SQLite format 3@  ii!%%atableTopicsTopicsCREATE TABLE Topics (Title NVARCHAR(100), Notes TEXT)ZEA 00 - Preface{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{ !000 - Winslow - The Foot Of The Cross{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue255;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs3:  g 5?>CROSS\par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\f1\fs22 by Octavius Winslow, 1864\par \par \pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 Contenido\par \pard\tqr\tldot\tx8828\kerning0\b0\f1\fs22\par \pard\lang3082\f0\fs24{\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "\\l "_Toc206931866""}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul PREFACE\cf0\ulnone\tab 1}}}\f0\fs24\par {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "\\l "_Toc206931867""}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul Chapter 1: Nearness to the Cross\cf0\ulnone\tab 2}}}\f0\fs24\par {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "\\l "_Toc206931868""}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul Chapter 2: A Sight of Sin and a Sight of Jesus\cf0\ulnone\tab 9}}}\f0\fs24\par {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "\\l "_Toc206931869""}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul Chapter 3: Faith at the Foot of the Cross\cf0\ulnone\tab 18}}}\f0\fs24\par {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "\\l "_Toc206931870""}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul Chapter 4: Love at the Foot of the Cross\cf0\ulnone\tab 26}}}\f0\fs24\par {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "\\l "_Toc206931871""}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul Chapter 5: Prayer at the Foot of the Cross\cf0\ulnone\tab 33}}}\f0\fs24\par {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "\\l "_Toc206931872""}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul Chapter 6: Forgiveness of Sin at the Foot of the Cross\cf0\ulnone\tab 41}}}\f0\fs24\par {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "\\l "_Toc206931873""}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul Chapter 8: The Conviction of Truth Beneath the Cross\cf0\ulnone\tab 48}}}\f0\fs24\par {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "\\l "_Toc206931874""}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul Chapter 9: A Life-look at the Foot of the Cross\cf0\ulnone\tab 54}}}\f0\fs24\par {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "\\l "_Toc206931875""}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul Chapter 10: Bearing the Cross\cf0\ulnone\tab 59}}}\f0\fs24\par {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "\\l "_Toc206931876""}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul Chapter 11: The Solitude of the Cross\cf0\ulnone\tab 64}}}\f0\fs24\par {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "\\l "_Toc206931877""}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul Chapter 12: The Believer Crucified\cf0\ulnone\tab 69}}}\f0\fs24\par {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "\\l "_Toc206931878""}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul Chapter 13: The Repose of the Cross\cf0\ulnone\tab 75}}}\f0\fs24\par {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "\\l "_Toc206931879""}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul Chapter 14: The Cross of Christ the Christian's Weapon\cf0\ulnone\tab 82}}}\f0\fs24\par {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "\\l "_Toc206931880""}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul Chapter 15: Christ Crucified the Center of Christian Union\cf0\ulnone\tab 88}}}\cf1\ul\f0\fs24\par \cf0\ulnone\par Formatted by David Cox \'a9 2009\par dcox@davidcox.com.mx\par \par \par \lang1033\f1\fs22\par \cf2\lang2058\f2\fs23\par } \f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 PREFACE\par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\f1\fs22\par The 'foot of the Cross' is a sacred "household word" in the family of God\endash rich in the Divine truths and precious in the Christian experience it is employed to exp ress. Adopting this familiar but emphatic phrase, the author has sought in these pages to expound and illustrate, in a few instances, its tender and solemn significance. He has aimed to show how all vital, saving truth centers in, and all sanctifying and comforting blessing springs from, the Cross of Christ. The discussion of this comprehensive and sublime theme, in the present instance, is limited and faulty- as the most elaborate and finished human exposition of such a theme must necessarily be. It is b ut here and there he has plucked a cluster of fruit bending from this Tree of Life, or has gathered a flower, blooming in beauty and breathing in fragrance, beneath its hallowed shade. Still, if his imperfect labor shall have attracted some truth-perplexed mind, some sin-burdened conscience, some sorrow-stricken heart, some hope-despairing soul to the 'foot of the cross,' there to experience the precious blessing sought, he will not regret having presented to the Church of God even this partial and imperf ect discussion of a theme which the combined intellect of heaven could not fully unfold, nor the study and contemplation of eternity utterly exhaust- the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ!\par \par Reader! study these pages with fervent prayer to the Holy Spirit that He, through this dim medium, might unveil to you, in some degree, the glory of Christ's finished work, guide your trembling steps to the foot of the cross, give you simple faith in the Crucified, and thus bring you into a state of Perfect Peace with God through Christ.\par \par "It is finished! -but what mortal dare\par In that triumph hope to share?\par Savior, to Your cross I flee;\par Say, It is finished! and for me.\par \par "Then will I sing, The cross! the cross!\par And count all other gain but loss;\par I'll sing the cross, and to Your tree\par Cling evermore, blessed Calvary!\par \par To the benediction of the Triune Jehovah this little volume is prayerfully commended.\par \par \par \fs24\par \pard\cf1\f2\fs23\par } t0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 Chapter 1: Nearness to the Cross\par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\f1\fs22\par "Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene." \cf1\ul Joh_19:25\cf0\ulnone\par \par It was a mournful yet an unspeakably precious and enviable spot around which now clustered these holy watchers! They had been to our Lord as ministering spirits in many an hour of weariness and need. With true feminine delicacy, they had followed Him, silently and meekly, in the distance, approaching His person but to receive from Him a blessing or to bestow upon Him a charity. Their love was not ostentatious, nor were their attentions officious and wearying. Gentle, yet softening as the dew- silent, yet cheering as the sunbeam, they hovered around His lone and dreary path, shedding upon it the luster and the soothing of their holy sympathy, and in seasons of sinking necessity and exhausting toil, "ministering to Him of their substance." And now that His disciples, pledged and sworn to a friendship and faithfulness unto death, had, in the dark hour of His woe, one by one all forsaken Him, these holy women drew near and took their position as sentinels at the cross, watching the descending sun of His life, as, amid suffering, darkness, and blood, it set in death. But a deeper love and a higher life than nature owns had brought them here. Christ had wrought wonders of grace for these women. They were lost, and He had found them; sinners, and He had saved them. Their sins He was now bearing, their curse He was now exhausting, their penalty of suffering He was now enduring. For them were these agonies, this soul-sorrow, this blood-shedding, and this death. And now that He was afflicted of God, tortured of man, deserted by friends, insulted by foes, lo! amid the darkness and the earthquake, the insults and the imprecations, "there stood by the cross of Jesus; His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene." Honored women! envied spot! But how suggestive in its spiritual instruction is this scene! To its study let us devoutly turn.\par \par Although eighteen hundred years have elapsed since that scene occurred, the believer in Jesus still spiritually lives it over. The cross of Christ is still the central object of attraction to the Church of God. Around it in faith and love a countless throng daily, hourly gather of Christ-believing, Christ-loving souls, finding cleansing in its blood, extracting joy from its sorrow, deriving life from its death, and beholding the brightness of glory blended with the darkness of shame.\par \par But is this the true spiritual position and posture of every believer in Jesus? Are all the professed disciples of the Savior seeking and cultivating the religion that is drawn only from, and is cherished only by, close communion with the cross of Christ? Are we walking with God in a sense of pardoned sin, of personal acceptance, of filial communion, of holy obedience, of unreserved consecration beneath the cross? Do we delight to be here? Do we resort there that grace might be replenished, that the fruits of the Spirit might be nourished, that backslidings might be healed, that the conscience might be cleansed? Is the cross of Jesus our confessional, our laver, our crucifixion, and our boast? These are searching, solemn questions! Persuaded, as we are, that the foot of the cross is the nearest spot to Heaven, that Heaven's choicest blessings are found only there; that, beneath its warm sunshine the holy fruit of the Spirit ripens, and that under its sacred shade the sweetest repose is\par found; that, never is the believing soul so near to God, in such intimate fellowship with Christ, more really under the direct teaching of the Holy Spirit, as when there, we would sincerely employ every scriptural argument and put forth every persuasive motive to allure the reader to this hallowed spot, assured that, once he finds himself in believing, loving adoration at the foot of Christ's cross, he has found himself at the focus of all divine glory, and at the confluence of all spiritual blessing.\par \par A few words of explanation in the outset. The foot of the cross! What do we mean by the words? Literally, the cross was an ancient instrument of torture among the Romans, to which only those were subjected who were considered by the state as the greatest and most ignominious malefactors. To be crucified was considered a mark of ineffable infamy and disgrace, and its death one of lingering and indescribable agony. Such was the nature, character, and instrument of our Lord's death! Jesus of Nazareth was crucified upon a tree. The Son of God, suspended between two malefactors, died the accursed death of the cross, voluntarily enduring its torture, and uncomplainingly submitting to its infamy- to such suffering and abasement could incarnate love stoop! Hence the frequent expression of the Bible, "The cross of Christ."\par \par Symbolically, the cross of Christ represents the doctrine of the cross, and is an expression equivalent to the atonement of the Son of God, by which we, who were once at variance with God, rebels against His being, government, and truth, are now reconciled, brought into a state of at-one-ment with Jehovah. Thus, "we who some time were afar off, are made near by the blood of Christ."\par \par  But, spiritually, we understand by the expression the believer's close realization of the moral power of the cross, his fellowship with Christ in His sufferings, and the believing, lowly posture of the soul at the spot where concentrate the blessings of grace here, and where bloom the first fruits of glory hereafter.\par \par The spiritually depressed state of the soul which this position meets, is more serious and prevalent than is generally suspected by the saints of God. There is no part of the circumference of divine truth or of Christian experience so remote from Christ the center, at which the believer may not at some period of his course find himself in his unsuspected wanderings. The planet revolving round the sun, the needle pointing to the pole, have not a stronger tendency to oscillate from the center of attraction, than the renewed soul to recede to a remote distance from Jesus. Nearness to the cross! -alas! it is the exception and not the rule. Standing by the cross! -it is the privileged position of the few and not the many. The world, in some one, or all, of its many forms of power- the creature, in its unsuspected yet insinuating influence- unbelief, in its latent yet ever-potent force- sin, in its indwelling and ever-working sway, allures the soul from the cross. And so the Christian disciple, unconscious of the spiritual declension of his heart from Christ, finds himself moving in a distant orbit, cold, and dreary, far remote from the warm, genial influence of the Sun beneath whose divine beams he was wont so joyously to bask in the days of his "first love." "And Peter followed Him afar off." And in that distant walk, that orbit far removed from the Divine Center, that starting off to the utmost limit of departure, he had become a wandering and a blasted star forever- as he was an eclipsed constellation for the moment- but for the power of God that kept him, and the Savior's love that interceded for him, and the divine grace that restored him. That distance of walk led to his denial of his Lord. To what deep declension must the work of the Holy Spirit in his soul have sunk to have issued in an event in his spiritual history so appalling, and in a crime against his Savior so great! There is no security, as there is no enjoyment, of the believer in the distance of his soul from the cross. We tread enchanted ground when we walk where the sanctifying power of the cross is not recognized and felt. Jesus is not known, His cross is not recognized, His love is not felt in the walks of worldly gaiety and in the haunts of carnal pleasure. These things are divided from the cross by a wide and ever-separating gulf. You cannot, my reader, mingle with the world and maintain at the same time spiritual nearness to the cross. The cross is the crucifier of the world, the death of sin. Beneath its awful shadow, brought to its sacred foot, the world's glory pales, sin's power is paralyzed, and Satan, the arch-tempter, recoiling from its brightness and writhing beneath its death-bruise, relinquishes his victim, and retires, defeated and dishonored, to his own place.\par \par The inquiry naturally arises in this part of our subject, What are some of THE EVIDENCES OF NEARNESS TO THE CROSS? In other words, What are the true tests by which the believer may ascertain the spiritual position of his soul? Without anticipating subsequent parts of this volume, let a few words suffice to meet this inquiry.\par \par The first we quote is, ardent love to Jesus. The cross, rugged and gory, heavy and offensive, poss esses no beauty or attraction apart from Him who was nailed to its wood. That which makes Calvary the most hallowed spot to the believer, and the cross the most attractive spectacle on earth, is the wonderful Being who there poured out His soul unto death, a self-consumed victim amid the fires of His own love. "Zeal for your house will consume me." Associated with a Redeemer so divine, with a salvation so stupendous, with sufferings so unparalleled, with a death so atoning, with a heaven so glorious, with! a fact so strange- the Sinless condemned, that the guilty might go free; the Blessed bearing the curse, that the accursed might bear the blessing; the Living dying, that the dead might live; the Glorious covered with shame, that the abased might be covered with glory; Christ enduring our hell, that we might enjoy His heaven- blended, we say, with transfers so strange and with blessings so precious, it is not surprising the warm and supreme attachment of the believer to Him who died upon the cross. Here, "then, is a true test of your soul's nearness to the cross. Love to Jesus will sweetly attract and powerfully detain you there, in devout, adoring contemplation. To him who has no love to Christ, the cross of Christ has no attraction. A heart chilled in its affection to the Savior will wander away in quest of objects more congenial with its carnal taste. A trifle, a shadow, anything the most childish and insignificant, will win and gratify a heart upon whose affections Christ has no hold. Oh, it is astonis#hing what straws men will gather, and what phantoms they will chase, when the soul's center is not the cross of Jesus!\par \par What, beloved, is the state of your heart's love to Christ? Turn not from the inquiry, shrink not from the scrutiny. The fervor of its love will be the measure of your soul's nearness to the cross. Love to Christ will bring you into frequent and close fellowship with Him in suffering; and with a heart often sequestered from the world, and cloistered amid the hallowed gloom of G$ethsemane- at home with Christ in suffering- the position of your soul will be that of the holy Mary's, standing by the cross of Jesus.\par \par Attachment to the doctrines of the cross may be regarded as a test of the believer's spiritual nearness to the Crucified. A lessening of love to the person of Jesus will invariably be followed by a lessening of love to the truth as it is in Jesus. Christ is the truth. The truth and Christ are one and indivisible. There can be no real, certainly no healthy, vigo%rous love to the person of Christ where there exists a latent laxity of opinion respecting the gospel of Christ. Christ and His gospel stand or fall, rise or sink together. "In vain you love Me," might the Savior say, "while you undervalue my words. My doctrine is divine, and he that rejects my words rejects Me." What, then, is your attachment to the gospel of Christ? Is it increasingly precious to your soul, sanctifying to your heart, influential in your life? Would you bid high for the truth of Jesus at& any cost of personal ease and worldly advantage, and sell it not for earth's richest gem?\par \par Do you increasingly love it because it searches, rebukes, abases you, and yet strengthens, comforts, and sanctifies you? Do you feel a growing love for those doctrines that are especially identical with, that spring from, that are found beneath, and that lead the soul to, the cross of Jesus? Thus may you test the proximity of your soul to the Crucified. Christ precious to you, oh, how precious will be the' truth He taught! Purer than the purest silver, richer than the richest gold, sweeter than the sweetest honey, lovelier than the fairest gem, will be to you those doctrines, precepts, and promises which your Lord and Savior embodied in His teachings, and enjoined upon your simple faith, your fervent love, your holy walk, your zealous dissemination, and, if need be, your testimony at the martyr's stake. The doctrine of the substitutionary offering, the expiatory suffering, the atoning blood, the imputed ri(ghteousness of Christ, all based upon, and deriving their virtue, their power, and their efficacy from, the divine dignity and spotless holiness of His person, will be entwined with your increasing love and unswerving faith.\par \par The precepts which enjoin your bearing Christ's cross, your confession of His name, your self-denying service in His cause, your crucifixion to the world, and your simple, unreserved obedience to His commands, will be to you His easy yoke and His lightsome burden. Test, the)n, your spiritual nearness to the cross by your ardent attachment to the doctrines of the cross. "If any man will do His will, He shall know of the doctrine." "O how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day." "How sweet are your words unto my taste! yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth." "Your words were found, and I did eat them; and your word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart."\par \par Loyalty to Christ is another evidence of nearness to the cross. Disloyalty to the Savior and His *truth creates an immeasurable distance between Christ and the soul. Any, the slightest, compromise with error, with the world, with sin, with the enemies of the cross, is disloyalty to the Headship, the Crown, the Person, and the Gospel of the Son of God. No proof is more unmistakable of a receding from the cross, of a distance of the heart from Jesus, then infidelity to His person, government, and truth. Peter compromised his loyalty to Christ when he followed his Master 'afar off.' He disowned and denie+d Jesus, forswore and renounced allegiance to his Savior, when he followed Him at a distance to the hall of judgment, and then took his place among His enemies. Let but your love to Jesus wane, your faith in His Word relax, your attachment to His cause lessen, your interest in His people decline, and you are fast becoming a disloyal subject of that Sovereign whose person you professed to love, whose truth you affirmed to believe, whose cause you swore to defend, whose fortunes and whose kingdom you avowed, to follow and promote until death. Oh, be loyal to Christ! -to the glory of His person, to the divinity of His truth, to the interests of His Church, to the rights of His crown, to the honor of His name! "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."\par \par Fidelity to God will not render you less, but all the more, faithful to man. You will not be less fitted for the relations and duties of the life that now is, but all the more competent, because daily adva-ncing in fitness for the life that is to come. Let stern, uncompromising fidelity to Christ, then, evidence the closeness of your fellowship with Him in His sufferings. Keep that impressive spectacle ever in view- the dying of the Lord Jesus in your stead- and the foe that would tamper with your loyalty to the Savior will be disarmed of his power, and, like unto the noble army of martyrs, you will "overcome him by the blood of the Lamb."\par \par We will supply but another test of your close communion w.ith the Crucified- the spiritual barometer of the soul. Nothing will more satisfactorily indicate your exact position in relation to the cross than the state of your spiritual life. The divine life in the soul flourishes or decays, is vigorous or sickly, in exact proportion to its proximity to the cross of Jesus. As Christ is our life, so our life must be sustained by Christ. If your Christianity is healthy; your breathings after God and holiness and heaven deep and fervent; your love to Jesus constant an/d intense; and you are aiming to walk after the simplicity of Christ, bringing every thought into obedience to Him, then you may safely infer that you stand spiritually, where stood literally the holy women- close by the cross of Jesus. Here alone spiritual religion flourishes. Here only the believing soul is as a well-watered garden. If, as the naturalist tells us, beneath the Upas tree all natural life expires, it may with more significance be affirmed that beneath the cross of Jesus all spiritual life 0lives.\par \par "There stood by the cross of Jesus- His mother." Significant and touching words! -replete with teaching and with tenderness. Who can portray that scene? who describe the love of that Son- the sorrow of that mother? Such a Son! Such a mother! The love of Jesus was now illustrating its greatness by the vastness of its achievement- the salvation of His Church; and its tenderness in that gentle look of affection which He bent upon the woman who stood by His cross in all the depth and constan1cy of a mother's love.\par \par But we turn from a scene which distances all human description, to you, my reader. It is possible that your present position bears some resemblance to this. You may be watching by the couch of a suffering, dying one, whom you deeply, tenderly love- perchance, love as a parent, yes, as a mother only can. Take your place with Mary- by the\par cross of Jesus. There meet and blend suffering and love, sorrow and sympathy. Standing in faith by the cross, you are near the suffe2ring Savior, the loving Son, the sympathizing Brother born for your present grief. Jesus, in the depth and tenderness of His love, is at this moment all that He was when, in soul-travail, He cast that ineffable look of filial love and sympathy upon His anguished mother. He can enter into your circumstances, understand your grief, sustain and soothe your spirit as one only can who has partaken of the cup of woe which now trembles in your hand. Drink that cup submissive to His will, for He drank deeply of i3t before you, and has left the fragrance of His sympathy upon its brim. Your sorrow is not new to Christ.\par \par He can embosom Himself in a parent's grief as no other being could. He knows a mother's heart, compassionates a mother's sorrow. You may be sorrowing for a child, perhaps over his folly, his waywardness, his sin; or, you are watching by your child's couch of weakness, or the bed of suffering, or the pillow of death. Oh, is there a place more appropriate for you as a smitten parent, a mourni4ng mother, a spirit overwhelmed with anguish, hope and fear alternately struggling in your breast, watching the languor which you cannot rouse, the sufferings you cannot relieve, the disease you cannot avert, the advancing foe you cannot arrest, the approaching wrench you cannot avert. Is there a spot where your spirit will be more calmed, your heart more comforted, your will more subdued, your soul more strengthened, your mind more sweetly responsive to the words of Jesus, "Your will be done," than benea5th the cross? Close to it stand, believing, loving, clinging, until this calamity be overpast.\par \par There grace will be given you to bear this crushing trial, strength to pass through this weary watching, love to sustain this bitter anguish, sympathy to soften and to soothe this hour of sad and final parting. Mourning, sorrowing mother! Jesus invites you to His sheltering, soothing cross, "Come, my people, enter into your chambers, and shut your doors about you; hide yourself, as it were, for a litt6le moment." There is nothing but love and sympathy and repose for the mourning, anguished spirit prostrate beneath the cross of Jesus. Its divine light is on you, its sacred shadow is over you, its invincible shield is around you. There Jesus speaks- "It is I; do not be afraid. I, who know a son's suffering and a mother's anguish. I, who control the winds and the waves, who stills the tempest and calm the sea. I, who have promised that my grace shall be sufficient, and that my strength shall be perfected 7in weakness. Approach my cross, shelter near my wounded side, get within my bleeding heart- there is love and there is room and there is rest for you there."\par \par "Tossed with rough winds, and faint with fear,\par Above the tempest, soft and clear,\par What still small accents greet my ear!\par It is I; do not be afraid!\par "It is I who led your steps aright;\par It is I who gave your blind eyes sight;\par It is I, your Lord, your Life, your Light.\par It is I; do not be afraid!\par "These 8raging winds, this surging sea,\par Bear not a breath of wrath to thee;\par That storm has all been spent on Me.\par It is I; do not be afraid!\par "This bitter cup fear not to drink;\par I know it well- oh! do not shrink;\par I tasted it over Kedron's brink.\par It is I; do not be afraid!\par "My eyes are watching by your bed,\par My arms are underneath your head,\par My blessing is around you shed.\par It is I; do not be afraid!\par "When on the other side your feet\par Shall rest mid thous9and welcomes sweet.\par One well-known voice your heart shall greet!\par It is I; do not be afraid!\par "From out of the dazzling majesty,\par Gently he'll lay His hand on thee,\par Whispering, 'Beloved, do you love me?'\par It is I; do not be afraid!"\par \par Once more heed the exhortation- stand close to the cross of Jesus! It is the most accessible and precious spot this side of heaven- the most solemn and awesome one this side of eternity. It is the focus of divine love, sympathy, and power. :Stand by it in suffering, in persecution, in temptation. Standby it in the brightness of prosperity and in the gloom of adversity. Shrink not from its offence, humiliation, and woe. Defend it when scorned, despised, and denied. Stand up for Jesus and the gospel of Jesus. Oh, whatever you do, or whatever you endure, be loyal to Christ's cross. Go to it in trouble, repair to it in weakness, cling to it in danger, hide beneath it when the wintry storm rushes fiercely over you. Near to the cross, you are near; a Father's heart, a Savior's side. You seem to enter the gate of heaven, to stand beneath the vestibule of glory. You "come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling."\par \par Nothing but a belieeyond the reach of Divine grace, since grace is for those who are bankrupt of all righteousness. If you will but prove to me, my reader, that you are a sinner, (and the proof is easy,) with some spiritual sight and sense and consciousness of the fact, then I will prove that you are among the number for whom Christ prayed. Convince us that you are of sinners the chief, then we will show that you are within the range of the Savior's grace. What Cain-mark is there upon your brow which excludes you from the f?ree pardon of your sins procured by the precious blood of Christ? Who dare to say that you were not included in the blessed number on whose behalf Christ was now, amid His unknown agonies, breathing this prayer to heaven? Only be divinely convinced that you are a sinner, and not a righteous person; that you feel yourself to be guilty and undeserving, and then we will point you to One through whom alone you can be saved- saved now, saved freely, and saved forever.\par \par Not only were they sinners by n@ature, but there was a peculiar stigma, a deep turpitude of guilt attaching to their character and their crime. They were sworn foes of Christ, openly, avowedly, and to the death. And such, too, are we! Not born again of the Spirit, not called by the sovereign grace of God, whatever may be our outward morality, our form of Christian worship, our punctilious attendance upon ordinances, we are sinners; we have not passed from death unto life, have not been renewed in the spirit of our mind, and must be reckAoned among the rejectors of the Lord Jesus, and classed with those who crucified the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.\par \par They were not only the sworn foes of Christ, but a deeper dye attached to each- they were the veritable crucifiers of the Lord of life and glory. In other words, they were Christ's murderers. Their hands entwined the crown of thorns, and placed it on His brow; their hands plunged the nails through His sacred body; and now, gory with His blood, they mocked His dying agonBies on the cross. Are we by nature less guilty than they? Not one whit! So long as we persist in a life of sin, we virtually indorse the crimes of these slayers of the Lord, and practically arrange ourselves among His very murderers. With what force and solemnity is this fact brought home to the child of God when grace renews his heart! Who then appears to his view the true, the real murderer of Jesus? Himself, perchance, the chief! Seeing his sins all laid upon Jesus, tracing his pardon to the atoning deCath of the Savior, the fact comes home to him with overpowering solemnity, "My sins murdered the Lord of life and glory! It was I who virtually entwined the thorn-crown, who drove the nail, and who pointed the spear!"\par \par "'Twas you, my sins, my cruel sins-\par His chief tormentors were;\par Each of my crimes became a nail,\par And unbelief the spear.\par \par "'Twas you that drew that vengeance down\par Upon His guiltless head\par Break, break my heart, O burst my eyes,\par And let my sorrDows bleed.\par \par "Strike, mighty Grace, my flinty soul,\par Until melting waters flow,\par And deep repentance drown my eyes\par In undissembled woe!\par \par Such were the clients on whose behalf the dying Savior now prayed. They needed forgiveness. And so do we- oh, how deeply! We are sinners, and as such imperatively need Divine forgiveness. We have precious, deathless interests at stake. We appear in the court of Divine justice indicted with the crime of condemning to death the Son of God. BEy our impenitence and unbelief, by our hatred and rejection of the Son of God, by our perverted course of sin and rebellion, we justify the men who originally and literally imbued their hands in His precious blood. We ask, is there a being in the universe that stands more in need of the forgiveness of sin than you? And unless your sins are pardoned, your crimes cancelled by the blood His murderers shed, you will stand before His bar side by side with those whose cry rent the air, "Crucify Him, crucify HimF!" Ah, perhaps, many who then washed in the fountain their own hands opened, will witness against you in that day!\par \par Consider THE PLEADING ADVOCATE. And who is now pleading for them with His Father? It was the suffering Savior, the dying Christ- it was the very Being whose sacred body they were tormenting, the very individual in whose face they were casting their cruel taunts- "If you be the Son of God save yourself." "Come down from the cross, and we will believe you." " He saved others, himselfG he cannot save."\par \par A marvellous and precious page in our Lord's official relation to His people unfolds to the eye here- the relation He sustains to them as the ADVOCATE. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." He had, previously to ascending that cross, poured out His heart in a sublime intercessory prayer on behalf of His one and entire Church. His present appearance as an Advocate portrays Him in a new and novel light- praying on behalf of sinners, tHhose sinners His crucifiers. Who, with this striking and impressive fact before him, dares assert that we have no spiritual concern with the unconverted? that it is impious to regard them as interested in the Savior's death? that they are to have no interest in our sacred sympathies and efforts, in our warnings, entreaties, and prayers?\par \par The solemn scene of Calvary goes to disprove conclusions so directly opposed to the entire genius of the gospel. Christ loved sinners, warned sinners, prayed foIr sinners, died for sinners. And he who wraps himself in his theological creed and religious selfishness, and affects to look with cold indifference upon the conversion of souls, treads a path in which he will follow not a single footprint of the Savior! Oh to have more of the sympathy and compassion of Him who rained tears of lamentation over Jerusalem!\par \par Two or three points, illustrating the nature of Christ's advocacy, invite our attention. The first is, His filial relation to God. "Father," sJaid the dying Savior. Mark the confidence which, in that awful hour, existed between the Son of God and the Father. Though the Father was veiling the light of His countenance, was withholding the manifestations of His love, abandoning Him to the power of His enemies, who, like dogs of war, were let loose upon His 'darling' one, yet Jesus never lost sight of the truth that God was still His Father. Impressive and precious the lesson taught us here. Forget not, chastened and afflicted child of God, when theK cup of trembling is in your hand, and you fear to press it to your lip; when, visited with affiictive dispensations, He veils the light of His countenance, and leaves you to tread alone and dreary path, that He is your Father still! And that, be the cloud never so dark, the chastening never so severe, it is your privilege to cleave to Him as your Father, and to nestle your weary, sorrow-stricken soul in the parental bosom of that loving, gracious God.\par \par Then, observe the bar at which Christ the LAdvocate pleaded. Jesus was now affixed to the cross. From amid the darkest shadows of His closing life, impaled upon the accursed tree, stretched upon the rack in inconceivable agonies, dying the painful, lingering death of crucifixion, He yet sent up His prayer to God for the forgiveness of His enemies. The altar at which He stood, the bar from which He pleaded, was the\par \par cross all streaming with His blood! It was the spot most appropriate for such an Advocate pleading for such clients. He coulMd not have made advocacy at any other bar than the bar of Calvary. He could not have stood in any other court than that of Divine justice. What a truth beams forth from this! Beloved, it was the cross that laid the basis of our Lord's advocacy. The precious mercies He implores for you are all asked and secured on the basis of His expiatory sacrifice, on the ground of His sufferings and death for sinners. This it is which invests with such authority, and imparts such power, tenderness, and efficacy to His Nintercession- the glory brought to the moral government of God by His sacrificial death. "Father, I will that those whom you have given me may have their crimes effaced, their sins pardoned, their souls saved. That those for whom I have poured out my atoning blood, may behold my glory." Oh, is it within the range of possibility that such an Advocate, sending up to heaven such a prayer, and from such a bar, can fail in securing the blessings He asks? Never! This is just the plea of our Advocate in glory. TOhe ground of His present intercession in heaven, is the perfection of His atoning work on earth. "By His own blood He entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us."\par \par No longer pleading at the bar of His blood- impurpled cross on earth, He pleads before the golden throne in heaven- but the hands He uplifts are scarred, and the argument He employs is the death to which those scars testify. The ground of His intercession for us before the throne is the sacrifice He ofPfered for us upon the cross when He offered up Himself.\par \par There is another view of the Advocate inexpressibly touching. We refer to the fact of His love, the deep love He had for His clients. It is true they were enemies, but He loved them; they were sinners, yet He loved them; they were murderers, still He loved them notwithstanding all. From where that prayer, do you think, my reader? From what fathomless depth in the heart of Jesus did that petition rise? What was the power that impelled it heQavenward? What were the wings that bore it to God? Oh, it was love, and nothing but love! He loved them, and the expression and the embodiment of His love was the prayer, "Father, forgive them!" Beloved, what a marvellous, unparalleled love is the love of our Jesus! The scene around that cross was such that we do not wonder that no artist's pencil has\par \par ever succeeded in its delineation. It would seem as if our fallen humanity had concentrated its deepest, darkest elements of depravity upon that Rhallowed spot. But there was that which flowed over it all. Oh, it was the love of Christ! that love which has heights and depths, lengths and breadths, which surpass all measurement. His love seemed to veil the dark crime of His crucifiers. Forgetting His insufferable agonies of body, the more insufferable agonies of His soul, in the ineffable depths of His love He prays, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Believer in Jesus, as you stand before this marvellous spectacle, relinquish aSll your doubts and misgivings as to the reality and vastness of Christ's love to you. Descend into this infinite sea, and exclaim, "Oh the depths of that love that floods over all my transgressions, drowning all my sins, so that not one shall ever be found!" If such is the love of Christ to His enemies, what must His love be to His friends! Love is bearing you in its heart in heaven- love is interceding for you in glory- love asks that your faith may not fail, that your enemies may not triumph, that all tThe blessings of the upper and the nether springs may be yours-love pleads the causes of your soul.\par \par But what was THE BLESSING for which Christ pleaded? It was FORGIVENESS. "Father, forgive." And what a blessing! It is the highest exercise of the Divine prerogative, and the richest gift of Divine grace- the forgiveness of sin! Such is the state of all the Lord's people. According to the tenor of the New Covenant- the covenant of grace- God says, "I will put My laws into their mind, and write themU in their hearts: and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." Oh, what an oblivion of sin is this- the Divine forgetfulness! What! are His people's sins so fully pardoned, so entirely forgiven, so completely annihilated, as to pass forever from the Divine remembrance? Will He legally remember them no more? So says God, and so we believe. Seek earnestly the Holy Spirit's, witness to thisV in your conscience. Believe it without a single reservation. If God laid your sins upon Christ, then they are all taken off from you, charged to Him, punished\par \par and condemned in His person."Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" Not sin- for God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven us all trespasses. Oh, walk in the sense of pardon; it will dissolve your heart in penitence, fill you with joy, and yet with shame, self-abhorrence, and sin-hatred, when you know that God is pacified towarWd you for all that you have done. When is the heart of the poor criminal the most deeply touched and dissolved? Is it when he stands beneath the awful beam? Oh, no! it is when he reads his pardon and acquittal! Then it is he weeps! Seek a like emotion, springing from a like cause. Get a sense of pardoned sin, and you will walk softly with God.\par \par To whom was the appeal of Christ on behalf of these sinners made? To the sin-forgiving God- God, who had declared Himself "ready to pardon," who had reveXaled Himself as one with whom there was forgiveness; a God, who had from eternity provided a channel for the down-flow of His love through a Savior; who, uniting the Divine with the human. Could by one offering- the offering of Himself- render it righteous in God, and in view of His intelligent universe, to exercise the highest Divine prerogative towards the guiltiest of the human race. Oh, we are but little aware how the pardoning grace of God pants to gush forth towards every humble, contrite, guilt-conYfessing soul! What in the human breast is the sweetest sentiment- revenge or forgiveness? You do not hesitate. Transfer the thought to God. Forgiveness with Him is so delightsome a feeling- a sentiment so consonant with His loving, gracious, beneficent nature- we are told, that while judgment is His strange work, "He delights in mercy." Since, then, the full equivalent which Christ has made to the claims of His moral government renders it honorable and glorious in God to pardon sin, we are fully prepared Zto receive the next illustration of the Divine forgiveness which this marvellous prayer of Christ upon the cross presents- namely, That the forgiveness of God is for the greatest crimes, extending to the chief of sinners. If, as we have observed, all the elements of moral evil were concentrated around the cross, it would seem as if God so permitted it that He might more impressively illustrate the exceeding riches of His grace- that, "where sin abounded, grace should much more abound."\par \par Penitent[ soul! behold the encouragement you have that, though your sins are never so enormous or aggravated, you may bring them to the cross, throw down the burden at its feet, look by faith to the Crucified, wash in the blood that flowed from His pierced side, and taste the sweetness of God's forgiving love. "Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord, Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Standing beneath Christ's cross,\ and in its light reading this Divine declaration- will you- can you hesitate to believe that, though the vilest of the vile, there yet is forgiveness with God for you, yes, even for you?\par \par We now pass on to consider THE DIVINE ANSWER to the Savior's prayer. This brings us to the memorable day of Pentecost. Upon that great day of the Jewish festival the heavens were opened, and the Spirit descended "like a mighty rushing wind," and beneath His Divine influence three thousand souls were convinced ]of sin, believed in Jesus, and were saved. Among these were the murderers of the Lord. Listen to the words of Peter: "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. . . . Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God has made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter, and to the rest of the apostles, Me^n and brethren, what shall we do?" And what did they do? They repented, they believed, they washed in the blood their own hands had shed, they accepted Christ, and they were saved. "And the same day there were added unto them the about three thousand souls." Thus was the Savior's prayer answered- "Father forgive them."\par \par That prayer has been answered ever since, is being answered now, and will continue to be answered until the last elect child of mercy has been gathered to Him who breathed it, an_d who now beholds from the throne with infinite satisfaction its accomplishment. Penitent soul! that prayer flings from the cross its arms of love around you. It embraces you in its ever living, ever prevalent intercession. In view of all your past and present sins- sins unmentionable and immeasurable- sins aggravated and exceeding- the Savior of sinners prays, "Father, forgive!" The prayer that rose from the summit of Calvary fills the courts of heaven- and you, a poor, penitent, mourning soul, are inclu`ded in its earnest, touching, successful petition. Never had the Holy Spirit produced this conviction of sin, wrought this godly sorrow in your heart, were not your name upon the heart of Jesus when He sent up that marvellous prayer from the cross. Oh, what encouragement this to look above the Alpine heights of your transgressions, piercing the very skies, to that yet higher mount bathed in the radiance of forgiving love, where your glorious Advocate with the Father asks and obtains the full and free forgaiveness of all your transgressions.\par \par This prayer of Jesus meets the case of all conscious, penitent, backsliding disciples. On the strength of this plea of Christ, return to the Lord, taking with you words of confession and feelings of penitence, and say, "Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously." The foot of the cross is the wanderer's place of return. There can be no real retracing our steps, no true restoration of pardon and peace and hope, that the bones we have broken may rejoice,b until we find ourselves there. Then will our wanderings be arrested, our backslidings be healed. Then will we hear the words- oh, what music floats from the cross of Jesus!- "I will heal their backslidings, I will love them freely: for My anger is turned away from him."\par \par And what shall be the conclusion of the whole matter? Once more we repeat, "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Beneath the cross the pardon of sin is found. Come to it, you sin-burcdened; approach it, you guilt-distressed; return to it, you backsliding penitents! Nothing but forgiveness- full and free and changeless- will you find at the foot of the Savior's cross. Weep there, mourn there, confess there- there lay down your sins, renounce and forsake them forever, and you shall hear the words of peace, "Your sins are FORGIVEN you, go and sin no more!"\par \par "Father, I bring this worthless child to You,\par To claim Your pardon once; yet once again\par Receive him at my hands-d for he is Mine.\par He is a worthless child; he owns his guilt.\par Look not on him- he cannot bear Your glance.\par Look on Me; his vileness I will hide.\par He pleads not for himself- he dares not plead\par His cause is Mine- I am his Advocate.\par By each pure drop of blood I shed for him,\par By all the sorrows engraved on My soul,\par By every wound I bear, I claim it due.\par Father Divine! I cannot have him lost,\par He is a worthless soul, but he is Mine.\par Sin has destroyed him: sine has died in Me\par Death has pursued him; I have conquered death\par Satan has bound him; Satan is my slave.\par My Father! hear him now- not him, but Me.\par I would not have him lost for all the worlds\par You for Your glory have ordained and made,\par Because he is a poor and contrite child,\par And all his every hope on Me reclines.\par I know My children, and I know him Mine.\par By all the tears he weeps upon My bosom,\par By his full heart that beats against Mine\par I know him by his sfighings and his prayers,\par By his deep trusting love which clings to Me.\par I could not bear to see him cast away,\par Weak as he is, the weakest of My flock\par The one that grieves Me most, that loves Me least\par I measure not My love by his returns;\par And though the stripes I send to speed him home\par Drive him, upon the instant, from My breast,\par Still he is Mine. I drew him from the world.\par He has no right, no home but in My love.\par Though earth and hell against his soul conspire,\par I shield him- keep him- save him- we are one."\par \par "O sinner! what an Advocate have you!\par Methinks I see Him lead the culprit in,\par Poor, sorrowing, shamed, all tremulous with fear,\par Prostrate behind his Lord, weak, self-condemned.\par Clad with his Savior's spotless Righteousness,\par Himself to hide, and hear the Father's words!\par My Son! his cause is Yours, and Yours is Mine\par Take up Your poor lost one- HE IS FORGIVEN."\par \par \pard\cf2\lang2058\f2\fs23\par } fzfT QeA 08 - The Conviction of Truth Beneath the Cross{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\fromh:U-A 06 - Forgiveness of Sin at the Foot of the Cross{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.6ian\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 Chapter 8: The Conviction of Truth Beneath the Cross\par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\f1\fs22\par When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, "Trjuly he was the Son of God!" \cf1\ul Mat_27:54\cf0\ulnone\par \par Among the great blessings found beneath the cross of Christ, to which the attention of the reader has been directed, we know of none exceeding in its importance the conviction of Divine truth which is brought to the mind of the humble, believing student of the Bible. The cross, as we have reminded you, is the central fact of God's moral universe. All Divine truth meets in Christ's cross. All glory beams from Christ's cross. All spiritual kblessings distill from Christ's cross. It is at its feet that the studious, earnest mind receives the most luminous, comprehensive, and glorious revelations and views of the Divine Being; and from thence he draws the sweetest and richest blessings to his soul.\par \par The subject of our present meditation is- the Divine instruction, the perception and conviction of truth, received by the humble, spiritual disciple who carries his spiritual ignorance, perplexities, and doubts to the foot of Christ's crolss, for solution. The words we have quoted will at once suggest to the mind this train of thought. While all around the cross were reviling the Savior, indulging their scepticism and their hate, here was a lonely group, bending with pensive sadness at its foot; and, as the strange phenomena were transpiring- the earth trembling, the sun darkening, the rocks rending, and the graves opening- there darted the conviction of truth into the mind of the wondering centurion; and, overwhelmed by its convincing andm irresistible force, the exclamation bursts from his astonished soul, "Truly this was the Son of God!"\par \par The grand error of many earnest inquirers is, they mistake the place, the position, and the spirit in which Divine truth is really learned. They will go in quest of truth to every quarter but the legitimate one. They will be the followers of every teacher but the Divine One. They will be the earnest students of every book, but the Book of God. They see not that the true skill of a spiritual lenarner is to unlearn; that the true posture of a Christian disciple is with his mouth in the dust before God; that, while natural theology will unveil many a glorious attribute of Jehovah, while the physical world will present many a grand view of the Divine power and goodness, yet that moral truth, spiritual, gospel, soul-saving truth, can only be found in the cross, and can only be truly, experimentally learned in the believing, humble spirit of a true disciple, sitting where the devout centurion sat; wioth him gazing upon the spectacle that filled his mind with light, his soul with astonishment, when, under the conviction of truth, he exclaimed, "Truly this was the Son of God!"\par \par Let us proceed to quote some of those great, vital truths of Revelation which are only properly learned at the foot of Christ's cross.\par \par I begin with the first revealed truth, the Being of God. Not that other evidences of this truth are lacking. The creation is one vast volume of evidence to the being of God. Wpe hesitate not to aver that no man shall stand acquitted at the bar of God of the crime of having denied His existence from a lack of evidence. He may never have heard of a God, or of His revelation to man; upon his ear may never have chimed the glad tidings of the gospel; he may never have heard of the cross of Calvary, with all its wonders; yet, we hesitate not to affirm that the granite rocks, the cloud-capped mountains, the flowery valley, the starry heavens, the burning sun, and the natural intuitiveqness of the human soul, constitute one vast library of evidence, all testifying to the being of a God; and that man, chargeable with the awful crime of atheism, who dares to deny His existence, with such demonstrative and overwhelming evidences of His eternal power and Godhead, will be without excuse. But where do we find such demonstrations of the being of a God as are exhibited on the cross of Calvary? Where has God revealed Himself as here? Where has He demonstrated the solemn fact of His being, of Hisr Divine perfection, as He has done on that accursed tree to which His own hand bound His beloved Son, in order that He might not only harmonize in redemption His infinite perfections, but demonstrate that those perfections were the perfections of an eternal, self-existent, and righteous Being? Study, then, devoutly, believingly the cross, and be no longer an atheist!\par \par The character of God is exhibited, and learned only by the spiritual and believing student, at the cross of Christ. There the Divsine character, or, in other words, there God is exhibited in His completeness, His perfect symmetry. We learn something of God's character in other departments of His magnificent and extensive operations. We trace a penciling of God's goodness here, we behold a demonstration of His power there, a magnificent illustration of His wisdom yonder; and thus, as we traverse the circuit of the world, we gather something of what God's character is in these partial developments and unfoldings. But we need the full,t complete, focal portrait and representation of His character. Where shall we find it? Where but in the cross of Christ? There, my reader, God stands before you complete-not an attribute of His nature, not a perfection of His being, not a trait of His character but is embodied, expressed, and unveiled; and the man who bends before that cross as a humble, believing student; one spiritual, believing glance will discover more of God's character in its glory, perfection, and harmony, than did he absorb the enutire volume of creation's evidence.\par \par The grand truth concerning God's relation to us as a reconciled God and Father, is nowhere learned but in the cross of Christ. Nowhere can we find anything of what the heart of God is, what His pardoning mercy to us is, what His thoughts of peace to us are as sinners, but as we learn it all in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We may travel the circuit of creation, and behold His marvellous and glorious works and goodness, which, as with a lavish hand, He hvas scattered all around, but we find no relief to the anxious yearnings of our bosom oppressed with a sense of sin. We ask the sun- How may I obtain light to this my spiritually darkened understanding? and not a beam floating from that glorious orb responds! We ask the rocks- How may my heart, cold and insensible as marble, dissolve into penitence and love? and they are silent! We ask the winds- How may the life-giving breath enter my heart, and I become a living soul, living henceforth to, God? and not aw zephyr answers! We ask the mountain stream and the ocean's waves- How may my sins be washed away, and not the shadow of a stain remain? and all are silent as the sea of death! No oracle in nature meets the momentous inquiry, "What must I do to be saved? " Oppressed with guilt, crushed beneath a load of sin, conscience lashing us as with scorpion-sting, hell staring us in the face, we wend our mournful footsteps to Calvary, and stand beneath the cross of the incarnate God. We gaze upon His wounds, look atx His flowing blood, hide within His pierced side, and embracing in faith the doctrine of the cross- Christ dying for the ungodly, suffering the Just for the unjust- in a moment the great question is answered, the burden of guilt is removed, and we learn how God in the suffering Son of His love can be pacified towards us. There we read God's love, and in embracing the crucified Savior, we feel we are embraced in the arms of our reconciled Father. Oh, you who are wandering in quest of an answer to the anxioyus inquiry, "How may I know that God is reconciled to me, the vilest rebel that ever trod the earth? How may I know that my innumerable sins are pardoned, that my soul is saved, that God regards me propitiously, and looks upon me in forgiving mercy?" Go to Calvary, travel to the cross, gaze in faith upon that wonderful spectacle- the spectacle of Christ suffering and dying, the Holy for the unholy, that He might bring you to God, and your questions shall be answered in the peace and joy of assured forgivezness.\par \par Another doctrine especially learned beneath the cross of Christ is the doctrine of His Essential Deity. We believe that nowhere is there such a demonstration of the Deity of the Son of God, as is found in the cross. Our Lord never appeared more really man than when in indescribable soul-agony, and in unparalleled bodily suffering, He traveled through those lingering hours of pain on that accursed tree. And yet, never did the deity of Christ appear more evident than when the sun of His hum{anity was setting in darkness and in blood; never were there such demonstrations of His Godhead, such seals to the doctrine of His divinity, as when, suspended upon that cross, He bowed His head and died. If, my reader, there lurks within your breast the slightest suspicion of His Godhead, and you desire your faith in this cardinal doctrine of salvation confirmed, fall at the foot of the cross, sit and gaze upon that wondrous scene, mark those astounding prodigies of nature which transpired at the moment |that Christ expired! and we ask, if your mind is sensible to conviction, and you are really anxious to know the truth as it is in Jesus, whether the exclamation of your soul will not be an echo of the convinced centurion, ''Truly this is the Son of God!"\par \par Observe, again, it is only in the cross of Christ that the essential, saving doctrine of our faith- the atonement is seen, learned, and received. A man may be a student of the most able treatise ever penned by human hand on the sacrifice of Jes}us Christ, and yet close the book with a very vague, imperfect conception of the marvellous truth, or with a very faint conviction of its reality. But let him travel to the cross, become a lowly student there, a humble, earnest, believing inquirer after truth, and he shall not leave that awful spot without an overwhelming conviction of the fact, that those sufferings were expiatory, that that death was sacrificial, and that the mystery of the whole scene can only be explained, the problem of the Sinless s~uffering as the sinful only solved, by the doctrine of an expiatory offering; that all those mental and bodily sufferings were in consequence of His bearing our sin and curse; that His death, thus voluntarily and freely offered, was a satisfaction to the justice of Jehovah, and designed to unite and harmonize all the moral attributes of God in the salvation of man. Go my reader, in faith and lowliness to the cross, study its Victim, dwell upon its unparalleled scenes, and you will rise with the firm conviction that Christ died, not as a hero, nor as a philosopher, nor as an example of virtue and fortitude, but to redeem and save lost and ruined man.\par \par Nowhere, except here, can the doctrine of the atonement be learned; nowhere but beneath the cross can it be received into the believing heart; nowhere but upon Calvary can these marvellous predictions of prophecy be understood- "He was wounded ['tormented,' marg.] for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed." "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquities of us all." "Christ also has loved us, and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor." Approach, then, in faith the foot of the cross; in its light read, by its spectacle interpret, those marvellous passages, and see if your conviction of the great truth will not be as deep and devout as that of the centurion, "Truly, Christ died for the ungodly!" Thus accept the atonement, thus believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved!\par \par And have we a stronger proof and illustration of the doctrine of the Trinity than is found beneath the cross of Calvary? The moment an inquiring mind after that truth is led to receive the doctrine of the cross in simple faith, which is, the doctrine of the Atonement made on our behalf by the death of Christ, it finds no difficulty in accepting the doctrine of three distinct People in the one Godhead. No individual can fully understand the doctrine of the Trinity who rejects Christ's Atonement. The light that beams from thence invests with radiance every other revealed truth. Where the light of the cross is not, the light of reason is as Egyptian darkness. Nature is wrapped in midnight gloom, unenlightened by one ray that flows from the cross of Calvary. But let an inquirer for truth stand at this focal point, let him place himself beneath the beams of the Divine glory concentrated in the crucified Savior, and he will find no difficulty in embracing every doctrine of God's revealed Word. Here is the grand mistake men make, in not commencing their study of God's Word, their inquiries after the truths of revelation, at the cross of Jesus. Do you think that the sceptics of the day would be found, in this advanced age of Biblical research, questioning the truth of the Bible, ignoring the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures, and, with effete weapons borrowed from the dusty arsenals of error, whose edge had long since been turned, attacking the integrity of the Pentateuch, involving in its fall the destruction of the entire fabric of truth, had they made the cross of Christ the starting point of their investigations, the foundation of their inquiries? Alas! men, for the most part, commence at the farthest circumference of truth, and endeavor to work their way to the center; thus reversing God's order, which is to commence at the center and so reach the circumference. Now, with regard to the profoundly mysterious doctrine of a Triune God, we admit that the mode of the divine existence transcends the power of human reason to explain; and yet, no revealed doctrine of the Bible is more consonant with reason than it. And he who will receive the Atonement of the cross as a little child, as a humble disciple at the feet of Jesus, shall know of this doctrine whether it be of God, or whether we speak it of ourselves. In the light streaming from Calvary he will read and understand these remarkable words, "For through Him [Christ crucified] we both [Jew and Gentile] have access, by one Spirit, unto the Father." Could the doctrine of the three Divine People, in their essential unity and official relations, be more luminous?\par \par The way of salvation is only clearly seen in the light of the cross. All the mystery and complexity and crudeness which, in the view of many, gathers around the way by which a sinner is saved, is the result of studying redemption from every stand-point but the correct one- the cross of Jesus. If an individual looks at salvation through his favorite creed, or church, or early education, it will, in all probability, receive a complexion unfavorable to a simple, lucid, believing apprehension of the way by which God saves the sinner. But let him approach the cross as a sinner, as a learner, as a penitent believer, divesting himself of all ecclesiastical, traditional, and educational trammels and prejudices, and receive the simple yet sublime truth, "In due time, when we were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly," and he is saved! Salvation can be conveyed by no church or minister; its nature must be studied through no ecclesiastical or priestly medium. Passing by every other object, we must pause not in our search for the priceless, precious treasure until we confront the naked cross, and stand in the immediate presence of the crucified Nazarene. The spectacle may be appalling, the posture humiliating; nevertheless, while all self-righteousness, all human merit, all pride of intellect, all hatred and opposition to the truth pales and expires in the pure effulgence of the cross. On the other hand, full salvation is found- the blood that effaces the guilt of sin, the righteousness that justifies the person of the sinner, the peace that tranquillizes the troubled conscience, the hope that expels the demon of despair, the heaven that supplants our hell- in a believing reception of the doctrine of Christ crucified, in the humble position of the soul studying at the foot of Christ's cross. Come, then, you perplexed searchers for truth- come, you anxious inquirers after salvation- come, you weary and heavy laden- come, you sin and sorrow-stricken, come, you self-destroyed and bankrupt- come, you who have resisted evidence and stifled conviction, who have effaced impressions and quenched hopes, approach the cross of Jesus, believe, and be saved!\par \par We may add, and it is a solemn conclusion, that at the cross of Christ the justice of God, in the final condemnation of the impenitent, is fully exhibited. Hell itself, with all its untold and inconceivable woe, exhibits no such expression of God's holiness, justice, and power as confront us in the sufferings and death of the Son of God! Finding the sins of the Church charged to Christ, their Surety, Divine justice drew its sword and slew Him. Bearing the curse of His people, the holiness of God extracted from Him the death-penalty they had incurred. What is the true, the solemn, the awful conclusion? It is this- If the pure, the sinless, the innocent Son of God endured the Divine wrath due for His people's sins, what must be the certain and the righteous doom of those who die in their sins, unsheltered by the Atonement of the cross from the wrath that is to come? Sin found charged to the account of the Savior was the cause of His death. Sin found upon and charted to the account of the sinner, when his soul goes hence, will expose him to just and eternal punishment. From this logical but appalling inference there is no avenue of escape. If your sins are pardoned by Christ, then you are saved; but if you die impenitent and unbelieving, then must you endure the inevitable and equitable condemnation of those sins. Despising a Savior so divine, scorning a sacrifice so complete, and neglecting a salvation so great, how shall you, how can you, escape? "There remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. O man! O woman! I put it to your conscience, I appeal to your judgment, if God will not be righteous, His throne guiltless, His justice, holiness, and truth awfully severe, yet eternally glorified, in condemning to endless woe the soul who wilfully rejects Jesus Christ, His beloved Son? Spurn and thrust from you the life-boat which a God of love has launched upon the dark, surging waters of the curse, for the rescue and salvation of poor lost sinners buffeting amid its billows, and you sink into the yawning gulf of the bottomless pit, the author and the architect of your own just and everlasting destruction- a moral suicide! He who said, "He that believes shall be saved," also said, "And he that believes not shall be damned."\par \par We gather from the subject of this chapter, HOW IRRESISTIBLY FORCIBLE AND CONVINCING IS DIVINE TRUTH! Confronted by Essential Truth, around whom were accumulating the witnesses of His Divinity- creation in sympathy with the death of her Creator- the centurion, before perhaps a sceptic and a scorner, now exclaims, "TRULY this was the Son of God!" We hesitate not to affirm that an individual, be his ignorance, scepticism, and prejudice what it may, who will take his lowly place at the cross, study the gospel in its light, shall find no difficulty in accepting all its essential, precious, and sublime truths. In what way?\par \par In the first place, there will be the reconciliation of his mind to all that is mysterious in Divine truth. He will not cavil at a doctrine, or reject a truth, or disbelieve a fact, because it transcends the grasp of his intellect. He will not ask for mathematical demonstration in proof of moral truth, but, accepting the greater mystery of godliness- "God manifest in the flesh"- he accepts all other mysteries in it- the faith that embraces the Savior equally embracing the salvation. Thus, when the humble and believing heart receives Christ Jesus the Lord, it receives the whole truth, because it receives Him who is essentially and emphatically "the truth; " and then, all the scepticism, perplexity, and opposition which previously enshrouded the mind in its investigation of revealed truth disappears as the gray mists of the morning which wreath the mountain's brow dissolve into sunshine before the ascending orb of day. "Truly this was the Son of God!"\par \par Again, receiving into your heart Christ crucified, there will be a moral molding of the life to the gospel of Jesus. The conviction produced by Divine truth is not simply intellectual, it also emotional; while it enlightens the judgement. It penetrates and sanctifies the heart. It was one of our Lord's petitions in His sublime intercessory prayer, "Sanctify them through the truth." The "truth which is after godliness," thus insinuating itself into the heart, becomes an element of holiness; and thus those who receive Christ crucified are emphatically numbered among "the pure in heart, who shall see God."\par \par The intensifying of our love to God will follow. One of the effects of a spiritual conviction and a believing reception of the truth as it is in Jesus is love. No embers will enkindle upon the altar of the human heart such a fire and flame of divine love as those which we take from off the altar of the cross. Do you want, my reader, a "burning heart?" Take your heart, all dark and icy as it is, and bring it in contact with the cross of Calvary, and while you are musing upon its stupendous spectacle of love, the fire will burn and your lips will praise. Our love to God and to Christ and to the saints will be proportioned to our walks in Gethsemane and our visits to Calvary. " The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God!"\par \par Lastly, there will be the happiness and comfort of a full assurance. There is no assurance like that which is found in close proximity to the cross of Jesus. Oh, with what of earthly good would not many a child of God part to be fully persuaded of a personal interest in Christ! But why should there be a moment's doubt? Approach the cross, look in simple faith to Christ, the Crucified, accept Jesus as the Savior, believe in Him as a sinner, learn of Him as a disciple, follow and glorify Him as a saint, and the conviction will be as true, and the joy will be as thrilling, and the hope will be as bright, and the exclamation will be as loud as the centurion's. "Truly, Lord, I am your servant, your child, your disciple! bought with blood! and henceforth, whether I live, I live unto the Lord; and whether I die, I die unto the Lord; whether I live or die, I am the Lord's!"\par \par \fs24\par \pard\cf2\lang2058\f2\fs23\par } swiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 Chapter 9: A Life-look at the Foot of the Cross\par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\f1\fs22\par "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." \cf1\ul Joh_3:14-15\cf0\ulnone\par \par It was a prominent and beautiful feature in our Lord's ministrations, that He never expended a single moment in disputation upon the mere outworks of Christianity. His whole life intent upon saving man, not a second of that life was spent in discussing ecclesiastical questions, sacraments, and forms. They never came within the scope of His ministrations save as positive institutions, and gospel commands. And when, through the subtlety of Satan and of error, men sought, by speculative questions, to divert His mind from His grand purpose- for example, inquiring, "Are there few that be saved? "-with a skill and adroitness peculiar to Himself, the heavenly Teacher, He instantly concentrated their thoughts upon the great essential and personal matters of their salvation, and exclaimed, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate." The narrative before us is a striking instance of this. There came to Him a ruler of the synagogue under the veil of night, evidently with a mind under deep religious excitement. Our Lord did not give a direct answer to the admission of His divine authority as a Teacher, but instantly brought to bear upon the mind of the inquirer the great question of his regeneration, and pressed him with that most momentous of all momentous truths, "Unless a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Confronted, in communicating this doctrine, by apparent obtuseness of mind and hardness of heart in Nicodemus, the Savior cites a fact in the history of his own nation which would be familiar to his mind, and which would at once illustrate the truth. To Nicodemus's inquiry, "How can these things be?" our Lord instantly recalls to his memory the fact of Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness, and by that well-known and impressive incident He sought to elucidate to the mind of the Jew the divinely appointed way by which a poor, serpent-stung sinner could be healed, justified, and eternally saved. The subject is replete with gospel truth, yes, it is the very marrow of the gospel itself. May the Spirit of truth be our Teacher!\par \par We will, in the discussion of the subject, consider the points of coincidence between the emblem, and the gospel truth it is designed to illustrate and teach. "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."\par \par We commence with THE SERPENT'S STING. We need not remind the reader that in this particular the parallel is complete. The sting of this fiery serpent was venomous. The virus, instantly it was produced; insinuated itself into the system, and certain and almost immediate death was the consequence. With the speculative question touching the origin of sin we have nothing to do. I believe it to be one of Satan's subtleties for withdrawing attention from the actual existence, sinfulness, and fatality of sin itself, the progress of which, if not arrested, terminates in all the bitter pangs and miserable horrors of the "second death." The natural fascination of the serpent is proverbial. The moral fascination of sin is yet more so. Its spell binds men's souls in its serpent coil; and if Satan can but succeed in entangling men's minds with the question, "Why was sin introduced into the world?" he has succeeded in diverting their thoughts front the solemn and momentous fact of their personal fall and actual apostasy from God. Beware of attempting to be wiser than the Bible, wiser than the God of the Bible. You have to do, not with the question, why sin was permitted, or where its mysterious origin? The matter you have to do with is, the momentous one of your personal sting by the great serpent the devil; and that if that sting is not extracted, its moral venom arrested, the deep wound healed, then the blackness of despair will brood around your deathless soul forever. O sin, it is a terrible thing! It has left no part of the physical, moral, and intellectual nature of man untouched. Man is originally a sinner. "Behold, I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." In sin he lives, in sin he grows up, in sin he dies, if God's grace is not interposed, if Christ's salvation is not received, welcomed, and believed in. The saints of God feel it. Ask them what wrings the bitterest tear from their eye and the deepest sigh from their hearts? All will acknowledge, "It is sin that dwells in me. Rid me of this, restore to me my original purity, make me perfectly holy, and you make me perfectly happy. It is not the loss of property, nor the sadness of bereavement, that shades and furrows my brow; it is that I feel rankling within my breast the virus of sin, prompting and inciting my wicked heart of unbelief to depart from my God."\par \par We must not here overlook the utter failure of Moses to cure that wound. Stretching far around the camp lay these bitten, dying Israelites. Moses had no power to meet the case. What a gospel truth is illustrated here! There are many sensible of the poison of sin in their hearts, convicted of sin by the Spirit of God, who yet are looking to the law for justification, to their works instead of their believing; going to Moses instead of Jesus; attempting to transform the instrument of condemnation and death into an instrument of justification and life; merging the gospel into the law. But no healing, my reader, will you find here! Were you to give all your goods to feed the poor, and your body to be burned, the law of God could never give you healing; you must come away from Mount Sinai, before which Moses quaked and trembled, and you must travel to Mount Calvary, where the Incarnate God offers pardon and whispers peace to every humble penitent.\par \par A second point of coincidence is found in THE INSTRUMENT OF HEALING. The first question is, With whom did this mode of healing originate? Was it with the wisdom and benevolence of Moses, or was it with the wisdom and benevolence of God? Was it human or divine? natural or revealed? There cannot be a moment's reasonable doubt. The whole expedient, so simple and unique, so improbable yet effective, carries with it the evidence of its own divine origin. It was of God! Such a method of healing, such a mode of rescue from death of the entire camp of Israel could never have been the conception of a human mind. It transcends the loftiest thought of Moses. We here combat an important error common to many pious people, that the atonement of Christ originated the love of God to man, rather than that the love of God originated the atonement of Christ. The atonement was the effect of a cause, and that\par \par cause was the everlasting love of God to His Church. It is a perfect satire upon Christianity to represent the death of Jesus as the procuring cause of God's love to man, as if that could be love in God which was not essential and spontaneous. Had not God first loved us, and had not that love embodied itself in the gift of His beloved Son, there had been no expedient by which He could, with honor to Himself, have justified the sinner and remain infinitely holy and just. Listen to that familiar passage, familiar as a household word, yet, we fear, falling like an icicle on the heart of many, "God so loved the world "- Oh, that monosyllable "so" - eternity will be occupied with its depth- "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Here you see the origin of the atonement- namely, the everlasting love of the Father. Human philosophy, in its happiest discoveries, could never have devised an expedient which should unite the two extremes of being- God, the Holy One, and man, the sinner- brought into a state of friendship and love. To God, then, we ascribe the scheme of redemption, the uplifting of the crucified Savior, as the only means by which the sinner, dying from the sting of the serpent, could be saved.\par \par Another point of coincidence was, THE APPARENT INADEQUACY OF THE MEANS TO THE END. To the eye of a passing observer, the lifting up of that cold, lifeless serpent would seem like a mockery. What relation could there possibly be, sense would have reasoned, to the case of the Israelites? So does the salvation of God appear in the eye of this world. "To the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness." The redemption of man was achieved by the unparalleled humiliation of the Son of God; and that brazen serpent- not of gold or of silver- was the expressive and appropriate symbol of the humble and lowly appearance of Jesus, by whose work man should be raised from the dunghill of his fall, to a throne in glory. The Son of God humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death. Let the atonement of the Son of God be our study- it will heighten and ennoble our views of the glory from where He stooped to save. The Son of God humbled Himself to our nature, robed Himself with suffering humanity, endured our curse, bore our sin, and paid to justice the penalty of our transgressions. And, as to the eye of the bitten Israelite, that brazen serpent had no form or loveliness, and yet was the instrument of his life, so did it set forth this great truth, that the highest life and deepest glory of the Church springs from the humiliation of the Son of God; and from those depths of poverty and lowliness and sorrow to which He sank, our noblest life and richest hope springs.\par \par Look, too, at THE SIMPLICITY OF THE REMEDY. It was but a pole, upon the summit of which stood the form of a serpent. There were many splendid and costly pieces of temple furniture, but God selected the most simple and least ornamental and costly instrument to effect the mighty\par \par cure. All this was purposely significant of the simplicity of the gospel. Another illustration of the simplicity of God's plan of saving suggests itself in the case of Naaman the leper. When commanded by the prophet to go and dip himself three times in Jordan, he was angry, and exclaimed, in the pride of his heart and in the consciousness of an imaginary insult, "Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them, and be clean?" He stumbled at the simplicity of God's cure. But he lived to know that God's mode of dealing with man is designed to humble human pride, that no flesh should glory in His presence; and that to obey Him is better than earthly sacrifice, and is the secret of all blessing. Such is the simplicity of salvation! It is but to believe and be saved. A simple look, an empty palm outstretched, a trembling hand touching the border, one drop of atoning blood applied by the Spirit, and the moral virus is arrested, the wound is healed, the sinner lives, the soul is saved! No great thing, O man, is required of you. No self-torture, no, long pilgrimage, no wasting hunger, no costly self-sacrifice. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, wash in the blood of the slain Lamb, look to the uplifted cross, and a nobler life than you did forfeit in Eden will flow back to your soul, and bear you to an endless life of glory.\par \par A third point of resemblance- THE REMEDY WAS PERFECT. Nothing was to be added to it. So complete, that anything of human device supplementing this God's means of life would but have neutralized its influence and rendered it of none effect. Solemn is the truth illustrated here! So perfect is the atonement of the Son of God, so complete the work of Christ, the law so fully honored, justice so completely satisfied, and the glory of God so fully vindicated, that that holy Lord God, who sees flaw and imperfection and spot in everything else, says to a poor, believing soul, stung by that old serpent the devil, yet robed in the righteousness of Jesus, "You are all fair, my love. I see no spot in you." Hold fast, beloved, to the perfection of God's remedy of saving sinners. Be jealous of everything that would dare seek to supplement it. What a lesson to God's ministers is this! When Moses lifted up the serpent on that pole, he lifted up nothing else with it. Away with baptisms, and sacraments, and apostolic succession, and strifes about orders and polity, forms and ceremonies- let them not be once named in the same breath that bids the dying sinner look to the Crucified and live! Talk to a poor sin-distressed soul about baptism, ritualism, and the sacrament, and churches, and religious duties, and you are a cruel mocker of his woe. Put all these things in the shadows, and tell him of Jesus only, of His love and grace to poor sinners, of His willingness and ability to save to the uttermost, of the blood that cleanses, and of the righteousness that clothes, and of the Spirit that anoints, and that all this is the gift of free grace without a single work of human merit, and you have brought him glad tidings of great joy. Angels' chimes not half so sweet as the melody with which you fill that soul. "We preach Christ crucified," is the echo of every true minister of Christ. Beware, then, of mixing up anything with your salvation. I care not how sacred it may be, if you place it side by side with the Savior, if you exalt the Church and its ordinances above Christ and His cross, or even to a level with Him, you rob your soul of joy, peace, hope, and fatally mislead the souls of others. Look to Jesus only. Look away from your baptism, and your church, and your own doings, to Jesus only! I would risk the eternal happiness of my own soul upon the assertion that that look of faith will take you to heaven. "Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your soul."\par \par Another point of resemblance is- the serpent was LIFTED ON A POLE. Some have interpreted it of the gospel. I adopt the interpretation. The gospel is a revelation of Jesus the Crucified. It uplifts Christ. It is full of Jesus, all about Jesus,\par \par and nothing but Jesus. And whenever and by whomsoever the gospel is truly, simply, and lovingly preached, then Christ crucified is uplifted. The gospel is thus the divinely appointed instrument of making Jesus known, of uplifting Christ, of pointing the sinner to the Lamb of God. O glorious gospel of the blessed God! your form is divine, your voice is music, your breath redolent of heaven! You are fairer than all the systems of men, for words of free, pardoning grace flow from your lips!\par \par But we reach a vital point. WHAT WAS THE ACTION? It was to LOOK. Nothing less, nothing more. It was simply to raise the languid eye, perchance dimming with death, and rest it on the object; and, distant and shadowy as was the glimpse, that glimpse instantly rolled back the cold chill of death, roused the sinking pulse, and brought back life to the dying patient. Oh, what a glorious truth is this! It is but in faith to look away from our wound to Jesus, and, looking, we are healed. We speak to you who are always poring over your wound. You argue that you are so vile; we believe it; but this we tell you, poring over the depth and blueness and aggravation of the wound will never bring you healing. You must look to Jesus. Bring your soul to His blood, and, so coming, what shall be the result? Oh, most blessed! "Whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life;" the result will be, you are saved. You have two situations before you- life and death, heaven and hell. Perish you must, if you do not look in faith alone to Christ for salvation. Perish you will, if you turn your back upon the Son of God, and apply to your wounds the remedies of human invention, and refuse the remedy a God of love has provided and revealed in the cross of His well-beloved Son. "Behold the Lamb of God." "Look unto me, all you ends of the earth, and be you saved." "Looking unto Jesus." Such is the unity of God's Word in its revelations of this great and precious truth- look and live, look and be saved. Approach the cross, raise those eyes which smite the ground, and rest them, swimming with tears, and dim with unbelief though they are, upon Jesus the Crucified, and everlasting life shall be yours.\par \par And WHERE DID THIS GREAT EVENT TRANSPIRE? In, the WILDERNESS. What is this world to us who feel the pangs of sin, but who yet have believed in Jesus? It is a wilderness! But oh, we have found grace in the wilderness of our own hearts and in the wilderness of this world, in finding a\par \par Savior full of grace. The Lord, my reader, may be leading you into the emptiness, poverty, and dreariness of yourself, of the creature, and of the world; that, amid its nothingness, you may find Jesus. To this end God often deals thus with\par \par the children of men. When He has removed the creature you loved, blighted the health you prided in, scattered the wealth you boasted of, and has brought you very low, in that desolate wilderness state you have found Jesus.\par \par Overlook not the privilege which these Israelites had of a RENEWED APPLICATION TO THE BRAZEN SERPENT. If they were again stung, they were privileged again to look, and again they were healed. It is the privilege of the child of God to be constantly looking to Christ. In every fresh assault of temptation, in every fresh surprisal of sin, if, in penitence and faith, he repairs to Jesus he shall know what David's experience was- "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not lack; He restores my soul." Look again, O believer, if you are wounded by Satan or wounded by sin, wounded by the world or wounded by the saints, and you shall feel that the blood of Jesus has still power to give you peace, and the sympathy of Christ sufficient to give you comfort!\par \par And HOW GRACIOUS WAS THE REMEDY! Did they ask for it? Did they merit it? Not a petition rose from their lips, not an act deserving such an interposition had they done! Such is our salvation!" By grace are you saved." "It is of faith, that it might be by grace." Embrace this precious truth, that your salvation is "without money and without price," that "whoever will may come and take of the water of life freely," and you shall be saved. The brazen serpent could convey but one benefit, but we have in the Lord Jesus all fulness of blessing. Not only have we the salvation of the soul, but comfort and solace, guidance and wisdom, does Jesus vouchsafe for all who live by faith upon Him, the Son of God. You have not a difficulty, nor a sorrow, nor a need which you may not take to Christ. Live upon Jesus, "in whom it has pleased the Father all fulness shall dwell."\par \par Once more- the Israelite, thus healed, at last died; but THE BELIEVING SINNER, ONCE HEALED AND SAVED, NEVER DIES! Jesus says, "Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die." Saved, his soul shall wing its way to eternal glory the moment it has shaken off this mortal coil, the instant it has disengaged itself from the frail tabernacle of sin, suffering, and death, and shall mount with pinions swifter than eagles, to be at rest forever. This would I say for the comfort of some who may bend over this page- Do you feel your days are numbered? The inroad of disease, the approach of mortality, the shadows of eternity gathering around you? Lo! I bring you a message from God. Look to Jesus Christ, and when you depart hence, you shall sleep in Him, and you shall not die the death that is eternal. It may be late- the eleventh hour of life- yet not too late. Your view of Jesus may be dim, still, if you look in simple faith, that look will save your soul. Saints of God! live for the glory of Him who bought you with His precious blood! Looking unto Jesus, run the race set before you, and pause not until you exchange the telescope of faith for the beatific vision of Jesus in glory.\par \par "Look unto Me, and be saved\par From all your depths of sin,\par From every crimson stain without,\par And strongest power within.\par \par "Look unto Me, and be saved\par From all your earthly care;\par Alike I grasp eternity,\par And number every hair.\par \par "Look unto Me, for I am God\par To Me belongs all power,\par At once to give eternal life,\par And guide each passing hour.\par \par "Look unto Me, and be saved\par From every doubt and fear;\par Your warfare is accomplished,\par Your path to glory clear.\par \par "Look unto Me- 'tis no great deed,\par A humble look to cast;\par This is enough- the power that saves\par Is Mine, from first to last.\par \par "Look unto Me while life endures,\par I give each fleeting breath;\par Look unto Me when death is near,\par I hold the keys of death.\par \par "Look unto Me, for I am God;\par Whatever to Me is given,\par Whatever committed to My care\par Is safe for earth or heaven."\par \par \fs24\par \pard\cf2\f2\fs23\par } uBu5 m A 10 - Bearing the Cross{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\s =mA 09 - A Life-look at the Foot of the Cross{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\ftylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 Chapter 10: Bearing the Cross\par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\f1\fs22\par "And He, bearing His cross, went forth to a place called Golgotha." \cf1\ul Joh_19:17\cf0\ulnone\par \par There is no incident in our Lord's passion which, to a heart quickened with spiritual sensibility, is more replete with holy instruction, or more deeply, tenderly touching than this- Christ bearing to Calvary the cross upon which He was to suffer. It unveils such a profound abasement, and yet such a depth of love- it portrays a stoop of the Majesty of heaven to earth's lowest degradation- so marvelous, and yet, is the measurement of grace, so vast, the fact stands out, amid the many marvels of our Lord's death, one of the most touching and significant of all. To compel the criminal to bear the wood upon which he was to be impaled, was one of the severest elements of degradation in the Roman punishment of crucifixion. To this our Lord was subjected, "And He, bearing His cross, went forth." Little did they dream, as they bound the fatal wood upon His shoulder, by whose power that tree was made to grow, and from whom the beings who bore Him to the death drew their existence. So completely was Jesus bent upon saving sinners by the sacrifice of Himself, He created the tree upon which He was to die, and nurtured from infancy the men who were to nail Him to the accursed wood. Oh the depth of Jesus's love to sinners! Lord! the universe in its accumulation presents no love like Yours! Your love, eternal as Your being, saw from everlasting the cross of Calvary, and yet You did not falter in Your purpose, nor modify Your plan of saving lost sinners by the sacrifice of Yourself. You saved others, Yourself You would not save!\par \par Our present subject, while it presents one of the most affecting portraits of our Lord, equally delineates what should be the portrait of His disciple bearing the cross after Jesus. We proceed to guide the reader's thoughts first, to the study of the Divine Original, and then, to the consideration of the human copy.\par \par THE DIVINE ORIGINAL.\par \par The burden borne by our Lord on this memorable occasion was the literal, actual cross upon which He was to agonize and die. What a touching proof have we here of His literal and actual humanity! The bearing of that cross upon His chafed shoulders, His weariness and fainting beneath its weight, proved Him to be (sin always excepted) very man of very man, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. Replete with consolation is this fact to the burdened believer. Perhaps Jesus has laid upon you some cross- it may be the shame and the loss of His own; your heart is sad, your spirits sink, you stagger and swoon beneath the burden. But study this touching incident in your Lord's life, and receive the instruction and accept the soothing it affords. Your Lord knew what it was to droop beneath the cross, and do you think that He has no regard, no compassion, no sympathy with you at this moment, as, weary, exhausted, and faint, you bear the load God has laid upon you, carry the cross Christ has imposed, toiling on in obedience, suffering, and service?\par \par We have already adverted to the humiliating aspect which this fact in our Lord's history presents. It is too significant to pass superficially over. Every view of our Lord's humiliation is a view of His love. The greatest indignity, as we have remarked, in the death of the Roman malefactor, was to compel him to carry the gibbet to the place of execution. To this degradation did Jesus voluntarily subject Himself. "He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." But why this degradation? That He might illustrate the depth of His love, and teach His followers that in all the humiliation they pass through in confessing His name and bearing His cross, He enfolds them in the robe of His sympathy, and sustains them by the arm of His grace. If such the humiliation to which our Lord cheerfully submitted, and such the springs of sympathy which gush from His compassionate nature, who would shrink from the shame and the loss of bearing the cross after Jesus? What assuring words has He spoken! "Whoever confesses me before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven." But we pass to the more spiritual and gospel truth involved in the incident of Christ bearing His cross.\par \par IT WAS THE SYMBOL OF A HEAVIER BURDEN THAT HE BORE- THE BURDEN OF HIS CHURCH'S SINS. But for sin there had been no cross. When our blessed Lord traveled to Calvary, weary and faint beneath the cross, there was a sorrow in His heart, a moral crucifixion of the soul, greater and severer far than this- the sorrow and the weight which the transfer of all His people's transgressions to Him, as their Substitute and Surety, involved. Listen to His touching language- "My soul is sorrowful, even unto death." What was the cause of that grief from which He would not escape? The bearing of sin! Nothing but sin supplies a solution of the mystery of His deep, unparalleled soul-sorrow. The sorrow had not been His by experience- had not the sin been His by imputation. Thus our Lord endured, not the punishment only, but the actual sins of His people. What injustice would there be in punishing the innocent for the guilty, had not the innocent party stood in the place of the guilty party. This our Lord did. Substitution is the great doctrine of the gospel- the substitution of the innocent for the guilty. "He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Behold then, beloved, your sins laid by transfer upon Jesus. The teaching of the Bible is not, as some suppose, that we lay our sins upon Christ- that were a difficult, an impossible act, but the teaching is, that Jehovah laid our sins upon Him. "The Lord [JEHOVAH] has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all." The Father did this in His everlasting love, from all eternity. In the eternal purpose of the Triune God the sins of the elect were laid upon Jesus, and He undertook to bear and die for them. If God the Father had not laid our sins upon God the Son, no power of ours had ever prevailed to effect the task. In accomplishing our reconciliation, Christ acted for God on the one part, and for man on the other. And if God had not consented that His people's transgressions should all meet upon Christ, actually binding upon the sacrificial victim with His own hands the burden, there had been no reconciliation. Hence our salvation, with all the blessings that flow from it- Jehovah the Father laying upon Jehovah the Son His Church's sins.\par \par And now your faith has to do with an accomplished fact, and not with an impossible task. It is to accept the truth that God Himself laid your sins upon the soul of Jesus, as Aaron the priest took all the transgressions of all the children of Israel and laid them upon the head of the goat, and then sent him away into the wilderness. "And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions and all their sins, putting them [the actual iniquities and transgressions] upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities into a land not in habited." (Margin, a land of separation.) You have, perhaps, under an enlightened and spiritual sense of sin- distressed and despairing- for months endeavored to uplift the crushing weight and lay it upon Christ, and every effort has failed. Let me gently lead you to the foot of the Savior's cross. Behold in faith the sinless, spotless Lamb of God as having already borne that weight, as having suffered for those sins, as having died for those transgressions, and accept the precious truth that it was God's eternal love that laid them all on Jesus, and that nothing is left for you to do but to believe in Jesus, that He saves to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him.\par \par Thus, as we have remarked, you have, in the momentous matter of your soul's salvation, to accept an attested fact, and not to propose a hopeless task. Your soul-distress for sin, your spiritual consciousness of guilt, is to impel you, just as you are, to the cross, there to look and believe and be saved. If you lose sight of the truth that God laid your sins upon Christ, you lose sight of the love of God towards you; and, losing sight of the love of God, you lose sight of the fountain from where flows all your springs of peace and joy and hope. The comfort which this view of Christ's bearing sin imparts, distances all measurement. If God has laid your sins upon the Son of His love, you may rest assured that He will never lay them a second time upon you; since, if Christ has borne them and atoned for them to Divine justice, they never again can be found. What, then, are you to take to Jesus? For what are you to repair to the foot of His cross? You are to take to Jesus the conviction of sin; the spiritual, enlightened confession of your guilt- that terrible and crushing burden that weighs you to the earth- you are to take to Him your sense of condemnation, your dread of death, your fearful apprehension of eternal wrath. Brought by the Holy Spirit to see and feel your condemnation under the law, you are to repair to the cross and behold Jesus "made a curse for us," and see your sins all laid upon Him, condemned in Him, pardoned through Him, and by Him cast into eternal oblivion.\par \par While all Christendom admits the fact that Christ died upon the cross, how widely different the interpretation of that fact? We accept the only scriptural and rational one which supplies a solution of the mystery, "Christ died for the ungodly." "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." "Who His own self bear our sins in His own body on the tree." Can any truth be presented more forcibly, or in a light more luminous, than the doctrine which these touching words convey- the sacrificial nature of our Lord's death? Hold fast this essential doctrine of your faith- it is for your life. There is no present spiritual life, and there can be no future eternal life, apart from a humble, believing reception of the atonement Of the Son of God. God will not save the sinner at the expense of His honor, or exercise mercy at the sacrifice of justice. The atonement of the Son of God so harmonizes His perfections, as to render it easy, honorable, and illustrious on the part of God to embrace in His love, extend His mercy, and exercise His grace towards the greatest sinner. Were He to save the sinner on the basis of mercy without an equivalent to His moral government, it would be an outrage on justice, and a dishonor to holiness, and a violation of truth. But the atoning work of the Son of God- the God-man, Christ Jesus- meets the whole case- it honors the Holiest and it saves the vilest. "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved."\par \par And how resplendent does the love of Jesus appear from beneath this dark cloud of His profound humiliation. The marvellous fact of His bearing His own cross can only be understood in the light of LOVE. It was, in fact, LOVE bearing the instrument of its own torture and death. The cross of Jesus is the symbol, the badge, the expression of Divine love. It is love's manner and escutcheon. Love died to save, confronting death in its most painful and degrading form. God the Father so loved that He gave His Son- God the Son so loved that He gave Himself- and God the Spirit so loves that He takes of the things of Jesus and shows them\par \par to us. Love, and love only, supplies the solution of all that Jehovah has done from everlasting in the covenant of redemption. Behold, then, your Savior bearing His cross, trembling and fainting the place of suffering, and doubt not His love to you. Has He laid upon you a burden beneath whose pressure your tender spirit faints? His love bore a far heavier one for you; and will sustain you while you learn the lesson and reap the blessing of this discipline. Would you know the heart of Jesus? Track His footsteps as, bearing His own cross for you, weary and mournful, He traveled to the sepulchral gloom of Golgotha.\par \par Many are THE BLESSINGS which flow from this touching incident of our Lord's passion. We mention a few. Confirming, as it does, the fact of our Lord's nature as a man, it equally illustrates His human sympathy. Sinking from weariness, faint from exhaustion, and ready to succumb beneath the burden that you bear, let the thought of Christ's sympathy soothe and sustain you. No other being can sympathize with your present position- the mental depression, the bodily infirmity, the spiritual despondency- as Christ. His bearing the burden of His cross schooled Him for this identical path you now tread. It may be tortuous in its windings, cross-like in its shape, traced by tears, shaded by gloom, nevertheless the discipline of your Lord, when He went forth bearing His cross, has prepared Him for this your present path. Take your cross to the foot of His, and the spectacle of His suffering love will make your affliction light and momentary; and you shall declare with the Psalmist, "I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."\par \par Few lessons gleaned from this incident in our Lord's life are more practical and precious to the believer than the assimilation into which it brings him with Christ. How frequently, in His conversations with His disciples, did the phrase occur- "taking the cross." For example- "He that takes not his cross, and follows not after Me, is not worthy of Me." "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." An illustration of this high, spiritual privilege of the disciple of Christ is touchingly presented in the instance of Simon the Cyrenean, of whom it is recorded, "him they compelled to bear His cross."\par \par What is it to bear Christ's cross? It involves three ideas. The first is, the public confession of Christ crucified before the world. It is due to our Lord, if we are really His disciples, that the world should know it. There are many who are not Christ's true disciples, who yet presumptuously assume and wear His badge. And there are not a few who are His true disciples, but who are only secretly so. "Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly." But the religion of Jesus imposes an open, public, and avowed profession of His name and truth before men. Christ was not crucified in secret, but openly in the sight of heaven and earth; and His true disciples, not ashamed of Him and His cross, of His truth and of His people, but coming out of the world, separating themselves from its worldliness and its religion, are openly, manfully, and meekly to take up His cross and follow Him; not ashamed to own themselves the disciples of that Savior whose life was poverty, whose kingdom was not of this world, whose first apostles were fishermen, and whose death was that of a Roman slave upon the cross. Oh, then, if you love Jesus, confess Him where His person is despised, His gospel hated, His name reviled; and count it your highest distinction on earth, like Simon, . to "bear the cross after Jesus."\par \par Another idea involved is, a willing and cheerful endurance of whatever sufferings, afflictions, and trials our Lord may see fit, in His infinite wisdom and love, to lay upon us in the profession of His name and the service of His kingdom and truth. The religion of Jesus involves the bearing of a cross. We should keep in mind the sentiment of Augustine, "My Love was crucified." All service, therefore, for Him whom our souls love imposes a cross, demands a self-denying spirit, the abnegation of our own will, and the doing and the suffering of our Lord's. And oh, how pleasant a thing it is to make any sacrifice- if we dare dignify our poor service by such a term- for Him who sacrificed Himself for us! Love to Jesus- love enkindled at the altar of His own- will impart lowliness to the loftiest service, and dignity to the most common things done in His name.\par \par The third idea is that of crucifixion of sin. "Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh." "I am crucified with Christ." The sacrificial death of our Lord upon the cross not only obtained for us reconciliation with God, but it supplied a personal and effectual motive for the mortification of sin and the subjugation of the powers and passions of the soul to the supremacy of Jesus. And he who, by the power of the cross, thus crucifies sin, may appropriate to himself spiritually the language which Paul employed literally- "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus." "I have in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." As Owen observes, "Nothing but the death of Christ for us, will be the death of sin in us." In bearing thus the cross of Jesus, the believer dies unto sin and lives unto holiness. It is a dying daily, or daily crucifixion. And never can the child of God look simply to the cross, beholding His sins all nailed there, without associating the crucifixion of Jesus for his sins with the crucifixion of his sins. In the solemn light of that cross he reads, "Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." "Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God our Father."\par \par Thus may we be found, like our Lord and Master, bearing the cross, though the path lead us to the solitude, the suffering, and the sorrow of Golgotha. It will not be that we bear this precious load alone, nor bear it long. Christ carries with us its heaviest end, and in a little while we shall lay it down for the "rest that remains for the people of God."\par \par \fs24\par \pard\cf2\f2\fs23\par } \green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 Chapter 11: The Solitude of the Cross\par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\f1\fs22\par He said unto them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." \cf1\ul Joh_4:32\cf0\ulnone\par \par The cross of Christ, like the light of God, stands in its own awesome and sublime solitude. Viewed in this aspect, it appears in perfect sympathy with a peculiar stage of Christian experience. His was a lonesome way. No foot had left an imprint upon its path; no echoes answering to His grief had ever broken its deep solitude; the cup He drained no other lips had ever pressed. From Bethlehem to Calvary, from Calvary to Olivet, from Olivet to heaven, He traveled in loneliness. He was thronged, and yet alone. He had many friends, yet lacked one. This but added keenness to His sense of desolateness. There is no solitude so painful or profound as that which is experienced in a crowd. To feel, amid the hum of a thousand voices, not one chimes lovingly on our ear- to feel, amid the beatings of a thousand hearts, not one throbs in sympathy with our own- to feel, amid the bright and happy homes of earth, the head has no where to lie- this, this is desolateness indeed! Such was the path trodden by our Lord! It is true there were hearts that loved Him, sympathy that soothed Him, kindness that relieved Him, and yet withal He could say, with an emphasis of meaning deep and mournful, "I have food to eat which you know not of." I have a mission to perform, a work to finish, suffering to endure, a path to tread, unapproached and unapproachable by angel or man. Viewed in this light, the cross of Jesus is in full sympathy with a peculiarity of the believer's experience- Christian solitude. The life of God in the soul is a concealed life. Its seat, its principle, its actings, all are profoundly veiled. This being so, the path of the believer must necessarily partake much of this page of our Lord's life. Next to his Lord, he is the only being who can say of his service and suffering, "I have food to eat which you know not of." Let us study these remarkable words of our Lord, first in reference to Himself, and then as they bear upon Christian experience.\par \par THE SOLITUDE OF JESUS.\par \par We could scarcely have expected any other path more appropriate to Christ than the one which this passage indicates. Any other would have been incongruous with the character, the mission, and the life of Jesus. He was a Divine Sun revolving in an orbit peculiarly His own, an orbit so vast that Deity alone could fill it. The path He took was too elevated for any to walk beside Him- His object, His sorrow, His joy too unique for a stranger to intermeddle with. The human nature of Christ was keenly sensitive. Naturally of a pensive mind, He loved retirement, courted solitude, sought the quietude of the desert, that there He might converse alone with God. With the nature of the work which He came to accomplish neither men nor angels could sympathize or aid. Deity, united with a sinless humanity; absolute God, yet in union with perfect man, He alone could accomplish it. No creature could share the curse, divide the burden, or tread a step with Him the wine-press of woe. Ah, no! with the accomplishment and the honor of our salvation man had nothing to do. It is the work of the God-man alone, and stands, in its own transcendent glory, the unaided achievement of the Incarnate God. While yet none ever lived so solitary a life as did our Lord, it yet was not a selfish, unloving life. Never did one live so entirely for others as He did. "He went about doing good." He loved the solitary glen, but He loved man more; and to heal and soothe and bless man He would often exchange the calm, sequestered shade of the mountain, for the noise and the strife of the crowded city. And yet, amid the turmoil and engagements of public life, His spirit was often as lonely and desolate as though He trod the profound solitudes of the desert. He had food to eat of which none knew but Himself.\par \par Then there was loneliness around the character of Christ. It was never fully known even by His beloved disciples, so constantly in His presence, sharing His love and admitted to His confidence. His words were misunderstood, His actions misinterpreted, a false complexion often put upon the most simple and transparent doings. And why this? Because He moved in an orbit unknown to all but God!\par \par Equally lonely were the sorrows and sufferings of our Lord. The cross, in this respect, stood alone. There was no sharing of the cup which He drank, no dividing the sufferings which He endured, no partnership in the work which He finished. The scripture was fulfilled to the letter which said of Him, "I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me." Not only did He endure in lonely, uncomplaining silence, the petty trials and annoyances of daily life, (for to whom could He repair with the woundings of His sensitive, loving spirit?) but the deeper anguish His soul endured in working out the redemption of His Church. Truly might He say to His disciples, "I have food to eat which you know not of." This explains to us the one purpose of our Lord's life. His food and His drink was to do the will of His Father, and to finish the work given Him to do. For this He lived and labored, for this He suffered, bled, and died. It was His food- the sustenance of His life. He only lived as He lived to accomplish this sublime end- the glory of God in the salvation of man. What a solemn lesson does this teach us! Does our life have an adequate object? Are we doing or enduring the will of God? Is the object for which we live, in which we employ our talents, expend our time, use our influence, devote our worldly substance, worthy of life's present obligations and future award? Oh, beware of a blank life! What, reader, is your food and your drink? Is anything done for Jesus? anything for the glory of God? anything for the well being of your fellows? Remember that for all your abilities, God holds you accountable, and that before long death will cite you to his bar! Child of God! be up and doing. Say to the world, its enchantments, pleasures, and repose, "I have food to eat of which you know nothing. My food is to live for God." Christ's cross of suffering pledges us to a life of labor for Him. Service for Jesus is to be our daily food. There must be no pause, no succumbing to difficulty, no fainting beneath opposition. Life is a real, a solemn thing, too closely linked to a momentous future to be trifled with. Again, we ask, what is your object in life? Are you living for your Lord and for your fellow men? Do you carry within you a Christ-loving, man-loving heart, seeking the glory of God in the good of all with whom you come in contact, aiming to set a precious gem in the diadem of your Lord? Is it Christ for us to live, and do we feel as if life only were precious as we offer to Him all we hold most dear and valuable? Is it an object of our life to advance Divine truth, to enlarge Christ's kingdom, to bring our fellow sinners to partake of His Divine redemption? Let us who hope through grace we are purchased with His blood, are saved by His resurrection, find our rest in toil, our joy in suffering, our food in service for Christ.\par \par "The captive's oar may pause upon the galley,\par The soldier sleep beneath his plumed crest,\par And peace may fold her wings over hill and valley,\par But you, O Christian, must not take your rest."\par \par Oh, no! who would wish for rest here in Christ's service, with an eternity of repose before him? His love constraining us, labor for Him is delectable, service for Him perfect freedom, His yoke easy, His burden light. Let the inquiry be, "Lord, what would you have me to do?" Thus honestly looking up to Him, the sphere of labor in which He would have you engage will be made plain, "And to every man his work." Seek by prayer to know what the Master has assigned to you, and keep busy until He comes. And as you toil, perchance in pensive loneliness, uncomplaining suffering unnoticed, and unknown, cast your eye earthward and exclaim, "This is the place of labor;" -then raise your eye heavenward and exclaim, "Yonder is the place of rest!"\par \par THE SOLITUDE OF HIS PEOPLE.\par \par In instituting a resemblance between the solitariness of our Lord's life and that of His people, we plead not for a religion of asceticism. The religion of Christ partakes nothing of this element. It is contemplative, but not monastic; sympathetic, but not sentimental; veiled, but not invisible; studious, but not inactive. And yet the solitariness of Christ's cross, the hidden manna which sustained His brief but laborious life, finds a counterpart, in some faint degree, in the life of His disciples. The true Church of God is not a visible but an invisible body. What is termed the "outward and visible church," describes not the people of whom the apostle says, "The world knows us not." Take for example the nature of the Divine life in the believer- the life of God in the soul of man! The expression is emphatic- "Your life is hidden." Not only is it invisible to the world- except in its outward actions, and these are often misunderstood and misinterpreted- but very much so to the saints also. It is often but dimly perceived, and we are slow to recognize it. It is of all things the most deeply veiled- its existence and aspirations, its depressions, defeats, and victories, are known only to Him in whom that life emphatically lives and moves and has its being. And, then, touching its advance- it is in the solitude of the Cross that it derives its strongest impulse, and exhibits its mightiest development. It is a divine plant which only grows beneath this sacred shadow. If we would advance in grace we must recede frequently from the sun's heat of this world, and dwell amid the solemn shadows of Gethsemane and the deeper solitude of Calvary. Viewless as the wind, silent as the dew, is that influence which the most vitalizes and promotes our real sanctification. Oh, how blessed to sit there, with myriads like ourselves, silently growing in heavenliness near that marvellous Center- frail and feeble tendrils entwining around the stem of that glorious Tree of Life. Let us often heed the invitation of our Lord, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." -gently led by His outstretched hand to the solitude of His Cross.\par \par Some of the most potent, vitalizing agencies of nature are the most gentle and unseen. The moral analogy is perfect, the greatest growth of the believing soul is from a spiritual influence the most deeply hidden. Retirement for heart-communion, for the scrutiny of actions and words incapable of a faithful investigation amid the excitement which called them into being, for the calm study of God's word, and for confidential transactions with God Himself, seems essential to our heavenly-growth.\par \par "Far from the world, O Lord, I flee,\par From strife and tumult far;\par From scenes where Satan wages still\par His most successful war.\par \par "The calm retreat, the silent shade,\par With prayer and praise agree,\par And scenes of Your sweet bounty made\par For those who follow Thee.\par \par "There, if Your Spirit touch the soul,\par And grace her calm abode,\par Oh, with what peace, and joy, and love,\par She communes with her God!"\par \par Most soothing is this view of Christ's life to those who, by the providence of God, are much isolated from others. Is it God's will concerning you, that in the midst of friends you should feel friendless; that amid the activities of life your spiritual life should be solitary; and that, like David, you should often feel as a sparrow alone upon the house-top? This is just the discipline your Heavenly Father sees the most needful. You are now treading the path your Master trod; you have closer communion with the isolation of your blessed Lord. And are you really alone in this solitude? Impossible! Isolated you may be from man, you are all the nearer to Christ. The less we have of the creature, the more we have of God. We do not undervalue, in speaking thus, the sweetness and the solace- for which our intellectual and social being often craves- of human companionship and sympathy. Jesus Himself asked it, and the disciple must not be above his Lord. It were pure pretense to regard ourselves as totally independent of its influence. This were to ignore one of the sweetest, holiest privileges of our Christianity, "the communion of saints." But, if our Father ordains for our feet a path of much solitude, we may depend upon a deeper teaching of the Spirit, and a more personal experience of the blessings which flow from a closer contact with the Cross.\par \par Truly have all such believers food to eat which others know but little of. And while many are feeding upon mere excitement, these are eating of the hidden manna. Christ is with you then. He who brought you into the experience of this solitude, is present to sanctify and sweeten it. Losing Him amid the crowd and excitement of the city, you have found Him in the calm solitude of the desert. His voice, drowned in the loud roar of the world's merriment, is heard in the sacred stillness of prayer. You have gone, perhaps, unblest with a vision of your Beloved from the exciting\par \par worship of the public sanctuary- its dazzling eloquence, and its entrancing music- to the hallowed solitude of the closet; and amid its awful stillness Jesus has drawn near, and in the calm repose of your spirit you have heard the still, small voice of His love. You toiled for Him in the activities of His vineyard, but you communed with Him amid the solitude of His cross.\par \par We have been pleading, most imperfectly, in these pages for more of that spiritual retirement- for frequent and close communion with God- which distinguished primitive Christianity, and was a marked character of the early Christians. We believe that the religious character of the age demands it, and that a religion permeated with such an element will be found one of the most effectual correctives to the evils of that 'religion of activity', which is so prevalently the religion of the day. We see no reason why the two should be divorced. Our Lord was a singular example of the union of both. He felt infinitely more deeply the need of activity than any of His disciples possibly could. He had come to bless mankind, and the world lying in wickedness rose before His view in all its vast solemnity, and He gave Himself to the work of its redemption. And yet we read of Him, that, "in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." Thus "while He went about doing good," His food and His drink doing the will of His Father, He yet found time, by early rising, to retreat to a solitary place to hold communion with His God. We too much forget that the vast machinery of Christian effort which the Church of God has erected, can only be put and kept in operation by the motive power of prayer. Nor do we hesitate the opinion, that were there more of a reflective, prayerful Christianity, there would be less of a speculative, theatrical Christianity than exists in the present day. There might, indeed, be fewer separate organizations- often aiming at the same object- but there would in their place be more united and concentrated\par \par effort, with more efficient, laborious, and real, palpable fruit. The Church of God needs to depend less upon human agency and more upon the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. This power is called into action by the irresistible might of prayer. It is a great mistake to suppose that they are the most efficient who are always out in the world and in a constant state of bustle and excitement. Christians are apt to gauge their usefulness, and calculate the success of their plans by the numbers engaged in carrying them forward, and the degree of excitement attending their operations. How often do they measure God's blessing by the amount of money contributed towards their prosecution! But this is a delusion! The humblest Christian in his closet may be more powerful than the greatest organization. "See yon mighty vessel ploughing the ocean, dashing the spray in clouds around its resistless prow; hear the thundering roar of its machinery, the rush of that leviathan- he who governs it at will and directs its course through the stormy, trackless deep, and controls its hidden forces, is, in that retired spot upon deck, the quietest being in the ship; it is he who has his eye fixed upon the compass, and his hand upon the helm." (Gigar).\par \par Such is the power of the man of closet prayer! The gospel of Christ, like a gallant ship ploughing its way through foaming billows and beneath tempest-swept skies, receives its mightiest impulse from the power of believing prayer. That paralyzed saint- that sick one couched for months upon a bed of suffering- that retiring believer walking in secret with God, may be more instrumental in furthering the Lord's kingdom in the world by the mighty wrestling of prayer- grasping thus with a steady but powerful hand the helm of the Divine ark, and guiding her over the shoals and through the storm- than the most powerful visible agency employed. We have already observed that the most potent and fruitful agencies of nature are the most unseen and quiet. The analogy holds good in the more illustrious kingdom of grace. The influences and agencies which are the most powerful, efficient , and productive in diffusing the gospel, stemming vice, removing ignorance, and bringing sinners to Christ, are those which deal much in secret with God, and are perhaps less attractive in man's eye, but are more honorable in His.\par \par In conclusion. Let us imitate our Lord. His food was to do the will of His Father. Let us labor for the food that endures unto eternal life. We may eat our meal alone, mingled with tears, in paths sequestered from human notice, aid, and sympathy- food which the saint and the worldling may know nothing of- nevertheless, our God is with us; and encircled by the hallowed solitude of Christ's cross, we are pavilioned with Christ Himself.\par \par "And do you seem forsaken,\par Poor weary one of woe?\par Are all your loved ones taken\par Your fairest hopes below?\par \par "Are you a lone one waging\par The bitter war of life?\par While sore temptations raging,\par More dreadful make the strife.\par \par "Oh! hapless, helpless lone one,\par Just turn your eyes above,\par Then on His Love depending,\par To One who won't abandon-\par To One of boundless love.\par \par "To Him who watches over you,\par While passing through the fire;\par Who bore it all before you,\par And sees your heart's desire.\par \par "To Him, the Lord of glory,\par Who knows your feeble frame;\par However sad your story,\par Oh! trust you in His Name.\par \par "The Eternal God won't fail you,\par However dark the storm;\par Though fearful foes assail you,\par Your strength shall be His Arm.\par \par "Tell Him your soul's deep sorrow,\par Tell Him your griefs alone;\par Whatever ills may harrow,\par Spread all before His throne.\par \par "He'll give you strength, you weak one,\par And take you to His breast;\par Will be your all, you lone one,\par He gives the weary rest.\par \par "And soon, life's struggles ending,\par Will take you to His home;\par Then on His love depending\par Fear not, whatever may come."\par \par \fs24\par \pard\cf2\f2\fs23\par } JJ  %A 11 - The Solitude of the Cross{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 Chapter 12: The Believer Crucified\par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\f1\fs22\par "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." \cf1\ul Gal_6:14\cf0\ulnone\par \par A brief allusion to this subject was made in the preceding chapter. We propose to present it more fully as the topic of the present one. It must ever be an attractive and sanctifying theme to the true believer, seeing that God has implanted in his heart the love of holiness; and that holiness involves a spiritual crucifixion, and that that crucifixion is alone effected by the moral power of Christ's cross. This will explain, in some measure, the ground of the apostle's exultation and boast- "I glory in the cross!" It would seem\par to some a strange object to boast of, to glory in. It was a gibbet, it was ignominious in the eyes of men, it crucified his Lord and Master; and yet it was his boast, his glory, and his triumph. All other glory faded before it. The glory of His birth, the glory of His ancestry, the glory of His intellectual attainments, the glory of His ritualism, the glory of His own righteousness, all, all paled before the luster of Christ's cross. He assumes, as it were, the solemnity of an oath. "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." The cross of Christ was in his view the grand consummation of all preceding dispensations of God to men- it was the meritorious procuring cause of all spiritual blessings to our fallen race- it was the scene of Christ's splendid victories over all His enemies and ours- it was the most powerful incentive to all evangelical holiness- it was the instrument which was to subjugate the world to the supremacy of Jesus- it was the source of all true peace, joy, and hope- it was the tree beneath whose shadow all sin expired, all grace lived- it was the spot at whose foot bloomed the loveliest flowers, sparkled the purest springs, and grew the sweetest fruit that made glad the city of God.\par \par We marvel not, then, that, whether he stood amid the classic scenes of Greece, or the imperial grandeur of Rome, encircled by its sages, its poets, and its statesmen, Paul should exclaim, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes." "The Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified." "God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." But it is to one aspect of this subject we wish, in the present chapter, to restrict the attention of the reader- the believer's moral crucifixion by the cross, "By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."\par \par Our blessed Lord illustrated this great spiritual principle in His personal history. He could accomplish man's redemption in no other way than by crucifixion. He must die, and die the death of the cross. Apart from His death, His gospel, divine as was its nature and holy as were its doctrines; His religion, heavenly as was its origin and sublime its principles; His miracles, supernatural as were their nature and convincing their testimony, could not renew, purify, and save the soul. The central cross of Calvary stands alone in its moral power-the death of sin, the life of holiness. Nothing does man know, and nothing can he know, of the dethronement in his soul of enmity to God and the reign of love, of the crucifixion of sin and the life of holiness, until faith has bound his heart to Christ's cross. Then, and then alone, the glorious and triumphant language of Paul will awaken its echoes in every cloister of his heart, "God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom I am crucified unto the world, and the world unto me." We are about to illustrate this truth by the experimental Christianity of the true believer, showing that there is no true mortification of sin, no real death of its principle in the heart by the power of moral persuasion, or the lodgment of the truth in the intellect, or even by the conviction and enlightenment of the conscience; but, by the moral influence the cross of Christ introduced into the heart by the Spirit of holiness. The subject presents itself in two leading points of light\endash the instrument of the believer's moral crucifixion; and the twofold crucifixion of which the cross is the instrument- the believer to the world, and the world to the believer.\par \par THE INSTRUMENT OF A BELIEVER'S CRUCIFIXION is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a volume of meaning is there in these few words, "The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ!" What light and glory beam around it! Of what prodigies of grace is it the instrument, of what glorious truths is it the symbol, of what mighty, magic power is it the source! Around it gathers all the light of the Old Testament economy. It explains every symbol, it substantiates every\par shadow, it solves every mystery, it fulfils every type, it confirms every prophecy of that dispensation which had eternally remained unmeaning and inexplicable but for the death of the Son of God upon the cross.\par \par Not the past only, but all future splendor, gathers around the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. It assures us of the ultimate reign of the Savior, tells of the reward which shall spring from His sufferings; and while its one arm points to the divine counsels of eternity past, with the other it points to the future triumph and glory of Christ's kingdom in the eternity to come. Such is the lowly yet sublime, the weak yet mighty instrument by which the sinner is saved and God eternally glorified.\par \par \par But let us turn from the cross to THE CRUCIFIED. And who is He? It is the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. We emphasize this because the perfection and efficacy of our Lord's atonement depends upon the perfect sinlessness of His nature. If He had not been sinless we must have taken His place of suffering, as He, the righteous One, was capable of taking ours. We must have endured the wrath, the condemnation, the woe, which were concentrated on Him. And yet sin was there, suffering was there, hell was there. Solemn thought! All this lay upon the holy soul of the Sin-bearer- for as such our Lord was crucified upon the accursed tree. "Who His own self bear our sins in His own body on the tree."\par \par The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! What a holy thrill these words produce in the heart of those who love the Savior! How significant their meaning, how precious their influence! The subject they illustrate is vastly comprehensive. We have in a preceding chapter dwelt upon the cross as the instrument of our Lord's deepest ignominy. He died the death of a bond slave. It was enjoined in the Levitical economy that when a servant bound himself to his master his ear should be bored to the door as a token and seal of his servitude. When our Lord was transfixed to the cross, He was fastened there as a bondslave. To this the Messianic Psalm refers "My ears have you opened;" margin, 'dug'. Our blessed Lord bound Himself as the servant of the Father to save His Church, and this service involved the nailing of Him to the tree. But there are other points of light in which we would desire to place before the pious reader the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.\par \par We may regard it as unveiling the character of God. Nowhere is the Divine character so presented as in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. There the cloud-veil is withdrawn, there the Divine portrait is uncovered, and we learn what God is as we could learn from no other source. All other manifestations of the Deity astound, appall, and overwhelm us. Apart from the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, there is no portrait of the Divine character which presents God in His full-orbed majesty, nothing which quells our fears, wins our confidence, inspires our love. Do we contemplate His power? -we tremble. Do we contemplate His truth? -we are awed. Do we contemplate His holiness? -we are overwhelmed. Do we contemplate His justice?-we despair. Poor religionist of nature! gathering all your knowledge of God from mountains and rocks, from oceans and suns and stars, will this meet your case as a fallen being, as a sinner, as a rebel against Jehovah? Will this answer the momentous inquiry, "What must I do to be saved?" Will this tell you of sin pardoned, your person accepted, your soul redeemed? Will an acquaintance with God, derived from such an impartial source, from such an imperfect volume as the book of nature, enable you to confront death with composure, and eternity with hope? Never, never! But, behold God's character completely, gloriously unveiled in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. There all His perfections are displayed in their most perfect and beauteous harmony. Justice, holiness, truth, mercy, wisdom, grace, and love all are there united- and united to save! No jarring, no collision, no compromise. "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Approach the cross, then, and study i n its holy light the just, yet sin-pardoning character of God. Behold, how He stands before you divested of not a single perfection, but all blended and embodied in one" God is love!"\par \par Again, we may study the cross of Jesus as a grand manifestation of the Three people in the Godhead. There is no such unfolding of that deeply mysterious, yet truly scriptural doctrine of the Trinity as here. We have before referred to this. Here is the Son of God suffering, here is the Father slaying the Son, and !here is the Holy Spirit making His atoning; death effectual in its application to the soul. Where do we find such a visible display of the unity of the three people in the one Godhead as is presented in the cross of Calvary? Think not lightly, my dear reader, of this glorious doctrine, the doctrine of the Trinity. Our salvation involves its full acceptance, its firm belief. It may be to our reason an unfathomable mystery. Were it not so, we might hesitate to accept it as Divine. But come and learn to bow "your reason to revelation, your faith to the cross, and receive, as a little child, the doctrine, which teaches you that God is light and that God is love, and that both are engaged to bring the soul to heaven. He, then, who receives the cross into his believing heart, as the Holy Spirit reveals it, has found the clue to all the mysteries of redemption. Above all, he has solved that most stupendous of all stupendous mysteries- the love of this Triune God, in saving lost, rebellious man. "God is love " -an#d this truth appears, transparent as the sun bursting through an electric cloud, as it shines out in resplendent glory from beneath the cross of Jesus.\par \par But what a hiding place is the cross of Christ! This presents it in another and most precious light. Ah, you can tell who have fled to its shelter in the storm. It was sin's deep conviction in the soul that brought you there. It was guilt upon the conscience that drove you there. It was the swift footstep of the avenger of blood that hastened yo$u there. It was the fear of death, the dread of judgment, the terror of hell, that impelled you there. All other refuge failed you, until at last you found the one place of safety, the appointed city of refuge, the only shelter beneath which the curse could not touch you, the avenger of blood could not arrest you- it was the cross of the Son of God. Oh, what a refuge have you found it to be! When affliction has overtaken you, and sorrow has overwhelmed you, and temptation has assailed you, testify what a %delightsome shelter you have found the cross of Christ to be. It has been to you like an oasis in the wilderness, the shadow of a great rock in a weary land- just the spot where, worn and faint, your spirit has found perfect safety and repose.\par \par We reach now THE TWOFOLD CRUCIFIXION OF WHICH THE CROSS OF JESUS IS THE INSTRUMENT. Marvellous and irresistible is the power of the cross. It has subdued many a rebellious will, has broken many a marble heart, has laid low many a vaunting foe. It has over&come and triumphed when all other instruments have failed. It has transformed the lion-heart of man into the lamb-like heart of Christ. And when lifted up in its own naked simplicity and inimitable grandeur, it has won and attracted millions to its faith, admiration, and love. And by the preaching of the cross alone shall this vast empire at length be subdued to the supremacy and reign of Jesus. Reader, has it subdued and won your heart to Jesus?\par \par But I am to illustrate the power of the cross by' a reference to its effects in the soul of the regenerate. The apostle presents THE WORLD to us as the great antagonist of the believer; and a powerful foe it is. I do not say it is the only one, or that it is the greatest one, but it is a powerful, subtle, and never slumbering one. Our Lord felt it so. The world was His antagonist. What did He say? "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." If the world had not been His foe He had not overcome it. The world was in league against the Son of God. It co(nfronted Him wherever He went. Every step He took brought Him in collision with the powers of this world. But He overcame it.\par \par The world is our enemy, beloved. We are passing through it to glory. Our Christianity does not bid us go out of it. It is a false view of the religion of Jesus that teaches us to leave the world entirely and become a hermit, to relinquish our lawful calling and isolate ourselves from the position of influence and duty and service which God in His providence has assigned )us. God could, at the first moment of conversion, take the believer to heaven. But why does He leave him in the world? For many and obvious reasons. Among these, that the world might be the theater of his conflicts, and the school of his graces, and the sphere of his testimony for God. The believer needs the world as a school, as the world needs the believer as a light. How much may a child of God learn in it, and how much is the world blessed by his holy influence! But what is the moral position of the w*orld to the believer? Is it friendly? Far from it! it is antagonistic. It is impossible that the world should love our religion, or help us heavenward, since it crucified our Lord. We live separated from it, are witnessing against it, testifying of it, that its works are evil. Do all who profess the religion and name of Jesus so regard it? Alas! ensnared by its specious appearance, and won by its religious pretensions, they are wont to view it as a friend- its fair speech, its kind offices, its soft, insi+nuating address, its offered hand to advance the kingdom of Christ by its patronage and liberality, blinding and seducing them into a friendship and confederacy. But the word of God is most clear and decided on this point. It teaches us that the world is the enemy of God, and is therefore opposed to the Christian. But there is nothing in it in sympathy with the religion of the soul, nothing favorable to its state of holiness. How clear and comprehensive its statements on this subject: "Know you not that t,he friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."\par \par But the apostle speaks of a CRUCIFIXION TO THE WORLD by the cross of Christ. His argument is, that the cross,- lodged in the heart by the Holy Spirit, and faith constantly looking at, and dealing with it, the world becomes to him as a dead thing- a thing that is crucified. "The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which I am crucified unto the world and the world unto me." Has the cross lost anything of its power? Eighteen hundred years have passed since it uplifted the Son of God, and yet it is as attractive and potent at this hour as when wet with the blood of the Crucified. When our faith deals closely with the .cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, can we love the world? can we form a covenant with it? can we drink its pleasures? can we sun ourselves in its smiles? When we solemnly view our Savior suspended there amid the ribaldry, the taunts, the insults, the blasphemies of that very world which woos us to its embrace, can we make it our friend? Can a fond parent caress the sword of the assassin which in cold blood slew his beloved child? All this is impossible. Here is the test of our real position- our crucifixion /to the world, and the world's crucifixion to us. Beloved reader, with the spiritual power of the cross in your heart, the world will become to you as a dead thing. The sentence of death will be written upon its principles, its policy, its pleasures, its religion. You will pass through it as through a cemetery- the place of death. Is this world crucified to you? Is it, again we ask, as a dead thing? Has it lost its charm, its power, its in\par fluence over you? Has the cross of Jesus broken the spell and 0set you free? Only then is the believer crucified to the world.\par \par What a marvellous power does this cross of Jesus possess! It changes the Christian's entire judgment of the world. Looking at it through the cross, his opinion is totally revolutionized. He sees it as it really is- a sinful, empty, vain thing. He learns its iniquity, in that it crucified the Lord of life and glory. His expectations from the world, his love to the world, are changed. He has found another object of love, the Savior w1hom the world cast out and slew, and his love to the world is destroyed by that power which alone could destroy it- the crucifying power of the cross. We are dealing with a great truth, my reader. Let us inquire for what purpose did Jesus Christ thus give Himself to die? Was it not that we might be spiritually crucified with Him? How beautifully the apostle brings out this truth, "Who gave Himself for us, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Savior." 2And what was the apostle's experience? "I am crucified with Christ." Oh, how holy and sublime his decision; "Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For me to live is Christ." And what was John's exhortation? "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." "This is the victory which overcomes the world, even our faith." And what is the weapon by which faith combats with and overcomes the world3? What but the cross of Jesus?\par It is the cross which eclipses, in the view of the true believer, the glory and attraction of every other object. Just as the natural eye, gazing for a while upon the sun, is blinded for the moment, by its overpowering effulgence, to all other objects; so to the believer, wont to concentrate his mind upon the glory of the crucified Savior, studying closely the wonders of grace and love and truth meeting in the cross, the world with all its attraction fades into the full4 darkness of an eclipse.\par \par Does not your experience, believer, testify to this? When has your heart been most weaned from its idols, withdrawn from\par the world, crucified to the flesh? Has it not been when bending beneath the cross, the splendor, bursting from beneath the cloud of humiliation, darkness, and woe which enshrouded it, has risen like a new created sun upon your soul- Jesus crucified filling the entire vision?\par "Sweet the moments, rich in blessing,\par Which before the cross I5 spend,\par Life and health and peace possessing,\par From the sinner's dying Friend.\par "Truly blessed is this station,\par Low before the cross to lie;\par While I see Divine compassion\par Floating in His languid eye.\par "Here I'll sit forever viewing\par Mercy's streams in streams of blood;\par Precious drops! my soul bedewing,\par Plead and claim my peace with God."\par \par A crucifixion involves SUFFERING. We dare not speak of this separation from the world as though it were to nature6 an easy and delectable thing. There must of necessity be sadness, pain, and loss. There will, in some cases, be the wrenching of many a fond tie, the relinquishment of many a loved bond, the abandonment of many a fleshly enjoyment, and the extinguishment of many an earthly hope. There will be the chilled affection, the estranged friendship, the cold reserve, the alienated confidence, and, perhaps, the sacrifice of worldly interests. But be it so. Your Lord and Master forewarned you of this. "Think not th7at I have come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loves father and mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loves son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. And he that takes not his cross, and follows after me, is not worthy of me."\par \par But, o8h, the gain of such a sacrifice! Are not Christ and His cross infinitely better than the world and its love? What can compensate for Christ as your portion, your Friend, your Redeemer? Welcome suffering, welcome separation, welcome loss, with such a treasure in your possession as Jesus. Listen once more to His words: "Every one that has forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundred-fold, and shall inherit everlas9ting life." Yes, the sacrifice- if sacrifice it be- must be made. The right hand must be parted with, and the right eye plucked out. You must dare to be singular, isolated, and separated from your brethren according to the flesh. Nature must yield its claims to grace, sense to faith, earth to heaven, the creature to God. You will be misunderstood, misrepresented, and maligned. Natural affection will be congealed, confiding friendship withdrawn, earthly supplies cease- nevertheless, one sight of the cross, one smile of Jesus, one moment's enjoyment of God's love, one glimpse of glory will outweigh it all! "Therefore, come out front among them, and be separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."\par \par \fs24\par \pard\cf2\f2\fs23\par } dBdPQ]A 14 - The Cross of Christ the Christian's WeaponlneA 13 - The Repose of the Cross{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg; A 12 - The Believer Crucified{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\ <1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 Chapter 13: The Repose of the Cross\par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\f1\fs22\par "Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved." \cf1\ul Joh_13:23\cf0=\ulnone\par \par There is but one place in this fallen world where perfect repose is found. It is where God rested in the harmony of His perfections, and where Jesus rested in the completion of His work- the cross of Calvary. The world is peopled with a race which has lost its spiritual center- God! and, so displaced, is as the troubled sea, ever moving, ever restless. All are inquiring for some good, all in search of some repose- they cannot tell what, and cannot tell where. The schism in the soul whic>h God's departure created is a schism still, and will remain so until He returns, re-enters, and makes it once more His abode. And so long as that void remains unoccupied and unfilled by God, restlessness and dissatisfaction will be man's heritage and woe. Man, ever since his fall, has been building his happiness and his hope below God; and he who builds his present and his future being below God, builds upon the sliding, sinking sands, which must, eventually, involve the fabric they sustain in irremediab?le and woeful ruin. "And great was the fall of it."\par \par But there is within this circle a smaller one, composed of individuals brought, by the gracious influence of the Spirit, to an enlightened, spiritual consciousness and conviction of sin and condemnation; and who, sighing for that rest which the world, itself a troubled sea, can never give, are, with but dim perceptions of the truth, with vague ideas of salvation, and still dimmer views of Jesus, searching for it where it never can be found. To@ them this chapter of our work is devoted. Its object will be to show where the true rest for the sin-distressed, sorrow-stricken, weary soul is found-even in the cross of Christ. We cite a touching and expressive incident in the history of John as illustrating this. It is true, it transpired before our Lord's passion; nevertheless, His death was virtually an accomplished fact, for He could say, in His memorable intercessory prayer, "Father, I have finished the work which you gave me to do;" and in thus pAresenting the portrait of the beloved disciple- a picture inimitable in its beauty, and touching in its pathos- we present figuratively the portrait of a weary and sad, yet confiding and loving disciple, seeking and finding his perfect repose on the bosom of his Divine and loving Lord. The two points which arrest our devout study are the expressive attitude, and the perfect rest.\par \par There is in the posture of this disciple an implied weariness, which speaks to us volumes. We portray a large class Bof our species. We hold up a glass in which every individual of the human race may see himself reflected. We speak advisedly when we limit our picture to the earth's inhabitants. The angels in heaven are not weary, and therefore need no rest. Their only burden is the burden of doing God's will, and this is to them as the wings of a dove. Nor do the glorified spirits of heaven need repose. They have cast off the burden of the body of sin and death, and, emancipated from all ill, delivered from the bondage Cof the flesh, weeping and sighing and sorrowing no more, "they rest from their labors," and the only burden they feel is the burden of God's love. Who would wish to recall them to earth's sin and woe and weariness? What love so selfish as to disturb that unruffled peace, mar that deep joy, taint that perfect purity, becloud that bright sunshine, to which their happy spirits have fled?\par \par But we return to the world, so full of weary ones. First, there is social weariness. We cannot move in human soDciety without experiencing those woundings and slights and disappointments which contribute so much to the weariness of our spirit. Then there is what may be termed the political weariness of our race- the oppression of tyrants, the crushing cruelty of despots, the bonds and imprisonments, the tortures and bloodshed of human governments. It is impossible to cast our eye over the continent of Europe and not feel convinced that there exist, apart from the restlessness common to our humanity, masses crushed Ebeneath political bondage and despotism. Life to them is a burden from which they pant to be delivered. Again, there is a religious weariness to which many nations are subjected. Look at the crushing burden of heathenism, with all its vile and degraded rites; Mohammedanism, with its oppressive ceremonies; Popery, with its galling, senseless mummery. Contemplate millions of our race wearing the oppressive chains of ignorance and superstition, ground down by religious thraldom, ceremonies, and rites, and saFy if there exists not a large portion of our race groaning beneath the weight which false religion everywhere imposes, and from which many sigh to be delivered.\par \par Need I quote the myriads of the world's weary ones? The world is like an ever-troubled sea- all who cleave its restless waters, more or less, partake of its restlessness. "There are many who say, Who will show us any good?" They travel from continent to continent, from spring to spring, from flower to flower, and then comes the deep, deGep sigh, and the mournful exclamation, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!" Oh what restless beings are earth's sons and daughters! "The wicked are like the troubled sea, that cannot rest."\par \par But are the Lord's own people totally exempt? Is there no weariness, no restlessness among them? Far from it! It is the existence and the consciousness of this which brings them to the only repose found on earth- the repose of the cross. We turn to the Church of God. We would first refer to the physical wearHiness and suffering of which numbers of God's people are the subjects. This may at first sight seem insignificant; and yet they who have traced the\par close relation of the mental with the spiritual, and the spiritual with the physical, in Christian experience, will give this part of our subject a prominent place in their study. God does not overlook the bodily infirmities of His saints. He "knows our frame;" He "remembers that we are dust." And, when spiritual despondency is occasioned by mental depresIsion, and mental depression by physical disease; He who constructed our frame can trace to their subtle and mysterious influences the spiritual infirmities of His saints.\par \par Not less conspicuous or painful is the legal weariness of those who are striving for gospel rest by an earnest and sincere, but mistaken and fruitless attempt at the obedience which the law imposes, but which Christ alone can give. Oh the sad, sickening feeling of the soul disappointed a thousand times over in its strivings afJter perfect obedience! The hopelessness of the task no tongue but inspiration can adequately portray. "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified." "Work, work!" is the cry of the soul longing for salvation; and as each duty is followed by yet more disastrous failure, and each round of legal observance followed by disappointment yet more bitter, the heart sickens and dies.\par \par But let us speak of a class more limited, as it is more blessed. We refer to those who are burdened with a Kspiritual conviction and sense of their sinfulness. Talk of the burden of political oppression! talk of the burden of religious ceremonial! talk of the burden of a suffering body! The burden of burdens is the burden of sin! When the Divine Spirit removes the moral cataract from the soul's eye, uplifts the veil from the heart, and all that looked so lovely and so fair and so commendable now appears nothing but sin and darkness, and loathsome, then comes the true soul- weariness- just the weariness Jesus deLlights to meet! But one word of encouragement. Are you sensible of your sinfulness? Are your sins weighing down your spirit to the dust? Is there the felt burden you cannot carry? Then, we reply, there is spiritual sensibility; and spiritual sensibility is the evidence of spiritual life, and spiritual life is the breathing of the Holy Spirit in your soul. Lay the heaviest weight upon a dead body, and it is insensible of the pressure; pierce it, and it feels not the wound. From where does spiritual feelingM spring? From where but from spiritual life in the soul. Thus, then, may your faith gather down from the thistle, extract honey from the gall, and glean food from the eater! These spiritual exercises, through which, as a sin-convinced soul, you are passing- sad and mournful and despairing- are among the most conclusive and hopeful evidences that God has breathed into your dead soul the breath of life. Saint of God, you need not to be reminded of this. In many a stage of past experience, in many an hour ofN weariness and rest, of depression and hope, you have learned this truth- that none know the plague of their own hearts, none see their sinfulness, and seeing deplore it, and, deploring, seek unto Christ for rest, but those who are the happy subjects of the Holy Spirit's quickening grace. You have been instructed, therefore, to accept a broken and a contrite heart as one of the Spirit's most precious gifts, and God's most acceptable sacrifices. Such is the spiritual state of the soul expressed by the attiOtude of John. It is one of weariness and need, of weakness and sorrow. In a word, it includes whatever condition of life, mental and spiritual exercise, through which the child of God may pass, who, like the beloved disciple, lays down his weary head upon the Savior's bosom.\par \par This conducts us to THE DISCIPLE'S POSTURE.\par And who was that disciple? Emphatically described as, "the disciple whom Jesus loved." Jesus loves all His disciples, and all alike; though John, from a closer assimilation oPf the human copy to the Divine Original, seemed an especial favorite of our Lord, winning to himself the distinctive and honored appellation of the "the beloved disciple." But such are all the disciples of Jesus. All alike share in His love. There may be degrees of manifested love, but no degrees of love itself. The small vessel and the large vessel may partake of different quantities, but the same love supplies and fills them both. Bind, then, this precious truth to your believing heart, and accept the cQomfort, the assurance it gives- that you are a disciple whom Jesus loves. Do you ask, How does He love me? He has chosen you- He died for you- He bore your sins- He has called you by His grace- He keeps you by His power- He comforts you with His love- He has gone to prepare a place for you in heaven- and by all His present leadings and dealings and teachings, through adversity and temptation and sorrow, He is preparing you for this prepared place. Oh, then, doubt that the sun shines, that the earth moves,R that seasons revolve, that you yourself exist, but, in view of blessings and achievements like these, doubt not that Jesus loves you! If love derives its inspiration from itself- if affection begets affection- then, your simple, unquestioning belief in the marvellous and free love which the Lord Jesus bears you, will enkindle in your breast, in return, love to the Lord Jesus.\par \par Nothing more tends to damp and chill and check our responsive affection to Christ, and consequently to render our obediSence and service defective, than the latent suspicion in our hearts of the Savior's love to us. Cruel unbelief! to suggest a thought so dark, a suspicion so cold, a doubt so Christ-dishonoring! Where on earth or in heaven, where within this illimitable universe, will you find a being who loves you like Jesus? Oh, challenge every being whose eye has beamed love, whose lips have breathed love, whose hands have conferred love, and see if there be love like unto the love with which Christ has loved you! SummoTn the peopled universe to listen to its story, and exclaim, "Come and hear, all you that fear God, and I will declare what he\par has done for my soul."\par \par "What You have done, my God, for me,\par Is more than I can tell;\par This world had closed my heart to Thee,\par But You did break the spell.\par "I cannot tell one-half Your love,\par Which daily, Lord, I See;\par Countless Your tender mercies prove,\par Wondrous Your love, to me.\par "But I would tell to all around\par That Jesus dUied for me;\par That when in sin's dark bondage bound,\par He set my spirit free.\par "Yes, I would tell how His pure love\par Unchanging does remain;\par And how He pleads for me above,\par In His most precious name.\par "Would tell how, in my heaviest grief,\par He calms my soul to rest;\par How He can give that heart relief\par Which leans upon His breast.\par "Would tell, how in life's loneliest hour,\par When every joy below\par Seemed withered like the fading flower,\par He soothed me Vin my woe.\par "Would tell, how in perplexing care\par He turns my thoughts above;\par And makes me see that He is there,\par Appointing all in love.\par "Would tell, when weary often with sin,\par And pressed beneath the load,\par He, by His Spirit's voice within,\par Points to my peace with God.\par "Lord, I would tell- how loudly tell\par There is no love like Thine!\par You ever will do all things well,\par You Mighty One, Divine."\par \par Upon WHOM did the beloved disciple lean? He leaWned upon a personal Savior. He reposed on the bosom of the incarnate God. The truth here taught to us is of marvellous moment. We can only deal, in the great matter of salvation, and in the minor matters of everyday life, with a personal Savior- and a personal Friend. The world is too replete with the unrealistic, to meet the real needs of our humanity. All is shadowy, except our present being, our sin, and our woe. These are solemn realities! We have personal needs- we crave a personal sympathy. We have Xpersonal yearnings- we crave a personal love. The "great mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh," just meets our case- is just the provision a God of love has made. We need repose; we cannot find it in a dogma, in a principle, in a mere fact- we find it in a person- the person of the Son of God. It is from ourselves, we wish to be detached from. Our happiness and repose are found, not in or from ourselves, but, extraneous\par to ourselves- only in Christ. As the solar beam is absorbed in the sYun, and the dew-drop is lost in the ocean, so, with all his sin and woe, his neediness and weariness, the believer sinks into Christ, and is absorbed in the infinite plenitude of His power, in the fulness of His grace, and in the boundless ocean of His sympathy and love. Not more truly did the gentle and loving John lean upon the yet more gentle and loving Savior, than by faith do we, with all our mental and spiritual thoughts, and feelings and needs.\par \par Here, in the cross of Christ, or rather in Zthe Christ of the cross, perfect rest is found for every species of weariness of which the believing soul may be the subject. Here is rest from the galling yoke of sin- for the power of the cross\par breaks it. Here is rest front the dreadful guilt of sin- for the blood of the cross cleanses it. Here is rest from the condemnation of sin- for the death of the cross has slain it. Here is rest from the obedience of the law- for the work of the cross supplies it. Here is rest from the sting of death- for the[ death of the cross extracts it. Here is rest from the dread of hell- for the love of the cross has closed it. And here is rest from the chafing of sorrow- for the sorrow of the cross soothes it.\par \par It was in the cross of Christ that the Divine perfections found repose. Until that cross was reared, and the Divine Victim impaled upon its wood, there was no rest or harmony in the attributes of God concerning the salvation of the sinner. But when the Son of God was affixed to the accursed tree, and g\ave Himself up as "an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor, "then, "mercy and truth met together, righteousness and peace kissed each other;" and so God rested in His love when He rested in the cross of the Son of His love. There must we rest, beloved of God, leaning upon Jesus the crucified; and so the sin-pardoning God and the sin-forgiven soul meet in affection, friendship, and fellowship in the same Divine and glorious center- the "Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the worl]d."\par \par Come, then, sin-distressed, self-weary, world-wounded, sorrow-smitten soul, and lay down your weary spirit upon the bosom of the Savior. There is room enough and love enough and sympathy enough for you. The heart of Jesus is as capacious as the infinitude of His being. There can be nothing in your case- take the most gloomy, despairing view of it you may- which interposes a real objection to your rest in Christ. The cross, while it unveils the soul's repose, supplies both its merit and its ^plea. Jesus provides all, is all, and is in all. We have nothing to do but to receive out of His fulness grace upon grace- grace to answer all the present demands of grace- grace commensurate with all the past communications of grace- and grace to meet all the future requirements of grace. Yet again and again we repeat the Savior's gracious invitation- unconditional and unlimited- and, oh! heaven's belfry breathes not a sweeter chime- "Come unto Me, All You That Labor and Are Heavy Laden, and I Will Give _You Rest." Accept the invitation- it is for you. "In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength."\par \par "My Savior, You halt offered rest,\par Oh! give it, then, to me;\par The rest of ceasing from myself,\par To find my all in Thee.\par "This cruel self, oh! how it strives\par And works within my breast,\par To come between You and my soul,\par And keep me back from rest.\par "How many subtle forms it takes\par Of seeming verity,\par As if it `were not safe to rest\par And venture all on Thee.\par "And yet it was no little price\par That bought this rest for me;\par 'Twas purchased at the mighty cost\par Of Jesus' agony.\par "I only enter on the rest,\par Obtained by labors done;\par I only claim the victory\par By Him so dearly won.\par "And, Lord, I seek a holy rest,\par A victory over sin;\par I seek that You alone should reign\par Over all, without, within.\par "In quietness, then, and confidence,\par Savior, my strength shalal be;\par And, 'Take me, for I cannot come,'\par Is still my cry to Thee.\par "In Your strong hand I lay me down,\par So shall the work be done;\par For who can work so wondrously\par As an Almighty One?\par "Work on then, Lord, until on my soul\par Eternal light shall break;\par And in Your likeness perfected,\par I, 'satisfied,' shall wake.'\par \par This subject will at once meet the inquiries of the earnest searcher for truth. All truth essential to our eternal well being is embodied and pbresented in the cross of Christ. He who was crucified upon it was Essential Truth- gospel truth- divine, saving, sanctifying truth. Let there be but a believing sight of the cross, a spiritual perception of its doctrine, a simple, unquestioning, child-like reception of its God-like scheme- salvation by its Divine expiation, heaven by its one sacrifice- and every theological difficulty will be met; and out of the chaos of the mind- tortured with doubt, enshrouded with gloom, agitated with fear, perplexed wcith difficulty- will arise a divine system of truth, a perfect scheme of salvation, a sure hope of heaven, reasonable and harmonious, as suitable to man's necessity, as honorable to God's government.\par \par \par Approach, then, you who are earnestly asking, "What is truth?" and find your answer at the cross. Take your place, a lowly disciple, at its foot, and listen to the soothing words uttered amid its dying agonies, its streaming blood, its deepening gloom, its supernatural wonders," I Am the Trutdh," -repent, believe, and be saved!\par \par Once more we invite to this rest, the spirit of the weary- weary with sin, weary with sorrow, weary with the creature, weary with self. Imitate the beloved disciple, and recline your head upon Christ. It is the attitude of confidence, it\par is the expression of love. Come and bury your heart in the heart of Christ. Repose in Him your profoundest secret, unveil to Him your deepest grief. He has revealed to you the secret of His covenant- reciprocate this marevellous act of His friendship- tell Him all, trust Him with all, draw upon Him for all. Not more dear to Christ was the disciple who nestled in His bosom than are you. Precious and lowly as was his attitude when he literally bowed his head on Christ, your repose of faith upon Christ is a yet more precious and honoring act. Blessed as was John, more blest are you. "Jesus says unto Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed."\par \par Left this be your believing posture when partaking of the communion of the Lord's Supper. It was at the Supper the beloved disciple leaned on Christ; "who also leaned upon His breast at supper." What a befitting season does this Feast of love and fellowship present to rest in Jesus, reposing every thought, feeling, and want- every trial, temptation, and sin- in His heart. The Lord's Supper brings us closely beneath the shadow of the cross, in the immediate presence of the Crucified. It is a source of especiagl inter-communion between Christ and His people. If the weary, languid head ever truly reposed upon the loving bosom of the Lord, surely it is at the festival that commemorates His love. Hasten to disclose all to Him, and be eager to receive all from Him. The hallowed hour is short, the holy season brief- waste not its favored moments in vagrant thoughts, in wandering affections, or in listless gaze; but concentrate all on Christ, who, at this precious moment, concentrates His whole heart upon you. While hthe King sits at the table, present and urge your petition. "Ask what you will, and it shall be granted unto you."\par \par Above and beyond all, seek closer manifestations to your soul of "the King in His beauty," for your eyes shall then see Him. He presides at the feast to grant especial discoveries of His loveliness and love. And there is no window of His\par grace in which He more delights to reveal Himself to His saints than in the uplifted window of this expressive and precious ordinance.\par "iHappy the ones that eat this bread,\par And doubly blest was he\par That gently bowed his loving head,\par And leaned it, Lord, on Thee.\par "By faith the same delights we taste\par As that great favorite did;\par And sit and lean on Jesus' breast,\par And take the heavenly bread."\par \par And where, in sickness and in death, can we, would we lay our head but on the bosom of Christ? We carry the cross with us in the embrace of our faith to life's last, closing hour. On the cross death was conquejred for us, and with the cross we shall conquer death in us, and like our Lord, in dying, live; and by death, overcome death. Oh, the sweet, the perfect repose found in the cross of Jesus on a sick and dying bed! The cross has made the bed of suffering a bed of roses, and the pillow of death a pillow of down, and the gate of the sepulcher the door of heaven! And if ever the aching, restless, languid head of the saint of God finds repose, it will be when heart and flesh are failing, Jesus approaches, unveikls His bosom, and soothes our departing soul to perfect rest in His ineffable love.\par \par I heard the voice of Jesus say,\par "Come unto me and rest;\par Lay down, you weary one, lay down\par Your head upon my breast."\par I came to Jesus as I was,\par Weary and worn and sad,\par I found in him a resting place,\par And he has made me glad.\par \par I heard the voice of Jesus say,\par "Behold, I freely give\par The living water; thirsty one,\par Stoop down and drink, and live."\par I came to Jesus, and I drank\par Of that life-giving stream;\par My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,\par And now I live in him.\par \par I heard the voice of Jesus say,\par "I am this dark world's Light;\par Look unto me, your morn shall rise,\par And all your day be bright."\par I looked to Jesus, and I found\par In him my Star, my Sun;\par And in that light of life I'll walk,\par Until traveling days are done. (Bonar)\par \par \fs24\par \pard\cf2\f2\fs23\par } m{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 Chapter 14: The Cross of Christ the Christian's Weapon\par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\f1\fs22\par "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of ntheir testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." \cf1\ul Rev_12:11\cf0\ulnone\par \par What an impressive illustration is presented in these words of another equally inspired and instructive declaration of the Bible- "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, has God chosen." That 'foolish thing,' othat 'weak thing,' that 'base thing,' that 'despised thing,' in the world's estimation, which God has chosen as the instrument of saving His elect Church, of conquering the enmity against Him in of the human heart, of extending His kingdom in the earth, and of ultimately subjugating this revolted empire to His supremacy is the cross of Christ. This weak, this rude, this ignominious and despised instrument- the preaching of Christ on the cross- is destined to overthrow sin's empire in the soul, wrench the pscepter from the grasp of the god of this world, overturn all false religions, and subjugate the empire of the world to Christ's glorious reign.\par \par But we must limit our discussion of this entrancing theme to the case of the individual believer. The words, which primarily refer to the "noble army of martyrs," involve a principle which will apply with equal force to any age of Christianity, and every form of spiritual opposition to which the Church of God collectively and individually may be exposeqd.\par \par The Christian life is a moral conflict, the Christian a spiritual combatant. To no single fact did our Lord give greater prominence than this "I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword;" indicating thereby that the heavenly and spiritual religion He descended to introduce, while it was designed to bless and save the world, was essentially antagonistic to its principles and its spirit; and that all who professed His 'unearthly religion' would awaken hostility from every quarter, and arrary against themselves the most sacred and endeared relations of life, so that "a man's foes should be those of his own house."\par \par But the great truth before us is, THE WEAPON OF OUR HOLY WAR. It is not of man's forging, of earth's temper, of carnal might- it is of God's providing, heavenly and divine; and although in the eyes of men simple and lowly, it is all-mighty, all-conquering, and irresistible- the weapon of Christ's cross. "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb." The subject is one of sthe profoundest interest, inconceivably important and precious. The weapon that is to conquer the world for Christ, is to conquer the world of evil in our hearts; and, wielded by the arm of faith, is to vanquish and overcome all the spiritual opposition by which our path to heaven is intercepted. We are to overcome, as the martyrs overcame, by the blood of the Lamb. Heavenly and invincible is this weapon. No foe can cope with it, no opposition resist it, no confederacy overcome it. The blood of Jesus, as tan offensive and defensive weapon, is all-powerful and irresistible in our holy war, feeble though the arm may be that wields it.\par \par But it is proper that we should in the outset briefly notice a few of these forms of OPPOSITION, in the experience of the believer, which this invincible weapon especially meets and overcomes. And should I not, my reader, specify the exact form of opposition with which in your personal experience you conflict, permit me yet to remind you that, whatever may be the foeu with whom you wage this holy war- within or without- whatever the obstacle to your advance in the divine life, faith, looking to the blood of Jesus, wielding the cross of Christ, drawing its supplies from the resources of Christ, will enroll you among those who overcome by the blood of the Lamb!\par \par In the Christian conflict we are engaged, first, with the forces of error. The Church of God is composed of all who hold and love the truth. Truth is everything to the man of God. With not one iota of vGod's revealed truth can he part, not one doctrine or command can he regard with indifference or relinquish without a struggle. By these divine and precious truths his soul has been quickened, sanctified, and comforted. Wherever the Church of God meets with any form of spurious Christianity, or with those who deny any one of the essential tenets of our faith, it meets a foe; and, if we are loyal to Christ, if true soldiers of the cross, it behooves us to buckle on the whole armor of God, to take the swordw of the Spirit, and act valiantly for the truth, "earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the saints."\par \par Our second foe is the world. In every age of the Church the world has been one of its most subtle and ensnaring enemies. In a variety of forms it seeks to throw the spell of its fascination around the saints of God by its many disguises, its specious arguments, its lawful engagements, its aims to draw from the simplicity of Christ. No little skill in this holy war is required to exxplode the sophistry and resist the blandishments of this ungodly world. How many religious professors are conquered by its reasonings, won by its friendships, vanquished by its pleasures, swallowed up by its temptations! Like Demas, they forsake Christ for the love of an ungodly world. And yet the world is the sworn foe of the\par \par Church of God. It crucified its Head, and would crucify its members. The more closely His followers follow Him, the more unearthly their religion, the more decidedly andy deadly will the world regard itself their foe. We have more to fear from the smiles of the world than its frowns, more from its bewitching charms than its contemptuous sneer, more from its specious promises than its disdainful irony. The persecution of the world has never really injured the spiritual life of any Christian professor, but the caresses of the world have slain its thousands.\par \par Then, then is the Christian's great foe- the god of this world. And yet how invisible his form, how noiselezss his tread, how subtle his temptations, how unsuspected his approach, how artful and successful his designs! He is "the accuser of the brethren," "the prince of the power of the air," "the god of this world," "the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience." Such are his titles, and if they mean anything, they are significant of much. Such is the foe we daily, hourly confront.\par \par Sin in the world, and sin in the Church, and sin in the individual believer, must be classed among our str{ongest antagonistic foes. We can not take a step without coming in contact with sin. The privacy of our closet is not exempt- sin is still there in our sinful hearts. What a solemn thought it is for the child of God, that the Divine standard of Christian holiness, the Scripture measure of Christian consecration, so far transcends his highest attainments! We are compelled to own that we are but partly renewed. We scarcely deserve the name of saints, so perpetually is sin marring all we do for Christ. Fille|d with shame, and at times tempted to give up the conflict and yield to the foe, we place our mouth in the dust before God, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"\par \par In addition to all this must be quoted the discipline of trial. Trials are, what the word implies, tests of character and Christianity. What a severe conflict when the afflictive providences of our God are seized upon by Satan and sin as an occasion for stirring up the corruptions of the heart, a}nd of rousing the latent rebellion of the will against God. And yet, O Lord our God, by this You teach us! By this painful discipline, by these humiliating circumstances, do You instruct us in the art of warring against sin, to be better soldiers of the cross, more mighty and successful in the holy war. There is no experience like the endurance of trial. The man of God best adapted to lead the van of Christ's army, who should take front rank in the conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil, is he ~who has been instructed by trials, who has endured a great fight of afflictions. The valiant and successful soldier of the cross is he who has been taught and trained in God's school of sorrow. The most eminently holy saints have been the most victorious saints; and the most victorious saints in the great fight of faith have ever been the most deeply tried saints. Eminent affliction is essential to eminent holiness, to completeness of Christian character. No believer's Christianity is fully tested until it passes through this crucible. The activities of religion bring into play a part only of our religious character; affliction is needful to develop and exercise the passive graces of the Spirit- both essential to form the character of the Christian warrior.\par \par But we must now consider THE WEAPON used by Christians in this great and holy conflict. Of all those Christians who laid down their lives for Jesus in the early Church, none obtained the victory but by THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB! In this holy war, the Christian is ever portrayed as a victor, so certain, so sure, so triumphant is the issue. "Overcome!" Mark that word! A most encouraging truth this for you who may now be in the heat of this spiritual conflict! Well might you tremble at the skill and strength and subtlety of your foe, but for this assured truth that, having put on Christ's armor, you are engaged in a conflict, you are prosecuting a war, of the victorious result of which there is no more doubt than that Christ Jesus is your Leader. Often foiled and wounded in the strife, you yet follow victorious legions, led by a triumphant Captain.\par \par It is by the blood of Jesus we overcome error. Religious error is plausible, reasoning, and subtle. It is seldom presented but in connection with some portion of truth; and to eliminate that small portion of truth from the mass of error in which it is embedded, often demands no little art in this holy war. But no form or onslaught of false doctrine can withstand the power of Christ's cross. Our wisdom, when confronted by the many specious and subtle forms of false doctrine, is not so much to argue and reason, to unveil the sophistry and expose the hollowness of the error, as to confront it with the Divine doctrine of the cross. Truth and error can never coalesce. They may be mixed, but they cannot co-mingle. No two opposite elements in chemistry are so irreconcilable. Truth may float upon the surface of error, as oil upon the water, but no act of sacred alchemy can unite them. "Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." See, then, the weapon by which you may dissolve the enchantment and repel the assault of error. Bring every doctrine, principle, and practice which men would foist upon you to the light of the cross and to the test of the Bible. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak\par \par not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Seek by the Spirit's teaching to be so rooted and grounded in the doctrines of which the cross of Christ is the center and symbol, as to prove invulnerable to the shafts of error, feathered though they may be by all the charms of human learning and philosophy, poetry and eloquence.\par \par It is by the cross we obtain the victory over sin. The instrument by which sin was condemned, and through whose channel its pardon flows to us, is the only effectual instrument of its crucifixion in us. A believing, experimental apprehension of the death of Christ is death to the ruling, reigning power of sin in the regenerate. The sense of its pardoned guilt, the conviction of its annihilated condemnation, begets in the soul a loathing of its nature, a shrinking from its commission, and arms us with rebellion against its supremacy and power. "There is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared." The language of the Church is: "I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?" That of the apostle is equally significant of this truth: "I am crucified with Christ." Take, then, beloved reader, the existence of indwelling sin in your heart- its easy besetting forms, its ever-wakeful, ever-working power- to the cross of Jesus; and as the Holy Spirit unveils and reveals it to your soul, seeing Jesus crucified for your sins and by your sins, that fresh discovery, that renewed sight of the cross of Calvary, will enable you to mortify the deeds of the body, and to present it a holy and a living sacrifice to God.\par \par The power of atoning blood to subdue our iniquities is not less than its efficacy in pardoning them. In either case, we can only effectually deal with sin as we deal with Him who was slain for sin. Jesus the crucified is as much our sanctification as He is our redemption. The Spirit's sprinkling of the blood that has pardoned all, cleansed all, cancelled all our sins, intensifies the motive and energizes the soul to repel its attacks, and to rest not from the conflict until the nail has been driven home which fastens every lust to the cross of Jesus. Oh, what motive, what power, in the great, the essential work of personal holiness does the cross of Jesus supply! How should we hate sin, battle with sin, resist and overcome it, who have a personal and saving interest in the great and solemn transactions of Calvary! If the spot where the blood of the victim fell was so sacred, if the temple furniture touched by sacrificial blood was so holy, oh, what words can depict the solemn consecration to God of that soul washed in the atoning blood of God's beloved Son! Lord, if he that is washed in Your blood is clean every whit, wash me! not my feet only, but also my hands and my head, that my obedience may be more unreserved, my service more complete, my mind more deeply sanctified- each part of my being purified, sanctified, and dedicated by Your blood.\par \par Faith, wielding the invincible weapon of the cross, skillfully repels and effectually vanquishes the attacks of Satan. The only weapon in the believer's armory which Satan most dreads, is the cross of Christ. He can glibly quote Scripture, and so press into his own deceitful purpose a weapon of divine temper; but the cross of Calvary he dreads. Well does he remember the words, spoken by the Eternal One while yet a measure of the bloom and the fragrance of paradise rested upon the bowers and glens of Eden, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." The great battle of Satan is not so much with the Body as with the Head; not so much with the Church as with the Savior of the Church. Upon Christ all his virulence concentrates, around Him all his opposition gathers. To wound Christ through His members is one of his master strategic arts. But how is the believer to meet and overcome this arch-foe of his soul, this deceiver and accuser of the brethren? Simply and only by the blood of the Lamb. Skillful and mighty to wield the weapons of the cross, no onslaught of the foe, however fierce; no dart taken from his quiver, however flaming; no snare of fowler, however concealed; no gleam of the serpent's eye, however soft and fascinating, shall overcome the weakest saint. The devil hates the cross, fears the cross, is cowed and impotent before the cross of Jesus; in which he beholds the instrument of his past ignominious defeat, and the sign and the pledge of his future and final overthrow. Satan-tempted soul! fly to the foot of the cross. Satan dare not bring a railing accusation against you there. Faith reading its pardon and acquittal, realizing that "there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus," can confront and boldly challenge this subtle, sleepless foe of his soul, "Who are you that accuses and condemns me? My sins are all forgiven, my guilt all cancelled, my debt all paid by Jesus, my Divine Surety, on that cross which to you is death, but to me is life." Thus, beloved, shall you be numbered among those who overcame by the blood of the Lamb.\par \par And this, too, is the victory that overcomes the world. The world is Satan's seat, his empire, his throne. No marvel, then, that it becomes one of his most powerful, and, alas! too successful instruments of drawing the saints from Jesus. We have already, in this work, indicated some of the forms of worldly temptation by which believers are assailed. It will suffice if, in the present chapter, we simply refer to the weapon by which these temptations are successfully repelled. The weapon is the cross upon which the world crucified Christ. This was the spiritual equipment of Paul, this the invincible sword by which he triumphed. "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world." Clad with this armor, wielding this weapon, we too must conquer. Study the world in the light of Christ's cross, and how will it look? Survey it from this elevated and impressive stand-point, and what is its appearance? In no other light can you regard it than as the crucifier of your Lord. It was the world that slew Jesus. He came to save it, and in return for love so marvellous, so self-sacrificing, it maligned and despised Him, rejected and crucified Him, because He testified of it that its works were evil. And still it is His implacable, unslumbering foe- ever seeking to bruise the Head through the members. Oh, think not that the world which entwined the thorn-crown around His brow, will sun you with its smile. Let, then, your dealings with this ungodly world be a constant battle, and the cross of Jesus, wielded in faith and by prayer, your victorious weapon. The cross must separate you from the pleasures, the religion, and the spirit of the world. It is utterly impossible that you can love the cross and love the world too. Faith in the cross, and confederacy with the enemies of the cross, are totally irreconcilable. We cannot carry Christ's cross upon our shoulder and the world in our hand at the same time. We cannot be truly crucified by the one and yet live to the other. Either Christ's cross will be to us the death of the world, or the world will be to us the death of Christ's cross. But, oh, what an honor is it to be crucified with Christ to this ungodly world! to bear its burning shame, to be subjected to its offence, to endure the pain of its moral crucifixion. As the holy Rutherford beautifully remarks, "The cross of Christ is the sweetest burden that ever I bore; it is such a burden as wings are to a bird, or as sails to a ship, to carry me forward to my desired haven. To be crucified to the world is not so highly accounted by us as it should be. How heavenly a thing it is to be deaf to, and dead to, this world's sweetest music! It is little the world can take from me, and as little can it give me."\par \par The cross of Christ, too, is the only effectual weapon of the Christian ministry. It is a great, a supernatural work, the work of dethroning Satan in the heart, and subjecting it to Christ. "Who is sufficient for these things? " By no instrument can a work so mighty, so divine, be accomplished, but by the instrument with which Jesus triumphed- the cross of Calvary. "We preach Christ crucified" -literally, Christ on the cross- was the simple but sublime declaration of the chief of the apostles. "The preaching of the cross is to those who perish foolishness; but unto us which believe it is the power of God." "The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." And how significant yet touching the words of the Crucified Himself: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Such is the doctrine the revealed Word of God teaches, such the truth the Holy Spirit owns, such the weapon the minister of the cross wields, and such its marvellous power and result. Are you a Christian minister? Beloved brother, behold your divine, invincible weapon! The Cross of Christ! Preach Christ, and Christ only! Lift Him up higher and higher, exalt Him more and more, and you shall not have mournfully to exclaim, "Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" The Holy Spirit will the most honor that ministry that the most honors Christ's cross. He who preaches the Church and not Christ, who puts ordinances in the place of the atoning blood, or who veils the cross by human learning and philosophy and the traditions of men- the power and the wisdom of this world, which is weakness and foolishness with God; stands in a position of terrible responsibility, is accumulating a fearful amount of guilt, and is laying up a solemn and awful account of his stewardship unto God. But preach Christ crucified, and the results, for which you are not responsible, you can safely leave to them unto whom alone they belong. No other preaching will meet the case of our hearers. No other theme will the Holy Spirit bless to the conversion of sinners, and to the instruction, comfort, and sanctification of the saints. All other preaching- preaching which has not Christ crucified for its beginning, its center, and its end, is solemn trifling with souls and with eternity- a splendid impertinence, a burlesque of the gospel, a dishonor to God, the murder of souls, whose blood, staining our garments, God will require at our hands. Oh, whatever you do, preach CHRIST! Preach Him in His Godhead- preach Him in His manhood- preach Him as the Revealer of the Father- preach Him in His finished work- preach Him in His personal beauty- preach Him in His love, grace, and sympathy- preach Him as the all in all of the soul bound to His judgment-seat- preach Him scripturally and intelligently, lovingly and winningly; in the pulpit, out of the pulpit, living and dying, oh, raise high the cross of Christ!\par \par "Woe to the men who tear away the cross\par Sole prop and pillar of a sinking world.\par If its foundation by unhallowed hands\par Be undermined, what, what can give support?\par But hush, my fears! it rests not on the sand;\par The raging waves that dash against its base\par Sink harmless, after foaming out their shame.\par It is when the cross is preached, and only then,\par That from the pulpit a mysterious power\par Goes forth to renovate the moral man.\par He that without it wields\par The sacred sword, at best in mock display,\par A useless weapon flourishes in its sheath,\par None feel its edge-none fear it." -Wilcox.\par \par \fs24\par \pard\cf2\f2\fs23\par } charset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 Chapter 15: Christ Crucified the Center of Christian Union\par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\f1\fs22\par "You are all one in Christ Jesus." -\cf1\ul Gal_3:28\cf0\ulnone .\par \par The unfolding of our subject approaches its close. Imperfect as the discussion manifestly is- as imperfect, indeed, must be the most elaborate unfolding of such a theme- it would be yet more- marked in the omission of the topic which in the present chapter will engage the reader's attention- Christ crucified the center of Christian union, and of holy fellowship to all true believers of God's one Church. Our subject is in perfect and beautiful harmony with one of the most touching petitions in the intercessory prayer of Jesus when on earth. "That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you have sent me." This clearly was the great truth which the apostle seeks to illustrate. "You are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There [that is, in Christ] is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." His argument is- the Lord Jesus is the Center, and in Him all national, ecclesiastical, and religious differences subsisting in the one Church of God are merged and lost, as rays in the sun, as rivers in the ocean- and Christ is all and in all. The union of the Lord's people is a subject dear to His heart, closely connected with His glory, and inseparable from their own holiness, happiness, and usefulness. May the Divine Spirit aid and bless the presentation of this delightful truth, while we consider the center- the unity- the blessings and the obligations which result therefrom.\par \par THE CENTER of Christian union is the center of Christianity- Christ Crucified. Destroy the focus of any system, and the system itself is destroyed. Remove the center, and you have broken up that which held the whole in cohesion and unity. For example- taking our illustration from Divine truth- deny the Deity of Christ, and you deny the Atonement of Christ, for the two cardinal articles of our faith stand or fall together. The sacrifice of Christ, as a vindication of God's moral government, and as the only expedient of the soul's salvation, reposes wholly upon the Essential Godhead of His person. If Christ is not God, He is not a Savior. A mere human savior could not bring a sinner to heaven. Destroy, then, the Atonement, ignore the sacrificial death of Christ, and you have destroyed and rejected the only foundation upon which a lost soul can build his hope of glory.\par \par Now, a great and essential doctrine is placed before you here. All believers are ONE in Christ Jesus. They have a vital union with Jesus Himself. This is a higher truth than that which affirms that they know Him, love Him, and have faith in Him; that they put their trust alone in His blood and righteousness, and have confessed Him before men. All these are precious truths- God make them yet more precious to our hearts. But, the grand truth, the source of all the rest, is this- I, as a believer in Christ, am in Him eternally, in Him spiritually, in Him indissolubly, in Him vitally. And because I am thus one with Christ Jesus I know Him- knowing Him, I love Him- loving Him, I obey Him- and obeying Him, I find my heaven begun on earth. All these living, precious springs have their origin in this grand truth- "I am one with Christ the Lord."\par \par As long as a man is out of Christ Jesus, he is in a most awful and perilous condition. We ask not what ecclesiastical form of government he may prefer; or what his creed is. If he has no spiritual union with the Lord Jesus Christ, he is in an unsaved and imminently perilous state. Do you inquire who are out of Christ? I answer,and God grant that you may apply the statement to your own conscience- if you have never repented of your sins- if your heart has never been broken by the blessed Spirit- if you have never placed your mouth in the dust, and cried, God be merciful to me a sinner! -you are out of Christ. All unbelievers are out of Christ. And who are unbelievers? Perchance you are thinking of the bold, unblushing infidel; the man who denies the inspiration of the Scriptures, and laughs to scorn the divine revelations of the Holy Spirit. Little do you think that you, in your 'practical' rejection of the Lord Jesus, may be virtually that infidel, that unbeliever! If, in faith, you have not received Jesus, though He has been standing knocking at the door of your heart until His locks are wet with the dew of the morning; you are that unbeliever, that infidel; and as an unbeliever, rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ, you have no union with Christ- you are out of Christ! Poor Pharisee! wrapping around you the wretched figment of your own righteousness, looking at your own works, trusting in your religious duties, going about to establish a righteousness of your own, never having been brought to know your condemnation under the law, never having been brought to see that all your virtues are but splendid sins, that all upon which you do pride and plume yourself is in God's sight obnoxious and loathsome- you are out of Christ!\par \par And you, poor religious formalist! who has put on Christ outwardly- perhaps has gone to His table, and yet are holding an empty lamp of Christian profession, destitute of one particle of saving grace- with all your splendid profession, your outward zeal, and religious formality, you have no oneness with Christ! And how shall I describe to you the awful condition in which this state of separation from Christ places you? To be out of Christ is to be exposed to the condemnation of the law; to be out of Christ is to have\par \par no hiding-place, no Savior, no Redeemer; to be out of Christ is to be unsheltered from the wrath to come. It is to live a godless life, and to die a hopeless death! Think of the antediluvians! Perhaps many of them assisted to construct the ark, while they yet laughed to scorn the warnings and entreaties of the righteous man of God. But when the ark was complete, and the chosen vessels of mercy had entered it, and God had shut them in, the heaven was darkened, the lightning flashed, the thunder pealed, the waters descended, the floods came and swept them all away, and they were lost, because they were not in the ark! Yearning for your conversion, we warn you of the wrath to come, and tell you that, unless you have a spiritual union with the Lord Jesus, unless you are enclosed in Christ, you have no refuge from the storm, no hiding-place from the wind, no covert from the tempest of the wrath of the holy and the just Lord God!\par \par But now we turn to the converse of this truth- a far more precious and delightful theme. All believers are in Christ Jesus, loved in Him, and eternally elected in Him. Deem not this a dry doctrinal truth, having in it no sanctifying influence. We believe it to be one of the most Christ-exalting, God-glorifying, soul-sanctifying truths that a minister of Christ could possibly bring before you. Trace up all the precious springs of grace and love to the fountain-head from where they flow- God's eternal love to, and choice of, you in Christ Jesus your covenant Head. Let your faith and love thus follow these precious springs of grace until they bring you to the fountain- God's everlasting love to you in Christ Jesus your Lord. It is delightful to think how God treasured up from eternity in this very act of His own love all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus our Head. When God called you by His free and sovereign grace, He called you in Christ, and to Christ. You could not resist the blessed call, because it was the effectual call of the Holy Spirit which brought you to see your worthlessness and vileness. The great office of the Spirit is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, and in nothing does He more glorify Christ than in calling a poor sinner away from his own righteousness, his religious formality, to accept Christ Jesus the Lord as all his righteousness and all his salvation.\par \par There is included, too, this great and precious truth- acceptance and justification in Christ Jesus. What is justification? It is our union with Christ Jesus. If we are in a state of acceptance- in a justified state- standing before God in a state of completeness- it is because we are one in Christ Jesus. "Christ is made of God unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." If we stand before the Holy One pardoned and justified, it is because Jesus has washed us in His precious blood, and has invested us with His imputed righteousness. Some of my readers may have been for months looking at their own selves. Would you know a true believer's experience? Then may the Lord take your eyes away from your sinful self, and your righteous self, and empty self, and give you to see that in Christ Jesus, washed in His blood, clothed in His righteousness, you have passed into a present state of full forgiveness and complete acceptance, and God rests in His love and rejoices over you with singing. There is for you now no condemnation.\par \par Again, this being in Christ involves our preservation. The child of God is kept not by any power of his own. If God were to leave us to our own keeping, before we reposed our head upon our pillow we would fall to the breaking of our bones and the destruction of our peace. Child of God, God is teaching you every day the great truth, "KEPT by the power of God, through faith unto salvation." "Preserved in Christ," through all the long years of our rebellion, impenitence, and unbelief; and since we have been brought to know Christ, still each moment kept by the power of God unto eternal salvation.\par \par And when the solemn hour comes, as come it will, that shall terminate this brief existence and summon you into the invisible world, oh, what a delightful truth will it then be to lay your dying head upon- "I am in Christ Jesus. I am a dying man in a living Savior. Why need I fear to die? Why need I shrink from the separation of the spirit from the body? Why need I tremble to enter upon a world unknown?" Oh, to die in Christ is but to languish into life. You who have been for years trembling in the anticipation of death, all your lifetime subject to its bondage, cast to the winds all your doubts and fears. When you die, you will die in the Lord- in a spiritual union with the Lord, from which neither death nor life shall separate you, and so you shall be forever with the Lord.\par \par And then comes the consummation- in Christ now, and with Christ hereafter! We hardly know whether we are right in unveiling the solemn sacredness of a dying room, and yet we find it hard to resist quoting a striking and impressive remark recently made by a suffering and dying prelate, Archbishop Wheately. He had made the science of botany a study; and when a clergy man pointed to some beautiful flowers by his bed, asking him if he thought there were flowers in heaven, the reply of the dying saint was, "I cannot tell; I suppose that we shall find when we get to heaven a total reverse of many of our previous notions of what it is; but this I know, as I get nearer to it, the heaven of heavens to me is, to be with Christ." Oh, it is a heaven in itself to be with Christ, to fall at His feet, to be raised in His arms, to repose on His loving breast. If you are in Christ now, however feeble your grasp, or dull your perception of Christ, or fluctuating your hope of being with Christ may be, the feeblest faith that takes hold of Christ, the dimmest eye that sees Christ now, insures your being forever with Christ when He shall send His chariot to waft you to Himself.\par \par THE UNITY.\par \par But we pass from this consideration of the oneness of all believers with Christ to the consequent UNITY OF ALL BELIEVERS WITH EACH OTHER. The unity of the Church of Christ does not spring out of anything in that Church, but out of the oneness of that Church in Christ. Unity pervades all God's works and operations- unity, not uniformity. We find a marvellous richness of diversity in all the creations of God. Study, my reader, this diversity in God's operations. If we address anyone who has doubts touching the fundamental doctrine of revealed religion, the being of a God, we ask him to take up that one evidence, the vast diversity of God's operations, unfolding the infinite affluence of God's mind, heart, wisdom, and power; and see if it will not bring him to the logical conclusion that this vast wealth, this infinite diversity, must spring from an Infinite Being. And yet, there is unity- unity of design, of purpose, of action, all springing from the unity of His being. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord."\par \par We see this unity that pervades God's works and operations, marvelously exhibited in the essential oneness of His Church. God has but one Church. "My beloved is one." Many sections, but one Church; many apartments, but one house; many stones, but one temple; many tents, but one camp; many flocks, but one fold. There is unity and there is diversity. The family of God is essentially one, and yet constituted into different households.\par \par Now, we would remind you, in the first place, that the unity of the Church of God grows out of the unity of all believers in Christ the one Head. All true believers hold Christ the one Head of the Church. There may be diversities of judgment touching minor points in the interpretation of God's Word, but all believers in Christ hold the headship of Christ. The apostle speaks of some spurious religionists as not "holding the Head;" but all true believers hold Christ to be the Head of the Church- the Head of her vitality, of her strength, of her power, of her glory. Does not this, then, place before us, in a most striking point of view, the essential oneness of the Church of God?\par \par Then, again, the essential unity of the Church consists in the indwelling of the same Spirit. Every believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit. All believers in Christ, then, are essentially one. The same Divine Spirit who brought you to see your lost condition and led you to Jesus, who is carrying on the work of grace in your heart, leading you on higher and higher, to a state of fitness for heaven, is the same Spirit who dwells alike in all God's people; and this recognition of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in every converted soul ought to draw us closer and closer in fellowship and love to the brethren. If I stand aloof from a brother- if I withhold my fellowship- refuse to co-operate with him in the work of the Lord Jesus- to refuse to admit him to my communion, because he does not belong to my section of the Christian Church- I grieve, wound, and dishonor that same Divine Spirit that dwells in my soul, I bring a leanness into my own spirit, I quench, in a great measure, the gracious influence of that Spirit in my own heart. Lay to heart this thought. Turn it into prayer. We believe through the power of the Spirit it will annihilate all the jealousy, envy, coldness, and distance that so much separates us from our brother in Christ.\par \par And what a glorious view of the essential unity of the Church does salvation present to the eye! Look at the one Church of God. On what platform does it stand? What is its foundation? Where do all believers look for pardon, for acceptance, for sanctifying grace? Where do they wash day by day the constant contractions of guilt? Where do they look for present peace and future hope? Are they not all hanging on Christ? Are they not all clinging to Christ? Do they not all wash in the blood of Christ? Do not all put on the one righteousness of Christ? Are they not all living on Christ as their sanctification? Surely this were enough to place in the background, all those ecclesiastical systems that sever and sunder us from our brethren, and unite them in Christian union and fellowship. This were enough to make us say, "The minor points on which we differ are of no importance in comparison, and they shall not be allowed to sunder us in love, in sympathy, in labor. But the grand essential points on which we are agreed, shall be a bond of union and fellowship from this time forth and for evermore."\par \par And how much is there in the circumstances of a child of God to unfold the essential unity of the Church of God! We have the same trials, afflictions, temptations; we tread oftentimes the same dreary, lonely, toilsome path. Oh, how much is there in God's providential dealings with us in our trials, our sorrows, our temptations, to knit the saints of God more closely to their Head!\par \par THE OBLIGATIONS.\par \par In conclusion, let us remark that there grows out of this great and precious truth some solemn obligations and precious blessings. First, with regard to obligations set forth in the Scriptures. If we are in Christ, and Christ is the center of our union, then we are bound to recognize the unity of God's Church. We are to hail a brother in Christ as a brother wherever we find him. We are to recognize his Christianity, his relation to the family of God, his faith in the Savior. We are to recognize him- whatever his ecclesiastical position may be- as no longer a stranger and alien, but a fellow-citizen of the saints and of the household of God. Recognizing this, we ought to express it. I think that this was the meaning of the petition our dear Lord breathed to heaven. He did not ask the Father that His Church might be one; it was one. He did not pray that they might be more one with each another; they were essentially so. But, what the Great High Priest asked of God was, that this unity, this oneness, might be manifested, that this union might be visible, that the world, beholding it, might believe in the divinity of His person and His mission. The world is a keen observer of the Church of God. The world cares not one iota how much we differ on points of church government, or of doctrine, but the world looks at the Church of God, in its union. It expects to find oneness, brotherly love, sympathy, co-operation. Therefore we earnestly implore you first, to recognize the unity of all God's dear saints with one another, and then manfully and unhesitatingly to express and illustrate it.\par \par Added to this, we would earnestly implore you, as another obligation springing from this truth, to promote and remove the stumbling-blocks out of the way of Christian union. It may occasion you some self-denial. You may have a cross to\par \par take up in doing this. You may lose the confidence, the affection, the friendship of some. But it is worth a sacrifice to remove a stone out of the way of the glorious work of Christian union. Oh, what were the chilled affection and weakened confidence of a fellow-Christian compared with the promotion of brotherly love and Christian union among all God's dear saints! To heal the divisions in the rent robe of our blessed Emmanuel, to draw brother to brother, minister to minister, church to church, oh, think of the glory, honor, and praise that will accrue by that act of yours to the blessed name of our wondrous, glorious Emmanuel! And when you place your dying head upon your pillow, and are about to stand in the presence of Jesus, do you do you think will for a moment regret having made some sacrifice of feeling, friendship, or affection, in order to draw closer and closer the bonds that unite the members of the one elect, redeemed, and saved Church of God?\par \par THE BLESSINGS.\par \par We advert for a moment to the blessings that will accrue from your recognition and manifestation of this great and glorious truth- the essential unity of the Church. Let me remind you that your happiness will be promoted by it. You cannot be happy so long as you stand aloof from a Christian church, a minister, or a brother, because he utters not your shibboleth, kneels not at your altar, because his form of worship or of church government assimilates not to your own. No! you cannot be happy. But, oh, the sacred delight of realizing our oneness! We have augmented our happiness in drawing around us closer the cords of love in a brother's heart- in having secured his confidence, inspired his\par \par love, and acquired an interest in his prayers. Oh, the happiness of soaring above denominational differences, and breathing the purer, holier, serener atmosphere that floats around the cross of Calvary, where all ecclesiastical and denominational distinctions are entirely lost.\par \par And not only your happiness but your holiness will be promoted by your recognition of brotherly love. It is not a holy and healthful state of mind to stand aloof from a church, a minister, or a private Christian, because they belong not to our own section of the Christian Church; but it is a holy and healthful state to be walking in love with all who love Christ, rising above these outer forms of separation, and recognizing only our common salvation, our common Lord, our union to our glorious and blessed Head. Do you want to be more holy, more happy, more useful? Do you want to assimilate more closely to the image of your Lord and Master? Then, extend your arms of love, sympathy, and companionship, and embrace, as He embraces, irrespective of party or ecclesiastical distinction, or form of worship, all those who own the one living and glorious Head.\par \par We will only add that usefulness is another blessing that springs from the recognition and manifestation of Christian union. Beloved, we are useful for Christ, not so much as we stand apart in our individual, isolated condition; as in combination- combination of judgment, of heart, of purpose. This promotes our usefulness. Do you want to be useful in Christ's Church? Do you want to augment your practical influence in the service of your Master? Then, we beseech you, co-operate with all the Lord's people in advancing the kingdom of Christ, in circulating God's holy Word, in distributing religious tracts, in promoting Christian missions. Co-operate with every church organization in His blessed work. Link and unite yourselves with them, and you will augment vastly that usefulness in the service of Christ, to which, we trust, the Lord by His grace has called you.\par \par We have adverted to the solemn hour of our departure, when, standing in a near view of the eternal world, we look back upon the past. Oh, then, how low, pitiful, and contemptible will appear all the little divisions that sundered us from God's dear saints, when we are about to stand in the presence of the Holy One, and spring into the fellowship of the "general assembly and Church of the First-born which are written in heaven, and to the spirits of just men made perfect." God has seen fit to take to the Church above, some of the earliest and most devoted friends of Christian union. Do you think that in heaven they repent of having crossed the threshold- of having overlooked their ecclesiastical walls- and of having united in sympathy and co-operation with God's dear saints? Oh, no! The Church of God on earth and in heaven is but one Church; and we believe that the glory and happiness of our friends in heaven is immensely increased in the recollection of having when on earth, done something to promote brotherly love and union in the Church of Christ.\par \par Oh, let us live more in vivid realization of that solemn hour that shall transfer the Church on earth, freed from all its imperfections and deficiencies, to the Church of the glorified in heaven, where we shall be perfectly and eternally one!\par \par "One army of the living God,\par At His command we bow;\par Part of the host have crossed the flood,\par And part are crossing now.\par \par "The Church triumphant in Your love,\par Their mighty joys we know;\par They sing the Lamb in hymns above,\par And we in hymns below."\par \par \fs24\par \par \pard\cf2\lang2058\f2\fs23\par } ^M}A 15 - Christ Crucified Center Christian Union{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\f