Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/164



!. His  sufferings  were  prompted  by  a  most  sincere  love for us;  He  earnestly  wished  beforehand  for  the  hour  in which  His  passion  would  commence. " I  have  a  baptism," He says,  "  wherewith  I  am  to  be  baptized;  and  how  am  I straitened  until  it  be  accomplished!" (Luke xii.  50.)

II. His sufferings  were  endured  with  the  most  profuse liberality. One single  pain,  one  drop  of  blood,  would have atoned  for  the  crimes  of  a  thousand  worlds,  in  consequence of  the  nature  of  the  sufferer;  but  Christ  shed all His  blood. " With Him"  there  is  "  plentiful  redemption." (Ps. cxxix.  7.)

III. He suffered  with  the  greatest  meekness;  for, "when He  was  reviled,  He  did  not  revile;  when  He  suffered, He  threatened  not:  but  He  delivered  Himself  to him  who  judged  Him  unjustly." (1 Pet.  ii.  23.)  And the prophet  had  foretold  that  "  He  shall  be  led  as  a  sheep to  the  slaughter." (Is. liii.  7.)

IV. He suffered  with  an  insatiable  zeal  for  the  salvation of  mankind;  hence  He  exclaimed  on  the  cross,  "I thirst." (John xix.  28.)

V. In  His  sufferings  He  was  perfectly  humble;  hence He might  have  said  of  Himself,  "I  am  a  worm  and  no man;  the  reproach  of  men,  and  the  outcast  of  the  people." (Ps. xxi.  7.)

VI. He exercised  the  virtue  of  poverty  during  the whole of  His  passion,  and  He  ultimately  died  naked  on the  cross.

VII. His  patience   and    perseverance   were  uncon-