"He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Jesus Himself said: "I lay down My life for the sheep . . . No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This Commandment have I received of My Father." Isaiah tells us "He was despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." And when the council of the Jews had judged Him, and condemned Him to be worthy of death, they handed Him over to Pilate, the Roman governor, to execute the cruel death which they could not carry out themselves. And so the soldiers mocked Him and platted that crown of thorns, and Pilate brought Him out wearing the royal robe that the soldiers had put upon Him in mockery. But not satisfied with the cruel death He was to die, Pilate ordered Him to be scourged, all the time protesting that he found no fault in Him. Thus those words in Isaiah liii. 8 were fulfilled: "He was taken from prison and from judgment . . . for He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of My people was He stricken." And then He was taken to the Cross. PROPHECIES OF THE DEATH OF THE MESSIAH. Dan. ix. 26.—Acts ii. 23. We read in Daniel that "The Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself." And Zechariah says: "And one shall say unto Him, What are these wounds in Thine hands? Then He shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of My friends." [Illustration: THE THREE CROSSES.] As our Blessed Lord hung on that Cross "He was numbered with the transgressors," for two thieves were crucified with Him. In the twenty-second Psalm we learn to understand a little of the anguish which made Him cry on the Cross: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" It was because "He bore our sins in His own Body on the tree." "He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." But though all this came upon that beloved Son of God, in order that He might redeem the world, we have, in Isaiah liii. 10, a great and beautiful promise of the Resurrection, and of His afterwards reigning in glory as King:— "When thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand." "He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death." This was fulfilled when rich Joseph of Arimathæa buried Him in beautiful fine linen in his own new grave in that garden near Calvary. PROPHECY OF THE RESURRECTION. Psalm xvi. 9, 10. Mark xvi. 6. Jesus rose from the dead. It was impossible that the Son of God should be holden of death. [Illustration HE IS RISEN!]