The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-08
INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL
 LESSON
JESUS ON THE CROSS.
An unfinished life that Fways the
 world

| | world.
 James Russell Lowell: Cathedrae
 The quadruple description C. the cru cifixion is q literary marvel. Though q circumstance of transcendent lm- portance, the narrative f 1t is supris- | inly condensed. There is no spinning out of details, no obtrusio1 O. the per sonal opinions and sentime its of the narrators.
 Here is a suggestion of LOW we our selves should approach Calvary. It is not a theme for volubillty. There should be no striving to magnify us painful horrors, or to compare the phy- sical suffer.ngs of its victim w-th those of others spiritual interpretation is the thing desirable A personal appro- | priation by faith is great liches
 Religious romancists ha , paved all the way between the Praetorian and Calvary with miraculous incidents In | strong antithesis to this, the evangelist | r'eotlons but two circumstHnces. At sight of one on whose brow innocen e l ud heric1itv was stamped led 70 a shocking death, the daughters of Je'. usalem wept aloud in pity. Jesus turn ed. and, as e with the impan ding siege | in pIainest view bade them not ta weep for Him, but for themselves and for their children. In those awful days, barrenness the disgrace If the Hebrew women would be at I premium For | it such a cruel deed as vas now being done was possible, the tree e their nc tiona1 life beingyet green. what horrors would characterize the extinction of that life! The fainting strength of Jesus makes the impresslns of some one to bear His cross necessary. A foreign Jew. recognized as such by h's Libyan garb, Is compelled to do so changed heart was proba biy his ex- ceding great reward. So goes that mot pitifui procession earth las ever seen. | The centurion. mounted in he van; a guard of shining armor. and mum erous enough to make rescue Of the victims impossible; the condemned with their crimes recorded in black letters, on boards daubed with gypsum and hung about their necEs: in the rear, slaves carrying refreshments for the soldiers, besides nails. hammers. ropes etc, necessary for the execution: and back of all, such a motley. unsav ory crowd as a public execution would draw in our day.
 Following the narrative. we first have t,.e numbering of Jesus with transgressors. He was crurified be- tween the indicators. -ha insurgent robbers and murderers. Te who could challenge the world to imreach His sinlessness was made in." He was put to the extremity of a convicted felon.
 With the first shedding of His blood begins His mediatorial prayer, Father. forgive them" The "inveativeness Of love" finds a palliating circumstance in their ignorance. They know not what they do." The prayer sweeps out to include. not the coarse executioners alone, but the cunning conspirators who use them as their tools
 It is enough to brand 1t with infamv that destroying vice of san.l ling. that 1t obtruded itself at the cruciflxion. which should have the most valuable garment of the sufferer. They "chanced off" the seamless robe-
 "He saved others" Unconscious, un-'
 designed eneomium. :Let Hims save | Himself" Last recurrence of the wild
 erness temptation! That which is a
 literal possibility is a moral impos-
 sibiIity. Except He stay on the cross He can not be a Savior If he remains not, He can not utter hat ineffable | cry. Tt is finished"-- -"thc work the
 Father gave Me to do." Ktoner than mortal bangs are the brutal gibes If rulers, populace. and robbery.
 That triple inscription may signify 1 that the story of the cross 's destined 1 to go into all languages, 4s it there appeared in the tongues O.: conquest. "Tl+'lre. and colloquv.
 The soverign power of redeeming love has a sn'endi7 xenpI .fi"n ton even
 in the deepening gloom of Calvary As
 the hours wear away. the innocence
 the Divinity of his fellow sufferer dawns upon the mind of 'te rlalefaotor
 It pains him to hear the continued railing of his comrade in crime H.
 chides him. rem'rd'ne him Of the just ness of their condemnation, and affirm
 ing the Ruiltlessness of Jesus. To eye
 of faith there opens to him hliss'ul | vista beyond the chasm Of Ieath. He reco~rizes the sufferer. spite of His
 marred visage, as monarch of that
 realr Tn the strength cf I,elief that prompts to action. he Joins his fortunes | irrevocably with those of the crucifiod Nazarene and entreats recognition
 when He comes to the regal splcndors
 of His coronation.
 what Jesus did then. He has been doing ever since. He cpered paradise
 to penitent. But His obedience unto
 death, even the death of the cross, was
 the key, and the only one. to unlo k
 that paradise.
 Nature, as if become sent:ent on a, .