own degree, or progress is impossible.

Let us take courage therefore and face it, in the light of this Word.
For, as we can sanctify bodily pain by the memory of the nails, so too
can we sanctify spiritual pain by the memory of this darkness. If He Who
_never left the Father's side_ can suffer this in an unique and supreme
sense, how much more should we be content to suffer it in lower degrees,
who have so continually, since we came to the age of reason, been
leaving not His side only, but His very house.




THE FIFTH WORD

_I thirst._


Our Lord continues to reveal His own condition, since He, after all, is
the key to all Humanity. If we understand anything of Him,
simultaneously we shall understand ourselves far better.

He has shown us that He can truly be deprived of spiritual consolation;
and the value of this deprivation; now He shows us the value of bodily
deprivation also. And the Paradox for our consideration is that the
Source of all can lose all; that the Creator needs His creation; that He
Who offers us the _water springing up into Life Eternal_ can lack the
water of human life--the simplest element of all. In His Divine
Dereliction He yet continues to be Human.