Red-Letter Days Abroad (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884 Excerpt: ...now enacted. Two ladders are placed against the cross, one in front, the other in the rear. Niccdemus ascends the ladder in the rear, and tenderly draws out the nails from the hands. The arms are then gently laid upon the shoulders of Joseph of Arimathea, who is on the ladder before the cross. Then, by means of a roll of linen cloth, the body is gradually lowered to the ground. Nicodemus, Joseph, and John then lift the body with loving touch, and, with a perfection of skill and tender reverence, lay it at Mary's feet, the head resting on her lap. What particularly enhanced the pathos of this and other tragic scenes, was the fact that they occurred thus tinder the open sky, as if in actual life. The lights and shadows of the clouds fall on the form of Jesus hanging on the cross; the breeze stirs the mantle of his weeping mother; the birds flit lightly back and forth above the stage, as they perhaps once did on Calvary itself, blithely unconscious, now as then, of human tragedy and woe. One other scene of the Passion Play remains to be considered, --that of the Resurrection. Like all the rest, it is admirably managed. The central curtain rises and reveals the Roman guards watching before the tomb of Jesus. At first they speak of the awful phenomena attendant on the crucifixion; but finally they fall asleep, and all is still. Suddenly a crash as of a thunder-peal is heard. The door of the sepulchre falls prostrate, and for an instant Maier is seen within the doorway clad in a glittering mantle, and with a look of triumph on his pallid face. The next moment two gilded gates spring from the tomb on either side, and meet before him as a dazzling screen of light. Another instant, and they are once more thrown back. But the Christ is gone. We have beheld the vision ...