Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-06-08
By WILLIAM II. ELLIS


The key to Christianity is a cross.
Without the event on Calvary the re-
ligion of Jesus is ineXplicable Take
that chapter out of its history and all
the others lose their significance and
vitality. The gospel of Christ is the
story of crucifiXion. That simple
message is the hammer which breaks
down all the walls of opposition. Men
may merely admire the philosophy of
Jesus, but 1t is His broken heart that
breaks their stony hearts.
The most characteristic phase of the
life of Jesus is this sense of the cruci-
fiXion, which the Sunday Schools study
next Sunday. 1t is typical of His
whole career, for He was being cruel
fed all through His mission; and into
the few terrible days when the gem
tie, sensitive Son of Mary hung upon
the rough beams set up on the place
OF a skull" was crowded, for the
world to see, the significance of all
His thirty three years.
The Road to Power
All roads to helpfurness lead over a
rocky crest called in the Hebrew,
"Golgotha" Sacrifice must precede
service. The Scripture truly says that
Jesus must needs have suffered" only
so could He have become a Saviour.
Sorrow is the one universally compre-
hended experience, the common lot of
mankind. The tragedy and suffering
of the present war is doing more to
unite humanity than all the books
upon political economy that have ever
been written. No man enters into the
depths of human nature, except
through his own broken heart. Only
he who is lifted up on some cross
draws men unto him. AS a quatrain
suggestively called Credentials" puts
it:
81 preach the Word. Why then that
hiss?
And why Gods message laughed to
to scorn?"
"Your cheek hath known no Judas
kiss,
And your brow no crown of thorns."
1t was only shame that the rabble
saw in the dreadful spectacle upon
the central one of those three crosses;
had their eyes been open they would
have beheld sovereignty there. PLATE
might well say-though all compre-
dingly-"What l have written, l
have written" concerning the inscrip-
tiOn, This is Jesus of Nazareth, the
King of the Jews" For this supreme
act of sacrifice and service, this ulti-
mate pouring out of His soul unto
death, is the true sceptre of Christs
kingliness. And this mark of the
IpIu Jesus must De upOH Ills tHuINu'
if she will prevail over the world. Not
a cross on her steeple, but the cross In
her spirit, is the sign of a church's
serviceableness. Times without num-
Der have | seen the British flag fly
ing on many seas and in many lands;
but only of late has it seemed that its
dominating center is blood-stained
cross. Nothing but the sacrifice of
which this is the symbol can bring the
lEa
for which the war is being waged.
TraEedy's SaddeSt side
What was the keenest suffering of
the Man who hung suspended there in
agony until His heart broke? Not
His own pain physical pain cannot
crush great soul. Not the shame of
it, He was above the power of mems
opinion. Not the ending of His life, !
though life was sweet to this young |
man, as to every other Not defeat, I
for He knew that He was on the way
to victory great enough to satisfy !
His all-embracing love.
The pang which fairly rent His
heart was that His people whom He
had lavishly served. and passionately
loved, could do such deed. Not for
Himself, but for the state of heart
that could make possible so foul an
act, and in the name of religion did
He grieve. Therein, then, we see the
significance of the cry. Father, for
give them; they know not what they
do" He is truly Christlike who
grieves less over a wrong done to
himself than over the sin of the
wrongdoer. Such was the magnani-
nous spirit of the Crucified. Mans
sin was the Redeemer's sorrow.
4 Great Man Among Little Men
Even crude souls catch the pathos
of the plight of Napoleon on the
Island of st. Helena. when subjected
to the petty indignities and insults of
of a small-souled official. The little
ness of His iailer was the worst pun
ishment of the great Soldier with
world spirit. PLATE, the