oing so
until the Lord's return. This is the legend of the Wandering Jew,
which assumed many forms in the lore of other days and still plays a
somewhat prominent part in literature. It is, I suppose, a fantastic
representation, in the person of an individual, of the tragic fate of
the Jewish race, which, since the day when it laid violent hands on the
Son of God, has had no rest for the sole of its foot.

To another story of the _Via Dolorosa_ as distinguished a place has
been given in art as to the legend of the Wandering Jew in literature.
Veronica, a lady in Jerusalem, seeing Christ, as He passed by, sinking
beneath His burden, came out of her house and with a towel washed away
the blood and perspiration from His face. And lo! when she examined
the napkin with which the charitable act had been performed, it bore a
perfect likeness of the Man of Sorrows. Some of the greatest painters
have reproduced this scene, and it may be understood as teaching the
lesson that even the commonest things in life, when employed in acts of
mercy, are stamped with the image and superscription of Christ.

In Roman Catholic churches there may generally be seen round the walls
a series of about a dozen pictures, taken from this part of our Lord's
life. They are denominated the Stations of the Cross, because the
worshippers, going round, stop to look and meditate on the different
scenes. In Catholic countries the same idea is sometimes carried out
on a more imposing scale. On a knoll or hill in the neighbourhood of a
town three lofty crosses stand; the road to them through the town is
called _Via Calvarii_, and at intervals along the way the scenes of our
Lord's sad journey are represented by large frescoes or bas-reliefs.

But we really know for certain of only two incidents of the _Via
Dolorosa_--that in which our Lord was relieved of His cross by Simon
the Cyrenian and that, which we are now to consider, of the sympathetic
daughters of Jerusalem.

I.

The reader of the history of our Lord in its last stages is sated with
horrors. In some of the scenes through which we have recently
accompanied Him we have seemed to be among demons rather than men. The
mind longs for something to relieve the monstrous spectacles of fanatic
hate and cold-blooded cruelty. Hence this scene is most welcome, in
which a blink of sunshine falls on the path of woe, and we are assured
that we need not lose faith in the human heart.

It was, inde