In reading the account of our blessed Lord's condemnation, it may seem strange to us that Pilate was ready to receive Him so early as five o'clock in the morning; though we can understand the Priests and the Sanhedrim sitting up all night, to accomplish their wicked purpose. But we must remember, that the Jews were at all times ready to make disturbances; and that as very great multitudes came into Jerusalem for the Passover, those who were in authority were obliged to be very watchful, so as to check the first symptoms of a riot: and no doubt they were doubly watchful now, remembering that when Jesus rode into the city, a few days before, all the people accompanied Him, shouting, and declaring Him to be that King, the promised Messiah. "And they took Jesus, and led him away. And after that they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him. And he, bearing his cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called, in the Hebrew, Golgotha." It was the custom of the Jews and Romans never to put condemned persons to death within the city walls. Golgotha was a hill outside the city, set apart for executions, and was, of course, an unclean and polluted place. It is thought that the name Golgotha was given to this hill because, in shape, it resembled a head or skull; and that for the same reason, the Romans called it Calvary: the Latin word so translated, meaning the same as the Hebrew word Golgotha. The Romans compelled those who were to undergo the terrible death by crucifixion, to carry their own cross to the appointed place. Thus we find Jesus "bearing his cross": but when we remember how our blessed Lord had passed the whole night, we shall not be surprised that He had no strength to carry a heavy cross of wood up a hill. Most likely He fell under the load; and those who led Him out saw, that faint and weary as He was, it was impossible for this part of His sentence to be carried out, and therefore, "they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country: him they compelled to bear his cross. And on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus." "And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him." Many of these, doubtless, had benefited by His miracles of healing, either in themselves or in their children; and all were grieved to see such cruelty practised upon One, who had ever gone amongst them doing good.