256 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS

triumph, was to lead processions and crown the churches and gleam
from their altars.

When, accordingly, we turn our thoughts to the malice and
obtuseness of which human nature is capable, and contemplate what
they brought about on Calvary, we shall rightly keep Good Friday as
a day of profound penitence. When again we place ourselves in
imagination beside the first disciples and attempt to view the Cruci-
fixion through their eyes, we shall think of the scene as supremely
tragic. But when we regard the Cross as did ST PAUL and the rest
of the early Church, we shall glory in it with high thanksgiving.

If on Good Friday we can return to this New Testament belief in
the triumph of the Cross, we shall not merely replace one abstract
opinion by another. The change will have consequences of a
practical kind, and of a kind that will have a special value in the
present circumstances of the world. We shall gain new courage and
a changed outlook.

It is something if we have learned already from Holy Week and
Easter to believe that, after the endurance of tribulation and seeming
defeat, miraculous victory may follow, when our buried hopes will
rise to fulfilment from the grave of despair. But it is far more to
discern that endurance of tribulation is itself the victory. No
miracle, but the inevitable operation of GOD'S law will bring about the
resurrection of all that is good.

We live at a time in history when the forces of evil are strong,
when peace and civilisation and Christianity often seem endangered.
On the other hand, religious faith is making progress in unexpected
ways, while brave and resolute men and women throughout the world
are striving for goodwill and trying to win a happier future for the
human race. To dedicate to such ends whatever of influence we
possess, to endure through the darkest days with serene courage, to
think little of our own needs and much of our neighbour's, to be
unashamed in our religion and frank in making the FATHER'S Will our
supreme rule in conduct—to do that is to fulfil the teaching of Good
Friday, to follow so far as we may the supreme example of the
Crucified, and to share in the triumph of the Cross.

For after nineteen centuries the Cross remains the Sign of victory,
and in this Sign we shall conquer. From the leading article in The

Times on Good Friday 1933

The Man Who Forgot

> one who thought Sir Thomas More had offended
him Erasmus wrote:

What you write about More is all nonsense; why,
he does not even remember grave injuries.

T