The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-01-05
The Thief in Paradise.
BY REV. r.. S. KELLE RMAN.

Text, luke xiii, az, 40: "And he said, Jesus,
remember me when thou CONTEST in thv king
dom. And he said unto him. verify l say unto
thee. today shalt thou be with me in Paradise"
One of the most surprising paint
ings of the century has been done by
Russian artist, now dead, by the
name of Nicolai Nicholavitch Gay. 1t
is entitled THE Crucifxion." The
author has made the scene of the
crucifixion as horrible as possible,
and represented the dying in such
manner sto throw fearful meaning
into the words, HE was despised and
rejected of men,"
When Count Tolstoi saw the pic
ture iii the artists studio, he gazed
at it moment in silence, and then
fell on Gays neck and kissed him,
and said with tears, "Yes, that is how
they crucifed him."
The scene of the cruci6xion is, in
deed, one of the most abject scenes
of desolation of which the magma
ton can lay hold. On bald knoll
or hill, outside of the city, above the
low yellow cliff of the grotto of Jere-
miah, covered now in part by Mo-
hammedan graves, overlooking Jeru-
salem and the country round about it
is the place where Jesus persisted on
the cross. Deserted by all that knew
him, abandoned by his chosen disci-
pies, Knocked by the soldiers and ex-
ecrated by the multitude, he died
literally of broken heart. Forsaken
as it seemed, of God himself, stung
by the taunts of his enemies, reviled
by the malefactor that was crucified
by his side, there was but one word
from all that throng that touched his
dying heart And that was the APP
peal of the penitent thief, "Jesus re-
member me when thou contest in
thy kingdom"
He was thief. but he was peni-
tent. Is it possible that the Church,
through all these Christian centuries,
has so idealized this rogue as to make
us forget that he was possibly foul
mouthed, selfish, criminal brute, who
deserved his fate?
Has the Church succeeded in max
ing us believe that the thief, the rogue,
the robber and the vile wretch whose
passions subdue his manhood, but
whose tardy confession comes at the
eleventh hour, shall enter into Para
disc before the multitude of men and
women whose long, true, steady SER
vice has won for them the best and
the purest of characters?
We must have misunderstood her
teaching, or else the Church has erred
in this matter. And is it not possible
that we mistake the meaning of Jesus
when he said tothe thief, ''today thou
shalt be with me in Payadise?"
Is Paradise place where a stained
and guilty soul finds immunity from
suffering when it has only limited at
confession by asking place in Para
dise2
Is Paradise a scene, climate or a
country where impurity can dwell
with purity and be happy?
Look upon the cross again. There
in the center of the group hangs in
nocence, purity, guilelessness, per-
lection. On the right and on the left
hang the foulness and blackness of
shame and crime. They were thus
placed that all the hideousness of a
public execution for crime should be
cast upon him, the pure minded and
true-hearted. But it could not be
done. 1t never can be done. The
blacker the back ground is painted
the more prominent becomes the
figure of purity. They were not
moralists, they were not artists, that
ordered that triple crucifixion in that
horrible manner in that desolate
place. 1t has all the more endeared
itself to the heart of the world be-
cause the extreme horror has fallen
upon our sense of pity. The one
bright spot in that night of horror
and desolation was the bruised and
broken soul of him who had mingled
with the leper, the sinner, the in
iquitous, the criminal, and yet on
whose garments, there was not the
stain of single wrong.
The wonder is not that Jesus
mingled with the hardened criminals.
He was never afraid to do that. But
the wonder is that the very sinful
were attracted to him. The shame
less women, the harlots, were I'M
abashed in his presence. How was
it, How could it BET Could the
- II Al