Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-06-04

they stretch Christ upon It, and four or
five men hold Him down while they drive
the spikes home; at every thump
GRoAN, A GRoANi
Alas. Alss! the hour passes on and the
time comes when they must cruelty Him.
Christ has only one garment lef. now,
esp, cap OF thorns. No danger that 1t
will fall of, tor the sharp edges hsve
punctured the temples, and 1t is sure ana
fast. One ruffisn takes hold Of one end
Of the short beam Of the CROSS, and an
other ruff1sn takes hold Of the other end
Of the short beam of the cross, and an
other rufian puts bis arms around the
waist of Christ, and another ruff1sn takes
hold OF the end Of the long beam Of the
CT So, and altogether they move on until
they come to the hole digged IN the earth,
and with awful plunge it jsrs down with
Its burden OF woe. II is not the picture
of Christ, 1t is not the statue OF Christ, ss
you sometimes see In 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 tor
the side, they say, i've wounds. No, they
nave missed the worst and they have
missed the most. Did you ever see
the bramble out Of which that crown Of
thorns was made? l saw one on 8 Brook
Ign ferryboat, in the hands OF 8 gentleman
VINO had just returned from Palestine, q
bramble iust like that out Of which the
crown Of thorns was made o, how cruel
ana how Stubborn were the thorns. And
when that cap Of thoSns was put upon
Christ, and it WAS pressed down upon
Him, not i've 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 irnsmms.ion, the ner-
vous prostretioD, the gsngrere had seized
upon Him, and he terribly wanted water.
His wounds were worse than guushot
fractures, and yet no water. A Turk IN
the thirteenth century WAS cruciled on
the banks OF river so thst the sight OF
the water might tantaliZs him. And, o,
how the thirst OF Christ must have tan
tailed IS Ee thought of the Euphrates
and the Jordan aud the Amazon and all
the fountains Of earth and heaven poured
out Of His own hand. They off.red BIN
an intoxicating draught msde out Of wine
and myrrh, but He declined it. He want
ed to die sober. No water.
Then, my friends, there was the abb
sence Of light. Darkness elwavs exas-
perates trouble. l never shall forget the
night 10 the summer Of 1873, in the
steamer Greece, mid-Atlantlc, every mo-
ment expecting the steamer to go down.
20 ~ hn
out. The captain came crawling in on
his hands and knees, fo~ he could not
stand upright, SO violently was
THE VESSEL PITCHING,
snd he cried out: "Light up, light up!"
The steward said: "We can't light up;
the candles are gone and the holders sre
gone" The captain said: 81 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 Lead bsthed and the hands
and feet rubbed. Look ct 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 70 help. There
was Christ's mother, but she might not
come up nesr enough to help. They
said: "Stand back, stand back; this is
no place for you" The high priests and
the soldiers wanted it their own way;
they had it their own way.
The hours pass on sni 1t Is II O'Clock
of the Savior's suffering, and it is l
O'Clock, snd it is 2 O'CLOCK, and il is al
most O'Clock. Take the last look st
that suffering face; wan and pinched, the
purple lips drawn back against the
teeth, the eyes red with weeping and
sunken as though grief hsd pushed them
back, blackness under the lower lid, the
whole body adroop and shivering with the
lsst chill, the breath growing feebler and
ieebler and feebler and feebler until He
gives one long, deep, last sigh. he Is
dead!
Oh, my soul, he is dead! Can You tell
why? Was He q fanatic dying for prin-
ciple that did not amount to anything2
Was ne man infatuated2s Nc; to save
your soul from sin, and mine, and make
eternal life possible, he died. There had
to be substitute for sin. Who shall it
be? "Let it be me-" said Christ, "iet 1t
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, suffered your
wounds, and died at Gettysburg. Christ
comes to us while We ere fighting our
battle with sin and death snd hell; He is
our substitute. He marches our march,
fights our battle, suffers our wounds, and
dies our death. Substitution! Substi-
tutioni
How do you feel in regard to that scene
described in the text, and in the region
around about the text? Are your sympa-
thies aroused, or are you
so DEAD IN SIN,
and so abandoned by reason OF your
transgressions that you can look upon al
that fearless and unmoved. No, no;
there are Thousands OF people here this
morning who can ssy in the depths of
their soul: "No, no, no; if Jesus en-
dured that, ana sn that for me, l ought
to love Him. / must love him, l will
love Him, do love Him. Here, Lord, I
give myself to Thee; tits all that l csn
do"
But how are you going to test your
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