St. Landry democrat., 1886-11-27

the surgeons feeling the pulse said one to
another: He is dead" the last mark of
pain had gone from his face. Peace had
smoothed his forehead Peace closed his
eyes. Peace closed his lips. Now you see
why there were two transverse pieces on
the cross. for it has become ladder into
the skies. That dying head is easy which
has under it the promise: ''This day thou
shalt be with Me in Paradise" Ye whose
lips have been filled with blasphemy, We
whose hands have for many years wrought
unrghteousness, we who have compan-
toned with the unclean, we who have scaled
every height of tranSgreSsion, ard faith
omed every depth and passed every ex-
IRENE of iniquity-mercy, mercy.
1.-The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away"
/ 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 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 af-
fecting a scene as this. The railing thief
looked from one 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 Christ's full face. 1t was
a suffering cross. If 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 and deeper,
until the silence and composure that before
characterized Him gave way into groan,
through which rumbled the sorrows of time
and the woes of eternity. Human hate had
done it's worst, and hell had hurled its
sharpest javelin, and devils had vented
their hottest rage, when, with every nerve
of His body in torture and every fiber of
His heart in excruciation, He cried out:
. My God, my GOD, why hast Thou forsaken
Mel"
1t was vicarious cross. The right hand
cross suffered for itself, the left hand cross
for itself, but the middle cross for you.
When King was dying a young man
cried: Pour my blood into his veins, that
he die not.n The veins of the young man
We're tapped and the blood transferred, SO
that the King lived, but the young man
died. Christ saw the race perishing. He
cried: Pour my blood into their veins,
that they die not"
Ny hand is free now, because Christ's
was crushed. My brow is painless now,
because Christ's was torn. My soul es
capes, because Christ's was bound. Igain
Heaven, because Christ for me endured the
horrors of hell. When the Swiss were
many years ago contending against their
enemies, they saw these enemies arrayed
in solemn phaianX, 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
weapons were plunged into his heart, but
while they were staying him Of course
their ranks were broken, and through that
gap in the ranks the Swiss marched TIC VIC
tory. Christ saw all the powers of dark
ness assailing men. He cried ont: make
way for the redemption of the world"
All the weapons of internal wrath struck
Him, but as they struck Him our race
marched out free.
To this middle cross, my dying hearers,
look, that your souls may live. | showed
you the ri ht hand cross, in order that you
might see what an awful thing it is to be
l showed you the left hand
cross, that you might see what it is to re-
pent. Now show you the middle cross,
that you may see what Christ has done to
save your soul. Poets have sung its
praise, and sculptors have attempted to
it in marble, and martyrs
have chung to it in the fire, and Christians
dying quietly in their beds have leaned
oil
our souls embrace it with an ecstacy of
affection. Lay hold of that cross, sinner.
Every thing else will fail you. Without
a strong grip on that you perish. Put
your hand on that and you are safe,
though world swing from beneath your
feet.
o, that I might engrave on your souls in
these three crosses, and that if in
your waking moments you will not heed, then
that in your dream this coming night you
might see on the hill back of Jerusalem
the three spectacles-the right hand cross
showing unbelief dying without Christ,
the left hand showing what it is to be par
doned, while the central cross pours upon
your soul the sunburst of Heaven, as it
says: "By all these wounds plead for thy
heart. have loved thee with an everlast-
ing love. kiverS can not quench it; floods
can not drown it" And while you look
the right-hand cross will fade out of sight
and then the left will be gone; nothing but
the middle cross will remain, and even that
in your dream will begin to change, until
it becomes throne; and the worn face of
Calvary will become .adiant with gladness,
and instead OF the Fad mob at the foot of
the cross will De multitude kneeling. And
you and Twill be among them.
But no, we will not wait for such a
dream. In this our most aroused mood we
throw down at the foot of that middle cross
sin, sorrow, life, death, every thing We
are slaves: Christ gives deliverance to the
captive. We are thirsty; Christ is the river