3 26 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP, 



witness only gazed with loving and pitying eyes upon 

 the mournful spectacle ; and how deep and lasting was 

 the impression produced upon him we learn from the 

 touching words which he wrote long years afterwards 

 in his exile : " I John, who also am your brother and 

 companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and 

 patience of Jesus Christ." 



All the circumstances and incidents connected with 

 the death of our Lord are typical and representative. 

 Sin flowered and fruited on the cross that its true 

 nature might be shown. It culminated in the most 

 deadly crime in the universe. And one of the most 

 significant forms in which it acted itself out was that 

 of mockery. And we cannot help seeing in this mockery 

 something much more evil than the thoughtless iniquity 

 of those who simply acted out their own depraved 

 natural instincts. We feel that it was inspired by a 

 malignant hatred the hatred of a wronged and re- 

 jected benefactor. We recognize in the buffet-game, 

 and all the revolting incidents connected with it, the 

 intense dislike of a people who were not without 

 visions and convictions of the truth, and who de- 

 liberately set themselves to despise what they were 

 led by the most sacred obligations to reverence. It 

 was appropriate that they should pervert an innocent 

 game of childhood, associated with life's simplest and 

 brightest hours, in order to enhance the tragic features 

 of the awful drama which they enacted in order to- 

 express by the unhallowed perversion their scornful 

 rejection of the holy child Jesus, who came to reveal 



