all the soldiers fell down before Jesus, and said, 'Hail, King of the
Jews.' And then they spit at Jesus, and slapped Him; and they snatched
the reed out of His hands and struck Him on the head, so as to drive in
the thorns.

Outside the city gate, on the north side of Jerusalem, there is a round
hill, called the Place of Stoning. On one side of that hill there is a
straight yellow cliff, and prisoners used sometimes to be thrown down
from that cliff, and then stoned. And sometimes they were taken to the
top of that round hill and crucified. It is very likely that this is
where the soldiers took Jesus. That hill is often called Calvary.

The soldiers made Jesus lie down on the cross, and they nailed Him to
it--putting nails through His hands and His feet. Then they lifted up
the cross with Jesus on it, and fixed it in a hole in the ground. And
Jesus said,

'FATHER, FORGIVE THEM; FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO.'

Then the soldiers crucified two thieves, and put them near Jesus, one
on each side; and they nailed up some white boards at the top of the
crosses with black letters on them, to say what the prisoners had done.
They put over Jesus Christ's head the words--

'THIS IS JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.'

Three hours of fearful pain passed away. It was twelve o'clock. And
now it became quite dark and it was dark till three o'clock in the
afternoon. That was a dreadful three hours more for Jesus. It was a
time of agony of mind, like the time He spent in the Garden of