The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-03-31

making the greatest noise which always has the enduring strength.
 'Aha!" cried the sanhedrin. "Aha!" cried the synagogue. "Aha!' cried the Roman profligate. Aha" cried all the in- trenched forces of sin, "We shall forever live and triumph if we can only slay this upstart, Jesus Christ" So what did they do? They united their forces of evil. They defied and overrode every law of justice. They captured Jesus by night. They ran Him to court and tried Him by night, which was contrary to every known Hebrew and Roman usage Then in the early morning they hanged Him upon the cross Then they stood at the foot of the cross and cried: Aha! We, the powers of evil, have forever won! Aha, Jesus, our denunciator Himself is dead"' And He was dead. Have you ever seen Rubens greatest masterpiece, called The Descent from the Cross?" An, that picture well Illustrates how dead Jesus Wasi
 Death Liberator.
 When your little girl died and the kind friends washed her and dressed her and laid her out in the casket, surrounded by flowers, it did not seem as though she could be dead There she lay with a smile upon her lips, just as you had seen her lying hundred times in her crib AS you watched her you could almost see her breast heave and see her roll over in her sleep. Then you said, "Oh, she Is too beautiful to be put away in the dark grave!' But in Rubens' Descent From the Cross there is no doubt about Christ being dead. His skin is ghastly white as the white sheet they are wrapping about Him. The blue veins seem to be standing out like whpcords upon His forehead. His feet, His hands and Ills head seem to be hanging as heavy as tons of lead. He could not have fbeen more utterly beyond restoration if He had lain in His grave thousand years. And vet within three days, within sight of His empty cross, Christ arose and walked and moved and lived and had His being. My friends, like the crucifiers of old, you may be able to defy Christ for a little while but remember tine day of .Christs burial is to be followed by Ills day of resurrection. Remember that question of Pilate: What Shall Jesus then do with me at His judgment seat?" Christ in the tomb means Christ coming to His resurrection. The empty cross of the first Easter morn proves it.
 But there is another fact l want you to notice about this central cross on Golgotha hill. It proves that even after a man has snned seventy times seven Christ is willing to pardon him of his
 
 the Savor's grace and love. Christ is not one who claims an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, hand for hand and a foot for a foot. He is not a Shylock demanding full pound of flesh nearest to the human heart because "it is so nom- inted in the bond" But Jesus is one who is willing to give a full forgiveness for all wrong if we are only willing to come and bow at his feet and accept his pardon and his love. Let me illustrate this thought by the picture of the empty cross.
 To whom did this central cross rightful- ly belong? To Jesus? Nay. To the one whose face must have been so pure, so true, so gentle, so loving that all who saw 1t must have felt that only love and mercy could dwell there? Nay. That central cross rightfully belonged to one whose brow was scared and wrinkled with bitterness and hate, to one whose mouth was cruel and merciless, to one whose hairy hands were often covered with human blood That cross, that cen- tral one, rightfully belonged to Barabbas, the murderer and insurrectionist. It rightfully belonged to the brutal mur- derer whose heart was so hardened that he thought no more of taking human life than a tiger would have of staying kid And yet, after all the, mockery of that farcifal trial was over, after Jesus had been adjudged guilty and sentenced to death, God gave the Jews another chance to accept Christ.
 Then Pilate came forward and said: 'Whom will ye that release unto you, Jesus or Barabbas? You know, Jews, that once year it is the custom of the gov ernor to liberate one prisoner. Will ye let me release you Jesus instead of Bar abbas?' Yes Even today, after q long life of sin and evil. God comes to us and says: ''Will ye now accept Jesus or Rarabbas? Which? Which,
 Oh, the mercy of God, Oh the forgive ness of God! Can any human love sur pass it? Can any human love equal 1t? Aye, human love may be very great, but 1t is not as great as the love of my Lord and my God. Some years ago I received a letter from lady in the east which went something like this: "I am lonely woman who cannot do much in this world. am what you call shut-in.' But though can do but little, do feel 1 have strength enough to care for some poor little crippled orphaned child. So if you can find one that no one would care to love, send him to me, and l will adopt him and love him and look after him as if he were my own child" Was not that a beautiful lette-? But how much more beautiful is this empty cross of Jesus Christ! I hear voice from the form unjustly stretched upon it saying: .'I am on this cross instead of Bara bbas. Even after the Jews unjusty condemned me I was willing to pardon their sins Oh, child even in thy sins today I will par don thee if thou wilt only come to me. Come. ye sinners. Come ye who have plated a crown of thorns upon my bleed ing brow. Come ye who have spit upon me. Come, and come now, and find Savior's love and q Saviors peace"