GOOD FRIDAY.

Low bow'd Thy head convulsed, and droop'd in death, Thy voice sent forth a sad and wailing cry;

Slow struggled from Thy breast the parting breath, every limb was wrung with agony.

And

That head whose veil-less blaze

Filled angels with amaze,

When at that voice sprang forth the rolling suns on high.

MILMAN'S "Hymn to the Saviour."

IV.

GOOD FRIDAY.

"AND they crucified Him." Simple yet solemn words! telling in this little expression of the most fearful event which has ever taken place upon this globe, since at the hour of its first creation "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy," as they joined in that glorious jubilee. And how vividly does this short sentence bring before us that terrible scene-fit conclusion to the long years of selfdenial and sorrow-when the Son of God bowed Himself upon the Cross, and with an agony of which no man can conceive, passed the gates of Death! The imagination calls up the mighty crowd which had gathered to that spectaclethe jibe and scorn of the Jewish priests, as they inflamed the bigoted and urged on the shrink

ing -the whirl and roar of scoffing thousands, as that living flood poured out from the Holy City, and rolled around the sacred Mount. And far above them, "lifted up to be seen of all men,' on the only throne which His rebellious subjects gave, was the promised Messiah, hearing even in death their mad ingratitude and cruel tauntings. Yet on that patient sufferer's brow, where the inspiration of the Divinity and the agonies of Humanity struggled together, we may believe, there beamed an expression of the loftiest triumph. He felt, that even in dissolution He was winning the noblest victory, and gaining immortality for the countless tribes of His fellow men.

As the hours passed on, popular passion was stirred up to its wildest excess. The rude uproar and furious execration of myriads filled the air, and mingled with the low, deep tones of our expiring Master, while He prayed for His enemies, or commended His soul to God. At length, there rang without the walls of Jerusalem that last, loud cry, which proclaimed to a wondering universe, that all was finished-the mighty offering made and that "through death our Lord had destroyed him that had the power of death."

The

Then it was, that even inanimate nature seemed to sympathise in his struggle. The sun veiled its face, and darkness covered the land. earth reeled to and fro, beneath the earthquake's shock. And not on the living only did this day of strange revelations produce its influence. Even the last resting-places of the dead were rent asunder, that on the morning of the first day they too might come forth with their risen Lord. Then, even the bodies of the slumbering saints started from their graves, and glided through the city where once they dwelt. Dim and livid forms, still wearing the cerements of the tomb-bearing yet its fearful impress-in this breathing world, yet not of it- they "appeared to many," as it were, claiming again brotherhood with the living, and teaching them by their own ghastly presence, the earliest proofs of a resurrection. Such were the terrors of the

first Good Friday.

Is it strange then, that the members of the early Church, with awed and chastened spirits, kept this holy day, and felt that deep indeed should be their self-abasement at this season of their Lord's mysterious agonies? They consid