GOOD FRIDAY

The quiet, the pause, the great thoughts of this week separate it from all others, and give it power over our future life.

We watch our Lord through these culminating hours, listen to His deep teaching in the Temple, see His tears as He sorrowed over the Holy City, so soon to be overthrown-"not one stone left upon another," the weeping of that majestic Teacher whom all the malice of the accusing Jews moved to not one word. Who shall say what a work these inner visions do for us? if they be genuine, and reach the core of our convictions, and do not dwell simply in the outer court of our imaginations.

"For the joy set before Him, He endured the Cross." The Cross has depths of meaning we may not speak of. Its awful agony is ever the supreme mystery of pain. There we kneel, conscious of our sinful weakness, tempers, inclinations, desires that degrade; for surely all that does not elevate degrades. Even Plato said 99 degradation is swifter than death.'

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As we consider the Captain of our Salvation in this supreme moment of infinite suffering and infinite love we become strong to follow after. He was despised and rejected. Pain, which may in

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vade our poor bodies, is nothing comparable to the misery of having to bear the contempt of those we love. And yet He endured the shame, steadfast to the end. In His strength we can accept all purifying pain, claiming the victory to

come.

Schopenhauer's philosophy cannot get behind the instrument, the intermediate cause, blind to the Divine Will beyond it. Jesus looked not at the angry Jews, crying, "Crucify Him"; but He saw the one Will, "not Mine, but Thine, be done!"

This central drama of earth's history was to Goethe, in spite of his genius, not the triumph of the Cross, but only the "sanctuary of sorrow," unsuited for the light of day, too sacred to be meditated upon. If he meant that it should not be lightly or irreverently spoken of, I agree. But to Goethe that supreme event had no relationship to his life; "to none of my ideals is it true," he says. Much is hidden from the wise and prudent and revealed to the childlike heart. Some one has said, "Happy contractedness of youth, nay of men in general, that at all moments of their existence they can look upon themselves as complete and enquire neither after the True nor the False, the High nor the Deep, but simply after what is proportioned to themselves." Blessed, thrice blessed proportion! Tented in by the Divine Love! Little children of the loving Lord!

These soft and radiant hues of the Divine Love

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soften the awfulness of the sacrifice of to-day; the agony in the garden; the hiding of the Father's face. Was it my sin? Yes, this, after all, is each soul's burden of emotion. He suffered for me, and can I, will I, crucify Him anew?

So we are led into that large place where the Cross is lifted up-the uttermost revelation of love, the only interpreter of life's ills.

EASTER DAY

Collect. Almighty God, who through Thine only begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life; we humbly beseech Thee that, as by Thy special grace preventing us Thou dost put in our minds good desires, so by Thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. AMEN.

Epistle. Col. iii. 1.

Gospel. St. John xx. 1.

The glorious day of the Church's life! The Bride has on her festal dress, the Sanctuary is full of flowers, and Nature is in accord with the triumph song that is singing in the heart of man.

Nature is so close to man in spring. There is primitive healing power in her beauty, her charm of motion and the sweet song of birds. No notes are like those early ones. All first fruits have a special value. How many young souls are awakened now by early visions, touched by the first love of best things, keeping the Easter that comes not again. In one sense the best is kept to the last, but in another we know the year has but one blossoming time and we must not waste it. What riches gather also around the festal days

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as life goes on, and amid its shifting aspects the great basis of fact in our holy religion becomes more and more to us! "Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." From these facts He promises that we shall receive power. We need so much this income of power in our lives, for righteousness, for patience unto the end, for love that seeketh not her own, for the ability to abide in the high places whither our Lord has called us.

With far-sighted wisdom the Church, on this day of exalted feeling, places in the chief petition of the day the practical thought, that we may bring all these emotions to "good effect." The good desires must yield the fruit of good living; we beseech the divine wisdom to direct us so that this "good effect" may be seen in our lives, by our bearing to our fellows, our children, our friends, our servants, those with whom we are connected in any relation. All our social ties may become " means of grace."

Drummond, when he was asked what he considered the basal thought of Christianity, said, 'the love of God." The questioner thought the Atonement, where the human sense of sin met this pardoning love. At Easter we see these truths as two strands of the same cord that binds us back to God.

Rescued children of the Resurrection we enter on the life that is to be eternal. All our aims,