s dear to us,
rudely seized by fierce men, stripped naked in public, insulted, driven
about here and there, made a laughing-stock, struck, spit on, dressed
up in other clothes in ridicule, then severely scourged on the back,
then laden with some heavy load till he could carry it no longer,
pulled and dragged about, and at last exposed with all his wounds to
the gaze of a rude multitude who came and jeered him, what would be our
feelings? Let us in our mind think of this person or that, and
consider how we should be overwhelmed and pierced through and through
by such a hideous occurrence.

But what is all this to the suffering of the holy Jesus, which we bear
to read of as a matter of course! Only think of Him, when in His
wounded state, and without garment on. He had to creep up the ladder,
as He could, which led Him up the cross high enough for His murderers
to nail Him to it, and consider _who_ it was that was in that misery.
Or again, view Him dying, hour after hour bleeding to death; and how?
in peace? no; with His arms stretched out, and His face exposed to
view, and any one who pleased coming and staring at Him, mocking Him,
and watching the gradual ebbing of His strength, and the approach of
death. These are some of the appalling details which the Gospels
contain, and surely they were not recorded for nothing, but that we
might dwell on them.

Do you think that those who saw these things had much heart for eating
or drinking or enjoying themselves? On the contrary, we are told that
even "the people who came together to that sight, smote their breasts
and returned[7]." If these were the feelings of the people, what were
St. John's feelings, or St. Mary Magdalene's, or St. Mary's, our Lord's
blessed mother? Do we desire to be of this company? do we desire,
according to His own promise, to be rather blessed than the womb that
bare Him, and the paps that He sucked? do we desire to be as His
brother, and sister, and mother[8]? Then, surely, ought we to have
some portion of that mother's sorrow! When He was on the cross and she
stood by, then, according to Simeon's prophecy, "a sword pierced
through her soul[9]." What is the use of our keeping the memory of His
cross and passion, unless we lament and are in sorrow with her? I can
understand people who do not keep Good Friday at all; they are indeed
very ungrateful, but I know what they mean; I understand them. But I
do not understand at all, I do not at a