ensely the rebukes and the contempt which they had to endure from
those whom they tried to warn and save. I say again that St Paul, as may
be seen from his own epistles, was such a man; a man who was intensely
sensitive of what men thought and said of him; yearning after the love
and approbation of his fellow-men, and above all of his
fellow-countrymen, his own flesh and blood; and that that feeling in him,
which may have been hurtful to him before he was converted, was of the
greatest use to him after his conversion; that it enabled him to win all
hearts, because he felt with men and for men; and gained him over the
hearts of men such a power as no mere human being ever had before or
since.

And I say that of all men the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, had that
feeling; that longing for the love and appreciation of men--and above
all, for the love and appreciation of His countrymen according to the
flesh, the Jews, He had--strange as it may seem, yet there it is in the
Gospels, written for ever and undeniable--that capacity of shame which is
the mark of true nobleness of soul.

He endured the cross, despising the shame. Yes: but there are too many
on earth who endure shame with brazen faces, just because they do not
feel it. If He had not felt the shame, what merit in despising it? It
was His glory that He felt the shame; and yet conquered the shame, and
crushed it down by the might of His love for fallen man.

Do you fancy that in His agony in the garden, when His sweat was as great
drops of blood, that it was only bodily fear of pain and death which
crushed Him for the moment? He felt that, I doubt not; as He had to
taste death for every man, and feel all human weakness, yet without sin.
But it was a deeper, more painful, and yet more noble feeling than mere
fear which then convulsed His sacred heart; even the feeling of shame--the
mockery of the crowd--the--But I dare not enlarge on anything so awful;
at least I will say this--That he had to cry as none ever cried before or
since, "O God, in thee have I trusted, let me never be confounded;" for
he had, it seems, actually, at one supreme moment, to feel confounded;
and to say, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" That was the
highest and most precious jewel of all his self-sacrifice. Of it let us
only say--

Our Lord and Saviour stooped to be confounded for a moment, that we might
not be confounded to all eternity.

And therefore our blessed Lo