During the Civil War the government drafted men into service. A man in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, was drawn. Because of sickness at home he felt he could not leave. The administration permitted him to secure someone to take his place. The substitute enlisted and went out in place of the man who was drafted.

In a short time the substitute was killed and buried, and the government made a record of it. But by some oversite on the part of the officials, the name of the man who was excused was placed on another draft and he was drawn a second time. He went before the authorities and said to them, "You cannot draft me. I am a dead man."

"What do you mean?" came the reply.

"Look up the records. You will see I enlisted, I fought, I died in the person of my substitute." In the eys of the law that man was dead. The substitute fought and died in his place, and the government could not touch him.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the sinner's substitute. Christ took the sinner's place and paid the penalty st the cross for his sin, so that the law of death can no longer claim him.

–  Senior Teacher, S. B. C.

Scourging

There Scourging was a cruel and barbaric punishment. Often a prisoner was subjected to this severe physical beating prior to crucifixion. The victim was stripped to the waist, he was tied to a post, leaving his back entirely exposed, and he was whipped. The Romans used a whip, called a flagrum or flagellum. The whip was an inhumane instrument consisting of a handle with several leather thongs attached, which were weighted on the ends with jagged pieces of bone, metal and rock.

The number of blows in Jewish law was set in Deuteronomy 25:3 at forty, but later reduced to 39 to prevent excessive blows by a counting error. Roman law did not put any limits on the number of blows given. During the flogging, the skin was stripped from the back, exposing a bloody mass of muscle and bone. Extreme blood loss occurred from this beating, weakening the victim. perhaps to the point of being unconscious. Victims lost eyes and teeth, were occasionally disemboweled and were almost always horribly disfigured. Frequently, the agony of the scourging resulted in death.

The number of strikes which Jesus received is not recorded in the gospels. The severity of the beating is not detailed in the gospels. In the book of Isaiah, it suggests that the Romans pulled out His beard .(Isaiah 50:8) . It is also mentions that Jesus was beaten so severely that His form did not look like that of "a son of a man" i.e. that of a human being. The literal translation of the verse reads, "So marred from the form of man was His aspect, that His appearance was not as that of a son of a man." People were appalled to look at Him (Isaiah 52:13). Many site His probable disfigurement as an explanation as to why He was not easily recognized in His post resurrection appearances.  

"I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting."     —  Isaiah 50:6

Sources: | The Dictionary of Bible and Religion, William Gentz | The Bible Almanac, White | Thomas Nelson, Inc., Word in Life study Bible |
| Easter a Pictorial Pilgrimage - Pierre Benoit |

Easter Quotations

The resurrection cannot be tamed or tethered by any utilitarian test. It is a vast watershed in history, or it is nothing. It cannot be tested for truth; it is the test of lesser truths. No light can be thrown on it; its own light blinds the investigator. It does not compel belief; it resists it. But once accepted as fact, it tells more about the universe, about history, and about man's state and fate than all the mountains of other facts in the human accumulation.

       — Editorial in Life. (B) 1956, Time, Inc

— H. JANIES A. MARTIN, JR., Fact. Fiction and Faith, 1960

(from a Latin hymn)