Connecticut western news., 1900-09-13
TAUGHT ON CALVARY
LEssoNB TO BE LEARNED FROM THE
 THREE CROSSES.

lEssok6 TO BE LEARNED FROM THE
 THREE CROSSES. On the RagAv Hand Unbelief ana Re- nerse, on the Left Penitenee and Content, While In the Center Is Everlasting Love. ! WARRINGTON, Sept. o.-The famous paintings in the picture galleries of Munich seem to have suggested the topic of this discourse, which Dr. Tal- mage sends from the quaint Bavarian town, but the theme which inspired the painters awakens in the great preacher thoughts of the redemption of the hu- man race, which was the supreme de sign of that scene of suffering and death The text Is Luke Ixiil 83 'sThere they orucifed him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left"
 Just outside of Jerusalem Is a swell of ground, toward which 6 crowd are ascending, for 1t is the day of execu- ton. What . mighty assemblage! Some for curiosity to hear what the fhalefactors will say and to see how they will act. The three persons to be executed are already there. Some of the spectators are vile of lip and bloat- ed ct cheek Some look up with re- Venge. hardly. able to keep their hands off the sufferers. Some tear their own hair in frenzy of grief. Some stand in silent horror. Some break out into uncomfortable weeping. Some clap their hands in delight that the offend CTS are to be punished at last. The sol- diers with drawn swords drive back the mob, which presses on so hard. There Is fear that the proceedings may he interrupted. Let the legion, now stationed at Jerusalem, on horseback, dash along the line and force back the surging multitude. Rack with youp' is the cry. Have you never before seen Q man dicY'
 Three crosses In Q rowan upright piece and two transverse pieces, one at the top. on which the hands are nailed. and one at the middle, on which the victim sat. Three trees just plant sd, yet bearing fruit-the one at the right bearing poison, and the one at the left bitter aloes; the one in the middle, apples of love. Norway pine and trop- ica orange and Lebanon cedar would not make 30 strange grove as this orchard of Calvary. Stand and give a look at the three crosses.
 The Talk on the Crosses.
 Just look at the cross on the right It's victim dies scoffing. More awful than his physical anguish Is his scorn and hatred of him on the middle cross. This wretched man turns half around on the spikes to hiss at the one in the middle. If the scoffer could get one hand loose, and he were within reach, he would smite the middle sufferer in the face. He hates him with a perfect hatred. I think he wishes he were down on the ground that he might spear him. He envies the mechanics who with their nails have nailed him fast. Amid the settling darkness and louder than the crash of the rocks hear him jeer out these words: "Ah, you poor wretch! I knew you were an i'm postori You pretended to be God, ahd yet you let these legions master you" 1t was in some such hate that yoltnire in his death hour, because he thought he saw Christ In his bedroom, got up on his elbow and cried out, Crush that wretchr What had the middle cross done to arouse up this right hand cross? Nothing. oh, the enmity of the natural heart against Christ! The world likes a sentimental Christ or philanthropic Christ, but a Christ who comes to snatch men away from their sins-away with him! On this right hand cross today I see typi- fed the unbelief of the world. Men say: .Back with him from the heart! will not let him take my sins. If he will die, let him die for himself, not for mo-" There has always been a war between this right hand cross and the middle cross, and wherever there is an unbelieving heart there the fight goes on. Oh. If when that dying malefactor perished, the fafthlessness of man had perished, then that tree which yields poison would have budded and blos- somed with. life for all the world!
 Look up into that disturbed counte- nance of the sufferer and see what a Rhastly thing 1t Is to reject Christ. Be- hold in that awful face, in that pitiful took4 in that unblessed death hour, the stings of the sinners departure. What &pIunge into darkness! Standing high upon the cross on the top of the hill, so that all the world may look at him, he says, .Here go out of a miserable life into a wretched eternityv One, two, three! Listen to the crash of the fall, all ye agesl So Hobbes, dying after he had 70 years in which to prepare for eternity, said, Were l master of all the-world would give it all to live one day longer" Sir Francis Newport, lowering over the brink, cried out 'Wretch that am,. whither shall fly From this breastf What will become of mel Oh. that were to lie upon the fire that never Is quenched a thousand years, to purchase the favor of God and to be reconciled to him again! Oh eternity; oh. eternity! Who can dis cover the abyss of eternity? Who car paraphrase these words: Forever and foreverY"
 Renorse on the Right Hand.
 That right hand cross - thousandi have perished on it In worse agonies For what Is physical pain compared tt kethoEoc NJ tue 13St, tudt iihc udS pcci wasted and only a feeting momen stands between the soul and It's ever lasting overthrow! O God. let me al, anywhere rather than at the foot O that right hand cross! Let not on, drop of that blood fall upon my cheek Rend not my ear with that cry. I se' 1t now as never before-the loathsome ness and horror of my unbelief. Tha dying malefaetor was not so much t
 blame as I. Christianity was not es tablished, and perhaps not until tha
 day had that man heard the Christ But after Christ had stood almost 1,90
 centuries, working the wonders of hi
 grace, you reject him.
 That right hand cross, with Its lonI