come at last to share the glory of Heaven. Whilst He prayed, one of His
disciples, who knew where He was, wickedly betrayed Him to the Chief
Priests, and guided a band of soldiers to the garden, who bound Him and
led Him to the High Priest Caiaphas, who in turn sent Him to be judged
by Pontius Pilate the Governor.

[Illustration: The Ascension.]

Pilate, when he had heard of what the people accused Jesus, knew that
it was for envy they were excited against Him, and washed his hands
before the multitude, saying he found no fault in Him, and he would have
nothing to do with shedding the blood of an innocent man. "His blood be
on us and our children" cried the people and they roughly dragged Him
away, and beat Him, and made Him carry a heavy cross of wood up Mount
Calvary where they crucified Him, by nailing Him to the cross. Now Mary
the Mother of Jesus, and another woman, also named Mary, and many of the
disciples had followed in the crowd; they could not save our Lord from
His cruel death, but when He was dead, they, together with a good man
called Joseph, were allowed to take His body down from the cross, and
lay it in a tomb belonging to Joseph, hewn out of a rock in a garden,
and they set a great stone upon it. It had been foretold that Jesus
should rise again on the third day, so, fearing that His disciples
should steal away the body, and pretend that He had risen, the Chief
Priests set keepers to guard the tomb.

[Illustration]

Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and the other Mary, went to visit the tomb
early in the morning of the third day, and there was a great earthquake
and the Angel of God descended and rolled back the stone and sat upon