III. At the noise of those who led him along, the whole city ran together, and could not sufficiently wonder, to see a man dragged through the streets with so much infamy, whom they had received as the Messiah a few days before. His silence, his chains, the presence of the magistrates and priests, made the people judge that he was guilty, and that everything they had admired in him was nothing but imposture and hypocrisy. And so most of his friends declared against him: those whom he had heaped favours upon became his persecutors; and his miracles served only to augment his ignominies.

IV. Among all these reproaches, they obliged him to take four journeys that morning. He went from Caiphas to Pilate; from Pilate to Herod; from Herod he returned to Pilate's house, and from thence he was led to Calvary, carrying upon his shoulders the cross whereon he was to be fastened: besides the two journeys he had taken in the night, from the Garden of Olives to the house of Annas, and from the house of Annas to that of Caiphas.

Those souls that love their Saviour may accompany him in spirit in all these stations, compassionating his pains, observing his motions, imitating the virtues he practised, kissing the ground whereon he walked, and gathering the treasures of graces which he abundantly distributes. Those who are less interior, will not cease to draw great advantages also from thence, if they compare the ways wherein they lose themselves, with those which Christ has followed in order to save them; and if they humbly implore his mercy, that they may return by his merits into the way of salvation, if they have left it; and to persevere therein, if they walk in it.

For our Lord has left us, in those six journeys, wonderful examples of all sorts of virtues, especially of patience and humility. In the first, he allows himself to be seized as a malefactor, out of obedience to his Father's will. In the second, though he be the sovereign Judge of the living and the dead, he voluntarily submits himself to the judgment of his enemies. In the third, he loses that great reputation which he had acquired by his miracles, and by the sanctity of his life. In the fourth, he appears before Herod, as if he was the meanest of his subjects, though he was the master and creator of the universe. In the fifth, he permits his eternal wisdom to pass for folly. And in the sixth he is placed between two thieves. Who would ever have thought that those ways were the straightest and surest road for arriving at glory, if the Son of God had not followed them?

V. Is it not of those ways David spoke, when he said: Show, O Lord, thy ways to me, and teach me thy paths. Direct me in thy truth, and teach me; for thou art God my Saviour; and on thee have I waited all the day long. Remember, O Lord, thy bowels of compas

sion; and thy mercies that are from the beginning of the world.—Ps. xxiv. 4.

For though that holy king saw himself elevated by the hand of God to the throne of Juda; delivered from the persecution of Saul, in order to be victorious afterwards over his enemies' nations; become, from a shepherd, general of the army; from the last of an obscure family, the head of God's people, equal to the greatest princes of his time, and from whom the Messiah was to descend, according to the flesh; in fine, chosen of God to be the patriarch, prophet, example, and model of the just: notwithstanding in that elevation he never forgot his first condition; but remembered, with an humble acknowledgment, the meanness from which God had raised him. He considered himself interiorly as a most contemptible man; and every time he foretold our Saviour's humiliations, he spoke in his own person, applied them to himself, as if he had desired to be clothed therewith beforehand, and as if he had envied those who were to live under the law of grace, the happiness of having before their eyes an humble God, and of being able to imitate upon earth the sovereign Majesty annihilated and crucified.

That thought made him despise his own greatness, and inspired him with an ardent desire of knowing those sacred ways, so full of mercy, which were then entirely unknown. He beheld them only from afar; but he sighed after them, and approached as near to them as he possibly could. Hence it is, that though he was one of the most powerful princes of the earth, he suffered the chastisements of God, and the ingratitude of men, with as perfect a submission, as if he had had the example of an humbled God before his eyes. With how much more reason ought we to be subject to God, in the evils and adversity of this life; we, to whom he has so clearly discovered those divine ways, consecrated by the footsteps of his Son? Ought we not to conjure him, without intermission, to conduct us by the same ways, and to enlighten our blindness, that we may be able to comprehend that admirable truth?

VI. If David had seen our Saviour in that state, how earnestly would he have wished to be taken in his stead; to be dragged through the streets of Jerusalem; to pass for a fool; and to suffer reproaches for the name of Jesus Christ, as many saints have done since! But we, who are very far from that perfection, and whom Christ, in condescension to our weakness, does not require to suffer for him everything that he has suffered for us; how shall we justify the little care we take in pleasing him, and in shunning at least the ways of sin, which lead us to death? With what excuse shall we cover our refusal of being his disciples, and of imitating his meekness and patience in the evils of this life? What contempt

should we not have of ourselves, if we could truly know the state to which sin has reduced us in the sight of God?

If those who possess considerable posts in this world have not strength enough to quit them, in order to become like Jesus Christ, they ought at least to humble themselves interiorly in his presence; to apply themselves to destroy human pride in them; to walk in the ways of the Lord, which are patience, meekness, contempt of one's self, and resignation to the divine will in sufferings; to implore his help continually, that he may not abandon them in such a difficult road; and to allow themselves to be penetrated with a salutary confusion, seeing how far distant they are from their Saviour, and that they rather choose to walk in those ways he has condemned, than in those which he has followed.

But if in the midst of a moderate plenty, which is necessary for their exterior state, and which the law of God does not reprove, they interiorly preserve Christian humility, and sincere contempt of themselves; Christ, who regards the sentiments of the heart, and not the outward appearance, shall fill them with glory when he comes, in the day of his judgment, to recompense his true imitators. But if men, who have been only humbled in heart, must be glorified, what shall be the crown of those, who, humble within, and humble without, shall have followed the humility of our Saviour in its full extent.

CONTEMPLATION.-On Christ dragged through the streets of Jerusalem.-I. Awaken, O my soul! depart from the careless and drowsy state thou art in; look upon thy Saviour; consider the steps he has taken for thee; behold those eycs dejected and sunk for want of sleep; that face livid and bruised; that hair torn; and those hands loaded with chains; follow him in spirit; join thyself to him; and comprehend what thou hast cost him. He is led from Caiphas to Pilate, as a disturber of the public peace; from Pilate to Herod, as a rebel that designed to make himself king; from Herod to Pilate, as a fool; and at last from Pilate to the cross, as a malefactor.

Acknowledge, O sinful soul! that innocent Lamb in the midst of wolves; behold the strokes they give him, and the affronts they put upon him. Hear the blasphemies of the soldiers, the discourses of the priests, the mockeries of the Pharisees, and the outcries and maledictions of the populace. Represent to thyself those streets consecrated by his miracles and charity; they were, a few days ago, the road of his triumph, and now they are the theatre of his ignominies. Admire his silence in the uproar, his meekness in affronts, and his calmness in tumults. He murmurs not, nor complains of any one; and he has more patience in suffering, than his enemies have malice in ill-treating him.

II. What sayest thou at the sight of that spectacle, O unhappy

soul? What sayest thou, O man of dust and ashes! and yet so proud? Behold the steps which the Son of God takes, the reproaches he endures, and the motives which animate him. 0 divine Lamb! who takest away the sins of the world; O my God, my Judge, and my sovereign good! open my eyes, enlighten my mind, that I may know thy ways, and discover thereby the unhappiness of those who follow others. O divine Jesus! whose infinite wisdom cannot be deceived, thou hast had no regard to thyself, thou hast not spared thyself when thou wast to suffer for me; and thou hast not only expiated all my criminal steps, but hast also taught me the straight ways which lead to salvation.

O divine light! eternal truth! take pity on my blindness. After all the favours I have received from thee, I neither know thee, nor myself. Show me thy ways, conduct me into thy truth, for I desire to have my eyes continually fixed on thee, who art my God, my Saviour, my guide, my way, my truth, and my life. Be mindful of the goodness with which thou hast borne with me, and of the patience wherewith thou hast expected me, in order to discover my wanderings to me, to make me bewail them, and to bring me back unto thee.

III. Suffer me, O Lord! here to confess my miseries, and at the same time to publish thy mercies. I have abandoned thy law, been deaf to thy voice, rejected thy caresses, and departed from thee, in order to follow by-paths, which would have led me to eternal death, if thy hand had not stopped me on the brink of the precipice. And thou, O my God! hast created me to thy own image, hast washed me in thy blood, hast taught me the ways of life, hast infused into my soul faith, hope, and charity, and hast brought me into the Catholic Church, to which thou hast left thy doctrine, the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the assurance of eternal happiness.

When I was of age to know thee, I found an infinite number of helps ready for me, and all the ways open for coming to thee. If I had faithfully followed them at that time, as I had promised in my baptism, how near should I have been to thee at present, O my God! how enlightened would my spirit have been, and how pure my heart! But, alas! wretched that I am, I have despised all those advantages, I have departed from thee, in order to adhere to the world and myself. I have followed my own will instead of thine. I believed, and my whole life has been contrary to my faith. I have put in creatures the hope I ought to have had in thee, and given to those things which thou hatest, the love which ought to have been given to thee alone.

I see, O Lord! in my life, by means of thy light, a long train of sins, which cover me with confusion, and break my heart with sorrow. I distinguish those to which I am most subject, which

have occasioned me the greatest wanderings, and which still hinder in me the effect of thy mercies. Confound me not, O Lord! in the day of thy wrath, but deliver me, by the reproaches which thou sufferest, from the eternal confusion which I have deserved.

IV. Behold what I am, O my God! behold this miserable sinner for whom thou hast suffered so much. Behold the ways in which I have walked, after having seen those which thou hast followed. Behold what has been the vanity of my thoughts, the baseness of my actions, and the negligence of my life. Behold how I have employed the strength which thou hast given me, and the powers of a soul which thou hast created to thy image. Behold, in fine, what has been my whole occupation and my pleasure. How different are thy ways, O my Saviour! from mine; how many times have I despised and abandoned thee? How many graces hast thou granted and promised me? and, notwithstanding, I desire to be honoured and considered, whilst thou art dishonoured and abused. It is I that have been a thousand times unfaithful to thee, and it is thou that hast been treated as a perfidious person. I have run as a madman after vanities; and it is thou, O Eternal Wisdom! that art accused of folly. I have robbed thee of the glory and love which were due to thee; and it is thou who art crucified between two thieves. I am the guilty, and thou art punished.

It is I, O Lord! that have deserved that treatment which thou sufferest. All creatures ought to have risen up against me, and led me through the universe with ignominy, as an ungrateful person, a traitor, and a rebel. And after all, thou not only pardonest me, O thou life of my soul! but wilt also undergo the punishment I deserve. I adore that infinite goodness; I adore that ineffable love. I conjure thee, O my God! by that same love, to change my heart, and to lead me into that straight way which thou hast taught me. Set before me for a law, the way of thy justifications, O Lord: and I will seek after it.—Psalm cxviii. 33. But take me by the hand, O Lord! that I may run after thee in the odour of thy perfumes; for if thou lettest me go alone, I shall fall like a child which cannot yet walk, or I shall go astray as a traveller that knows not the way, or I shall be obliged to stay by the way as a sick person that has not the strength of following thee, or I shall fly from thee perhaps as a deserter. But if thou leadest me along with thee, I shall go everywhere without fearing anything; and the most painful journey will become sweet to me in thy company.

V. Instruct me therefore interiorly, O divine Light! in the secret of thy ways. Didst thou not come upon earth to open to us heaven, to overcome our enemies, to make us know thy Father, to kindle in our hearts the fire of thy love, to disengage us from the earth, and to draw us to thee by the charms of thy beauty; to