The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-09-24
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
"cROSS BEARING
The Rev. James Il. Holmes Urges It's to
Have the Paul Spirit of Courage and
Contentment, Even When We Stagger
Under q Load of Adversely.


Have the Paul Spirit of Courage and
Contentment, Even When We Stagger
Under q Load of Adversely.
BROOKLYN, N. Yin the Summerfeld
Methodist Episcopal Church Sunday morn
ing the pastor, the Rev. James e. Holmes,
had for his subject "Cross Bearing" He
took as his text Matthew xvii: SO: "And
as they came out they found a man of
tCyrene, Simon by name; him they COM
said:
Three kinds of crosses were in use in the
days, OF Jesus, the so-called St. Andrew
cross, the cross in the form of the letter
and the ordinary Latin cross. 1t was
on the last of these that Jesus suffered
crucifixion. This consisted of strong up
right post, which was carried beforehand
to the place of execution, and two cross
pieces. which were born by the victim. 1t
was these transverse pieces which proved
too heavy for the Master. It was prob
ably between the hours of 8 and 10 O'Clock,
in the morning. that that memorable pro-
cession,, OF which Jesus was tn. central fig
ure, set forth for the place of execution
place outside the city walls. Ordinarily
such procession was In charge of cen
turion, and preceded by public crier,
who from time to time proclaimed aloud
the nature of the crime. He also carried
white wooden board on which this was
written. The longest route was always
selected, and the most crowded streets. to
attract the attention of the people. Each
of the condemned would be accompanied
by guard of four soldiers, and, as a mat
ter OF course, great crowd would follow.
The weight of the cross soon proved too
heavy for the exhausted strength of Jesus
You must remember He has not tasted
food or drink since the Paschal supper the
night before, and that events had occurred
since then in quick succession, every one
of which must have stirred His soul with
deepest emotions. The betrayal by Judas,
and the farewell to His disciples had oc-
Cured, after which He had spent some
hours alone in Gethsemane, engaged in a
terrific mental and spiritual struggle. 1t
was then, as you remember, that His ne.
emies found Him, since which time He
has stood surrounded by enemies, practi-
saken Him. Meanwhile He has been hur-
ried from place to place and from one
official to another; from Annas to Caiphas,
then to Plate, then to Herod, and then
again to Plate. Indignity upon indignity
torture upon torture have been heaped
upon Him all that hvelong night and all
that morning, so that it is not to be Won
was too great for Him. Up to the last
gate, however, He managed to drag it, but
here He sank exhausted beneath the heavy
load. It happened just then that this
man, Simon of Cyrene, came upon the
scene, and him the Roman soldiers seized
and compelled to carry the cross the re-
mainder of the way.
On first thought it might seem strange
that the people would permit such an in
dignity put upon a fellow Jew, but this
Simon was undoubtedly foreigner, which
his dress would indicate, and the soldiers
would know that it was safer to put this
humiliation on foreigner than upon a
native of Jerusalem As it was, the peo-
pie do not seem to have resented it, that
a fellow Jew had to suffer the defilement
of bearing heather cross, and this may
have been the explanation that Simon was
foreigner, and only proselyte Jew. How
greatly surprised and chagrined he must
have been, to be thrust so unexpectedly
into such a predicamcnti How it hap
pened that he was there walking abroad
on fast day we do not know. He may
have been idly strolling along that country
road without any particular aim or purpose
in view, or he may have lived outside the
city walls and was entering the city on
business or to worship or merely on pleas
ure bent. We cannot know how to explain
his presence there on that road between
Calvary and Jerusalem just at that moment
when some one was needed to bear the
cross of Christ, but it happened that he
appeared on the scene just as Jesus sank
beneath His load, and he finds himself
seized by the Roman soldiers, and despite
his remonstrances, compelled to bear the
cross of Christ. 1t is all so sudden, and so
unexpected, that he can scarcely know
whether it is not all dream.
We see it all as he did not We see in
Simon's experience that for which we
would gladly give all that we have. And
why could he not appreciate it? Was it
Ignorance on his part? Had he never
Had he not heard of those strange and
startling events that had been stirring Jer-
usaiem OF late? To him it only appears as
an unfortunate accident that he happened
to cross the path of this man Christ on
the way to execution, just as He sank
down under the weight of His cross. As
it is, be considers himself abused, humil-
ated, disgraced, and now he longs for the
moment of release, that he may hide him.
self from the gaze of the people and bear
in silence the deflement that has come
upon him and upon his house.
And now | wish to place alongside Of
this, and in contrast to it, the words Of
the apostle Paul, God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of Christ" To
pointment, disgrace and loss; to Paul it
is the one thing glorious and worth re-
joicing over. How explain the difference
in sentiment? It will not do to say Paul
is. simply dealing in a figure of speech,
while Simon actually suffered the weight
and the disgrace of an actual cross, for
Paul bore the cross Of Christ as actually
as Simon.
1t was the cross that brought him into
cor ict with the authorities and with
mobs; it was the cross that drove him
from place to place, a vagabond on the
face of the earth; it was the cross that
brought him into prison, and into dan
ger; it was the cross that made him dis
grace, and his name an execration wher-
evere there was a Jewish synagogue. Paul
suffered loss and pain and humiliation over
and over again on account of the cross
Call it figure of speech if you will, but
his back was bent, and broken; his bodily
pains were as genuine, his humiliation was
as deep and his loss as great as came to
Simon of Cyrene and far more so. The
experiences of the two men were very
similar, almost identical; for it was on a
country road leading into Damascus that
Paul first came face to face with Jesus
Christ, and it was then and there that
the cross of Christ was laid upon him.
And that from that moment until he died
he bore that cross, feeling keenly the
weight of it, the humiliation of it, the
loss it occasioned him, but, unlike the
other men, glorying in it and rejoicing on
account of it. Why the contrast? All!