Yes, this is the good news of Passion-week; a gospel which men are too
apt to forget, even to try to forget, as long as they are comfortable and
prosperous, lazy and selfish. The comfortable prosperous man shrinks
from the thought of Christ on His Cross. It tells him that better men
than he have had to suffer; that The Son of God Himself had to suffer.
And he does not like suffering; he prefers comfort. The lazy, selfish
man shrinks from the sight of Christ on His Cross; for it rebukes his
laziness and selfishness. Christ's Cross says to him--Thou art ignoble
and base, as long as thou art lazy and selfish. Rise up, do something,
dare something, suffer something, if need be, for the sake of thy fellow-
creatures. Be of use. Take trouble. Face discomfort, contradiction,
loss of worldly advantage, if it must be, for the sake of speaking truth
and doing right. If thou wilt not do as much as that, then the simplest
soldier who goes to die in battle for his duty, is a better man than
thou, a nobler man than thou, more like Christ and more like God. That
is what Christ's Cross preaches to the lazy, selfish man; and he feels in
his heart that the sermon is true: but he does not like it. He turns
from it, and says in his heart--Oh! Christ's Cross is a painful subject,
and Passion-week and Good Friday a painful time. I will think of
something more genial, more peaceful, more agreeable than sorrow, and
shame, and agony, and death; Good Friday is too sad a day for me.

Yes, so a man says too often, as long as the fine weather lasts, and all
is smooth and bright. But when the tempest comes; when poverty comes,
affliction, anxiety, shame, sickness, bereavement, and still more, when
persecution comes on a man; when he tries to speak truth and do right;
and finds, as he will too often find, that people, instead of loving him
and praising him for speaking truth and doing right, hate him and
persecute him for it: then, then indeed Passion-week begins to mean