The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-06-08
THE ASSASSINATION.
sAcRAMENTAL DAY SERVICES IN
THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.

oHSEbN"GINt OHI OCHNtSEO tV
THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Gives q Graphic De
scrfption of tho scourgtng and Cruel
Axion OF Our sayiour-The Terrible
Crown of Thorns.
BROOKLYN, June6-The congregation at
the Tabernacle sang, this morning,
I'd sing the precious blood he spit,
My ransom from the dreadful guilt
This is Sacramental day, and O large mum
Der of persons Joined the church, making
the communicate membership 4,194. But
this Is only a part of the great attendance
that, Sunday mornings and evenings, over
bow the immense audience room. The Rev.
I. De Witt Talmage, d. D., took for his text
the passage: "Whosoever doth not bear his
cross, and come after me, cannot be my dis.
ciple"-Luke xiv, q. He preached the fol-
lowing sermon;
The cross was q gibbet on which criminals
were put to death. It was sometimes made
In the shape Of the letter T, sometimes In the
shape of the letter x, sometimes In the shape
Of the letter la 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, 1t 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 1000 cap
tives to death on the cross. So IL 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.
It 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
cruci1xions every few weeks; so that I see
a reckless man walking about the hill and
kicking carelessly aside a skull, and wonder
ing who the villain was that had so fat and
misshapen a 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
mani was he a Gods was he mar and GodP'
Through the darkness Of that gloomy day
I come close up enough to- he cross to see
who it is. 1t is Jesus HI y did he come
theres Had he come up on tie top of the hill
to look off upon the beautiful landscape or
upon a brilliant sunset No. He came there
Ill and exhausted. People sometimes wonder
why Christ expired 50 quickly on the cross,
in six or seven hours, while other victims
have been on the cross for forty-eight ours
before life was extinct I will tell % the
reason He was exhausted when he came
there. He had been scourged. We are hor-
rihed at the c~ruelties Of the whipping post,
ha,f xhnca or1,alfiao ,o-o. ----x--i
with the scourging of Jesus Christ.
Isaw at Antwerpa picture made by Rubens
-Rubens' picture of the s~courging Of Jesus
Christ. 1t was the most overmasterfng 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 hagellator
stood with the upper teeth clenched over the
lower lip, 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.
Of the furious and hellish look on those faces,
g~rinning 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 l could nave 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 cross2
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
it, and after they find he can stand it they
put the whole weight upon him. Forward
now, 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 lave stumbled and
fallen, and they cry: SECT up, get upI"
Christ, putting one hand OF the ground and
the other hand on the cross, rises, looking
into the face of Mary, his mother, for SYM
pathy; but they tell her to stand back, 1t is
no place for a woman. 'Stand back and stop
this crying"
Christ moves on with his burden upon his
ouOu14C16, ulIh bACAO - . IVY uudO HtkoocS
along with him, a boy holding a mallet and
a few nails. l wonder what they are fort
Christ moves on until the burden is so great
be staggers and falls fat into the dust and
faints dead away, and a ruf1an puts his foot
on him and shakes him as he would 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: PAINTED, have you9 Faintedi Get
upl get on"
Now they nave arrived at the foot of the
hill. OF with his clothesI Shall that loath-
some mob look upon the unrobed body Of
Christi Yes. The commanding officers say;
"Unfasten the girdle, take off the coat; strip
himr' The work is done But bring back
the coat, for here are the gamblers tossing
up coin on the ground, saying: 81 have 1t, ]
have it; it Is miner He rolls it up and puts
1t under his arm, or he examines 1t to see
iii fabric it is made OF. Then they put
the cross upon the ground and they stretch
Christ upon 1t, and four or five men hold
him down while they drive the spikes home.
At every thump a groan-a groan- Alasl
alasi 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 1t will
fall off, for the sharp edges have ~punctured
the temples and 1t is sure and fast One ruff
fan takes hold of one end Of the short beam
of the cross, and another ruff1an takes hold
of the other end of the short beam of the
cross, and another ruflian 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 a cathedral; but 1t 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 n they
have missed the most Did you ever see the
bramble out of which that row Of thorns
was madeI saw one on q 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. Ol how cruel and how stubborn
were the thornsI 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 annot 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
~tration, the gangrene had seized upon
him, and he terribly wanted water.
His wounds were worse than gunshot
fractures, md 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 tantalized as he
thought of the Euphrates and the Jordan and