Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-28
DEATH ON THE CROSS.
Christ's Estimate of the importance
Of That Supreme Event
TIE GUIDING STAR OF HIS LIFE.
Explanation Of Those Dark Hours in the
Garden of Gethsemane.
A NOBLE PURPOSE BEHIND 1T ALL

and thought about 1t by Christ HlmseA.
We know we'll enough what successive
generations OF theologians have thought and
said about it. The path of Christian doc
trine is strewn for centuries back with the
fragments of discarded theories. The death
of Christ, they said at one time, was ran
som paid to the devil. Then presently came
others who denied that, and said: mo, but
the death of Christ was an apology
offered to the offended majesty OF God. "
That, too, was in its turn discredited, and
Christ's death was declared to be recon-
ciliation between Gods justice and Gods
love. Even that, however, did not satisfy.
None of the theories, from first to last, has
satisfied everybody. To-day a good many
people who think deeply about the matter
are profoundly dissatisfied with all OF
them. ss
The theologians have all along agreed,
however, that the death of Christ was an
event of unspeakable consequence. We
know pretty well, too, what the writers OF
the New Testament thought and said about
the death of Christ. At least, it is perfectly
plain what they said about it. Precisely
what thoughts lay behind their words is not
so clear. But this evidently, and without
question, is quite certain, that the New
Testament writers, like the theologians who
came after them, regarded the death OF
Christ as the supreme fact in the record OF
His life.
ALWAYS FULLY TREATED.
Everybody has noticed what large space
is given to it in every one of the gospels.
Whatever else any of the evaAgellsts
NAV leave out, whatever else may
be condensed into a paragraph or
noticed only in passing sentence,
the last days of our Lords life, and the last
hours of it upon the cross, are recorded IN
minute detail The story of the manger
may be lett untold. but the story OF the cross
is recited, the whole Of it. The sayings OF
Christ upon the Mount Of Beatitudes may
be passed over, but what He said upon the
Mount of Crucifxion has its emphatic state
ment. However else the evangelists may
differ, they are all alike in the large, i'm
portant and significant place which they
give to the narrative of the death of Christ.
As for the estimate which is set upon the
Masters death by St. Paul and the other
writers of the epistles, no reader can mistake
it, Where the lie of our Lord is once
held up as an example, the death which
He died is 20 times remarked upon. The
death of Christ, the blood OF Christ, the
sacrifice of Christ, the cross Of Christ.
This was what st. Paul and st. Peter and
st. John thought OF, when they thought OF
Him. The ideal of Christian preaching
was to preach Christ crucifed. Christ died
for our sins. That was the summing up OF
the whole Christian message. That was the
brief statement Of the whole meaning and
purpose of the Masters mission. He died.
mi =. LII ID
then. that the Christian theologies and the
Christian Scriptures are perfectly agreed as
to the surprising and supreme Importance
of the death of Christ. As to the exact sig
nificance of Christ's death there is no lack
OF difference of assertion; but that 1t was by
far the most significant event in the whole
life Of Jesus Christ, theologians, apostles
and evangelists alike affirm.
cHRIsT's OWN ESTIMATE.
Now, what we want to know above all
else, is what Christ said and thought about
His death. What estimate did He set upon
it? Was it to Him the supreme event and
purpose of His work? Did He think about
it at all as we think about it? Especially,
was there in His thought any OF that ele-
ment OF strangeness, of mystery, of unearth-
illness which others have found in it? Had
it for Him any of that supernatural signii-
canoe which gathers around it in the
Christian creed?
For the answer to these questions we go,
of course, to the record of Christ's lite.
And what want to point out to you this
morning is this three-fold fact: That Jesus
Christ throughout His ministry looked for
ward continually toward His death; that
He looked forward toward it with a most
mysterious dread and fear; and that at the
same time He looked forward toward it as
the supreme act of His life, for which He
had come into the world.
We begin with typical incident in which
all the parts of this three-fold fact are repre-
sented. One day in the last week of Christ's
life, certain Greeks who had journeyed to
Jerusalem to take part in the Passover fes-
tival, and who had heard the general talk
which was astir in the city concerning the
words and works of the Galatean teacher, ap-
preached some Of the apostles and asked that
they might see Jesus. The apostles bring the
request to Jesus and He sees its significance
at once. His life is ending as it began, with
prophecy Of the ingathering of all nations.
As the men from the East had come to the
cradle, so now the men from the West come to
the cross,
A TYPICAL INCIDENT.
A great gladness possesses Him. 1.-THE hour
is come" He says, THAT the Son of Man should
be g!orifed." But suddenly the thought
of His death enters His mind. He looks
along the path which the Son of Man must
first tread, and there is the cross in the midst
of it. "Verily, verify, / say unto you," He con-
tinues, except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die it abideth alone; but if it die.
it bringeth forth much fruit" At once the
shadow of a great dread seems to fall upon
Him. Now is My soul troubled, and what
shall say? Father, save Me from this hour"
And then instantly the supreme purpose of His
death drives out lear. But for this cause
This l say, IS a typical incident Christ
looks forward t. the cross. A horrible dread
for moment overwhelms Him. In the
strength OF the cause for which He is to die
He conquers 1t. In one way or another this
thought ard word of Christ about His death
occur again and again along the record of His
life. Christ was always looking forward to the
cross. That is the first characteristic of Christs
thought about His death which 1 ask you to
think about.
Everybody knows the picture In which our
Lord is represented as a boy standing in
Joseph's carpenter shop with the shadow of
His ouistretched arms falling on the floor be-
hind Him in the figure of a cross There IS an
ancient legend, which goes well with the pict.
ure, that the wood of the cross itself came
from the forests of Nazareth, and was hewn
into shape by Christ's own hand.
ALL ALONG THE LINE.
With the beginning of our Lords ministry
the cross begins TO be seen in the far distance.
"BehoId the Lamb Of God" cries John the
Baptist, to all who will hear him; 'the Lamb
of Gou that taketh away the sins of the world"
Such name could have but single reference
1t meant sacrifice 1t pointed to the altar of
the cross.
"As Moses lifted mp the serpent In the wilder
ness. even SO must the Son of Man be lifted
up" Christ said to one of His earliest ques-
tioners. And Nicodemus knew what that
meant And l, if / be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men unto me-" He said at
another time, and st, John adds an explana-