_b_) Punishment is remedial. Many Christian theologians have fallen
far below Plato's conception of God, as One Who can only punish men with
a view of making them better.

Think of one of the punishments of repented sin, the haunting memories of
past evil. In this case, both principles are very clearly discernible.
Each recollection may be made the means of a renewed act of rejection of
sin, and thus become an opportunity for the deepening of repentance.

And what disclosure does this second word contain of the Mind and Will of
God in us, as manifested not towards, but by ourselves? Our lesson is
the prompt recognition and welcome of any, even the slightest signs of
amendment. It may be our duty to punish. It is always our duty to keep
alive, or to kindle, the hope in an offender of becoming better. In that
hope, alone, lies the possibility of moral amendment. There is the
golden rule, laid down by St. Paul for all who have to exercise
discipline over others, in words which ring ever in our ears--"lest they
be discouraged."

IV
THE THIRD WORD

"Lady, behold thy son."
"Behold thy mother."

ST. JOHN XIX. 26, 27.

In this Word we see the Son of God revealed as human son, and human
friend, all the more truly and genuinely human in both relations, because
in each and every relation of life, Divine.

1. The first lesson in the Divine Life for us to learn here is the
simple, almost vulgarly commonplace one, yet so greatly needing to be
learnt, that "charity," which is but a synonym of the Divine Life,
"begins at home."

Home life is the real test of a person's Christianity. There the
barriers with which society elsewhere hedges round and cramps the free
expression of our individuality, no longer exist. We are at liberty to
be ourselves. What sort of use do we make of it? What manner of self do
we disclose? Would our best friends recognise that self to be the person
whom they admire? If we are to be Christians at all, we must begin by
being Christians at home.

At home, and beyond the limits of home, one great Christian virtue stands
out as the supreme law of social behaviour--that is, for a disciple--the
virtue of consideration for others.

In the midst of torturing physical pain, in the extreme form of that
experience, of which the slightest degree makes us fretful, irritable,
self-absorbed, our Lord calmly provides for the future of His mother and
the disciple whom He loved.

Wha