querable, and never yielded to the most grievous tor tures.
VIII. He practised the virtue of obedience in its highest degree during His sufferings. He was "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Phil. ii. 8.) He was obedient not only to His eternal Father, but even to His cruel executioners. " I have given my body to the strikers," He says of Himself by His prophet, "and my cheeks to those who plucked them; I have not turned away my face from those who rebuked me and spat upon me." (Is. 1. 6.) Examine minutely this perfect model of patience and virtue, and " go and do thou likewise."
SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY.
Christ the Seed of Eternal Life.
"I will sow her unto Me in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who was without mercy." (Osee ii. 23.)
I. "A sower went forth to sow his seed." (Luke viii. 5.) Christ our Lord is both the sower and the seed itself. He intrusts the soil of our souls with His own precious body and blood. He wishes this divine grain to yield a harvest, not of temporal and corruptible, but of eternal and incorruptible, increase. For " he whosoweth in the spirit shall reap life everlasting." (Gal. iii. 8.) Earnestly wish for this blessed harvest in your soul.
II. Although this divine seed be in itself most fruitful, it requires, nevertheless, the concurrence of a good soil to produce a harvest. Hence, if it fall on the highway, it will be immediately trampled down; if among thorns, it will be choked up. Examine, then, whether your soul be a proper soil for this seed; whether it be trampled
