The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-03-18

lands. the old faiths used to test the
reconciliation of Christians by asking
them to trample or to spit upon the
cross. This perception of the central
place of the symbol and truth of the
crucifixion in Christian life is we'll
nigh universal.
70 disciples of all creeds the cross
has embodied their loftiest spiritual
thought. In the eleventh century Ber-
nard of CIairvaux penned his death
less, 80 Sacred Head once wounded"
Isaac Watts set myriads to singing:
when survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
Ny richest gain count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride"
A century later Sir John Browning
I'm the cross Of Christ glory,
Towering Ger the wrecks Of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime
when the woes of life o'ertake me,
Hopes deceive and fears annoy,
Never shall the cross forsake me:
Lo! it CLOVIS with peace and JOY"
A Crowded Stage.
The Greatest Story in the World.
climaxing in the Cross, has only one
Hero, but many incidental characters.
The trial and death of Jesus, which
began according to the forms of JUS
tice and ended in an exhibition of
mob law. reveal all grades of human
nature-for even in His Atonement the
Saviour was touched by the varied in
firmities of man. How the characters
troop across the stage set for crea-
TONS supreme drama on a gray hill
outside of old Jerusalem's WALL
f, First there were the enemies of
! Jesus, cunning, resourceful. unscru-
pulous and resentful. Wounded &C.
eli @ r.
cial power, branded wickedness in
high places, had shrewdly plotted and
contrived together until they had got
this New Teacher into the hand of the
Roman Law.
Next was plate. the politician
governor. who was as just as his own
fear and ambition would let him be.
He acquitted Jesus by Roman law and
convicted Him by lynch law. For lack
of common, courageous manhood. Pi-
late is eternally pilloried in the world
| hall of infamy.
Then there was the throaty rabble
which shortly before had cried "Ho-
sannah!" and now fiercely yelled
Cruelty Him. In the presence OF
| this volatile mob, tools of shrewd
/ schemers in the background, who will
say that always ''Vox populi, vox Der
True friends mostly women, cluster
near the cross, amid the black shadows
1 the sky. Judas had gone off to a
suicides grave, but faithful COM
rades remained near.
| Rome's soldiers, impersonally doing
| one of the days tasks of militarism
by their very indifference, callousness
and gambling triviality, throw into
high relief the sublimity of the cross
The thieves on either side of the Re
deemer better understand than these
soldiers that this was no common cru
! cifixion.
| Last of all, as first of all, was the
Majestic Prisoner, dgnified amid tor
ture and agony, and Captain of con.
ditions even when nailed to the cross
His personality overtopped all else
even as His cross-the browning touch
of cruelty was that a Carpenter Should
die by the handiwork of His craft
overlooked the multitude. Literature
and history have no parallel for thi.
Figure.
We cannot speak of Him In an,
terms at our command. This was the
supreme transaction and mystery O.
eternity. Somehow, on this hill o.
execution, God and man were recon
4 ci1ed by the shed blood of the Cru
Gifted Christ: His death secured man.
life. 1t is the unreliable love story O
the ages.
II have not much to give Thee, Lord
For that great love which mad,
Thee mine;
have rot much to give Thee, Lord
But all have is Thine