Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/426

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words, came to Christ and were converted. " We now believe," they said to her, " not for thy saying, for we ourselves have heard Him, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world." Rejoice at your Saviour's being manifested to those men, and wish that the whole world may come to the knowledge of Him. Exert yourself to the utmost, in endeavoring to bring as many as you can to Him. "If you walk towards God," says St. Gregory, "endeavor not to come to Him alone without company."

FRIDAY

The Woman taken in Adultery.

I. The Pharisees were continually seeking occasions of entrapping Christ in conversation, and on this endeavored to abuse His meekness. They, therefore, bring to Him a woman taken in adultery, with the intention, that if He gave sentence that she ought to be dismissed, they might accuse Him of being a corrupter of the law. The devil is constantly occupied in laying snares for us iu that virtue, in which we most excel. The zealous he endeavors to provoke to anger, the humble to dejection and pusillanimity, and the meek to too much indulgence. But "there is no counsel against the Lord," (Prov. xxi. 30) and God " catcheth the wise in their craftiness, and disappointeth the counsel of the wicked." (Tob. v. 13.}

II. "Jesus stooping down, wrote with his finger on the ground." (John viii. 6.) He thus declined giving a sentence, which might create contention. Hence the Apostle writes: " No man being a soldier to God, entangleth himself in worldly business." (2 Tim. ii. 4.) He acted