The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-06-21
TALMAGE'S SERMON,
The Weekly Disoourses of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subjects .'Thc Assnssination. -


The cross was gibbet on which criminals
were put to death. 1t was sometimes made
in the shape of the letter 7, sometimes in the
shape of the letter X, sometimes in the shaps
OF the letter la siDiple upright; sometimes
two cross pieces against the perpendicular
bar, SO that upon the lower cross piece the
criminal partially sat But whatever the
style of the cross, it was always disgraceful
and always agonizing.
,,H When Darius conquered Babylon he put
p00 captives to death on the cross. When
Alexander conquered Tyre, he put 1000 cap
tives to death on the cross. So it was Just
an ordinary mode of punishment. But in
all the forest of crosses on the hills and in
the valleys of the earth there js one cross
that attracts more attention than any other.
1t is not higher than the others, It is not
made out of different wood, there is nothing
peculiar in the notch at which the two pieces
are Joined, and as to the scene, they witnessed
cr'icifixiohs every few weeks; so that l see
q reckless man walking about the hill and
kicking carelessly aside skull, and wonder
ing who the villain was that had so flat and
misshapen head; and here is another skull,
and there on the hillside is another skull. In
deed, the Bible says it was "a place OF skulls"
But about the victim on one of these crosses
all ages are crying; "Who is hea was he a
manf was he Godl was he man and GodP
Through the darkness of that gloomy day
come up close enough to the cross to see
who it is. 1t is Jesus. How did he come
therea Had he come up on the top of the hill
to look off upon the beautiful landscape or
upon brilliant sunsets No. He came there
i'll and exhausted. People sometimes wonder
why. Christ expired so quickly on the cross,
in six or seven hours, while other victims
have been on the cross for forty eight hours
before life was extinct. | will tell you tho
reason. He was ayhauste6 when ha "a ma
there. He had been scourged We are hor-
rlfied at the cruelties of the whipping post,
but those cruelties were mercy compared
with the scourging of Jesus Christ
saw at Antwerp picture made by Rubens
-Rubens's picture of the scourging of Jesus
Christ 1t was tho most overmastering pict-
ure ever looked at, or ever expect to see.
AS the long frocked official opened the door
that hid the picture, there he was-Christ
with back bent and barred. The fagelator
stood with the upper teeth clenched over the
lower hip, as though to give violence to the
blows. There were the swollen shoulders of
Christ. 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 were the marks where the
knots in the whips gouged out the flesh. There
stood the prosecutor, with his foot on the calf
OF the leg of the Saviour, balancing himself.
o. the furious and hellish look on those faces,
grinning vengeance against the Son Of God.
The picture seized me, it overwhelmed me;
It seemed as if it would kill me. l do not
think could have looked at it five minutes
and have lived.
But that, my friends, was before Christ had
started for Calvary. That was only the
whipping. Are you ready for your journey
to the crossl
The carpenters have split the timber into
two pieces They are heavy and they are
long pieces, for one of them must be fastened
deep down in the earth, lest the struggling of
the victim upset the structure. They put
this timber upon the shoulder of Christ very
gradually first, to see whether he can stand
1t, and after they find he can stand it they
put the whole weight npon HIM. Forward
new, to Calvary! The hooting and the yell
ing mob follow on. Under the weight of the
cross, Christ being weary and sick, he stum-
bles and falls and they jerk at his robe, in
dignant that he should have stumbled and
fallen, and they cry: "Get up, get up!'
Christ, putting one hand on the ground and
the other hand on the cross, rises, looking
into the face of Mary, his mother, for sym.
l9athy; but they tell her to stand back, It is
no place for woman "Stand back and
stop this crying"
Christ moves on with His burden upon His
shoulders. and there is boy that passes
along with Him, a boy holding friallet and
a few nails. l wonder what they are for7
Christ moves on until the burden is SO great
He staggers and falls fiat into the dust and
falnts dead away, and ruf1ian puts his foot
on MIN and shakes him as he would dead
doS, while another ruffian looks down at him
wondering whether he has tainted away, or
whether he is only pretending to faint away,
and with leer and contempt indescribable,
says: "Fainted, have yous tainted! Get
up! get onI"
Now they have arrived at the foot of the
nil. OF with his clothes! Shall that loath.
some mob look upon the unrobed body of
Christi Yes The commanding officers say:
w nfasten the girdle, take off the coat; strip
himV The work is done. But bring back
up COIN on the ground, saying: "Ihave it, |
have it 1t is minel' He rolls it up and puts
1t under his arm, or he examines it to see
what fabric it is made of. Then they put
the cross upon the ground and they stretch
Christ upon it, and four or five men hold
him down while they drive the spikes home.
At every thump groan-a groan. Alasl
alas! The hour passes on and the time
comes when they must cruelty him.
Christ has only one garment left now, q
cap, a cap of thorns No danger that it will
fall or, for the sharp edges have punctured
the temples and it is sure and fast. One ruff
nan takes ho.d of one end of the short beam
OF the cross, and another ruffian takes hold
OF the other end of the short beam of the
cross, and another ruffan puts his arms
around the waist Of Christ, and another ruff
fan takes hold of the end of the long beam
OF the cross, and altogether they move on
until they come to the hole dgged in the
earth, and with awful plunge it jars down
with its burden of woe. 1t is not the picture
of Christ, it is not the statue of Christ, as
you sometimes see in a cathedral; but it is
the body of a bleeding, living, dying Christ
They sometimes say he had five wounds,
but they have counted wrong. Two wounds
for the hands, two wounds for the feet, one
wound for the side, they say; five wounds.
No; they have missed the worst and they
have missed the most Did you ever see the
brambie out of which that crown of thorns
was madei | saw one on a Brooklyn ferry
boat, in the hands of gentleman who had
just returned from Palestine; bramble just
like that out of which the crown of thorns
was made. o, how cruel and how stubborn
were the thorns! And when that cap of
thorns was put upon Christ, and it was
pressed down upon him, not five wounds, but
ten, twenty, thirty-I cannot count them
There were three or four absences that
made that scene worse. First, there was the
absence of water The climate was hot; the
fever, the Inflammation, the nervous pros
trat.on, the gangrene had seized upon
him, and he terribly wanted water.
His wounds were worse than gunshot
fractures, and yet no water A Turk in the
Thirtee nth century was crucified on the banks
of river, SO that the sight of the water
might tantalize him. And OF how the
thirst of Christ must have tantali1ed as He
Thought Of the Euphrates and the Jordan and
the Amazon and all the fountains Of earth
and heaven poured out of His own hand.
They offered Him an intoxicating draught
made out of wine and myrrh, but He declined
1t He wanted to die sober No water.
Then, my friends. there was the absence oi
light. Darkness always exasperates trouble.
never shall forget the night in the SKINNER
OF 1878, in the steamer Greece, mid atlantic
every moment expecting the steamer to 90
down. All the lights in the cabin were
blown out The Captain came craving on
his hands and knees, for he could not stand
upright, so violently was the vessel pitching,
and he cried: Light up, light upln The
steward said: 1--WE can't light up: the can.
dies are gone and the holders are gone.n The
Captain said: II can't help that; light upr'
Inc storm was awful when the lights wer,
burning; worse when the lights went ont.
Then there was the absence of faithfu
nurses, When you are i'll, it is pleasant Il
have the head bathed and the hands and fee,
rubbed. Look at the hands and feet 81
Christ, look at the face Of Christ. There wer,
women there who had cared for the sick bu1
none of them might come up near enough tc
help. There was Christ's mother, but shs
might not come up near enough to helm
harr Il. q