when he submitted to death (Phil. ii. 8). It is on the shame of
the cross, and on the sacrifice of himself for the life of the world when
in obedience to his Father's will he "despised the shame," that the
thought of the apostolic day laid emphasis. In this experience Jesus found
himself in truth numbered with the transgressors; he was the object of
scorn for all them that passed by, they mocked at him, at his works, and
at his confident trust in God. In this last extremity the darkness of
Gethsemane again swept over Jesus' soul, when he cried out "My God, my
God," recalling the words of one of the saints of old in his hour of
distress (Ps. xxii.). Yet, like him, Jesus kept hold on the certainty of
deliverance; the darkness passed at length.

205. The evangelists preserve several sayings of Jesus from the cross, the
records of the different gospels being remarkably diverse. Mark and
Matthew record the exclamation, "My God, my God _(Eloi, Eloi_), why hast
thou forsaken me," which the bystander misconstrued as a call for Elijah,
thinking this pseudo-Messiah was reproaching Elijah for failing to come to
his help. The same gospels tell of the loud cry with which Jesus died.
Luke omits the call _Eloi_, and gives in place of the last expiring cry
the prayer of trust, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (xxiii.
46). Earlier, however, this gospel tells of Jesus' word to the penitent
robber, "To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise" (xxiii. 43), and of the
prayer for his foes, that is, for the Jewish people who blindly condemned
him (xxiii. 34). The oldest manuscripts cause some doubt whether this last
saying was originally a part of the Gospel of Luke. If it was not it would
belong in the same class with the story of the sinful woman which we now
find in John, both being authentic records of the life of Jesus, though
from some other source than that in which we now find them. The fourth
gospel gives quite an independent group of sayings. It interprets the
dying cry as, "It is finished" (xix. 30), and preceding this it gives the
cry, "I thirst" (xix. 28), which led to the offering of the vinegar of
which the first two gospels speak. Earlier it tells of the committal of
Mary to the care of the beloved disciple (xix. 26, 27). Of these seven
sayings, "Eloi," "I thirst," "Father, into thy hand I commend my spirit,"
and "It is finished" belong to the last hours of the life of the crucified
one, after the darkness of which the