No impious hand, no torture-instrument The Son of Mary yet has touched. Alone His prostrate form upon the ground is rent With cruel agony of blood to atone For thy too easy life. A heart of stone Could but dissolve before the piteous sight. All through the _Holy Hour_ he made his moan, Beneath the olives, on the sacred height; Wrongs of the ages saw in vision that dread night! II. JOHN xix. 1. An act, a little word, of God made man Bears in itself his own immensity; To him the universe is but a span, A world’s full ransom his one tear might be. Not as we reckon outlay reckons he, Until his boundless love has lavished all. The knotted scourge precedes the fatal tree. Couldst thou return him less, if he should call? Or would the martyr’s palm thy coward soul appall? III. JOHN xix. 5. A crown of thorns for him, a crown of bays For such as I! A fool might surely deem The servant greater than his Master. Praise Might to the sinner merest irony seem, The while the Sinless One is made a theme Of ribaldry. Before his crown of thorn Honor and earthly glory are a dream, A phantom flimsier than of vapor born: By that pierced brow the crown of all the worlds is worn. IV. MATT. xi. 30. Simon to bear thy cross they would compel; Yet for the deed, though done against his will, On him and on his sons rich blessing fell, As old traditions say. How richer still The graces that the heart’s long thirst will fill For him who runs that sacred load to meet, And bear it upward to the holy hill! To share His burden be my footstep fleet: True love will make his yoke unfelt, his burden sweet. V. JOHN i. 29. Behold, the Lamb of God is crucified! His head is bowed, to impart the kiss of peace; Stretched are his arms, to draw thee to his side; Opened his heart, thy heart’s love to increase. His all is spent to purchase thy release. Canst thou, my soul, love great as this refuse? Henceforth in thee let sin’s dominion cease, And with the Mother of the martyrs choose, Rather than him in death, a whole world’s wealth to lose. PROHIBITORY LEGISLATION: ITS CAUSE AND EFFECTS.