you; and be backward to shew mercy on them that are in need? Nay I intreat, but though we must throw away all, be cast into the fire, venture against the sword, leap upon daggers, suffer what you will; let us bear all easily, that we may obtain the garment of the kingdom of heaven, and that untold glory; which may we all attain, by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory and might, world without end. Amen. Homil. in S. Matt., liv.

Wednesday in Holy Week.

THE KING OF THE JEWS. S. AUGUSTINE.

"AND bearing His own Cross He went forth into a place called the place of Calvary, where they crucified Him."

He was going to the place where He was to be crucified, Jesus, bearing His own Cross! A great spectacle! but then to impiety a great disport to look upon; to piety a great mystery; impiety sees in it a great display of ignominy; piety a great strengthening of faith; impiety looks on, and laughs at a King bearing, instead of the rod of sovereignty, the wood of His punishment; piety looks on and sees the King bearing that Cross for Himself to be fixed

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thereon, which He would thereafter fix on the brows of kings; an object of contempt in the eyes of the impious, in that same thing in which thereafter the hearts of the saints should glory. Thus to Paul who should one day say, "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ," the Lord commended that very Cross by bearing it on His Shoulders; and for that candle which was to be lighted, and not to be put under a bushel, the Lord bore the candlestick. Well then," He bearing His own Cross went forth into a place called the place of Calvary, in the Hebrew Golgotha: where they crucified Him, and two other with Him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst." These were the two thieves between whom He was fixed: He of Whom the prophecy which went before had said, "And He was numbered with the wicked."

"And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the Cross. And the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city; and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin." These three tongues, namely, were eminent before all others; the Hebrew because of the Jews who gloried in God's Law; the Greek because of the wise men of the Gentiles; the Latin, because of the Romans, at that time bearing rule over many, and indeed almost all nations.

"Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that He said, I am the King of the Jews. Pilate answered, What

I have written I have written." O ineffable power of the working of God even in the heart of the ignorant! Did not some hidden voice in the heart of Pilate inwardly, with (if one may so say) a sort of loud-voiced silence, make that to be heard, which so long time before was prophesied in the writing of the Psalms, "Destroy not the inscription of the titlea." Behold, he does not destroy the inscription of the title, what he hath written, he hath written. But even the chief priests who wished this to be destroyed what said they?"Write not," say they, "the King of the Jews, but that He said, I am the King of the Jews." What speak ye, ye madmen? Why do ye gainsay the doing of that which ye can in no wise change? For shall it therefore be not true, because Jesus said, "I am the King of the Jews?" If that cannot be destroyed which Pilate hath written, can that be destroyed which the Truth hath spoken ? But is Christ King of the Jews only, or also of the Gentiles? Yea, of the Gentiles also. For when He had said in the prophecy," But I am set by Him as King upon Zion, His holy mountain, preaching the precepts of the Lord," (Ps. ii. 6,) lest on account of the Mount Zion, any should say that He was set as King only of the Jews, He hath straightway subjoined, "The Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession." Whence also Himself by His own

"Al-tas-chith." The title of Ps. lvii. lviii.

mouth, speaking among the Jews, saith, "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear My Voice; and there shall be one fold, and One Shepherd." Why then would we have a great mystery to be understood in this title, in which it was written, "The King of the Jews," if Christ is King of the Gentiles also? Because truly the wild olive is made partaker of the fatness of the olive, not the olive made partaker of the bitterness of the wild olive. For in that the title was written according to truth concerning Christ, "The King of the Jews," what Jews are to be understood but the seed of Abraham, the sons of promise, who are also sons of God? Since, "Not they who are sons of the flesh," saith the Apostle, "these are the sons of God; but they who are sons of promise are counted for the seed." (Rom. ix. 1, 8.) And those were Gentiles to whom he said, "But if ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise." (Gal. iii. 29.) King therefore of the Jews is Christ, but of the Jews who are such "by circumcision of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God," (Rom. ii. 29;) of them who belong to the "Jerusalem which is free, our Mother eternal in the heavens," (Gal. iv. 22—31 ;) the spiritual Sarah, who casts from the house of liberty the bondwoman and her sons. For therefore, what Pilate hath written, he hath written; because what the Lord hath said, He hath said.

Homil. in S. Joannis, cxvii.

Maunday Thursday.

CHRIST WASHING THE DISCIPLES'
FEET. S. AUGUSTINE.

"HE riseth from supper, and layeth aside His garments, and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded." What marvel that He rose from supper and laid aside His garments, "Who, being in the form of God, emptied Himself?" (Phil. ii. 6, 7.) And what marvel that He poured water into a basin wherewith to wash the disciples' feet, Who shed His Blood upon the earth wherewith to wash out the filthiness of sins? What marvel that with the towel wherewith He was girded He wiped the feet He had washed, Who by the flesh He had put on confirmed the footsteps of the Evangelists. And truly that He might gird Himself with the towel, He laid aside the garments He had on but that He might take upon Him the form of a servant, when He emptied Himself, not what He had He laid aside, but what He had not, took. About to be crucified, He was stripped indeed of His garments, and being dead, was wrapped in linen. cloths, and all that Passion of His is our cleansing. Being then to suffer the extreme of man's hatred,