with a triumph. When, ere His hour had yet come, He at His Mother's bidding changed the water into wine at the marriage-feast of Cana, He manifested His glory, says the Gospel, and His disciples believed in Him. Again, at the close of His public mission, when for the last time He approached Jerusalem, the populace acclaimed Him in the words: " Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." Lastly, at His Resurrection His final victory over death and sin was so unmistakably proclaimed that the world has not yet ceased to echo Alleluia! nor the doubting Thomases to confess Him as their Lord and their God. Now self-abasement preceded each triumph. In His youth He went down to Nazareth and was subject to Mary and Joseph; in His manhood He meekly became all things to all; in His Passion He utterly effaced Himself. St. Paul, with an eye to the close connection and dependence of these three, voluntary humiliation, spiritual exaltation, and the spread of faith, thus admirably sums up the Lord's life and its lesson: " He humbled Himself even unto the death of the cross; wherefore also God exalted Him, that every tongue should confess the Lord Jesus."
He humbled Himself even unto the death of the cross.
Brethren, try as we may, we shall never succeed in arriving at a just appreciation of the enormity of the Saviour's sufferings. " Thou alone," He says to His heavenly Father, " Thou alone knowest My ignominy, My confusion, and My dignity." The
