Love made Mary brave to encounter the tragedy of that scene. The sword, as Simeon had foretold, was piercing her soul, Luke 2:35. Jesus knew how lonely she would be. He had neither silver nor gold, but could at least secure her a home and tender care. As the cross was elevated but slightly from the ground, his words could easily reach the little group. He chose the title, Woman, rather than “Mother,” lest identification with himself should bring her insult.

It is to this paragraph that the soul turns when oppressed with the consciousness of guilt. The lighthearted, gay world, which has never known the terror of a sinful conscience, turns from it as from a tragedy of woe and blood, but the repentant sinner presses from this vintage the wine of life. We stand beside thy | Cross, O Son of God, and worship in adoring love, as we behold thy tenderness to thy mother, thy devotion to Holy Scripture, and the majesty of thy last ery of victory. It is finished—the Saviour’s work of redemption and the ground of our salvation. What is there left for us, but to hide in the cleft of his pierced

side, and to seek the cleansing of the water and the blood?

John 19; 31-37. Tow punctilious the Jewish leaders were to maintain each detail of their ritual! Remember that there is a religiousness which is not religion but its counterfeit.

John solemnly attests the fact of the blood and water. He knoweth that he saith true. It is referred to again in his Epistle, 1 John 5:6, 8. Science tells us that the presence of those two elements was evidence that there had been heart rupture, and that our Lord literally died of a broken heart. But it was also, as devout souls have loved to remember, a symbol of the “double cure,’ which Jesus has effected. Blood to atone; water to purify and cleanse. What a comfort it is that Jesus did not come by water alone! As we come to know ourselves better, we realize that only blood could meet our need. He bowed his head, that we might lift ours up to greet the eternal morning.