Jackson County journal. (Sylva, N.C.) 19??-19??, 1919-08-08

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brow, on which |
the dove-in holy symbolism-has set
her feet, is circled now with a crown
of thOrns and blood-drops trickle |
down from a score Of CHASTITY wounds.
Appalled, nature, gazing upon the aw
full tragedy, trembles, while over all |
the land supernatural darkness gath
ers round. Out Of that darkness
there rises a cry from the lips of the
Lowly Sufferer: "My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?'
There is clearly a moral connection
between that cry and the darkness,
so that the one must explain the
other. The line of a hymn we some
times sing. "The darkness sought his
woes to hide" as though the darkness
were but natures sympathy, does not
explain it.
"God is Light" it is written, and
this awful darkness is the result and
the proof of his withdrawing him
self from that scene.
The only man who ever dared say
''why?" to God, and the only occasion
in his career that he did so, receives
no answer to his cry. And some who
now hear that cry have heard him
say, "He that hath sent me is with
me: the Father hath not left me
alone; for I do always those things
that please him." But now when they
who have hated him without a cause
have foully murdered him, the heav-
ems turn black above them, not in
anger against them but, as his cry
explains 1.-THE sign that God has
forsaken him in the hour Of his deep
est need.
Oh, for a voice to make known to
men their personal interest in that
unanswered cry! There is psalm
that, in one short line, tells it all-the
End: the psalm of which this cry is
the opening line. David wrote it, but
it is Christ who is seen and heard in
every word of it. And in the third
verse we hear his answer to this
question, "Why?" Hear it, Oh, sim
ner! "But thou art holy" Yes, ''Thou
art of purer eyes than to behold evil,
and canst not look upon iniquity.'
Sin upon the Sinless One? Yes, but it
is your sin and mine laid on him.
and God must turn away his face. All.
Christ in the darkness is Christ made
SIM for you and me! Christ forsaken
of God is Christ treated like sinner
in your place and mine!
3 Outside the limits of Israel's camp
a fire was perpetually burning. Upon
, that fire the bodies of beasts used for
the sin-offering were consumed, as the
! apostle says in Heb. 10, For the
bodies of those beasts, whose blood is
brought into the sanctuary by the
: high priest for sin, are burned with
out the camp. Wherefore Jesus also
= that he might sanctify the people with
his own blood, suffered without the
gate" Out to Calvary do they take
.. him to die, as unfit to die within the
sacred precincts of the Holy City
Christ on Calvary is Christ, the true
Sin-offering. This is no martyrs o.
hero's death! It is the Son of Coo
: "made SIM for sinners, that the.
, might be made "the Righteousness O.
God in him." and out of that awfu
darkness comes our everlasting light
out of that forsaking, our assurance
= of his abiding presence; out OF tina
cry of anguish, our hymn of glad
dest praise To it's bitter dregs ha
he drained the cup Of divine Wratl
against sin, that he might turn
into a cup of eternal bliss for every
- one who will drink. Q, soul, drln
). and live!
If there were no such word !
" Scripture as, "He that believeth nc
~ shall be damned" she that believet
not shall not see life, but the Wrat
of God abideth on him. that superna
re ural darkness round the cross woul
i, he a sufficient warning to all mel
Answer that question, If you can:
God turned away his face from n
he one beloved Son, the very darling
q his heart, and infinitely holy becaus
nv sin was but imputed to him, wis
will he do with you whose sins al
re your own by nature and by practl'
nj. when you stand before him, as "
surely shall?