the waters which overspread the earth; but "He was wounded for our
iniquities, and he was bruised for our sins: and the Lord hath laid on
him the iniquities of us all", He suffered and died for us. The moral
ruins of the world, our sins and their awful consequences, caused all
the pangs and sorrows of Jesus. Come then let us cast ourselves at the
foot of that cross, and cry aloud for mercy with a contrite and humble
heart, which He will never despise. To _Thee_ alone, shall we say,
have we sinned, and have done evil before thee; yet have mercy on
us, O God, according to thy great mercy. And thou, O blessed Virgin
and Mother, who standest in silent anguish beneath the cross of thy
agonising Son[56], would that we could feel love and sorrow like unto
thine.

_Eja mater fons amoris_
_Me sentire vim doloris_
_Fac, ut tecum lugeam._
_Fac, ut ardeat cor meum_
_In amando Christum Deum,_
_Ut sibi complaceam. Amen._

[Footnote 46: See also Palmer's Origines Liturgicæ, Vol. 1 Antiq. of
the English ritual c. 1, p. 1. Both writers do not hesitate to admit
that the breviary is the great source of the Church of England's
Morning and Evening prayer.]

[Footnote 47: Our divine Lord sometimes passed the night in prayer;
and the early Christians, as Pliny informs his master Trajan, used to
assemble before the light to sing a hymn to Christ. Lucian as well as
Ammianus Marcellinus complained of their spending the night in singing
hymns. S. Jerome in fine writes to Eustoch. (Ep. 22) that besides the