be comparable for a
moment. He told them, in words that burned, of that three hours'
darkness that might be felt--of that "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani" into
which was more than concentrated every cry of human anguish since the
beginning of the world. And then he looked, as it were, straight into
the heart's depths of every one of his hearers, and he said to each one
of those hearts, "This was your doing!" He told them that for every sin
of every one among them, that Sacrifice was a sufficient atonement: and
that if for any one the atonement was not efficacious, that was not
Christ's fault, but his own. There was room at the marriage-supper for
every pauper straying on the high-way; and if one of them were not
there, it would be because he had refused the invitation.

Then Bruno turned to the other half of his subject, and remarked that
every man and woman was tempted to think that there was no sorrow like
to his sorrow. Yet there was a balm for all sorrow: but it was only to
be had at one place. The bridge which had been strong enough to bear
the weight of Christ and His cross, carrying with Him all the sins and
sorrows of all the world for ever, would be strong enough to bear any
sorrow of theirs. But so long as man persisted in saying, "_My_ will be
done," he must not imagine that God would waste mercy in helping him.
"Not my will, but Thine," must always precede the sending of the
strengthening angel. And lastly, he reminded them that God sent grief
to them for their own sakes. It was not for His sake. It gave Him no
pleasure; nay, it grieved Him, when He had to afflict the children of
men. It was the medicine without which they could not recover health:
and He always gave the right remedy, in the right quantities, and at the
right time.

"And now," said Bruno at last, "ye into whose hands the Great Physician
hath put this wholesome yet bitter cup,--how are ye going to treat it?
Will ye dash it down, and say, `I will have none of this remedy?' For
the end of that is death, the death eternal. Will ye drink it, only
because ye have no choice, with a wry face and a bitter tongue,
blaspheming the hand that gives it? It will do you no good then; it
will work for evil. Or will ye take it meekly, with thanksgiving on
your lips, though there be tears in your eyes, knowing that His will is
better than yours, and that He who bore for you the pangs that no man
can know, is not likely to give you any bitterness t