Year: 1869

Sermon by Rev. Dr. StOrrs.


Last evening at the Broadway tabernacle, corner
of Thirty-fourth street and Sixth avenue Rev. Dr..
r. s. Storrs OF the Church of the Pilgrims. preached
the anniversary sermon before the American Home
Missionary Society. He took for his text John Kill,
49, 33:-"And /. If be lifted up from the earth, Will
draw all men with me. This He said signirying
what death He should die" After explaining the
circumstances under which the words Of the text
were spoken and The construction put upon them
by those VINO heard them the preacher proceeded
20 why did Christ Not because He
could not have avoided it by His sagacty If He had
chosen to. He knew what was In the minds OF men.
He knew their thoughts before they were expressed
upon the lips glanced in the eye. He knew before
hand that death was intended. Not only that, He
knew the mode IN which 1t was to be inflicted, the
knowledge Of which cast a shadow over His pre-
ceding life. He was preparing the minds OF HIS
disciples, SO thai when It came they might not be be
might have done so by going out OF Jerusalem by
some other gate or by not going to Gethsemane He
garden down to the Valley OF the Kedron into one OF
the tombs where those intent upon HIS life expected
to find Him. why did He not avoid death when He
might SO easily have done ltS 1t was not
because He could not have resisted 1t by


His power. Every natural law gave way before the
onset OF His irresistible mind. He might have re-
sisted 1t by making himself invisible to his pursurers
He had often made himself invisible before. Why
hands to do it. why did He not resist before the
cOuncif Why not refuse at the last moment, when
condemned to carry the crossF Every one KNOWS
that if ae had simply refused to walk along the
street bearing the cross, not the legions then
gathered jerusalem not all the legiOns OF Rome II
they had been summoned from the ends OF the earth
could have compelled the L0rdto bear the cross TO
Calvary. Why did lie not resistI With all HIS power
why did He submit to this deathY There was no moral
necessity for death than there physical. He was
without sin. lie did not die because he was sinner;
not because he could not avoid it. Why then
TO furnish example to his followers IN their dying
hours. SO 1t Is often said; to which 1t must be
answered 1t was not. He died voluntarily. You and
l. said the preacher, have no right to die voluntarily


rifce IL was suicide Was 1t that ne might reveal
his characters He did not do It, II that was the end
OF his agony Was 1t that he might seal his instruc-
tions by his death and make them more impressive
to his disciples He did not do that for never were
instructions given that needed less any such argu-
ment. Their characteristic Is their self-evdence,
the fact that they appeal directly to the reason and
the moral sense. They no more needed to be Illus
sunshine needs to be gilded to make bright. Why
then, did he die Blessed be God, the Scriptures
furnish answer final and satisfactory. He died,
first that by dying he might make atonement for
human sin; that he who had been under condemna.
tiOn might be free from condemnation and justified
before Goa as il he had never sinned at all
You know all the forms of speech by which the
Scripture sets forth His death:-"He died the Just
for the unjust that lie might bring us to God' "By
Him our debt Is pad" "By His blood we are ceansed
from all sin.n The fact stands revealed IN scripture
that Christ died to make an atonement. There Is


no other explanation Of His death possible; no otneI


that can stand the test Of searching inquiry Having
made the atonement He died that He might rise


again, as an evidence of the rising Of all mankind
from the grave He died that, having made an
atonement for sin by death and risen again and
assembled into heaven He might send forth the Holy


Ghost. II is with reason that the death OF Christ Is
more celebrated ana more h0nnred than His birth
The preacher closed his long and eloquent sermon
with few words of application to the work OF the
society whose anniversary they were met 10 cele


brate. Now that the great highway from the Atlantic
to the Pacific Is completed, and new life given t6


every material interest, the society should redoubt


their efforts to carry the Gospel TO every community
in the land, and make the truth felt In every near
| Wnv Christ died,