The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1921-03-17
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
Prepared Especially for The Republi-
can By DIR. U. S. Wright.

Mark, Luke and John.
God cOmmendeth His own love toward
us, in that, while we were yet sim
ners Christ died for us. ROm.5:8
THE MARCH TO THE CROSS.
From the Upper Room the little
company took their way outside the
city listening to the never-to-be-for-
gotten conversation of the Master.
They entered Gethsemane where Jesus
was determined to secure an hour of
quiet before the sure coming of the
end. Eight disciples were posted near
the entrance; four took their places
farther within, while beyond their
guard Jesus essayed His time of pray
err. Judas probably took the troopers
to the supper room and then trailed
the company to the Garden. Betrayal,
struggle, healing, desertion, followed
in quick succession. Then the melan-
choly journey through the darkness to
the house of Annas, where brief ex-
animation carried Him to Caiaphas
and the hastily summoned members
of the ruling body that again met
legally at dawn to confirm the murder
Gus purpose of its directors. PLATE
was called upon to pass the death SEN
tence, Herod was seen, the Procurator
made his desperate attempts to re-
lease the innocent prisoner, but ulti-
mately did the will of the rulers and
sent Him along the way of sorrows to
the cross without the city's wall. The
deadly lust for blood spattered all the
route. Why is it that the beast is so
slow to die in human forms? With
crowds clammoring for bits of charred
flesh from the fresh-burned body of
the mob's victims in more than one
town in our own Christian communi-
ties, there is little room for US to crit.
icise the Jew who chould be granted
some allowance for the nineteen CEN
turtles of supposed progress that has
helped to make US what We are. We
neered savages may not be so wide of
the mark after all as our fitting title
since Catholic Maryland and Quaker
Pennsylvania alike are guilty. Shame
should remove our bitterness against
the cross builders of other days and
send US the Lord of the Cross for par
don and power for our own day.
THE COMPANY TO THE CROSS.
1t was a notable company that is
named in connection with the pilgrim
age. Patrician PLATE never dreamed
that he would stand upon history's pill
Tory because of the bleeding Man that
stood before him. The Governor tried
to release Him from the bloody de-
mand and appealed to patriotism and
pity in vain. The turbulent province
must be kept in peace if possible, and
Jesus had no standing in a Roman
court. Yet the impression made upon
the Judge was too deep not to cause
him to determine the impossible. But
they were bent upon His life and
would create tumult and kill Him in
the end, why not allow the quasi-legal
death instead of the certain lyncing
that was inevitable? He could not af
ford Rome to take up the appeal of
these Jews over such a matter for
there were others not so clear that
would be aired also and his yesterday
built the seat of today's Judgment.
Annas and Caiaphas forgot their dig.
nifty as the religious leaders of a great
peoples highest court and joined the
rabble from the streets in their mock
cry of the whitest soul that had ever
trodden her highways; to reject the
rule of right is to bear the devils
brand. Mary bowed her head in ag-
ony and let John lead her along the
way that eyes blind with weeping
could not trace. Other women press
ed close beside her and shared her
grief. Soldiers marched stolidly
enough to the place of executions;
Peter was somewhere upon the out
skirts longing for some chance to
seek the forgiveness of Him he had
denied in panic of fear few short
hours before. Judas, white-faced and
desperate, friendless and surly, some
where viewed the consequences of his
act and turned back to cast the bag of
coins into the presence of the priests
and laid down his life in despair. It
was section of the life of the world
in which cruelty and kindness, sin
and purity, sorrow and exultation, love
and hate, greed and self-giving, pas
sion and peace, jostle each other in
the way. a9'@7
THE EXPERIENCE OF THE CROSS.
Jesus bore the cross until strength
gave way and another shared its bur
den. Then came the untold agony of
its physical torture with no deadening
of the nerves from the supply offered
through the pity of Jerusalem women.
He would go to that final hours with
every faculty alert. What would not
the penitent thief have lost had the