Crucifixion seems to have been invented by ‘barbarians’on the edge of the known world, and taken over from them by both Greeks and Romans. It is probably the most cruel method of execution ever practised, for it deliberately delayed death until maximum torture had been inflicted. The victim could suffer for days before dying. When the Romans adopted it, they reserved it for criminals convicted of murder, rebellion or armed robbery, provided that they were also slaves, foreigners or other non-persons. The Jews were therefore outraged when the Roman general Varus crucified 2,000 of their compatriots in 4 BC, and when during the siege of Jerusalem the general Titus crucified so many fugitives from the city that neither ‘space…for the crosses, nor crosses for the bodies’could be found. (Pg. 23)

Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, was a simple yet astute man. He had the gift of saying tremendously significant things in a deceptively simple way. In a letter dated 1879 to the secretary of the mission, Taylor said: The all-important thing to do is to 1. Improve the character of the work 2. Deepen the piety, devotion and success of the workers 3. Remove stones of stumbling, if possible 4. Oil the wheels where they stick 5. Amend whatever is defective 6. Supplement, as far as may be, what is lacking.