hey can give the sensibility which keeps the heart of the
world from hardening; the secret knowledge which finds out the objects
of Christian compassion and wins their confidence; the enthusiasm which
burns like a fire at the heart of religious work. The influence of
women is subtle and remote; but it is on this account all the more
powerful; for they sit at the very fountains, where the river of human
life is springing, and where a touch may determine its entire
subsequent course.

II.

It has been allowed to condemned men in all ages to speak to the crowds
assembled to witness their death. The dying speech used in this
country to be a regular feature of executions. Even in ages of
persecution the martyrs were usually allowed, as they ascended the
ladder, to address the multitude; and these testimonies, some of which
were of singular power and beauty, were treasured by the religious
section of the community. It is nothing surprising, therefore, that
Jesus should have addressed those who followed Him or should have been
permitted to do so. No doubt He was at the last point of exhaustion,
but, when He was relieved of the weight of the cross, He was able to
rally strength sufficient for this effort. Pausing in the road and
turning to the women, whose weeping and wailing were filling His ears,
He addressed Himself to them.

His words are, in the first place, a revelation of Himself. They show
what was demonstrated again and again during the crucifixion--how
completely He could forget His own sufferings in care and anxiety for
others. His sufferings had already been extreme; His soul had been
filled with injustice and insult; at this very moment His body was
quivering with pain and His mind darkened with the approach of still
more atrocious agonies. Yet, when He heard behind Him the sobs of the
daughters of Jerusalem, there rushed over His soul a wave of compassion
in which for the moment His own troubles were submerged.

We see in His words, too, the depth and fervour of His patriotism.
When He saw the tears of the women, the spectacle raised in His mind an
image of the doom impending over the city whose daughters they were.
Jerusalem, as has been already said, had always been extremely
unresponsive to Him; she had played to Him an unmotherly part. None
the less, however, did He feel for her the love of a loyal son. He had
shown this a few days before, when, in the midst of His triumph, He
paused on the b