water. Dives, we read, Dives buried in hell, was denied one drop wherewith to allay his thirst, but human cruelty was crueler still, for not content with refusing Christ's request, they gave Him instead vinegar and gall. Christ died, the Gospel says, crying out with a loud voice. It was the cry of a broken heart to humanity to come and see if there ever was or could be, even in hell, woe like unto His woe.
" He humbled Himself even unto the death of the cross; wherefore God exalted Him." Brethren, after the cross the crown, or rather the cross itself became for Christ and the world their joy and crown. In the spiritual world he that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. The proud and boastful Pharisee returned home from his devotions in the Temple less justified than the humbly penitent publican. The rich young man who refused to give up all and follow Christ was never heard of more in history, sacred or profane, but because the Apostles left their little all and followed Christ, their fame hath gone to the ends of the earth and because Mary, by vow of chastity, forfeited, humanly speaking, all claim to be the Mother of the Messias, therefore did God regard the humility of His handmaid and all generations call her blessed. The sequence between self-humiliation and exaltation Christ thus expressed: "Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." Christ uttered these words in the midst of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and whenever He gave His Apostles a
