Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1886-11-25

1
Come back, thou hiding midday sun! Kiss
my cheek with one bright ray Of comfort.
4 Whatl no help from above--no help from
beneatha Then Unjust turn to my companion
In sorrow, the One on the middle cross.
have heard that he knows how to help man
when he Is In trouble have heard that He
can pardon the sinner. Surely, in all his
wanderings up and down the earth, He never
Blessed One! l turn to Thee Wilt thou
look for the moment away from Thy owD
pangs, to pity mel Lord, 1t Is not to have
my hands relieved or my feet taken from the
torture. / can stand all this; but o ! my sins
my sins my sins they pierce me through and
through They tell me | must die forever.
They will push me out into the darkness un.
less Thou wilt help me. / confess it all. Hear
the cry Of the dying thief: Lord remember
me when Thou contest into Thy kingdom. ]
heaven, no chariot to take me to the skies;
but just think of me when this days horrors
have past. Think of me a litte-of me, the
one now hanging at Thy side when the shout
of heavenly welcome takes Thee back into
Thy glory. Thou wilt not forget me, wilt
Thou' Lord, remember me when Thou
CONTEST into Thy kingdom. Only just re-
| member me-"
RoBBING THE GREAT MASTER.
Likewise must we repent. You say: Il have
guilty of the mightiest felony of the universe,
for we have robbed God-robbed Him Of our
time, robbed Him of our talent, robbed Him
OF our services. Suppose you send man
west as an agent Of your firm, and every
month you pay him his salary and at the end
of ten years you find out that he has been serv-
ing another firm, but taking your salary;
| would you not at once condemn him as dis
| honestt God sent us into this world to serve
| Him. He has given us wages all the time.
| One half Of us have been serving another
master. When a man has been convicted Of
treason he is brought out; regiment sur
| round him, and the command Is given: cat
tention, company. Take aim! FIRE. And
the man falls with hundred bullets through
his heart. There comes a time in a
| the troop of his iniquties, and at Gods
command they pour into him concentrated
volley of torture You say: 81 don't feel
myself to be sinner" That may be- Walk
| flowers at the mouth of the cave; but take a
torch and go In, and before you have gone far
you see the flashing eye OF wild beast, or
hear the hiss of a serpent So the world
seems in the sunlight Of worldiness, but as
wave the torch OF Gods truth and go down
into the deep cavern Of the heart alas for the
bristling horrors and the rafting fangs. Have
you ever noticed the climax in this passage of
Scripture! ''The heart is decetful." That
seems enough. But the passage goes on and
says: "The heart is deceitful above all
things" viii you not say that is enonghs
But the passage goes on further and says:
The heart is deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked"
IN DANGER OF SINS AVALANCHE.
If we could see the true condition of the I'M
pardoned before God what wringing of hands
there would be! What a thousand, voiced
shrek of suppllcation and despair. But you
are sinner, sinner. l speak not to the per
son who sits next to you, but to you. You are
a sinner. All the transgressions Of lifetime
have been gathered up into an avalanche. At
any moment it may slip down from the cliffs
and crush YOU forever. May the Lord Al
mighty by His grace, help us to repent of our
sins while repentance is possible.
This left hand cross was relieving cross.
There was no guess work in that prayer: no
'if'' in that supplication. The left hand cross
flung itself at the foot of the middle cross, ex-
pecting mercy. Faith is only just opening the
hand to take what Christ offers The work
is all done, the bridge is built strong enough
for us all to walk over Tapnot at the door of
Gods mercy with the tip of your fingers, but
as a warrior with gauntleted fists beats at the
castle gate; so, with all the aroused energies
OF our souls, let US pound at the gate Of heav
en-. That gate is locked. You go to It with a
bunch Of keys. You try philosophy. You will
not open it. A large door generally has a pom
derous key. / take the cross and place the
foot of 1t in the lock, and by the two arms of
the cross turn the lock and the door opens.
PARDoNED AND REWARDED
This left hand cross was a pardoning cross
The crosses were only two or three yards
apart 1t did not take long for Christ to hear.
Christ might have turned away and said
slow darest thou speak to Me! am the
Lord of heaven and earth. have seen your
violence When you struck down that man
in the darkness l saw you. You are getting a
just reward. Die in darkness-die forever"
But Jesus said not so, but rather: This day
thou shalt be with me IN PARADISE" as much
as to say: ~ see you there; don't worry. l
will not only bear My cross, but help you with
| yours"
Forthwith the left hand cross becomes the
| abode of contentment The pillow of the
malefactor, soaked in blood, becomes like the
crimson upholstery of kings couch. When
| the body become still, and the surgeons feel
| ing the pulse said one to another He is
dead" the last mark of pain has gone from
his face. Peace has smoothed his fore
head. Peace closed his eyes. Peace
closed his lips. Now you see why there were
| two transverse pieces on the cross for 1t has
| become ladder into the skies. That diving
head is easy which has under it the promise:
| This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise"
Ye whose lips has been filled with bias
phemy, We whose hands for many years have
wrought unrighteousness, We who have com
! panioned with the unclean, We who have
| scaled every height Of transgression, and
| fathomed every depth and passed every eX-
IRENE of iniquity-mercy! mercy!
The dying thief reJolced to see
And there may as vile as he,
| Wash all my sins away.
| BEFORE THE CROSS OF CHRIST
| have shown you the right hand cross and
the left hand cross; now come to the middle
| cross. We stood at the one and found it
| yielded poison. We stood at the other and
found that it yielded bitter aloes. Come now
to the middle cross, and shake down apples of
| love. Uncover your head. You never saw so
tender a scene as this. You may have seen
| father, or mother, or companion, or child die,
| but never so affecting a scene as this. The
| railing thief looked from one way, and saw
only the right side of Christ's face. The pen
| itent thief looked from the other way and saw
the left side of Christ's face But from where
you sit to-day, in the full blaze of gospel light,
| you see Christs full face. 1t was suffering
cross. II the weapons of torture had gone
only through the fatty portions of the body,
| the torture would not have been so great, but
they went through the hands, and feet, and
temples; the most sensitive portions. 1t was
| not only the spear that went into His side, but
the sins of all the race-a thousand spears
plunge after plunge, deeper and deeper, until
the silence and composure that before charac-
terized Him gave way into groan, through
which rumbled the sorrows OF time and the
woes OF eternity. Human hate had done its
worst, and he'll had hurled its sharpest jaye-
lin, and devils had vented their hottest rage,
when, with the every nerve of His body in tor
ture, and every fibre of his heart in excrucia-
ton, He cried out "My God, my God why
hast Thou forsaken mep'
SUFFERING FOR THE WORLD.
II was q yicarious cross-the right hand
suffered for itself, the left hand cross for
itself, but the middle cross for you. When a
king was dying young man cried: Pour my
blood into his veins that he die not" The
veins of the young man were tapped and the
blood transferred, so that the king lived, but
the young man died. Christ saw the race per
ishing He cried: Pour my blood into theil
veins that they die not"
My hand Is free now, because Christ'c
was crushed. My brow is painless now, be
cause Christs was torn. My soul escapes
because Christ's was bound. l gain heaven be
cause Christ for me endured the horrors oil
hell. When the Swiss were many years ago con,
tending against their enemies they saw these
enemies arrayed in solid phalanx, and knew
not how to break their ranks: but one of their
heroes rushed out in front of his regiment and
shouted: 'Make way for liberty" The weap-
ons of the enemy were plunged into his heart,
but while they were Staying him, Of course
their ranks were broken, and through that gar
in the ranks the Swiss marched to victory.
Christ saw all the powers OF darkness assailing
men. He cried out: Make way for the redemp
ton Of the world" All the weapons of internal
wrath struck Him, but as they struck Him oul