UCSB LIBRARY '^f; 
 
 a
 
 MEDITATIONS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 SACKED PASSION 
 
 OF OUR LORD 
 
 BY 
 
 CARDINAL WISEMAN 
 
 THIRD EDITION 
 
 LONDON: BURNS & GATES, LIMITED 
 
 NEW YOHK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO : BENZIGER BROTHERS 
 1909
 
 PKEFACE 
 
 THE Passion of our Lord is the School of 
 Saints. To have understood His Passion, 
 to have lived in it, is to become absorbed 
 and mastered by a great love. Nothing is 
 difficult or impossible to love. He who 
 loves not cannot realise the power of love. 
 The Passion is the patent proof of God's 
 love for men. That proof must be exa- 
 mined in detail, if it is to be brought 
 home to our heart. The Passion is summed 
 up in the Crucifix. When the Crucifix 
 stands out before our eyes we contemplate 
 the greatest manifestation of God's love 
 for man. But to understand the Crucifix 
 aright we must have travelled through the 
 stages of the Passion. Neither shall we 
 understand the living mystery of God's 
 love for us in the Eucharist unless we have 
 understood the mystery of the Passion. 
 The Passion and the Eucharist are the two 
 great proofs of Divine love for man, and
 
 VI PREFACE 
 
 the third is made up of His personal deal- 
 ings with our own soul. 
 
 The publication of Cardinal Wiseman's 
 Meditations on the Passion, now that the 
 history of his life has been given to the 
 world, is most opportune. Many will be 
 glad to take him as their guide and com- 
 panion during the six weeks of Lent, and 
 to be taught by him how to contemplate 
 the Sufferings of our Blessed Lord, and 
 how to make them their own. 
 
 While he was Rector of the English 
 College in Rome he used to rise very 
 early, and write out each morning a medi- 
 tation, which he then read to the students 
 when they came down to the Chapel. I 
 remember well his often speaking to me 
 in London of the interest he had taken 
 in providing the mind of his young levites 
 with suitable material on which to medi- 
 tate and form their spiritual life. He was 
 naturally inclined to build up a system ; 
 he was an intellectual architect ; he loved, 
 too, to decorate and embellish all that he 
 took in hand. Thus, his plan was to build 
 up the Spiritual life of the students upon
 
 PREFACE Vll 
 
 a somewhat elaborate method which he 
 drew up with great care. Each week was 
 to impress upon the mind one of the great 
 eternal truths, one of the moral or ecclesias- 
 tical virtues, an incident from the hidden or 
 the public Life of our Lord, a mystery from 
 the Passion, and a characteristic in the life of 
 the Blessed Virgin or a motive for devotion 
 to her. In this way he thought that all of 
 these great verities, virtues, and mysteries 
 would become equally imbedded in the soul 
 during the forty weeks or so, for which 
 he had drawn out a series of medita- 
 tions upon each of them. The system was 
 perhaps a little more fanciful and specula- 
 tive than practical and real. It is hardly 
 in this methodical, I had almost said 
 arbitrary, way, that the soul loves to 
 drink in and absorb the doctrines and 
 devotions that are to become its nourish- 
 ment and its very life. We prefer longer 
 draughts, we like to drink in the touching 
 and pathetic truths of the Passion, not on 
 one day in the week, but for consecutive 
 weeks together. We like to follow our 
 Blessed Lord's hidden and public life with-
 
 Vlll PREFACE 
 
 out break or interruption. We take our 
 Blessed Lady and we do not wish to leave 
 her until we have possessed ourselves of 
 her as a whole, or in her full relationship 
 to us. So of the great eternal truths, so 
 of other homogeneous subjects. I well 
 remember hearing many years ago, in a 
 great French Seminary, that one of the 
 directors had spent the morning's medita- 
 tion during the whole of Lent not on a 
 round of topics, nor even on the mysteries 
 of the Passion, but upon these three words, 
 " Jesus autem tacebat." It is not, however, 
 necessary to condemn one system, because 
 we may personally prefer another. " Omnis 
 spiritus laudet Dominum." 
 
 Shortly after the Cardinal's death, the 
 first volume of the series of " Meditations " 
 alluded to was given to the public. The 
 second volume still remains in manuscript. 
 
 I think that the publishers have been 
 well advised to put together a handy book 
 made up of the Cardinal's Meditations on 
 the Passion, and to offer it to the public 
 for service during the forty days of Lent. 
 About half of these meditations were pub-
 
 PREFACE IX 
 
 lished, as I have said, some thirty years 
 ago, and are to-day out of print ; the others 
 are published now for the first time. The 
 characteristic of these meditations, as indeed 
 of most of Cardinal Wiseman's writings, is 
 that you will nearly always find in them a 
 "hidden gem." The beauty and richness 
 of his mind seemed to illustrate and justify 
 every topic he treated by suddenly striking 
 some vein of thought or some point of 
 feeling which, if not new, is at least pre- 
 sented in a new light or reference. Thus, 
 even where there is much that is trite and 
 familiar, you will suddenly come upon a 
 gem which will more than compensate for 
 any sense of labour or defect in style. 
 
 HERBERT CARDINAL VAUGHAN, 
 
 Archbishop of Westminster. 
 
 Feast of the Conversion of 
 St. Paul, 1898.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 MEDITATION PAGE 
 
 I. ON DEVOTION TO OUR SAVIOUR'S PASSION . I 
 
 II. ON LOVE TOWARDS JESUS IN HIS PASSION . 8 
 
 III. ON THE LESSONS OF THE PASSION . . 1 6 
 
 IV. ON THE LAST SUPPER 23. 
 
 V. JESUS IN THE GARDEN OF OLIVES . . 33 
 
 VI. THE SADNESS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN . 38 
 
 VII. THE FEARS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN . . 44 
 
 VIII. THE PRAYER OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN . 50 
 
 IX. JESUS FINDS HIS APOSTLES ASLEEP . . 57 
 
 x. OUR SAVIOUR'S SWEAT OF BLOOD ... 64 
 
 XI. JESUS IS COMFORTED BY AN ANGEL . . Jl 
 
 xii. OUR SAVIOUR'S RESIGNATION ... 80 
 
 XIII. THE KISS OF JUDAS 87 
 
 XIV. JESUS BEFORE ANNAS AND CAIPHAS . . 95- 
 
 XV. THE TESTIMONY AGAINST JESUS . . . IOI 
 
 XVI. JESUS IS ACCUSED OF BLASPHEMY . .107 
 
 xvii. PETER'S DENIAI 113 
 
 XVIII. JESUS IS DECLARED GUILTY OF DEATH . 1 19 
 
 XIX. JESUS IS BROUGHT BEFORE PILATE . .127 
 
 XX. THE RETRACTATION OF JUDAS AND HIS DEATH 135. 
 
 xxi. OUR SAVIOUR'S SILENCE .... 142 
 
 XXII. JESUS IS SENT TO HEROD . . , . 149"
 
 Xll CONTENTS 
 
 MKDITATION 
 
 XXIII. JESUS IS SCOURGED ..... 157 
 
 xxiv. JESUS is SCOURGED (continued) . .164 
 
 XXV. JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS . .170 
 
 xxvi. JESUS is CROWNED WITH THORNS (continued) 177 
 
 XXVII. JESUS IS MOCKED BY THE SOLDIERS . .184 
 
 . XXVIII. JESUS IS PRESENTED BY PILATE TO THE 
 
 PEOPLE . . . . . 192 
 
 XXIX. PILATE WASHES HIS HANDS . . 2OO 
 
 xxx. THE PEOPLE'S ANSWER TO PILATE . . 208 
 
 XXXI. JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO THE CROSS . .215 
 
 XXXII. JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS . . 223 
 
 XXXIII. THE SUFFERINGS OF OUR LORD ON THE 
 
 CROSS ....... 230 
 
 XXXIV. JESUS ADDRESSES HIS MOTHER . . . 236 
 XXXV. THE PENITENT THIEF .... 243 
 
 XXXVI. JESUS THIRSTS ..... .251 
 
 XXXVII. JESUS SEEMS TO BE FORSAKEN BY HIS 
 
 FATHER ....... 259 
 
 XXXVIII. JESUS EXPIRES ...... 268 
 
 XXXIX. ON THE CONDUCT OF THOSE WHO WERE 
 
 PRESENT AT THE CRUCIFIXION . . 278 
 
 XL. OUR SAVIOUR'S SIDE is PIERCED . . 284
 
 MEDITATIONS 
 
 ON THE SACRED PASSION 
 JFtrst fflrtitatton 
 
 ON DEVOTION TO OUR SAVIOUR'S 
 PASSION 
 
 i. Reflect that the Christian can have no 
 true devotion at all, if he have it not for 
 the sufferings and death of Christ. For we 
 can have no true devotion without love, its 
 only true foundation. And can we love 
 God without loving in a most special 
 manner our Divine Redeemer, bleeding and 
 suffering for the love of us ? Is there any 
 other consideration that will move us to a 
 deep and ardent affection when this has 
 failed ? Whoever therefore loves his God, 
 considered in the amiable character of his 
 Redeemer, who saved him at so much cost, 
 must often turn his heart and affection 
 
 A
 
 2 FIRST MEDITATION 
 
 towards the spectacle which this purchase 
 presents him, and love to dwell upon it 
 with overflowing gratitude and melting 
 affection. The Passion of his dear Jesus 
 will be the daintiest though the daily food 
 of his best feelings, and he will feast upon 
 it at all times and in all places. The Cross 
 will be to him what the Law was to the 
 Jew, his meditation sitting down in his 
 house or going on his journey, coming in 
 and going out ; it will be more and more 
 before and between his eyes, not merely 
 by being mechanically imprinted on his 
 forehead by his hand, but by being the 
 scope and aim of all his actions, the ten- 
 dency of his desires, the object of his love. 
 His crucified Redeemer will ever appear 
 before him, giving him the standard of 
 his affections, the rule of his actions, the 
 measure of his words. Every one of these 
 will be found of just tally and weight, if 
 estimated by the Cross. His actions will 
 be all performed at its foot and under the 
 eyes of his dear crucified Lord. He will 
 not strain his mind or weary his imagina- 
 tion, by vainly striving after some concep-
 
 DEVOTION TO OUR SAVIOURS PASSION 3 
 
 tion of God's infinite majesty ever present 
 and witnessing his actions ; lie will rather 
 see Him as He was on Calvary, visible to 
 the outward sense, benign, meek, afflicted, 
 and suffering cruelly for his sins. Oh, when 
 we contemplate Him thus, how powerless 
 will all temptation be ! how shall we de- 
 spise all its attempts to make us commit 
 anything displeasing to Him, who is dis- 
 playing for us such an excess of love ? Oh, 
 how trifling will our affections be when 
 endured in company of Him who, mocked, 
 scourged, and crowned with thorns, has 
 been hanging for three hours in torment 
 upon a cross for love of us, and asks us 
 to bear with our passing and light affliction 
 for His dear sake ! And then, how humble 
 shall we be in such a Presence ! When we 
 see the Lord of Glory, the King of Heaven, 
 the eternal son of the Father, thus debased 
 into the form of a servant, thus degraded 
 into a worm and no man, thus trampled 
 upon and humbled even unto the death of 
 the Cross, how will the highest honours or 
 the loudest praise, or the most widely 
 spread glory be able to elate us or to
 
 4 FIRST MEDITATION 
 
 seduce our heart ? No ; he who loves the 
 Passion of His Saviour, he who makes it 
 the recurring subject of his meditations 
 and the unceasing object of his love, will 
 be ever fixed in the service of his God, 
 through good report and evil report, through 
 prosperity and adversity, through life and 
 in death. And at this last extremity in 
 particular, his devotion to his crucified 
 Jesus shall return with comfortable hope, 
 to cheer the gloom of his last hour, and to 
 bring him before the face of Him he loveth. 
 2. Reflect how it is good for us, at stated 
 seasons, to concentrate these sentiments and 
 give ourselves up exclusively to the contem- 
 plation of this scene. Throughout the year 
 we may wander with our affections from 
 place to place, and, like the patriarchs, 
 pitch our tents first on one then on another 
 of our sacred mountains. Sometimes we 
 will pause at Horeb and consider its mir- 
 acles and mysteries, when God sent Moses 
 on his mighty commission to save His 
 people; at others, we will stay on Sinai and 
 meditate on the terms of its Law ; we will 
 remain a while with Elias upon Carmel,
 
 DEVOTION TO OUR SAVIOURS PASSION 5 
 
 P 
 
 and then ascend Thabor, to contemplate 
 its glorious visions. But every year it is 
 good for us to dwell for a time on those 
 three " mountains of myrrh," of bitterness 
 and sorrow, Olivet, Sion, and Calvary. 
 There may we make three tabernacles for 
 our souls, and spend a few days in the 
 study of their varied but affecting spec- 
 tacles. The Jews were obliged more than 
 once a year to go up to Jerusalem, there 
 to commemorate the blessings bestowed 
 upon them by God in their deliverance ; 
 and shall we, who have been redeemed by 
 Him with so strong a hand as was required 
 to wrestle with death and hell, forget once 
 in the year to put aside all other thoughts 
 and go thither where our Blessed Saviour 
 is engaged in the awful struggle, the issue 
 whereof is to be our salvation ? Shall we, 
 like His timid and faint-hearted apostles, 
 sleep while He fights and prays in mortal 
 agony, and hear from His lips His re- 
 proachful words, " Non potestis una hora 
 vigilare mecum ? " Or not rather demean 
 ourselves during those solemn hours, as to 
 be addressed by Him in those flattering
 
 6 FIRST MEDITATION 
 
 ^ 
 
 expressions, " Vos estis qui permansistis 
 mecum in tentationibus meis " ? Surely 
 we should be confounded at our unfeeling 
 ingratitude, were we to allow such neglect 
 and coldness to come upon us. How wise 
 and provident, then, it has been on the 
 part of Christ's Church thus to put aside 
 this time for the dedication of our thoughts 
 and our feelings to the contemplation of 
 Jesus, her Divine Spouse, in His bitter 
 Passion. This holy season serves thus to 
 revive our faith and our devotion, so as 
 to give us a new stock of fervour for the 
 rest of the year. We meet it like a 
 watered spot in the midst of the wilder- 
 ness through which we yearly travel, as 
 an Elim in which are "twelve fountains 
 and seventy palm trees" (Exod. xv. 27), 
 where we may halt for a longer and fuller 
 refreshment. There we may draw waters 
 with joy from the fountains of our Saviour, 
 from His sacred wounds, whence life ever 
 flows. There we may dwell in deep devo- 
 tion upon His infinite mercies, His unspeak- 
 able goodness, His unlimited self-devotion 
 to our God. And surely we, in return, shall
 
 DEVOTION TO OUR SAVIOURS PASSION ? 
 
 endeavour to our utmost to meet it with a 
 corresponding return. 
 
 3. Affections. " I will sit at the foot of 
 Thy Cross, Blessed Jesus, during these 
 days, as Respha did opposite those of her 
 children, and feed my heart with the spec- 
 tacle, though cruel it be, of love. I will 
 nourish myself in earnest and deep devo- 
 tion towards Thee, who hast not spared 
 Thy soul, but hast given Thyself up to 
 death for my good. From head to foot 
 Thou art all mine, Thy gift is written in 
 letters of blood, yea deeply engraved upon 
 every part of Thy sacred body ; Thou hast 
 written us upon Thy hands, that our 
 memorial may be ever before Thee. Then 
 be Thou, crucified, ever before us, not in 
 visible representations, but by being sculp- 
 tured in our hearts. Take to Thyself our 
 thoughts, which we here consecrate to Thee 
 in Thy Passion. Take all our desires, 
 which we wish to unite with Thee in the 
 Garden, our model of resignation and con- 
 formity. Take our affections and inclina- 
 tions, mortified and scourged with Thee at 
 the pillar. Take our abilities and natural
 
 8 SECOND MEDITATION 
 
 gifts, that their pride, with Thy sacred Head, 
 may be ever hedged round with thorns to 
 check its aspiring ideas. Take our bodies, 
 that they may with Thee bear the Cross, 
 which they have deserved. Crucify in fine 
 with Thee all our affections, our entire selves, 
 that nothing more may remain to us, but 
 all be devoted exclusively and eternally to 
 Thee, our love, our hope, our Saviour." 
 
 3econtt JHetutatiott 
 
 ON LOVE TOWARDS JESUS IN HIS 
 PASSION 
 
 i. Reflect how unbounded should be our 
 love of our dear Saviour in His Passion. 
 For surely the love which He bears and 
 displays for us there knows no limits. 
 " Greater love than this no man hath, than 
 that a man should lay down his life for his 
 friends." His love admitted of no cold 
 reasonings, or calculations of our deserts, 
 or how we should requite Him ; but rather 
 foreseeing how wretched our return would
 
 ON LOVE TOWARDS JESUS 9 
 
 be, He still loved us, and loved us to the 
 excess of dying for us. Our love cannot 
 have that infinite intensity which His had, 
 but at least, so far as our weakness allows, 
 let us seek to break down the barriers and 
 limitations which earthly affections put to 
 our feelings towards Him, and love Him 
 to the possible extent of all our powers. 
 This is loving Him with all our strength. 
 Further, our love, to be anything like His, 
 should be unreserved in its devotion. For 
 He kept back nothing from us. He gave 
 His body to stripes and bruises, and His 
 soul to afflictions and sorrow. He allowed 
 His head to be crowned with thorns, and 
 His thoughts to be racked with bitter grief. 
 He permitted His hands and feet to be 
 pierced with nails, and His affections to 
 be cruelly outraged. He surrendered His 
 property to His very garments up to the 
 spoiler, and His reputation to the calum- 
 niator. He gave Himself, in short, entire, 
 a holocaust for us, keeping nothing for 
 Himself, so that when He died He was the 
 poorest, the abjectest, the most defamed, 
 the most suffering, and the most abandoned
 
 10 SECOND MEDITATION 
 
 of men ! And all this for love of us, of me ! 
 And how can we, for very shame, reserve 
 from Him so many affections, so many 
 desires, such a large portion of our hearts ? 
 How can we retain an attachment for our 
 worldly goods, for honours, for men's praise, 
 or any other such miserable and perishable 
 objects, not an insignificant but a princi- 
 pal share of our desires and attachments ? 
 More still, His love was most practical and 
 active. Here, indeed, He did not content 
 Himself, as we do, with sounding protesta- 
 tions of affection, by repeating to us that 
 He loved us ; but He showed it in facts, in 
 deed. And here, indeed, He proved to us 
 that the best demonstration of the activity 
 of love is given by suffering. Other men 
 show it by exertion for their friends, He 
 by endurance. Others travel far, or toil 
 much, to serve them ; He suffered Himself 
 to be torn in pieces, and at length to be 
 put to a cruel death to redeem them. And 
 shall we be so unwilling to undergo the 
 
 O O 
 
 smallest trouble for His sake, or to serve 
 and love Him, if thereby we are brought 
 into the slightest affliction ? Oh let us
 
 ON LOVE TOWARDS JESUS I I 
 
 learn to love as we have been loved ; if not 
 in measure, at least in kind ! 
 
 2. Reflect how well we may all learn in 
 the Passion of our dear Saviour in what 
 manner we may love Him if we will only, 
 by simple meditation, enter into the feel- 
 ings of those who then stood near him with 
 an affectionate heart. The first and dearest 
 of all is the Mother of Love, Mary, whose 
 feelings of compassionate love it would be 
 impossible for human intelligence to attempt 
 to fathom. For who can imagine the addi- 
 tion to even maternal affection which the 
 sight of One so beloved, and so worthy of 
 it, enduring extreme suffering must have 
 made? For if the heart of this blessed 
 Virgin was pierced by a sword on this oc- 
 casion, it was indeed by a double-edged 
 sword, sharpened on one side by grief and 
 on the other by love ; and the sharpness of 
 each was in proportion to the other's. No: 
 she did not love Him as much, when He 
 was a smiling babe at Bethlehem, all fair 
 and unstained by blood or tears, as she 
 does now this Man of griefs, covered with 
 wounds and disfigured by His own blood.
 
 12 SECOND MEDITATION 
 
 She who had suffered no maternal throes in 
 bringing Him into the world, who had no 
 pains to forget in the joy of birth because 
 a Man was born (John xvi. 21) has the 
 bitterer pangs to endure of seeing Him 
 most cruelly taken from her sight, and 
 learns the motherhood of pain in the death, 
 not in the birth, of her first-born. Here 
 is the model for us of pure sympathetic 
 love towards Jesus in His sufferings, the 
 
 O * 
 
 strongest, the perfectest which could pos- 
 sibly be felt by human heart. Next to her 
 we see John, the well-beloved, the friend 
 w T ho had leaned only the night before upon 
 that Bosom, over which so many streams of 
 blood are tracking their course, and which 
 so many cruel stripes have furrowed. How 
 must he have looked back upon that happy 
 hour, and wept to see Him w r hom his soul 
 so loved reduced to so wretched a plight, 
 so sadly altered, so frightfully mangled, so 
 cruelly slain ! Oh how did this Boanerges, 
 this son of thunder, feel his breast rent 
 between the contending claims of tender- 
 ness and zeal, melting now into a maiden's 
 grief, and then bursting forth into those
 
 ON LOVE TOWARDS JESUS 13 
 
 more ardent thoughts, which once wished 
 fire to be called from heaven to consume 
 those who merely were unbelieving towards 
 his Master ! His was a love of zeal, of 
 earnest yet most tender friendship. But 
 alas ! it is but too probable that we must 
 seek the patterns of our love in another 
 class, among the repenting sinners. Look, 
 then, at that woman who weeps fearlessly 
 after Jesus as He carries His cross, who, in 
 the face of a licentious soldiery and of a 
 brutal rabble, takes her stand at the foot 
 of the cross, and keeps her ground there ; 
 though she has no claim of relationship, as 
 other pious women have, for its Blessed 
 Sufferer. See how she clings to the igno- 
 minious tree, and sobs aloud, and proclaims 
 her love and her adoration of Him whom 
 a crowd of priests and scribes are insulting. 
 This is Magdalen, the much-forgiven, and 
 consequently the much-loving. She shows 
 us how we who have sinned and have ob- 
 tained pardon, ought to assist at the Passion 
 of Jesus, when seeing that blood, and those 
 wounds which purchased for us our for- 
 giveness and redemption. But if yet un-
 
 14 SECOND MEDITATION 
 
 certain whether we have obtained grace, 
 yet struck with consciousness of guilt, 
 remorse, and shame, we draw nigh to our 
 Saviour's Passion, let us think how Peter 
 felt towards his Master ; how, although he 
 had not yet from His mouth assurance of 
 pardon, he blessed Him for that first look 
 of mercy which had awakened remorse and 
 brought him to himself. Oh, how did he 
 abhor himself for the additional pang he 
 had given his loving Friend in his Passion, 
 by his conduct the night before ! How 
 did he sigh and weep, to remember how 
 he had treated that God, who from the 
 midst of so many outrages looked upon 
 him with such a mild yet piercing eye of 
 mercy ! Never had he felt for Him such 
 love as now. 
 
 3. Affections. " And so, dear Jesus, 
 make me ever love Thee, suffering and 
 dying, with a love of grateful contrition, a 
 compound of thankfulness for what Thou 
 hast forgiven me, and of hearty grief for all 
 I have committed. Ah ! too deeply have I 
 offended Thee, too barbarously have I taken 
 part in making Thee suffer, for me ever to
 
 ON LOVE TOWARDS JESUS IS 
 
 love Thee without some bitterness of sorrow 
 and remorse mingling with my love. The 
 days are past for me in which I could stand 
 at the foot of Thy Cross in the company, 
 and with the unreproachful feelings of Mary 
 and John, but I must needs be content to 
 remain among those who, at sight of Thee 
 dying, struck their breasts in compunction. 
 Still in that sorrow let there be much love ; 
 let there be that deep shame which Peter 
 felt when he remembered not so much his 
 own baseness as thy lovingness and merci- 
 fulness towards him, and wept bitterly, not 
 that he had been a traitor, but that he had 
 been one to Thee. Let my sorrow be like 
 Magdalen's, all love, burning love, such as 
 heeds no reproach of men, no scorn, no 
 ridicule. Let me ever feel how heavy 
 the debt I owe Thee for so much forgive- 
 ness, and how I never can in return love 
 to excess."
 
 1 6 THIRD MEDITATION 
 
 Hesitation 
 
 ON THE LESSONS OP THE PASSION 
 
 i. Reflect how in the Passion of our 
 Blessed Saviour are concentrated all the 
 difficult virtues which He practised during 
 His life, those in which we most decidedly 
 wanted an instructor and a model. For to 
 begin with the very virtues of childhood 
 and youth, the first and principal of these 
 was necessarily docility and obedience, such 
 as is recorded in the Gospel, when we are 
 told that He went to Nazareth with His 
 blessed parents, and was. subject to them. 
 Now in His Passion He may truly be said 
 to have pushed those amiable virtues to 
 their furthest imaginable extent. When 
 do we most admire the obedience of Isaac ? 
 Is it not when we see him bearing the 
 wood on his shoulders, whereon he was to 
 be immolated ? And still more when he 
 allowed himself, without a murmur, to be 
 thereon bound ? What, then, shall we say 
 of the obedience of this our Isaac of the 
 Law, who now humbles himself, being
 
 ON THE LESSONS OF THE PASSION \7 
 
 made obedient unto death, even the death 
 of the cross ? that is, in pursuance to the 
 commands of His eternal Father, submitting 
 himself to the cruellest, most ignominious 
 death that could be then inflicted ? But in 
 order to accomplish this act of obedience 
 dear to Him from His reverence for the 
 authority that enjoined it, He was obliged 
 to submit to many others of so degrading, 
 so revolting a nature, that none but the 
 most perfect virtue could have undergone 
 without a loathing repugnance. Isaac went 
 up the mountain by his father's side, 
 cheered and encouraged by him. The ser- 
 vants were left below ; no profane hand 
 was laid upon him. It was his own dear 
 father's voice that urged him to lie down 
 on the funeral pile. But Jesus was made 
 obedient to all the wicked ministers of 
 Satan, that had a part in the infliction of 
 His sufferings, to Pilate and to Herod, to 
 Caiphas and to Annas, to the Jewish mob, 
 and to the Roman soldiery. To the com- 
 mands of each, though they were only to 
 His infamy and pain, He subjected Him- 
 self, like a lamb before his shearer, without 
 
 B
 
 1 8 THIRD MEDITATION 
 
 opening His mouth. In like manner did 
 He display all the virtues that had distin- 
 guished His public life. His disinterested 
 readiness to do good was clearly manifested 
 in His healing of Malchus ; His readiness to 
 receive all repentant sinners in His treat- 
 ment of the penitent thief; His desire to 
 instruct men in His address to the pious 
 women, in His conduct when among the 
 Jews he boldly acknowledged Himself upon 
 the adjuration of the High Priest. In like 
 manner did He exhibit Himself perfect in 
 all those virtues which seemed to belong to 
 times of peace, and to suppose the rever- 
 ence and docility of men. They are not 
 those which we might expect to find amidst 
 desolation and abandonment, amidst bonds 
 and scourges, at the pillar or on the cross. 
 How are we here taught ? That under no 
 variety of circumstances, under no pressure 
 of misfortune, sorrow, or pain, are we to 
 think ourselves dispensed from the faithful 
 practice of every virtue which the Chris- 
 tian profession, or the ecclesiastical state, 
 requires from us. But there are other traits 
 of virtue which go even beyond these, and
 
 19 
 
 show how even to the end of life He could 
 go on increasing in the manifestation of 
 wisdom and grace before God and men. 
 Where in His whole life shall we find so 
 beautiful an instance of kindness, and will- 
 ingness to reclaim those that had gone 
 astray, as in His treatment of Peter ? Where 
 did He display filial affection to His dear 
 mother equal to that which He demon- 
 strated upon the cross ? Where did He 
 show such charity and willingness to for- 
 give His enemies as in His last prayer for 
 those that crucified Him ? Who shall ever 
 sufficiently study or adequately learn these 
 beautiful lessons ? 
 
 2. Reflect, if our Blessed Redeemer taught 
 us so much of those virtues which belonged 
 to all His life, in His death and Passion, 
 how much more must He have given us an 
 example of such as belong more exclusively 
 to a state of affliction, of trial, and of 
 suffering ? Indeed it may be justly said 
 that if, throughout His life, He wanted 
 not occasion of exercising resignation, 
 patience, meekness, and forgivingness, yet 
 He reserved the full manifestation of these
 
 2O THIRD MEDITATION 
 
 singular virtues for its close, to form the last 
 grand triumph of the Divine power over the 
 feebleness of humanity. Men had suffered 
 before His time with extraordinary patience. 
 Jeremiah had been persecuted by the un- 
 grateful people whom he endeavoured to 
 save. Yet could he not refrain from pour- 
 ing out his complaints to God against their 
 unjust treatment, and even praying that 
 He would repay them according to their 
 deserts. Job was a still more perfect ex- 
 ample of patience, proposed to us by St. 
 James, even in the New Law, as a model 
 every way worthy of our imitation. Still, 
 Job, when taxed by his friends with having 
 merited his sufferings, entered upon his 
 defence and, with some warmth, repelled 
 the charge. The Son of God, on the con- 
 trary, gave the first example of true perfect 
 patience, of suffering every excess of inflic- 
 tion in body and mind, in reputation and 
 soul, without opening His mouth to com- 
 plain, or to obtain the slightest mitigation 
 of what He had to endure. See Him from 
 head to foot one unbroken wound ! See 
 Hun in spirit desolate, disconsolate ! in
 
 ON THE LESSONS OF THE PASSION 21 
 
 property more truly stripped to nakedness 
 than Job ! not seated indeed upon a dung- 
 hill, but stretched upon a hard cross ! not 
 soothing the smart of a leprous sore with 
 a potsherd, but enduring the unalleviated 
 torture of a frame gashed and gored in 
 every part, inflamed into additional anguish 
 by the air and heat ! Hear Him provoked 
 by a clamorous rabble, by taunting priests, 
 by apostate followers, by blaspheming sol- 
 diers, by doubting friends, to clear His 
 character, and remove the imputations that 
 seem naturally to attach to Him ! See Him 
 more powerfully tempted, not only by the 
 interrogatories of Pilate, but by the afflic- 
 tions and tears of those whom He loves, of 
 John particularly and Mary, whose char- 
 acter appears involved in His, as much as 
 her afflictions depend upon His own. Yet 
 not a word escapes His lips of vindication 
 or complaint. Meek and silent to the end, 
 He bears the entire load placed upon Him 
 by His Father's hand, and bears it to the 
 end. If He speaks it is to comfort, to 
 pray, to forgive. What a school is this for 
 us to learn in ! how deep, yet how consoling
 
 22 THIRD MEDITATION 
 
 its lessons ! how should we draw nigh to it 
 in all our afflictions, in our inward trials, in 
 our desolation of spirit, in our disappoint- 
 ments or bereavements ! Christ then died 
 truly leaving us an example how we too 
 should suffer. He has taught us that perfect 
 patience which seeks no relief in complaint 
 or self- vindication, but throws itself entirely 
 into the arms of God, humbling us beneath 
 His powerfuliHand, and acknowledging the 
 justice of His sentence. 
 
 3. Affections. " How shall I sufficiently 
 thank Thee, my dearest Lord, for this kind 
 remembrance of my welfare, that led Thee 
 thus to teach me by word and deed lessons 
 which must cost Thee so dear ? For any 
 diminution of Thy sufferings would have 
 appeared, in some sort, to diminish in like 
 proportion the immensity of Thy meekness 
 and patience. It is recorded of an ancient 
 artist that he made model or canon of 
 perfection in the human frame, drawing 
 all the proportions of exact symmetry and 
 grace from all that he could discover fairest 
 in nature, that so he might have before 
 him a type of perfect beauty, by which his
 
 ON THE LAST StTPPER 5 3 
 
 works might be ever regulated. And if in 
 this vale of tears there be one state rather 
 than another that requires the guidance of 
 some blessed examples, it is that most com- 
 mon yet most difficult one of affliction and 
 trial. And here hast Thou, thrice Blessed 
 Jesus, put together all the beautiful virtues 
 which display perfection in that terrible 
 season, and having formed them into an 
 exquisite model in Thyself, hast elevated it 
 above us, and placed it before our eyes, that 
 we may ever study it, and transfer to our- 
 selves, so far as our frailty will allow us, its 
 exact image. Let me daily apply myself 
 to this study, and let me ever improve by 
 the contemplation of Thee upon Thy cross." 
 
 jFourtjj 
 
 ON THE LAST SUPPER 
 
 I. Keflect how the Church of God, having 
 for the whole of Passiontide turned the 
 attention of her children to the contem- 
 plation of her Lord's sufferingvS and death,
 
 24 FOURTH MEDITATION 
 
 in general ; throughout the three last days 
 of Holy Week passes historically through all 
 their parts, and as in a sacred drama sets 
 before our thoughts and hearts the minute 
 details of the mighty work of our Redemp- 
 tion. But Maundy Thursday seems as a 
 day marked with white in the calendar of 
 mourning days. The Church for a few 
 hours resumes her bridal garments, she 
 sounds forth unwonted hymns of joy, 
 gives utterance to her musical harmonies, 
 and even dresses in white the ensign of 
 Redemption upon her altars. Why this 
 brief but pathetic burst of gladness ? Is it 
 that she wishes to produce a more moving 
 contrast with the plunge into deeper sorrow 
 that shall immediately follow, the stripping 
 of her altars of even their plainest and 
 most necessary furniture, the extinguishing 
 of her lamps even before the shrines of her 
 dearest martyrs, the removal of her bread 
 of life, the object of her perpetual adora- 
 tion, from her tabernacles ? No, surely ; 
 for although such a transient gleam of joy 
 must greatly deepen the gloom of sorrow 
 that will anon succeed it, yet would not
 
 ON THE LAST SUPPER 2$ 
 
 the Church of the Lamb disguise her feel- 
 ings for any such artificial effects. It is 
 that she hath amidst the melancholy re- 
 collections of the Passion, one that cannot 
 be commemorated save in gratitude and 
 with praise. This is the institution of 
 those adorable mysteries wherein He per- 
 petuated the Commemoration, and applied 
 the fruits of His Eedemption to our souls. 
 Let us then dwell with tenderness upon 
 this His parting scene. Behold Him in 
 the chamber of the Pasch, reclining at 
 table, amidst His Apostles, yet uncon- 
 scious of the sorrowful scenes about to 
 ensue. They are as the youthful olives 
 about the table of their Lord, all except 
 one on whom a premature blight hath 
 descended, and who seems blasted and 
 withered by the curse of Heaven. Yet 
 only to the instructed eye of faith and 
 to the piercing glance of Jesus is this 
 "spot in their banquet" (Jude 12) visible, 
 so that it interrupts not their joy. Look 
 on the scene through the heart of John, 
 who reclines upon the bosom of his Lord. 
 Long had they, as well as Jesus, desired
 
 26 FOtJRTH MEDITATION 
 
 with anxious desire to eat this Passover, 
 wherein they had to receive the promised 
 Bread of Life. The moment is come : the 
 breast of the world's Redeemer seems to 
 heave with the expansion of love, about 
 to manifest itself with new magnificence ! 
 Into His spotless Hands He takes the 
 bread, and as He blesses it, how glows 
 His heavenly Countenance turned towards 
 heaven, what mild yet glowing rays of 
 love dart from His eyes ! How strangely 
 mingled do awe and affection fill the hearts 
 of the silent Apostles ! How do they hold 
 their breath, overpowered by the contend- 
 ing affections that so intensely absorb 
 every other faculty ! With what deep 
 astonishment they hear the solemn words, 
 " This is My Body." How reverently they 
 take the proffered morsel, and feel them- 
 selves incorporated with their Lord ! What 
 unwonted sweetness pervades their souls ! 
 What a new life and spirit seems to have been 
 infused into their entire beinor ! Then when 
 
 O 
 
 He takes the cup, and in like manner blesses 
 it and distributes it, with those wonder- 
 working words, " This is My Blood," oh !
 
 ON THE LAST SUPPER 27 
 
 how is all their ecstacy renewed, how the 
 sacred draught seems to penetrate in glow- 
 ing streams through all their veins, fraught 
 with peace, with tenderness, and love ! Oh, 
 who would not have given the world to have 
 been a partaker of that first Communion in 
 the Church of God, to have received the 
 Food of Life and the Cup of Salvation from 
 the Blessed Hands of Jesus, consecrated by 
 His own lips ? 
 
 2. Reflect how our Blessed Lord pro- 
 ceeded, after this testimony of His love, 
 to give us all a novel example of humility, 
 such as the world had never seen. For 
 rising from table, taking off His upper gar- 
 ments, and girding Himself with a towel, 
 He washed the feet of His disciples, one 
 by one. Imagine therefore to yourself the 
 utter astonishment of these men upon 
 seeing their Lord, whom they believed to 
 be the true Messiah, the Son of God, con- 
 descending to an act usually performed by 
 menial servants. How their hearts must 
 have melted, each in his turn, when they 
 saw Him kneeling before them, respect- 
 fully taking hold of their feet, and humbly
 
 28 FOURTH MEDITATION 
 
 washing and wiping them ! So overcome 
 were they, that not one of them had 
 courage to express his feelings, but pas- 
 sively submitted to the display of His 
 humility. But when He came to Peter it 
 was not so. He knew his own demerits; 
 once before, when Jesus had favoured him 
 by the miraculous draught of fishes, he 
 had reverently come before Him, and said 
 in the fulness of His heart, "Depart from 
 me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." If 
 he did not think himself worthy to be in 
 the company of his Lord, what must he 
 have thought of having his feet washed 
 by Him ! His heart could not stand it. 
 " Domine, tu lavas mihi pedes ? " he asks 
 in amazement. Thou, so great, so power- 
 ful, so pure and holy, wash the feet of so 
 lowly, so mean, so sinful a creature as I 
 am ? And even when Jesus insisted, he 
 still held out, exclaiming ; " Non lavabis 
 mihi pedes in seternum." So that it re- 
 quired all the authority of his Divine 
 Master to enforce his submission. But 
 when this warm-hearted disciple spoke thus, 
 he was at least free from sin. " He that is
 
 ON THE LAST SUPPER 2 9 
 
 washed," says our Blessed Lord to him, 
 " needeth not but to wash his feet, but is 
 clean throughout. And you are clean, but 
 not all" (John xiii. 10). If therefore so 
 strong were the feelings of the clean at 
 seeing themselves so treated by Jesus, what 
 must we suppose his to have been, who 
 forms the exception here implied ? Surely 
 Judas, conscious of the black guilt which 
 he harboured in his bosom-, aware that 
 the penetrating eye of Jesus had fully dis- 
 covered it, must have sat uneasy in his 
 place, as he saw his turn approach. It 
 would not be from fear that the meek 
 Lamb of God would betray him to the 
 indignation of his companions; it was not 
 that he feared lest Jesus should pass him by, 
 and thus show him to be the exception He 
 meant, but rather he dreaded the contact 
 of those Blessed Hands, he recoiled from 
 the idea of being affectionately, nay, reve- 
 rently served by one whom he was about 
 to use so foully. He thinks of Magdalen, 
 whom he had churlishly reproved for doing 
 towards Jesus much the same as Jesus is 
 about to do for him ; he feels how the
 
 30 FOURTH MEDITATION 
 
 sinner's place is at the feet of the offended 
 Lord, and not as now the very reverse. 
 Surely humanity must have abandoned the 
 heart of Judas, and gone to nestle in the 
 rocks that rent at our Lord's crucifixion, 
 that he did not start from his seat, and 
 casting himself on the ground, insist not 
 merely as Peter had done on declining the 
 honour intended him, but on washing the 
 feet of Christ, as Mary had done, with 
 tears. But turn away from him and look 
 rather at your Blessed Lord. Oh, unparal- 
 leled humility of the Son of God ! Oh, 
 unheard - of abasement of the King of 
 Heaven ! " Formam servi accipiens " in 
 truth almost more than elsewhere, " Seme- 
 tipsum exinanivit," He debased, He lowered 
 Himself below conception. Oh, contem- 
 plate Him in silence kneeling at the feet 
 of Judas, His own betrayer, who even at 
 that moment was plotting His destruction. 
 Did not an involuntary shudder pass over 
 His frame, as He took into His hands those 
 accursed feet, so swift to shed His blood, 
 and which in a few hours will bear their 
 Master to the halter and the precipice ?
 
 ON THE LAST SUPPER 31 
 
 No; with the same meekness, with the 
 same affectionate look and manner, as He 
 had washed the feet of John the beloved, 
 He washes those of the execrable traitor ! 
 
 3. Affections. " blessed festival, dear 
 to the Christian's loving thoughts ! so full 
 of moving recollections, so rich in mysteries 
 of graciousness and kindness to us poor 
 sinners ! holy-banquet day, when for 
 the first time the Table of God was spread 
 with the delicacies of kings, and wisdom 
 called aloud to the poor and the simple to 
 come and eat ! We hasten to it with joy 
 and alacrity. We come, Lord Jesus, faint 
 and weary, to be refreshed by Thee. Our 
 communion this day shall be in gratitude 
 for all that Thou hast suffered for us, and 
 in reparation to Thee for the scandals and 
 injuries committed against Thy adorable 
 body, by Christians, parallel only to those 
 committed against it by the Jews, on this 
 night of Thy Passion. We will transport 
 ourselves to the supper-room of Jerusalem, 
 and try to copy the feelings of Thy adoring 
 disciples : we will receive Thee with reve- 
 rential love, if possible greater than theirs,
 
 32 FOURTH MEDITATION 
 
 for we know the full mystery of Thy death 
 and redemption, as yet concealed from 
 them. But how shall I presume to sit 
 at Thy Table, unworthy sinner that I am ? 
 Behold, Thou hast condescended to wash 
 my soul, not in water, not in tears, but in 
 Thine own blood, warm from the loving 
 furnace of Thine own heart ! Behold, Thou 
 hast wiped away my uncleanness, not with 
 a napkin girt around Thee, not with Thy 
 hair, but with Thy very Body, the garment 
 of Thy humanity all rent and torn for this 
 purpose. May my tongue never cease to 
 bless and praise Thee for so much conde- 
 scension ; and let me ever seek occasion 
 to imitate Thy kindness, copying the ex- 
 ample of Thy abasement ; where I can to 
 the letter ; where this is not in my power, 
 in its spirit by charity and humility."
 
 JESUS IN THE GARDEN OF OLIVES 33 
 
 JHetJitatton 
 
 Preparation. Contemplate your Blessed 
 Redeemer prostrate on the ground which 
 He waters with His tears and blood, in 
 the Garden of Olives, while His Apostles 
 sleep at a distance. 
 
 i. Reflect that this is the first scene of 
 our Saviour's bitter Passion, or rather its 
 prelude or preparation. He had passed the 
 day in an occupation pleasant to His loving 
 heart. " Desiderio desideravi hoc pascha 
 manducare vobiscum." He had consoled 
 His afflicted disciples, saying, " Non tur- 
 betur cor vestrum neque formidet." He 
 had given them the last legacy of His love 
 by instituting the adorable Eucharist ; and 
 thus He had been employed on some of 
 the most consoling offices of His ministry. 
 It was therefore meet that between this 
 occupation and His dolorous Passion, there 
 should be an interval of separation, during 
 which He should in a manner be cut off 
 from all commerce with men, and should 
 
 C
 
 34 FIFTH MEDITATION 
 
 prepare His soul in silence and meditation 
 for the awful and terrible tragedy which 
 was to ensue. Further reflect how it was 
 just that the first blow should be struck 
 in a manner by His Eternal Father, whose 
 justice He had undertaken to propitiate. 
 Now this could only be done by the 
 abandonment of soul and utter desolation 
 of spirit into which He was allowed to 
 fall. For God was to strike Him by with- 
 drawing from Him the comforts and in- 
 terior happiness which often recompense a 
 soul in grace. Again, as the contemplation 
 of His Passion naturally fixes our thoughts 
 and sympathies upon His corporal suffer- 
 ings, and, indeed, divides them between 
 His sorrows and the detestable inhumanity 
 and injustice of His persecutors, we are 
 thereby apt to overlook the deeper suffer- 
 ings of the spirit ; therefore it was fitting 
 that there should be one portion of His 
 Passion wherein these griefs might be con- 
 templated alone, before bodily pain was 
 added to them, and wherein He should 
 appear without other persons, much more 
 wicked ones, to divide and diminish the in-
 
 JESUS IN THE GARDEN OF OLIVES 35 
 
 terest we ought to feel exclusively in His 
 Divine Self. Lastly, before being made to 
 endure the penalty of sin, it was proper 
 that, as far as He could, He should reduce 
 Himself to the condition of a sinner, by 
 placing before and upon Himself the entire 
 burden of human transgressions, and being 
 bent down by them to the earth, before 
 He felt the weight of that Cross upon His 
 shoulders, which might, under other cir- 
 cumstances, have appeared unjust. 
 
 2. Reflect how completely all this takes 
 place in the Garden of Olivet. There He 
 lies upon the ground in solitude, the crowd 
 far removed from Him, His chosen three 
 Apostles overwhelmed in deep slumber, and 
 deaf to His remonstrances and heedless of 
 His danger. He looks on His right hand 
 and on His left, and there is none to com- 
 fort Him. He is cut off completely from 
 all human sympathy. His Heavenly Father 
 seemeth to have withdrawn from Him the 
 light of His countenance, and His candle 
 no longer shineth on His head. When He 
 prays He seems not to be heeded, and 
 though He repeats His prayer again and
 
 36 FIFTH MEDITATION 
 
 again, a deaf ear seems to be turned to 
 all His supplications. Here He is alone, 
 with neither friend nor enemy near, aban- 
 doned to Himself, yet overwhelmed with 
 mortal anguish and agony, such as no 
 man else ever endured, and suffering more 
 in His soul during that brief hour than 
 He did in body during the remainder of 
 His Passion. There, in a word, He took 
 upon Himself the burden of our iniquities. 
 " Dominus posuit super eum iniquitates 
 omnium nostrum," and their weight not 
 only bowed Him down, but forced from 
 His pores an unprecedented sweat of blood, 
 the first-fruits of what He was about so 
 plentifully to shed. So overwhelmed is 
 He with grief, that one of His own angels 
 receives a mission to come and strengthen 
 Him! 
 
 3. Affections. Join company with this 
 blessed and chosen spirit who has come 
 down from heaven on so solemn and 
 sorrowful an errand, and say, " Oh my 
 good and gracious Jesus, drink, drink, I 
 humbly pray Thee, of this bitter cup, that 
 so I may be saved. It is true I have
 
 JESUS IN THE GAfcDEtf Of OLIVES 37 
 
 mingled it for Thee with bitter gall and 
 the foul ingredients of my hateful sins ; 
 but I know that Thou lovest me to that 
 degree that Thou wilt willingly drink it 
 all rather than that I should be lost as I 
 deserve. But, oh, let me add to it one 
 more ingredient which will make it sweet 
 to Thee, the tears of a sincere and loving 
 repentance. Be comforted some little with 
 the reflection that of those who have helped 
 to prepare for Thee this bitter portion, one 
 at least shall not be ungrateful for the 
 boundless love which has prompted Thee 
 to drink it. I at least will never forget 
 Thee upon this Thy holy mount, this mount 
 of unction and of light. I will never cease 
 to love Thee for all Thou wert pleased to 
 endure in the earliest stage of Thy Passion. 
 Often will I meditate on the grievous sor- 
 rows of Thy meek and gentle spirit, Thy 
 sinless soul, Thy loving heart, all of them 
 accepted and embraced that I might be 
 spared ; and as often will I repeat the 
 offering which now I make Thee of un- 
 divided affections and an eternal love."
 
 38 SIXTH MEDITATION 
 
 Sixtfj 
 
 THE SADNESS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 
 
 Preparation. Imagine Jesus prostrate 
 in prayer in the Garden. 
 
 i. Reflect how our Divine Redeemer 
 Himself described the inward sorrow and 
 anguish which He felt when He said, 
 " Tristis est anima mea usque ad mortem." 
 Men sometimes are struck down by a 
 sudden blow of wretchedness, as by the 
 unexpected death of some one most dear or 
 most necessary to them. But here there was 
 nothing of this sort. A short time before 
 Jesus had been entertaining Himself with 
 His Apostles, calmly and perhaps cheerfully. 
 Nothing since that had occurred which, 
 humanly speaking, might account for such 
 a change. It is an anguish, then, which 
 has sprung up as of itself in His heart ; it 
 is an inward sorrow, which has its root and 
 cause entirely within. Now, however we 
 may be able to conceive an unlooked-for 
 affliction, as the loss of all we possess, or of 
 some one we tenderly love, plunging us into
 
 SADNESS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 39 
 
 a frantic grief, we can hardly apprehend or 
 properly understand an inward grief pro- 
 ducing such mortal anguish as to be com- 
 parable, nay, far superior to those others, 
 in magnitude and intensity. What a weight 
 of inward sorrow must that of Jesus have 
 been which could warrant such a phrase, 
 "Tristis usque ad mortem." Moreover, 
 remember who it is that speaks thus. 
 Jesus was the Lord, not only of His own 
 life, but of all life. When therefore He 
 said that His Soul was sorrowful unto death, 
 it would seem as though He intimated that 
 His grief was sufficient to cause death even 
 in Him. At any rate, His words imply that 
 it was such as would have proved fatal to 
 any other person, not supported as He was 
 by the presence of the Divinity. But this 
 dreadful anguish appears most remarkable 
 when compared with the calm majesty of 
 His conduct during the remainder of His 
 Passion, His dignified silence and perfect 
 self-possession. This must have been there- 
 fore a truly overwhelming sorrow, a suffer- 
 ing more severe than any which followed it. 
 It was a sorrow of His Soul, and one which
 
 40 SIXTH MEDITATION 
 
 was more able to bring Him to His end, 
 had He not interposed His power, than the 
 violence of His executioners. 
 
 2. Eeflect how this state of sorrow is 
 described by the sacred writer, when he 
 says, " et factus in agonia prolixius orabat." 
 He calls it an agony. Jesus intended, at 
 the moment of His death, to reveal all His 
 greatness, and give, in yielding to the lot 
 of weak humanity, a strong proof of His 
 Divinity. It would have been an unworthy 
 spectacle to have seen Him writhing and 
 convulsed upon the cross. He breathed 
 His last there with power and majesty, so 
 that the very heathen centurion, upon see- 
 ing the manner of His death, was heard to 
 exclaim, " Truly this was the Son of God." 
 But then, as He was to be " a man acquainted 
 with sorrow," He would not leave one un- 
 tasted which we are exposed to, lest ia 
 anything we might want His example, and 
 say, " This is something more than Jesus 
 suffered ; here I am without His guidance." 
 As we must one day undergo, in all pro- 
 bability, this last death-struggle, He anti- 
 cipated it, as we may say, and underwent
 
 SADNESS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 4! 
 
 it, that we might see in what manner we 
 should endure it when our turn comes. But 
 what an agony must His have been ! In 
 others it takes place when nature is already 
 exhausted ; when the body can make but 
 little resistance to the hand of death ; when 
 the spirits are dull, the sensations blunted, 
 and the mind enfeebled almost to the verge 
 of unconsciousness. Yet even so it is a 
 fearful conflict, and painful to behold. 
 What, then, must it have been in Jesus ? A 
 real strength of death in life, an attempt 
 at usurpation by a strong and armed hand, 
 on the side of the destroyer, against the 
 wakeful and resisting powers of vitality. 
 In the vigour of youth, in the strength of 
 health, in the energy of a vigorous mind, 
 to feel an inward sorrow capable of causing 
 death, and to have to grapple with it, en- 
 during it so as not to let it effect its fatal 
 purpose, wrestling with it as Jacob with the 
 angel, through the dark hours of night alone, 
 uncomforted, unaided ! What a conflict ! 
 What a victory ! But, good God ! what a 
 sorrow that must have been which could 
 have produced such tremendous effects ;
 
 42 SIXTH MEDITATION 
 
 which could deserve to be so styled ; which 
 could, in truth, be considered the agony of 
 Jesus ! And what a violent and most 
 execrable cause there must have been to 
 raise in Him such grief ! And such truly it 
 was ; for it was sin. It was here, in truth, 
 that He took upon Himself the burden 
 which He was to bear of our iniquities. 
 This was the heavy wood, the fuel for His 
 sacrifice which was laid here upon the 
 shoulders of our Isaac, much heavier to 
 Him, and much more calculated to crush 
 Him to the ground than the material cross 
 which afterwards He could not carry. Yes, 
 now truly hath His dear but most righteous 
 Father laid upon Him the iniquities of us 
 all. What a frightful load ! What a debt 
 of more than ten thousand talents ? Here 
 He put on the person of the sinner, yea, of 
 all the sinners whom He came to redeem. 
 He felt Himself invested with their detest- 
 able offences, as Jacob was with the hairy 
 skins, to personate his evil brother, Esau ; 
 but then it was not for the purpose of steal- 
 ing a blessing, but of assuming a curse to 
 another due. Can I wonder now at His
 
 SADNESS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 43 
 
 soul being flooded with a deluge of new, 
 inexpressible grief, a sorrow unto death, an 
 overpowering agony? "With His hatred, 
 abhorrence for sin, to see Himself covered 
 and buried under the accumulated iniqui- 
 ties which man had committed, or should 
 commit, during the world's entire duration ! 
 3. Affections. " Yes, my dear Jesus, and 
 among them all mine, I am sure, must have 
 been most prominent ; for none has ever 
 offended Thee with greater ingratitude and 
 fouler baseness than I Lave. Cruel, cruel, 
 indeed have I been towards Thee ! When 
 I think that by sacrificing the gratification 
 of my worthless desires, I should have caused 
 a sensible diminution in that mountain of 
 iniquity which pressed upon Thee, and con- 
 sequently in the anguish which it caused in 
 Thy Blessed Soul, to think that it might have 
 been in my power to make Thee suffer less 
 than Thou actually didst suffer: and I would 
 not! Oh, what a bitter, what a cruel 
 thought ! Whenever, then, I am tempted 
 to sin and offend Thee, let me say to my- 
 self, ' There would be another of the stings 
 which went through the heart of Jesus in
 
 44 SEVENTH MEDITATION 
 
 the Garden ; there would be another of the 
 many bitter drops which I have poured into 
 His chalice of sorrows ; there would be one 
 more of the causes of His agony, of His 
 death-struggle in the Garden.' And if, 
 through Thy grace, I resist, let me be con- 
 soled by the thought that I have prevented 
 at least one additional pang in that sorrow- 
 ful night. And if I think of sin in this 
 manner, if I consider it ever in reference to 
 the effects it produced upon Thy most sacred 
 Heart on that Thy last night, surely I shall 
 be in no danger of yielding to the hateful 
 tempter who urges me to send another arrow 
 through it, and aggravate Thy already too 
 bitter sorrows." 
 
 .Sebentfj 
 
 THE FEARS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 
 
 Preparation. As in the previous medi- 
 tations, imagine Jesus in the Garden. 
 
 i. Reflect well upon those words of the 
 Gospel, " Coepit pavere et tsedere, et moestus 
 esse." The anguish of our Blessed Saviour
 
 FEARS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 45 
 
 was in no small measure made up of fear. 
 Of what could He be afraid, He who was 
 omnipotent, the Word of the Father, by 
 whom all things were made? Yet true it 
 is that He feared, and that vehemently, the 
 torments and death which then hung over 
 Him. He had, it is true, not only deter- 
 mined to endure them, but He had chosen 
 them, and voluntarily taken them upon 
 Himself for our redemption. He had kept 
 them before His eyes, without intermission, 
 during the thirty-three years of His life, 
 as the very object of His existence in His 
 humanity. But now that the time for en- 
 during them drew nigh, He for a while, if 
 so we may speak, allowed the feebleness of 
 His human nature to prevail over the power 
 of His Divine Nature, and (in a sense) balance 
 that resolute determination with which He 
 had till now looked forward to the day of 
 trial. And as the ordinary weaknesses of 
 the flesh, which lead to sin, could not assail 
 Him, He permits its shrinking dread of 
 pain to afflict Him with a terrible trial. 
 Grounds, indeed, there were in abundance 
 for such shrinking. For now the various
 
 46 SEVENTH MEDITATION 
 
 torments which He was separately to suffer 
 on the following day were presented to Him 
 all together, so that He could sum them up 
 and speak of them as the ingredients of one 
 chalice, presented to Him by His Heavenly 
 Father to be drunk off at a draught. We 
 all know from experience that the prospect 
 of some pain to be endured is often a severer 
 torture than the pain itself. But here was 
 more than a vague conception and imagina- 
 tion of what was almost immediately to 
 be endured ; more than a clear, vivid, and 
 perfect human anticipation of it, making 
 the suffering in mind equal to what the 
 reality would prove. It was with the light 
 of God, and the perfect knowledge of His 
 eternal wisdom, that this dismal and har- 
 rowing prospect was viewed. No wonder, 
 then, that the terror produced by this sight 
 should have been so extreme. 
 
 2. Reflect how it was not so much the 
 bodily sufferings He was about to undergo 
 that shook with such terror the Heart of the 
 Son of Man, but far more the cause for which 
 He was about to suffer them. It was the 
 burden of our sins which He chiefly dreaded.
 
 FEARS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 47 
 
 He was to assume the character of repre- 
 sentative, in its entire fulness, of our fallen 
 race, whose flesh and sinless infirmities He 
 had already taken. His abhorrence of sin, 
 as an offence against His Father, and conse- 
 quently against Himself, was a detestation 
 far beyond what it is in our power to ima- 
 gine. He could not have taken on Himself 
 our nature, if the step had involved the 
 condition of sinfulness, even that of the 
 smallest conceivable venial offence against 
 the Divine Law. Yet now He is to be over- 
 powered with the accumulated transgres- 
 sions of the entire race, from the sin of 
 Adam to the treachery of Judas, yea, to the 
 sacrilege of His own executioners. Can we, 
 then, wonder at His shrinking in horror and 
 dread from the idea of thus laying upon 
 Himself, with His own hands, so fearful a 
 load ? It is not a fear of being immolated, 
 as the lamb to take away sin, that oppresses 
 His Heart ; but a dread of being sent forth 
 as the emissary goat with the frightful crimes 
 of all the world upon His Head. But this 
 is not all. As the bearer of this load, He 
 necessarily becomes an object of the wrath of
 
 48 SEVENTH MEDITATION 
 
 His own Eternal and clear beloved Father ! 
 He, the dutiful, the most loving of sons, 
 who had but one Will with the Father, 
 who, throughout His mortal life, had been 
 the perfect pattern of all obedience and 
 docility, He who actually, at that moment, 
 was going to suffer that He might give 
 the first example of an obedience even unto 
 death, is under the wrath, to say no more, 
 of that tenderest of Fathers ! Oh, what 
 abundant cause of fear ! Who can wonder 
 that He dreaded so dark a state, and recoiled 
 before such a change ! But to those great 
 leading motives of fear to advance further in 
 His work, we may add others great in them- 
 selves, though smaller by comparison. He 
 finds Himself alone, to struggle against the 
 machinations of conspired enemies, against 
 the cruelties of enraged multitudes, single- 
 handed, without a friend to console Him, or 
 to sympathise with His numerous distresses. 
 He looks on His right hand and on His left, 
 and there is no one to comfort Him. It 
 would appear as though Divine Providence 
 had from this stage of His Passion until 
 Calvary itself, excluded His Blessed Mother,
 
 FEARS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 49 
 
 and the pious women, who would have given 
 Him some comfort, that so His abandon- 
 ment might be the more complete. 
 
 3. Affections. Endeavour in spirit to 
 supply the place of these His dear friends, 
 by sympathising with your afflicted Saviour; 
 and say, " My blessed and dear Saviour, 
 what an excess of love is this in Thee, to 
 stoop even to this lowest abyss of fear for 
 my redemption ; that nothing might seem 
 too bitter, nothing too lowly for Thy love 
 of me to undergo. When the terrors of 
 death shall compass me, let me think of 
 Thy sinless fears, and be comforted. Let 
 me not be thrown into despair at the 
 prospect of its sufferings, when I think how 
 Thy Divine self, to encourage Thy poor 
 servants, wert pleased to share their fears, 
 and give them an example of bearing them. 
 Let me in that hour call upon Thee, who 
 didst tremble in the Garden of Olives, and 
 let me find succour. And even now, let 
 this especial suffering of Thine be a comfort 
 to my heart, amidst the fears and anxieties 
 of my inward life, in the terrors of temp- 
 tation, in the fear of the world's censures, 
 
 r>
 
 5O EIGHTH MEDITATION 
 
 and in every other species of fear that can 
 oppress me. Let us, then, dear Lord, sym- 
 pathise together. Behold, many fears shake 
 me in my daily thoughts, especially when 
 I reflect on my manifold offences. Let us, 
 then, put our respective fears together, and 
 Thine shall prove a balm and a comfort to 
 mine. Mine are felt for sins that require 
 cure : Thine were felt as a remedy for sin. 
 Let Thine heal mine, and let me ever find 
 comfort and refreshment in the merciful 
 sufferings of that dread hour of Thy mortal 
 life." 
 
 THE PRAYER OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 
 
 Preparation. Represent to yourself your 
 Blessed Saviour prostrate on the ground, 
 earnestly repeating His prayer. 
 
 i. Reflect how every meditation, device, 
 or expression of man on the anguish and 
 fears of our dear Redeemer in the Garden 
 of Olives, falls far short of the idea of them 
 conveyed in the short prayer which He then 
 repeated. " Pater, si fieri potest, transeat
 
 PRAYER OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 51 
 
 a me calix iste." Alas, alas, my dear Jesus ! 
 art Thou reduced so low as this, to seem 
 to flinch before the bitter cup of suffering 
 which Thou hast proposed to drink for our 
 sakes ? Thou dost exhibit Thyself to Thy 
 angels, as though all but ready to abandon 
 the great work of our salvation, to retrace 
 the many steps Thou hast already taken, 
 rather than go through with the cruel 
 tragedy of which the prologue is already 
 so bitter ! How the cause of us poor crea- 
 tures seems to tremble for a moment in the 
 scale, while on one side weighed Thy re- 
 verence to the Eternal Father, for which all 
 Thy petitions merited to be heard, and on 
 the other Thy love for man and for each of 
 us in particular. How must Heaven have 
 stood for an instant in awful suspense to 
 see which should prevail ! But no ! Blessed 
 be Thou, my loving Jesus, for that clause 
 in Thy supplication, which decided its re- 
 sult in our favour. " Si fieri potest." Yes, 
 I well understand the meaning and immense 
 force of these words, pregnant as they are 
 with our eternal salvation. " If," it seems 
 to say, " this is compatible with Thy decrees
 
 52 EIGHTH MEDITATION 
 
 and promises that man shall be redeemed, 
 if it be reconcilable with My fixed deter- 
 mination to pay the entire price of his 
 ransom, and accomplish the work of his 
 salvation at any cost ; if this can be done 
 without My drinking of this chalice of 
 agony, then, and only then, remove it from 
 before Me. ' Pater, si fieri potest, transeat 
 a me calix iste.' " Oh, excess of love, which 
 would not take advantage of the authority 
 of the Divine power vested in Him ; while 
 it yielded His human nature to a struggle 
 so severe, to a suffering so acute, as made 
 it draw back in horror from the draught, 
 and entreat its removal, attaching to it 
 such a condition as presented no obstacle 
 to our salvation. For well did Jesus know 
 that He had recorded a previous caution 
 against the acceptance of His prayer thus 
 wrung from His soul by the agony of His 
 sufferings ; and that to the record in the 
 book of His Father's decrees, He had pre- 
 fixed those irrevocable words, "Behold, I 
 come." But do I wonder that He should 
 have recoiled from the cup offered to His 
 lips, or that He should have secured His
 
 PRAYER OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 53 
 
 obligation to drink it at all ? He recoiled 
 from it ; for what was in that cup ? Our 
 sins. He drank it nevertheless ; for what 
 was to be gained by drinking it ? Their 
 pardon and our salvation. Is not the whole 
 mystery at once solved ; the seeming con- 
 tradiction of desires completely explained ? 
 For if I cannot look back upon my sins, 
 even though (I trust) forgiven, without 
 confusion and horror, can I wonder that 
 the innocent Lamb of God should contem- 
 plate them with an infinite hatred and 
 abhorrence ? He saw that they would be 
 committed against Himself, in spite of all 
 He was suffering, and about to suffer, for 
 my sake. Still more, He had to take them 
 all upon Himself, to make Himself respon- 
 sible for them. Yet, w T hen I think how He 
 loved me, even more than His life, I cease 
 to be astonished to see how, notwithstand- 
 ing all repugnance, He quaffed the chalice 
 of my sins to its very dregs ! Oh, dear 
 Jesus, how shall I ever love Thee as I 
 ought ? 
 
 2. Reflect upon the goodness of your 
 loving Saviour, who was pleased, in the
 
 54 EIGHTH MEDITATION 
 
 midst of His dreadful agony, to bear you 
 ever in mind, by so ordering this brief 
 prayer as to make it a perfect model for 
 your imitation. As man, He prayed for 
 the removal of a temporal, though most 
 grievous calamity ; one which no mere 
 human strength could bear. He therefore 
 prayed with deep earnestness, repeating 
 again and again the same words, which 
 contained the object of His request. He 
 prayed with most profound devotion, pros- 
 trate upon the bare hard ground, bathed in 
 tears, filled with anguish and sorrow. He 
 prayed with untiring perseverance, return- 
 ing thrice to the same supplication, after 
 finding His disciples asleep and insensible 
 to His agony. What a model for us is 
 here ; that, instead of hurrying, with our 
 lips, through prayers formal and cold, and 
 being discouraged if we are not at once 
 heard, we should be truly in earnest in 
 every prayer, whatever its object, if we 
 really desire to receive what we ask. But 
 then, how truly did He resign the issue to 
 the will of God, as not being a thing of its 
 own nature necessary, " Verumtamen, non
 
 PRAYER OF JESTJS IN THE GARDEN 55 
 
 mea voluntas, sed tua fiat." This is the 
 true essential condition of all such en- 
 treaties ; that we seek not our own wills, 
 but the will of God. He knoweth what is 
 best for us, and will give it to us ; though 
 often He will accomplish His blessed will, 
 and our good, by refusing us our present 
 petition to give us something better. But 
 let us never cease to admire this most affec- 
 tionate token of our dear Redeemer's love, 
 who, even while undergoing such fearful 
 sufferings, would not allow an opportunity 
 to pass by that might instruct us, and make 
 us wise unto salvation. 
 
 3. Affections. " If I, my dear Lord, have 
 so much helped to mix for Thee this bitter 
 cup of pain and suffering, let me at least 
 share it with Thee. When the sons of 
 Zebedee had given way to a momentary 
 impulse of ambitious desire, Thou didst 
 bring them back to right feeling . by that 
 gentle question, 'Are you able to drink 
 of the cup whereof I shall drink ? ' Oh, 
 who could resist such a question ? Who 
 could refuse most cheerfully to answer, 
 ' Yes ' ? Who would decline to drink from
 
 56 EIGHTH MEDITATION 
 
 the same chalice, however bitter and nau- 
 seous the potion, which Thy blessed lips 
 have consecrated and sweetened ? Welcome, 
 then, my dear Saviour, any portion of Thy 
 chalice. I will drink of it willingly in all 
 afflictions, trials, and persecutions that I 
 may endure for Thy sake. So far from 
 shrinking from my duty in promoting Thy 
 glory and Thine own work of saving souls, 
 from any apprehension, I will glory in 
 afflictions, studying to bear them in the 
 spirit of Olivet, in the feeling that I am 
 paying back to Thee in kind, some small 
 portion of that generous love and tender 
 kindness which made Thee suffer so much 
 for me. I will drink of that chalice with 
 compunction, in the bitterness of my grief 
 for sin, in detestation of my offences against 
 Thee, my loving Saviour. Often will I 
 weep over them in the garden of affliction, 
 in company with Thee ; and thus atone 
 for the suffering with which I there over- 
 whelmed Thy tender Heart. I will drink 
 lovingly from Thy own blessed chalice upon 
 Thine altar, that calix meus inebrians et 
 prceclarus, wherein I will daily commemo-
 
 JESUS FINDS HIS APOSTLES ASLEEP 57 
 
 rate Thy Passion and death, receiving the 
 awful yet most sweet draught of Thy ador- 
 able Blood, which Thou didst shed for me 
 in Thy prayer. And in the end, grant me, 
 dear Jesus, that I may drink it with Thee 
 new, in the kingdom of Thy Father, when 
 face to face I may thank Thee for all Thou 
 hast done and endured on my behalf." 
 
 $tnrtj Hesitation 
 
 JESUS FINDS HIS APOSTLES ASLEEP 
 
 Preparation. Represent to yourself your 
 Saviour thrice returning to the three Apostles 
 whom He had left at a short distance, and 
 each time finding them fast asleep. 
 
 i. Reflect how our dear Redeemer in the 
 Garden seemed doomed to every species of 
 abandonment, and to be shut out from all 
 comfort. For He had singled out from the 
 rest of His Apostles the three who had most 
 reason to be attached to His person, and 
 who had shown themselves the most zealous 
 on various occasions. And though He re- 
 tired a short distance from them to pray
 
 58 NINTH MEDITATION 
 
 alone, yet He seemed to wish to have them 
 still near Himself. Judge, then, of His 
 bitter disappointment, when, on returning 
 to them, He finds them sunk on the ground 
 in deep slumber. Was this the fruit of His 
 pathetic discourse but a few hours before? 
 Is this the only result of the confident 
 promises made by His disciples ? Is this 
 James, one of the two who had once de- 
 sired fire to come down from heaven to 
 consume those who would not receive his 
 Master? Is this John, who so shortly 
 before had leaned his head upon His bosom? 
 Is this Peter, who had expressed himself 
 ready to die with Him, and protested that 
 he would never abandon so good a Lord? 
 Are these the three who were chosen to be 
 the sole spectators of the glorious vision on 
 Mount Thabor ; and was there not sufficient 
 evidence and encouragement in that scene 
 to support them through the gloomier hour 
 which now awaits them ? But Divine Pro- 
 vidence so disposed it, that, abandoned for 
 a time to the weakness of their own nature, 
 they should be overcome by heaviness, and 
 so unable to give their suffering Master the
 
 JESUS FINDS HIS APOSTLES ASLEEP 59 
 
 mite of consolation which their sympathy 
 might have afforded Him. But if the first 
 time He came to them, it was afflicting to 
 Him to find them sleeping, how much more 
 grievous was it on His second return ! For 
 just before, on His first, He had lovingly 
 reproved them for their unseasonable rest 
 and drowsiness, saying, "What, could ye 
 not watch one hour with Me ? Watch ye 
 and pray, that ye enter not into tempta- 
 tion. The spirit indeed is willing, but the 
 flesh is weak " (Matt. xxvi. 40, 4 1 ). What 
 mild and gentle words on so trying an 
 occasion ! After having remonstrated with 
 them for their supineness, He seeks Him- 
 self to excuse it, so as to save their love 
 for Him from all blame. He casts all the 
 fault on their natural infirmity, not on 
 any personal negligence. Oh, how gentle 
 should we be in reproving others, and in 
 excusing their seeming neglects, or their 
 inattention to our wishes ! Three times 
 did the meek Jesus suffer the same dis- 
 appointment, and each time with the same 
 forgiving spirit. The second time He re- 
 turned He said nothing to them ; the first
 
 60 NINTH MEDITATION 
 
 reproach ought to have aroused them from 
 their lethargy, but failing this, He retired 
 in silence to prayer. And the third time, 
 seeing their exceeding weariness, He would 
 urge them no longer, but bade them sleep 
 on. It is thus that He pardons our daily 
 relapses, when He sees that we offend 
 through frailty. In this manner He visits 
 us again and again, in the hope of inciting 
 us by His forgiving and patient conduct to 
 greater watchfulness and care. But alas ! 
 we sleep and slumber on, and forget our 
 dangers ; till at last the hour of trial comes 
 and takes us unawares. 
 
 2. Reflect upon the practical lessons we 
 may learn from this afflicting and humbling 
 scene. The Garden was to Christ and to 
 His Apostles a preparation for the respec- 
 tive parts they were to bear in the ensuing 
 Passion. To Jesus, it was to be one of 
 unmitigated suffering that would need an 
 unshaken resignation. He prayed there- 
 fore earnestly for it ; He meditated on the 
 fruits and consequences which were to ensue 
 from His patient endurance ; and He ob- 
 tained it, and went forth to His task armed
 
 JESUS FINDS HIS APOSTLES ASLEEP 6 1 
 
 and strengthened for every extreme, and 
 ready to drink to its dregs the cup prepared 
 for Him by His Father. The part of the 
 Apostles was one of trial and danger; the 
 Shepherd was to be struck, and the natural 
 consequence was that the sheep would be 
 dispersed ; they were to see their Master 
 subject to every ignominy, and it was 
 likely they would be scandalised in Him. 
 Satan had desired to have them, that he 
 might sift them as wheat ; and against 
 all these dangers they had been shown 
 the safeguard watchfulness and prayer. 
 " Vigilate et orate, ne intretis in tenta- 
 tionem." The Apostles neglected this pre- 
 paration for the hour of trial ; Peter above 
 all, whose boasting had been the loudest, 
 and whose professions the strongest, and 
 whose dangers had been pronounced the 
 greatest, neglected the admonitions of his 
 Master ; and when the hour of trial came, 
 of course he failed, and that in a twofold 
 manner. First, aroused on a sudden from 
 his sleep by the tumultuous assault of 
 Judas' band, unprepared as to what he 
 ought to do, unacquainted through his
 
 62 NINTH MEDITATION 
 
 neglect with the spirit in which his Divine 
 Lord willed to meet His sufferings, he un- 
 sheathes his weapon, rushes inconsiderately 
 upon a much larger force, and strikes and 
 grievously wounds one of the High Priest's 
 servants. No doubt, such a deed of in- 
 effectual violence was amply revenged by 
 the ruffians upon the person of our dear 
 Saviour, by an aggravation of their blows 
 and insults ; so that the imprudence of the 
 disciple seemed to add to the injury of his 
 Master. Secondly, after having made him- 
 self notorious and obnoxious by so active a 
 partisanship, he proceeds to expose himself 
 to the danger of a contest with men most 
 interested in his disgrace. We are here in 
 our state of preparation ; told now to 
 watch and pray that we may pass safely 
 through the trials that await us, in co- 
 operating, in some sort, with Jesus in 
 the work of saving mankind. And if we 
 now neglect these duties, if we study not 
 to imbibe the true spirit of our vocation, 
 what can we expect but that, by our rash- 
 ness, and want of meek and charitable 
 bearing, we shall injure the cause of our
 
 JESUS FINDS HIS APOSTLES ASLEEP 63 
 
 Master, or by our ignorance and impru- 
 dence betray it ? 
 
 3. Affections. " adorable Jesus ! ever 
 meek and kind, how wert Thou abandoned 
 by all in Thine hour of trouble and dark- 
 ness, without even the sympathy of a 
 friend ? And yet, while at this moment I 
 compassionate Thy distress, how often canst 
 Thou address me in the same reproving 
 words as Thou didst Thy sleeping disciples, 
 ' Could you not watch one hour with Me ? ' 
 Alas ! to my shame and confusion I own it, 
 often has an hour of prayer, an hour spent 
 in Thy blessed company, seemed to me long 
 and irksome ! How often have I shor- 
 tened the already too short time allotted 
 to this holy exercise ! Again and again, 
 too, I have found it burdensome to fix my 
 thoughts, for half that time, upon the medi- 
 tation of Thy sufferings ; yea, of these very 
 sufferings of Thine in the Garden of Olives. 
 Oh ! give me strength and grace often and 
 often to spend a much longer space of time 
 in this holy contemplation, and in watching 
 beside Thee in Thy Passion. And let me, 
 I pray Thee, ever be alive to the conse-
 
 64 TENTH MEDITATION 
 
 quences of neglecting those duties during 
 the season of preparation ; that so when 
 the day of trial comes, I may be found 
 ready, and not suffered to fall away." 
 
 Eentfj jHetittatton 
 
 OUR SAVIOUR'S SWEAT OF BLOOD 
 
 Preparation. Represent to yourself your 
 Saviour stretched on the ground in His 
 prayer in the Garden. 
 
 i. Reflect upon the wonderful evidence 
 here given us of the severity of our dear 
 Redeemer's sufferings in this His agony ; 
 of which the holy Evangelist tells us, " Et 
 factus est sudor ejus sicut guttse sanguinis 
 decurrentis in terram." The inward agony 
 of Jesus's soul could not but outwardly 
 manifest itself; the Blood which first drew 
 back round His heart, in the chill of His 
 first desolation and fear, burst forth with 
 new and terrible energy into its course, and 
 breaking through its channels, overflowed, 
 oozing out through the pores. It gathered 
 first as a dew upon His skin, and then
 
 OUE SAVIOUR'S SWEAT OF BLOOD 65 
 
 trickled down His blessed limbs, till it 
 flowed upon the ground. What a fever of 
 agony must have first burnt through His 
 veins ; what a throb of mortal pain must 
 have beat at His temples ; what a deadly 
 suffocation must have oppressed His heart, 
 before nature or the Hand of His Heavenly 
 Father brought that relief! Relief! how 
 truly in character with the rest of His 
 Passion ; where, when He is -worn-out by 
 His scourging, He is seated on a throne of 
 ignominy to be crowned with thorns ; when 
 He is faint with thirst, refreshed with gall 
 and vinegar. So here, when He is fevered 
 with anguish, He is relieved by a sweat of 
 Blood ! Merciful God ! is this the only 
 species of compassion which Thy beloved 
 Son Jesus is destined to experience through 
 the sufferings that await Him ? But if 
 there was in this outbreak of inward, pent- 
 up sorrow some measure of relief, we may 
 also imagine what a cause of exhaustion it 
 must have been to the delicate frame of our 
 beloved Saviour. For if a slight fever, re- 
 solving itself into a natural and refreshing 
 heat, does yet so exhaust us, that for many 
 
 E
 
 66 TENTH MEDITATION 
 
 hours we are unfit to attend to our ordi- 
 nary and comparatively easy occupations, 
 we may judge how little qualified He must 
 have been, after so unusual and so trying 
 a drain upon His fevered body, to begin 
 a career of bodily inflictions, sufficient to 
 have overcome one strong and previously 
 unexhausted. 
 
 He was already stretched upon the 
 ground, unable to support His own weight ; 
 judge, then, if He was in a condition to be 
 bound with cords, beaten, and dragged into 
 Jerusalem. It seems, indeed, as though it 
 had pleased Him and His Eternal Father 
 to increase at once the intensity of Plis 
 sufferings, and the miracle of His patience, 
 by reducing Him at the outset to this most 
 pitiable condition. 
 
 2. Reflect how here, almost for the first 
 time, appears the price of our redemption, 
 and under circumstances peculiarly touch- 
 ing, containing an appeal to our hearts. 
 Hail, then, with all affection these bright 
 drops of His most Precious Blood, these 
 ruby jewels, that form one large instalment 
 of the payment of thy ransom ! Greet with
 
 OUR SAVIOUR'S SWEAT OF BLOOD 67 
 
 all love and reverence this earnest pledge 
 which thy Lord gives thee beforehand, that 
 even His life, and the warm stream that 
 circulates through His frame, shall be lav- 
 ished upon thee. Draw nigh, as the young 
 ones of the pelican do, when the mother 
 pierces her own breast, and gives them her 
 own heart's blood for nourishment. For 
 here is no lash, no thorn, no nail, no spear 
 to wound the flesh of your dear Saviour; 
 but He Himself seems to have opened the 
 fountains of life, and bid them flow before 
 their time, that so we, His dear ones, might 
 partake of them, before His wicked enemies 
 come to disturb, and in a manner to pro- 
 fane them, by their barbarous and sacrile- 
 gious treatment. This is the juice of that 
 precious Vine, flowing spontaneously forth, 
 before the wine -press hath crushed, and 
 bruised, and disfigured it. This is the 
 virgin-balm that exudes from this sacred 
 plant, before men have cut its stem, and 
 violently and irreverently caused it to 
 flow. It is unmixed with that mysterious 
 water which denoteth death ; every drop is 
 brilliant, pure, and untempered, filling for
 
 68 TENTH MEDITATION 
 
 Us a chalice of salvation, in return for the 
 cup of bitterness which He has just re- 
 ceived at our hands ! But hold ! Is there 
 then no executioner near, that causes such 
 clear marks of severe suffering ? Must 
 there not be some adequate agency, inward 
 at least, to produce so awful a result ? 
 Alas, alas ! too truly there is ; and this 
 Blood is in truth every drop of it ours ; as 
 being shed immediately and entirely by 
 our sins. As surely as Moses struck the 
 rock, and caused the refreshing waters to 
 flow, so certainly has the cruel blow of our 
 manifold sins opened the Heart of Jesus, 
 and unlocked the waters of salvation there. 
 While then we love with peculiar tender- 
 ness this great step in the bloody sacrifice, 
 let a deep and feeling sorrow mingle with 
 our affection ; and let us repay this spon- 
 taneous flow of Blood, by a no less sponta- 
 neous and ample flow of tears. Oh, that 
 they could be tears of blood ! Surely none 
 but martyrs have ever repaid in any sense 
 as they ought this charity of their Saviour, 
 by washing their garments in blood, and so 
 being worthy to follow in His train. But
 
 OUR SAVIOUR'S SWEAT OF BLOOD 69 
 
 let us at least honour and love Him in our 
 hearts the more, so far as our weakness 
 will allow us. The robe in which He now 
 appears, this delicate veil of His own sacred 
 Blood which covers His body, is fairer and 
 brighter to our mind than the dazzling 
 whiteness of His raiment on Thabor. Truly 
 may we say of Him, " Quis est hie, qui 
 venit de Edom, tinctis vestibus de Bosra? 
 iste formosus in stola sua " (Isa. Ixiii.). 
 Yes, this is the robe which best becomes 
 Him in our eyes who have sinned against 
 Him, and have been redeemed by His ador- 
 able Blood. Let us then never be wearied 
 with meditating upon this stage of our 
 dear Saviour's Passion, on which some of 
 the most contemplative saints have dwelt 
 the most frequently, and with the greatest 
 fruit. For Jesus, wounded and brutally 
 mangled, is a spectacle beyond the ordi- 
 nary lot of humanity, and not likely to be 
 ever, in the strictest sense, a model for our 
 imitation. But Jesus afflicted under the 
 strong hand of God is an example for each 
 of us, in those dark hours which Divine 
 Providence may justly or mercifully send
 
 70 TENTH MEDITATION 
 
 us. Oh, let the Bloody Sweat of the Son 
 of God be then our comfort and support ! 
 
 3. Affections. " Blessed and most ami- 
 able Jesus, the more Thou art cast down 
 and afflicted upon earth, the higher Thou 
 art exalted in my heart and affections. 
 The nearer Thou seemest to approach the 
 most afflicted condition of humanity, the 
 more I recognise and venerate in Thee the 
 splendour of Thy Divinity. A mere man 
 sent on an errand from God, the noblest 
 of the prophets, could not have afforded 
 to sink so low in the scale of humanity, 
 without risking the reverence of his office 
 But Thou becomest greater in proportion 
 as Thou dost make Thyself less, and the 
 more sublime as Thou appearest to sink 
 the more. But one thing Thou must cer- 
 tainly become, unless I be a monster of 
 unfeeling ingratitude ; dearer and dearer 
 to me, in the same measure as Thou art 
 more afflicted and abased. In the centre 
 then of my heart I embrace Thee, and 
 at the same time adore Thee. By that 
 precious Blood which consecrated Olivet, 
 purer and richer than the dew of Hermon,
 
 JESUS IS COMFORTED BY AN ANGEL 7 1 
 
 I entreat Thee to wash my corrupt heart 
 clean from every stain of sin. Let but one 
 of those precious drops fall upon it, and it 
 shall be thoroughly cleansed, and perfectly 
 sanctified, and, like that hill of unction, a 
 place of prayer and of resignation, of ex- 
 piation and of comfort, of sorrow and of 
 love. Tears of contrition shall repay Thy 
 sweat of Blood, and the joy of a repenting 
 sinner shall compensate Thine agony of 
 grief." 
 
 Jftefcitation 
 
 i. Reflect how the Gospel informs us 
 that while Jesus was in His agony in the 
 Garden, " there appeared to Him an Angel 
 from heaven, strengthening Him." What 
 an idea does not this circumstance give us 
 of our Saviour's (Luke xxii. 43) distress ! 
 It would appear as though pity were at 
 length wrung from Heaven, as though the 
 agony were too severe to be any longer 
 witnessed, without some relief being sent 
 to Him. His disciples are asleep, and
 
 72 ELEVENTH MEDITATION 
 
 need rather His support, every other friend 
 is at a distance ; earth consequently can 
 do nothing for Him, and Heaven must 
 therefore minister all the comfort He can 
 be allowed. Will not the heavens then 
 open with a bright and glorious splendour, 
 and the Holy Spirit descend upon His 
 head, as He did on the bank of Jordan ? 
 Or will a bright cloud overshadow Him, 
 and the same voice of adoption and com- 
 placency be heard as was repeated on 
 Thabor ? Or will merely a voice be heard, 
 like thunder, saying that the Father hath 
 glorified Him and will glorify Him again ? 
 But if this comfort has on this occasion 
 to be committed to inferior ministry, a 
 multitude surely of the heavenly host, 
 such as sung " Glory to God" at His birth, 
 will be sent in a brightness that shall 
 dispel, as it then did, the darkness of night. 
 How eagerly will the legions of angels 
 press forward to be sent on such an errand 
 of comfort to Him whom they so love ! 
 Alas ! the time for glory is riot ; it is 
 both past and to come. It is now the 
 season of humiliation ; and it is so ordered
 
 JESUS IS COMFORTED BY AN ANGEL 73 
 
 that even the comfort administered, be- 
 cause become as it were necessary, should 
 be accompanied with this feeling. One 
 solitary angel glides down unperceived 
 from heaven, and appears at His side ! 
 One of His own creatures, one of His 
 own servants offering Him relief! One of 
 His own host encouraging and support- 
 ing Him ! Nay, more ; even strengthen- 
 ing Him ! As though He were become 
 powerless and could no longer support 
 Himself, but needed the strength which 
 an angel could lend Him. Oh ! what an 
 afflicting spectacle to that blessed spirit, 
 who probably as yet knew not the full 
 extent of the mystery of Redemption ! 
 How distressing to him, if he under- 
 stood not wherefore was all this suffering 
 endured, to see his Lord and Master re- 
 duced to such a sad condition, lying on 
 the ground bedewed with His own blood 
 that trickled down during His agony ! Or, 
 if the counsel of God had been revealed 
 to him, and he was aware that it was for 
 the ransom of guilty man, and if we may 
 imagine feelings akin to ours to have
 
 74 ELEVENTH MEDITATION 
 
 passed through his mind, must not a sort 
 of indignation have been aroused in him, 
 at thinking how little our race was worthy 
 of such a Victim, and of such immolation ! 
 What a specimen he might be supposed 
 to think he had before his eyes of the 
 value which men would set upon this 
 painful work of Redemption, in the sound 
 slumber of the three chosen Apostles, who 
 had been wakened and begged to watch 
 and pray, because the soul of Jesus was 
 sorrowful even unto death, yet still slept 
 on ! If hardy soldiers on the field of 
 battle will weep like women, when they 
 see their general lying mortally wounded, 
 and are called to take him apart, how 
 must that loving minister have sorrowed, 
 when he witnessed his Lord in such a 
 condition, and had to undertake the task 
 of comforting Him ! But still most 
 happy of all the celestial choirs to have 
 been selected for such a task, and to have 
 been the sole witness of the sorrows and 
 agony of that night ! How wilt thou 
 remember for eternity that solemn and 
 awful spectacle, so full of love for us ?
 
 JESUS IS COMFORTED BY AN ANGEL 75 
 
 Surely some badge of brighter glory must 
 distinguish thee, that we, when we are 
 admitted to the company of the blessed 
 spirits, may be able to single thee out, 
 and thank thee lovingly for the part thou 
 dischargedst that night towards our dear 
 Jesus. 
 
 2. Reflect how would this happy angel 
 proceed to discharge his task of consol- 
 ing and strengthening our Blessed Savi- 
 our. Would he endeavour to show Him 
 that the pains He was about to endure 
 were not so grievous as He had imagined, 
 that the stripes and buffets, the insults 
 and scoffs were more severe and painful 
 in anticipation than in reality, that the 
 thorns and the nails would oijly produce 
 one temporary pang, and all would be 
 over? Would he in other words try to 
 disguise what He had to undergo, or to 
 abate its extremity, as physicians are wont 
 to do to one on whom is about to be 
 inflicted a painful and dangerous opera- 
 tion ? Or would he comfort Him as the 
 minister of God does one who is con- 
 demned to death, and has to undergo
 
 7 6 ELEVENTH MEDITATION 
 
 the extreme sentence of the law, by 
 inculcating resignation to a fate that 
 has been merited ? Or would he address 
 himself to the assuaging of the deeper 
 sorrow endured for sin, and represent to 
 Him that the load of guilt which He had 
 taken, and which pressed so heavily upon 
 Him, was exaggerated in fancy, and that 
 there was no reason for such excessive 
 grief? Alas! all these ordinary modes 
 of consolation were shut out, founded as 
 they are either upon deceit or real com- 
 mission of guilt, neither of which could 
 have place, the one in the messenger of 
 heaven, or the other in Him to whom 
 he was sent. There could be no comfort 
 admitted which in aught should pretend to 
 mitigate the rigour of the coming Passion, 
 or to temper the unqualified bitterness of 
 the cup now before him. Could we then 
 imagine that blessed spirit addressing Him 
 thus: "Refuse not, Blessed Lord, the 
 chalice which Thy Father offers Thee, and 
 which Thou hast long since accepted. It 
 is indeed nauseous and disgusting to Thee, 
 but love presents it, and love will requite
 
 JESUS IS COMFORTED BY AN ANGEL 77 
 
 it. It is true that to-night and to-morrow 
 Thou shalt suffer much, Thy body shall 
 be racked and rent, Thy honour shall be 
 blighted, Thy affections wounded, Thy 
 head more crowned with ignominy than 
 with thorns, Thy hands more transfixed 
 by public disgrace than by the nails, Thy 
 heart more deeply pierced by sorrow and 
 anguish than by the lance. But still 
 remember what gratitude and love await 
 Thee in return : think how the millions, 
 whom Thou shalt to-morrow purchase, will 
 strive with one another who shall best 
 display his ardent affection, and shall most 
 adequately requite by deeds this Thy ex- 
 cessive kindness. It is for a feeling race 
 that Thou art about to die ; it is against 
 unfailing and boundless love from all man- 
 kind that Thou art about to exchange a 
 few hours of suffering and one moment 
 of death. No more shalt Thou be out- 
 raged by those on whose behalf Thou art 
 so profuse of blood and life. Earth from 
 henceforth, watered by the streams that 
 are now flowing on it, shall bud salvation, 
 and put forth fruits of holiness ! " Ah !
 
 78 ELEVENTH MEDITATION 
 
 would not such consolation, if attempted, 
 have been so much gall, so much poison 
 added to the cup which Jesus already 
 loathed ? Would not such promises, how- 
 ever natural and rational, have stung Him 
 to the heart, conscious as He was how 
 exactly the reverse the consequence of 
 His Passion would be ? Nothing then 
 remained for this angel to do, but in the 
 words of the sacred text to strengthen 
 Jesus that is to say, to encourage Him 
 to the complete and unqualified draining 
 of His cup. He can only place before 
 Him the will of His Heavenly Father, and 
 His own voluntary acceptance ; and urge 
 Him on to the fulfilment of His work, 
 in spite of its pains and toils, in spite, 
 moreover, of the base ingratitude that 
 would requite it ; and of the infamous 
 return of sin and vice that would be made 
 Him! 
 
 3. Affections. " Divine Saviour of 
 our souls, far from Thy servants be this 
 unfeeling conduct ! Far from us be the 
 meanness of heart which it supposes, but 
 let our hearts glow with gratitude for so
 
 JESUS IS COMFOKTED BY AN ANGEL 79 
 
 much unmerited love, such self-devotion 
 as Thou showedst to our welfare ! Even 
 beyond an angel's power to comfort is 
 Thy sorrow ; Thy grief is without cure, 
 and Thou hast none to bear it with Thee. 
 Every arm that would rise in Thy behalf 
 is tied down ; and the blessed spirit that 
 stands before Thee must be content to 
 be a sorrowful spectator of Thy enemies' 
 approach must see Judas sacrilegiously 
 kiss Thee without striking him to the 
 ground, and behold Thee bound and borne 
 away without power to help Thee. Oh ! 
 let it not be so with us at our last 
 moments. Let Thy guardian angel stand 
 beside our bed of sickness, not merely 
 to comfort, but to defend us. Let him, 
 during our silent agony, whisper to us 
 topics of Divine consolation, reminding 
 us of the boundless mercies of our God, 
 and of the merits of this Thy agony, 
 strengthening us to bear the sorrows of 
 death, and encouraging us to look for- 
 ward to the price of our redemption ; 
 but, at the same time, breaking through 
 the toils of perdition, chasing away the
 
 8o TWELFTH MEDITATION 
 
 terrors of hell, and bringing to nought 
 the machinations of the enemy of our 
 salvation. Let us in that hour find com- 
 fort and peace in the remembrance of Thy 
 agony and sweat of blood in the Garden 
 of Olives, and let us in that hour receive 
 the fruit of our frequent and loving medi- 
 tation upon this stage of Thy Passion. 
 
 Hesitation 
 
 OUR SAVIOUR'S RESIGNATION 
 
 Preparation. -- Represent to yourself 
 Jesus, as in former meditations, stretched 
 upon the ground in prayer. 
 
 i . Reflect how, during His blessed agony, 
 our Divine Redeemer never ceased to pos- 
 sess His soul in patience, and never under 
 His most dreadful anguish of mind forgot 
 the duty of thorough resignation to the 
 will of His Eternal Father. It is true that 
 during this anxious trial His soul revolted 
 from the chalice prepared for Him, and the 
 feelings of humanity shrunk from facing 
 the course of suffering that awaited Him,
 
 OUR SAVIOUR'S RESIGNATION 81 
 
 but still the complete conformity of His 
 human with His Divine will, never allowed 
 the smallest opposition between the two, 
 or the rebellion of the one against the 
 
 O 
 
 other. Hence, if He prayed that the cup 
 presented to Him might pass away, He 
 was careful to add " non mea voluntas, sed 
 tua fiat." If Jesus had not inserted in His 
 prayer this saving clause, what would have 
 become of us ? His prayer could not but 
 be heard, " exauditus est pro sua reve- 
 rentia ; " had He unconditionally prayed 
 that the hateful draught should be removed 
 from His presence, His petition must have 
 been granted. But blessed be His name, 
 He resigned Himself for our sakes, and so 
 became the willing Victim for our sins. 
 But to estimate the fulness of this volun- 
 tary sacrifice, we must consider that it was 
 made with full knowledge of its extent. 
 When we make an act of resignation, we 
 seldom do it with a clear perception of 
 what we are about to suffer. If illness 
 surprise us, we perhaps throw ourselves 
 into the arms of Divine Providence, and 
 resign ourselves to God's will ; but we have
 
 82 TWELFTH MEDITATION 
 
 no idea whether we shall suffer much or 
 little, for a long or for a short period, and 
 hope, that never abandons our bedside, 
 flatters us into the belief that our suffer- 
 ings shall be light and brief. Nay, we are 
 not a little encouraged to the practice of 
 such resignation, by the idea that it will 
 alleviate our pain. But the resignation of 
 Jesus in the Garden of Olives was a yield- 
 ing up of Himself to a series of cruel in- 
 flictions, all clearly and distinctly visible 
 to His mind, yea, as completely so as if 
 they were at that moment actually made. 
 There was here no room, even supposing 
 there had been the will, to practise any 
 self-deceit ; the duration, the nature, and 
 the intensity of the pains and griefs about 
 to be endured, were known in all their 
 exactness of detail. Nor was this all. For 
 when we resign ourselves, we know before- 
 hand that we can only suffer at each 
 moment its proper share of pain ; whereas 
 Jesus, in the very instant wherein He re- 
 signed Himself, endured them all cumu- 
 latively in mind and heart. For the sense 
 of them was so lively that He might be
 
 OUR SAVIOUR'S RESIGNATION 83 
 
 said actually to feel rather than to con- 
 template them. And to them thus pre- 
 sented to Him, He yielded Himself up. 
 Oh ! truly wonderful excess of virtue such 
 as became Thee, most Blessed Lamb of God, 
 such as we can never have an opportunity 
 of copying, for never can we have such a 
 perception of suffering, nor take in at once 
 into the grasp of a single act of this virtue 
 such a weight of tribulation and sorrow, so 
 accurately foreseen and so sensibly fore- 
 tasted ! Only to Thy suffering was Thy 
 resignation commensurate ; only to Thy 
 light and knowledge was Thy acceptance 
 of sorrow proportioned. 
 
 2. Keflect how this resignation of our 
 Blessed Redeemer was not as with us a 
 mere passive virtue, but a great courageous 
 act. For, contrast His language and con- 
 duct before and after He had made His 
 final resolution. " Pater, si fieri potest. 
 transeat a me calix iste ; " such was His first 
 prayer, and so He repeatedly expressed 
 Himself during the dark hour of His deso- 
 lation. But now mark the contrast. When 
 the traitor had drawn nigh with his sacri-
 
 84 TWELFTH MEDITATION 
 
 legious troop, and had pointed Him out, 
 and they attempted to seize His sacred 
 person, Peter drew his sword and wounded 
 the High Priest's servant. How did Jesus 
 now speak ? He forbade the attempt to 
 rescue Him, and thus addressed his over- 
 zealous Apostle : " Calicem quern dedit mihi 
 pater, nonne bibam ilium ? " What a tran- 
 sition is here from loathing and terror to 
 willingness and cheerfulness ! That very 
 cup which a few moments before He had 
 entreated His Heavenly Father to remove, 
 He is now most anxious to drink ; and 
 He rebukes His disciple for interposing to 
 prevent Him. Instead of an angel being 
 required to strengthen Him, He takes the 
 chalice with both His hands, and quaffs it 
 joyfully, because it is the cup of our salva- 
 tion ! His Father's will hath been made 
 known to Him, " non sicut ego volo, sed 
 sicut tu vis ; " and that is enough. It is 
 that He should drink it, and it is now too 
 sweet for Him to allow any one to remove 
 it from His lips. Again compare the dif- 
 ference of His language in addressing His 
 Apostles. At first it was timid, the speech
 
 OUR SAVIOUR'S RESIGNATION 85 
 
 of one who needed counsel and encourage- 
 ment. He was anxious that they should 
 pray with Him, and He returned to them 
 again and again to know if they were ready 
 to assist Him. But when His prayer of 
 resignation has been once pronounced, how 
 confident and courageous is His speech and 
 tone. " Surgite eamus." Rouse yourselves 
 and let us go together, not into a place of 
 safety, not to some obscure recess of the 
 Garden, not to summon the rest of the 
 eleven, or to collect 'our friends, but to 
 meet the traitor and his rabble, and to do 
 their bidding. " Surgite eamus." Arise 
 and let us go to welcome ignominy and 
 insult, tyranny and cruelty. As the host 
 arises from the midst of his house, when 
 some long-expected guest is ushered in, to 
 whom he wishes to make particular demon- 
 strations of honour, so let us arise and go 
 forward some steps to greet the long-de- 
 sired harbingers of man's redemption, and 
 show the value we set upon the work by 
 our cheerfulness in meeting its promoters. 
 <c Surgite eamus." As the bridegroom rises 
 up so soon as the bridal procession ap-
 
 86 TWELFTH MEDITATION 
 
 preaches his threshold, that he may greet 
 his spouse and lead her into the house, so 
 let us rise up and meet at the Garden gate 
 the bridal procession which is come to wed 
 Me completely to humanity through its 
 sufferings. Not more gladly doth the 
 bidden guest enter the banqueting-room, 
 not more joyfully doth the bride step over 
 the door-stone than Jesus now bounds for- 
 ward to His sufferings. From this instant 
 all is courage and immovable desire to 
 suffer, and so redeem lost man. 
 
 3. Affections. "Most Blessed Lord, how 
 shall I ever thank Thee as I ought for this 
 Thy generous resolution, and this heroic 
 resignation to the will of God Thy Father? 
 And after such an example, shall I refuse 
 to practise this excellent virtue ? Having 
 comparatively so little to endure, having 
 so richly deserved that little and much 
 more, being sure to find in it so much com- 
 fort and relief, 'what excuse can I make if 
 I study not, however faintly, to copy the 
 beautiful model Thou hast here given me 
 in it? In all tribulation, therefore, under 
 the pressure of all trials, let me turn to
 
 THE KISS OF JtJDAS 87 
 
 Thee upon Mount Olivet, and comparing 
 the little I feel with the grievous desolation 
 of Thy innocent Heart, find it easy to re- 
 sign myself to the dispensations of a just 
 God, when my resignation shall be united 
 to Thine. Let us go hand in hand in suffer- 
 ing, Thou innocent, I guilty ; Thou suffer- 
 ing for me, and I willing to suffer for Thee ; 
 both resigned, Thou in noble and courageous 
 virtue, I by humble but cheerful imitation. 
 Thus shall I consecrate my pains by unity 
 and conformity with Thine ; and thus shall 
 I be found worthy to drink of the chalice 
 whereof Thou drinkest." 
 
 Ejjtrtcent!) fHctittation 
 
 THE KISS OF JUDAS 
 
 Preparation. Represent to yourself our 
 Blessed Lord advancing to meet Judas and 
 his armed rabble, and saluted by him. 
 
 i. Reflect how in the entire history of 
 our Divine Saviour's Passion there is no- 
 thing so revolting, or likely to cause more 
 indignation, than the conduct of Judas.
 
 88 THIRTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 The very act of selling his Master and 
 Friend for thirty pieces of silver is un- 
 rivalled in baseness through the pages of 
 history. But now that he comes to give 
 Him up to the satellites of the High Priests, 
 his detestable manners, ingratitude, and un- 
 feelingness go beyond all estimate. What 
 would have been easier than for him to 
 have pointed out our Saviour with his 
 hand, and so let the others seize Him ? 
 But, in fact, it would seem as though his 
 own heart recoiled from facing the infamy 
 of having been such a traitor. He who had 
 so much experience of his Master's power 
 to read the thoughts of men ; he who had 
 resisted the many clear hints from Jesus 
 that He was aware of his purpose, yet 
 seems to imagine that he can deceive Him 
 into a belief that his coming to Him had 
 no connection with that of the armed band 
 that closely followed him, but that he had 
 simply returned to Him after a casual ab- 
 sence. It seems probable that it was the 
 custom of the Apostles respectfully but 
 affectionately to salute their Master when 
 they approached Him, and Judas took
 
 THE KISS OF JUDAS 89 
 
 advantage of this usage for the double pur- 
 pose, first of saving his own character by 
 deceiving his infallible Master, and then of 
 complying with the conditions of his im- 
 pious bargain, and delivering Him up to 
 His enemies. He probably meant them 
 not to be so near him, but they could 
 not trust a traitor, and followed close at his 
 heels. Oh ! if ever there be a circumstance 
 recorded which may rightly excite our 
 wrath, it is surely this. If there be a man 
 in history upon whose head the virtuous 
 heart may fling a curse, when it might be 
 allowed to hate and sin not, surely it is 
 this false, this base, this execrable villain. 
 Why did not the earth open, as it did for 
 Core and Dathan, and swallow him alive 
 into hell ? Why did not fire come down 
 from heaven, as it did upon the captain and 
 his fifty men who came to seize Eliseus on 
 the mountain, and consume this monster 
 and his impious herd ? Why was not the 
 sword of Peter better directed, and instead 
 of striking the ear of Malcheos, did it not 
 pierce the heart of Judas ? No, this was 
 their hour, and the power of darkness, and
 
 9O THIRTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 Jesus was given up into the hands of 
 sinners. And had the just indignation of 
 Heaven burst upon those wretches, He would 
 have interposed to ward it off ; and if such 
 a wound had been inflicted by the over- 
 zealous Peter, the right hand of Jesus 
 would have been stretched out to heal it. 
 But ah ! what a kiss was that to the cheek 
 of Jesus ! An aspic's renowned bite would 
 not have felt near so stinging and hot. It 
 is as a seal of fire branded upon His flesh, 
 an infectious plague-spot pressed upon him. 
 Not half so galling to His sacred shoulders 
 were afterwards the scourges that tore them, 
 as was this impression of the lips of Judas. 
 Yes, of those sacrilegious lips that had but 
 a short time before partaken of the Body of 
 his Lord, and had drunk His sacred Blood ! 
 And, as if the foul act of treachery were 
 not even so complete, he adds words to the 
 act of insult, saying, " Hail, Rabbi." How 
 revolting to the heart of Jesus must the 
 title have sounded from such a wretch on 
 such an occasion. Many men have been 
 betrayed by those whom they thought their 
 friends, but few with such aggravating, un-
 
 THE KISS OF JUDAS 9! 
 
 necessary circumstances of treachery. Some 
 regard will be paid to feelings of former 
 respect and friendship, here all seems 
 studied to wound the tender heart of Jesus, 
 in the very smallest manner. Truly He 
 must be the despised of men and the out- 
 cast of the people, when He is thus aban- 
 doned to the embrace of such a wretch as 
 Judas. 
 
 2. Keflect now how our Blessed Redeemer 
 received the proposed salutation. Does He 
 shrink back instinctively as a man would 
 who had come in contact with some foul, 
 hateful thing ? or as one would from the 
 touch of a person infected with a loathsome 
 leprosy ? Oh no, he receives and returns 
 the kiss ! Judas, if thy heart hath re- 
 sisted up to the present moment, surely it 
 must now give way ! Surely the exquisite 
 sweetness of those lips, fragrant as Heaven's 
 choicest Saviour can make them, must cool 
 the burning fever of thy avaricious soul, 
 and diffuse some of its own sense through 
 
 O 
 
 thy frame, and into thy very heart ! Surely 
 those scatterers of Divine Wisdom cannot 
 have come into such close contact with thee,
 
 92 THIRTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 without dispelling the darkness of invete- 
 rate ignorance that overclouded thy soul ! 
 Couldst thou resist this incomparable meek- 
 ness, this sublimity of charity towards 
 enemies, or what is more difficult, towards 
 false friends ? But Jesus could not forget 
 that most important duty of this virtue, 
 fraternal correction ; He could not permit 
 one of His own disciples and apostles to 
 be lost without the last effort made of 
 snatching him from destruction. He mildly 
 addresses him in those most pathetic words, 
 "Friend, whereunto art thou come? Judas, 
 dost thou betray the Son of Man with a 
 kiss ? " Could it have been possible to 
 expose to him in fewer words or more im- 
 pressively the exact nature and enormity 
 of his crime than is here done ? " Friend ! " 
 what a tender word ! what a mild intro- 
 duction to a reproof! "dost thou betray 
 the Son of Man, Him who has conversed 
 with thee so familiarly, so humanly, as 
 though He were but one of yourselves, and 
 dost thou betray Him by an act of friend- 
 ship, a token of love ? " Blessed Jesus, 
 how like Thyself, but like no one else, is
 
 THE KISS OF JUDAS 93 
 
 this Thy conduct and speech ! But how 
 often may our Divine Redeemer reproach- 
 fully address us in similar language. When 
 we draw nigh unto Him in time of prayer, 
 as though about to address Him in quality 
 of our friend, and all around us suppose 
 from our attitude or words that we are inly 
 and deeply worshipping Him, while in reality 
 we are distracted with vain or even evil 
 thoughts, may He not very justly address 
 us in those same severe words : " Dost thou 
 betray the Son of Man with a kiss ? " 
 When we approach His altar, whereon He 
 is really present, with a lukewarm heart, 
 and introduce His adorable Body into a 
 breast occupied by evil propensities or vain 
 desires, when thus we may be said to de- 
 liver Him over to enemies whom He really 
 hates, by an act that bears the semblance 
 of closest intimacy and is a pledge of love, 
 may He not justly turn round as He enters 
 that profaned sanctuary, " Friend, where- 
 unto art thou come hither ? Dost thou 
 betray the Son of Man with a kiss ? " And 
 so may He address us too often, when we 
 speak of and to Him as though we loved
 
 94 THIRTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 Him, and outwardly before men seem to 
 give Him honour, while in reality we are 
 displeasing Him by habitual transgressions 
 of His law. In fact, though, thank God's 
 infinite mercies, we have not been guilty of 
 such a crime as that of Judas, for whom it 
 would have been better not to have been 
 born ; yet as we have copied the guilt of 
 the others engaged in that cruel tragedy, 
 as we have, by our sins, too often crucified 
 over again our Blessed Redeemer, as we 
 have too often, like Peter, denied Him, so 
 have we been, perhaps, unfortunate enough 
 in some sort to betray Him. Let us be- 
 wail as we ought this detestable offence. 
 
 3. Affections. " Meek Victim of our sal- 
 vation, Jesus, Eedeemer of our souls, didst 
 Thou not feel, in that moment when Judas 
 kissed Thee, as though all our fallen nature 
 was through him saluting Thee ? What 
 hath man been from the beginning to Thee 
 but a prevaricator and a traitor, thinking 
 to satisfy Thee with fine words and fervid 
 protestations, while in his heart Thou hast 
 found but little part? If then, dear Lord, 
 I have till now often kissed Thee treacher-
 
 JESUS BEFORE ANNAS AND CAIPHAS 95 
 
 ously with Judas, let me from henceforth 
 kiss Thee lovingly with Magdalen. Thy 
 feet shall receive my homage in compen- 
 sation for the insult offered to Thy sacred 
 countenance. As Thou w r ast willing to 
 take the kisses which that glorious penitent 
 impressed on them in compensation for the 
 embrace of welcome which the Pharisee had 
 omitted, so accept the ardent impressions 
 of our lips upon Thy blessed feet, amidst 
 the tears and sobs of true repentance, in 
 expiation of that cursed act of treachery 
 which, in the person of Judas, disgraces all 
 our nature. And do Thou, dear Jesus, re- 
 turn them to us again, not in reproachful 
 meekness, but in satisfied affection, in kind 
 encouragement, and in most blessed reward." 
 
 jFourterntfj jfletutatton 
 
 JESUS BEFORE ANNAS AND CATPHAS 
 
 Preparation. Represent to yourself your 
 Saviour, with His hands bound, and placed 
 as a criminal successively before these two 
 haughty and wicked men, surrounded by
 
 96 FOURTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 their brutal satellites, ready to obey them 
 in every cruelty. 
 
 i. Eeflect upon this intermediate stage 
 of our Blessed Eedeemer's Passion, and first 
 of all consider what befell Him in its first 
 scene during the night of His capture. He 
 is dragged as a criminal before the two 
 priests, the most implacable of His enemies. 
 There He is interrogated by them ; false 
 witnesses are suborned to swear away His 
 life. Upon failure of their testimony, the 
 High Priest draws Him into a declaration 
 of His Divinity, and then pronounces Him 
 guilty of blasphemy. After this, He is 
 abandoned the whole night long to the 
 fury of a merciless rabble, who subject His 
 sacred person to every indignity and out- 
 rage within the power of their unchecked 
 barbarity. In this and the after scenes 
 before Pilate and Herod, we have the com- 
 pletion of what had been begun in Olivet, 
 His desolation and abandonment carried to 
 their highest pitch. For there His disciples 
 did fight for Him, and, before that, were at 
 least near Him, and, as it were, within call. 
 But now they are fled. He is completely
 
 JESUS BEFOEE ANNAS AND CAIPHAS 97 
 
 alone, and the only one that does for a time 
 approach, only comes to disown and for- 
 swear Him. At the same time, however, 
 that the sufferings of the first stage of His 
 Passion here receive their fulness and per- 
 fection, He begins to prepare for the third 
 that of actual bodily suffering, by the 
 treatment He receives at the hands of 
 the Jewish mob. Thus were His sufferings 
 ever growing and displaying new character 
 till their consummation. In all this, how 
 admirably is the course and method of God's 
 ordinary providence pointed out, who, if 
 He wish to try us by tribulation, seldom 
 overthrows us by one sudden calamity, but 
 gradually inures us to suffering by a course 
 of graduated visitations. But in drawing 
 such comfortable lessons from my Divine 
 Redeemer's situation, let me never forget 
 that those pains, small and great, were 
 undergone for my sake, and that He stood 
 before this unjust tribunal that He might 
 liberate me before His own dread judg- 
 ment-seat, when I shall there justly appear. 
 I have been " guilty of more than the 
 council," and might have perhaps been 
 
 G
 
 98 FOURTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 righteously condemned had I stood before 
 it. But He, the spotless Lamb of God, 
 who had done no sin, never could have 
 been even brought before it, if He had not 
 of His boundless goodness chosen to stand 
 in my place. 
 
 2. Eeflect who were these that presumed 
 to try and pretended to condemn Him. 
 The priests, yea, His own priests ! They 
 who should have hailed Him with trumpets 
 of jubilee, and borne Him in triumph with 
 canticles of joy. They who had no dignity, 
 no power, no worth before God or men, 
 save as His shadows and representatives. 
 They who ministered daily to Him in the 
 temple by sacrifice and oblation, yet knew 
 it not. They who alone once a year had 
 the privilege of entering within the Holy 
 of Holies, as a type of Him who was to 
 enter the sanctuary of heaven, bearing not 
 the blood of oxen or of goats, but His own 
 most precious blood, wherewith He ran- 
 somed the world, and broke down the 
 partition-wall between earth and heaven ! 
 Great God ! and it is these men who pre- 
 sume to sit in judgment over Thee. The
 
 JESUS BEFORE ANNAS AND CAIPHAS 99 
 
 figure over the reality, the slave over his 
 Lord, the vessel of clay over Him who 
 fashioned it into a vessel of honour. And 
 couldst Thou submit to this ? Didst Thou 
 actually bear this ? Didst Thou stand be- 
 fore such a tribunal ? Oh, my heart, answer 
 thou these questions, for thou knowest that 
 He did, solely for my sake, to teach me 
 what my sins must have been which de- 
 graded Him so low, and what His love 
 must have been to induce Him to endure 
 such degradation. 
 
 3. Affections. Stand thou between thy 
 Saviour and the tribunal of these iniquitous 
 judges, and exclaim, " Oh, ye senseless and 
 most wicked men, on what madness are ye 
 bent ? Can ye call yourselves the ministers, 
 the priests of God, versed in the oracles of 
 His law and His prophets, and not be con- 
 vinced that He who, through them, hath 
 given you your name and power, now stands 
 bound before you ? Down, miscreants, from 
 your guilty thrones, and prostrate your- 
 selves at His feet, and crave forgiveness, if 
 haply He will hear you ; for He is a gracious 
 Master, and now intent to save. And Thou,
 
 100 FOURTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 meek and innocent Lamb of God, can I not 
 loose the bands which gall Thy tender arms, 
 and kissing those feet which have brought 
 Thee thus far on such an errand of love, 
 lead Thee back to Thy disconsolate mother 
 and Thy desolate disciples ? But, hold, I 
 too am Thy priest, and yet, alas ! has my 
 conduct been a whit the better towards 
 Thee than that of Annas and Caiphas ? 
 Have I not again and again presumed to 
 summon Thee to judgment before me, when 
 I have transgressed Thy law ? Have I not 
 repeatedly treated Thee coritumeliously by 
 rejecting Thy graces and entertaining in 
 their place my wicked inclinations ? But, 
 oh, worse than all, have I not by my 
 negligence and irreverent handling of Thy 
 adorable Body in the Blessed Eucharist, laid 
 violent hands upon Thee, and personally 
 outraged Thee truly present ? Forgive, dear 
 Lord, forgive me. In consideration of what 
 Thou sufferedst in this portion of Thy 
 Passion, pardon my past ingratitude ; and 
 I, on my part, promise Thee faithfully never 
 again to repeat them. And blessed for ever 
 be Thy holy Name."
 
 THE TESTIMONY AGAINST JESUS IOI 
 
 jfifteentij Jflclittatton 
 
 THE TESTIMONY AGAINST JESUS 
 
 i. Keflect how these sons of Belial, the 
 priests and elders, determined as they were 
 to destroy our Saviour at any rate, had 
 yet the craftiness to aim at saving their 
 character by pretending to do it with some 
 show of reason. They accordingly set 
 about procuring witnesses to appear and 
 depose against Him. They have had 
 plenty of time to make their preparations. 
 Long have they plotted His ruin ; long 
 have they resolved to arrest Him and put 
 Him on His trial. It is some days, too, 
 since the immediate execution of this pro- 
 ject has been resolved on. Our Blessed 
 Eedeemer had not lived in secret, but had 
 been for three years constantly before the 
 public ; and it was on His conduct during 
 that period that they intended to base 
 their accusation. Often had the Pharisees, 
 Herodians, and doctors themselves, put 
 perplexing questions to Him, in hopes of 
 detecting Him in some dangerous opinions.
 
 102 FIFTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 They, it seems, had collected nothing to 
 bring forward. Thousands had listened to 
 His teaching or had witnessed His cures 
 and other miracles ; and of these many, 
 as appeared by the proceedings of the 
 next morning, must have been in the 
 interests of the authorities. Yet of these 
 but a small proportion came forward, with 
 what success we shall immediately see. 
 The poor women who had followed Him 
 from Galilee were in the neighbourhood, 
 and could easily have been brought forward. 
 If He were indeed the guilty culprit they 
 desired to prove Him, these women must 
 know it, having been His followers. Why 
 not examine them ? The Apostles were, 
 some of them, in the very house. Peter 
 had given sufficient proof of his pusil- 
 lanimity that very evening ; he surely 
 would show even more weakness when 
 interrogated by the chief priests than he 
 had betrayed on the question of a simple 
 maid. Yet these men never thought of 
 employing such means of discovering the 
 truth. Truth was not their object : they 
 aimed at the destruction of our Saviour.
 
 THE TESTIMONY AGAINST JESUS 103 
 
 Well, then, they bring forth their own 
 prepared testimonies. No doubt, their 
 part had been well rehearsed, they had 
 been taught what to say. When, however, 
 they stepped forward, " their testimony did 
 not agree." The labour of preparation had 
 been thrown away. Falsehood ever be- 
 trays itself by its contradictions ; and on 
 this occasion they were so palpable that 
 the very suborners, for very shame, aban- 
 doned their witnesses, and refused to admit 
 them as evidence. Honest judges would 
 thereupon have rejected the accusation, 
 and have acquitted the accused. And what 
 could more clearly establish the gross in- 
 justice of this tribunal than the contrary 
 course it followed ? How can we suffi- 
 ciently abhor and detest the cruel injustice 
 here exercised towards the Son of God ? 
 
 2. Reflect how at length two false wit- 
 nesses were found to say that they had heard 
 Jesus declare, how He could in three days 
 build up a temple, not made with hands, 
 in place of the splendid and costly edifice 
 then existing, should this be destroyed. 
 Had any one else said this much, it might
 
 104 FIFTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 have been treated as an idle boast, be- 
 neath the notice of a grave tribunal of 
 such high dignity. For there was no 
 threat or disrespect towards the temple 
 expressed, but only a readiness and power 
 to rebuild it, if others should destroy it. 
 But when spoken by Jesus, who had given 
 such irrefragable proofs of mighty power, 
 they were words to be received with awe 
 and fear. They never could be made 
 matter of accusation against Him. Not 
 to say that the words, if they had been 
 disposed to understand them rightly, were 
 not to be taken in their literal import, 
 but in a figurative signification. Here, 
 then, was the sum of the charges which 
 a long and minute investigation had pro- 
 duced ! Here was the body of evidence, 
 to condemn the Son of Man to death, which 
 the many sittings of the Supreme Council 
 had been able to collect ! Good God ! 
 What a life must He have led upon earth, 
 to escape the snares laid for Him, so as 
 to furnish no more matter than this to 
 support an accusation in the hands of the 
 most ingrained and inveterate adversaries.
 
 THE TESTIMONY AGAINST JESUS 105 
 
 Who else but He, of all the children of 
 Adam, could have passed so unscathed 
 through such a scrutiny ? In truth, His 
 very persecutors, as appears from their 
 subsequent conduct, saw how futile and 
 how absurd the charge was, and aban- 
 doned this, their only specious accusation, 
 in their later proceedings against Him. So 
 aware was He of their folly, that He was 
 in vain urged by the High Priest to make 
 any reply. " Dost Thou answer nothing 
 to these things which are alleged against 
 Thee?" Jesus was content to say that 
 He had taught nothing in private, and 
 appealed to the testimony of those who 
 had heard Him. And so confounded and 
 enraged were they at their disgraceful 
 failure in establishing anything like an 
 imputation against him, that one of the 
 bystanders struck Him on the face, saying, 
 " Sic respondes pontifici ? " 
 
 3. Affections. Admire, as thou con- 
 template this vile rabble, the wonderful 
 conduct of this your Saviour, who, by His 
 silence, more completely baffles these wily 
 plotters, and confounds their falsehoods,
 
 106 FIFTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 than could have been done by the most 
 elaborate and eloquent defence. Then say 
 to Him, " sinless Lamb of God ! pure 
 and holy beyond the angels, how meekly 
 Thou standest amidst the raging wolves 
 that thirst for Thy blood ! In vain have 
 they sought to find cause against Thee. 
 How could they have possibly discovered 
 the smallest blot in Thy perfect, Divine 
 life ? Oh, I love to see Thee thus, without 
 abandoning one particle of Thy dearest 
 virtues, meek and dumb as the lamb before 
 its shearer, yet confounding the counsels 
 of the rulers who have conspired against 
 the Lord, and against Thee, His Christ. 
 Thou dost triumph and put them to shame, 
 without an effort, without a word, by the 
 sole efficacy of Thy irreproachable life, which 
 defies their censures. But while they blas- 
 phemously accuse Thee, let me bless and exalt 
 Thee. Let me with Thy angels praise Thee, 
 for the humiliation to which Thou didst 
 stoop in this stage of Thy blessed Passion. 
 
 "Blessed, my dear Saviour, be Thy holy 
 Name, and ever in our grateful hearts be 
 the recollection of Thy ignominy suffered
 
 JESUS IS ACCUSED OF BLASPHEMY 1 07 
 
 for us. And teach me to profit by the 
 blessed example Thou hast here given me. 
 If ever accused falsely and undeservedly, 
 let me think of Thee before the council. 
 Let me remember how Thou, the innocent 
 and guiltless, sufferedst in silence and 
 meekness, and thence conclude how I, the 
 guilty sinner, the wretch who have so often 
 offended Thee, ought to suffer." 
 
 Jftetutation 
 
 Preparation. Represent to yourself 
 your Saviour standing in meek silence 
 before the wicked High Priest and the 
 assembly of His enemies. 
 
 i. Reflect how the High Priest, finding it 
 impossible to ground any reasonable charge 
 against Jesus upon the false testimony which 
 he and his council had been able to suborn, 
 took advantage of the candour and simple 
 truthfulness which he well knew to be our 
 Saviour's character, to convict Him, if pos- 
 sible, out of His own mouth. He therefore
 
 108 SIXTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 stands up and adjures Him by the living 
 God, to say if He be the Christ, the Son 
 of the living God. Jesus hesitates not a 
 moment to declare Himself such as He was ; 
 and the High Priest replies, saying, " Hie 
 blasphemat, quid opus est adhuc testibus ? " 
 Now, look at the monstrous nature of this 
 proceeding. Jesus had all along proclaimed 
 Himself the Christ, the Son of God and 
 had they thought this sufficient to convict 
 Him, it would have cost them but little 
 trouble or ingenuity to collect evidence of 
 it, instead of charging their souls with per- 
 jury by procuring false and lying witnesses. 
 But the evidence of His miracles was so 
 strong that they had* not ventured to attack 
 Him directly on this head : they rather 
 hoped to throw discredit on His claims by 
 adducing such charges against Him as would 
 appear incompatible with the character of 
 the Messias. For this purpose they had 
 framed the charge of His having threatened 
 the destruction of the temple, which the 
 Messias was expected to restore to its former 
 glory. Now, foiled in all these attempts, 
 they are reduced to convict Him on the
 
 JESUS IS ACCUSED OF BLASPHEMY 109 
 
 direct charge of asserting Himself to be the 
 Messias ; an assertion which they charge 
 with blasphemy. Impious and most foul 
 charge ! Against whom was it possible for 
 Jesus, divine and consubstantial to the 
 Father, to blaspheme ? But, on the other 
 hand, observe the horrible blasphemy which 
 the impious priest himself commits in making 
 such a charge against our Lord. Perhaps in 
 all the Passion there is not a more outrageous 
 insult upon Him than this charge of the 
 wicked pontiff. Imagine, for a moment, 
 one of the ancient prophets ; David, who 
 had placed all his hopes and centred all his 
 happiness in the coming of this his son, 
 Isaias ; w r ho had so lovingly described Him, 
 and w r ritteri his ardent aspirations after 
 Him ; or Daniel, who had so much prayed 
 and longed for Him ; and who had been 
 so able to discover the false testimony 
 of the two elders : imagine these saints of 
 the ancient law standing beside the council 
 of their nation, and seeing its chief priest 
 solemnly pronounce their desired One, 
 their loved One, their hope and joy a 
 blasphemer ! Would they not have seized
 
 I I O SIXTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 the sword of Phinees, and transfixed him 
 on the spot ? 
 
 2. Reflect what lessons we may learn 
 from this event in our dear Redeemer's 
 Passion. It is more than likely that, if I 
 defend the truth of our holy religion with- 
 out disguise or reserve, if I push home any 
 arguments to its adversaries, they will call 
 me a blasphemer. If I say that Jesus, who 
 could in three 'days build up the Temple 
 not made with hands, has given us His 
 Body and Blood in the Blessed Eucharist, 
 in which bread is changed into His Body, 
 I shall be told that I blaspheme. If I boldly 
 assert that Mary is to be reverenced, in- 
 voked, and worshipped, I shall be told that 
 I am a blasphemer. If I say that I or any 
 minister of God has power to forgive sins, 
 I shall hear it said, " Hie blasphemat." 
 What then ? Shall I wonder at this ? Is 
 the disciple greater than the Master? If 
 the world have said this of Him, shall they 
 not say it of us ? If Jesus was called a 
 blasphemer for openly declaring the truth, 
 shall I not rejoice if, for the same reason, 
 I, like Him, am so styled? Shall it not
 
 JESUS IS ACCUSED OF BLASPHEMY I I I 
 
 encourage me to proclaim still louder the 
 doctrine He lias committed to my charge ? 
 But, further, what do we owe Jesus for this 
 portion of His sufferings ? What, but a 
 tribute of our most fervent praise ! What, 
 but a compensation of honour a"nd reverence 
 most publicly given Him ! Who can doubt 
 but that the angels in heaven redoubled 
 their hosannas, and raised their voices to a 
 more jubilant strain, when these horrible 
 words were uttered, to compensate and 
 repair the outrage done to Him on earth ? 
 And we, for whom He submitted to the in- 
 dignity, for whose encouragement He was 
 pleased to undergo so shameful a reproach, 
 shall not we also redouble our praise and 
 thanksgiving for so much mercy and so 
 much love ? Shall we not cry out with 
 His Apostle, every time we hear the insult 
 offered, " My Lord and my God " ? 
 
 3. Affections. " my good and suffer- 
 ing Jesus, can I ever forget what Thou hast 
 been pleased to suffer for my sake ? Can I 
 ever cease to bless and praise Thee, to love 
 and serve Thee, in return for so much kind- 
 ness ? I desire now specially to commemo-
 
 I 1 2 SIXTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 rate what Thou sufferedst for my sake from 
 so many foul reproaches and blasphemies 
 during Thy blessed Passion. Thou wert 
 called a blasphemer for the love of me ! 
 Yet stay ; how often has my incorrigible 
 tongue injured and offended Thee by its 
 unjust or light discourses perhaps, as much 
 as that of the wicked High Priest ? Now, 
 therefore, I consecrate and dedicate this 
 unruly member to Thee, and bind it down 
 in a perpetual compact to bless and praise 
 Thee, to proclaim Thy glories to all men, 
 to defend Thy Divinity, and make known 
 Thy mercies with all its power ! It shall 
 love to own itself Thy servant and unworthy 
 instrument ; it shall delight to descant upon 
 Thy attributes, and Thy loving-kindness : it 
 shall never be weary in uttering, with all 
 fondness, Thy sweet and tender Name ; even 
 in its last utterances, when death comes to 
 still it, it shall falter forth Thy most holy 
 and most blessed Name. My heart, too, 
 shall accompany it in giving Thee glory : 
 ever studying to gain Thee praises from 
 those that know Thee not, and praise 
 Thee not."
 
 PETER S DENIAL I 1 3 
 
 Sebenteentfj JHetittatton 
 
 PETER'S DENIAL 
 
 Preparation. Kepresent to yourself your 
 clear Redeemer standing as a lamb in the 
 midst of wolves, meek and unresisting, 
 though surrounded by a brutal rabble ; and 
 Peter standing among the servants of the 
 High Priest. 
 
 i. Reflect what a cruel blow to the Heart 
 of our dear Saviour was given by the denial 
 of Peter. He had been abandoned, indeed, 
 by all His Apostles. Even John, the be- 
 loved, who was to display singular courage 
 at the foot of the cross, and thereby to win 
 the guardianship of Mary, was now at a 
 distance ; and it was evidently a part of 
 the sufferings of Jesus in this stage of His 
 blessed Passion to be utterly abandoned by 
 all. Still Peter, the most courageous of the 
 number, as he had shown himself in the 
 Garden, draws nigh, and ventures into the 
 crowd. Surely it must be to bring his 
 loving Master some comfort ; to give Him 
 an assurance that his heart and those of 
 
 H
 
 114 SEVENTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 his companions remain faithful to Him in 
 spite of His present ignominy. He is come, 
 surely, to die with Him, if need be. Alas ! 
 he is come to disown and to deny Him ! to 
 forswear himself by a dreadful and a treach- 
 erous untruth, saying that he knew not the 
 man. Such is the errand on which Peter 
 is come ; to do his kind Master no better 
 service than publicly to disavow T all con- 
 nection with Him ! Such is the only com- 
 fort brought to Jesus, on that last night, 
 by the most courageous and the most zeal- 
 ous of His chosen followers. But then, 
 what a wreck of the labours, lessons, and 
 examples of three years ! In vain has He- 
 been toiling to convince His Apostle that 
 the Son of Man must suffer, and thus enter 
 into His glory ; that He must be delivered 
 into the hands of sinners, mocked, and spit 
 upon, and put to death. All these lessons 
 have been thrown away. Peter does not 
 know the man ! There are all the protes- 
 tations of the courageous Apostle, that even 
 if all were to be scandalised in Jesus, he 
 would not evaporated at the sound of a 
 foolish servant's voice. Yes, and there is
 
 PETER'S DENIAL 115 
 
 the solid foundation of Christ's Church, the 
 rock on which He willed to build it, melted, 
 like wax, before that fire of the High Priest's 
 hall ! Oh, what a cruel sight for our Blessed 
 Lord ! what an aggravation of His suffer- 
 ings ! How much more poignant an inflic- 
 tion than the strokes upon His cheek ! How 
 much deeper an insult than the spitting 
 upon His face ! Truly, He looked on His 
 right hand and on His left, and not only 
 were there none to know Him, but there 
 were some to abjure Him ! Ah, how often 
 have I done the same, or worse ! How 
 often have I denied Jesus by my conduct ! 
 But what a lesson is here for me not to run 
 any risks, or expose myself to danger as 
 Peter did. He certainly loved Jesus much 
 beyond what I can pretend to do ; he had 
 been instructed much better than I in the 
 law of his Saviour, he had been provided 
 with richer graces ; yet he basely gave way 
 before the first slight temptation and fell 
 into the blackest of treasons ! What secu- 
 rity have I that I shall not do worse, if 
 not always on my guard, and assiduous in 
 prayer ?
 
 I 1 6 SEVENTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 2. Reflect upon the conduct of your dear 
 Redeemer on this painful and trying occa- 
 sion. Peter was no longer worthy of His 
 notice, much less of His affection. He had 
 treated Him most ungratefully and most 
 unkindly. Our Lord could in justice have 
 abandoned him to his fate. At any rate, 
 He might have left him till after His own 
 sufferings were ended, and visited him with 
 forgiveness after His resurrection. But no. 
 He would not delay a moment to touch his 
 heart ; He would not die unreconciled with 
 His former friend. He put aside His own 
 sad feelings, He turned upon Peter, from 
 the midst of them, one glance of loving 
 reproach and remonstrance, which pene- 
 trated to the centre of his soul, dissolved 
 the spell which had bound him, reawakened 
 those feelings which fear had frozen and 
 
 O 
 
 benumbed, and brought out, through the 
 flood of tears which he shed, the anguish 
 of his repenting soul. Oh, what a look that 
 must have been ! a look never, as long as he 
 lived, to be effaced from Peter's memory ! 
 What a mild yet steady and penetrating 
 glance ! how truly Divine ! His features
 
 PETER S DENIAL I I 7 
 
 are scarcely discernible under the disfigur- 
 ing influence of the outrageous treatment 
 He had received ; but His eye, unclouded 
 in its majesty, darts a beam, which passes 
 beyond the crowd to the outer hall, and 
 breathes into the very recesses of the re- 
 creant Apostle's heart, and enlightens its 
 darkness with a ray of repentance ! But 
 what ineffable goodness, condescension, and 
 mercy are here displayed. Surely this alone 
 was sufficient to satisfy us how high was 
 the virtue of the Soul of our dear Jesus, 
 above all mere human excellence ! After 
 this fall, Peter disappears entirely from the 
 scene of the Passion. He was cured of his 
 rashness ; and though no doubt he would 
 have wished to repair his fault by attend- 
 ance on his kind and forgiving Master, 
 during its last stages, yet he had now too 
 well discovered his frailty to venture again 
 into danger. To weep at a distance and 
 alone was now his only comfort and occu- 
 pation. Here again is a lesson for us, to 
 be warned by our faults to carefulness and 
 vigilance. 
 
 3. Affections. Imagine to yourself that
 
 Il8 SEVENTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 look of your Saviour as cast upon you, and 
 say : " Yes, my good and merciful Jesus, 
 I well know and understand that reproving 
 glance, which not once, but again and again, 
 Thou hast cast upon me from the midst of 
 Thy sufferings when I have offended and 
 denied Thee. Often has Thy silent look 
 touched my heart, and moved it to repent- 
 ance, when I remembered what Thou hast 
 endured for love of me, and how miserably 
 I have requited it ! How long have I been 
 Thy scholar, Thy disciple, admitted to free 
 consort with Thee, seated at Thy table ; 
 nay, Thy minister, Thy chosen servant, ad- 
 mitted to share with Thy Apostles ; and yet 
 I have foully denied Thee, in the face of 
 Heaven, forgetting Thy love, and joining 
 with Thy cruel enemies in persecuting and 
 tormenting Thee ! Oh, look then often 
 upon me as Thou then didst upon Peter ; 
 one such loving and pitiful glance shall do 
 more to reclaim me, when wandering, than 
 the flash of Thy lightnings. Yes ; ' Thou 
 hast wounded me with one of Thine eyes,' 
 my Beloved ; Thou hast pierced my soul, 
 and melted all its hardness. And when, by
 
 Thy grace, I overcome temptation, or do or 
 suffer something for Thy sake ; let me look 
 into that calm, loving eye, for Thy bright 
 approval, my only reward. In it I shall 
 read my sentence with joy, and receive an 
 earnest of what it will one day express to 
 me in Thy eternal bliss." 
 
 dBigijtcemf) 
 
 JESUS IS DECLARED GUILTY OF DEATH 
 
 Preparation. Imagine to yourself your 
 Divine Redeemer standing meekly amidst 
 the priests and their servants, exposed to 
 their insults. 
 
 i. Reflect upon the solemn adjuration in 
 the Name of the living God, which the 
 wicked High Priest addressed to our Blessed 
 Lord ; for it bespeaks his unwilling testi- 
 mony to the character of Jesus. Had he 
 believed Him to be such as he affected to 
 consider Him, he would have known that 
 such an address would have been quite use- 
 less. For had the meek silence of Jesus 
 proceeded from fear, or had He been the
 
 I2O EIGHTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 culprit they affected to suppose, He would 
 not, they well knew, be entrapped by this 
 question, proceeding probably from hypoc- 
 risy and pretended zeal, and tending to 
 ensnare the life of the accused. But the 
 High Priest knew well that Jesus feared not 
 to avow who He declared Himself to be ; 
 he knew, too, that the Name of God would 
 have a power with Him which all the artful 
 questions and lying witness of His enemies 
 never would. Therefore, baffled in every 
 attempt through these, yet determined to 
 find Him guilty even by means of such 
 noble and holy feelings, he put to Him the 
 solemn question : " Adjuro te per Deum 
 vivum, die nobis si tu es Christus, films Dei 
 vivi ? " Jesus would not deny His true 
 character in the face of danger, and avowed 
 Himself, answering : " Thou hast said it." 
 Whereupon they all exclaimed, " Reus est 
 mortis." Reflect deeply upon the meaning 
 of these words, which imply nothing less 
 than the condemnation to death of the 
 Lord of life. The very breath which spoke 
 so impious a decree was simply His gift ; 
 and all who uttered that sentence depended
 
 JESUS DECLARED GUILTY OF DEATH 121 
 
 upon His goodwill for their very existence. 
 But in truth this parricidal sentence was 
 a condemnation of death to themselves. 
 They pronounced thereby the warrant of 
 their own destruction, and the extermina- 
 tion of their own people. Blind, impious, 
 and yet most impotent men ! Tools of 
 your own wicked passions, yet unconscious 
 instruments in the hands of a gracious and 
 saving Providence, which, from the bitter 
 root of your perversity and malice, would 
 cause to spring forth the sweet fruit of sal- 
 vation. So did the Blessed Jesus overlook 
 your impotent malignity, and in that hour 
 raise up His eyes to the throne of His 
 Father in heaven, and view the cause of 
 mankind canvassed in His eternal councils, 
 the sins of men numbered and weighed in 
 His balances, and found beyond number or 
 reckoning. He sees expiation demanded 
 from Himself, who had offered to be the 
 Victim for them ; and He heard the same 
 sentence which is now blasphemously pro- 
 nounced upon earth, most righteously 
 uttered in heaven. And the meek Lamb 
 of God bowed down His head in humble
 
 122 EIGHTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 resignation, saying, "Thou art just, 
 Father ! and all Thy ways are right." But 
 now contemplate the scene which ensues. 
 For upon the sentence being pronounced, 
 His Passion of outward suffering may he 
 said to have begun. For the fury of the 
 enraged multitude is now let loose upon 
 Him uncontrolled ; encouraged by the ap- 
 plause, the laughter, and the jeers of their 
 superiors, who show their approval of each 
 new insult and outrage upon His sacred 
 person. Behold, then, your Saviour, whom 
 your soul tenderly loves, not only blas- 
 phemed and grossly insulted by impious 
 language, but actually struck with the hand, 
 plucked by the hair and beard, and His 
 sacred countenance spit upon ! These are 
 indignities which, if we saw committed 
 against the vilest criminal, we should re- 
 sent as brutal and most inhuman. Nor is 
 there a man who would, in worldly lan- 
 guage, be able to hold up his head, if once 
 publicly assailed by any one of them. Yet 
 the Blessed Jesus not only descended from 
 the royal line, but by true right King 
 of Israel, yea, God of Israel submits in
 
 JESUS DECLARED GUILTY OF DEATH 123 
 
 silence and imperturbable patience to this 
 accumulated outrage ! Ob, wbat a lesson 
 for me, whose pride boils under the slightest 
 insult, whose resentment is roused by the 
 smallest affront ! Shame to me to call my- 
 self a follower of Jesus, and to be so little 
 like Him ! 
 
 2. Reflect now upon this distressing 
 scene under a new light. Imagine all its 
 actors changed except one, and that one 
 the Person of your Blessed Redeemer. In 
 place of the others, imagine that you see 
 those real causers of His sufferings, your 
 own passions and sins. Yes ; it was not 
 so much the High Priest of the Jews that 
 sat upon the seat of judgment whence the 
 sentence issued ; it was the proud corrup- 
 tion of my heart. Dressed out, indeed, in 
 sacerdotal robes ; assuming the title of a 
 dedication to God, yet full of pride, hypoc- 
 risy, and deceit, it has presumptuously 
 dared to question and canvass the titles 
 which Jesus has to my love and service. 
 It has rejected His claim to be sole King 
 of my soul and heart, Lord of all my 
 powers, Master of my every act ; and has
 
 124 EIGHTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 listened to the many false witnesses which 
 its corruption has again and again suborned 
 to put aside His claims. And when, in 
 fact, I have on some dreadful occasion con- 
 demned Him within myself, it was with 
 the unanimous consent of every bad pas- 
 sion, echoing back the sentence to put 
 Jesus aside to crucify Him again by sin. 
 Yes, such were the real assessors of this in- 
 famous Sanhedrin : these were the haughty 
 Pharisees, the vain scribes, the unbelieving 
 Sadducees, that broke forth into that hor- 
 rible sentence against Jesus, and, as far as 
 their malice could go, sentenced Him to 
 death. Then it was that the fury of my 
 evil inclinations, freed from all check, broke 
 forth upon Him, insulted and impiously 
 outraged Him. Oh ! how did my presump- 
 tuous folly suppose it could hoodwink those 
 eyes that are brighter than the sun, to 
 offend Him with impunity? How did 
 those repeated transgressions of His law, 
 in word, and thought, and deed, strike 
 Him on the face ! How did those uncharit- 
 able words against my neighbours, mem- 
 bers of His mystical Body, pluck His
 
 JESUS DECLARED GUILTY OF DEATH 125 
 
 venerable hair ! How did that disrespect 
 for His sanctuary, my cold indifference to 
 His sacraments, my contempt or abuse of 
 His graces, spit in His very face, and insult 
 Him most outrageously ! How did my 
 vanity and levity, my lusts and evil 
 desires, buffet and contemn Him ! Ah ! 
 such is the true account of this fearful 
 scene ; and the real executioner of my dear 
 Jesus was this self of mine ! Thus have I 
 treated H im every time I have sinned ; and 
 it was the accumulation of such treatments, 
 by myself and others, that caused, and out- 
 wardly rehearsed, the afflicting spectacle of 
 that His last night in mortal state ! 
 
 3. Affections. " I know not, my loving 
 Redeemer, with what feelings I best can 
 contemplate this portion of Thy most 
 sorrowful Passion. Shall it be with in- 
 dignation against those who were guilty 
 of such barbarity ? Or with admiration 
 of Thy Divine conduct, Thy patience and 
 meekness ? Shall I contemplate Thy good- 
 ness towards me, or my unworthy conduct 
 towards Thee ? Rather will I adore in 
 silence this marvellous mystery of Thee,
 
 126 EIGHTEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 my incarnate God, suffering for my sake. 
 I will try to blend my other feelings into 
 one of unqualified, grateful love. I will 
 love Thee, my God, all the more because 
 Thou didst submit to be condemned for 
 my sake to an ignominious death. The 
 more Thou art defaced by blows or spittle, 
 the comelier art Thou to me, and the more 
 desired by my heart. And forasmuch as 
 my sins have been the cause of such atroci- 
 ties committed on Thy sacred Person, I 
 will love Thee still the more ; that my 
 affection may be as some drops of balm 
 in the grievous wounds I have inflicted 
 upon Thee. In opposition to the impious 
 sentence pronounced upon Thee, I will cry 
 out, with all the loving ones who have, 
 thus gained their sentence of pardon : 
 ' Live, dear Jesus, live ! and that in my 
 heart.' "
 
 JESUS IS BROUGHT BEFORE PILATE 127 
 
 $metecntl) jfte&ttatton 
 
 JESUS IS BROUGHT BEFORE PILATE 
 
 Preparation. Represent to yourself your 
 Divine Saviour, His hands tied behind Him 
 like a criminal, pushed forward by the 
 Jewish crowd to the tribunal of the Roman 
 governor. 
 
 i. Reflect upon the refined malice of the 
 Jewish priests and elders, which would not 
 allow their passion so far to blind them 
 as to make them take summary vengeance 
 upon our Lord ; but prompted them to 
 proceed through all the forms of Roman 
 law ; that so, on the one hand, the punish- 
 ment might be more severe and cruel, being 
 that of crucifixion, and on the other, the 
 public might be deceived into a belief of 
 the justice of a sentence pronounced by 
 a foreign tribunal, and acquit them of 
 all animosity and resentment in their pro- 
 ceedings. Having, therefore, satiated their 
 cruelty by wreaking on Him all they ven- 
 tured, short of murder, during the preced- 
 ing night ; they rise early, and, followed
 
 128 NINETEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 by the mob of their satellites, and such a 
 crowd as the occasion was sure to collect, 
 they drag Jesus as a criminal to the 
 governor's house. At the first aspect of 
 such accusers, and such an accused, the 
 cause ought to be decided. They, scarcely 
 recovered from the cruel revels of the pre- 
 vious night, but bearing all the traces of 
 its infamous passions in their inflamed 
 countenances ; He, already bruised and ill- 
 treated in a barbarous manner : they, having 
 violated all law and principles of justice, 
 by inflicting such cruelty upon one uncon- 
 demned and unheard ; He, having rather 
 a right to charge them for the injuries 
 inflicted, than cause to defend Himself 
 against such aggressors ! Such a case as 
 this, presented before any tribunal pos- 
 sessed of the slightest principles of justice, 
 should have instantly been dismissed ; or 
 plaintiff and defendant made to change 
 places. Nor is it possible to suppose that 
 the Koman president, watchful, of course, 
 over the interests of his nation, and atten- 
 tive to the smallest movement in a people 
 so prone to rebellion as the Jews, cognisant
 
 JESUS IS BROUGHT BEFORE PILATE 129 
 
 of their growing expectations of a deliverer 
 from foreign bondage, should have been 
 ignorant of the enthusiasm which the 
 wonderful powers exercised by Jesus had 
 excited. He must, or ought, to have made 
 inquiries, and satisfied himself that from 
 Him the state and civil authority had 
 nothing to fear. Indeed, when our Divine 
 Saviour is presented before him, we do 
 not see him evince the slightest eagerness 
 to investigate the case, or to take it up 
 with that warmth which governors of dis- 
 tant and lately acquired countries generally 
 display upon grave accusations of treason. 
 He therefore probably knows, that had it 
 been any real treason, the accusers on this 
 occasion, who display so cordial a zeal, 
 would most probably have been engaged 
 in it. There seems, however, to be a deep 
 design of heavenly Providence in allowing 
 these wily rulers to be outwitted by their 
 own devices. Not only, by presenting the 
 Son of God to the heathen governor, are 
 they securing the fulfilment of His repeated 
 declaration that He should die the death 
 of the cross, but they are unintentionally 
 
 I
 
 130 NINETEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 bringing about the accomplishment of 
 another and more ancient prediction. The 
 sceptre was not to be taken away from 
 Juda till the Messias had come. And 
 perhaps we may say that this delivery of 
 Jesus over to the Eoman power was the 
 first great national acknowledgment of the 
 departure of native authority, and of sub- 
 mission to foreign rule. Now for the first 
 time did they exclaim, " Non habemus 
 regem nisi Csesarem." " Si huuc dimittis, 
 non es amicus Csesaris." Never before, 
 perhaps, did the priests and highest autho- 
 rities in the country make so decisive a 
 declaration of homage and servitude as now, 
 when their rage prompted them to make 
 this sacrifice of the authority to which they 
 had hitherto clung. They owned the sceptre 
 to have passed from Juda, and on that day 
 the true Silo came ; He to whom it of right 
 belonged, as the Saviour of His people. 
 
 2. Eeflect now upon the indictment they 
 prefer against Jesus, at this iniquitous tri- 
 bunal which they have chosen. We have 
 already considered the disgraceful subter- 
 fuges to which the priests were put to fix
 
 JESUS IS BROUGHT BEFORE PILATE 131 
 
 on some palpable or plausible charge against 
 Jesus. We saw how, after hearing and 
 rejecting many testimonies, they at last 
 fixed upon that which attested Him to 
 have said, that if the temple were to be 
 destroyed, He could build it up again. We 
 naturally expect this supposed blasphemy 
 to be the great and leading head of accusa- 
 tion against Him. But now the iniquitous 
 wretches have again changed their ground, 
 and have chosen another more palpably 
 untenable. " We have found this man," 
 they say, " perverting our nation, and for- 
 bidding to give tribute to Csesar, and say- 
 ing that He is Christ the King" (Luke 
 xxiii. 2). Upon the first of these points 
 our Blessed Saviour had been most artfully 
 tempted, and had displayed His wonderful 
 wisckma, in defeating the attempts to en- 
 snare Him. He had clearly said, " Render 
 to Csesar the things that are Caesar's." 
 But the latter part of their accusation goes 
 beyond all the rest in wickedness, ingrati- 
 tude, and blasphemous impiety. These 
 they more unreservedly displayed later, 
 when they exclaimed, " Whoever maketh
 
 132 NINETEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 himself a king, speaketh against Caesar ; " 
 and " We have a law, and according to 
 the law He ought to die, because He made 
 Himself the Son of God " (John xix. 12, 7). 
 Is it possible that such a charge should be 
 made against Blessed Jesus, by men who 
 were looking out for the Christ of God, as 
 one who should drive Caesar not only from 
 the promised land, but from his very im- 
 perial throne, and wrest from his hands 
 the sceptre of the universe ? Would it 
 have appeared credible, if not recorded in 
 God's unerring Word, that men could have 
 been so blinded by passion, as that to carry 
 an unjust and cruel charge they should 
 belie their dearest inclinations before all 
 their countrymen, and blaspheme, in the 
 face of heaven, what they considered the 
 most splendid mercy which the God of 
 Israel had in store for their nation ? 
 "Whoever makes himself a king must be 
 put to death, as a rebel to Caesar; the 
 law justly condemns to the same penalty 
 one who assumes the character of the Son 
 of God." In these propositions sentence of 
 death is passed by the Jewish senate upon
 
 jEStTS IS BROUGHT BEFORE 1'lLATti 133 
 
 the Mcssias whenever He might appear 
 after their own hearts, such as they desired 
 Him ! Is there any mystery of iniquity 
 false and lying, too complicated or too 
 deep for us to expect in the heart of man, 
 after such evidence as this ? What villainy 
 and unredeemable perversity was needed, 
 before men could frame a charge against 
 the sinless, spotless Lamb of God ! 
 
 3. Affections. Sympathise with your 
 Kedeemer thus unjustly persecuted by the 
 raging malice of His enemies, and say : 
 " How shall I repress my indignation 
 against the villains who thus abandon every 
 sentiment of patriotism and consistency, as 
 well as every principle of righteousness and 
 gratitude, to deliver Thee, the benefactor 
 as well as the Saviour of Thy people, into 
 the hands of the Gentiles, that Thou mayest 
 by them be cruelly tortured and put to 
 death ? But it is not with such feelings 
 that Thou wouldst have Thy blessed Passion 
 to be meditated on, especially by us. For 
 how often have we ourselves brought Thee 
 before the iniquitous tribunal of this world, 
 to be by it condemned ! Even whenever,
 
 i34 NINETEENTH MEDITATION 
 
 by our behaviour, or through our indiscreet 
 speeches, we have caused Thy truths or Thy 
 injunctions to be lightly discussed or easily 
 put aside ! Let us therefore take to our- 
 selves some portion of the shame which we 
 cast upon those who treated Thee with such 
 indignity ; and try to compensate our guilt 
 by thankfulness to Thee for having suffered 
 even this for love of us, and by a loving 
 determination ever to stand up as Thine 
 advocates and vindicators before the false 
 arraignments and foolish cavils of unbe- 
 lieving or thoughtless men. We will ever 
 arise for Thy cause ; and if the world cries 
 down Thy supreme law, we will exclaim 
 the louder, ' Non habemus regem nisi 
 Jesum.' We will acknowledge Thee in 
 the face of men for our sovereign and 
 rightful Lord ; w r e will not allow the 
 smallest prerogatives of Thy state to be 
 touched, and we will strain every nerve 
 to exalt and spread Thy kingdom over the 
 world that knows Thee not."
 
 THE RETKACTATION OF JUDAS 135 
 
 ftfoentietfj JMetiitatton 
 
 THE RETRACTATION OF JUDAS AND 
 HIS DEATH 
 
 i. Reflect upon the feelings which must 
 have agitated the traitor Judas after he had 
 delivered up his good Master. At first he 
 gloated upon his thirty pieces of silver, and 
 counted them over again and again, and 
 imagined he had made an excellent bargain. 
 Still he would not easily forget the price, 
 and the infamy attached to his act. Per- 
 haps he flattered himself with the idea that 
 Jesus would never allow Himself to be ill- 
 treated by His enemies ; but as He had 
 overthrown them in the Garden, so He 
 would foil and utterly vanquish them in 
 their own Council Chamber. Or is it pos- 
 sible that at the same time he may have 
 reckoned on the leniency and forgiveness 
 of Jesus, and fully calculated upon pardon ? 
 However this may be, it would not be long 
 before unhappy feelings would begin to 
 creep into his soul, and trouble him with 
 vague apprehensions. The evil spirit which
 
 136 TWENTIETH MEDITATION 
 
 had at first concealed all the dark aspects 
 of his crime, when it was his purpose to 
 tempt him, would now begin gradually to 
 unfold them to urge him to destruction. 
 Like our first parents, he had been tempted 
 by the fruits of his treachery ; his thirty 
 pieces of silver had appeared fair to his 
 eye, and worth any sacrifice of duty ; now 
 that he has them, he discovers that he is 
 naked and deserted. While the rest of the 
 disciples consult together in secret, or, like 
 Peter and John, even approach the scene 
 of their Master's trial, Judas does not draw 
 nigh to either. He skulks about during 
 the long dreary night, shunning every 
 former acquaintance, trembling at the pos- 
 sibility of meeting Mary, who may ask if 
 he knows what has become of her Son ; or 
 Peter, who may in his indignation seize 
 him by the throat, and avenge on him his 
 Master's cruel betrayal ; and while he thus 
 ventures not near the dwellings of any of 
 his former friends, who were necessarily 
 the friends of Jesus, he knows too well the 
 scorn and detestation in which he is held 
 by those who have used him as their tool
 
 THE RETRACTATION OF JUDAS 137 
 
 in the most disgraceful part of their conduct 
 to thrust himself amongst them. Like all 
 traitors, he feels himself equally odious to 
 his old and new friends. He prowls like a 
 wolf about the precincts of the High Priest's 
 palace, afraid to accost any one, yet borne 
 on by a tormenting eagerness to inquire 
 concerning the probable fate of Jesus ; and 
 perhaps, concealing his anxiety under a 
 studied indifference, he asks of such as he 
 thinks cannot recognise him what appear 
 to be the intentions of the priests. Too 
 soon he begins to fear the worst, for all 
 tell him that they have pronounced Him 
 worthy of death, have determined to give 
 Him up in the morning to the Roman pre- 
 sident, and are in the meantime venting 
 their rage and impiety, in insults and blows, 
 upon His sacred Person. Now does the 
 vileness and cruelty of his treason begin to 
 open upon him ; now does he begin to see 
 the abyss of wretchedness that yawns before 
 him, the barbarous treatment he has brought 
 upon his kind, generous Master and Friend, 
 the murder that will probably be committed 
 on Him on the morrow through his crime,
 
 138 TWENTIETH MEDITATION 
 
 the infamy that awaits him, the universal 
 execration of all posterity, the worse than 
 hellish torments which conscience is prepar- 
 ing for him, and which he already begins 
 to feel ! And in the morning when he rises 
 early, and sees the sorrowful procession 
 moving towards Pilate's house ; when he 
 hears the yells of the mob, " Crucify Him," 
 and sees in the countenances of the priests 
 ample evidence of their fixed determination 
 to proceed to extremities, how does he curse 
 the silver that allured him to a deed of such 
 black iniquity, and the ill-fated hour when 
 he listened to its temptation. Hence, over- 
 come at length with remorse, that purse of 
 ill-gotten wealth, which is at his girdle, is 
 truly heavier to his neck than that mill- 
 stone with which it would have been better 
 for him to have been cast into the sea ; and 
 anxious to be rid of its load at any risk, 
 he hurries to the members of the priestly 
 council, who were yet sitting, flings it at 
 their feet with these solemn words, " I have 
 sinned in betraying innocent blood." 
 
 2. Eeflect now on the terrible answer 
 given him by these hardened partners of
 
 THE RETRACTATION OP JUDAS 139 
 
 his crime : " Quid ad nos ? Tu videris." 
 This is the answer which we must ever 
 expect from all companions in iniquity 
 when its punishment overtakes us. They 
 will laugh at our complaints ; they will 
 scoff at our repentance ; they will turn 
 their backs on our entreaties for succour. 
 When we tell them that it was following 
 their advice, that it was to please them, 
 that we committed sin ; and that now we 
 are suffering in consequence, this will be 
 their hard-hearted reply : "What is all this 
 to us ? Look thou to it." And on the 
 last day such will be the only sympathy 
 we may expect from those who have been 
 our patrons or encouragers in evil ; all will 
 abandon us on that occasion, and leave us 
 to our solitary liability. But mark withal 
 the abominable hypocrisy of these hoary 
 sinners, who affect a scruple at touching or 
 applying to sacred purposes the price of 
 blood which they had not hesitated to pay. 
 And was there not a providential, and in a 
 manner a prophetical, application of this 
 sum in the purchase of a field for the burial 
 of strangers ? as if to show that the price
 
 140 TWENTIETH MEDITATION 
 
 of Jesus' blood, rejected by the synagogue, 
 was to be for the benefit of the Gentiles ; 
 and Calvary, the Christian Haceldama, was 
 their exclusive inheritance. But turn once 
 more to Judas. See the red-hot sword of 
 despair which this cold answer plunges into 
 his heart ; how he scowls with knitted brows 
 upon the priests as he sees the contemp- 
 tuous sneer upon their lips. Before he was 
 their dear and faithful friend, welcome and 
 warmly received whenever he stole from 
 his Master's side on Gethsemane to join 
 their midnight councils. Now he is a 
 Galilean in their eyes, an importunate man 
 who has had his due, and is no more wanted. 
 His sight is loathsome to them ; had he not 
 foreseen this ? They do not offer him any 
 consolation, or attempt to convince him 
 that Jesus has deserved His fate, and that 
 he has no reproach to make himself for 
 having delivered Him up to justice. No ; 
 " Quid ad nos ? Tu videris." He rushes 
 from their presence, gnawing his heart 
 with rage. wretched Judas ! whither 
 art thou hastening ? That is not the direc- 
 tion that leads to thy Lord ; He is now in
 
 THE RETRACTATION OF JUDAS 141 
 
 the house of Pilate, where they are scourg- 
 ing Him. Break through the crowd ; push 
 aside the soldiers ; cast thyself at His feet, 
 and, kissing them in repentance, efface that 
 other murderous kiss, and He will forgive 
 thee ; let His blood be sprinkled on thee, 
 and though thy sin be red as scarlet, thou 
 shalt become white as snow. Give to the 
 world this glorious spectacle of repentance. 
 But no ; the demon of despair, clinging at 
 his breast, whispers in his ear that for him 
 alone on earth there is no hope of forgive- 
 ness, that he alone is excepted from redemp- 
 tion. Life is no longer supportable, and he 
 hangs himself, and, falling, is rent to pieces ! 
 3. Affections. "Wretched man! no pity 
 pursues thy fate, no compassion softens the 
 meditation upon thine end ! Thou an 
 Apostle, a friend of the Bridegroom, an 
 individual companion of Jesus ! Thy fel- 
 lows, too, were hung upon gibbets, or their 
 bodies were racked and rent, and all the 
 world has honoured and loved them for it, 
 and their burial-places are glorious, and 
 their relics kissed and deemed holy. Thou 
 sufferedst as cruel a death as they, and hast
 
 142 TWENTY-FIRST MEDITATION 
 
 upon thy hanging corpse the execration of 
 the world ! It costs them as much to be a 
 traitor to Thee, dear Jesus ! as it does to 
 be Thy faithful follower and Apostle. And 
 shall I ever place thirty pieces of silver, 
 much less worthless pleasure, honour, or 
 fame against fidelity to Thy cause, to Thy 
 truth, and to Thy law ? Never, dear Lord ! 
 and if unhappily I sometimes, like Peter, 
 forget myself and Thee, never let me, 
 Judas-like, betray Thee." 
 
 Efoentg-fxrst Hesitation 
 
 OUR SAVIOUR'S SILENCE 
 
 Preparation. Represent to yourself our 
 Blessed Lord, bound like a criminal, and 
 standing before Pilate's tribunal. 
 
 i. Reflect how particularly the Evange- 
 lists notice the peculiar character of our 
 Saviour's defence when standing before the 
 different tribunals at which He was so 
 iniquitously arraigned. First when brought 
 before the High Priest Caiphas, and asked 
 if He answered nothing to the depositions 
 against Him, The Gospel adds, " Jesus
 
 OUR SAVIOURS SILENCE 143 
 
 autem tacebat" (Matt. xxvi. 63). Again, 
 when placed before Pilate and interrogated 
 by him, "He answered him not to any 
 word" (xxvii. 14). A third time He is 
 closely questioned by Herod, who would 
 easily be induced to effect His liberation ; 
 but here, in like manner, " He answered him 
 nothing " (Luke xxiii. 9). This conduct in 
 any other might have been suspected of 
 proceeding from a fear of committing him- 
 self by an unguarded expression, or giving 
 his enemies a hold on him, by any heat 
 or passion. But in Jesus this could not 
 possibly be imagined. Or in others we 
 might suppose that they were overawed 
 by the terror incident to persons put upon 
 trial for their lives, or by the great dignity 
 of the presence wherein they stood, or by a 
 consciousness of shame or guilt. But who, 
 without blasphemy, would even surmise the 
 possibility of such motives in the Son of 
 God ? No ; when the Eternal Word of God, 
 that came into the world to enlighten it 
 with heavenly wisdom, is silent, there must 
 be a deep mystery in the silence. And first 
 it was necessary, to complete that character
 
 144 TWENTY-FIRST MEDITATION 
 
 of meekness which the prophet had given 
 Him, that He should be like a lamb before 
 His shearer, not opening His mouth. What 
 an idea does it give us of the serenity of 
 His soul, of His elevation above earthly 
 things, of His power of abstracting Him- 
 self from the tumult and passion that sur- 
 rounded Him, and living in the pure and 
 radiant sphere of His own celestial thoughts. 
 For it was no sullen or obstinate refusal to 
 speak, but a calm and meek silence repre- 
 sentative of His inward serenity ; so that if 
 the Centurion at His death, upon hearing 
 the loud cry wherewith He yielded His 
 spirit, was justified in exclaiming, " Truly 
 this was the Son of God," any one who 
 properly apprehended His silence at the 
 tribunals, should from it have come to the 
 same conclusion. And, in fact, it is evident 
 that in His case was reversed that ordinary 
 principle that silence in one accused is equi- 
 valent to an admission of guilt. For the 
 Jews, with their High Priest, were utterly 
 confounded by His silence, and baffled in 
 their further proceedings against Him, and 
 Pilate repeated, after noticing it, his con-
 
 OUR SAVIOURS SILENCE 145 
 
 viction of His innocence ; and even Herod, 
 though he brutally insulted Him, drew 
 thence, as Pilate inferred, no evidence of 
 His being guilty. What a new and what a 
 wonderful species of defence ! What a truly 
 Divine eloquence, far more pathetic and far 
 more efficacious than the most laboured dis- 
 play of words would have been ! It was a 
 species of pleading, which none before had 
 ever tried, and which none even of His own 
 martyrs ever perfectly imitated. 
 
 2. Reflect upon the lesson which Jesus 
 hereby gave us, and the example which He 
 set before us. Silence at all times is, if not 
 a virtue, a preservative from much sin, and 
 it becomes the duty of a Christian to learn 
 when it ought to be observed, and when it 
 may be broken. It is certain that we shall 
 generally be safest by remaining silent, when 
 under provocation, and scarcely ever allow- 
 ing ourselves to attempt a defence, however 
 temperate. " Adolescens loquere in tua causa 
 vix," says the wise man. For, too easily 
 will self-love lead us to some transgression 
 of the limits of truth or the duty of respect 
 or we shall, in our anxiety to repel accusa- 
 
 K
 
 146 TWENTY-FIRST MEDITATION 
 
 tion, become ourselves accusers, and commit 
 a breach of charity ; or we may lose our 
 temper and injure our cause instead of help- 
 ing it, by violence or imprudence. But if 
 we remain silent, we certainly escape all 
 these dangers; we put our defence in the. 
 hands of God, and we acquire additional 
 merit of patience. When King Ezechias was 
 insulted grossly by the letter of Senacherib, 
 he did not reply to its bitter taunts, nor 
 call his councillors together to see how he 
 might best retort them upon him, but he 
 went into the temple, and spread the letter 
 before the face of God, and with tears placed 
 his cause in His hands ; and his prayer was 
 heard, and God that very night avenged 
 him by the destruction of 185,000 of his 
 enemies (4 Reg. xix. 35). And this silence 
 will be the more appropriate in all cases 
 where, like his, the insult, though personally 
 directed to us, is indirectly aimed at our 
 ministry or at His truth. If for instance we 
 are insulted in religious discussion, whether 
 by word of mouth or in writing, how much 
 more will our cause triumph, if we overlook 
 whatever is directed against us, or at most
 
 OUR SAVIOURS SILENCE 14? 
 
 meekly put it aside, and confine ourselves to 
 rebutting the arguments of our opponent ? 
 If a heathen could so far have subdued his 
 passions as to say to his adversary, that 
 raised his staff over him in anger, " Strike, 
 but listen," how much more should we, 
 ministers of Christ, be ready to suffer any 
 personal injury, if through its patient en- 
 durance we can induce men to hearken to 
 the truths we defend. In fact a contrary 
 course will only serve to irritate our feelings, 
 and disturb the clearness of our ideas and 
 diminish the force of our words. But more- 
 over, when we revenge ourselves by replying 
 to personalities, or false imputations (where 
 the cause we defend does not require it), we 
 deprive ourselves of the fruit of patience, 
 which is incompatible with all idea of re- 
 venge. And further, we hereby disturb 
 that perpetual calm which the Christian 
 should ever study to keep, in imitation of 
 his Blessed Saviour during His Passion. It 
 is not difficult for us to decide when and 
 how to speak, but it requires much virtue, 
 and a close study of our Lord's example, to 
 learn how to keep silence.
 
 148 TWENTY-FIRST MEDITATION 
 
 3. Affections. "Blessed Jesus, eternal 
 uncreated Wisdom ! no less instructing us 
 when Thou closest Thy lips and refusest to 
 unseal them, in obedience to the threats of 
 Thine enemies, than when Thou openest 
 them in reply to the questions of Thy 
 disciples ! What a sublime display of the 
 most heavenly eloquence would not Thy 
 Gospel have contained, hadst Thou conde- 
 scended to plead Thy cause before Caiphas, 
 or Pilate, or Herod ! Yet what have we 
 lost ? Those few simple words, 'Jesus autem 
 tacebat/ give me far greater cause of 
 admiration, inspire me with a profounder 
 conviction of Thy innocence, propose to me 
 sublimer lessons, and show me Thy enemies 
 more completely baffled than the most tri- 
 umphant defence of words could have done. 
 But if Thou art thus silent in Thine own 
 defence, let me never be so ; but whenever 
 Thy law or Thy goodness is assailed by the 
 ignorance or the malice of men, let me be ever 
 ready to rise in their defence, and to raise 
 my voice powerfully in their behalf. Let 
 me never allow the smallest charge against 
 what Thou hast revealed to pass unnoticed,
 
 JESUS IS SENT TO HEROD 149 
 
 and unconfuted. But in thus defending 
 Thy cause I will be careful never to mix 
 up with it mine own, but will carefully 
 copy Thee, when engaged in self-defence, 
 by opposing a meek and modest silence to 
 the clamours or calumnies of all personal 
 assaults." 
 
 Erjoentg-sccontJ 
 
 JESUS IS SENT TO HEROD 
 
 Preparation. Represent to yourself our 
 Blessed Lord standing before the tribunal 
 of this wicked and irreverent king. 
 
 i. Reflect how Pilate, hearing that Jesus 
 was from Galilee, determined to take ad- 
 vantage of this circumstance for the purpose 
 of shaking off the responsibility laid upon 
 him by the Jews, and to deliver up Jesus 
 to the Jewish king, as one subject to his 
 jurisdiction. Once more the Son of God 
 is paraded through the streets of Jerusalem, 
 followed by a mob furious for His blood, 
 and by those who set them on the priests 
 and scribes. They reach the palace of 
 Herod, and there commence a repetition of
 
 150 TWENTY- SECOND MEDITATION 
 
 their charges. Now probably they will 
 press different accusations from what were 
 calculated for a heathenish tribunal. Herod 
 will care little for treasons against Caesar, 
 his tyrant, but he must pretend great zeal 
 for the temple and the law, and great 
 indignation at any pretended prophet. 
 Those men therefore " stood by, earnestly 
 accusing Him" (Luke xxiii. 10). But in 
 the meantime Herod and his court had 
 been greatly interested at the very first 
 coming of Jesus. They had heard much 
 concerning Him from public fame, and their 
 pride or station had prevented them from 
 mingling in the multitude, to witness His 
 marvellous works. They imagine, how- 
 ever, as Simon Magus afterwards did of 
 the Apostles, that interest would, at any 
 time, be a sufficient inducement to Jesus 
 to exercise His power before them. Blessed 
 Jesus ! is such the fruit of Thy three years' 
 heavenly life before all Thy people, Thy 
 divine discourses, Thy sublime doctrines, 
 Thy pure disinterested conduct ? That so 
 conscious were these men of their own 
 baseness, so diffident of all virtue in the
 
 JESUS IS SENT TO HEROD 151 
 
 human form, as that they should have 
 looked even upon Thee, as men would 
 upon a juggler or trickster, who would now 
 give Herod and his court a private exhibi- 
 tion of His skill to save his life ! Nay, 
 and so reasonable does this appear to them, 
 that when Thou refusest, they deem Thee 
 a fool, making light of Thee, and mocking 
 at Thee. They dress Thee in a white 
 garment, and send Thee thus, publicly dis- 
 graced, through the streets to Pilate ! See 
 now the gibes and jeers of the fickle mob, 
 who now enjoy this spectacle, as though 
 they had not the day before stood around 
 Thee in mute astonishment at the wisdom 
 which flowed from Thy lips ? Are men 
 changed in so short a time ? Are their 
 understandings lost in one night so com- 
 pletely that they should not see that they 
 were the fools to be so easily turned from 
 reverence to scoffs, from admiration to 
 hatred "? Surely there was no part of our 
 dear Saviour's Passion so rudely igno- 
 minious as this. For to be struck on the 
 cheek and spit upon was the brutal, un- 
 premeditated treatment of a coarse rabble ;
 
 152 TWENTY-SECOND MEDITATION 
 
 but to be thus clothed in a fool's attire 
 was the deliberate act of a king with all 
 his court, who thus seem to sanction the 
 conduct of the mob. And Pilate, too, could 
 not mistake the obvious import of Herod's 
 decision. For seeing Jesus return to him 
 so arrayed, and at the same time acquitted 
 of crime (as he himself afterwards pro- 
 claimed), he could not but consider it equi- 
 valent to the impious declaration, that the 
 Son of God showed too little wisdom to be 
 capable of the great attempts with which 
 the priests and elders charged Him ! For 
 thus evidently did Herod acquit Jesus, at 
 the expense of His understanding ! Oh 
 speak to them but one word, dear Lord, 
 as Thou didst to the Herodians once before, 
 when they showed Thee the coin, and 
 utterly confound their machinations, and 
 turn their intended ridicule upon them- 
 selves ! Preach, in this fool's garment, 
 some of Thy sublime doctrines, and put 
 them to scorn, and show them in act how 
 the folly of this world is the wisdom of 
 God ! But no : Thou art silent, wishing 
 to check my presumption and pride when
 
 JESUS IS SENT TO HEROD 153 
 
 men insult my judgment : Thou art silent 
 too because Thou art willing to suffer all 
 things for my sake. 
 
 2. Eeflect upon what the Gospel says 
 was the issue of this sending of Jesus to 
 Herod. " And Herod and Pilate were 
 made friends that same day ; for before 
 they were enemies to one another" (v. 12). 
 From the connection intimated between 
 our Lord's being sent, and this reconcilia- 
 tion, as well as from the early hour from 
 which Pilate had been engaged with Him, 
 which precluded its having taken place 
 before, we may justly conclude that this 
 attention on the governor's part brought 
 it about. He cared not what the issue 
 might be to Jesus, though he believed Him 
 innocent. Herod was welcome to deal 
 with Him as he listed, so as He was a 
 peace-offering between them ! We cannot 
 but be struck at seeing how cheap, so to 
 speak, our Blessed Saviour was held in His 
 Passion, by all who thought that any profit 
 was to be made out of His sacrifice. The 
 High Priest pronounced it better that He 
 should die, however undeserving, than that
 
 154 TWENTY-SECOND MEDITATION 
 
 the nation should run any risk of being 
 harassed by the Eomans. Judas scrupled 
 not to betray Him, when thirty pieces of 
 silver were to be made by it. Peter hesi- 
 tated not to renounce Him, the moment 
 he could thereby escape the scorn of the 
 priests' menials ; and now Pilate throws 
 away His life, as a lure to Herod's favour ! 
 Truly, O Blessed Jesus, Thou didst here 
 become the reproach of men, and the out- 
 cast of the people ! But do we stand in 
 no danger of acting as these perverse men 
 did towards Jesus ? Do we not occasion- 
 ally even now, may we not in our future 
 lives, run the risk of compromising at His 
 expense with some of His enemies ? When 
 out of deference to prejudices existing in 
 those who know Him not, we give up any 
 institution of His Church, what do we else 
 but surrender Him to the will of those 
 who are in opposition to Him ? If we 
 refrain, for instance, from public homage 
 of the adorable Eucharist, from false shame 
 lest we should be considered fond and 
 superstitious, do we otherwise than Pilate 
 did that is, make a sacrifice of Him to
 
 JESUS IS SENT TO HEROD 155 
 
 peace with affections and ideas which do 
 Him wrong ? If we abstain from cele- 
 brating at the altar as often as our own 
 hearts would desire, in compliance with 
 practice which we know the Church would 
 not willingly approve, do we not send 
 Jesus away from us, in the hope of thereby 
 purchasing peace with men frail and evil 
 as ourselves ? If, from a desire of living 
 in harmony with those who know not the 
 wisdom of faith which Jesus hath revealed 
 to us, we suppress the public declaration 
 of some doctrines unpalatable to flesh and 
 blood, or preach them coldly and feebly, 
 or shrink from defending them in conversa- 
 tion, do we not reject the Divine Word, 
 the uncreated Truth, and deliver it into 
 the hands of scoffers, who dress Him up 
 as in a fool's garment, turning to ridicule 
 and making nought of these sublime and 
 beautiful dogmas which we thus tacitly 
 abandon ? Oh ! let such a foul treachery 
 never be laid to our charge ! Let us, re- 
 vering the Eternal Wisdom of God, mani- 
 fested to us in His holy revelations, to 
 their fullest extent, honour publicly, and
 
 156 TWENTY- SECOND MEDITATION 
 
 without shame, even those forms that it 
 assumes, in the practices sanctioned by the 
 Church, His spouse, which to the miserable 
 wisdom of this world seem folly. If Jesus 
 was mocked by Herod and his army, what 
 wonder if His doctrines receive the same 
 treatment from the world and its followers. 
 3. Affections. "0 Jesus, uncreated 
 Wisdom, I adore Thee, turned to foolish- 
 ness for my sake ! Who would wear the 
 philosopher's cloak, the badge of vain, 
 presumptuous learning, when Thou art dis- 
 guised in the garb of folly ? Who will not 
 put it on after Thee ? To be meek and 
 forgiving, to be silent under provocations, 
 to turn the cheek to him that smiteth it, 
 all this is folly in the eyes of thy enemies 
 let me put on these qualities. To be 
 humble and lowly in our own estimation, 
 to fly the praise of men, and do good in 
 obscurity, are all to the world characteristics 
 of a weak and foolish mind, incapable of 
 great public virtue let me be distinguished 
 by this accounted poverty of spirit. To be 
 chaste and pure, a hater of pleasure, and 
 a despiser of dissipation and amusement,
 
 JESUS IS SCOURGED 157 
 
 is considered the habit of a weak-minded 
 bigot make me ever cognisable by it for 
 Thy disciple. Teach me that folly which 
 consists in having the simplicity and 
 docility of a child, the guilelessness of the 
 dove. Teach me that wise foolishness 
 which will make me all to all, that I may 
 gain all, by stooping to the ideas and con- 
 ceptions of the ignorant, and speaking 
 their own language, that I may instil into 
 their hearts Thy faith and Thy law. And 
 in fine choose in us the foolish things of 
 this world, that Thou mayest therewith 
 confound the wise, that no flesh may glory 
 in Thy sight." 
 
 JHefcttatton 
 
 JESUS IS SCOURGED 
 
 Preparation. Imagine to yourself your 
 Blessed Redeemer tied to a column, and 
 cruelly scourged by the Roman soldiery. 
 
 i. Reflect upon the impious conduct of 
 Pilate, when he declared to the Jews that 
 he would correct Jesus and let Him go.
 
 158 TWENTY-THIRD MEDITATION 
 
 Impious and blasphemous idea ! To cor- 
 rect Him who is the wisdom of the Eternal 
 Father, the light and splendour of Heaven, 
 the teacher and inspirer of prophets, the 
 joy of the angels, purity, holiness, perfec- 
 tion itself! And who is this that under- 
 takes to correct Him ? One of the lewdest, 
 unjustest, most tyrannical, most odious of 
 heathens ! He undertakes to teach mor- 
 ality and virtue to the spotless Son of God ; 
 he proposes to chastise Him for impiously 
 imputed crimes, and to send Him into the 
 world again, an amended man ! And how 
 was this correction to be effected ? By the 
 scourge ! By the punishment of slaves, of 
 the vilest of mankind ! Good God ! Is it 
 possible that the worst malice of the devil 
 can have imagined the possibility of such 
 thoughts being entertained by wicked men, 
 and can have suggested them to their 
 minds ? Is it conceivable that the blind- 
 ness of passion could have led any one into 
 such an excess of madness as is implied in 
 entertaining such an idea ? But besides 
 this mockery of all virtue, how insane was 
 the hope of slaking the thirst of blood
 
 JESUS IS SCOURGED 159 
 
 displayed by the furious mob, by causing 
 some to flow. As well might he have 
 hoped to stay the thirst-worn traveller in 
 the desert from hastening on, by showing 
 him at a short distance a pool of water. It 
 was but exciting still further their savage 
 cry for His blood ; it was encouraging them 
 to press on eagerly till they should procure 
 His death. 
 
 2. Reflect how Pilate actually proceeds 
 to the execution of his infamous offer, 
 which he even fancies is a kindness and 
 a favour to Jesus ! He delivers Him up 
 to his Roman soldiers to be scourged. 
 Now contemplate at leisure the scene that 
 follows. He is placed in the hands of 
 probably the most hardened race of men 
 on earth ; men inured to carnage ; every 
 one of them ready, when commanded, to 
 be an executioner, the office reserved in 
 later times for one who is deemed an out- 
 cast ; men who hate the stranger and the 
 conquered, and who ever bore a particular 
 antipathy to the Jewish nation. Now to 
 the absolute power of these men Jesus is 
 abandoned ; they see given up to them,
 
 l6o TWENTY-THIRD MEDITATION 
 
 not a hardened, rough criminal, one like 
 themselves, whom they would probably 
 have sympathised with, or whom they 
 would have thought it but an everyday 
 occupation to torture, but one whose very 
 appearance proves Him to be of the noblest 
 descent, and of the tenderest frame one 
 whose modesty and bashfulness is keenly 
 sensitive to the disgraceful exposure to 
 nakedness and ignominious punishment- 
 one whose meek and calm demeanour, so 
 at variance with their brutality, stimulates 
 their savage cruelty still more, one whose 
 alleged crime is the desire and attempt 
 to drive them and their whole race out 
 of Palestine, and overthrow their empire, 
 which gives them, for their bread, the 
 plunder of the world. What wonder that 
 the scourging inflicted by these hardened 
 wretches should have even been repre- 
 sented as one of the cruellest parts of 
 our Blessed Redeemer's Passion ? What 
 wonder that He Himself should have 
 almost always alluded to it when He spoke 
 of His crucifixion ? For if to any man it 
 was so disgraceful an infliction, that St.
 
 JESUS IS SCOURGED l6l 
 
 Paul himself pleaded his right as a Roman 
 citizen in bar of its execution, what must 
 it have been in this instance? Well, now 
 see the innocent Lamb of God, surrounded 
 by this ruffianly mob, the subject of their 
 coarse jests and gross ribaldry ; such men 
 as St. Ignatius Martyr afterwards charac- 
 terised by the name of leopards. See 
 how they strip Him with rude hands ; how 
 tightly they bind His wrists, and tie Him 
 to the pillar. Gracious God ! Is it pos- 
 sible that Thou wilt allow His virginal 
 flesh to be touched by a scourge ; is it 
 possible that Thou wilt permit the igno- 
 minious lash to tear and disfigure that most 
 comely and holy of bodies, formed by 
 Thine own immediate agency in the pure 
 womb of Mary, the most precious work of 
 Thy hands since the creation of the world ? 
 Angels of God ! can you withhold your 
 indignation ? Can ye refrain from rushing 
 on this mad soldiery, and overthrowing (as 
 ye did Heliodorus) those who are about 
 to treat your Master, your happiness and 
 joy, as a vile malefactor, as the lowest of 
 slaves ; those who will proceed to tear and 
 
 L
 
 1 62 TWENTY-THIRD MEDITATION 
 
 bruise His adorable body, and sprinkle His 
 blood over that profane floor ? But no : 
 there seems to be no mercy, no pity for 
 Jesus either on earth or in heaven : He is 
 abandoned to the anger of God and the 
 fury of man. The executioners surround 
 Him with savage delight, and shower on 
 Him their cruel blows, till He is covered 
 with blood, and gashed and swollen over 
 all His body. 
 
 3. Affections. Pause for some time in 
 the contemplation of this atrocious spec- 
 tacle, which will be the subject of the 
 following meditation, and abstracting from 
 the motive of your Saviour's sufferings, ex- 
 cite yourself to a feeling of pure sympathy 
 for Him, as one whom you love, and say : 
 " my most meek and loving Jesus ! is it 
 possible that men can have been found 
 so barbarous, so dead to every feeling of 
 humanity, as thus brutally to treat Thee ? 
 Can any one have endured for a moment 
 the spectacle of Thy sacred body mangled, 
 Thy limbs, which had never failed Thee in 
 doing good, rent and bruised, Thy precious 
 blood, every drop of which was a world's
 
 JESUS IS SCOURGED 163 
 
 ransom, poured out in streams and trodden 
 on by the vile wretches who are tormenting 
 Thee ? Oh, this was really too much to 
 submit to ; this portion of Thy sufferings 
 ought surely to have been spared Thee ! 
 Had it been any ordinary friend that was 
 so treated, had it been a brother, or one 
 most dear to me in the flesh, I might at 
 least have acknowledged that some sin or 
 frailty had made him deserve it in the eyes 
 of God. But Thou, the Holy One, the un- 
 stained, the perfect image of God, nay His 
 Consubstantial Son, treated thus infam- 
 ously, thus barbarously, art a sight beyond 
 endurance ! How shall I ever love Thee 
 as I ought, after witnessing all this ? How 
 much dearer oughtest Thou to be to me, 
 bruised and torn, than if I had only known 
 Thee comely and beautiful among the sons 
 of men. Let me, however unworthy, sym- 
 pathise in these Thy sufferings ; let me feel 
 all their indignity, all their pain, and let 
 me never be one of those whose hearts re- 
 main unmoved in the contemplation of Thy 
 cruel treatment."
 
 164 TWENTY -FOURTH MEDITATION 
 
 Etoentg-fourtfj JHetittation 
 
 JESUS IS SCOURGED (continued) 
 
 Preparation. Represent to yourself your 
 Blessed Redeemer tied to a pillar and cruelly 
 scourged by the Roman soldiery. 
 
 i. Reflect how the brutal executioners 
 proceed to the task of inflicting cruel tor- 
 ments upon our Lord. Having bound Him 
 to the pillar, they deal their furious blows 
 upon His sacred shoulders, l)ack, chest, and 
 arms. First His tender flesh swells and 
 inflames, then the skin becomes torn, and 
 the blood oozes through gashes that begin 
 to be formed ; then more copious streams 
 pour down on the pavement. At length 
 every part is covered by one continuous 
 bruise, and the flesh is torn in flakes from 
 the bones. One wretch succeeds another 
 in the cruel work, till they are wearied out, 
 and their sinewy frames exhausted, though 
 the patience of their Divine Victim remains 
 unmoved. What a piteous spectacle does our 
 dear Jesus now present ! What a contrast 
 to what He was but the evening before,
 
 JESUS IS SCOURGED 165 
 
 when seated at His banquet of love with 
 His twelve, and John, the beloved disciple, 
 leaning on His bosom ! If that disciple 
 saw Him during this cruel flagellation, 
 what a tender sorrow must he not have 
 felt, and how bitterly deplored the sad 
 change of His aspect ! And ought I not 
 to feel even as that beloved disciple felt 
 for my dear Saviour's sufferings ? Was He 
 not as much my Saviour as his ? When 
 this sorrowful act in the sacred tragedy 
 was ended, our Lord is untied from the 
 column, and left faint and bleeding, and 
 deserted. There is no friend near to aid 
 Him. His disciples are away, and the 
 brutal executioners are the last to render 
 Him any assistance. Exhausted with loss 
 of blood, His soul only retained in His 
 body by the Divinity, that He may accom- 
 plish His sufferings on Calvary, He puts 
 again the rough woollen clothes upon His 
 mangled limbs, and thus increases His ex- 
 cruciating pains. 
 
 Consider, too, the change which has 
 taken place in His position, with regard to 
 the people. He is now a disgraced, de-
 
 1 66 TWENTY-FOURTH MEDITATION 
 
 graded character. The lash has touched 
 Him, has cruelly torn Him. He is now 
 before them as a tried and condemned 
 criminal, as a public malefactor. They will 
 not believe that their priests could have 
 gone to such extremities as to deliver 
 a descendant of David to the heathen's 
 scourge without sufficient cause. But, 
 however innocent, He cannot again hold 
 up His head among the children of His 
 people. One who has been scourged can 
 hope for no further influence among them. 
 He must give up all pretensions to be 
 their Messias. Who will now own Him as 
 such ? Oh, how many, upon seeing Him 
 thus treated, denied Him like Peter ! How 
 many not only swore that they never had 
 known the man, but regretted that they 
 ever had followed or known Him ! How 
 many were ashamed at this first step in the 
 scandal of the Cross ! 
 
 2. Reflect upon the motives which im- 
 pelled our adorable Jesus to submit to a 
 suffering as disgraceful as it was cruel. 
 His prophet had before declared it, saying, 
 " Cujus livore sanati sumus ; " " Attritus
 
 JESUS IS SCOURGED 167 
 
 est propter scelera nostra." It was for our 
 sake ; and this in a twofold sense. First, 
 that He might redeem us. For it seems 
 evident that He deemed the work of our 
 redemption incomplete, unless it purchased 
 our hearts to Him as well as our souls. He 
 suffered, therefore, for our sins, to save us 
 from their slavery, and from their eternal 
 consequences ; but He chose to perform 
 this work in such a way as might best 
 secure our affections besides, by testifying 
 to us what He was ready and most willing 
 to suffer for us. Hence this almost super- 
 fluous suffering of so many and such cruel 
 preliminary torments, which form perhaps 
 the bitterest portion of His Passion ; but 
 what hardened, what obdurate hearts ours 
 must be, which required such means to 
 bring them to His love ! What a miser- 
 able, ungrateful being am I, if, after all 
 this, I resist His calls and claims to my 
 affections, and surrender not nay entire 
 undivided heart to His divine love ! 
 
 Besides this motive for so much suffer- 
 ing, Jesus had likewise in view my im- 
 provement. He wished to give me an
 
 I 68 TWENTY- FOURTH MEDITATION 
 
 example of patience and silent endurance, 
 not only under the severest infliction which 
 may visit me from the hand of God, but 
 under such unmerited sufferings as may 
 come from the injustice and malice of men. 
 Oh, who will repine at being reproached 
 and disgraced before men, when he sees 
 his dear Saviour scourged publicly at the 
 pillar ? Who will be tender about his good 
 name, when he thus contemplates the Lord 
 of glory humbled before all His people, His 
 chosen disciples, His beloved mother, as a 
 public criminal, and treated as the basest of 
 men ? Nay, rather welcome the ignominy 
 of the Cross, and let it be our glory. Let 
 humiliation and disesteem from men be our 
 preference and our portion on earth, since 
 earth could so debase and outrage the Son 
 of God. Who would yearn for fame and 
 honour, when He is covered with reproach 
 and shame ? 
 
 3. Affections. Present yourself to your 
 beloved Saviour, after this suffering, and 
 devoutly address Him, saying, "My dearest 
 and ever merciful Jesus, who shall recog- 
 nise Thee, the Lord of Heaven, in this
 
 JESUS IS SCOURGED 169 
 
 cruel plight, covered from head to foot 
 with Thy sacred blood, gashed and rent in 
 this frightful manner ? Who, dear Jesus, 
 hath treated Thee thus ? Who hath had 
 the barbarity to mangle Thy tender flesh in 
 this sort ? Oh, if Thy meek silence would 
 allow Thee to speak, if at this moment Thou 
 couldst utter a reproach, Thou wouldst 
 surely answer me in the words of Nathan, 
 ' Thou art the man ! ' Yes, too well I 
 know it. My sins and foul transgressions 
 have been Thine executioners : they were 
 armed with lashes for Thy blessed body, 
 and heavily and cruelly they laid them 
 on Thee. Wretch that I have been, un- 
 grateful, unnatural, unfeeling! 'Upon Thy 
 back sinners have ploughed' (Ps. cxxviii. ; 
 Heb.); but not merely those representatives 
 of ours who wielded the whips and the rods, 
 but we, we who live ; I who now address 
 Thee, in shame and contrition. Oh, this 
 was too much for Thee to endure on behalf 
 of such a wretch ! It was too much good- 
 ness, too great affection to submit to such 
 ignominies and such brutal treatment. It 
 is a spectacle too distressing even for my
 
 170 TWENTY-FIFTH MEDITATION 
 
 flinty heart to bear. Oh, that it could 
 have been spared Thee ! But Thy love 
 knows not the word ' too much.' It is in- 
 satiable : it will devour every reproach and 
 shame and torment for us, to save us and 
 to gain us. Blessed be Thou by us all for 
 ever : grant us grace never to think we can 
 requite Thee with too much love. ' Ego in 
 flagella paratus sum,' I arn ready, my dear 
 Jesus, to suffer with Thee, whatever Thy 
 Eternal Father shall be pleased to appoint ; 
 I will be resigned and patient after Thy 
 blessed example, under whatever suffering 
 shall be appointed for me." 
 
 JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS 
 
 Preparation. Imagine to yourself your 
 Saviour in the midst of the soldiers, an'd 
 crowned with thorns. 
 
 i. Reflect, that after our Blessed Re- 
 deemer had been so cruelly scourged, one 
 might have supposed that the smallest 
 remains of humanity in the Roman soldiery
 
 JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS I? I 
 
 would have led them to compassion ; or 
 that mere weariness, at least, would make 
 them cease from torturing Him. Instead 
 of this, having exhausted all the means 
 which the law and the sentence of the 
 judge afforded them for exercising cruelty, 
 they had recourse to their own ingenuity, 
 and followed the suggestions of their own 
 savage thirst for His blood. They knew 
 that Jesus stood accused of calling Himself 
 King of the Jews : they hated the very 
 title, and they determined to make it a 
 source of cruel merriment at the expense of 
 Him who so justly bore it. Wherefore they 
 prepared for Him a new, unheard-of kind 
 of mockery, a crown woven of long, hard, 
 and sharp thorns ; this they place upon His 
 sacred head. Then they press it down hard, 
 until its points pierce his sacred skin and 
 flesh. Now see your dear Saviour ; how 
 disfigured He appears, how wounded He is, 
 how His brows and cheeks are moistened 
 with His own blood ! His hair is all en- 
 tangled in the knotty wreath, and clotted 
 with the sacred streams that issue from the 
 many wounds which that cruel crown tears
 
 172 TWENTY-FIFTH MEDITATION 
 
 open in His divine head. His fair temples 
 and noble forehead are pressed round by 
 this instrument of torture, which shoots its 
 points into them, and opens in them so 
 many fountains of life, so many sources of 
 salvation that flow from His heart. See 
 how the Blood of God trickles down, first 
 slowly, then in faster and thicker streams, 
 till His blessed face and neck are streaked 
 with it ; then it runs down over all His 
 body, mingling with that which wells forth 
 from the gashes inflicted by the scourges. 
 Think what a new additional agony to the 
 smart of His former wounds ! His body 
 had, indeed, been lacerated ; but the rods 
 and lashes were not raised so high as to 
 His sacred head and face. But now this 
 Divine head also was assailed by a more 
 brutal infliction than had ever been before 
 devised, and suffered its full proportion of 
 racking pain. For, not content with the 
 first planting upon His sacred head this cruel 
 instrument of pain, they from time to time 
 strike it down with a reed, thus changing 
 the direction of its points, or forcing them 
 in still deeper. Oh, which shall most excite
 
 JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS 173 
 
 our wonder? the hard and unfeeling bar- 
 barity of these wretches, or the patience 
 and meekness of the Lamb of God ? See 
 them all around Him, like so many wolves 
 or tigers, mocking Him, taking delight in 
 His sufferings, renewing them every moment 
 by their blows, and shouting in savage 
 exultation at every new device and in- 
 genuity of torment. Then see Him, gentle 
 and unresisting, not casting one angry 
 glance at the most forward or barbarous 
 of His tormentors, not uttering a word 
 of complaint, not even expostulating with 
 them, but bearing all their inflictions with 
 a mildness and sweetness which should 
 have melted and won hearts of stone to 
 compassion and to love. What a pattern, 
 what an example for us to follow ! What a 
 lesson for us to learn ! What virtue for us 
 to admire and put in practice ! 
 
 2. Reflect upon the cruel mockery in- 
 tended and perpetrated in this bloody 
 tragedy. It was intended to ridicule and 
 put to shame the claims which our dear 
 Redeemer had to the title of king, not only 
 over the Jews, but over the entire world.
 
 1/4 TWENTY- FIFTH MEDITATION 
 
 Could scorn or cruelty go further than this, 
 to crown Him with anything so mean, yet 
 so torturing, as a wreath of thorns ? It 
 was as though they told Him that such 
 was the only badge to represent His pre- 
 tensions, the only fit crown for such a king 
 as He. Suppose the heavens opened at 
 that moment to the eyes of His base and 
 savage tormentors ; what astonishment and 
 awe would have seized them, to behold 
 Him seated upon a throne of brightness, 
 outshining the noonday sun ; crowned with 
 a diadem, whose splendour surpassed every 
 light that illuminates this lower world ; 
 surrounded by legions of bright angels, the 
 least of them invested with a splendour 
 and glory more dazzling than anything 
 earth can show, who are each and all 
 adoring Him, bending before Him as their 
 true King, their Lord, their God ! How 
 would these soldiers and executioners, who 
 now seemed to have it all their own way, 
 have cowered down in terror at the sight ! 
 Or if their eyes had been opened to see the 
 future, and they had beheld His coming 
 upon the clouds of heaven, in great power
 
 JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS 175 
 
 and majesty, attended by a countless host 
 of those same blessed spirits, with that 
 very crown of thorns upon His head, now 
 shining with incomparable brightness, how 
 would they have sunk upon the earth, and 
 called upon its caverns to hide them ; or 
 cast themselves at the feet of their Victim, 
 and cried to Him for mercy. We, then, 
 enabled by faith to contemplate these 
 scenes united, we who behold our suffering 
 Lord thus barbarously treated, and who 
 know that our sins did so abuse Him, and 
 yet view Him all the while in glory adored 
 by angels, and crowned with glory, what 
 shall we do ? 
 
 3. Affections. " What, my blessed and 
 beloved Saviour, but fall down at Thy 
 adorable feet and worship Thee sorrowing ? 
 What, but acknowledge Thee before men 
 and angels, as King of the world, and 
 absolute Lord of my heart ? What, but in 
 every way within my power, proclaim Thy 
 might, Thy majesty, and Thy glory, and 
 seek every means whereby due homage 
 shall be rendered Thee by men, in repara- 
 tion and atonement for the cruel ignominy
 
 176 TWENTY-FIFTH MEDITATION 
 
 which men have made Thee suffer? But 
 principally, and with deepest feeling, I will 
 bewail my iniquities, and the many offences 
 against Thy goodness which I know were 
 the real thorns that galled Thee, and tore 
 Thy sacred Head, and imbrued Thee thus 
 with Thy most precious Blood ! So long 
 as I can venerate Thy sufferings, and love 
 Thee for having undergone them for my 
 sake, so long will I detest those instruments 
 of their infliction. Yes, do Thou in return, 
 dear Jesus, crown my head as with a wreath 
 of thorns, in sorrowful and sincere com- 
 punction, that it may never have rest from 
 grieving before Thee, and remembering 
 what it has cost Thee to save and to gain 
 it. Let the thorns which pierced Thy brow, 
 be ever so many points and goads to my 
 earnest love, constantly to promote Thy 
 honour and that work of salvation for which 
 Thy sacred brows were thus agonised ; and 
 may I ever strive to advance Thy claims to 
 be King of all the earth, and to reign in 
 the hearts of all men."
 
 JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS 177 
 
 JHetittation 
 
 JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS 
 
 (continued) 
 
 Preparation. Represent to yourself your 
 Blessed Redeemer, after being crowned with 
 thorns, presented by Pilate to the people. 
 
 i. Reflect what a woeful spectacle your 
 dear Saviour now presents, gored and rent 
 by the thorny crown which encircles and 
 covers His Head, and draws forth His sacred 
 Blood on every side. But turning your 
 thoughts, for a moment, from the pain He 
 suffers, and that so willingly, for our sake, 
 consider how ungratefully earth made good 
 its curse in His instance. The first Adam 
 was condemned to till and cultivate it, and 
 be rewarded for the sweat of his brow spent 
 in the task by briers and thorns. And so 
 the second Adam, having come down for 
 the true cultivation of this world, by plant- 
 ing in it holiness and truth, and scattering 
 
 O 7 O 
 
 over it the precious seed of His word, was 
 repaid, as might have been expected from 
 its ungrateful soil, by receiving from it, not 
 
 M
 
 178 TWENTY- SIXTH MEDITATION 
 
 in the sweat, but in the Blood of His brow, 
 its natural growth, a harvest of thorns. 
 earth, earth ! object of our love, and of our 
 desires, our idol, our enthralling mistress, 
 even thus dost thou requite those that 
 labour for thee even unto loss of ease, of 
 health, of life. Even thus didst thou repay 
 thy Lord and Master, Him who watered 
 thee and gave the increase. And can I 
 hope for better treatment, if I am faithful 
 and devoted to His ministry? Welcome 
 this, and all else that comes to me from 
 the world, while in such blessed company. 
 But our Divine Lord had in some sort 
 prepared us for such a requital, when, in 
 the parable of the seed, He spoke of the 
 riches and solicitudes of this world as thorns 
 which choke the good seed and destroy it. 
 If, then, He desired to receive from the 
 earth a diadem most expressive of all that 
 it can give, the crown of its universal 
 dominion, He could not better have sym- 
 bolised it than by this crown of thorns. 
 Yes, when earth has bestowed upon us all 
 the desires of our corrupt hearts, all its 
 perishable goods, its honours, its fame, and
 
 JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS 179 
 
 its wealth, it has done no more for us than 
 gird our heads with a circle of thorns, that 
 bear their racking torments even to our 
 pillows, and will keep the weary head from 
 finding repose. Such an emblem, then, did 
 Jesus rightly choose for all that earth could 
 bestow upon Him. But it is not merely 
 the diadem of all the world which He bore 
 upon His head on this His coronation day. 
 He comes not so much to the world at 
 large as to each of our souls. Suppose, 
 then, He had come to win our love, decked 
 out in the splendid array of empire, what 
 could it have added to His dignity ? What 
 could a golden and jewelled crown have 
 added of grace and majesty to that brow? 
 What could the rich diadem that David 
 made from the spoils of Melchom (i Paral. 
 xx. 2) have contributed to the dignity and 
 authority of His sovereignty ? Or what 
 additional radiance would a glory of light 
 have bestowed upon the essential splendour 
 of His Divine Person ? But when He comes 
 to each of us with a wreath of thorns, 
 assumed through love of us, every jewel 
 of which is a drop of His own most precious
 
 180 TWENTY-SIXTH MEDITATION 
 
 Blood, worth a world's ransom, and more- 
 over a pledge of forgiveness and of blessing 
 bestowed upon us, who will not consider 
 this as the bridal crown of this Sponsus 
 sanguinum, this Spouse of Blood, who 
 comes thus to woo our souls, and espouse 
 them to Himself in a contract of unalterable 
 affection ? Yes, it is indeed that very 
 crown whereof it is said in the Canticles, 
 " Go forth, ye daughters of Sion, and see 
 King Solomon in the diadem wherewith 
 his mother crowned him in the day of his 
 espousals, and in the day of the joy in his 
 heart" (iii. n). Oh, who will resist such 
 a claim to his affections as this, such a 
 winning plea to his heart ? Arid if His 
 mother Jerusalem showed her cruelty and 
 unfeelingness to this first and best of her 
 children, let us whom He thus willed to 
 espouse to Himself, compensate her wicked- 
 ness by the ardour of our affection. 
 
 2. Reflect how we, who are the disciples 
 of Jesus, are the followers of a King bearing 
 a thorny crown ; while they are the enemies 
 alike of His Cross and of His law, who say, 
 with the libertines of old, " Coronemus nos
 
 JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS l8l 
 
 rosis " (Wisd. ii. 8). Such are the costumes 
 or liveries of the two contending sides ; and 
 by them we may as clearly distinguish one 
 from the other, as by their shields and 
 helmets men of old could distinguish a 
 Greek from a barbarian army. When the 
 tempter appeared to S. Martin, wearing a 
 gorgeous diadem, and professed to be Jesus 
 Christ, the Saint detected the cheat, and 
 put the deceiver to flight, by the simple 
 remark that Jesus had His Head crowned 
 with thorns, not with a golden crown. So 
 identified, in the mind of the Saints, was 
 this badge with His blessed appearance. 
 If, then, we follow Him, it will not be 
 when we would add earthly honours to 
 our heads, and crown ourselves with mere 
 human greatness, that we shall be acknow- 
 ledged as one of His suite ; but when with 
 our heads bowed down, and humbled before 
 Him, acknowledging our sins, we have spread 
 upon them the ashes of a sincere repent- 
 ance. When, girt with ignominy or sorrow, 
 we rejoice to be like Him, abased and 
 despised, then indeed we walk after Him 
 as He wishes to see us, and we are con-
 
 I 82 TWENTY-SIXTH MEDITATION 
 
 fessed before His Father as among His true 
 disciples. When Heraclius was carrying the 
 blessed Cross, recovered from the infidel, 
 into the Holy City, he found himself un- 
 able to proceed, till, reminded by the patri- 
 arch that his Saviour, u.,der the same load, 
 was not clad in an imperial robe, nor crowned 
 with gold, but with thorns, he threw off his 
 splendid apparel, and so was able to go 
 forward. And can we hope to pass the 
 gate of the true and heavenly Jerusalem 
 in the character the only one in which we 
 can hope to be saved of bearers of the 
 Cross, and followers of Jesus, without a like 
 renunciation, and a like imitation ? After 
 such an example, what can be difficult or 
 bitter? Who, if Jesus appeared to him, 
 and offered him on one side a splendid 
 diadem, and on the other a crown like His 
 own, would hesitate a moment between the 
 two ? Who would not eagerly stretch out 
 his hand to seize this one, and place it on 
 his head ? Who would not willingly re- 
 semble Jesus, his Lord, rather than the most 
 magnificent monarch of earth ? 
 
 3. Affections. " Jesus, King and Lord
 
 JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS 183 
 
 of my heart and soul, what crown shall I 
 give Thee to acknowledge Thee as such ? 
 Alas ! gold and silver in my poverty I 
 have none ; my gold hath been long since 
 turned into dross, and my silver been 
 alloyed. I have no roses, like Thy martyrs, 
 who returned Thee blood for Blood ; nor 
 lilies, like Thy virgins, who loved Thee 
 with an unsullied heart. My soul is barren, 
 my heart is unfruitful, and I have placed 
 Thee to reign, as the Jewish kings of old, 
 over a heap of ruins. Long since despoiled 
 and ravaged by the enemy, every flower 
 hath been ploughed up, and every green 
 plant burnt with fire, and thorns alone and 
 brambles spring up there. Of these, then, 
 alone can I make Thee a crown, my dear 
 and sovereign Jesus. Wilt Thou accept 
 it? I will pluck up my unruly affections, 
 that they may no more have roots, and 
 weaving them together into a wreath will 
 lay them as a sacrifice at Thy feet. I will 
 gather the thorns of sincere repentance 
 which there each day arise, and prick my 
 heart with a sharp but wholesome smart ; 
 and with these will I make a crown for Thy
 
 1 84 TWENTY-SEVENTH MEDITATION 
 
 head, if Thou vouchsafe to wear it. Or 
 rather, Thou shalt take it from my hand, 
 only to place it with Thine around my heart, 
 that it may be daily and hourly pricked to 
 compunction. And may the thorns of Thy 
 crown be to my soul so many goads of love 
 to hasten it forward in its career towards 
 Thee." 
 
 fft Citation 
 
 JESUS IS MOCKED BY THE SOLDIERS 
 
 Preparation. Represent to yourself 
 Jesus, after having been crowned with 
 thorns, placed upon a mock throne, and 
 saluted in scorn by the soldiery. 
 
 i. Reflect how the crowning of Jesus 
 with thorns was only intended as a pre- 
 paration for grievous insult, and was part 
 of the scheme of outrages devised by the 
 brutal soldiers. Having thus placed on His 
 head a mockery of a crown, they proceeded 
 to invest Him with other mock insignia of 
 royalty. Over His shoulders, stripped and 
 lacerated, they threw a purple garment, or
 
 JESUS IS MOCKED BY THE SOLDIERS 185 
 
 something bearing such proportion to the 
 imperial purple as did His thorny crown to 
 an imperial diadem. In a like spirit they 
 placed in His hands a reed for a sceptre, to 
 mock the weakness which they attributed 
 to His rule. Having thus attired Him, 
 they made Him sit down on some mock 
 throne, and then insulted Him by a pre- 
 tended homage on bended knee ; saying to 
 Him, " Hail, King of the Jews ! " (Matt. 
 xxvii. 29). Before proceeding further to 
 meditate upon these outrages, let us pros- 
 trate ourselves in spirit before our dear 
 Saviour seated upon this seat of scorn 
 where His enemies have placed Him. Let 
 us say with true and earnest feeling, " All 
 hail ! King, not only of the Jews, but of 
 the Gentiles also ; Lord of the whole world ; 
 above all, King and undisputed Master of 
 our souls. Yes ; what they did in scoffs 
 and insults, we do in truth and sincerity 
 of heart. We salute Thee, we bless Thee, 
 we give Thee glory, we offer Thee homage, 
 as willing and devoted servants." Having 
 thus, to the utmost of our power, compen- 
 sated to our Blessed Saviour the insults He
 
 1 86 TWENTY-SEVENTH MEDITATION 
 
 suffered for our sakes, let us reflect upon 
 ourselves in connection with this treatment. 
 The words which these base wretches uttered 
 were in themselves true : for Jesus claimed, 
 most righteously, the title of King of His 
 nation. He was the son of David, the pro- 
 mised ruler over Israel. The attitude in 
 which the words were pronounced was the 
 only one in which their homage should be 
 tendered ; for at His Name every knee shall 
 bow. Yet was there in the whole ceremony 
 an impious mockery and most outrageous 
 insult ; since it was not the homage of the 
 heart, but was tendered in mocking unbelief. 
 And what else will be our words of homage, 
 if not inward and deeply sincere if spoken 
 only through form and usage, and with n 
 divided heart when we kneel before God 
 in prayer, and profess to worship Him as 
 our King and sovereign Lord, yet with 
 thoughts at the very moment wandering 
 back to His enemy the world employed 
 on some scheme to obtain its favour, or 
 paying it our court ? Will not our pro- 
 fessions of fidelity be a mockery and insult ? 
 Shall we be accepted before Him as faithful
 
 JESUS IS MOCKED BY THE SOLDIERS 187 
 
 vassals, and not rather rejected as insulting 
 rebels? When before the altar, on the 
 Body of Jesus being elevated before our 
 eyes, we bow down profoundly, and per- 
 haps address Him with our lips in these 
 words, " Ave verum corpus natum ex Maria 
 Virgine ; " while we feel no deep interior 
 faith in what is presented to us, nor that 
 reverence and awe, nor that ardent love, 
 which the near presence of the God who 
 redeemed us should inspire, but rise again, 
 distracted and cold as before : shall we 
 flatter ourselves that our Ave. or Hail shall 
 be better received than that of the soldiers ? 
 Shall we be acknowledged as sincere adorers, 
 and not as insulters of Him, when, robed in 
 the purple of His own most precious Blood, 
 and crowned with ineffable glory, the angels, 
 whom He redeemed not, are worshipping 
 and adoring with their faces on the earth ? 
 If the conduct of this Roman soldiery ap- 
 pears to us so ruffianly, may it not be easier 
 for us than we are inclined to imagine, to 
 fall into their very crime, and imitate their 
 insults ? 
 
 2. Reflect how those wretches did not
 
 1 88 TWENTY-SEVENTH MEDITATION 
 
 confine their mockery to words, but pro- 
 ceeded to further outrage. For, " spitting 
 upon Him, they took the reed and struck 
 His Head " (v. 30). At the commencement 
 of this tragical scene, we are told that " the 
 soldiers" (who had scourged Him) "gathered 
 together unto Him the whole band " (v. 27) 
 to take part in this new device of cruelty. 
 Jesus therefore was given up to the un- 
 bridled licence of these malignant men ; and 
 had to receive not merely the mock- worship 
 already meditated on, but the indignities 
 and painful wrongs here described. Alas, 
 the meanest of us would not allow His face 
 to be spit upon by the noblest of the land, 
 without reprisal and revenge, which all the 
 world and the laws themselves would ap- 
 prove. Yet the son of David, nay, the Son 
 of God, is impiously spit upon by an entire 
 company of vile soldiers, the refuse of the 
 slave-market or the dungeon : and He mur- 
 murs not ; He turns not away His face ! 
 Oh, the meekness of this Lamb of God ! 
 Oh, the greatness of His patience and long- 
 suffering ! The least of us, perhaps the 
 humblest of us, would not bear to have a
 
 JESUS IS MOCKED BY THE SOLDIERS 189 
 
 stick so much as shaken in a menacing atti- 
 tude over his head, but would wrench it with 
 violence from the hand that presumed so to 
 hold it ; and if actually struck, he would 
 think himself justified before God and man 
 if he returned blow for blow. Nay, rather ; 
 before the latter, at least, he would hold 
 himself for ever disgraced did he not resent 
 so gross an insult. Yet the Consubstantial 
 of the Eternal Father is not only menaced, 
 but struck on the Head ; and upon a Head 
 surrounded and covered by sharp thorns ! 
 He complains not ; He shows no sign of 
 answer ! Oh, incredible love of this dear 
 
 O * 
 
 Saviour towards us ! Oh, the intense de- 
 sire He must have felt for our salvation, to 
 have been willing to compass it even thus ! 
 Imagine what an hour of agony this must 
 have been to your dear Jesus ! Helpless 
 and abandoned by all, He is the laughing- 
 stock of a troop of brutal soldiers, the butt 
 of all their rude jests and ruder treatment, 
 of their buffets and blows ! Never, through- 
 out His Passion, does He so completely 
 appear as the sheep before the slayer, or as 
 the lamb silent before the shearer. Rather.
 
 1 90 TWENTY-SEVENTH MEDITATION 
 
 He is a lamb surrounded by ravening wolves, 
 that already with their eyes devour Him, 
 and open their mouths upon Him, and 
 sharpen their teeth to tear Him in pieces. 
 But He, with hands meekly crossed upon 
 His breast, as though pressing us, the ob- 
 jects of His love, into His heart, with eyes 
 modestly cast down, or raised up in loving 
 resignation towards heaven, turns not away 
 His face from them that spit upon Him, but 
 gives His cheeks to them that pluck them ! 
 3. Affections. "Divine model of every 
 perfection, but here beyond all others of 
 patience and mildness, of gentleness and 
 resignation, I adore Thee ! Filled with 
 shame and confusion, I confess before 
 Thee the too great share I have had in 
 these Thy sufferings. Too often, indeed, 
 have I not only crucified Thee, but emu- 
 lated the mockery which preceded Thy 
 crucifixion, by my outrages against Thee. 
 By my lukewarmness and coldness, when 
 1 came before Thee to serve and worship 
 Thee, especially in Thy adorable Sacra- 
 ment, I have bid Thee Hail more in scorn 
 than in faith. When Thy graces have been
 
 JESUS IS MOCKED BY THE SOLDIERS 
 
 most liberally bestowed upon me, I have 
 despised and neglected them ; and thus 
 have insulted Thee to Thy face. When 
 my fickle affections, shaken as a reed by 
 every breath, have wavered to and fro, how 
 often have they struck Thee, beating back 
 the words of Thy mouth, as though of no 
 authority with me ! But, from henceforth, 
 be it my study and glory not merely to 
 refrain from such conduct, but to procure 
 Thee honour and homage from the lips and 
 hearts of many : to bring many to bend 
 their knees before Thee, and greet Thee 
 their King in truth and sincerity. Espe- 
 cially in the Blessed Sacrament, where that 
 very Body is adored which was so cruelly 
 insulted and maltreated by the impious 
 guards. There will I daily adore Thee, 
 and glorify and exalt Thee, in reparation 
 of all the debasement and pain Thou didst 
 mercifully endure for love of me in this 
 stage of Thy bitter Passion. And Thy 
 angels shall join me with that glorious 
 strain which no doubt they then sang forth 
 to bless and adore Thee."
 
 I 92 TWENTY-EIGHTH MEDITATION 
 
 JESUS IS PRESENTED BY PILATE TO 
 THE PEOPLE 
 
 Preparation. Imagine to yourself your 
 Saviour brought forth by the governor upon 
 an elevated place, and shown to the people 
 with the words, " Behold the Man." 
 
 i. Reflect upon the afflicting spectacle 
 which this public exhibition of Jesus pre- 
 sents to a soul that loves Him. The cruelty 
 and sufferings which He had just under- 
 gone had been inflicted publicly enough to 
 make them disgraceful in the extreme, hav- 
 ing been inflicted before the whole troop 
 of rude and brutal soldiers ; yet they had 
 been endured within the house of Pilate, 
 into which the hypocritical Jews had not 
 entered, for fear of defiling themselves before 
 the Passover. The crowning with thorns 
 and the mock homage which followed it 
 had been unexpected inventions of the 
 brutal soldiery, so that Pilate himself knew 
 nothing of them. When, however, he saw 
 our Blessed Redeemer reduced to so piti-
 
 JESUS PRESENTED TO THE PEOPLE 193 
 
 able a condition, he was himself so struck 
 with the lamentable appearance which He 
 presented, that he determined to try its 
 effect upon the mob ; thinking that if pity 
 yet held the smallest place in their hearts, 
 it must possess them at such a sight as this. 
 Instead, therefore, of severely rebuking and 
 chastising the insolent guard for their un- 
 warrantable cruelty, he rather approves, or 
 at least takes advantage of it, to soften, if 
 possible, the flinty breasts of the Jewish 
 crowd. But oh ! what an unfeeling expe- 
 dient is this, and what a degradation to the 
 Son of God does it require ! " Behold," he 
 says, " I bring Him forth unto you, that 
 you may know that I find no cause in 
 Him " (John xix. 4). Who, on hearing this 
 announcement, would not have supposed 
 that Jesus would have been brought for- 
 ward, if not with such marks of honour as 
 would attest His acknowledged innocence, 
 at least untouched by ignominy and punish- 
 ment ? Instead of this, " Jesus came forth, 
 bearing the crown of thorns and the purple 
 garment." Here He stood, as on a pillory, 
 to feast the eyes of the unfeeling multitude, 
 
 N
 
 194 TWENTY-EIGHTH MEDITATION 
 
 who DOW understood the long delay which 
 had excited their impatience. How they 
 applaud the cruel ingenuity of the soldiers, 
 who had so well known how to gratify their 
 desires ! How they now add their insults 
 to those which the Gentiles have heaped 
 upon H is adorable Head ! How their appe- 
 tite for blood, far from being satiated, ia 
 whetted by this first taste ! Like a few 
 drops of water thrown upon fire, the Blood 
 He has shed inflames their rage to a perfect 
 fury ; and when Pilate points Him out to 
 their compassion by those emphatic words, 
 "Behold the Man!" their passion bursts 
 forth in tumultuous cries of " Crucify Him, 
 crucify Him!" (ver. 6). Nothing will satisfy 
 them but that the work of unrighteousness 
 be completed, and the base compliance of 
 the judge carried to the extremity of put- 
 ting their innocent Victim to a cruel death ! 
 Oh, let us who love Him now step in, and 
 for so much dishonour and injustice, offer 
 Him glory and grateful love. Let us see 
 in that crown which He bears, the diadem 
 of our hearts, and in the purple robes, 
 which hide not the wounds and gashes.
 
 JESUS PRESENTED TO THE PEOPLE IQ5 
 
 that dye it once more with a richer purple, 
 the royal mantle beneath which we are 
 protected and hid from our enemies. Let 
 us cast ourselves on our faces before Him, 
 and adore Him for so much sorrow endured 
 for our sakes. Let us acknowledge Him 
 for our dear Master and Saviour, as loudly 
 as those perfidious Jews denounced Him to 
 the judge. 
 
 2. Reflect what mysteries, unknown to 
 Pilate, were contained in those two words 
 with which he showed Jesus to the crowd 
 " Ecce Homo." He meant to imply no 
 more than that, while he believed Jesus to 
 be innocent, he had so far sacrificed his 
 principles to their unjust desires as to bring 
 Him to that pitiable condition. But in an- 
 other sense how true for us are these words, 
 " Behold the Man ! " Till now, it has been 
 the God that you have witnessed in Him 
 miracles, prophecies, voices from heaven, 
 wonderful wisdom, sublime perfection. See 
 now the man deep affliction, ignominy, 
 pain, bruises, and blood. Thus does He 
 love to show you that He is in all things 
 like unto yourselves, only without sin. If
 
 196 TWENTY-EIGHTH MEDITATION 
 
 before you reverenced and feared Him as 
 all-powerful, here you may have Him as a 
 brother in the flesh, become such for love of 
 you, and to prove to you how entirely He 
 loved your human nature, that He would 
 needs take it upon Himself, with all its 
 dowry of sorrows and suffering. Or, Pilate 
 perhaps only meant to say, "You do not 
 recognise this person, so sadly altered from 
 what you saw Him a few hours ago. Though 
 even then disfigured with His previous ill- 
 treatment, at least He was recognisable as 
 the teacher so well known in the streets of 
 Jerusalem. Yet I assure you that this is 
 that very man, though His hair be now 
 clotted and dyed with blood and entangled 
 in that thorny crown, and His brow and 
 temples are gored through, and His cheeks 
 begrimed with blood, and His gashed body 
 hardly covered with that purple rag, the 
 mockery of a royal robe. Yes, this is 
 the same person, however changed ! " But 
 do not we imagine we rather hear Him (or 
 rather the Eternal Father through Him) 
 say, " This is the Man of Sorrows, and ac- 
 quainted with infirmity. Hitherto you have
 
 JESUS PRESENTED TO THE PEOPLE 1 97 
 
 seen Him and known Him as a master and 
 instructor, calm and mild, yet filled with 
 dignity and majesty, teaching as one having 
 authority, in the temple, the synagogue, or 
 the public thoroughfares. Till now you 
 have called Him Rabbi, Master, Lord. From 
 henceforth know Him by the name of Savi- 
 our, by His adorable name of Jesus. For 
 now He hath assumed this sacred character. 
 This is He of whom it is written, that by 
 His stripes ye should be healed. This is 
 He upon whom God hath laid the iniquities 
 of all. Love Him, then, and honour and 
 bless Him eternally for so much mercy and 
 so much charity, which has moved Him to 
 give Himself up to such sorrow and igno- 
 miny for you." It would seem as though 
 the Divine goodness had willed that there 
 should be certain pauses or resting-places in 
 the Passion of our clear Redeemer, wherein 
 we might have leisure to look at what He 
 has suffered, and contemplate Him (as it 
 were) without distraction. Such was that 
 long space of three hours during which He 
 hung upon the cross, giving us time to 
 meditate and dwell upon the entire work
 
 198 TWENTY-EIGHTH MEDITATION 
 
 of our salvation. Such also is this briefer 
 moment, when Jesus, separated from His 
 cruel tormentors, stands, as in a picture 
 before us, respited for a moment from tor- 
 ture, though not from degradation or pain, 
 that we may take a view of what His pre- 
 liminary sufferings have been, and to what 
 condition they have reduced Him. Here 
 we may take in at once all that the pre- 
 ceding night and this morning together 
 have done to disfigure and to bruise Him. 
 And as, when a monarch is crowned, He 
 presents Himself to His people to be ac- 
 cepted by them, to be greeted with their 
 plaudits and receive their homage, so Jesus, 
 now crowned, and invested with His im- 
 perial mantle, before ascending His royal 
 throne the cross (regnavit a ligno Deus), 
 comes forward, in the face of His people, to 
 be hailed by them as their true and ever- 
 lasting King. 
 
 3. Affections. " We, Divine Saviour, 
 who are Thy people and the sheep of Thy 
 pasture, greet and acknowledge Thee as our 
 only and sovereign Lord. Live Thou for 
 ever ! Live, dear Jesus, in our hearts, and
 
 JESUS PRESENTED TO THE PEOPLE 199 
 
 reign therein, triumphant over all other 
 affections. Live and reign in Thy Church, 
 and in the souls of all men ! Thy kingdom 
 come to all ! And now permit me to show 
 myself to Thee, with those very same words, 
 ' Behold the man,' that is, the weak, offend- 
 ing, helpless creature for whose redemption 
 Thou hast suffered so much ! As such, dis- 
 dain not to look down upon me, and help 
 me, and raise me up, and strengthen me. 
 And again, turning myself to Thy Father, 
 allow me to show Thee to Him in the same 
 terms. Whenever His wrath is kindled 
 against me, when I find myself offending 
 Him by sin, when the recollection of my 
 grievous and manifold iniquities oppresses 
 me with fear and anxiety, I will endeavour 
 to divert the angry eye of my God from 
 myself, by pointing out to Him Thee, His 
 beloved Son, bearing Thy purple garment 
 and thorny crown. I will say to Him, 
 ' Behold the Man, Jesus, who hath made 
 propitiation for me. Look upon the face of 
 Thy Christ, and for the sake of His dear 
 and adorable Blood, which hath been shed 
 for us, spare Thy people, and me Thy ser-
 
 200 TWENTY-NINTH MEDITATION 
 
 vant, for whose sake He suffered, and who 
 bless and love Him for so great and exceed- 
 ing charity/ ' 
 
 ileUttatton 
 
 PILATE WASHES HIS HANDS 
 
 i. Reflect how Pilate, a weak as well as 
 wicked man, sought how he could satisfy 
 all parties, and therefore, instead of at once 
 acquitting Jesus, whom he had recognised 
 as innocent, and dismissing the turbulent 
 assembly, temporised and sought by vari- 
 ous excuses to make them withdraw their 
 charge. It was evident that something in 
 the conduct and character of Jesus had 
 so far overcome* his indifference towards 
 the justice or injustice of the case as to 
 make him desirous of procuring His dis- 
 charge, provided this could be done with- 
 out any risk to himself. In this wavering 
 state he is perhaps still more kept by the 
 extraordinary message which he received 
 from his wife. For she sent to him, saying, 
 " Nihil tibi et justo illi. Multa enim passa
 
 PILATE WASHES HIS HANDS 2O1 
 
 sum hodie per visum propter cum " (v. xix.). 
 What was precisely conveyed by these 
 words we do not know. But if during 
 her sleep the wife of Pilate had suffered 
 much on account of Jesus, and that in 
 such sort as to pronounce Him in conse- 
 quence of it an innocent and just man, 
 this must have preceded the trial, or must 
 have occurred before she had been aware 
 of its taking place. It must have there- 
 fore been some supernatural communication, 
 probably concerning the disasters which im- 
 pended over her house should her husband 
 presume to condemn Him. For the earnest 
 entreaty imported her deep anxiety that 
 her husband should go no further in the 
 case before him, while from her declaring 
 that her vision had been to her one of 
 great suffering, it is evident that not mere 
 love of justice but some painful result was 
 expected by her, if her desire were not 
 complied with. Perhaps she was one of 
 those who, like Cornelius and the Centu- 
 rion, worshipped God secretly in the midst 
 of an unbelieving generation : at any rate 
 she appears to have been commissioned to
 
 202 TWENTY-NINTH MEDITATION 
 
 Pilate as Samuel was to Heli, to .announce 
 to him the destruction of his house, if he 
 persevered in his iniquitous career. But 
 all was in vain ; he had not courage to 
 follow the dictates of common justice, how 
 was he likely to be moved to it by the 
 voice of a woman ? He determined there- 
 fore to take a middle course, and while he 
 freed himself from the tumultuary accusa- 
 tions of the Jews, and of the importunate 
 threats of their priests to denounce him 
 to Caesar as no friend of his, he sought to 
 give evidence that he yielded to violence, 
 and rather gave up, than condemned Jesus 
 to death. He does not even pause to 
 reflect that by such conduct he must 
 lower himself in the estimation of all 
 men, and would dangerously weaken his 
 authority and that of his tribunal. But 
 he calls for water, and washes his hands 
 in the presence of the multitude. " Videns 
 autem Pilatus quia nihil proficeret, sed 
 magis tumultus fieret, accepta aqua lavit 
 manus coram populo dicens ; innocens ego 
 sum a sanguine justi hujus ; vos videritis " 
 (v. 24). Foolish and impious man ! to
 
 PILATE WASHES HIS HANDS 203 
 
 think that by such an empty ceremony 
 the cravings of palpable justice could be 
 satisfied ! to imagine that the retributions 
 of an all-seeing God could be averted by 
 this mock purification ! to flatter thyself 
 that the blood of a just man no matter 
 who (though this was much more), could 
 be washed from thy hands, like a stain 
 of dust, by so profane a baptism ! Oh ! 
 how easily do we deceive and with our 
 own hands blind ourselves, when our pas- 
 sions take the lead, and still more when 
 we want to make a compromise between a 
 timid and weak disposition and a trouble- 
 some or difficult duty. By this want of 
 boldness in Pilate, he is hurried on to final 
 and fatal destruction. 
 
 2. Reflect upon the words used by Pilate 
 upon this occasion. In the first place, he 
 applies to Jesus the very expression used 
 by his wife in her message, " this just 
 man" as though to show us that this was 
 the cause of such a desire to clear himself 
 of all guilt, having fully comprehended 
 its import. Pilate thus acknowledges Him 
 whom he has condemned to be innocent,
 
 204 TWENTY-NINTH MEDITATION 
 
 and undeserving of the cruel punishment 
 to which he was dooming Him. What a 
 wretched, what a frightful excess of in- 
 justice ! In the second place, the close of 
 his address is precisely the same as the 
 priests' to Judas, when he gave back the 
 thirty pieces of silver. " Quid ad nos ? " 
 they say to him. " Tu videris." It is 
 therefore a phrase intended to throw the 
 blame upon others, while he who uses it 
 hopes thereby to exonerate himself! But 
 alas ! in vain do they thus try to throw 
 the guilt upon one another's shoulders, 
 which their united strength would not be 
 able to bear ! Not one among them acts 
 the part of a man conscientiously deceived, 
 or carried away by an honest, though mis- 
 taken zeal. In the third place, the entire 
 expression and action bears a strong re- 
 semblance to the formulary prescribed in 
 the law, when the body of one slain was 
 found in a district. For the elders of the 
 nearest city were commanded to slay a 
 victim, and wash their hands over it, say- 
 ing, " Our hands did not shed his blood, 
 neither did our eyes see it" (Deut. xxi. 7).
 
 PILATE WASHES HIS HANDS 205 
 
 And by such a declaration that territory 
 was purged of all imputation of the hidden 
 guilt. But far otherwise would it have 
 been, had the words uttered contained a 
 palpable untruth, or had been employed 
 in the very act of delivering into the 
 hands of murderers, the victim after whose 
 blood they thirsted. Such was the case 
 with Pilate : it was by the very words 
 declaratory of his innocence that he author- 
 ised the crime of murder upon the very 
 person whom in those words he pronounced 
 virtuous ! But let us look well to our- 
 selves, that we allow not within us a 
 similar deceit. We too may be sometimes 
 weak enough to connive at faults or even 
 sins, which we ourselves would hesitate 
 to commit. By our timidity in reproving 
 powerful offenders, by our fear of collision 
 with popular desires or popular opinions, 
 by a sort of weak compromising deference 
 to the errors of others, even by the blind- 
 ness which advantage to ourselves resulting 
 from the commission of a fault, by some 
 one less cautious than ourselves, may cause, 
 we are often in danger of falling, as Pilate
 
 206 TWENTY-NINTH MEDITATION 
 
 did, into some sin which it was our duty 
 to prevent, and which we flattered our- 
 selves we should escape because its actual 
 commission was by others' hands. Let 
 us nerve ourselves up to the strength re- 
 quired for the observance of our Master's 
 commands, whatever worldly interests we 
 may have to sacrifice, and whatever oppo- 
 sition we may have to face. 
 
 3. Affections and Resolutions. " Be- 
 loved Saviour of my soul, whom even 
 the sentence of a wicked judge pronounces 
 innocent, I rejoice to see how iniquity 
 must be against itself to secure Thy con- 
 demnation. I abhor and detest the brutal 
 injustice of that wicked man, who in one 
 and the same breath could pronounce such 
 opposite sentiments. But still more do I 
 admire Thy humility and eagerness for 
 my salvation, which could prompt Thee 
 to appear before such a wretch, whose 
 sentence was necessary for the accomplish- 
 ment of Thy design of love ; that, to wit, 
 of expiring upon the cross to redeem me. 
 And as Thou wilt one day be my most 
 righteous Judge, even as now Thou art
 
 PILATE WASHES HIS HANDS 2O/ 
 
 my most loving Saviour, so do I now 
 entreat Thee when that day shall come to 
 recall to mind that other day of mercy, 
 and with its merits qualify the rigours 
 of Thy justice. Thou who wast judged 
 unrighteously, judge me, I pray Thee, mer- 
 cifully ; Thou, who experiencedst no com- 
 passion, abundantly display it in my regard. 
 And for the better obtaining of this future 
 kindness, open my heart now to the deceits 
 of self-love ; never let me be drawn to 
 destruction by weakness any more than 
 by rashness, but let me ever discharge 
 my duty without regard of good or evil 
 report from men, without care for the 
 favour of Caesar, or terror for the clamours 
 of the multitude. If men misjudge me 
 for acting sternly in the line of duty, I 
 will console myself with the thought that 
 they misjudged Thee."
 
 208 THIRTIETH MEDITATION 
 
 JWetJttatton 
 
 THE PEOPLE'S ANSWER TO PILATE 
 
 Preparation. Represent to yourself your 
 Blessed Saviour before Pilate, and the 
 furious mob in the public place below. 
 
 i. Reflect how when Pilate made that 
 declaration on which we meditated yester- 
 day, "I am innocent of the blood of 
 this just man ; look ye to it," he little 
 imagined that the Jews would have the 
 courage to take the guilt which he dis- 
 claimed upon themselves. When two 
 wicked elders had caused the chaste Sus- 
 anna to be condemned to death, and she 
 was already on her way to execution, the 
 youth Daniel called out with a loud voice, 
 before the multitude, in the very same 
 words as Pilate used, " Mundus ego sum 
 a sanguine hujus mulieris" (Dan. xiii. 43). 
 He who spoke was only a boy, and they 
 who had borne witness were hoary men, 
 held in great reverence, for they were 
 judges in the people. Yet so strong did 
 this determined protest sound even in his
 
 THE PEOPLES ANSWER TO PILATE 2OQ 
 
 mouth, so solemn a disclaimer of the ini- 
 quity about to be committed, and so clear 
 a casting of its load upon others, that the 
 multitude were checked, they paused and 
 asked him, " What meaneth this word that 
 thou hast spoken ? " Their rage was calmed, 
 they listened to reason, they discovered the 
 falsehood and malignity of the accusations 
 of their own elders, against one whose 
 superior virtue had been her only crime. 
 What a parallel case was here in the Pas- 
 sion of Christ ; but, alas, how different the 
 result ! The elders, out of envy of the 
 divine virtues of Jesus, have accused Him 
 of foul crimes, and the people, believing 
 their testimony, have pronounced Him 
 guilty of death. He is about to be led to 
 execution, when a solemn pause takes place 
 in the proceedings. It is not a boy that 
 stops them with his outcries, it is the judge 
 himself to whom they have referred the 
 case ; who in the face of the accused, of 
 His accusers, and of the incensed multitude, 
 cries aloud, "Mundus sum a sanguine justi 
 hujus ! " Does not the multitude of Israel 
 falter at hearing the solemn protestation ? 
 
 o
 
 210 THIRTIETH MEDITATION 
 
 Is not their determination to pursue this 
 just man to the cross staggered ? Do they 
 not call out, " What meanest thou by this 
 word which thou hast spoken ? " No ; their 
 blind fury still impels them forward, it 
 overleaps this last obstacle to their impious 
 desires. They clearly understand the im- 
 port of the solemn phrase, they have no 
 need of asking explanations, they are will- 
 ing to face all its consequences ; and, lest 
 Pilate's scruples on this head should stand 
 the least in their way, they relieve him at 
 once of all his solicitude, they take the 
 entire, frightful burden on themselves and 
 theirs, and cry out with unanimous enthu- 
 siasm, as though one only fiend had ani- 
 mated them all : " Sanguis ejus super nos 
 et super filios nostros ! " Good God ! what 
 a terrible exclamation ! Who would make 
 it regarding the most atrocious culprit ever 
 led to execution ? Who would not depre- 
 cate the stain of blood from being placed 
 upon him, even of one killed by accident, 
 or in self-defence, or in lawful war ? And 
 this is now invoked of the blood of that 
 man of whom five days before the same
 
 THE PEOPLES ANSWER TO PILATE 211 
 
 multitude had said, " Hosanna to the Son 
 of David ! blessed is he that cometh in the 
 name of the Lord ! " 
 
 2. Reflect how this thundering appeal 
 was admitted in heaven, and the retribu- 
 tion demanded in it fully granted. While 
 the Blood of Jesus fell upon each individual 
 as a dew of grace, expiatory for the sins of 
 that crowd as completely as for those of 
 His loving disciples, yea, for that very sin ; 
 yet did it fall as flakes of fire upon the 
 nation and its institutions, blighting them 
 all, and utterly rooting up. The Romans, 
 indeed, came and took their place and 
 nation, and left them an outcast, miserable 
 race. From the moment of our Saviour's 
 death, they knew not peace. The progress 
 of Christianity, in the very midst of the 
 capital Jerusalem ; the conversion to it of 
 some of their most influential or respect- 
 able members, as Nicodemus and Gamaliel ; 
 the constancy of Stephen ; the defection of 
 Saul, who became their most formidable 
 antagonist ; the miracles of the Apostles ; 
 the unanimity and exemplariness of the 
 disciples ; the contempt shown for their
 
 212 THIRTIETH MEDITATION 
 
 menaces and their chastisements ; the de- 
 cline of their own power and influence ; the 
 manifest departure of their rule, and the 
 gradual vanishing of their hopes these 
 were all so many whips and goads to that 
 bitter remorse, which an act of such pal- 
 pable, but such fruitless injustice, must 
 have caused to the priests and elders. 
 Hence their irritable minds were lashed on 
 from sordid fear of Roman spoliation to 
 reckless rebellion and all the expedients of 
 despair, which brought down on the very 
 generation that had crucified Christ the 
 fearful evils of the siege and destruction 
 of Jerusalem. See their entire country 
 laid waste, and its most flourishing towns 
 reduced to ashes by the hands of their own 
 citizens, in their popular tumults ; see their 
 armies and bands one after another cut to 
 pieces, or hunted into the clefts of the 
 rock ; see in every part, opposite even the 
 very walls of the wretched city, long lines 
 of captives nailed upon crosses, as if to 
 expiate their sacrilegious deed, even as God 
 had the seven children of Saul crucified by 
 the Gabaanites, for his cruelty towards
 
 THE PEOPLES ANSWER TO PILATE 213 
 
 them (2 Reg. xxi.). Behold then the un- 
 grateful Jerusalem herself straitened by the 
 besieging army on every side, ruined by 
 its repeated assaults, while within, the city 
 itself is more like an abode of demons than 
 men, faction and civil discord driving the 
 inhabitants to tear one another in pieces, 
 and by the sword and the torch to destroy 
 the very bowels of their state. Look how 
 distress increases to hunger, and hunger to 
 raging famine, till every loathsome thing is 
 greedily devoured, and mothers kill their 
 own infants for food. And then comes, at 
 last, the final catastrophe, when the pro- 
 phecy of Jesus is fulfilled, and the city 
 being taken, is delivered to utter destruc- 
 tion, and the people perish in the confla- 
 gration of their own houses, and warriors 
 are crushed under their own defences, and 
 the priests are buried beneath the ruins of 
 their temple. The destruction is final, is 
 utter, is irrevocable ! Jerusalem, Jeru- 
 salem ! which heretofore didst kill the pro- 
 phets, and wast pardoned, curse now the 
 day, when with a thousand tongues thou 
 didst call down vengeance on thyself I
 
 214 THIRTIETH MEDITATION 
 
 Better had it been for thee to have brought 
 down the fire of Sodom and Gomorrah 
 upon thyself than placed the blood of thy 
 God upon thy head ! And that second 
 part of the sentence, how has it been ful- 
 filled ! Not only on themselves, but upon 
 their children too, did these wretched men 
 call down God's vengeance, and it has 
 come. See them a dispersed, an alien race, 
 without a country, without a priesthood, 
 without an altar, deprived of the sym- 
 pathies of those among whom they live ; 
 given up entirely to sordid gain, without 
 noble ambitions or views of public interest ! 
 Never, truly, did a cry to Heaven so com- 
 pletely wrench from thence a curse, as did 
 this appeal of blood ! 
 
 3. Affections. "Terrible, Lord, are Thy 
 judgments, but they are righteous and holy. 
 Well was the punishment deserved by that 
 hard-necked and hard-hearted race, which, 
 not content to crucify Thy child Jesus, the 
 Lord of Glory, thus in the face of Heaven 
 boasted of its crime. But have we nothing 
 similar to fear ? When we have sinned, 
 when, especially with open eyes, we have
 
 JESUS IS CONDEMNED 21$ 
 
 transgressed Thy law, have we not called 
 down vengeance upon our souls, and pro- 
 voked Thee to visit on us the blood of our 
 redemption, which we thus in some sort 
 trampled under our feet ? Oh let us take 
 warning then from Thy people. Let us 
 indeed take up their words and apply them 
 to ourselves, but in a very different sense 
 and spirit. The blood of Thy Beloved Son 
 be ever upon us and ours ; upon our bodies 
 to chasten them ; upon our hearts to in- 
 flame them ; upon our affections to purify 
 them ; upon our souls to save them ! Be 
 it our refreshment in life ; our inebriating 
 draught in death ; our hope and our sal- 
 vation." 
 
 fflrtittation 
 
 JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO THE CROSS 
 
 Preparation. Represent to yourself your 
 Divine Redeemer standing before Pilate 
 while he pronounces sentence of death. 
 
 i. Reflect how the Roman governor, 
 wearied out with the importunities of the
 
 2l6 THIRTY-FIRST MEDITATION 
 
 Jews, terrified at their threats of accusing 
 him as no friend of Caesar, having satisfied 
 his conscience, as he thought, and dis- 
 charged from it the weighty responsibility 
 by washing his hands, and by the accept- 
 ance of the guilt by the Jews, hesitates no 
 longer to comply with their wishes, and 
 delivers their Messiah to the doom they 
 had demanded. He passes sentence upon 
 Him in judicial form. In that sentence 
 must have been embodied the accusations 
 as proved, which he himself had pronounced 
 unfounded ; and as tradition has actually 
 handed it down, it must have pronounced 
 Jesus convicted of sedition and blasphemy, 
 of having plotted against the sovereignty 
 of Csesar and the religion of His country. 
 Can anything be more iniquitous, more re- 
 voltingly unjust ? Oh wretched Pilate ! till 
 now thou hast been weak and irresolute, 
 deficient in moral courage, and in that 
 bolder uprightness, which at once does jus- 
 tice even in the face of an incensed multi- 
 tude ; thou hast sought to steer between 
 thy duty and thy interests, and hast failed ; 
 behold thee now daring enough, in thy very
 
 JESUS IS CONDEMNED 217 
 
 cowardice, to be unjust in the face of God 
 and man, and of thine own conscience! 
 But to what is it that Jesus is now con- 
 demned ? For with horror and indignation 
 we before heard Him proclaimed by the 
 Jewish Council worthy of death. But He 
 is now specifically adjudged to that death 
 which the Jews desired to inflict upon Him, 
 when in their fury they cried out, " Crucify 
 Him, crucify Him ! " Jesus is now con- 
 demned to the cross, to the gibbet of those 
 times, the most ignominious as well as the 
 most painful of deaths. It is the punish- 
 ment of slaves and of the vilest of men. 
 Who remembers not how the great Roman 
 orator aroused the indignation of the people 
 against Verres, because he had during his 
 government crucified a Roman citizen ? It 
 was considered more than a mere crime, an 
 absolute sacrilege, to have inflicted such a 
 disgraceful punishment. And, in fact, were 
 it not that crucifixion is now sanctified to 
 our eyes, by the person always represented 
 in it being the revered and beloved of our 
 souls ; were it not that we are accustomed 
 to look on all representations of it with
 
 2l8 THIRTY-FIUST MEDITATION 
 
 tender emotions, there would be something 
 revoltingly ignominious to our sense in the 
 spectacle of a human being, placed high 
 above and opposite the gazing multitude, 
 to die in their sight ; not as one executed 
 by a blow, or at once strangled or con- 
 sumed by fire, but writhing in public 
 through all the agonies of a slow and 
 gradual death, with his arms stretched out 
 so that the convulsions and quiverings of 
 every muscle of the exposed body may be 
 manifested, while his hands, secured not 
 by bands, but by the rude fastenings of 
 iron nails, are unable to give alleviation. 
 It is horrible thus to contemplate him, 
 without one mortal wound, pining and 
 fainting away with hunger, distress, shame, 
 and weariness; to hear him moaning and 
 crying in vain for pity and relief, and be- 
 hold him, after hours and often days of 
 lingering agony, expire as one would do 
 upon a bed, uplifted in helpless exposure 
 upon that wooden frame ! Oh, there is 
 indeed something sickening in this sight 
 of a man, not slain but dying, in the 
 presence of thousands, not one of whom
 
 JESUS IS CONDEMNED 219 
 
 approaches or discharges towards him an 
 ordinary office of humanity ! 
 
 2. Reflect, if this be so ignominious, so 
 revolting a punishment, who this is to 
 whom it is now awarded. After all, Jesus 
 must have been considered by the Jews as 
 one who moved in the highest rank of their 
 society, who was admitted to familiar in- 
 tercourse with their most respectable people, 
 was often at table with the wealthy Phari- 
 sees, and taught in the synagogues with 
 learning and effect. He certainly was not 
 of the class on whom such a punishment 
 might be ordinarily inflicted, and we might 
 have supposed that pride and self-interest 
 would have prevented the priests from 
 setting so dangerous an example of thus 
 punishing one of the better ranks. More- 
 over, Jesus was well known to be of the 
 race of David, of the royal stock ; for 
 otherwise the Jews would never for a 
 moment have admitted the hope or pos- 
 sibility of His being their Messiah. Could 
 we have thought it possible that they should 
 have permitted such an indignity to be 
 committed against their kingly family, from
 
 220 THIRTY- FIRST MEDITATION 
 
 which alone their future fortunes were to 
 spring ? Jesus had, at least to all appear- 
 ance, discharged a great public office of 
 preaching, teaching, and even prophesying. 
 There was a sacredness attached to this 
 character, which might have been rationally 
 expected to extend protection to Him who 
 bore it against such an ignominious doom. 
 But no consideration weighed with these 
 men, whose manifest purpose was to heap 
 infamy on the name of Jesus, and thus ruin 
 the cause and religion which He came to 
 proclaim. Putting Him simply to death 
 was not sufficient in their estimation to 
 blot His memory from the thoughts of 
 men ; it would endear Him to many. But 
 crucifying Him, attaching to His name the 
 epithet of the. crucified, was, they calculated, 
 sufficient to crush His character, and pluck 
 Him from the hearts of His most devoted 
 followers. Who would dare to tell His 
 history, or to whom ? To Romans, propose 
 as an object of respect one whom the magis- 
 trate of His own nation had condemned to 
 the most infamous end ? To Jews, one 
 whom their own priests had judged de-
 
 JESUS IS CONDEMNED 221 
 
 serving of so hateful a punishment ? Yes, 
 angels shall be the first to adopt the title 
 when speaking to Him, "Jesum quaeritis 
 crucifixum, surrexit non est hie." Apostles 
 shall glory of it before Gentiles and Jews. 
 " We preach Christ crucified " was their 
 watchword, and the entire world is brought 
 to acknowledge it. From this moment the 
 Cross is ennobled, sanctified ; it becomes 
 the ardent object of Peter's hopes, the fond 
 desire of Andrew's life, the glory and honour 
 of Paul's preaching. From henceforward 
 the Cross shall lose all infamy ; it shall be 
 courted by the most virtuous of men as 
 a throne is by the ambitious ; it shall be 
 placed on sceptres and crowns, as men 
 heretofore have placed a jewel ; it shall be 
 the banner of hope, the beacon of light, 
 the token of salvation, the key of heaven. 
 Oh senseless Jews ! short-witted fools ! who 
 thus, in the blindness of your fury, give 
 additional lustre to the triumphs of Chris- 
 tianity by making them be over the strongest 
 of human prejudices, those against dishonour 
 and public disgrace. 
 
 3. Affections. "And Thou, blessed
 
 222 THIRTY-FIRST MEDITATION 
 
 Lamb of God ! how dost Thou welcome 
 the sentence pronounced on Thee as that 
 which puts in immediate prospect the con- 
 summation of Thine ardent desires ! At 
 once Thou enterest upon that last though 
 painful stage, which secures to Thee, and 
 still more to us, the attainment of the great 
 object of Thy coming hither. Thou art 
 condemned to be lifted up, even as the 
 brazen serpent was above the heads of 
 the people, that we, whom the fangs of the 
 infernal dragon have sore wounded, may, by 
 looking up to Thee, be healed. Thou art 
 condemned to be exalted over all, that so 
 Thou mightest draw all things to Thyself. 
 And shall we not rejoice with Thee that 
 Thine hour is come, yea, our hour too, 
 wherein we shall be brought to salvation 
 and to brotherhood with Thee ? Ah ! I 
 see by the heavenly smile that shines 
 through the indignities heaped upon Thy 
 blessed countenance how dear to Thee is 
 this cruel sentence ; how Thy heart leaps 
 with joy at the announcement it contains. 
 Three hours more, dear Jesus, and we are 
 for ever rescued ! Glory and gratitude
 
 JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS 223 
 
 and love eternal be to Thee, Victim of our 
 sins, as we join in the song of jubilee and 
 praise with which the celestial choirs above 
 compensated the unjust sentence of men 
 on earth. We adore Thee, we bless Thee, 
 we devote ourselves to Thee with eternal 
 love ! " 
 
 JHetritation 
 
 JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS 
 
 Preparation. Imagine that you see 
 your Saviour arrive at Calvary, bearing 
 His Cross. 
 
 i. Reflect upon the spectacle you have 
 just represented to your imagination. You 
 see first a mob insulting and furiously de- 
 nouncing as the worst of men Him upon 
 whose execution they are now about to 
 glut their eyes. Then, as they pass off, 
 you see the bristling array of spears, a 
 troop of Roman soldiers comes into view, 
 and amidst them arrives your dear Re- 
 deemer, covered with blood, stiff with His 
 scourging, disfigured with spittle and livid
 
 224 THIRTY-SECOND MEDITATION 
 
 swellings, torn and mangled by the ill- 
 treatment He has undergone, tottering 
 under the weight of the cross, which He 
 is aided to carry by the favoured Simon 
 of Cyrene. At this spectacle you will 
 surely exclaim, " Truly, now that the 
 Victim is come unto the mountain, the 
 bloody tragedy will end. If the malice 
 of man be not yet satiated, if humanity 
 can have so much of the brute as that 
 these men will not melt into compassion, 
 the Eternal Father at least will surely 
 relent, and provide for Himself another 
 victim, as He did for Abraham in the 
 place of Isaac." But no ! the justice of 
 the One is as inexorable as the injustice 
 of the other is obdurate, and nothing can 
 bar the final accomplishment of the stern 
 decree. Follow then diligently this bar- 
 barous scene. See this innocent Lamb of 
 God rudely stripped of His clothes before 
 the assembled rabble, and all His wounds 
 opened and rent afresh by the violent 
 manner in which it is done. See how in 
 silence He places Himself, as directed, upon 
 the hard wood of the cross, and stretches
 
 JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS 225 
 
 forth His hands. Look, if thou canst bear 
 the spectacle, how one of the unfeeling 
 soldiery places the point of a coarse, large 
 nail upon the palm of thy Beloved, and, 
 by repeated blows, drives its dull point into 
 the wood. What torture, what anguish ! 
 The tender flesh is lacerated, the bones 
 crushed, the nerves exquisitely tortured, 
 the tendons cut asunder ! The tender 
 frame of our dear Lord quivers in agony 
 at the piercing smart, and draws up con- 
 vulsively towards the wounded limb. Three 
 more such cruel outrages must be com- 
 mitted against the Blessed Person, three 
 more such murderous wounds inflicted, 
 before the cruel work is done ! And 
 were there found men with hearts savage 
 enough to perpetrate this ? But hark ! 
 hear that shout of savage triumph and 
 brutal delight. It is the people, who, in- 
 stigated by the infamous priests and elders, 
 are hailing the appearance of our Blessed 
 Saviour above the heads of the crowd, and 
 consider their joy complete. The very 
 fiends seem to join in it ; for though they 
 know not fully what will be the conse- 
 
 P
 
 226 THIRTY-SECOND MEDITATION 
 
 cjuences to them of this mystery which is 
 accomplishing, they know at least that this 
 is One who has curtailed their power and 
 cast them out of men, and they think they 
 have now succeeded in destroying Him. 
 Oh ! what a spectacle is this to one that 
 believes that He, whom that shout greets, 
 is the Son of God. 
 
 2. Keflect upon this frightful idea, that 
 Jesus is here before you, executed as a 
 malefactor ! The Lord of the angels, and 
 their joy ; the Creator of the world, the 
 Eternal Son of the Eternal God ; yes, God 
 Himself, He that shall judge the living and 
 the dead, is here upon a gibbet as a culprit ! 
 Is not this too dreadful an idea to con- 
 template ? Yet it is the very truth. Has 
 He not now at length reached the lowest 
 pitch of degradation and wretchedness ? 
 Has He not drunk the cup of humanity 
 to the dregs ? Has He not reached the 
 last verge and limit of our miseries ? In 
 His birth He was poor, yea, poor to ab- 
 jection. Through life He was persecuted 
 even to the seeking of His death. In the 
 previous stages of His Passion, Pie had
 
 JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS 22/ 
 
 been ill-treated with indignity, and wounded 
 to cruelty ; but only now does He appear 
 as infamous ! " Cursed is every one that 
 hangeth upon a tree." On a tree is He 
 now hanging. What must the stranger 
 who saw Him thus have thought Him ! 
 Not only a criminal, but one of the most 
 desperate character. He is not executed 
 alone. Oh no ! So eminent is He con- 
 sidered by those that condemned Him, in 
 the ways of crime, that two thieves, men 
 guilty of great offences, are crucified, one 
 at each side, as if not merely the more 
 to degrade Him, but to show that He was 
 chief among such wretches far more in- 
 famous than they. A passer might say, 
 " What a notorious and dangerous male- 
 factor this must be, that his execution 
 should be insisted on by the rulers of the 
 nation without delay during a time of 
 mercy, such as the Paschal solemnity- 
 nay, even to the profanation of the fes- 
 tival ! " And, in fact, even the cruel 
 Herod, when he wished to gratify the 
 Jews by the death of Peter, " videns quia 
 placeret Judseis," kept him in prison " ut
 
 228 THIRTY-SECOND MEDITATION 
 
 post Pascha produceret eum populo." Not 
 so in our Saviour's case. His execution 
 seemed to admit of no delay, but must 
 take place instantly, even on the day of 
 the Pasch. Moreover, it would be re- 
 marked, when ordinary culprits are put 
 to death, a certain feeling of sympathy 
 and commiseration is excited in the hearts 
 of beholders, and at least a respectful 
 silence is observed during the awful scene. 
 But not so here ; on the contrary, a uni- 
 versal feeling of exultation and triumph 
 pervades the multitude, and breaks forth 
 from their lips. And yet this is the Son 
 of God, executed as a malefactor ! 
 
 3. Affections. Run in to the foot of 
 your Saviour's Cross, and, embracing His 
 feet, say, " my dear, my ever dear 
 Jesus, this is too cruel and distressing a 
 scene for my poor heart to dwell upon. 
 To see Thy sinless, spotless hands pierced 
 and torn by those cruel nails ; to see Thy 
 blessed feet, that never moved but on 
 errands of love, fixed to the hard wood 
 by the torturing iron ; to see Thee thus 
 raised up to the scorn of a hateful mob,
 
 JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS 229 
 
 is a spectacle too dire for even a savage 
 to contemplate. What, then, must it be 
 for one that loves Thee, even as inade- 
 quately as I do ? Still it is good for me 
 to kneel under the shadow of that atoning 
 tree, and contemplate Thy sufferings. It 
 is good for me to look upon Thy wounds, 
 and reflect why they were inflicted. Yes, 
 this torture was suffered for me, to teach 
 me how I should curse my sins, which 
 brought Thee to it, my Beloved. I detest 
 the brutality of the Jews, and yet forget 
 that I have been as brutal as they, when 
 I committed those offences which caused 
 Thy sufferings. What were those bar- 
 barous soldiers in hard-heartedness, com- 
 pared with me ? Is this possible, my God? 
 Can it be true ? Oh, then receive the only 
 reparation a penitent heart can make : a 
 loving determination rather to die than to 
 sin again. But this is too little. I will the 
 rather love Thee the more, in consideration 
 of what I have made Thee suffer. For- 
 give me, dearest Saviour, and I will ever 
 love Thee with nay entire heart and soul."
 
 230 THIRTY-THIRD MEDITATION 
 
 Hesitation 
 
 THE SUFFERINGS OF OUR LORD ON 
 THE CROSS 
 
 Preparation. Represent to yourself 
 your dear Redeemer hanging on the cross 
 between two thieves. 
 
 i. Reflect upon the cruel torments which 
 our dear Jesus must have endured during 
 the three hours He hung on the cross. 
 His body was stretched out upon this hard 
 knotty trunk, for certainly they who pre- 
 pared it studied little how to make it soft 
 or easy to His limbs. Every sinew and 
 muscle of His sacred body must have been 
 in dreadful tension, both from His position 
 there, and from the effort which nature 
 would make to diminish the pressure upon 
 the wounds of the nails. We find it weary 
 enough to lie for a few hours in one posi- 
 tion upon a soft bed ; and we cannot bear 
 to remain long without turning, upon a 
 hard board. What, then, must it have
 
 THE SUFFERINGS OF OUR LORD 231 
 
 been to hang extended upon this rough 
 tree, especially in the state of our Blessed 
 Saviour's body. From head to foot is 
 one wound ; His head, if it press against 
 the cross, is gored by the points of the 
 thorns which are thus driven deeper into 
 it. His shoulders and back, which are 
 pressed necessarily against it, are flayed 
 and torn with the inhuman stripes which 
 have been inflicted upon Him. Against 
 these open wounds presses this cruel bed, 
 so that any change of position, so far from 
 relieving Him, does but increase His suffer- 
 ing by grating upon and rending wider the 
 gashes with which He is covered. But let 
 us not lose sight of those four terrible 
 but most precious wounds, whereby He is 
 fastened on the cross. Each hand, each 
 foot, is transfixed by a long nail, driven 
 into it with violence, and every moment 
 tearing wider and wider the rent it has 
 made. Oh, what a torturing pain, what 
 incessant suffering during the three hours 
 of crucifixion ! Who, dear Jesus, shall be 
 able to recount all that Thou didst endure 
 for us in that space of time ? But, beyond
 
 232 THIRTY-THIRD MEDITATION 
 
 these sufferings, immediately inflicted by 
 the act of crucifixion, there were others no 
 less severe, which resulted from it. The 
 uneasy and unnatural position it produced 
 caused a disturbance in all the nobler 
 functions of life. The lungs, surcharged 
 with blood, panted with labour and anxiety, 
 in consequence of the compression of the 
 chest. The heart, from the same cause, 
 beat heavily and painfully, clogged in its 
 motion by the impeded circulation. The 
 blood, unable to return from the head by 
 reason of the veins being compressed, must 
 have caused a painful apoplectic pain. These 
 same causes would produce a distressing 
 heat and irritation all over the surface of 
 the face, neck, and chest, which He had no 
 hand to relieve, and which must conse- 
 quently have been torturing in the ex- 
 treme. To these sufferings we must add 
 exposure to heat and air, with a body 
 already wounded in every part, and covered 
 with sores, inflicted by the torments of the 
 preceding night and that very morning. 
 So that not only those parts of the body 
 which pressed upon the cross, but every
 
 THE SUFFERINGS OF OUR LORD 233 
 
 other, must have been painfully sensitive, 
 and subject to grievous sufferings. Truly, 
 rny Jesus was the King of Martyrs, the 
 severest sufferer the world ever saw, for the 
 sake of men. 
 
 2. Eeflect upon the many other acces- 
 sories to the tortures of crucifixion, which 
 our beloved Saviour endured for you. He, 
 the most modest and purest of beings, is 
 exposed before the multitude. He is an 
 object, not of their compassion, but of their 
 absolute derision. He sees before Him an 
 immense crowd, all animated, or rather 
 possessed, by an evil spirit of hatred and 
 scorn to Him. Every word that reaches 
 Him is a word of bitter insult and mockery. 
 Nearer Him, indeed, is a small group of 
 faithful and sympathising followers ; but 
 so far from receiving comfort from them, 
 they stand in need of it from Him, and 
 cheerfully He gives it. He commends His 
 Blessed Mother to the care of His beloved 
 disciple John. Peter and His other com- 
 panions and disciples, the many who fol- 
 lowed Him from place to place, have 
 disappeared and hidden themselves from
 
 234 THIRTY-THIRD MEDITATION 
 
 sight. All that He possesses on earth, 
 His few clothes, even to His seamless gar- 
 ment, are unfeelingly divided or diced for 
 among the soldiers who had executed Him. 
 He is thus alone in the world, without one 
 smallest link with it save His love for man, 
 and His earnest desire to accomplish our 
 salvation. Lastly, He suffers a racking 
 thirst ; His parched lips can no longer 
 endure the dryness which afflicts them, and 
 call out for relief. And the cruel men who 
 surround Him present Him with gall and 
 vinegar to drink ! Can outrage go beyond 
 this ? Could brutality be carried to a 
 greater excess ? Now, surely, we may say 
 that all is accomplished ; that the anger of 
 the just God has no more dregs left in the 
 chalice of suffering which He had mingled 
 for His Son as the world's Redeemer. Now, 
 be His Name praised for ever, nothing more 
 remains but that death come and put an 
 end to so much suffering. 
 
 3. Affections. "0 most dear and most 
 merciful Saviour, every meditation upon 
 Thy blessed Passion presents fresh motives 
 of love and gratitude to my poor soul. I
 
 THE SUFFERINGS OF OUR LORD 235 
 
 am the culprit, and Thou the Sufferer ! 
 I am the sinner, and Thou the Victim ! 
 I am the accursed, and Thou bearest my 
 curse ! I have been proud, my head has 
 been lifted up in presumptuous thoughts 
 and Thy Head is therefore crowned with 
 thorns ! I have stretched forth my hands 
 to iniquity, and have not restrained them 
 from that which was unlawful ; and Thy 
 Hands are therefore fastened with rude 
 nails to the hard cross ! My feet have 
 run after vanity, and walked in the paths 
 of wickedness ; and therefore Thy Feet are 
 held by the same cruel fastenings, upon the 
 same hard wood ! My body has been the 
 rebellious enemy of Thy law, pampered and 
 indulged ; and for this Thy sacred Body 
 is gored and gashed with innumerable 
 wounds ! My heart hath loved this world, 
 and refused to beat, as it ever ought, for 
 Thee ; and Thy sacred Heart was racked 
 with unutterable grief and anguish ! Is not 
 this too much ? Is it not indeed a rigour 
 of Divine justice? Oh, depart from me, 
 Lord, for I am a sinful man ! But no ! 
 Rather let me draw closer to Thee, and to
 
 236 THIRTY-FOURTH MEDITATION 
 
 Thy blessed Cross, dearer to my heart than 
 the golden thrones of earth. There let me 
 ever remain, nor ever lose sight of Thy 
 adorable wounds and bitter tortures ; ever 
 to read legibly written upon Thy adorable 
 flesh the deserts of my sins, and still more 
 the declarations and claims of Thy love ! 
 Yes, every wound is a mouth that pleads 
 for me to Thy Eternal Father, and contains 
 a powerful plea to win my affections to 
 Thee. I will love Thee, Lord, my 
 strength. I will love Thee, dear Jesus, 
 my hope, my joy, my salvation ; I will 
 love Thee above all things ; I will love 
 Thee alone ! " 
 
 JHefcttattcm 
 
 JESUS ADDRESSES HIS MOTHER 
 
 i. Reflect on the completeness of that 
 abandonment which was determined by 
 the inexorable justice of God for His own 
 well-beloved Son. How filled to the brim 
 was the chalice of His bitter sorrows, when
 
 JESUS ADDRESSES HIS MOTHER 237 
 
 even His dear and blessed mother, instead 
 of being to Him, as she had hitherto been, 
 a source of comfort and happiness, was 
 destined to increase the sufferings and 
 abandonment of His last hour. If there 
 could be a tie between Him and earth 
 which His heart might continue to cherish, 
 it was His love for her who had borne 
 Him, and had loved Him ever since with 
 a love exceeding that of any other created 
 being. If all the world had abandoned 
 Him, she had remained ; if the greater 
 part of the bystanders sympathised little, 
 or even rejoiced in His sufferings, she 
 partook of them with a mother's heart 
 of compassion ; she alone endured more 
 than all on earth, Himself alone excepted. 
 If few would feel His loss, to her it would 
 be irreparable. That mother, then, He 
 sees at the foot of His cross, overwhelmed 
 with anguish and woe unspeakable. He 
 who reads the interior of His blessed 
 mother's soul, knows what is to her the 
 utter worthlessness of all on earth when 
 He shall be withdrawn from it. What 
 an additional pang to His sacred Heart
 
 238 THIRTY-FOURTH MEDITATION 
 
 to witness her inconsolable grief, and that 
 incomparable distress which made her 
 sorrow great and bitter as the salt sea : 
 " Magna est ut mare contritio tua." What 
 an accumulation of grief to His over- 
 whelmed soul, to leave her thus alone, 
 in fulfilment of the Eternal Father's will ! 
 How did their looks and their hearts meet 
 at that hour ! How was all the affection 
 of both, if possible, renewed ; and how 
 did they melt into one loving thought 
 in the fierce furnace of their common 
 sufferings ! How did Mary remember 
 the happy days when He was an infant 
 in her bosom, and when she heard His 
 Divine words, sitting at their homely 
 meal and amid the daily occupations of 
 Nazareth ! and how did Jesus remember 
 the cherishing love with which this ten- 
 derest of mothers had nursed and caressed 
 Him! Here was, indeed, depth calling 
 upon depth, one surpassing, superhuman 
 grief upon another. Still Jesus cannot 
 leave this earth without making some 
 provision for the future welfare of the 
 loving mother who had taken care of
 
 JESUS ADDRESSES HIS MOTHER 239 
 
 Him for thirty years. Gladly would He 
 take her with Him into His glory, and 
 bear her as the first present of earth to 
 heaven. But this consolation shall not 
 be ; for He would then have expired with 
 one pang less than was compatible with 
 the stern decrees of justice. No ; He 
 must have the pain of knowing, as He 
 expires, that He is leaving her whom 
 He loves beyond all to loneliness and 
 straitness, and to the care of others. 
 And though the support of her lonely 
 life be His own beloved disciple, yet it 
 is indeed a sad exchange for her to have 
 the disciple in place of the Master, the 
 creature for the Creator, the son of Zebedee 
 instead of the Son of God. 
 
 2. Consider the blessed words which 
 Jesus spoke, for thou hast a deep interest 
 therein. First, looking down from His 
 cross on the mother who stood beneath 
 it, He said, referring to John, " Woman, 
 behold thy son;" then to John, "Behold 
 thy mother." Here was a new relation- 
 ship established, wherein it was intended 
 that we should all have a part. For, as
 
 240 THIRTY-FOURTH MEDITATION 
 
 the Church of God has always believed, 
 in John we were all represented ; and so 
 Mary was made our mother, and we were 
 made her children. But as this relation- 
 ship will form, in due season, matter for 
 its own meditation, let us keep our atten- 
 tion to what Jesus here did. Keenly then 
 did He feel the distress and desolation of 
 the exchange He was making, while He 
 indicated to the already crushed heart of 
 Mary, John for Himself! But if to her 
 heart the words necessarily brought such 
 desolation, see, on the other hand, how 
 lovingly they were addressed to us the 
 while. Now, even in the depth of His 
 afflictions, did He devise new blessings for 
 us, and appointed new aids to our salva- 
 tion. He bestowed on us this mother, this 
 tender, loving mother, this compassionate 
 and merciful mother, even while He was 
 suffering the most excruciating torments 
 for our sins and ingratitudes ! His death 
 was drawing near ; He had given us 
 Himself, He was just about to seal the 
 donation by expiring ; another bequest 
 still remained for Him to leave us, better,
 
 JESUS ADDRESSES HIS MOTHER 241 
 
 nobler, more valuable than anything else, 
 after the gift of Himself. He had adopted 
 us as His brethren in regard of His Eternal 
 Father ; He had made us co-heirs with 
 Himself of the Kingdom of Heaven ; yet 
 He would have our relationship to be 
 even closer still, and willed us to be His 
 brethren in respect to His dear mother, 
 one family with Him, where our feelings 
 can most easily be engaged in favour of 
 our kindred. At the same time, who can 
 refrain from admiring the steadfastness 
 and fortitude of the heart of Jesus, thus 
 discharging His duty as a Son, amidst 
 the most agonising torments of body, ex- 
 hausted by His wounds, and oppressed 
 in spirit by an unspeakable weight of 
 woes. How amiable, how perfect is every 
 line in the character of this our dear 
 Master and Saviour, whether in life or 
 death ! 
 
 3. Affections. " And how shall we ever 
 sufficiently thank Thee, dear Jesus, for 
 having thus made Thine own sacrifice, no 
 less than Thy loving mother's loss, our 
 gain ? What a motive for gratitude to 
 
 Q
 
 242 THIRTY-FOURTH MEDITATION 
 
 Thee and to her, to have found a place 
 at such a moment in both those hearts, 
 to have been considered worthy of mention 
 upon Calvary, amidst the mutual sorrows 
 of Son and Mother ! And here, surely, 
 all the gain was mine. For she did but 
 acquire in me a froward and undutiful 
 and often rebellious child, whereas I ob- 
 tained a tender and most watchful parent, 
 who through life has been my patroness 
 and kindest friend, ever making inter- 
 cession for me most effectually with Thee. 
 But let me never forget what this adoption 
 cost Thyself. Never let me forget that to 
 establish it Thou wert pleased to bring 
 Mary to the foot of Thy cross, piercing 
 her soul with the sharp sword of grief, 
 which recoiled on Thine own, wounding 
 deeply Thy filial heart ; that for three 
 hours Thou didst allow Thy cruel tor- 
 ments to be aggravated by the sight of 
 her inexpressible dolour, that so she might 
 conceive us in sorrow and pain, and might 
 thus have a stronger maternal interest in 
 our salvation. Blessed be Jesus and Mary 
 for so much love. Blessed above all, Thou,
 
 THE PENITENT THIEF 243 
 
 my dear Jesus, for whom no suffering 
 seemed too much, which could give us 
 any further blessing ! " 
 
 Hesitation 
 
 THE PENITENT THIEF 
 
 Preparation. Represent to yourself your 
 Saviour upon the cross between two thieves, 
 one of whom reviles Him, while the other 
 defends and pleads for Him. 
 
 i. Consider the indignity meant to be 
 heaped upon the Blessed Jesus, by crucify- 
 ing Him between two thieves, as though 
 such were the fittest company for Him, and 
 as though He had well earned the post of 
 infamy assigned Him between them. But 
 He, in His mercy, well knew how to turn 
 this intended dishonour to His own glory ; 
 first, by the fulfilment of prophecy, which 
 had foretold that He should be reckoned 
 and associated with the wicked, "et cum 
 iniquis reputatus est : " and next, in the 
 salvation of one of those who were joined 
 with Him in punishment. And oh ! what
 
 244 THIRTY-FIFTH MEDITATION 
 
 an honour, what an opportunity of grace 
 was here given to these infamous male- 
 factors in their last hour ; as much as Jesus 
 was abased by being joined with them, so 
 much were they exalted by thus suffering 
 with Him. The two sons of Zebedee asked 
 to sit one at His right hand, and the other 
 at His left, in His kingdom, and were re- 
 fused ; those two wretches were admitted 
 to the honour, even now, when on His 
 throne of grace, His mercy-seat as King, 
 and King not only of the Jews, but of all 
 mankind, purchasing and making them His 
 inheritance. Who would not have bought 
 this distinction (without their crimes) at 
 the price of their sufferings ? But what 
 an awful lesson we have here in the differ- 
 ence of the fate which befell the two. For 
 it pleased God to show forth, in the very 
 hour of salvation, how all men were neces- 
 sarily to belong to one or other of two 
 different classes, the chosen and the repro- 
 bate ; and while He exhibited the first- 
 fruits of life, plucked from the very tree of 
 the cross, He gave the very first example 
 of final reprobation upon that very instru-
 
 THE PENITENT THIEF 245 
 
 ment of salvation. It should have appeared 
 impossible for any one, in that terrible 
 moment, to have had room in his heart for 
 cruel or inhuman feelings, especially towards 
 the companion of his sufferings. The same 
 fate involved all three ; death was certain 
 to all ; there was no ground to hope that 
 the sentence of a Koman judge, especially 
 so justly pronounced against two of them, 
 would be reversed, and the delinquent 
 taken down from the cross, in reward for 
 pandering to the passions of the Jewish 
 rabble, and joining in their reproaches 
 to the One unjustly condemned. What 
 motive, then, could have impelled one of 
 the two malefactors to blaspheme and taunt 
 Jesus in that dreadful state, with the 
 miraculous appearances around them of a 
 darkened sky and nature in mourning ? 
 What but the deepest perversity of nature, 
 the most hardened impiety, the most ob- 
 durate malice ? What a proof have we 
 here of the frightful length to which a 
 corrupt heart may go in wickedness and 
 impious presumption ! 
 
 2. But let us turn from this more painful
 
 246 THIRTY-FIFTH MEDITATION 
 
 contemplation, and dwell rather on the 
 consoling spectacle which the other side 
 presents us, in the conduct of the penitent 
 thief. He, touched by grace, and feeling 
 this to be an hour of mercy, first publicly 
 rebuked his fellow for his blasphemy, ac- 
 knowledged his own guilt and demerits, and 
 proclaimed the innocence of Jesus before 
 His enemies, at a time when even His 
 Apostles had abandoned Him. Then he 
 turned to his Saviour, and, making the 
 strongest act of faith imaginable, thus ad- 
 dressed Him : " Domine, memento mei, 
 ciim veneris in regnum tuum." To have 
 acknowledged a hope in Christ's kingdom, 
 while He was held in public estimation and 
 honour, and while He was working signs 
 and wonders, was considered an act of 
 strong belief and trust. What was it then, 
 when Jesus was stretched upon an infamous 
 cross, publicly blasphemed and taunted for 
 weakness in not being able to rescue Him- 
 self from destruction, and now just about 
 to expire ? What a lively and strong faith 
 was needed, to ask Him now to remember 
 any one in His kingdom ? When Joseph
 
 THE PENITENT THIEF 247 
 
 entreated the chief butler, who was the 
 companion of his punishment, to remember 
 him " when it should be well with him," 
 because " innocent he had been cast into 
 the dungeon " (Gen. xl. 14, 15), he only pre- 
 pared for himself a bitter disappointment ; 
 for he put his trust in deceitful man. 
 But this good thief, acknowledging himself 
 most justly punished ("nam nos digna factis 
 recipimus"), and still making a similar re- 
 quest, is sure of its not being neglected ; 
 he knoweth in Whom he hath trusted, and 
 that He was both able and willing to grant 
 him his request. How foolish, truly, must 
 it have appeared to those who overheard it, 
 for one sufferer nailed to a cross of shame 
 and agony to ask another " in the same 
 condemnation " to remember him in His 
 kingdom ! But how wise, how sublime the 
 petition to the ears of faith ! For mark the 
 answer which, in the midst of our Saviour's 
 agony, it drew from Him : " Amen, dico 
 tibi quia hodie mecum eris in paradiso.' 
 He does not say, in My kingdom ; but in 
 paradise in immediate happiness, in the 
 possession of all that bliss whereof souls
 
 248 THIRTY-FIFTH MEDITATION 
 
 were capable, till the gates of heaven should 
 be opened after forty-three days. Judge 
 what must have been that poor thief's joy 
 and happiness upon hearing these blessed 
 words ! how his heart must have beat with 
 delight at the tidings ; " in domum Domini 
 ibimus ! " He, a few hours since a culprit 
 before God as before man, an abandoned 
 wretch, became in one moment a vessel of 
 election, the first-fruits of redemption, the 
 first saint of the new Covenant ! How 
 light do all his torments now appear! How 
 he blesses his cross, which in the bitterness 
 of his agony he had cursed when his im- 
 pending execution was announced to him ! 
 How he studies to copy, for the few mo- 
 ments of life that remain to him, the Divine 
 Model placed before him ! How meek is 
 he become, how resigned, how patient, how 
 forgiving ! The sculptor could not copy 
 more accurately the cast before him than 
 he does the blessed Type at his side ; each 
 upon his cross, as brethren now, as loving 
 friends! How he welcomes the cruel strokes 
 that break his limbs in order to despatch 
 him ; having seen Jesus expire, he longs to
 
 THE PENITENT THIEF 249 
 
 hurry after Him, that there may be 110 
 delay in the fulfilment of His promise ! 
 Never, surely, was repentance more com- 
 plete, or its fruits more blessed than here. 
 And why should I not hope for as much, 
 if I make mine as sincere, as courageous, 
 and as entire ? 
 
 3. Affections. " I will draw nigh, then, 
 to Thee, adorable Jesus, upon Calvary, and 
 there, at Thy side, will I crucify all my 
 evil desires and inordinate affections. The 
 appetites of the flesh, the irregular attach- 
 ments of my heart, the dangerous curiosity 
 of my senses, the pride and ambition of my 
 spirit, my whole self, the old man, trans- 
 gressor of Thy law, and evildoer, shall be 
 nailed to the cross. Then, with hands 
 stretched out, I will cry to Thee for pardon, 
 and for a place in Thy kingdom, among 
 those who, headed by the good thief, have 
 entered through the gate of repentance, 
 and have been allowed to mingle songs of 
 gratitude for forgiveness with the notes of 
 praise which angels and saints unblemished 
 ought alone to sing. One day, I know, we 
 must all appear on Thy right hand, or on
 
 250 THIRTY-FIFTH MEDITATION 
 
 Thy left, as the two thieves were placed ; 
 but let my choice have first been made 
 beside Thee expiring to redeem me. Into 
 the arms of Thy clemency I cast myself 
 at that hour ; to those Hands that were 
 pierced for me I commit my lot ; to those 
 lips which even gall could not embitter, I 
 trust my sentence. I have sinned ; inflict 
 on me what punishment Thou wilt, it will 
 be less than I deserve ; but I will call upon 
 Thee aloud, I will entreat Thee with all my 
 heart, and Thou wilt not refuse to receive 
 me to mercy : I may wait long, if such be 
 Thy good pleasure, before I have my answer 
 such as the good thief had ; but the hour 
 will come when Thou wilt give me a benign 
 assurance that the tears of a long life have 
 been heeded, and the prayer of years heard. 
 And when the voice of men is no longer 
 audible, and the sleep of death creeps over 
 my senses, and the recollection of a sinful 
 life, and the terrors of hell affright me, I 
 shall hear Thy sweet and gentle Voice say 
 to me from the cross I have loved, ' Amen, 
 I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with 
 Me in paradise.' '
 
 JESUS THIRSTS 25 I 
 
 JESUS THIRSTS 
 
 Preparation. Represent to yourself the 
 Son of God extended upon His cross, and 
 suffering all His divine and redeeming 
 agony. 
 
 i. Reflect how Jesus, "knowing that all 
 things were now accomplished, that the 
 Scripture might be fulfilled, said : I thirst " 
 (John xix. 28). Many mysteries were con- 
 tained in this exclamation. First, it is an 
 evidence that Jesus suffered in all truth 
 and reality the torments of crucifixion, and 
 did not by the strength of His divine 
 power prevent or even diminish them. For, 
 seeing how through the rest of His Passion 
 no expression of suffering escapes Him, 
 men might have been tempted, as some 
 ancient heretics were, to deny the extent 
 of His sufferings. But we know that 
 among the grievous torments of crucifixion 
 this of thirst was one of the most severe ; 
 and we have evidence that He felt what
 
 252 THIRTY-SIXTH MEDITATION 
 
 others, in the same situation, usually did 
 feel. But if others cried out from the 
 agony of thirst that it might be satisfied, 
 not so did our Divine Lord ; but rather 
 that thereby He might endure another 
 infliction from the malice of His enemies. 
 For by way of mocking His thirst, as it 
 would seem, they had prepared, instead 
 of the usual beverage afforded on such 
 occasions, a vessel filled with vinegar and 
 some bitter ingredient. This they present 
 to His lips, only to embitter and disgust 
 the palate of the Divine Sufferer. 
 Blessed Jesus ! when will the malice of 
 these brutal enemies be satisfied, and when 
 shall the ordinary feelings of humanity 
 vindicate their ascendency over cruelty 
 and wanton hatred ? Who would refuse a 
 draught of water, or of wine, to one that 
 was enduring so severe a pain, and asks 
 for it ? If to him who gives it to the least 
 of Thy disciples a reward is promised, are 
 they indeed men who, having here an 
 opportunity of doing as much for the 
 Master, passed it by ? What an honour- 
 able name in the Church of God, and what
 
 JESUS THIRSTS 253 
 
 a glorious place in His kingdom, would 
 the man have obtained who should have 
 given Jesus to drink when He thirsted 
 upon the cross ! Heaven might have been 
 purchased in that hour for a cup of water ! 
 But it was necessary that the Scriptures 
 should be fulfilled. For the royal prophet 
 had long before written of Him : " De- 
 derunt in escam meam fel, et in siti mea 
 potaverunt me aceto" (Ps. Ixviii. 22). 
 Every other part of prophecy regarding 
 His life and Passion had been accom- 
 plished : His hands and feet had been 
 pierced, His bones numbered, His garments 
 divided ; His friends had abandoned Him ; 
 He had been reckoned with the wicked. 
 This alone now remained, to fulfil all 
 things ; and therefore, when He had tasted 
 the proffered potion, He exclaimed : " Con- 
 summatum est ; " for nothing remained but 
 to expire. How careful, then, was our 
 Lord to inculcate in practice what He 
 before had taught ; " Iota unum aut unus 
 apex non prseteribit a lege donee omnia 
 fiant . . . non veni legem solvere sed ad- 
 implere" (Matt. v. 18, 17). Small as that
 
 254 THIRTY-SIXTH MEDITATION 
 
 portion of His sufferings might seem to 
 be, insignificant as was a drop of gall in 
 the ocean of bitterness which overspread 
 His soul, yet would He delay the termi- 
 nation of His sufferings till it had been 
 poured into His cup. It was indeed that 
 last drop which made it overflow : after it 
 there was no room for more. But though, 
 to fulfil the prophecy, it was necessary that 
 this loathsome beverage should be offered, 
 and though He allowed its taste to affect 
 His mouth, yet was it not necessary that 
 He should partake of earthly food, as 
 though He needed it to strengthen Him 
 through His sufferings. Thus did He re- 
 main, through every extremity of pain and 
 torment, even to the moment of death, 
 steady and true to every principle of recti- 
 tude and to every point of duty. 
 
 2. Reflect on the more mysterious im- 
 port of this word the last spoken by 
 Jesus upon the cross, before He commended 
 His spirit to the Eternal Father. " Sitio." 
 After what did He thirst ? Not after the 
 water which when one has drunk he soon 
 thirsts again, but after the living and im-
 
 JESUS THIRSTS 255 
 
 perishable waters which spring up into life 
 everlasting. He thirsts after justice ; that 
 is, after the justification of the entire world. 
 In this word was summed up the long 
 series of desires and efforts during thirty 
 years of silent aspirations, and three years 
 of marvellous actions, and a day worth all 
 the years since the creation of the world. 
 It was the epilogue of His labours for man. 
 It was the expression of what He had most 
 at heart for our good. By it He desired 
 that sin and vice might be extirpated 
 among men ; that the long reign of hell 
 and darkness might be destroyed ; that the 
 whole earth might bring forth fruits of 
 holiness ; that the reign of God might tri- 
 umphantly be established, and His blessed 
 Will everywhere accomplished. Alas ! and 
 in this His last dying wish for man, was 
 He doomed to disappointment ? When 
 He uttered it, did He know that the malice 
 of man, for whose redemption He was 
 dying, would frustrate all His desires, and 
 bring His earnest wishes to nought ? Oh ! 
 was not this disappointment a feeling to 
 which we generally attach the epithet of
 
 256 THIRTY-SIXTH MEDITATION 
 
 bitter more truly so than the gall which 
 that sponge placed to His lips? But not 
 only for the salvation of men in general 
 did Jesus thirst, but for mine in particu- 
 lar ; as He did for that of each among us. 
 He had now done all to accomplish my 
 redemption. He had offered for it the 
 Victim of infinite price : it was laid upon 
 the altar ; the stroke of death, which could 
 be delayed but a few moments, was alone 
 wanting to complete the oblation. But 
 much, He knew, was to depend upon my- 
 self; and for this much He thirsted and 
 longed. How have I repaid Him ? how 
 have I hitherto pretended to slake this His 
 thirst ? Ah ! have I offered Him the sweet 
 satisfaction of a good and virtuous life from 
 my infancy ? have I been a solace and a 
 joy to Him ? Have I not rather offered 
 to Him, again and again, a sour and bitter 
 return, setting His very teeth on edge by 
 my ingratitude, and being most distasteful 
 to His palate by my relapses into trans- 
 gression ? Have I not been as cruel and 
 unfeeling to Him as ever were the Jews, 
 or the Roman soldiers, who so unworthily
 
 JESUS THIRSTS 257 
 
 replied to His complaint of thirst ? But, 
 oh, let this never be again. Let me never 
 repeat what this day gives me so much 
 pain to remember ; but strive to be a 
 comfort to the Heart of my suffering Jesus. 
 By my contrition and love, by my devotion 
 and zeal, I will repair the past, and not only 
 accomplish in myself that after which in 
 me He thirsteth, but strive to assist like- 
 wise in advancing that salvation of others, 
 that sanctification of the world which He 
 longed for on the cross. But there was 
 still another object after which the sacred 
 humanity of Jesus thirsted, and in this, 
 blessed be God, He was satisfied. " Quem- 
 admodum desiderat cervus ad fontes aqua- 
 rum, ita desiderat anima mea ad Te Deus. 
 Sitivit anima mea ad Deum fontem vivum ; 
 quando veniam et apparebo ante faciem 
 Dei?" (Ps. xli. 2). He was now leaving 
 this ungrateful world : His Heart yearned 
 to be delivered from its evils ; and He 
 longed to bear this our human nature to 
 the right hand of the Eternal Father, 
 to be " glorified with the glory which He 
 had with the Father before the world was." 
 
 R
 
 258 THIRTY-SIXTH MEDITATION 
 
 In this at least, Blessed Saviour, Thou 
 wilt not be disappointed ; this Thy thirst 
 shall not be slaked with gall and vinegar, 
 but with the torrent of delights, with the 
 excellent inebriating chalice of Thy Father's 
 house. There shalt Thou at length be as 
 Thou ever oughtest to be, honoured and 
 glorified, blessed and praised, by all Thy 
 servants. 
 
 3. Affections. " Let us, then, Divine 
 and beloved Redeemer, begin from this 
 moment to prepare for that our future 
 occupation. No more disappointment from 
 us, no more bitterness, no more cruel out- 
 rage ! Thou hast already suffered too 
 much, for us to go on adding to Thy 
 sufferings. But if Thou hast thirsted for 
 us, make us in return thirst also for Thee. 
 Parch and dry up in us all the corrupted 
 sap and nutriment of the old man, and 
 make us burn with thirst after the refresh- 
 ment of the new. Consume in us all sell- 
 love and self-seeking, and torment our 
 inmost hearts with an ardent thirst for the 
 conversion and salvation of others' souls. 
 Wither down within us the world which
 
 JESUS SEEMS TO BE FORSAKEN 259 
 
 hath flourished there so long ; and let our 
 souls be as thirsty earth without water to 
 Thee. Dry up in us all the concupiscences 
 of the flesh, and let it languish after no 
 joys but those pure ones that are to be 
 found in Thee. ' Sitivit in te anima mea, 
 quam multipliciter tibi caro mea.' Let us 
 ever thirst after the fountain of living 
 waters, after that stream, clear as crystal, 
 which flows through the heavenly Jeru- 
 salem, and which Thy blessed martyr 
 Clement saw issuing from beneath the foot 
 of the Lamb, that is of Thyself, who alone 
 canst satisfy the craving appetite of our 
 hearts." 
 
 JHrtutatton 
 
 JESUS SEEMS TO BE FORSAKEN BY 
 HIS FATHER 
 
 Preparation. Kepreseut to yourself our 
 Blessed Saviour hanging upon the cross and 
 crying out in a loud voice. 
 
 i. Keflect how Jesus had, with few ex- 
 ceptions, been abandoned by men from the
 
 260 THIRTY-SEVENTH MEDITATION 
 
 very commencement of His sufferings. But 
 the comfort which they could give Him was 
 but small compared with that which He 
 derived from the love of His Father. It is 
 indeed impossible for us to form any ade- 
 quate idea of the happiness and brightness 
 which, throughout His life, beamed upon 
 His soul from the consciousness He pos- 
 sessed that His Heavenly Father loved Him, 
 and regarded Him as His well-beloved Son, 
 in whom He was well pleased. The per- 
 secutions of men had been cheerfully en- 
 dured, under the supporting feeling that all 
 their calumnies and ill-usage were counter- 
 balanced, and much more, by the appro- 
 bation which His conduct under them, and 
 at all other times, drew upon Him from 
 Heaven. He lived in a close, uninterrupted 
 communication of affection with the Eternal 
 Father ; far purer and sublimer than those 
 of the most exalted heavenly intelligences. 
 It was reserved, therefore, for the last 
 finishing stroke of His torments, for the 
 seal of the great work of sorrow and of salva- 
 tion, that this His last source of happiness 
 should seem to be dried up, that His only
 
 JESUS SEEMS TO BE FORSAKEN 261 
 
 remaining joy should be withdrawn, and 
 His day be turned to night, His sweetness 
 to wormwood, His music to mourning. Even 
 as a dark cloud overspreads the heavens, so 
 that to the eyes of the beholders the sun 
 becomes darkened, though in itself the light 
 is not diminished, so did a gloom ten times 
 more impenetrable come between the Sun 
 of righteousness and the Soul of Jesus, and 
 overcast, as it were, the serene heaven of 
 His divine mind. And of what is this dark 
 and dismal mist composed ? Of the sins of 
 the whole world : those myriads of destruc- 
 tive locusts which consume all the greenness 
 of the earth ; of the murky and pestilential 
 exhalations of this ocean of iniquities which 
 reeks up to the eye of Heaven ; of the count- 
 less enormities of the entire world, which 
 He has taken upon Himself, and which now 
 truly seem to rise above His head, so that 
 He cannot behold the face of Heaven. And 
 though, in truth, the brightness of the com- 
 placency of the Eternal Father still shines 
 upon Him as serenely as ever, yet the cheer- 
 ing view of it is interrupted by this worse 
 than Egyptian darkness which hangs over
 
 262 THIRTY-SEVENTH MEDITATION 
 
 His most blessed Soul. Hence He seems to 
 Himself as one no longer pitied by Heaven, 
 any more than by earth ; and all the por- 
 tents of nature appear to Him the signals 
 of a Divine resentment against one charged 
 with the iniquities of the entire human race, 
 rather than mourning for the innocent Lamb 
 who taketh away the sins of the world. 
 Why is the sun darkened ? It seems as 
 though it could not brook to shine upon 
 such an accumulation of guilt ? Why does 
 the earth at His feet reel and stagger ? It is 
 as though it can no longer bear the burden 
 of iniquity which presses on it from the 
 stem of His cross, and writhes in impatience 
 to be rid of the load ! most merciful 
 Jesus, what a blank appears Thine own 
 Heart to Thee, what a barren wilderness 
 Thy Soul ! Well mayest Thou say to Thy 
 Eternal Father, " Anima mea sicut terra 
 sine aqua tibi ! " Not a drop of the dew of 
 Thy mercifulness comes any longer on it to 
 refresh it ; it is parched and scorched with 
 utter desolation : there is not a pleasant 
 spot left in it ; all is abandoned to dismay' 
 to terror, and dejection ! Oh, the suffer-
 
 JESUS SEEMS TO BE FORSAKEN 263 
 
 ings of our Blessed Lord must indeed be 
 nearly consummated when they have reached 
 this pitch, that Omnipotent Justice had left 
 nothing more to take from Him but life ! 
 
 2. Reflect upon those words by which 
 Jesus in His agony of sorrow gave vent 
 to His feelings. " Eli, Eli," He exclaims, 
 " lamma sabacthani ? " (" My God, my God, 
 why hast Thou forsaken Me 1 ") He does 
 not now, as a few moments before, address 
 God as His Father, as when He prayed for 
 forgiveness for His executioners. He seems 
 to feel that He no longer acts towards Him 
 as a loving parent, but as a stern, inflexible 
 judge ; and therefore addresses Him by that 
 name which, in the language He spoke, was 
 understood to express this character. He 
 repeats the invocation twice " My God, 
 my God," as those do who are earnest in- 
 deed, and overpowered with anguish. He 
 at the same time recalls to the memory of 
 those who heard Him that remarkable pro- 
 phecy, the minute description of His Pas- 
 sion, which is contained in the psalm whose 
 first words He quoted. There is a peculiar 
 strength, too, in the word here chosen (or
 
 264 THIRTY-SEVENTH MEDITATION 
 
 rather copied from Him, though in point of 
 time anticipated) by the prophet : " Why 
 hast Thou forsaken Me ? " As though He 
 had said, " That men, who are fickle, and 
 mere broken reeds, should have abandoned 
 Me, cannot be surprising ; but that Thou, 
 whose dutiful Son I have ever been, shouldst 
 thus desert Me, doth indeed overwhelm Me 
 with sorrow and desolation. That the world, 
 to which I have ever been opposed in maxims 
 and practice, should in the end have rejected 
 Me, was to be expected ; but that Thou, 
 whose will I have adored and faithfully per- 
 formed, shouldst now cast Me off, does indeed 
 bring utter darkness on My soul. That I 
 should have looked on My right hand and 
 on my left, in vain, for a compassionate 
 friend, was natural for Me, who am not of 
 this world ; but that I should raise up Mine 
 eyes to heaven, and there find no one to 
 take My part, is indeed the consummation 
 and uttermost excess of sorrow and bitter- 
 ness." Such is the language in which Jesus 
 seemed to express this last of His sufferings. 
 Oh, how severe, how poignant, must it have 
 been, to wring from His pious and loving
 
 JESUS SEEMS TO BE FORSAKEN 265 
 
 heart such words of remonstrance ! Let us 
 completely pass over the stupidity or obsti- 
 nacy of the Jews who exclaimed, " Eliam 
 vocat iste ; let us see if Elias will come and 
 take Him from the cross." But let us rather 
 adore in awful silence the wonderful mystery 
 of redemption which was to be accomplished 
 by such unexpected means as this seeming 
 abandonment of the well-beloved Son by the 
 well- pleased Father. Let us learn, too, some 
 idea of the rigour of Divine justice, when 
 exercised against sin, by seeing to what 
 degree its severity could be carried against 
 Him who undertook its atonement. Let us 
 detest sin as it deserves to be detested by 
 all who love their Saviour, Whom it reduced 
 to such extremity of misery, compared with 
 which all the inflictions of the executioners 
 were accounted by Him as nothing. And, 
 oh, let us affectionately sympathise with 
 Him amid so much desolation of spirit, such 
 darkness and seeming abandonment by His 
 last and chiefest trust ! 
 
 3. Affections. " Alas, desolate Heart of 
 Jesus ! who shall attempt to offer Thee 
 consolation when Thine only true stay and
 
 266 THIRTY- SEVENTH MEDITATION 
 
 comfort hath been withdrawn ? Who shall 
 pretend to offer it refreshment, when the 
 heavens are as brass to it, refusing the 
 smallest kindly drop of moisture ? What 
 would any consolation we could offer be to 
 Thy soul ! bitterer than to Thy palate that 
 nauseous potion which one of the crowd, 
 placing on a reed, would fain have offered 
 Thee when Thou hadst invoked Thy Father ! 
 Accept, then, rather our earnest desire to 
 make Thee all the reparation in our power, 
 for the grief and mortal anguish which our 
 sins caused Thee at that moment of severest 
 trial. Accept the offer of humble and 
 afflicted hearts, which we now presume to 
 make Thee. Eeceive their lowly homage, 
 their sincere devotion, and their earnest 
 desire to gladden Thy Heart by forwarding 
 to the utmost of their power the work 
 Thou comest to accomplish here below. 
 But above all things, through this portion 
 of Thy bitter sufferings, through the deso- 
 lation which Thou didst feel upon the cross, 
 and the dereliction of Thy soul, grant, we 
 beseech Thee, that our last hour may be 
 sweetened with Thy choicest consolations ;
 
 JESUS SEEMS TO BE FORSAKEN 267 
 
 that in that dread moment we may see 
 Thee, who didst suffer to purchase our peace, 
 comforting and encouraging us, and Thy 
 Eternal Father inviting us to receive the 
 fruits of Thy Passion. Make the terrors 
 of death to flee from us ; break down the 
 power of our infernal foes ; and, turning 
 our couch in our sickness, scatter the fresh- 
 ness of Paradise round our suffering bodies 
 and minds ; that with the image of Thee 
 crucified pressed to our lips, we may die in 
 Thy embrace, and be received in the next 
 world in Thine arms. If by Thy wounds 
 we were healed, and by Thy stripes our 
 scourges were removed, so by Thy dere- 
 liction let us be comforted in death, and 
 by the desolation of Thy last hour be ours 
 filled with hope and cheerful confidence in 
 Thy loving mercies and the merits of Thy 
 death and Passion."
 
 268 THIRTY-EIGHTH MEDITATION 
 
 JESUS EXPIRES 
 
 Preparation. Represent to yourself our 
 Blessed Saviour bowing down His head, and 
 giving up the ghost. 
 
 i. Reflect how the Divine Jesus, having 
 completed His heavenly mission of recon- 
 ciliation and mercy ; having fulfilled to the 
 last tittle the law and all justice; having 
 performed to the letter the will of His 
 Divine Father ; having given the most per- 
 fect example of every virtue, and delivered 
 the sublimest doctrines ; having suffered 
 all possible indignity, outrage, and pain ; 
 having in fine fully discharged every en- 
 gagement to God and to man, save what 
 the act of His death had to accomplish, 
 summed up all this in those two last words, 
 " Consummatum est." " My work is done, 
 I have come to the end of My earthly 
 day's task : and I am now, as in the begin- 
 ning, only thine. It is time that I return 
 to Him that sent Me." Oh, who else that
 
 JESUS EXPIRES 269 
 
 has arrived, since our first fall, to this 
 strait and final pass, could have spoken 
 the same words, and thus declared in the 
 face of Heaven, that He had accomplished 
 all that He had come into the world to 
 do ? Here for the first time is closed 
 a life without blemish or imperfection, 
 without the smallest transgression of the 
 smallest precept, but glorious by the com- 
 pletest possible union with God, by perfect 
 love ! Yet, even so did not Jesus, our 
 model and exemplar, wish to quit this 
 world, before He performed another act of 
 homage and duty towards His Heavenly 
 Father, that so we might understand its 
 great importance. " Father," He exclaimed, 
 "into Thy hands I commend My spirit!" 
 Not in fear or doubt were these words 
 spoken, as if He could for a moment be 
 uneasy respecting His acceptance by His 
 dear Father, but He wished to leave us 
 an example how none should presume upon 
 even an entire life devoted to God, when 
 the hour is come for surrendering our souls 
 to Him, but that we must commend our- 
 selves to His mercy with all earnestness
 
 270 THIRTY-EIGHTH MEDITATION 
 
 and humility. Now, Jesus having thus to 
 the last moment of His life instructed us, 
 not forced by any law of .necessity, riot 
 conquered by His sufferings, but of His own 
 free choice yielded His spirit. He hangs 
 down His head, towards earth, as if to give 
 to it a last kiss of peace, He closes His 
 eyes as though it were to a gentle slumber, 
 and His thrice-blessed soul is separated from 
 His body. There is no savour of death in 
 that pure flesh, no dominion of corruption 
 over it. No distortion of features, no con- 
 traction or contortion of limb disfigures this 
 corpse, lovely even in death, and worthy of 
 the great holocaust which in it has just 
 been offered. But not so is it with nature, 
 astounded at the great act here accom- 
 plished, and indignant at the outrage com- 
 mitted against her Maker. Every part of 
 her frame thrills with horror and dismay. 
 The sun, abashed at the deeds that day 
 perpetrated in its light, withdraws its rays, 
 the earth is shaken, the graves open, and 
 the bodies of many arise, and the Old Law, 
 through its type the temple, gives way 
 before the New which opened for man the
 
 JESUS EXPIRES 271 
 
 sanctuary of heaven. Such is the death 
 of Jesus, worthy of His life, worthy of His 
 divine character ! 
 
 2. Reflect upon the changes which took 
 place in every part of creation at that 
 instant when the soul of Jesus passed over 
 His lips. In that moment the work of 
 redemption was complete, the seal was set 
 to the greatest of all God's wonders, and 
 all its fruits were secured, and all its 
 rights brought within our possession. But 
 first see what a change is wrought in the 
 world, by the loss it undergoes. Only a 
 few minutes before, it held within it the 
 greatest of treasures, the person of the God- 
 man. It was as His tabernacle, His shrine, 
 and nothing created else could be put in 
 comparison with Him. Now it possesses 
 Him no more, it has lost Him for ever, 
 as a living man treading the ordinary paths 
 of humanity, and what is worse, it has itself 
 wilfully and wickedly deprived itself of 
 Him. It has not merely lost Him, it hath 
 slain Him ! How dreary must the earth 
 now seem to angels, and to all good men 
 that understand what has happened, how
 
 2/2 THIRTY-EIGHTH MEDITATION 
 
 little worth conversing or living in ! It is 
 like a temple or a palace that has been 
 sacked and rifled by an enemy, and all its 
 desirable things carried off and lost irre- 
 trievably : its gladness has fled, and they 
 find in it no more comfort. But at the 
 same moment, hear what a commotion is 
 stirred up below, when the brazen doors 
 of the temporary receptacle of the Just of 
 the Old Covenant fly open, and an un- 
 wonted light breaks the gloom of that 
 ancient prison. The tidings which have 
 reached them from day to day have pre- 
 pared them for the so joyful event, but 
 now that it has come, how they break forth 
 into a hymn of jubilee, a "Hosanna to the 
 son of David, and blessed is He that cometh 
 in the name of the Lord ! " which celebrates 
 the triumph obtained over the power that 
 held them in thraldom. But upon this 
 mystery of the descent into hell we shall 
 have occasion more particularly to meditate. 
 Let us rather turn our eyes to that deeper 
 dungeon, that house of woe and gnashing 
 of teeth to which this nobler captivity is 
 for a time an appendage. In the long and
 
 JESUS EXPIRES 273 
 
 hideous howl of agony which bursts from 
 the infernal tenants of that place, we may 
 learn the value of the prize snatched from 
 their jaws by the event which has just 
 taken place. During three preceding years 
 they had seen with dismay their power 
 greatly curtailed, and the dominion which 
 they had exercised over the bodies of men 
 thwarted and almost destroyed. Again and 
 again they had been forced to acknowledge 
 Him who imperiously commanded them, as 
 the Son of the Living God. But still they 
 knew not the full measure of His dignity or 
 might, and hurried on the blinded Jews to 
 that last catastrophe, by which they had 
 hoped to destroy His power. Now there- 
 fore, to their utter dismay, they discover 
 that the death which they had plotted, and 
 succeeded in inflicting, had been their utter 
 ruin, that in expiring, Jesus had completely 
 crushed the serpent's head, that had laid 
 snares for His heel. They had pursued 
 Him, the true Son of God, with the same 
 mad indiscretion as Pharaoh had the people 
 of Israel, His adopted children, into the 
 very jaws of death, thinking that in those 
 
 s
 
 274 THIRTY-EIGHTH MEDITATION 
 
 straits He could not escape their vengeance; 
 but they had found, as in the former case, 
 the gulf close only on the pursuer, and the 
 destruction only fall on the intended de- 
 stroyer. Death is now swallowed up in 
 victory, its sting is plucked out, and the 
 grave is deprived of its prey ! And still 
 more, hell sees its kingdom overthrown, 
 and its victims snatched for the future 
 from its grasp ! But man ! Oh, in him 
 is the great, the vital change : for he is 
 redeemed ! In that instant in which the 
 breath of Jesus ceased, the chains fell off 
 the hands and feet of the captive of four 
 thousand years, he returned to the pos- 
 session of a long-forfeited inheritance, his 
 attainder of ages was reversed, and he re- 
 entered into the privileges, with the title, 
 of a child of God, having place in His 
 eternal Kingdom. Now lift up thy head, 
 high but fallen creature, great indeed to 
 have been thought worthy of such a pur- 
 chase ! No more art thou condemned to 
 the outward darkness, but thou art invited 
 into the inner apartment, the wedding-feast 
 of God's Son ; no longer art thou abandoned
 
 JESUS EXPIRES 275 
 
 to the devices of a corrupt heart, to idolatry 
 and superstition, but thou shalt cast thy 
 idols away to the bats and moles, and shalt 
 say, " Let us come and ascend to the moun- 
 tain of the Lord." For a new era is come 
 upon the earth. Wherefore doth it tremble, 
 but that it feels the throes of a new birth ? 
 Wherefore are the heavens darkened, save 
 that beneath the veil new heavens are 
 creating ? " Ecce nova facio omnia," saith 
 the Lord : and " in those days, I will create 
 new heavens and a new earth." A dew till 
 now unknown hath in this hour fallen and 
 fertilised the barren world, reversing the 
 curse on Adam. Grace hath been" poured 
 out with open hands, yea, in a twofold 
 stream it hath flowed from them during 
 the last three hours, forming a treasure 
 which no time can exhaust. The many 
 sacrifices of the Old Covenant have lost 
 their efficacy ; the morning and evening 
 oblation are wanted no more ; type and 
 figure, like the light of stars and moon, 
 have disappeared before the splendour of 
 the real Sun of truth and righteousness ; 
 and the New Law, with its unfailing sacri-
 
 276 THIRTY-EIGHTH MEDITATION 
 
 fice, takes possession of the world. The 
 great and fundamental mystery of atone- 
 ment is in existence, the sublime doctrine 
 of the incarnation and death of the Son 
 of God finally established, all the promises 
 are accomplished, and man has no future to 
 look to but heaven. 
 
 3. Affections. " Rejoice then, earth, 
 and sing thy loudest praises to the God 
 that made thee. For behold He hath re- 
 moved thy shame, and hath clothed thee 
 with gladness, and crowned thee with mercy 
 and compassion; no more art thou accursed, 
 since the Blood of that Divine Victim hath 
 flowed upon thee : the very thorns and 
 briars which thou wast condemned to bring 
 forth have been changed before heaven 
 into lilies and roses, since they have sprung 
 from a soil so watered ! No longer shalt 
 thou be reproached as barren, since the 
 Cross bore upon thee its precious fruit, 
 more savoury and more wholesome far 
 than the tree planted in the midst of Eden ! 
 And ye, children of men, forget your 
 forty centuries of darkness and of dismal 
 horror, for your light is come : remember
 
 JESUS EXPIRES 27; 
 
 not your long captivity of ignorance and 
 infernal tyranny ; for the hour of delivery is 
 arrived, and the oppressor's staff is broken 
 for ever, and the arm of your taskmasters 
 is withered ! Ye are a free, a purchased 
 people, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation ! 
 But to Thee, dear Redeemer of our souls, 
 what shall we say ? Behold, Thou hangest 
 upon Thy cross, a lifeless corpse ; and have 
 we any right to exult and rejoice as long 
 as Thou art in this state, and that through 
 our faults ? Yea, dearest Lord, for it hath 
 pleased Thy immense goodness to have it 
 so, and make our gladness spring out of 
 our sorrow. We will love Thee the more 
 for this, blending together our compassion 
 and our shame with our joy and triumph, 
 for by Thy death upon the cross Thou hast 
 redeemed us, and hast made us Thine own 
 for ever."
 
 278 THIRTY-NINTH MEDITATION 
 
 IHetrttatton 
 
 ON THE CONDUCT OP THOSE WHO WERE 
 PRESENT AT THE CRUCIFIXION 
 
 i. Reflect how unequally the spectators 
 of our Blessed Redeemer's death were 
 divided into two classes, the one a very 
 small body of dear friends and faithful 
 followers, the other an immense multitude 
 of strangers who had little or no sympathy 
 for Him, or of enemies who were only in- 
 clined to exult and triumph in His suffer- 
 ings. Let us meditate this day upon the 
 conduct of both, drawing, from the evil 
 and the good, wholesome instruction. The 
 sufferings which Jesus endured were such 
 as might have drawn pity from rocks, and 
 had an irrational creature been made to 
 suffer them, no man with a heart in his 
 bosom could have refused to pity it. More- 
 over, a crime committed under the influence 
 of passion generally rises up against the 
 feelings of the committer of it the moment 
 the paroxysm is over. Love is turned to
 
 THOSE PRESENT AT THE CRtTCIFIXION 279 
 
 hatred after it has led to an excess, and 
 hatred often into love. Judas, who had 
 withstood all the kind remonstrances of his 
 Master while his horrible crime and its 
 reward was in prospect, cast away this, and 
 loathed the other when the deed had been 
 perpetrated. But the Jewish priests and 
 their obsequious rabble knew no such tender- 
 ness and flexibility of heart ; as they began, 
 so they persevered. With deadly hatred 
 they commenced, and in deadly hatred they 
 watched the consummation of their work. 
 Even when a criminal has been pursued by 
 justice to death, there is a mournful solem- 
 nity in the triumph of public virtue over 
 crime, which admits of no exultation. The 
 person of the unhappy is always sacred. 
 But now consider the behaviour of the men 
 who looked on Jesus crucified. " They 
 that passed by blasphemed Him, wagging 
 their heads, and saying, Vah, Thou that 
 destroyest the temple of God," &c. In like 
 manner also the chief priests and ancients, 
 mocking, said, " He saved others, Himself 
 He cannot save" (Matt, xxvii.). And so 
 when He called on God in the Hebrew
 
 280 THIRTY-NINTH MEDITATION 
 
 tongue, " Eli, Eli," they affected to under- 
 stand that he called on Elias to save Him ! 
 Now let us imagine those men acting in 
 such a manner while the sun was darkened, 
 and all nature manifestly protesting against 
 their black crime, and sympathising with 
 the innocent sufferer ! Yet on them all 
 this makes no impression, they continue 
 their taunts and insults to the last ! Nor 
 does it appear that, when the last catas- 
 trophe came, when the earth reeled with 
 a terrible earthquake, and the rocks were 
 riven in twain, and the graves opened, the 
 hearts of these men relaxed from their 
 obduracy, or began to tremble and repent. 
 For even after witnessing those awful 
 phenomena, they dared call Him to Pilate 
 an impostor, " seductor ille." Good God ! 
 to what lengths will not passion, after hood- 
 winking reason, lead men, even till it have 
 hurled them over a fatal precipice. What 
 an awful instance have we here of this worst 
 form of blindness ! 
 
 2. Reflect, however, now upon the more 
 consoling spectacle of the few who joined 
 not in this unfeeling conduct. As of the
 
 THOSE PRESENT AT THE CRUCIFIXION 28 I 
 
 two that hung upon the cross with Jesus, 
 one was taken and the other left, so from 
 among those who had taken part in the 
 atrocities of that morning, the mercies of 
 God selected such as should be first to taste 
 those fruits of redemption which had just 
 ripened upon earth. " The centurion," first, 
 " and they that were with him watching 
 Jesus " (that is, presiding at His execution), 
 " having seen the earth quake and the 
 things that were done, were sore afraid, 
 saying, * Indeed, this was the Son of God ' ' 
 (Matt, xxvii. 54). " And all the multitude 
 of them that were come together to that 
 sight, and saw the things that were done, 
 returned striking their breasts " (Luke xxiii. 
 48). With too many, indeed, this was 
 probably but a passing emotion of terror 
 that vanished with its cause, but to mul- 
 titudes, no doubt also, it was the beginning 
 of a change of heart and of life, and the 
 first steps to their becoming faithful dis- 
 ciples of Him, dead, whom living they had 
 rejected. Oh ! how bitter to one of those 
 must the regret have been to the end of life, 
 of having seen Jesus in the flesh, only to
 
 282 THIRTY-NINTH MEDITATION 
 
 persecute and maltreat Him, and to have 
 waited till it was beyond his power to 
 repair what he had done before he acknow- 
 ledged Him ! How overcome with shame 
 and confusion must he have been if, travel- 
 ling into distant countries, he was inter- 
 rogated by the disciples as to what manner 
 of man the Lord Jesus was, and under what 
 circumstances he had seen Him, and what 
 intercourse he had had with Him, and was 
 obliged to own that he had refused to know 
 Him till He had expired, and that, in con- 
 sequence of his vociferations among others, 
 upon the ignominious cross : for his only 
 conversation with Him had been in those 
 cries of " Crucify Him ! crucify Him ! " and 
 " Non hunc sed Barabbam ! " But there 
 are others standing here who will have no 
 such reproach to make themselves. At a 
 little distance are the pious women who 
 have followed Him from Galilee, minister- 
 ing to Him, who have courageously followed 
 Him amidst the insulting mob from Pilate's 
 court to Calvary, weeping loudly over His 
 unjust treatment. And now that He ex- 
 pires, how unrestrained do their sobs break
 
 THOSE PRESENT AT THE CBUCIFIXION 283 
 
 forth, how they wring their hands, and 
 bend to the ground with anguish unspeak- 
 able. Nearer still stands a more choice 
 group, Mary Magdalen, Mary of Cleophas, 
 and others privileged by relationship or 
 peculiar love to draw so nigh. But con- 
 spicuous beyond all are Mary and John. 
 Into the feelings of those chosen souls who 
 shall attempt to enter ? Who shall presume 
 to imagine to himself the tumult of affec- 
 tionate grief that tossed their hearts, and 
 made them unconscious of all else around ? 
 3. Affections. " To this small knot we 
 will attach ourselves, we will not heed the 
 taunts and scoffs of the hardened soldiery 
 or of the brutal priests. We will ever 
 stand by the side of John and of Mary, of 
 our brother and our mother, and through 
 their feelings contemplate the great mj^stery 
 of love that hath just been accomplished. 
 Much shame must, indeed, be mingled with 
 ours, much contrition which they could not 
 feel. Too great a share had I, dear Lord, 
 in Thy crucifixion ; too plainly, I fear, do I 
 belong to the crowd, not to be repelled by 
 those purely loving friends, and refused
 
 284 FORTIETH MEDITATION 
 
 place among them. But no : they are too 
 meek and kind to treat me thus ; they will 
 allow another penitent to stand where 
 Magdalen is admitted. With those who 
 love Thee, dear Jesus, I join my heart and 
 affections, and give Thee my entire self for 
 ever. By the homage of a loving and peni- 
 tent heart I desire to compensate Thee for 
 the blasphemies and scoffs of Thy unfeeling 
 enemies. Worth but little indeed is what 
 I offer Thee, but given Thee at such a 
 moment, in such a place, Thou wilt not 
 refuse to accept it." 
 
 JForttetfj Jlctittation 
 
 OUR SAVIOUR'S SIDE IS PIERCED 
 
 i. Reflect upon the vain superstition of 
 the Jews, who, straining at a gnat and swal- 
 lowing a camel, as they had done through- 
 out the Passion, scrupled about allowing our 
 Saviour's body, as well as that of His com- 
 panions, to hang upon the cross during the 
 Sabbath. They therefore requested Pilate 
 to give such orders as would prevent the
 
 OUR SAVIOUR'S SIDE is PIERCED 285 
 
 profanation of this day. This niceness of the 
 priests regarding a legal observance was 
 wisely permitted by Almighty Wisdom for 
 several important purposes. First, the work 
 of Redemption, for which the cross had been 
 chosen, being accomplished, it was right that 
 all the ignominy of its punishment should 
 be ended. It was not becoming that our 
 dear Saviour's body should be allowed to 
 hang, like a malefactor's, upon the cross ex- 
 posed to vain curiosity or derision, for days, 
 as was the custom. From the moment He 
 expired, the season of suffering was done, 
 and that of glory begun. Any further in- 
 fliction after that moment, of infamy or 
 reproach, could have purchased nothing more 
 for man, nor have added anything to the 
 merits of redemption. Therefore, the trem- 
 bling earth, the darkened heavens, the rend- 
 ing rocks, the divided veil, the resuscitated 
 bodies, and the converted centurion are the 
 first signs of that glorious period which was 
 begun when Jesus yielded up His spirit. 
 Secondly, this vain scrupulosity of the Jews 
 served to make the fulfilment of two pro- 
 phecies much more striking. For among
 
 286 FORTIETH MEDITATION 
 
 the rules in eating the Paschal Lamb, as 
 eminently typical of our Lord's death, one 
 was to refrain most carefully from breaking 
 any of its bones. " Os non comminuetis 
 in eo." The applicability of this image 
 would hardly have been perceptible had 
 not Jesus been placed in such a situation, 
 as that, humanly speaking, it should have 
 appeared almost necessary that this should 
 have happened. The priests, therefore, hav- 
 ing prevailed with Pilate to allow the bodies 
 to be taken down after only three hours' 
 crucifixion, a time ordinarily not sufficiently 
 long to cause death, it became necessary 
 to complete the execution by the ictus 
 gratiosus, or death-blow, whereby the legs 
 of criminals being broken, their death was 
 accelerated. And accordingly this was done 
 to the two thieves at the right and left 
 hand of Jesus. It was natural to expect 
 that as much would have been done to 
 Him, but He had prevented the stroke, 
 having already expired. And thus was the 
 prophecy or symbol fulfilled in Him, con- 
 trary to the probable course of things. The 
 soldiers respected evidently the body of one
 
 OUR SAVIOUR'S SIDE is PIERCED 287 
 
 whose death had been attended by so many 
 wonderful signs, and would not wantonly 
 commit an indignity upon it. But one of 
 them, whether compassionately to assure 
 himself of His sufferings being at an end, or 
 from some other unknown cause, pierced His 
 side with a lance, and thus gave fulfilment to 
 another prophecy, " videbunt in quern trans- 
 fixerunt;" a prophecy which without all this 
 concurrence of circumstances could not have 
 been fulfilled ; as this transfixion did not 
 enter into the sentence or into the cus- 
 toms of crucifixion ! But lo ! the wonderful 
 appearances that ensue ! From that wound, 
 inflicted upon a corpse, there issues a copious 
 flow of blood and water, evidently so clearly 
 distinguished as not to be explicable upon 
 mere natural grounds, and worthy of re- 
 ceiving from the faithful eye-witness John a 
 special attestation, with strong asseverations 
 of the truth of his testimony. It is not, 
 as to a natural phenomenon, that he turns 
 our attention to it, but as to some mys- 
 terious and mystical event, having its own 
 peculiar and interesting meaning. 
 
 2, Reflect how, in fact, there is much for
 
 288 FORTIETH MEDITATION 
 
 the mind and heart to be interested in, in 
 this last wound inflicted upon our Divine 
 Redeemer. For He was anxious that the 
 price of our ransom should be so fully paid 
 as that He should have reserved nothing of 
 it for Himself. Now that price was His 
 Blood, and although one drop of it was suf- 
 ficient, He desired to give all that He had 
 of it. Now the chief wounds hitherto in- 
 flicted on Him had been on His hands and 
 feet, by the nails, which did indeed produce 
 a copious effusion, as did also the crown 
 upon His head, and as the lashes had done 
 upon His back, but they could not well 
 drain, in so short a time as three hours, 
 His sacred Body. It was necessary at once 
 to break open the reservoir in which this 
 precious treasure was chiefly contained, that 
 so its riches might flow in ample streams 
 upon the earth. That Blood which the very 
 nature of crucifixion concentrated and im- 
 prisoned in the breast and heart must be 
 poured out, that so man might have every 
 tittle of His purchase. But this \vas not 
 all. Was it right that His sacred head 
 should be gored with thorns, His blessed
 
 OUR SAVIOUR'S SIDE is PIERCED 289 
 
 members pierced with nails, His adorable 
 flesh gashed and torn, but that His heart, 
 the seat of love, should bear no seal of that 
 deed of ransom ? that His breast, on which 
 we, His brethren, shall recline in the banquet 
 of His love, should have no scar to testify 
 to eternity how tenderly He loved us ? And 
 was that our sanctuary to be kept closed 
 against us ? Were His Passion and death to 
 make no passage for our affections, whereby 
 our hearts might creep in, and bury their 
 sorrows, their anxieties, their trembling fears 
 in the loving heart of Jesus ? Should we 
 have been left without the means of warm- 
 ing our faith, enlivening our hope, and in- 
 flaming our charity at that very hearth and 
 altar of every hallowed sentiment, whereon 
 the holocaust of salvation was mystically 
 immolated before it was slain upon the 
 cross ? Of how much mystical delight, of 
 what tender emotions, of what ecstasies of 
 charity would not those saints have been de- 
 prived, who have loved Jesus crucified above 
 all things, had their affectionate devotion 
 been confined to the contemplation of His 
 mere outward wounds, and had not been 
 
 T
 
 290 FORTIETH MEDITATION 
 
 able to find in them a way whereby their 
 love could penetrate to His sacred heart, 
 object above all others of a Christian's 
 veneration and tender affection ? But more- 
 over, the Church has always wished us to 
 consider another mystery, of more general 
 interest. Death was to our Blessed Lord, 
 our second and better Adam, what sleep was 
 to the first ; and as from the latter's side 
 His spouse Eve was formed, so was the 
 spouse of Christ, that is, His Church, mys- 
 tically brought forth from His side, when 
 after His death it was pierced by the lance. 
 For by the mixture of blood and water was, 
 in some sort, signified that mixture of good 
 and bad who compose the visible body of 
 Christ here below. But besides, we have 
 here the two Sacraments represented, upon 
 which our sanctification and the application 
 of our loving Saviour's death and Passion 
 mainly depend ; to wit in the water, the 
 laver of baptism, whereby we are cleansed 
 from original sin, and the adorable Sacra- 
 ment of the altar, in which we partake of 
 His precious Blood. And as by these two 
 Sacraments we may be said to belong to
 
 OUR SAVIOURS SIDE IS PIERCED 291 
 
 the Church, inasmuch as by the one we are 
 admitted into it, and by the other we are 
 kept in communion with it, as its very name 
 implies, we may easily see how in the issu- 
 ing of their emblems from this sacred, open 
 fountain of grace, the Church may be said 
 to have been produced. 
 
 3. Affections. - - " When Thy Apostle 
 Thomas doubted, Thou wast pleased, most 
 Blessed Saviour, to convince Him by invit- 
 ing him to place his hand into this wound 
 of Thy blessed side. Thus didst Thou not 
 allow this source of mercy to be closed up, 
 but, once open, it remains open day and 
 night for us to have recourse to in all our 
 necessities. Yes, it is through Thy wounds 
 that we are to have access to Thy heart, 
 capacious enough as it is to contain us all, 
 with all our necessities. Let it be to us a 
 refuge in all our perils, a sure retreat in all 
 our straits, as the cavern of Odalla in which 
 David found safety from his pursuer, or as 
 that into which Thy prophet retreated in 
 Horeb to hear the consoling voice of God. 
 In seasons of distress I will therein hide 
 my head, sure that in that safe asylum no
 
 292 FORTIETH MEDITATION 
 
 enemy shall be able to hurt or to annoy 
 me ; none shall presume to violate that sanc- 
 tuary ; or to drag me thence. And let my 
 breast, too, dear Jesus, be wounded, in the 
 likeness of Thine, by love. Let it ever 
 be open to the inspirations of Thy grace, 
 affording a harbour to good thoughts, while 
 it gives no room to any that could displease 
 Thy loving heart. And finally, through this 
 mystery of the blessed Passion, give me an 
 inviolable attachment to that holy Spouse, 
 my Mother, who came from Thee in such 
 an hour, and in so mysterious a manner." 
 
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