Daily Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1882-1893, 1888-06-10


up coin on the ground, saying: WHO
shall have the coatl" One rutiian SAYS:
II have it, have tit is mine! lie
rolls il up and puts it under his arm, or
he examines il 10 see what fabric il is
made Of. Then they put the cross upon
the ground, and they stretch Christ upon
il, and four or five nen hold him down
while they drive the spikes home, at
every thump groan, grcan! Alas!
alas! the hour passes 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, for the sharp edges have
punctured the temples and 1t is sure and
fast. One rufhan takes hold Of one end
of the short beam Of the cross, and
another rufian 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 ruifian takes
hold Of the end Of the long beam Of the
cross, and altogether they move on until
they come 10 the hole digged in the
earth, and with awful plunge 1t jars
down with lis burden of woe. IL Is not
the picture Of a Christ. il is not the statue
of Christ, as you sometimes see in acathe-
dral; but il is the body Of bleeding,
living, dying Christ
They sometimes say he had five
wounds, Int they have counted wrong.
Two wounds for :he hands, two wounds
.r.r,.,,,l fort sl,. giga fharr
say, five wounds. No, they have missed
the worst and they have missed the
most. Did you ever see the bramble out
| Of which that crown Of ,hUr7s was
made? saw one on a Brooklyn ferry
boat. in the hands Of a gentleman who
had Just returned from Palestine,
bramble just like that out Of which the
crown of thorns was made. Oh! 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 the scene worse. First, there was
the absence Of water. The climate was
hot. the fever, the inflammation, the
nervous prostration, 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 cru
| Gifted on the hanks of river so that the
sight Of the water might tantalize him.
And oh. how the thirst Of Christ must
have tautalized as he thought Of the Eu-
phrates and the Jordan and the Amazon
and all the fountains Of earth and heaven
poured ont Of his own hand. They Of,
fered him an intoxicating draurht made
out of wine and myrrh. but he declined
it, He wanted to die sober. No water.
Then, my friends, there was the ab.
sence Of light. Darkness always exas.
perates trouble. i never shall forget the
night in the summer of 1873. in the
steamer Greece, mid-Atlantic. every
moment expecting the steamer 10 60
down. All the lights in the cabin were
blown out The captain came crawling
in On hands and knees, for he could not
stand upright, SO violently was the vp.
sci pitching, and he cried out: Light
up. light up!" The steward said: I'VE
can't light up; the candies are gone and
the holders are gone. ThecSptain said
Il can't help that; light up. The storm
was awful when the lights were burning,
worse when the lights went out
Then there was the absence OF faithful
nurses. When you are ill., it is pleasant
TO have the head bathed and the hands
and feet rubbed. Look AT the hands and
feet of Christ, look at the face Of Christ.
There were women there who had cared
for the sick. but none of them might
come up near enough TO help. There
was Christ's mother, but she might moi
come up near enough 10 help. They said;
"Stand back. stand back; this is nc
place for you" The high priests and
the soldiers wanted it their own way;
they had it their own way.
The hours pass on and it is l2 O'Clock
Of the SaviourIs suffering, and II is !
o'clock, and it is . O'Clock, aud il is al
most o'clock. Take the last look at
that suffering face, wan and pinched,
the purple lips drawn back against the
teeth, the ewes red with weeping and
sunken as though grief had pushed them
back, blackness under the lower lid, the
whole body adroop and shiyering with
the last chill, the breath growing feebler
and feebler and feebler and fcebler until
he gives one long, deep, last sigh, He is
deadl
o! my soul, he is dead Can you tell
whyl Was he fanatic dying for prin-
ciple that did not amount 10 anything
Was he man infatuated No; 10 save
your soul from sin, and mine, and make
eternal lie possible. he died. There had
10 he substitute for sin. Who shall il
bel Let it be me" said Christ; 'let il
be me- You understand the meaning
of that word substitution. You were
: drafted for the last war; some one took
your place, marched your march, suf-
ferod your wounds and died at Gettys-
burg. Christ comes 20 us while we are
fighting our battle with sin and death
and hell, and he is our substitute. He
marches our march, fights our hattie,
J suffers our wounds, and dies our death.
Substitution Substitution!
How do you feel in regard TO that scene
described in the text, and in the region
. round about the text2 Are your sympa
5 thics arOuscdl or are you no dead in sin
, and - abandoned by reason Of you
! transgressions that you can look upon al
. that fearless and onmoyedy No, no
: there are thousands Of people here thi
morning who can say In the depths o
their soul; mo, no, no; II Jesus en-