Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/161

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esteemed as so many impostures. And to crown all, He is totally abandoned by His friends.

II. How much He suffered in His body! His eyes were defiled with spittle, and filled with the blood which flowed from His sacred head, and tormented with the scornful gestures which they were obliged to behold. His ears were wounded with repeated blasphemies against God, and most unjust accusations brought against Himself. His taste was tormented with the most violent thirst, and then with vinegar and gall. Lastly, His sense of feeling was tortured, in every part of His sacred body, by thorns, stripes, and nails. So that it might be said of Him with truth, "From the sole of the foot unto the top of the head, there is no soundness therein." (Is. i. 6.)

III. Christ suffered, also, most severely in His mind. His agony in the garden and His dereliction on the cross were perhaps the severest of all His pains: add to those His foreknowledge of the ingratitude of mankind, and their abuse of His redemption. Be ashamed at your cowardice in suffering and your impatience under the pressure of crosses. Form a resolution of suffering something for Him who has suffered so much for you.

THURSDAY.

Christ's Passion in General.

FROM WHOM DOES HE SUFFER?

I. He suffers from every kind and character of men; from the highest to the lowest, from the sacred and the profane. He is dragged about the streets by the dregs of the people; He is forsaken by His friends, He is accused by the priests, laughed at by the soldiery, con-