with the scourge, pierced through hands and feet, and so fastened to the Cross, and there left, and that as a spectacle.  Now, what is it moves our very hearts and sickens us so much as cruelty shown to poor brutes?  I suppose this first, that they have done no harm; next, that they have no power whatever of resistance; it is the cowardice and tyranny of which they are the victims which make

their sufferings so especially touching.  For instance, if they were dangerous animals, take the case of wild beasts at large, able not only to defend themselves, but even to attack us; much as we might dislike to hear of their wounds and agony, yet our feelings would be of a very different kind, but there is something so very dreadful, so satanic in tormenting those who never have harmed us, and who cannot defend themselves, who are utterly in our power, who have weapons neither of offence nor defence, that none but very hardened persons can endure the thought of it.

Let us listen with all our hearts to this beautiful appeal.  Let us reverence the saintly man who made it, and who still speaks to us out of the past.  Let us remember that Knowledge and the search for it may often be cruel, but that Wisdom and those who follow it are always merciful.