Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 203, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1915 — Messages From the Cross [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Messages From the Cross

Br REV. GEORGE E. GUILLE

BUalMMtaciCtikaeo

TEXT—And they crucified him. Matt. 11:36. No one can read this story without being struck by the artless manner

In which it is told. The writer, if left to his own wisdom, would have filled page after page, omitting no detail and adding imposing imagery of every kind to heighten the effect. The Spirit of God is the narrator of these events and in them he is telling the story which, however slow men may be to hear, he most

delights to tell. And thus he has written down, as a part of Holy Scripture, certain things that transpired, that, wherever the story of the cross should be told, these things must be told in connection therewith. Let ns look at three of these. The Place. First, then, the place of the crucifixion will speak to us. “And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, the place of a skull.” There, at the "place of a skull”—the utter wreck of human wisdom, did they put to death the “Wisdom of God.” “For of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who has made unto us wisdom from God.” The world boasts of its wisdom today, boasts of the achievements of science and philosophy, but for the most real problems—sin and death, it has found no solution, nor has it taught us anything about God. “The world by wisdom knew not God.” “And the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.” Herein Is the offense of the cross, that it sets aside all of man's wisdom forever, as well as all his glory. The Greeks were wisdom worshipers, but at Corinth the apostle would know nothing “save Jesus Christ and him crucified,” the cross in all Its marvelous attractiveness for hearts enlightened from above, in all its intolerable repulsiveness for unregenerate men. Modern rationalism despises the cross, but the humblest believer in it has found it to be what the apostle declares, “The power of God and the wisdom of God.” The Crown of Thorns. The last king of David’s line to be crowned at Jerusalem is crowned with thorns. In derision they crown him, but the Spirit of God wrlteß it down, for that crown symbolizes the curse which he has come to put away. In Gonesis 3 we read* of the curse pronounced upon creation because of man’s sin: "Cursed is the ground for thy sake . . . thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee.” Thorns, then, have become the emblem of the curse of sin, and now we see them on the Savior’s brow. “In sorrow,” goes on the pronouncement, “shalt thou eat of it,” but the. One who wears the crown of thorns is the “Man of Sorrows,” saying, as he goes to the cross, “Now is my soul exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,” and of him who hangs on the cross it is written, “His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling from him.” So the thorns are telling of what he is made for us: “Christ hath delivered us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, as it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.” “Made a curse!” flow simple to utter the words; how unutterable the depth of their meaning! The Supernatural Darkness. “The darkness sought his woes to hide,” is a beautiful hymn which sometimes we sing, but it does not explain that awful darkness. That “darkness over all the land” is witness that God, who is light, has withdrawn his presence from a scene in which he can have no part. And it was a faint outward expression of a deeper darkness that pressed upon the Savior’s soul. And thus his own cry interprets it: “My God, my (Sod, why hast thou forsaken me?” And there is no answer from God. Where shall we find the answer to that cry of forsaken sorrow? We have but to turn to the Twenty-second Psalm, from which it is quoted, and there we shall find the Holy Sufferer answering his own question. “Thou art holy, oh, thou who fnhabitest the praises of Israel.” God is holy and he turns away. “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity and canst not look upon sin.* Christ in the darkness, Christ forsaken of God is Christ “made sin.” “He hath made him to be sin for us.” And this-eras his anguish. To Calvary they take him, as unfit to die within the holy city. “For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.” Christ on Calvary, Christ abandoned, is the true sin offering. (