book of Job, " What doth God know? the clouds are His covert, and He doth not consider our things. (Job xxii. 13.) Take care that you never endeavor to stifle the remorse of conscience by means like these.
III. " They buffeted Him, and others struck His face with the palms of their hands." Represent to your imagination this cruel and ignominious scene, and contemplate every part of it. View these ruffians vieing with each other in their outrageous insolence. Then was literally accomplished the prophecy of Jeremias, " He shall give His cheek to him who striketh Him; He shall be filled with reproaches." (Lament, iii. 30.)
WEDNESDAY.
Injuries in the House of Caiphas.— II.
I. The fourth insult which was offered to the Son of God in the house of Caiphas was the cruel act of His enemies, when they plucked His sacred hair and beard. By suffering this insult, He verified the prediction of Isaias, " I have given My body to the strikers, and My cheeks to those who plucked them." (Is. l. 6.) Samson consented that his hair should be cut off, from a blind attachment to Delila, which proved very injurious to him; but Christ, from a better love to mankind, suffered Himself to be despoiled of His. Learn from this example to reject and rid yourself of superfluities, and to follow Christ in naked simplicity and unadorned sincerity.
II. The fifth species of ignominy which our Redeemer had to endure consisted in the reproachful language in which His enemies addressed Him. " Prophesy unto us, O Christ! who is he that struck thee. And many other things blaspheming, they said against Him." (Luke
