The The execution took place at once, scarcely later than the middle of the forenoon. Although so far weakened by the sufferings of the night and morning that the sufferer fainted under the cross which, as was customary, was laid on him to bear to the place of execution, he bore himself throughout with majestic patience and dignity. Under the jeers of his triumphant enemies, in sight of his mother and friends, in the unexplained and portentious darkness which beginning at noon lasted for hours, amid the indescribable physical tortures of the cross, he spoke but to pray forgivingly for those who were the agents of his suffering, and to commend his mother to John, her nephew and his most intimate and beloved disciple. At mid-afternoon he uttered a cry to God, "Why past thou forsaken me" which can be under stood only as expressive of intensest soul agony. As if this agony culminated and ended with the cry, he then spoke calmly of his thirst and took the drink which a sympathetic bystander pressed to his lips, then commended his spirit to God, and with a loud shout expired, it would seem with a literally broken or ruptured heart. Al though death seldom came so soon to the cruci fied, yet the fact is undeniable in the case of Jesus, for when somewhat later the criminals, who had been crucified with him received a blow intended to hasten their death, the soldiers rec ognized that he was already dead, and yet one of them thrust a spear deep into his side, appar ently touching the heart, and on Pilate's inquiry the officer in charge certified to his death. By leave of the governor two members of the San hedrin, who were secretly disciples, took down the body and hurriedly but reverently buried it at the close of day not far from Calvary, where he had been crucified, in a rockhewn tomb, which later was officially sealed.
Of the facts relating to Jesus during the next few weeks, no less than five (if the last verses of Mark are by another hand, then six) separate accounts are preserved, no two pre cisely agreeing, but, on the other hand no two being mutually contradictory, and one of these accounts, that of Paul, was written within 25 years of the events narrated. It is told that
first women going at the dawn of Sunday en tered the open tomb but found not the body of Jesus; that later Peter and John also found it empty; that Peter, then 10 of the apostles to gether, and also two other men miles from Jerusalem, as well as Mary Magdalene, saw Jesus that same day in recognizable human form and talked with him; that these appearances and conversations were repeated at different places and in varying circumstances for about six weeks; that on one occasion he was seen by as many as 500 at the same time, some of whom were at first doubtful as to the facts; and that then these manifestations entirely ceased, except for the experience of Paul. It is certain that the disciples in these few weeks had come to be convinced that Jesus had actually been with them and that consequently they passed out of a state of gloom and despair into joyous and unflinching boldness; that the belief in the physical resurrection of Jesus was an essential part of the creed and preaching of the primitive Church; and that the first day of the week be came the Christian day of worship. No plausi ble explanation of these facts, of the empty tomb; of the reports and convictions of the disciples ; who claimed to have seen and talked with Jesus in human form, especially of the case of Paul; of the revulsion of feeling on their part ; of the consequent foundation of the Christian Church and of the consecration of the first day of the week, has ever been given ex cept that after his death Jesus, in this as in so much else unlike all other men, entered by res urrection and later ascension upon a new course of life and a new course of activity. Without the resurrection as well as the life and death of Jesus historical Christianity could never have come into existence; by it he became the founder of the Church and the dominating per sonality of the ages.