spears, as
hard as the spikes, as hard as the rocks under which the Master was
buried! Who can hear the metallic voice of that Caiaphas without
thinking of some church court that condemned a man better than
themselves? Caiaphas is as hateful as Judas. Blessed is that
denomination of religionists which has not more than one Caiaphas!

On goes the scene till we reach the goodby of Mary and Christ at
Bethany. Who will ever forget that woman's cry, or the face from which
suffering has dried the last tear? Who would have thought that Anna
Flunger, the maiden of twenty-five years, could have transformed her
fair and happy face into such concentration of gloom and grief and woe?
Mary must have known that the goodbye at Bethany was final, and that the
embrace of that Mother and Son was their last earthly embrace. It was
the saddest parting since the earth was made, never to be equalled while
the earth stands.

What groups of sympathetic women trying to comfort her, as only women
can comfort!

On goes the sacred drama till we come to the foot-washing. A few days
before, while we were in Vienna, we had explained to us the annual
ceremony of foot washing by the Emperor of Austria. It always takes
place at the close of Lent. Twelve very old people are selected from the
poorest of the poor. They are brought to the palace. At the last
foot-washing the youngest of the twelve was 86 years of age, and the
oldest 92. The Imperial family and all those in high places gather for
this ceremony. An officer precedes the Emperor with a basin of water.
For many days the old people have been preparing for the scene. The
Emperor goes down on one knee before each one of these venerable people,
puts water on the arch of the foot and then wipes it with a towel. When
this is done a rich provision of food and drink is put before each one
of the old people, but immediately removed before anything is tasted.
Then the food and the cups and the knives and the forks are put in
twelve sacks and each one has his portion allotted him. The old people
come to the foot-washing in the Emperor's carriage and return in the
same way, and they never forget the honour and splendour of that
occasion.

Oh, the contrast between that foot-washing amid pomp and brilliant
ceremony and the imitated foot-washing of our Lord at Ober-Ammergau.
Before each one of the twelve Apostles Christ comes down so slowly that
a sigh of emotion passes through the great throng of specta