Satan to torture Job He bade him to spare Job's life, but not so now; it was completely the devil's hour and the hour of the power of darkness. Christ saw Himself like another Isaac bearing on His shoulders the wood of the sacrifice, while by His side, like a second Abraham, walked His Father, bearing in one hand, yes, the fire of love, but in the other, alas! the sword of justice. In all heaven there was no angel to come and stay His hand or point to a substitute victim. Aye, and another sword He saw of keener blade, the sword that was to pierce the heart of Mary standing by the cross. Eve looked upon the forbidden tree and Adam wrought our ruin by eating from it, and justice demanded that Mary should gaze on Jesus while dying on the rood. Abandoned by all she yet would cling to Him, but her very constancy, He saw, would only serve to aggravate His torments.
Brethren, the horror Christ conceived from His foreknowledge of His sufferings was justified by the event. The first indignity heaped upon Him was that of being sold as a slave or a beast, sold by His friend to His bloodthirsty enemies, sold for the paltry sum of thirty pieces of silver. Such was man's estimate of Christ's value— of Christ, who did not reckon His own heart's blood too dear a price wherewith to purchase man. But even the silver pieces were considered on second thought beyond His worth, for presently He was auctioned off, He and the outlaw Barabbas, and the multitude cried: " Give us Barabbas, but as for Christ, crucify Him, crucify Him." The healer of bodily ills, the restorer of the
