The Nicodemus cyclone. [volume] (Nicodemus, Graham County, Kan.) 1887-1888, 1888-06-15
SACRAMENTAL DAY.
New Converts Ransomed From
the Guilt.


the Tabernacle sang this morning:
I'D sing the precious blood He split.
My ransom from the dreadful guilt"
| This is Sacramento Day, and a large
number of persons joined the church, making
the communicate membership four thousand,
one hundred and ninety-four. But this is
| only cart of the great attendance that Sun
day mornings and evenings overflow the i'm
mense audience room. The Rev. I. Dewitt
Talmage, D. D., took for his text tie passage:
| "Whosoever doth ret Scar his cross, and
come after Ne, cannot be My discip le."
Luke Oh II, V. e. He preached the follow
ing sermon:
The cross was a gibbet on which criminals
were put to death. 1t was sometimes made
In the shape of the letter T, sometimes In the
shape of the letter X, sometimes in the shape
| Of the letter Ia simple uprighti sometimes
two cross pieces against the perpendicular
bar, so that upon the lower cross piece the
criminal partially sat- But whatsoever the
style of cross it was always disgraceful and
always sgonizing.
When Darius conquered Babylon, he put
TWO hundred captiVes to death on the cross
When Alexander conquered Tyre, he put
two thousand captives to death on the cross
so it was just an ordinary mode of punish
ment But in all the forest of crosses on the
bills and in the valleys of the earth, there is
one cross that attracts more attention than
any other. 1t is not higher than the others,
1t Is not made out Of different wood, there
Is nothing peculiar in the notch at which the
Two pieces are Joined, ana an TO the scene
they witnessed crHcifxions every few weeks,
so that l see reckless man walking about
The hill and kicking carelessly aside a skull,
| and wondering who the villain was that had
| 80 Hat and mlshapen q head; and here is an
| other skull, and there on the hillside is an
| other skull Indeed, the Bible says it was
"a place of skulls" But about the victim
On one of these crosses all ages are crying:
| who is het was He mans was He Coda
| was tie man and GOd2'
Through the darkness of that gloomy day,
come close up enough to the cross to see
VINO 1t is. 1t Is Jesus. How did he come
| thereE Had lie come up Oh the hill to look
| oil upon the beautiful landscape, or upon q
| brilliant sunsets No. He came there i'll and
| exhausted. People sometimes wonder why
| Chr1st expired go quickly on the cross, in six
DR. seven hours, while other victims have been
on the cross for fOrty-eight hours before
| Tie was extinct | will tell you TIE reason
| DE was exhausted when he came there He
had been scOurged. We are Mortified at the
crueities Of the whipping post but those
| cruelties were mercy as compared with the
| sc0urging of Jesus Christ
| l saw at Antwerp picture made bv Rubens
| -RuDens picture Of the scOurgirg of Jesus
Christ. 1t was the most Overmasterng pict-
| 1re ever looked at or ever expect to see
| AS the iOng-frOcked official opened the door
| that hid The picture there He was-Christ
| with back bent and barred The fagellator
| stood with the upper teeth clenched over the
over lip, as though to give violence to the
blows. There were the black and blue
ridges, denied even the relief of bleeding.
there was the flesh adhering to the whips as
they were lifted. There we're the marks
where the knots in the whips gouged out the
1esh. There stood the prosecutor, with his
eet on the calf ofithe leg of the Saviour, bal.
ancing himself. o. the furious and hellsh
look on those faces, grinnng vengeance
against the Son of God. The picture seized
ne, 1t overwhelmed me; 1t seemed as II 1t
would kill me. | do not think could have
looked at it five minutes and have lived.
But that, my friend was before Christ has
started for Calvary. That was only the
whipping Are You ready for your journey
70 the CROSSE
The carpenters have split the timber into
iwo pieces They are heavy and they are
ong pieces, for one cf them must be fastened
deep down IL The earth lest the struggling of
the victim upset the structure. They put
his timber upon the shoulder of Christ verv
| stand
It, and after they find he can stand it, they
put the whole weight upon Him. Forward
now, to Calvary. The hOOting and the yell
ng mob followed on. Under the weight of
The cross, Christ being weary and sick, He
'tumbles and falls, and they jerk at His robe
Indignant that He should have stumbled and
tallen, and they cry: Get up. get upp'
Christ, putting one hand on the ground and
The other hand on the cross, rises, looking
nto the face of Mary, His mother, for sympa-
Thy; but they tell her to stand back, it is no
place for stand back and stop
his Crying.n
Christ moves On with His burden iipon His
shoulder, and there is boy that passes along
With Hin, q Boy holding a mallet and a few
aaiiS. l wonder what they are for. Christ
moves on until the burden is so great He
staggers and falls flat into the dust and
.alGts dead away, and n rufflan puts his
loot on Him and shakes Him as he would q
lead dog, while another ruitian looks down at
dim wondering whether He has tainted
Away or whether He IL only rretendn e
70 faint away, and with jeer and contempt
ndestribable says: PAINTED, have yous
'ainted! get UP, get on"
Now. they have arrived at the foot of the
bill. OF with His clothes Shall that loath-
.ome mob look upon the unrobed body of
Christi Yes. The eQmmapang officers
say: 'UnfesteE tie glrdIe, take off the coat,
strip Him" Tie work is done. But bring
back the coat, for here are the gamblers
tossing up coin on the ground, saying:
"WhO shall have the coat" One ruffian
Iays: 81 have it, l have tit is mine" He
rolls it up and puts it under his arm. or be
examines it to see what fabric it IN made Of
Then they pitt the cross upon the ground
ind they stretch Christ upon it, and four or
i've men hold Him down while they Or We the
Ipikes home 1t every thump a groan
yfoan! Alas Alas the hour passes on
ind the time comes when they must cruelty
Him.
= Christ has oily one eatmet.t left nov.
, zap, a cap of thornS. No danger that II will
: ,all off, for the sharp edges have punctnre
] he temples aud il is sure and fast. One ruf
1 IAN takes hold Of one end of the short beam
If the cross, and auothe. rG''iap takes hold
0 If the other end of the short beam Ct thf
ross and another rutfan puts his arm;
around the waist of Christ and another ruf
0 ian takes hold Of the end of the long bean
If the cross, and altogether they move on un
I'll they come to the hole dlgged in the earth
{ and with awful plunge 1t jars down with its
: burden of woe. 1t is not the picture of Christ
j, I is not the statue of Christ, as you some
l times see in a cathedral; but it is the body o
a bleeding living diving Christ
They sometimes say lie hat
ave wounds but they have counte,
wrong. Two wounds for the hands
: .wo wounds for the feet, one wound for tn
side. they say, 1--WE wounds. No, they hav