purpose of injuring and dishonouring Him so