What does he say ? O listen to the words !
" Father forgive them, for they know not

WHAT they do."

The awful pains had risen to a paroxysm, and as
a cry relieves the tension of pain, Jesus opens His-
mouth and utters His voice.
We know, from ancient writers, that the horrible
torture of crucifixion generally drove those who died



€it tthtn HKit Wiovrsi.
under it to despair, and that they perished blas-
pheming and cursing. Seneca, who Hved about
this time, says that they cursed heaven and earth,
all mankind, the hour of their birth, their judges
and executioners, and spat in fury at those who
looked on. * Sometimes they took the opportunity
to pour out all the malignant slanders and denuncia-
tions of crimes they could imagine or recollect,
against their associates and friends.
"Do you not know,*' asked the orator, Cicero,
that Strato's tongue was cut out before he was cru-
cified, because the wicked Sapia, >vho had murdered
her husband, was afraid lest he should accuse her
m his dying words ? " t The Carthaginian general,
Bomilcar, was crucified in the market-place of
Carthage by his own people, because he had been
defeated in battle ; and from his cross, till he died,
he poured forth a torrent of accusations against the
Carthaginians, and against some of their great men,
his own uncle included.
* Seneca, De vit4 beatd, 19.
t Cicero, pro Cluent, c. 66.
Ci)e ifixit SSSarlr.
