Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1888-06-15
TALMAGES SERMON,
rbe Weekly Discourses of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subject; 1.-THE AssassfnatiOn.'

III bic snaps Vi lle lelltT SOIueLliueS III but
shape OF the letter Y, sometimes in the shape
of the letter Ia simple 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.
When Darius conquered Babylon he put
200 captives to death on the cross When
Alexander conquered Tyre, he put 2000 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 is 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
crucifixions every few weeks; so that l see
a reckless man walking about the hill and
kicking carelessly aside a skull, and wonder
ing who the villain was that had so fiat 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 he? was he a
mans was he Goda was he man and Godp
Through the darkness of that gloomy day
l come up close enough to the cross to see
who it is. 1t is Jesus. How did he come
therel Had he come up on the top of the hill
to look off upon the beautiful landscape or
upon 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 came
there. He had been scourged. We are hor-
rified 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
-Rubenss picture Of the scourging of Jesus
Christ. 1t was the 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 flagelator
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- / 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 CROSSE
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
If and altar nd bo
put the whole weight npon him. Forward
ne'w, to Calvary! The hooting and the yell
ing mob follow on. Under the weight of the
cross, Christ being weary and sick, he STUN
bles and falls, and they jerk at his robe, in
dignant that he should have stumbled and
fallen, and they cry; Get up, get upr'
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
ssathy; 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, boy holding a mallet and
few nails. l wonder what they are fora
Christ moves on until the burden is SO great
He staggers and falls fiat into the dust and
faints dead away, and a ruffian puts his foot
on him and shakes him as he would a dead
dog, while another ruffian looks down at him
wondering whether he has tainted away, or
whether he is only pretending to faint away
and with jeer and contempt indescribable,
says: "Fainted, have youl tainted! Get
upl get onI"
Now they have arrived at the foot of the
hill Off with his clothes Shall that loath-
some mob look upon the unrobed body of
Christi Yes. The commanding officers say:
"Unfasten this girdle, take off the coat; strip
himW The work is done. But bring back
fhs NnE
up coin on the ground, saying: 81 have it,
have it; it is mine!" He rolls tup and puts
it under his arm, or he examines it to see
what fabric it is made of. Then they put
the cross upon the ground ard they stretch
Christ upon it, and four or five men hold
him down while they drive the spikes home.
At every thump a groan-a groan Alas |
alas! The hour passes on and the time
comes when they must cruelty him.
Christ has only one garment left now, a
| cap, cap of thorns. No danger that it will
| fall off, for the sharp-edges have punctured
the temples and it is sure and fast One ruff
fan 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 ruffian 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 digged in the
earth, and with awful plunge it jars down
with its burden of woe. 1t is not the picture
of a Christ, it is not the statue of Christ, as
you sometimes see in q cathedral; but it is
the body of 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
,Io tnf,. oh,
was mades | saw one on a Brooklyn ferry
boat, in the hands of a gentleman who had
just returned from Palestine; a 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
traton, 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
Thirteenth century was crucified on the banks
of q river, SO that the sight of the water
might tantalize him. And OF how the
thirst of Christ must have tantaiced 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
it, He wanted to die sober. No water.
Then, my friends, there was the absence Of
light, Darkness always exasperates trouble
| never shall forget the night in the SKINNER
of 1873, in the steamer Greece, mid atlantic
every moment expecting the steamer to &c
down. All the lights in the cabin were
blown out. The Captain came crawling OF
his hands and knees, for he could not stanC
upright, so violently was the vessel pitching
and he cried: "Light up, light up" Th'
dies are gone and the holders are gone" TIL,