The only earthly throne on which John saw Him sit was one of mockery.  He did not ask to sit with Him.  It was a sad yet blessed privilege to be with Him during that night of agony—­the only friendly witness to probably all of His sufferings.  While John’s eyes were turned often and earnestly toward Peter and Pilate, they were yet more on the Lord.  When he went in with Jesus into the palace, and while he tarried with Him, he could do nothing—­only look.  No angel was there as in Gethsemane to strengthen the Man of sorrows, but did He not often look for sympathy toward that one who had leaned lovingly upon Him a few hours before?  Was not John’s mere waking presence among His foes in the palace, a solace which slumber had denied Him in the garden?  John’s eyes were not heavy now.  There was no need of the Lord’s bidding, “Tarry ye here and watch with Me.”  Love made him tarry and watch more than “one hour”—­even through all the watches of the night.  Then he was the Lord’s only human friend—­the one silent comforter.

CHAPTER XXVI

John the Lone Disciple at the Cross

     “When they came unto the place which is called Calvary, there they
     crucified Him.”—­Luke xxiii. 33.

     “At Calvary poets have sung their sweetest strains, and artists
     have seen their sublimest visions.”—­Stalker.

      “Now to sorrow must I tune my song,
          And set my harp to notes of saddest woe,
       Which on our dearest Lord did seize ere long,
          Dangers, and snares, and wrongs, and worse than so,
          Which He for us did freely undergo: 
       Most perfect Hero, tried in heaviest plight
       Of labors huge and hard, too hard for human wight.”
          
                                   —­Milton.—­The Passion.

Even careful students of the life of John are not together in their attempts to follow him on the day of crucifixion.  Some think they find evidence, chiefly in his silence concerning certain events, that after hearing the final sentence of Pilate condemning Christ to be crucified, he left the palace and joined the other disciples and faithful women and the mother of Jesus, and reported what he had seen and heard during the night; and at some hour during the day visited Calvary, and returning to the city brought the women who stood with him at the cross:  and witnessed only what he minutely or only describes.  Other students think he followed Jesus from the palace to the cross, remaining near Him and witnessing all that transpired.  This is certainly in keeping with what we should expect from his peculiar relation to Christ.  It is in harmony with what we do know of his movements that day.  So we are inclined to follow him as a constant though silent companion of Jesus, feeling that in keeping near him we are near to his Lord and ours.  This we now do in the “Dolorous Way,” along which Jesus is hurried from the judgment-seat of Pilate to the place of execution.