ingly, with the food set before me, no matter how scanty or uninviting it may be: nay more, may I feel myself unworthy of even the poorest scraps, and shrink from living in idleness at the cost of other men's labours. Grant that I may hunger after the meat that perisheth not, but endureth unto everlasting life. Grant that I may thirst after the fountain of life eternal, and that I may from time to time be fed with a crumb of that living bread which is set before those who eat at Thy Table in Heaven, and may be allowed to taste, be it ever so little, of its inward savour; that so I may be able experimentally to understand how refreshing is that Spirit, O Lord, which Thou as a free gift dost shed forth upon the children of grace.
CHAPTER XXIX
Of the fulfilment of the Scriptures in the death of Christ; and of the Word " It is finished."
I BLESS Thee, and give thanks to Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, Revealer of hidden mysteries, and Fulfiller of the Law and the Prophets, for Thy most perfect accomplishment of the Father's Will in that short and welcome word with which, as soon as Thou hadst received the vinegar. Thou didst close, as it were, the story of Thy Life by saying: " It is finished." This was as if Thou hadst openly said: "Now is fulfilled all that the old Law foretold concerning me, all that was prefigured by the sacrificial rites and by the ceremonies of the former dispensation. Now are actually brought to pass the inspired words of the holy prophets, and