New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-06-13
ia In Els SERMON.

The Brooklyn Preacher Disconrses on
the Divine Assassination and
Its Lesson.
He Pictures q Cross Flaming with
Suffering. Flaming wlth..Trlumph.
Flaming with Glory.
Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, D. D., took
for his text the passage:
Whosoever doth not bear His cross and
come after me can not be my disciple. Luke
xiv, 4-27.
He preached the following sermon:
The cross was a gibbet on which criminals
were put to death. It was sometimes made
in the shape CT the letter Z, sometimes in
the shape of the letter x, sometimes in the
shape of the letter La simple upright;
sometimes two cross pieces against the per-
pendicular bar, so that upon the lower cross
piece the criminal partially sat. But what
ever style of cross always dlsgraceful,
always agonizing.
When Darius conquered Babylon he put
two hundred captiyes to death on the cross.
When Alexander conquered Tyre he put
two thousand captiyes to death on the cross.
So it was just an ordinary mode of punish.
ment. But in all the forest of crosses on the
hills and in the valleys of the earth there, is
one cross that attracts more attention than
any other It 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 and as to the scene,
they witnessed cruciflxions every few w eeks
so that i see a reckless man walking the
hill and kicking car elessly aside skull, and
wondering who the villain was who had SO
nat and nllsshapen head; and here is an
other skull, and there On the hillside is
another skull. Indeed the Bible SAYS it
was ga place of skulls.' But about the vic
tim On one OF these crosses all ages are cry
ing: s.Who. is He. Was tHesa man? Was He
q God"o Was He man and God?''
Through the darkness of that gloomy day
! come close up enough to the cross to see
who 1t is. 1t is Jesus. How did He come
There? Had He come UP on the hail to look
OIL upon the beautiful landscape or upon a
brilliant sunset? 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 the
reason. He was exhausted when he G anne
there He had been scourged. We are
horrlfed at the cruelties of the whipping
post, but those crueltles were mercy as COM
pared with the scourglng of Jesus Christ.
i saw at Antwerp picture made by Rr-
Dens-Rubens picture OF the scourglng of
Jesus Christ. 1t was the most overmaster-
ing picture 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 flag
elator stood With the upper teeth clinched
over the lower lip, as though to give vio-
lence 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 adherlng to
the whips as they were lifted. There were
the marks Where the knots in the whips
gou9ed out the flesh. There stood the per-
secutor, with his foot on the calf of the leg
OF the Savior, balancing himself. On, the
furious and heliish look on those faces, grim
ming vengeance against the Son of God. The
picture seized me, it overWhe. med me; 1T
seemed as if it would kill me- L co 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 the journey to
the cross?
The carpenters have split the timber into
two pieces. They are heavy and thew are
long pieces, for one OF them must be fas-
tened deep down i'll the earth lest lne strug-
Cling OF the victim upset the structure
They put this timber on the shoulder of
Christ very gradually first, to see whether
He can stand it, and after they lind He can
s5and It, they put the whole weight upon
Him. Forward, now, to Calvary. The
hooting ana the yelling mob follow on.
Under the weight OF the cross, Christ being
weary and sick, He stumbles and falls. anu
they jerk at his robe indignant that He
should have stumbled and fallen, and they
cry: Get up, get up" Christ, putting one
hand on the ground aud the other hand on
the cross, rises, looking into the fee of
Mary, HIS mother, Tor sympathy, hut they
tell her to stand back, it is no place for a
Woman-ss stand back and stop this crying''
Christ moves on with His burden upon His
shoulders, and there is a boy that passes
along with Him, q boy holding mallet and
few nails wonder what they are for.
Christ moves on until the burden is so great
He ;staggers and falls flat into the dust and
fa1nts dead away, and a rutfian puts His foot
on Him and shakes Him as he would dead
dog, While another rt1ffian looks down at
HIM, wondering whether He has tainted
away or whether He is only pretending to
faint away, and with jeer and contempt in
OleCllpaDle says. EalllJeQ, nave you! FAINT
ed! Get up, get onp'
Now they have arrived at the foot of the
hill. Off with His clothes. Shall that loatI-
some mob look upon the unrobed body OF
Christ? Yes. The commanding officers say:
1Unfasten the g1rdIe, take off the coat, strip
Him." The work is done. Bring back the
coat, for here are the gamblers tossing UP
coin on the ground, saying: IVY ho
shall have the coat?' One ruttlan says: 81
have it, l have tit is minen He rolls. it
up and puts it under his arm, or lie examines
1T to see what kind of 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 a groar, a
groan! Alas. alas. the hour pas ,es on and the
time comes when they must cruelty Him.
Christ has only one garment left now, a
cap, a cap of thOrns. No danger that it will
fall of, Tor the sharp edges have punctured
the temples ana it is sure and fast. One ruff
fan takes hold of one end of the short beam
Of the Gloss, and another ruffian takes hold
OF the other end OF the Snort beam of
the cross, and another rlu1ian put his arms
around the waist of Christ, and another ruff
fan takes hold Of the end OF the long Deam
of the GRO IS, anu all together they move on
until they come to the hole digged in the
earth, and with awful plunge it jars down
withits burden OF woe. It's not the picture