s in Westcott's
_Gospel of St. John_, pp. 284-86.

[6] _E.g._, Lange, characteristically.

[7] Stroud in his treatise _On the Physical Cause of the Death of
Christ_.

[8] Given in Hanna's _The Last Day of our Lord's Passion_.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE BURIAL

There is a hard and shallow philosophy which regards it as a matter of
complete indifference what becomes of the body after the soul has left
it and affects contempt of all funeral ceremonies. But the instincts
of mankind are wiser. In ancient times it was considered one of the
worst of misfortunes to miss decent burial; and, although this
sentiment was mixed with superstition, there was beneath it a healthy
instinct. There is a dignity of the body as well as of the soul,
especially when it is a temple of the Holy Ghost; and there is a
majesty about death which cannot be ignored without loss to the
living.[1] It is with a sense of pain and humiliation, as if a
dishonour were being done to human nature, that we see a funeral at
which everything betokens hurry, shabbiness and slovenliness. On the
contrary, the satisfaction is not morbid with which we see a funeral
conducted with solemnity and chaste pomp. And, when someone falls
whose career has been one of extraordinary achievement and beneficence,
and who has become

On fortune's crowning slope
The pillar of a nation's hope,
The centre of a world's desire,

then, as the remains are borne amidst an empire's lamentation to rest
"under the cross of gold that shines over river and city," and the
tolling bells and echoing cannon sound over hushed London, and the
silent masses line the streets, and the learned and the noble stand
uncovered around the open grave, it would be a diseased and churlish
mind which did not feel the spell of the pageant.

Thus ought the great, the wise and the good to be buried. How then was
He buried whom all now agree to call the Greatest, the Wisest and the
Best?

I.

The three corpses were taken down towards evening, before the Jewish
Sabbath set in, which commenced at sunset. Probably the two robbers
were buried on the spot, crosses and all, or they were hurriedly
carried off to some obscure and accursed ditch, where the remains of
criminals were wont to be unceremoniously thrust underground.

This would have been the fate of Jesus too, had not an unexpected hand
interposed. It was the humane custom of the Romans to give the corpses
of criminals to their