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and filent, he was led, a lamb, to the DISC. flaughter.

Meekness is not at all incompatible with fortitude, which is neceffary to carry us through, that we may not faint in our minds, and fail, before the end of our fufferings.-Behold the man! He comes forth with the purple robe, and the crown of thorns, into the midft of the hoftile and furious multitude, unmoved by the scoffs of apoftate priests, and the infults of an infidel rabble; undaunted by all the efforts of evil men and evil fpirits; unappalled at the fight of that cross, on which he was to "taste death for every man." He is mocked, fpit upon, stripped, fcourged, and nailed to the fatal tree. Patient and decided, firm and recollected, he commends his spirit to the Father, in words which recognized and substantiated an ancient prophecy concerning him; and then, as the laft token of obedience, bows his head, and dies.

Charity is always glorious; but never ap

pears

VIII.

DISC. pears more fo, than when shining forth from
VIII. a dark cloud of affliction; when it evinces,

that our thoughts are not fo engroffed by
our own fufferings, as to forget those of
others; when we are not unmindful to per-
form the laft kind offices to thofe about us;
when our latest breath is spent in comfort-
ing our relations and friends, and praying
for our enemies. Thus the dying patriarchs
of old called for their children, and left
with them the monitions and benedictions
of heaven: and thus He of whom the
whole family in heaven and earth is named,
to the women, who followed him wailing ;
Daughters of Jerufalem, weep not for
me, but
weep for yourselves and your
"children"-to the bleffed virgin, and the
beloved disciple, ftanding under the cross;
"Woman, behold thy fon-Behold thy
“mother”—of the Jews, who crucified
him; "Father, forgive them, for they know
"not what they do."

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These are the virtues, these the triumphs of the CROSs!

But

VIII.

But perhaps you will ask, "Who is DISC. "fufficient for these things?" The answer received by St. Paul, applies to every one

of us;
My grace is fufficient for thee."
That will enable us to look, through" the
fufferings of the present time," to the

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glory that shall be revealed," and to wonder that we make any account of the one, while we believe in the other. Faith shews us heaven opened, and Jesus, who was crucified, standing at the right hand of the Majefty there; it fhews us a long and goodly train of those who once carried their croffes, but are " now crowned, and "receive palms from the Son of God, "whom they," formerly, thus "confeffed "in the world."

It is faid of our bleffed Lord himself, that "for the glory which was set before him, he endured the crofs, defpifing the

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shame," esteeming both the pain and the ignominy as nothing, in refpect to the reward that fhould follow.

The

DISC.

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The misfortune is, that, in viewing these VIII. objects, we hold the glafs, and turn the perspective; the joys of another world are driven off to a distance, and diminished; the evils of this are brought near, and magnified. How much otherwise do things appear in the fight of God! To us one day may feem a thousand years: to him " a "thousand years are but as one day." A little more, or a little lefs, of pain or pleafure; a life longer or fhorter, by a few years are differences which difappear at once in the prefence of eternity. Say, that, at fome time within these last hundred years, two friends died, the one twenty years before the other. To the furvivor that interval feemed long and tedious to us, now looking back upon the whole, it seems trifling; and more fo to them: they are met again, and no trace of it is to be feen. A fick man, who paffes a night without fleep, thinks that night to be without end; but the night, in reality, is no longer than another; and when it is he himself will be convinced of it.

gone,

Life rolls along like a torrent. The past is DISC. no more than a dream; the present, when VIII. we think we have faft hold of it, flips through our hands, and mingles with the paft; and let us not vainly imagine, that the future will be of another quality; it will glide by, with the fame rapidity. You have seen the waves of the ocean preffing each other to the fhore. You then beheld an emblem of human life: days, months, and years, crowd forward, in like manner. Yet a little while, yet a few moments, and all will be at an end. "The things which "are feen are temporal; but the things "which are not feen are eternal."

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