Chapter 24—Death of Christ
In yielding up His precious life, Christ was not upheld by tri-
umphant joy. His heart was rent with anguish and oppressed with
gloom. But it was not the fear or the pain of death that caused His
suffering. It was the crushing weight of the sin of the world, a sense of
separation from His Father’s love. This was what broke the Saviour’s
heart, and brought His death so soon.
Christ felt the woe that sinners will feel when they awake to realize
the burden of their guilt, to know that they have forever separated
themselves from the joy and peace of Heaven.
Angels beheld with amazement the agony of despair borne by the
Son of God. His anguish of mind was so intense that the pain of the
cross was hardly felt.
Nature itself was in sympathy with the scene. The sun shone
clearly until midday, when suddenly it seemed to be blotted out. All
about the cross was darkness as deep as the blackest midnight. This
supernatural darkness lasted fully three hours.
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A nameless terror took possession of the multitude. The cursing
and reviling ceased. Men, women, and children fell upon the earth in
abject terror.
Lightnings occasionally flashed forth from the cloud, and revealed
the cross and the crucified Redeemer. All thought that their time of
retribution had come.
At the ninth hour the darkness lifted from the people, but still
wrapped the Saviour as with a mantle. The lightnings seemed to be
hurled at Him as He hung upon the cross. It was then that He sent up
the despairing cry:
“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
In the meantime the darkness had settled over Jerusalem and the
plains of Judea. As all eyes were turned in the direction of the fated
city, they saw the fierce lightnings of God’s wrath directed toward it.
Suddenly the gloom was lifted from the cross, and in clear, trum-
petlike tones, that seemed to resound throughout creation, Jesus cried:
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