Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 196, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1910 — "The Way of the Cross Leads Home" [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

"The Way of the Cross Leads Home"

way of the cross leads home! It must be so else W ((■) v why thls lon^n g after CalwKjz vary, “as the hart panteth after the waterbrook," as heart of man for the Spirit of God. ' This was the experience of FrankUn, "one of the rarest men of atl histor.” He was always a man who loved his fellow-men. He could not help but believe that there was a God. He believed to the depth of his being that this God the Father was ever guiding and directing the destinies of men, writes Rev. Frank N. Rlale, D. D., in Christian Work and Endeavor. As his years ripened he found himself turning to heaven for constant guidance, for man is soon without hope when he is without prayer. Here are his words, summing up all: “I have lived a long time (eighty* one years), and the longer I live the more convincing proof I see of this truth, that God governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, Is it probable that an- empire can rise without his aid? Except the Lord build the house, we labor in vain. I firmly believe this, and also believe that without his concurring aid we shall proceed in the political building no better than the builder of Babel, and we shall become a reproach and byword to all future ages. And what is worse, mankind may, hereafter, from this unfortunate Instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom, and leave it to chance and war and conquest I therefore beg leave to move that, henceforth, prayers, Imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessing on our deliberations, be held In this assembly (the convention of 1789) every morning before we proceed to business.” Franklin’s Last Moments. Large as the vision of this great man was, it seemingly was not large enough to catch the glorious vision of the divinity of our Lord. Once he said: “Athough I think Jesus is the greatest man that ever lived, I somehow cannot feel he Is the Son of God." Still there was something tugging at his heart that made him feel these very words may have framed out of his life far more than they framed in, for during his last earth moments there is recorded of him some most significant words: The experience of George Eliot, as all know, was almost a counterpart, a parallel, of this rift of soul. When she wrote the book that took men nearest into the heavenly places, In that beautiful character of Dina Morris, constantly did she have before her on her desk, as she wrote, the crucifix. Bigger than the mind, ever is the heart. However much Calvary is crowded down It will creep up, and be like a well of water—that is, the well of life. To show that all this was not a fetish, so much as a most vital fact, this genius of Romola said, that of all the books in the world nothing was to be compared to Thomas a Kempls’ “Imitations of Jesus.” This was her constant companion which she pored over and formed as the manna of heaven to her heart. The great “unexplored remainder,” the great unconscious “plus” of life, Is only brought to light by Calvary and the cross. What Makes Calvary Sublime. Just what It all means can perhaps be no better expressed than In a little homely Incident of lon| years back. Two of the simplest men of toll were passing along the highway past a Catholic burying ground. They both began to wonder what the letters "I. H. S." were that they saw everywhere. After long discussion, In their humble reasoning, they came to the conclusion that they stood for "I Have Sinned." To settle the matter to their satisfaction, they came to my dear old father, the minister of the little parish. They told him what they had concluded the letters stood for, and asked him if it was not so. My father smiled, and then told them, of course, that they were the first letters of the Latin words, which meant “Jesus the Savior of Men." After a little, yet mbst thoughtful pause, one Of the men answered: "But, Mr. Minister, It is only because I have sinned that Jesus came as the Savior of the world." My father said that then and there he realized the whole story of redemption. as never before —that because there was the universal sense of sin Calvary came to meet this universal need. That Is what makes “Calvary sublime,” That is why the whole world will ever love to sing: In the cross of Christ I glory. Towering o’er the wrecks of tlm< All the light of sacred story Gathers round its head sublime.