TUESDAY.
Injuries in the House of Caiphas. — I.
I. After Christ had been thus unjustly pronounced deserving of death, "then did they spit in His face, and buffeted Him, and others struck His face with the palms of their hands, saying, Prophesy unto us, O Christ! who is he that struck Thee." (Matt. xxvi. 67.) During that night of cruelty, Christ suffered five kinds of ignominy. 1. They spat upon that beneficent being, who with His spittle had given sight to the blind, speech to the dumb, and hearing to the deaf; they spat upon that face which the angels adore, and which just souls always desired ardently to behold. " Show us Thy face," said the Royal Prophet, " and we shall be saved." (Ps. lxxix. 20.) During this ignominy, Christ, like a meek lamb, verified the expression of the prophet, "I have given My body to the strikers 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.) Is not Christ treated in the same manner now by all sinners as He was then treated by His insolent tormentors? Have not you yourself some part in this ignominy?
II. Consider the second kind of ignominious treatment which our divine Saviour underwent: " And they blindfolded Him." (Luke xxii. 64.) In their frenzy His enemies attempted to veil those sacred eyes, before which "all things are naked and open" (Heb. iv. 13), and to cover that divine face, before which all nations will stand in awe and admiration. Every sinner attempts to do the same, in order to sin with more liberty and less remorse; he does all he can to hide God from himself, and his sins from God; he tries to adopt the expression in the
