Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-08-18
TABERNACLE PULPIT
"A BOLD CHALLENGE LAST
SUNDAYS SUBJECT.
"Who Is He That Condemneth? It Is
Christ That Died, Yea, Rather That
Has Risen Again and Sitteth at the
Right Hand of God"

preach" said Christmas Evans on the
18th of June, 1888. Three days after
wards he expired. / do not know
what his text was, but | know that
no man could choose a better theme
though he knew it was the last time
he should ever preach-than the sub
ject found in this text.
Paul flung his challenge of the text
to the feet of all ecclesiastical and civil
authority. lie feared neither swords
nor lions, earth nor hell. Diocletian
slew uncounted thousands under his
administration, and the world
has cen full of persecution;
but all the prosecutors of the
world could not alright Paul.
Was it because he was physically
strong? Oh, no. | suppose he was
very much weakened by exposure and
maltreatment. Vas it because he was
lacking in sensitiveness? No; you find
the most delicate shades of feeling
playing in and out his letters and SCI
mons. Some of his communications
burst into tears What was it that
lifted Paul into this triumphant mood?
The thought of Savior dead, Savior
risen. Savior exalted, Savior in
terceding.
All the world has sung the praise of
Princess Alice. One ch Id having died
of a contagious disease she was in
the room where another was dying, and
the court physician said to her, ~ on
must not breathe the breath of this
child, or you yourself will die" But
seeing the child mourning because of
the death of her brother, the mother
-, I nd in. of u LII al
the little one, caught the di ease,
and persisted. All the world sang the
heroism and the self sacrifice of / rim
cess Alice, but have to tell you that
when our race was dying the Lord
Jesus stopped down and gave us the
kiss of his everlasting love, and
persisted that we might live. sit is
Christ that died.
Can You tell me how tender-he 1rted
Paul could find anything TO rejoice at
in the horrible death scene of Calvary =?
We weep at funerals, we are sympa-
thetic when we see a stranger die,
when a murderer steps upon The scat
fold we pray for his departing spirit;
and how could Parl-the great-hearted
Iaul-fnd anything to be pleased
with at the funeral of God? Beside
that, Christ had only recently died,
and the sorrow was fresh in the
memory of the world, and how in the
fresh memory of Saviors death
could Paul be eXultant2
1t was because Paul saw in that
death his own deliverance, and the
deliverance of race from still worse
disaster; he saw the gap into which
the race must plunge, and he saw the
bleeding hands If Christ close it. The
glittering steel on the top of the exc
cutioners spear in his sight kindled
into a torch to light men heavenward.
The prosecutors saw over the cross five
words written in Hebrew, Greek and
Latin; but Paul saw over the cross of
Christ on one word-"expiationr
He heard in the dying groan of Christ
his own groan of eternal torture taken
by another. Paul said 10 himself,
Had it not been that Christ volun-
teered in my behalf, those would have
been my mauled hands and feet, my
gashed side, my crimson temples
Men of great physical endurance
have sometimes carried very heavy
burdens-three hundred pounds, four
hundred pounds-and they have still
said, My strength is not yet tested ;
put on more weight" But after
awhile they were compelled to cry out,
stop! / can carry no more" But the
burden of Christ was illimitable.
First, there was his own burden of
hunger, and thirst, and bereavement,
and a thousand outrages that have
been heaped upon him, and on top of
that burden were the sorrows of his
poor old mother, and on the top of
those burdens the crimes of the rufiians
who were executing him. Stop"
you cry, lit is enough Christ can
bear no more" And Christ
says, "Roll on more burdens;
roll on me the sins of this en-
tire nation, and after that, roll on me
the sins of the inhabited earth, and
then roll on me the sins of the four
thousands years past, so far as those
sins have been forgiven" And the
angels of God, seeing the awful pres
sure cry, "Stop! He can bear no
more" And the blood rushing to the
nostril and lip seems to cry out,
Enough! He can endure no more"
But Christ says, Roll on greater
burden-roll on the sins of the next
nine hundred years, roll on me the
sizes of all the succeeding ages, roll on
me the agonies of hell, ages on ages,
the furnaces and the prison-houses
and the tortures" That is what the
bible means when it says, ale bore
our sins, and carried our sorrows"
"Now," says Paul, Il am free; that
suffering purchased my oeiverance;
God never collects debt twice; have
a receipt in full; if God is satisfied
with me, then what do al the threats
of earth and hell amount to? Bring
on all your witnesses says Paul;
show all your force; do your worst
against my soul; | defy you; / dare
you; | challenge you. Who is he that
condemneth? 1t is Christ that died"
Oh, what a strong argument that puts
in the hand of every Christian man!
Some day all the past sins of his life
come down on him in a fiery troop,
and they pound away at the gate of
his soul, and they say, 1--WE have come
for your arrest. Any one of us could
overcome you: we are ten thousand
strong; surrender" And you open
the door, and single-handed and alone
you contend against the troop;
you fling this divine weapon
into their midst, you scatter
those sins as quick as you can think
1t. at is Christ that died" Why then
bring up 10 us the sins of our past life?
What have We In do with those ohsa-