Connecticut western news., 1892-08-18
TALMAGE IN EUROPE.
THE CRUClFlxiON OF CHRIST WAS
 AN INFINITE NECESSITY.

Would Have Served, We Charge God
 with Folly-Redeeming Love Is Infi- nite Love-The Deceitful Heart.
 LONDON, Aug. 14.-Rev. Dr. Talmages European preaching tour is drawing to a close. During the week he has preached three or four times in different cities, following out the programme already announced, and everywhere meeting large and enthusiastic audi ences. This week he speaks at Leeds, Bradford. Sheffield and Derby. The subject chosen for today is Useful Suffering" the text taken being Luke xxiv, 46, "It beloved Christ to suffer"
 There have been scholars who have ventured the assertion that the pains of our Lord were unnecessary. Indeed it was 8 shocking waste of tears and blood and agony, unless some great end were to be reached. If men can prove that no good result comes of it, then the character of God is impeached, and the universe must stand abhorrent and de- nunciatory at the fact that the Father allowed the butchery of his only begot- ten Son.
 We all admire the brave six hundred men described by Tennyson as dashing into the conflict when they knew they must die, and knew at the same time that ''some one had blunder'd;" but we are abhorrent of the man who made the blunder and who caused the sacrifice of those brave men for no use. But shall show you, if the Lord will help me, this morning that for good reasons Christ went through the torture. In other words, "It beloved Christ to suffer-"
 In the first place, remark that Christ's decorations were necessary, be- cause mans rescue was an impossibility except by the payment of some great sacrifice. Outraged law had thundered against iniquity. Man must die unless . substitute can intercept that death. Let Gabriel step forth He refuses. Let Michael the archangel step forth. He refuses. No Roman citizen, no Athe- nian, no Corinthian, no reformer, no angel volunteered. Christ then barred his heart to the pang. He paid for our redemption in tears and blood and wounded feet and scourged shoulders and torn brow. "It is done." Heaven and earth heard the snap of the prison bar. Sinai ceased to quake with wrath the moment that Calvary began to rock in crucifxion. Christ had suffered.
 "Oh," says some man, sI don't like that doctrine of substitution; let every man bear his own burdens, and weep his own tears, and fight his own battlesr' Why, my brother, there is vicarious suf- fering all over the world. Did not your parents suffer for you2 Do you not sometimes suffer for your children? Does not the patriot suffer for his coun- tryf Did not Grace Darling suffer for the drowning sailors? Vicarious suffer ing on all sidesl But how insignificant compared with this scene of vicarious sufferingl
 Was 1t for crimes that had done
 He groaned upon the tree2
 Amazing pity, grace unknown,
 And love beyond degree.
 Christ must suffer to pay the price of our redemption.
 THE HEALING SYMPATHY.
 But I remark again, the sufferings of Christ were necessary in order that the world 's sympathies might be aroused. Men are won to the right and good through their sympathies. The world must feel aright before it can act aright So the cross was allowed to be lifted that the worlds sympathies might be aroused. Men who have been obdurated by the cruelties they have enacted, by the massacres they have inflicted, by the horrors of which they have been guilty. have become little children in the pres ence of this dying Saviour.
 What the swords could not do, what Juggernauts could not subdue, the wounded hand of Christ has accom- plished. There are this moment millions of people held under the spell of that one sacrifice. The hammers that struck the spikes into the cross have broken the rocky heart of the world. Nothing but the agonies of Saviour's death throe could rouse the worlds sympathies.
 remark again, "It beloved Christ to suffer-" that the strength and persist ence of the divine love might be demon strated. Was it the applause of the world that induced Christ on that cru sade from heaven? Why, all the uni verse was at his feet. Could the con- quest of this insignificant planet have paid him for his career of pain if it had been Q mere matter of applause9 All the honors of heaven surging at his feet Would your queen give up her throne that she might rule a miserable tribe in Africa? Would the Lord Jesus Christ on the throne of the universe come down to our planet if it were mere matter of applause and exclamation?
 Nor was it an expedition undertaken for the accumulation of vast wealth. What could all the harvests and the diamonds of our little world do for him whose are the glories of infnitude and eternity2 Nor was it an experiment. an attempt to show what he could do with the hard hearted race. He who wheels the stars in their courses and holds the pillars of the universe on the tips of his fingers needed to make no experiment to find what he could do. Oh, will tell you, my friends, what it was. It was undisguised, unlimited, all conquering, all consuming, inf nite, eternal, omnipotent love that opened the gate, that started the star in the east, with finger of light pointing down to the manager, that ar rayed the Christmas choir above Beth lehem, that opened the stable door where Christ was born, that lifted him on the cross. Love thirsty at the well. Love at the sick mans couch. Love at the cripple's crutch. Love sweating in the garden. Love dying on the cross. Love wrapped in the grave. You cannot mis- take it. The blindest eye must see it. The hardest heart must feel it. The deafest ear must hear it. Parable and miracle, wayside talk and seaside inter. view, all the scenes of his life, all the sufferings of his death, proving beyond controversy that for our ingrate earth God has yearned with stupendous and