Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1894-09-06
be cheated if / confide in them.

|
/ stop to ask you who this is that you
want me to trust in? No man would
think of venturing his life on vessel
going out to sea that had never been
inspected.
No. you must have the certificate
hung amidships, telling how many
tons it carries, and how long ago it
was built, and who built it, and all
about it. And you can not expect me
to risk the cargo of my immortal in
terests on board any craft till you tell
me what it is made of, and where it
was made, and what it is.
When. then, / ask you who this is
! you want me to trust in. you tell
me he is a very attractive person.
Contemporary writer's describe his
whole appearance as being resplend-
emit There was no need for Christ to
tell the children to come to him.
Suffer little children to come unto
me-" was not spoken to the children;
it was spoken to the disciples. The
children came readily enough without
any invitation. No sooner did Jesus
appear, than the little ones jumped
from their mothers arms, an ava
lanche of beauty and love, into his
lap Christ did not ask John to put
his head down on his bosom; John
could not help but put his head
there ! suppose a look at Christ was
just to love him. How attractive his
manner! Why, when they saw Christ
coming along the street, they ran into
their houses, and they wrapped up
their invalids as quick as they could,
and brought them out that he might
look at them. Oh. there was some
thing SO pleasant. so inviting, so
cheering in everything he did. in his
very look When these sick ones were
brought out did he say: DO not
bring before me cheese sores; do not
trou BILE me with these leprosies?" No,
no; there was kind look, there was a
gentle word. there was a healing
touch. They could not keep away
from him.
In addition to this softness of char
acter, there was a fiery momentum.
How the kings of the earth turned
pale. Here is plain man with few
sailors at his back, coming off the sea
of Galilee, going up to the palace of
the Caesars, making that palace quake
to the foundations, and uttering q
word of mercy and kindness 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 accompanied with
majesty, infinite aud omnipotent.
Lest the world should not realize his
earnestness, this Christ mounts the
cross
You say: eff Christ has to die, why
not 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 atten-
TONS" 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
mast 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
tne Top Oh SdlVdTy'
1t must be dug three feet deep, and
then 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 dozen
shoulders under the weight, and they
put the end of the cross to 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 the tree we'll and thor
oughly, for it is to bear fruit such as
no other tree ever bore. Why did
Christ endure it? He could have
taken those rocks, and with them
crushed his crucifiers. 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 for your life. In a
European city a young man died on
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 moment of anger
she had struck her husband blow
that slew him. The son came sudden
ly into the room, and was
washing away the wounds and
trying to resucitate 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, 1T was wonderful that he never
exposed her." But 1 tell you of a
grander thing. Christ the Son of
God, died not for his mother, not for
his father, but for his sworn enemies
Oh, such a Christ as that-so loving,
so patient so self-sacrafcing-ca you
not trust him?
think there are many under the
influence of the Spirit of God who are
saying, II will trust him if you will
only tell me how" and the great