News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-08-17
c,up1Cr Ac AN AnV0cATE-

CHRIST AS AN ADVOCATE.
Sometimes in earthly courts attorneys
have specialties, and one man succeeds
better in patent cases, another in insur-
ance cases, another in criminal cases,
another in land cases, another in will
cases, and his success generally depends
upon his sticking to that speciality. l
have to tell you that Christ can do many
things, but it seems to me that his spe-
cialty is to take the bad case of the sin
ner and plead it before God until he gets
eternal acquittal Oh, we must have
him for our advocate.
But what plea can he make? Some
times an attorney in court will plead the
innocence of the prisoner. That would
be inappropriate for us. We are all
guilty. guilty. Unclean! unclean!
Christ, our advocate, will not plead our
innocence. Sometimes the attorney in
court tries to prove an alibi. He says:
''This prisoner was not at the scene. He
was in some other place at the time"
Such plea will not do in our case. The
Lord found us in all our sins and in the
very place of our iniquity. 1t is impos-
sible to prove an alibi. Sometimes an
attorney will plead the insanity of the
prisoner and say he is irresponsible on
that account. That plea will never do
in our case. We sinned against light,
against knowledge, against the dictates
of our own consciences. We knew what
we were doing. What, then, shall the
plea be?
The plea for our eternal deliverance
will be Christ's own martyrdom. He
will say: "Look at all these wounds. By
all these sufferings demand the rescue
Of this man from sin and death and hell.
Constable, knock off the shackles-let
the prisoner go Free" 'Who is he that
condemneth? 1t is Christ that died, yea,
rather that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also
naketh intercession for u.s."
But why all this gladness ON the faces
of these sons and daughters of the Lord
Almighty? l know what you are think
ing Of A Saviour dead; Saviour risen;
Saviour exalted; Saviour interceding.
WHAT" say you, sis all that for me?"
All, all! Never let me hear you COM
planning about anything again. With
your pardoned sin behind you, and a
successful Christ pleading above you,
and a glorious heaven before you, how
can you be Respondent about anything?
COME INTO THE KINGDOM.
But" says some man in the audience,
"all that is very good and very true for
those who are inside the kingdom, but
how about those of us who are outsider"
Then I say, Come into the kingdom,
come out of the prison house into the
gloriGus sunlight of Gods mercy and
pardon, and come now.
1t was in the last days of the reign of
terror-the year 1898. Hundreds and
thousands had persisted under the French
guillotine. France groaned with tho
tyrannies of Robespierre and the Jaco-
bin club. The last group of sufferers
had had their locks shorn by Monchottes
the prison barber, so that the neck might |
be bare to the keen knife of the guillo- |
tine.
The carts came up to the prison, the |
poor wretches were placed in the carts
and driven off toward the scaffold, but |
while they were going toward the scaffold |
there was an cutlery in the street, and |
then the shock of firearms, and then the !
cry: "Robespierre has fallen! Down |
with the Jacobins! Let France be freeI
But the armed soldiers rode in upon
these rescuers, so that the poor wretches
in the carts were taken on to the scaffold |
and horribly died.
But that very night these monsters of |
persecution were seized, and Robespierre
persisted under the very guillotine that
he had reared for others, all France clap
ping their hands with joy as his head
rolled into the executioner's basket.
Then the axes of the excited populace
we're heard pounding against the gates
of the prison, and the poor prisoners
walked out free. My friends, sin is the
worst of all Robespierres. 1t is the ty-
rant of tyrants. 1t has built prison
house for our soul. 1t plots our death.
1t has shorn US for the sacrifice; but,
blessed be God, this morning we hear
a. I'm. - = - !
Deliverance has come. Light breaks
through all the wards of the prison.
Revolutionl Revolution! "Where sin
abounded, grace does much more