Righteousness will largely cover alike Thee and me. In me ‘it covers a multitude of sins;' but in Thee, O Lord, what, but the treasures of love, the riches of goodness? These are laid up for me in the cleft of the rock. What great abundance of Thy sweetness in them is hidden,' but 'to those who perish!' Wherefore, then, should 'what is holy be given to dogs,' or 'pearls to swine?' But to us God hath revealed through His Spirit,' yea, and through open clefts, hath brought us into the Holy Place. In these, what multitude of sweetness, fulness of grace, perfection of virtues ! "I will betake me to those well-stored chambers, and, at the Prophet's warning, will leave the cities, and dwell in the rock.' I will be like a dove making its nest at the very mouth of the Cleft, that being, like Moses, placed in the Cleft of the Rock, I may find grace, when the Lord passeth by,' at least to behold His Hinder Parts.' "Of [that soul] it is said, 'My Dove is in the Cleft of the Rock,' because, with its whole devotion, it is occupied with the Wounds of Christ, and by continual meditation lingereth in them.” Why should not any in any sufferings find their consolations, (as they have found them) where St. Bernard says,-in the Wounds and Sufferings of our Lord? Surely it is the most natural and deepest of all consolations, to dwell on them. No suffering can we know in any part of the whole frame, where He did not suffer, from His Sacred Thorn-crowned 66 Head to His pierced Feet. This has given joy to suffering, by parching thirst or racking pain to have, as it were, a little shadow of His bodily Sufferings cast upon them, and to pray that our due sufferings might be sanctified by His, the Atoning and Meritorious, Sufferings. He willeth to be seen," says St. Bernard; "the gracious Captain willeth the countenance and eyes of the devoted soldier to be lifted to His Wounds, that He might thereby raise his mind, and by His example, make him stronger to endure. For he will not feel his own, while he shall gaze upon His Wounds. The martyr stands exulting and triumphing, although with his whole body rent. Where then is the Martyr's soul? In safety, in the Rock, namely in the Inward Part of Jesus, in His Wounds which are open to enter in. If he were in his own, he would feel the iron searching them, he would not bear the pain, he would give way and deny [Christ]. But now, dwelling in the Rock, what marvel if he become hard as the Rock? Nor is it marvellous, if, absent from the body, he do not feel the pains of the body. So then from the Rock is the Martyr's strength." And again, in plain words, "What is so effectual to heal the wounds of conscience, and to cleanse the eye of the soul, as the diligent meditation on the Wounds of Christ?" I cannot but think that they who object to De Ib. Serm. 62, § 7. votions in connexion with the Blessed Wounds of our Lord, as appealing too much to the feelings, take Ր a very narrow view of human nature. Some of us might think, perhaps, books of devotion which they use, couched in rather abstract and dry language. Why should we judge one another? All are not cast in the same mould. In some, intellect predominates; in others, feeling; in some, imagination. Intellect requires to be warmed; feelings, to be chastened; imagination, to be restrained from a wasting luxuriance. But Bishop Taylor did not pray in the same language as Bishop Andrews, nor Bishop Wilson like either. And yet each has trained many a soul to pray deeply and fervently. luxuriance of Bishop Taylor, he but why should he find fault? same taste, nor does all suit every palate. Let us take with thanksgiving what suits us, thankful that the Bounteous Giver of all bestows and scatters His gifts with such wide profusion, not despising others whose souls may prefer other parts of His rich pasture. If any like not the is not bound to him; All food has not the And yet these very devotions are strangely suited to win devout souls, who, with imperfect knowledge, yet love with a reverent kindled piety the Person of the Redeemer. While a school among us depreciates these, they will be prized by those who seem, on other points, most opposed to the teaching of the Church. Why should we not meet in our Saviour's wounded Side? In love for Him, and His sacred Wounds, we might learn the more to love one another, and understand one another. "I cannot blame those devotions," said one, "for they are just what I use myself." One of the most deservedly popular hymns, perhaps the very favourite, is one of this very sort :—"Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee; Let the water and the Blood, From Thy Side 1o, a healing flood, Be of sin the double cure, Save from wrath, and make me pure.” Very beautiful is it. But where is the difference between this very hymn and such as the following?— "Open, Lord, Thy heart's deep cell, Thou, Who know'st where mine doth dwell; There, from Thee ere Hell can tear me, World, or flesh, or fiend ensnare me, Shrine my heart, an offering free. Panting for that Refuge blest, Nought save JESUS would I know, Nought desire of things below, Nothing love, dear Lord, but Thee'." What, I may say again, is the difference in principle, between the following beautiful and touching Litany," and the hymn which follows, and two others which I will subjoin ? 66 10 An older reading, I believe, is, "From Thy Riven Side which flow'd." 1 Paradise, § vi. p. 70. LITANY. "By Thy Birth, and early years; "By the sympathy that wept O'er the grave where Laz'rus slept; By Thy bitter tears that flow'd Over Salem's lost abode; By the troubled sigh that told "By Thine hour of whelming fear; By the purple robe of scorn; By thy wounds, thy crown of thorn 2, "By Thy deep expiring groan; 2 In another version, "By Thy woe intensely great, By Thy Robe and Crown of scorn, N |