fy him! Hang him up on a cross till he is dead!"

Everyone seemed to be against Jesus now. However, Pilate tried once
more.

"But," he protested, "I can't find that he has been guilty of any
crime!"

The Jewish rulers replied, "We have a law which says he ought to die
because he pretends to be the Son of God."

Pilate was worried now. He spoke to Jesus again, and again Jesus did
not answer.

"Aren't you going to speak to me?" Pilate asked. "Don't you know that
I can crucify you or let you go?"

Jesus answered, "You wouldn't have any power over me unless God had
given it to you."

Pilate, when he heard this, tried once more to save Jesus. But the
crowd was bigger, and louder, and more bloodthirsty than ever.
Everyone was shouting:

"Crucify! Crucify!"

"Shall I crucify your king?" asked Pilate.

The chief priests of the Jews, who hated Caesar, answered,

"We have no king except Caesar!"

Pilate was too weak to hold out any longer. He was beginning to wonder
what Caesar would say if he heard that Pilate refused to crucify a man
who claimed to be king of the Jews.

"Take him," Pilate said. "Take him, and crucify him."

But before the crucifixion came the scourging. Jesus was bound and
beaten with long leather thongs which had cruel pieces of glass and
lead fastened to them so that they would hurt all the more. When that
was over, and his back was covered with cuts and bruises, the Roman
soldiers who had scourged him wanted some more sport. They dressed
Jesus in a purple robe. They made a wreath, like the one that the
Roman emperor wore--only this one was made of thorns, which stuck into
Jesus' head so that the blood ran down his face. Some of the soldiers
spat on him; others made fun of him, bowing down and saying,

"Hail, king of the Jews!"

Then the soldiers stripped the purple clothes off Jesus, and put his
own clothes back on him, and led him outside the city to be crucified.
He was too worn out to carry his own cross, as those who were to be
crucified usually did, so the soldiers forced a man of Cyrene named
Simon to carry it for him.

[Illustration]

When they reached a hill called Calvary, they laid the cross down on
the ground, and stripped Jesus of his clothes. They put Jesus on the
cross, and stretched out his arms. They drove a nail through each
hand, and one through his feet, fastening him to the cross. Then they
stood the cross upright, and let Jesus hang there. On the top of it
was w