thers, or children. Now what think you of being put to
shame before all these? You fear the contempt of one small circle of
men; what think you of the Saints of God, of St. Mary, of St. Peter and
St. Paul, of the ten thousand generations of mankind, being witnesses
of your disgrace? You dread the opinion of those whom you do not love;
but what if a father then shrink from a dear son, or the wife, or
husband, your earthly companion, then tremble at the sight of you, and
feel ashamed of you? Nay, there is One greater than parents, husbands,
or brothers; One of whom you have been ashamed on earth; and what will
He, that merciful, but neglected Saviour, think of you then? Hear His
own words:--"Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him
shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when He shall come in His own glory,
and in His Fathers, and of the holy Angels." Then such unhappy men,
how will they feel shame at themselves! they will despise and loathe
themselves; they will hate and abominate their own folly; they will
account themselves brutish and mad, so to have been beguiled by the
devil, and to have trifled with the season of mercy. "Many of them
that sleep in the dust of the earth," says Daniel, "shall awake, some
to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."

Let us, then, rouse ourselves, and turn from man to God; what have we
to do with the world, who from our infancy have been put on our journey
heavenward? Take up your cross and follow Christ. He went through
shame far greater than can be yours. Do you think He felt nothing when
He was lifted up on the Cross to public gaze, amid the contempt and
barbarous triumphings of His enemies, the Pharisees, Pilate and his
Roman guard, Herod and his men of war, and the vast multitude collected
from all parts of the world? They all looked on Him with hatred and
insult, yet He endured (we are told), "despising the shame[4]." It is
a high privilege to be allowed to be conformed to Christ; St. Paul
thought it so, so have all good men. The whole Church of God, from the
days of Christ to the present, has been ever held in shame and contempt
by men of this world. Proud men have reasoned against its Divine
origin; crafty men have attempted to degrade it to political purposes:
still it has lasted for many centuries; it will last still, through the
promised help of God the Holy Ghost; and that same promise which is
made to it first as a body, is assur