something to a man; and just because it is the saddest of all times, it
looks to him the brightest of all times. For in his misery and confusion
he looks up to heaven and asks--Is there any one in heaven who
understands all this? Does God understand my trouble? Does God feel for
my trouble? Does God care for my trouble? Does God know what trouble
means? Or must I fight the battle of life alone, without sympathy or
help from God who made me, and has put me here? Then, then does the
Cross of Christ bring a message to that man such as no other thing or
being on earth can bring. For it says to him--God does understand thee
utterly. For Christ understands thee. Christ feels for thee. Christ
feels with thee. Christ has suffered for thee, and suffered with thee.
Thou canst go through nothing which Christ has not gone through. He, the
Son of God, endured poverty, fear, shame, agony, death for thee, that He
might be touched with the feeling of thine infirmity, and help thee to
endure, and bring thee safe through all to victory and peace.

But again, Passion-week, and above all Good Friday, is a good time,
because it teaches us, above all days, what it is to be good, and what
goodness means. Therefore remember this, all of you, and take it home
with you for the year to come. He who has learnt the lesson of Passion-
week, and practises it; he and he only is a good man.

Nay more, Passion-week tells us, I believe, what is the law according to
which the whole world of man and of things, yea, the whole universe, sun,
moon, and stars, is made: and that is, the law of self-sacrifice; that
nothing lives merely for itself; that each thing is ordained by God to
help the things around it, even at its own expense. That is a hard
saying: and yet it must be true. The soundest Theology and the highest
Reason tell us that it must be so. For there cannot be two Holy Spirits.
Now the Spirit by which the Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed himself upon the