The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1881-04-14
THE MASSACRE OF A GOD,
Oh. See the Dethronement Of Heav'
ems King, the conqueror
Fallen!
Christ Sacrificed on the Funeral
Pyre Of a Worlds Trans
gressIon.

The following is the full text of his
discourse:
TExT:--St. Matthew xvii, D:
What Shall 1 Do aoith JesuS?"
PLATE was base politician. He had
sympathies, convictions of right and
desires to be honest, but all these were
submerged by a wish to be popular and
to please the people. Two distinguished
prisoners were in the grasp of the Gov
ernment, and the proposition was made
to free one of them. There stands
Barabbas, the murderer. There stands
Christ, the Saviour of the world. At
the demand of the people the renegade
is set free, but Jesus is held. As the
hard-visaged and cruel-eyed Barabbas
goes among his cOngratulating sympa-
thizers, receiving their coarse sympI-
thies and congratulations, Plate turns
to his other distinguished prisoner
mild, meek, inOffensive, loving, self
sacrificing-and he is confounded as to
what course he had better take, so he
impanels the mob as jury to decide,
saying to them: "What shall do,
then, with Jesus ?' Oh, it is no dried
or withered question, but one that
throbs with warm and quick pulse in
the heart of every man and woman
here. We must do something with
so certainly here as he is, for he fills
all this place-the loving, living, dying
Christ--and each one of us will have to
ask and answer for himself the question:
FWhat shall L do, then, with Jesus?"
Well, my friends, there are three or four
things you can do with him.
You can, in the first place, let him
stand without a word of recognition;
but do not think your sense of COM
mon courtesy will allow that. He
comes walking on such long journey,
you will certainly give him chair on
which he may sit. He is so weakly you
would not let him stand without some
recognition. If beggar comes to your
door, you recognize him and say ::
"What do you want?" If you see
stranger faint in the street, you say !:
"What is the matter with you" and
your common humanity and your COM
mon sympathy and your common sense
of prOpriety will not allow you to let
him stand without recognition-the
wounded one of the hills. You will
ask: "What makes him weep?
Where was he hurt? Who wounded
him? Whence he came? Whittier he
goes ?' l know there have been men
who have with outrageous Indifference
this morning, that that is not what you
will do with Jesus. Another thing that
you can do with him-yOu can thrust
him back from your heart and tell him
to stand aside. If an inotfensiVe per-
son comes and persists in standing close
up to you, and you have in various
ways given him to understand that you
do not want his presence or bis society,
then you ask the reason OF his 1mpertl-
nence and bid him away. Well, that
is what we can do with Jesus. He has
stood close by us great while. Ten,
twenty, thirty, forty years. He has
stood close by you, three times day,
breaking bread for your household, all
night watching by your pillow. He
has been in the nursery among yeur
children; he has been in the store
among your goods; he mas been in the
factory amid the flying wheels, and
now if you do not like his society you
can bid him away--aye, if he will not
go you can take him by the throat and
tell him you do not want his Interior
ence; that you dc not want his breath
on your cheek; that you do not want
his eye on your behavior. You can bid
him away, or if he will not go in that
way, you can stamp you foot, as you
would at a dog, and cry "Begone?'
Yet | know you will not treat Jesus
that way. L know you too well. When
plate could not do that you could not.
There is another thing you can do
with him. You can look on him
merely as an nOptician to cure blind eyes,
or an aurist to time deaf ears, a friend, a
good friend, a helpful companion, a
cheerful passenger on ship-board; but
| that will amount to nothing. You can
| look upon him as God, and be
abashed as he rouses the storm, or
| blasts a fig tree, or heaves a rock down
| the mountain side. That will not do
| you any good, no more save your soul
than the admiration yon have for John
| Milton or Oliver Cromwell. L can
think of only one more thing you can
| do with Jesus, and that is to take him
into your hearts. That is the Only safe
| thing you can do with him, and may
the Lord Omnipotent, by his spirit,
| help me this morning to persuade you
| to do that.
A minister of Christ was speaking to
some children and said: 81 will point
you to Christ" \ little child rose in
the audience and came and put her
hand in the hand of the pastor and said
| "Please, sir, take me to Jesus now;
want to 90 now" Oh, that it might be
this morning with such simplicity of eX-
perience that you and L join hands and
seek after Christ and get an expression
| of His benefactiOn and his mercy. In
the first place, my hearers, take Christ
into your confidence. II you can moi
trust him, whom can you trust? ] dc
do not offer you dry theological tech
nicality; l simply ask you to come ano
put both feet on the "Rock OF Ages
Take hold of Christ's hands and draw
| lii 70 Nxrft oh
ment, and hurl yourself into the deeI
sea OF his mercy. He comes and says;
II will save you.' If you do not think
he is hypocrite and 4 liar when ht
says that, believe him and say; ''LorC
Jesus, | believe, here is my heart
Wash it. Save it. Do it now. Aye, il
is done, for l obey thy promise anC
come. | can do no more. That is al
thou hast asked. l come. Christ il
mine. Pardon is mine. Heaven il
mine" Why, my friends, you put NOR,
trust in everybody than you do il
Christ, and in everything-more trus
in the bridge crossing the stream, in tn,
ladder up to the loft; more trust in tn,
stove that confines the fire; more trus
in the cook that prepares your food
more trust in the clerk that writes you
books; in the druggist that makes tn
I ulNAAANAuN4 III AhN biA AAAA " 80
whom you trade-more trust in al
these things than in Christ, although
he stands this morning offering, with
out limit and without mistake and with
out exception, universal pardon &
all who want it. Now, is not tha
cheap enough, all things for nothing
This is the whole of the gospel, as l un
derstand it, that if you believe tina
Christ died TO save you, you are saved
Whenp Now. Nomore doubt about
than that you sit there. No more doub
about it than that you have q righ
hand. No more doubt about it tina
that there is a God. If you had com
mittted five hundred thousand trans
B.. gresssions, Christ would forgive 20
| just as freely as if you had never com
4 mitted but one. Though you had gon
through the whole catalogue OF crime
arson and blasDhemy and murdel
Christ would pardon you just as freel
you coming to him, as though you ha
committed only the slightest sin of III
tongue. Why, when Christ comes
pardon soul, he stops for nothing
Depth is nothing. Enormity is notl
ing. Protractedness is nothing.
o 'er sins like mountains for their size,
n