passed by the Cross of Jesus with tepid or cold hearts, and whom all
these torments and tears, and His blood shed like water, have not
been able to soften; now at last let this loud voice, this terrible
cry, rend and pierce your hearts through and through. Let that voice
which shook the heaven and the earth and hell with fear, which rent
the rocks and laid open ancient graves, now soften your stony
hearts, and lay bare the old sepulchres of your conscience, full of
dead men's bones--that is to say, of wicked deeds, and call again
into life your departed spirits. For this is the voice which once
cried: "Adam, where art thou; and what hast thou done?" This is the
voice which brought Lazarus from Hades, saying, "Lazarus, come
forth: arise from the grave of sin, and let them free thee from thy
grave-clothes." Truly it was not so much the grievousness of His
sufferings, as the greatness of our sins, which made our Lord utter
this cry. He cried also, to show that He had the dominion over life
and death, over the living and the dead. For though he was quite
worn out, and destitute of strength, and though He had borne the
bitter pangs of death so long, beyond the power of man, yet He would
not allow Death to put forth its power against Him, until it pleased
Him.

With a loud voice He cried, that earthly men, who care only for the
things of earth, might quake with fear and trembling, and to cause
them to meditate and see how naked and helpless the Lord of lords
departed from this life. With a terrible voice He cried, to stir up
all those who live in wantonness, and who have grown old in their
defilement, and send forth a foul savour, like dead dogs, so that at
last these miserable men may rise from their lusts and pleasures and
sensual delights, and see how the Son of God, who was never strained
with any spot of defilement, went forth to His Father; and with what