Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-07-29

look. When these sick ones were brought
out did He say: do not bring me thess
sores; do not trouble me with these lepro.
sies?" No, no; there wasa kind look, there
was a gentle word, there was q healing
touch. They could not keep away from
Him.
HIS MAJESTY OF CHARACTER.
In addition to this softness of character
there was a fiery momentum. How the
kings of the earth turned pale. Here is a
plain man with a few sailors at his back,
coming off the Sea of Galilee. going up to
the palace of the Caesars, making that pal
ace quake to the foundations, and uttering
a word of kindness and mercy which throbs
through all the earth, and through all the
heavens. and through all ages. Oh, He was
loving Christ. But it was not effeminacy
or insipidity of character; it was accom-
panied with majesty, infinite and omnipo-
tent. Lest the world should not realize His
earnestness, this Christ mounts the cross.
You say: eff Christ has to die. whyInot
let Him take some deadly potion and lie on
couch in some bright and beautiful home?
If He must die, let Him expire amid all
kindly intentions" No, the world must
hear the hammers on the heads of the spikes.
| The world must listen to the death-rattle of
| the sufferer. The world must feel His warm
blood dropping on each cheek, while it looks
up into the face of His anguish. And so
the cross must be lifted and hole is dug on
the top of Calvary. 1t must be dug three
feet deep, and the cross is laid on the ground
and the sufferer is stretched upon it and the
nails are pounded through nerve and muscle
and bone, through the right hand, through
the left hand, and then they shake his right
hand to see if it is fast. and they heave up
the wood, half a dozen shoulders under the
weight, and they put the end of the cross in
the mouth of the hole, and they plunge it
in, all the weight of His body coming down
for the first time on the spikes; and while
some hold the cross upright others throw in
the dirt and trample it down, and trample
it hard. Oh, plant that tree we'll and thor
oughly, for it is to bear fruit such as no
other tree ever bore.
WHY CHRIST DIED.
Why did Christ endure it? He could
have taken those rocks and with them
crushed His cruci6ers. He could have
reached up and grasped the sword of the
omnipotent God, and with one clean cut
have tumbled them into perdition. But no;
He was to die. He must die. His life foy
your life. In European city young man
died or the scaffold for the crime of murder.
Some time after the mother OF this young
man was dying, and the priest came in, and
she made confession to the priest that she
was the murderer and not her son; in q mo-
ment of anger she had struck her husband
blow that slew him. The son came suddenly
into the room. and was washing away the
wounds and trying to resuscitate his father,
when some one looked through the window
and saw him, and supposed him to be the
criminal. That young man died for his own
mother. You say: ut was wonderful that
he never exposed her," But 1 tell you Of
grander thing. Christ, the Son of God, died
not for His mother, nor for His father. but
for His sworn enemies.
Oh, such Christ as that-so loving, so
patient, so self-sacrifcing-can you not
trust Him? think there are many under
the influence of the spirit of God who are
saying: 81 will trust Him if you will only
tell me how" and the great question asked
by thousands is: 'How? how?" And while
/ answer your question I look up and utter
the prayer which Rowland Hill so often
uttered in the midst of his sermons:
"Master help" How are you to trust in
Christ? just as you trust any one. You
trust your partner in business with import
ant things. If commercial house gives you
a note payable three months hence, you ex-
pect the payment of that note at the end of
three months. You have
PERFECT CONFIDENCE
in their word and in their ability. Or
again, you go home expecting there will be |
food on the table. You have confidence in
that Now, 1 ask you to have the same
confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ He |
says: "You believe 1 take away your sins,
and they are all taken away" "WhatP'
you say, "before pray any more? Before
cry over my sins any more?" Yes, this |
you are saved. Why, Christ is only wait
ing to get from you what you give to scores |
of people every day. What is that? Con- |
fdence. If these people whom you trust |
day by day are more worthy than Christ, if |
they are more faithful than Christ, if they |
have done more than Christ ever did, then |
give them the preference; but if you
really think that Christ is as trustworthy as
they are, then deal with him as fairly. |
"Oh," says some one in light way, 81 be- |
lieve that Christ was born in Bethlehem,
and believe that He died on the cross
Do You believe it with your head or with |
your heart?
will illustrate the difference. You are |
In your own house. In the morning you |
open a newspaper and you read how Captain |
Braveheart on the sea risked his life for the |
salvation of his passengers You say,
"What grand fellow he must have beeni /
His family deserve very well of the eouD-
try" You told the newspaper and sit
OOWu dL Tue tdDlc, anu Perhaps 10 uOt CQlnk
of that incident again. That is historical |
faith.
But now you are on the sea, and it is
night, and you are asleep. and you are
awakened by the shrek of "Fire!' You
rush out on the deck. You hear amid the
wringing of the hands and the fainting, the
cry, "No hope! no hopel We are lostl we
are lost!" The sail puts out its wings of
fire, the ropes make burning ladder in the
night heavens, the spirit of wrecks Kisses in
the wave, and on the hurricane deck shakes
out its banner of smoke and darkness.
Down with the lifeboatsl" cries the cap
tain. "Down with the lifeboatsF" People
rush into them. The boats are about full.
Room only for one more man. You are
standing on the deck beside the captain.
Who shall it be? You or the captain? The
captain says, "You." You jump and are
saved. He stands there and dies.
SAVING FAITH.
Now, you believe that Captain Brave
heart sacrificed himself for his passengers,
but you believe it with love, with tears,
with hot and long continued EXPLANATIONS,
with grief at his loss, and joy at your deliv-
erance. That is saving faith. In other
words, what you believe with all the heart,
and believe in regard to yourself On this
hinge turns my sermon; aye, the salvation
Of your immortal soul
You often go across a bridge you know
nothing about. You do not know who built
the bridge, you do not know what material
it is made of; but you come to it and walk
over it and ask no questions. And here is
Rn arched bridge blasted from the "Rock of
Ages" and built by the architect of the
whole universe, spanning the dark gulf be-
tween sin and righteousness, and all God
asks you is to walk across it; and you start,