Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1866-03-28
HIS LAST AGONY.

"When he had cried again with o
loud voice, yielded up the ghost
Matt. With that last articulate cry
our blessed Lord and master yielded
up his mortality to the embrace of
death and rs it hung over Calvary,
nature answered it in the thick dark
ness that obscured the day, and bv
the earthquake that rent the veil OF
the temple and the rocks, and laid
bare the graves; and many who had
steeled their hearts against his teach
ings exclaimed. "Truly this was the
Son of God" AS in Imagination we
behold him there dying amid lingering
agonies, alone amid brutal multitude,
no voice to whisper love and sympa-
thy, or to pray for him in his cxtremi-
ty, our hearts melt in a passion of
pity; yet when we recall his words,
''for this end came into the world" /"
we realize that there amid the anguish,
the horror of that closing hour, his
great mission met its glorious consum-
nation. The cry, any God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me p seems
wrung from the very depths of NOR
tai agony; but faith triumphant re-
poats, "into Thy hands ! commit my
spirit J" and SO to his well-won rest in
heaven the conqucring soul ascended.
Though we compassionate q death
so terrible, and see with amazement
the fortitude and patience of the suf.
ferer, it was but tho closing scene of
years of privation, exposure, toll and
disappointment. Brayely was this
great burden borne under scorching
suns, through piercing blasts of winter,
during long wanderings in desert
land, and upon stormy seas and all
these journeyings he knew SO well
terminated at the foot of the cross.
With this fearful vision bounding
his career, closing the vista in what
ever direction he might look, that
which most commands our reverence
and wonder is the calm, patient per-
formance of the work given him to do.
On from village to village, from city
to city, by the sea shore, the waysidc
and in the temple, everywhere and at
all times, master of himself, obcdcnt
to his Fathers will, gentle, resolutc,
earnest, devoted, needless of danger,
intent only upon the fulfilment of his
glorious mission. Many have died
bravely that have failed to live great
ly, but in the lite and death of Jesus
all his harmony. He bore uncom-
plainingly in his brief career all that
cruelty and ingratitude could infict ;
he severed without murmuring the
sweet ties of home and kindred he
was content to SOW seed that others
must water, and whose increase might
not be his on earth, and with manli-
ness that knew no complaint, with a
courage that never faltered, with q
hope that was never cloudcd, he la
bored to eradicate sin, to raise the
world from its moral degradation, to
open to the eyes of dying men the
Fathers house in heaven where are
many mansions. For us this ovcrbur-
dened life, this lingering death were
permitted, and to them VIC owe all that
is noblcst and purest in our earthly
lot. He swept away old rituals that
did not purify the heart and badc
Gods worshipper to seek him in spirit
and in truth. He showed how worth
loss is the lip service that hath no root
in the soul, and said, "God cannot be
mocked." He threw down the old
superstitions and cleared away all
fancied distractions between man and
his Maker, and called tho hitherto
dreaded Jehovah, of ancient days,
"Our Father" which words awakened
in us a throng of sacred association
and love and tenderness too great
for expression.
For our higher civilization, for all
that makes men more just less revcng-
ful and cruel, more charitable and for
giving, we are indebted to Christ /;
and for those loftier hopes that stretch
far into eternity and take the sting
from death we should lay at his feet
the offering ofour grateful submission,
our pure love, our fervcnt veneration.
Let it be no idle gift of words, but
the deep purposes of the heart which
form our obligation at his shrine In
some humble measure we will strive
to walk by his light, to form our char
acter somewhat into his likeness, that
when at length we meet him face to
face, he seeing the resemblance. will
claim us for his own, the fruit, though
imperfect, Of the seed he scattered
while burdcnded with the robes of
mortality.
pJ~Thad. Stevens says the reason
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