The semi-weekly messenger., 1901-04-12

mldnlgnt, OF course tney saw the arrest
and went into the courtroom. But Jesus
friends were sober men, were respectable
men. and at that hour, 2 o'clock in the
morning, of course they were at home
asleep. Consequently Christ entered the
courtroom with the ruffians.
Oh, look at him! No one to speak a
word for him. / lift the lantern until /
can look into his face, and as my heart
beats in sympathy for this. the best
friend the world ever had, himself now
utterly friendless, an officer OF the court
room comes up and smites him in the
mouth, and I see the blood stealing from
gum and lip. Oh, it was a farce of a
trial, lasting only perhaps an hour, and
then the judge rises for SENTENCED Stop!
1t is against the law to give sentence un-
less there has been an adjournment Of
the court between condemnation and SEN
tence, but what cares the judge for the
law? THE man has no friends. Let him
die" says the judge. And the ruffians
outside the rail cry: "Aha, aha, that's
what we wanti Pass him out here to US,
Away with him! Away with himr'
The Divine sympathizer.
Oh, bless God that amid all the in
justice that may have been inflicted up
on us in this world we have a divine
sympathizer. The world cannot lie about
you nor abuse you as much as they did
Christ, and Jesus stands today in every
courtroom, in every house, in every store,
and says: Courage! By all my hours
Of maltreatment and abuse / will protect
those who are trampled upon" And
when Christ forgets that o'clock morn
ing scene and the stroke Of the rufian
on the mouth and the bowling of the un-
washed crowd then he will forget you
and me in the injustices of life that may
be inflicted upon us.
Further l remark: The last great in
stallment paid for our redemption was
the demise OF Christ. The world has
seen many dark days. Many summers
ago there was a very dark day when the
sun was eclipsed. The fowl at monday
went to their perch, and we felt a
gloom as we looked at the astronomical
wonder. 1t was a dark day in London
when the plague was at its height, and
the dead with uncovered faces were tax
en- in open carts and dumped in the
trenches. 1t was dark day when the
earth opened and Lisbon sank, but the
darkest day since the creation of the
world was when the carnage of Calvary
was enacted.
"
gan to be drawn. 1t was not the coming
on of a night that soothes and refreshes.
1t was the swinging of great gloom all
around the heavens. God hung it. AS
when there is dead one in the house you
bow the shutters or turn the lattice, SO
God in the afternoon shut the windows of
the world. AS it is appropriate to throw
a black pail upon the coffin as it passes
along. SO it was appropriate that every
thing should be somber that day as the
great hearse of the earth rolled on, bear
ing the corpse of the King. A mans last
hours are ordinarily kept sacred. How
ever you may have hated or caricatured
a man, when you hear he is dying silence
puts its hands on your lips. and you
would have a loathing for the man who
could stand by a deathbed making faces
and scoffing. But Christ in his last hour
cannot be left alone. What, pursuing
him yet after so long a pursuit? You
have been drinking his tears. Do you
want to drink his blood? They come up
closely, SO that notwithstanding the
darkness they can glut their revenge with
the contortions of his countenance. They
examine his feet. They want to feel for
themselves whether those feet are really
spiked. They put out their hands and
IOuCu Tue spikes anu DflnS tueD DaCk wet
with blood and wipe them on their gar
ments. Women stand there and weep,
but can do no good. 1t is no place for the
tender hearted women. 1t wants heart
that crime has turned into granite. The
waves Of mans hatred and of helrs
vengeance dash up against the mangled
feet, and the hands of sin and pain and
torture clutch for his holy heart Had he
not been thoroughly fastened to the cross
they would have torn him down and
trampled him with both feet. How the
cavalry horses arched their necks and
champed their bits and reared and snuff
ed at the blood! Had a Roman officer
called out for light, his voice would not
have been heard in the tumult, but loud
er than the clash Of spears, and the wall
ing of womanhood, and the neighing of
the chargers, and the believing Of the
crucifers, there comes a voice crashing
through-loud, clear, overwhelming, ter
rife. 1t is the groaning Of the dying Son
Of God! Look, what a scenel Look,
world, at what you have done!
Christ on the Cross.
lift the covering from the maltreated
Christ to let you count the wounds and
estimate the cost. Oh, when the nails
went through Christ's right hand and
through Christ's left hand that bought
your hands, with all their power to work
and lift and write! When the nails went
through Christ's right foot and Christs
left foot, that bought your feet, with all
their power to walk or run or climb.
When the thorn went into Christ's tenn
pie, that bought your brain. with all its
power to think and plan. When the
spear cleft Christ's side, that bought
your heart, with all its power to love
and repent and pray.
When the Atlantic cable was lost in
1865. do you remember that the Great
Eastern and the Midway and the Albany
went out to find it! Thirty times they
sank the grapnel two and n half miles
deep in water. After awhile they found
the cable and brought it to the surface.
No sooner had it been brought 10 the
surface than they lifted shout of ex-
ultation, but the cable slipped back again
into the water and was lost Then for
| two weeks more they swept the sea with
he Of ,bar