Pilate delivered our Lord to the soldiers to be scourged. The Roman scourge was a most dreadful instrument of torture. It was made from ox sinews, with sharp bones twisted throughout the cords. Every time the lash came down, these pieces of bone inflicted fearful wounds, tearing flesh from bone.

The Savior was bound to the column and beaten. He had been beaten before, but this Roman scourging was probably the most severe of all his sufferings.

My soul, stand here and weep over his stricken body!

Believer in Jesus, can you gaze upon him without tears? He stands before you as the mirror of agonizing love. He is at once fair as the lily for innocence, and red as the rose with the crimson of his own blood.

As we feel the sure and blessed healing which his stripes have wrought in us, does not our heart melt at once with love and grief? If ever we have loved our Lord Jesus, surely we must feel that affection glowing now within our bosoms!

"See how the patient Jesus stands, Insulted in his lowest case! Sinners have bound the Almighty's hands, And spit in their Creator's face. With thorns his temples gored and gashed Send streams of blood from every part; His back's with knotted scourges lashed— But sharper scourges tear his heart."

We would gladly go to our chambers and weep, but since our business calls us away, we will first pray our Beloved to print the image of his bleeding self upon the tablets of our hearts all the day. And at nightfall we will return to commune with him, and sorrow that our sin should have cost him so dear.