Pike County Democrat, Volume 31, Number 19, Petersburg, Pike County, 14 September 1900 — Page 7

THE THREE CROSSES. Dr. Talmage Discourses on Redemption of the Race.

Tsple Siggeited kr Fimom Patetiafi ol Munich—Types of Hum unity Represented ky the Tw* Male Cue torn. [Copyright, 1900. by Louis Klopsch ] Washington. Sept. 9. The famous paintings in the pie* ture galleries of Munich seem to have suggested the topic of this discourse, which Dr. TaImage sends from the ^saint Bavarian town, but .the theme which inspired the painters awakens in the great preacher thoughts of the redemption of the human race, which was the supreme design of that scene of suffering and death. The text is Luke xxiii., 33: “There they crucified Him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left.” Just outside of Jerusalem is a swell of ground, toward which a crowd are ascending, for it is the day of execution. What a mighty assemblage! Some for curiosity to hear what the malefactors will say and how they will act.; The three persons to be executed are already there. Some of the spectators are vile of lip and bloated of cheek. Some look up with revenge, hardly able to keep their hands off the sufferers. Some tear their own hair in a frenzy of grief. Some stand in silent horror. Some break out- into uncontrollable weeping. Some clap their hands in delight that the offenders aro to be punished ■at last. The soldiers, with drawn ©words, drive back the mob which presses on so hard. There is fear that the proceedings may be interrupted. Let the legion, now stationed at Jerusalem, on horseback dash along the line and force back the surging multitude. “Back with you!” is the cry. “Have you never before seen a man die?” Three crosses in a row—an upright piece and two transverse pieces, one on the top, on which the hands are nailed, and one at the middle, on which the victim sat. Three trees just planted, yet bearing fruit—the •one at the right bearing poison and the one at the left bitter aloes, the one in the middle apples of love. Norway pine and tropical orange and Lebanon cedar could not make so strange a grove as this orchard at Calvary. Stand and give a look at the three crosses. ,

wuoi iuuk at me cross on tne right. Its victim dies scoffing. More awful than his physical anguish is his scorn •and hatred of Him on the middle cross. This wretched man turns half around on the spikes to hiss at the One in the middle. If the scoffer could get one hand loose and he were within reach, he would smite the middle Sufferer in the5face. He hates Him with a perfect ha#ed. I think he wishes he were down on the ground that he might spear Him. He. envies the mechank| who with their nails have nail%d fflm fast. Amid the settling darkness and louder than the crash of the rocks hear him jeer out these words: “Ah, you poor wretch! I knew you were an imposter! You pretended to be a God, and yet you let these legions master you!” It was in sortie such hate that Voltaire in his death hour, because he thought he saw Christ in his bedroom, got up 01^ his elbow and cried out: “Crush that wretch!” What had the middle cross done to arouse up this right hand cross? Nothing. Oh. the enmity of the natural heart against Christ! The world likes a sentimental Christ or a philanthropic Christ, but a Christ who comes to snatch men away from their sins — away with Him! On His right hand cross today I see typified the unbelief of the world. Men say: “Back with Him from the heart! I will not let Him take my sins. If He will die. let Him die for Himself, not for me.” There has always been a war between this right hand cross and the middle cross, and wherever there is an unbelieving heart there the fight goes on. Oh, if when that dying malefactor perished the faithlessness of man had perished, then that tree which yields poison w ould have budded and* blossomed with life for all the world! That right hand cross—thousands have perished on it in worse agonies. For what is physical pain compared to remorse at the last that life has been wasted and only a fleeting moment stands between the soul and its everlasting overthrow? O Gpd, let me die anywhere rather than at the foot - of that right hand cross! Let not one drop of that blood fall upon my cheek. Bend not my ear with that cry. I see it now as never before—the loathsomeness and horror of my unbelief. That dying malefactor was'not so much to blame as I. Christianity was not established, and perhaps not until that day had that man heard the Christ. But after Christ has stood almost 19 centuries, working the wonders of His grace, you reject Him. ThaJ right hand cross, with its long beam, overshadows all. the earth. It is planted in the heart of the race. When will the time come when the spirit of God shall, with its ax, hew down that right hand cross until it shall fall at the feet of the middle cross, and unbelief, the railing malefactor of the world, shall perish from all our hearts? Away from me, thou spirit of unbelief! I hate thee! With this sword of God I thrust thee back and thrust thee through. Down to hell; wwn. most accursed monster of the earth, and talk to those thou hast already damned! Talk no longer

to these sons of God, these heirs of Hesven. “If Thou be the Son of God.” Was thfere any ‘if’ about it? Tell me, thou star, that in robe of light did run to point out His birthplace. Tell me, thou sea, that didst put thy hand over thy lip when He bade thee be still. Tell me, ye dead who got up to see him die. Tell me, thou sun in midheaven, who for Him didst pull ^own over thy face the veil of darkness. Tell me, ye lepers who were cleansed, ye dead who were raised, is He the Son of God? Aye, aye, re

sponds the universe. The flower* breathe it; the stars chime it; the redeemed celebrate it; the angels rise on their thrones to announce it. And yet on that, miserable .malefactor's “if” how many shall be wrecked for all eternity! That little “if* has enough venom in its sting to cause the end of the soul. No “if” about it. I know it. Ecce Deus! I feel it thoroughly—through every muscle of the body, and through every faculty of my mind, and through every energy of my soul. Living, 1 will preach it; dying, I will pillow my head upon its consolations—Jesus the God. Away, then, from this right hand cross. The red berries of the forest are apt to be poisonous, and around this tree of carnage grow the red, poisonous berries of which many have tasted and died. I can see no use for this right hand cross, except it be used as a leveT with which to upturn the unbelief of the world. Here fA>m the right-hand cross I go to the left-hand cross. Pass clear to the other side. That victim also twists himself upon the nails to look at the center cross, yet not to scoff. It is to worship. He, too, would like to get his hand loose, not to smite, but to deliver the sufferer of the middle cross. He cries to the railer.cursing oif the -other side: “Silence! Between us is in-'oeence in agony. TVe suffer for our crimes. Silence!” Gather round this left-hand cross, 0 ye people! Be not afraid. Bitter herbs are sometimes a tonic for the body, and the bitter aloes that grow on this tree shall give strength and life to thy soul. The left-hand cross is a repenting cross. As men who have been nearly drowned tell us that in one moment, while they were under the water, their whole life passed before them, so I suppose in one moment the dying malefactor thought over all his past life—of that night when he went into an unguarded door and took all the silver, the gold, the jewels, and as the sleeper stirred he put a knife through his heart; of that aay when, in the lonely pass, he met the wayfarer, and, regardless of the cries and prayers and tears and struggles of his victim, he flung the mangled corpse into the dust of the highway

or heaped upon it the stones. He says: “I am a guilty wretch. I deserve this. There is no need of my cursing. That will not stop the pain. There is no need of blaspheming Christ, for He has done me no wrong. And yet I cannot die so. The tortures of my body are undone by the tortures of my soul. The past is a scene of misdoing, the present a crucifixion, the future an everlasting undoing. Come back, thou hiding midd'ay swn! Kiss my cheek witn one bright ray of comfort. What, no help from above— no help from beneath? Then I must turn to my companion in sorrow, the One on the middle cross. I have heard that He knows how to help a man when he is in trouble. I have heard that He. can cure the wounded. I have heard tnat He can paruon the sinner. Surely in all His wanderings up and down the earth He never saw one more in need of His forgiveness. Wilt thou turn for the moment away from Thy own pangs to pity me? Lord, it is not to have my hands relieved or my feet taken from the torture—I can stand all this—but, oh, my sins, my sins, my sins! They pierce me through and through. They tell me 1 must die forever. They will push me out into j the darkness unless Thou wilt help j me. ,1 confess it all. JHear the cry I of the dying thief: ‘Lord, remember j me-Avhen Thou eomest into Thy kingdom.’ I ask no great things. I seek for no throne in Heaven, no chariot to take me to the skies, but just think of me when this day's horrors have passed. Think of me a little—of me, the one . now hanging at Thy side— when the shout of Heavenly welcome takes Thee back into Thy glory. Thou wilt not forget me, wilt thou? ‘Lord, remember me when Thou eomest into Thy kingdom.* Only just remember me.’* This, left hand cross was a believing cross. There ‘was no guesswork in that prayer, no “if” in that supplication. The left hand cross flung itself at the foot of the middle cross, expecting mercy. Faith is only just opening the hand to take what Christ offers us. The work is all done; the bridge is built strong enough for us all to walk over. Tap not at the door of God’s mercy with the tip of your fingers, but as a warrior with gauntleted fists at the castle gate. So with all the aroused energies of our souls let us pound at the gate of Heaven. That gate is locked. You go to it with a bunch of keys. You try philosophy. That will not open it. A large door generally has a ponderous key. I take the cross and place the foot of it in the lock, and by the two arms of the cross I turn the look, and the door opens. This left hand cross was a pardoned cross. The crosses "were only two or three yards apart. It did not take long for Christ to hear. Christ might have turned away and said: “How darest thou speak to me? I am the Lord of Heaven and earth. I have seen your violence. When you struck down the man in the darkness, I saw you. You are getting a just reward. Die in darkness—die forever.” But Jesus said not so, but rather. “This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise,” as much as to say: “I see you there. Do pot worry.

[ t will not only bear my cross, but help you with yours.”

l nave snown you the right band croKS and the left hand cross; now come to the middle cross. We stood at the one and found it yielded poison; we atood at the other and found it yielded bitter aloes. Come now to the. middle cross and shake down apples of k>Te. Uncover your head. You never saw so tender a scene as this. You may hare seen father or mother or companion or child die, but never so affecting a scene as this. The railing thief looked from one way and saw the left side of Christ’s face. But to-day, in the full blaze of Gospel light, you see Christ’s full face. It was a suffering cross. If the weapon# of torture had gone only, through the fatty portion# of the body, the torture would not have been so great, but they went through the hands and feet and temples, the most sensitive portions. It was not only the spear that went into His side, but the sins of all the race—a thousand spears—plunge after plunge, deeper and deeper, until the silence and composure that before characterized Him gave way to a groan, through which rumbled the sorrows of time and the woes of eternity. Human hate had done its worst, and hell had buried its sharpest javelin, and devila had vented their hottest rage when, with every nerve of His body in torture and every fiber of His heart in excrutiation, He cried out: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” It was a vicarious cross. The right hand cross suffered foil itself, but the middle cross for you. When a king was dying, a young man cried: “Pour my blood into his veins, that he die not.” The veins of the young man were tapped and the blood transferred, so that the king lived, but the young man died. Christ saw the race perishing. He cried: “Pour my blood into their veins, that they die not.” My hand is free now because Christ’s was crushed; my brow is painless now because Christ'# "a* lorn; my soul escapee because Christ’s was bound; I gain Heaven because Christ for me endured the horror* of hell. To this middle cross look, that your souls may live. I showed you the right hand cross in order that you might see " bat an awful thing it is to be unbelieving! I showed you the left hand I cross that you might see what it is to repent. Now I show you the middle cross that you may see what Christ has I done to save your soul. Oh, that 1 may engrave on your souls ineffaoeably the three crosses, sp that if in your waking moments you will not heed, then in your dreams at night you may see on the hill back of Jerusalem the three spectacles—the right hand cross showing unbelief, dying without Christ; the left hand showing what it is to be

! paruuneti, wane, the central cross pours over your soul the sunburst of Heaven, as it says: “By all these wounds I plead for thy heart. I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Rivers cannot quench it. Floods cannot drown it.” And while you loolc the right hand cross will fade out of sight, and then the left will be gone, and nothing will remain but the middle cross, and even that in your dream will begin to change until it becomes a throne, and the worn faee §f Calvary will become radiant with gladness, and instead of the mad mob at the foot of the cross will be a worshipful multitude, kneeling. And you and I will be among them. But, no; we will not wait for such a dream. In this our most aroused mood we throw down at the foot of the middle oros® sin, sorrow, life, death—everything. We are slaves; Christ gives deliverance to the captive. We are thirsty; Christ is the river of salvation to slake our thirst. We are hunghy; Jesus says: “I am the bread of life.” We are condemned to die; Christ says: “Save that man from going down to the pit; I am the ransom.” We are tossed on the sea of trouble; Jesus comes over it, sayj ing: “It is I; be not afraid.” We are in darkness; Jesus says: “I am the bright and morning star.” We are sick: Jesus is the “balm of Gilead.” We are dead; hear the shrouds rend and the grave hillocks heave as He cries: “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” We want justification; “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We want to exercise faith: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” I want to get from under condemnation: “There is row, therefore, no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.” The cross; he carried it. The flames of hell; He suffered them. The shame; He endured it. The crown; He won it. Heights of Heaven sing it, and worlds of light to worlds of light all round the heavens cry: “Glory! Glory!” Let us go forth and gather the trophies for Jesus. From Golconda mines we gather the diamonds, from Ceylon shores we gather the pearls, from all lands and kingdoms we gather precious stones, and we bring the glittering burdens and put them down at the feet of Jesus and say: “All these are thine. Thou art worthy.” We go forth again for more trophies, and into one sheaf we gather all, the scepters of the Caesars, and the Alexanders, and the czars, and the sultans, and of all royalties and dominions, and then we bring ‘the sheaf of scepters and put it down at the feet of Jesus and say: “Thou art King of kings. AS these thou hast conqueredT And then we go forth again to gather more trophies, and we bid the redeemed of ages, the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, to come. And the hosts of Heaven bring crown and palm and scepter and here by these bleeding feet and this riven aide and by this wounded heart cry: “Blessing and honor and glory and power unto ths bomb forever and aver.” I

A rake; deceptioh I How the Republican. Cloak Their Movement, to Deoelve the People. Mark Hanna is a mark. He Is something the people of this country have not hitherto fully understood. The Cincinnati Enquirer puts it in this shape: f‘The headquarters of the republican national campaign (Chicago and New York, city) are in active operation. They' profess to be carrying on a work of education. It would be more appropriate to call it a campaign of suppression, or, a campaign of misrepresentation. There is a large element in the republican party of honest conviction and patriotic endeavor. This element waa not and is not to-day satisfied with the platform of the national republican convention. They recognise that it lacks sincerity* and is constructed for the purpose of misleading the ignorant and flattering the speculative, who are controlling and who have been controlling since March 5, 1897, the administration of William McKinley. It is not true that disaster and distress were brought to the country by democratic legislation. Confidence was destroyed by legislation enacted by the republican party. When th0 democratic party came into power in 1S92 they took from the republican party a depleted treasury— a decaying revenue system—a vicious monetary policy. The administration

back be retired. They call it a menace to business, and proclaim tint it lacks elasticity. Nothing bat a. bank bilk issued by a private corporation, Aas elasticity. It will expand or contract at the will of t ie corporation, and its redemption is not a matter for consideration. In the hour of trial the bank will gas* I pend—not merely redemption, bat recognition. When the republicaas succeed in perfecting a banking fijstem, gold and silver will become articles of bric-a-brac, and will be ujlNI to adorn the strong boxes in ttmir vaults. Within a few years the republican managers and manipulators will don their motley suit in real earned.. The people will suffer for money, said the money changers will commence to masquerade.” THE EAST LOOKS WELL. Both New York and New Jerser ti till Give Their Electoral Vote# for Bryaa^ “Both New York and New Jersey will give Bryan their eleotoral vo:es this fall,” very positively annoutteed Representative Thomas J. Bradley, of New York city, in Washington ;he other day. “There is nothing at all surprising in this statement to :he student of practical politics and aitman nature. Let me explain: Br;an was defeated by a very narrow h.argin four years ago, because he was looked upon as a radical man; a mnn with -n?w and untried ideas and principles. Hence the great commercial

FOUR YEARS MORE AND HE WILL HAVE TO GET ANOTHER r^AU.

of Mr. Harrison closed with the seeds ] of death poisoning every artery of j prosperity. Business was dead, industry paralyzed and the- national credit disastrously impaired. “If it were true that the democratic party had no other plan with which to improve the ruinous conditions which they had produced than to coin silver at the ratio of 16 to 1, that were better than what the republicans, William McKinley as a congressman aiding, had inaugurated in the enactment which required the purchase of 5,000,000 ounces of silver per month, and coining the same into standard silver dollars. That act of a republican congress, approved by a republican president, was the assault on the credit of the country which discredited it in the financial world. If the making of the gold standard value was an impetus to prosperity why did the administration of William McKinley postpone the act thecefor for more than two years? “Even with the ‘gold standard’ declaration the republican managers do not believe that it is true. If they do believe it—if as they declare, the gold standard is a fixed reality, why are they injecting the possibility of its repeal into this canvass? Have they no faith in the republican senators? Do they believe that their majority in the senate cannot be relied on? Or are they preparing to don a motley suit which will meet thfe change of color of their view's when the hour for change comes? The republican party and its predecessors, the whig and federal parties, have been pauper currency advocates. They are bank note issue men this day as they have always been, and will always be. They have been opposed to metallic currency of either gold or silver, or both. Their present cry is a mere eloak to deceive. They favor paper money issued by banks and other corporate powers, aud if successful in this canvass they will transfer to a banking system the power to make money. To the taking of such a step the constitution is iu the way. That will not prevent them any more than it did when they chartered a United States bank. The greenback is an offense to them. Their radical leader* have demanded that the green

centers, where the conservative element is in control, opposed and defeated him. For business, or wt&lth, is alwaj’s conservative and very careful of anything like a radical departure from old standards and idea:. In other words, money is always afraid of anything it don’t understand. It did not understand Mr. Bryan an I his ideas in 1896, and it therefore strained itself to beat him. “This year, however, it is jus the other way. It is McKinley wht has departed from the ways of our fa liters and left beyond hope of return the good old ways upon which thi> nation was founded and buiit up; and the wealth of the country, as i sual, does not understand this new thing, and therefore fears it. It is McKinley who is looked upon as a radical this year, and the great centers oi copulation and commerce will be against him. He will be defeated, while Bryan, who has taken his old oppo!.;?nt*8 place as the conservator of the at cient established institutions of the xtuntry, will be triumphantly ehcted. How about New Jersey? Wh;% in presidential years New Jersey generally goes as New YorK does. Di> .you never notice that? Then you wa;th it this time.** Symptoaaa the Same. Hugh Farrelly tells a good stcrf^tllustrating the gauzy character tf tbs claim of republicans that their party is opposed to trusts. “A short; time ago,” he says, “one of two twin leathers became demented and was found by examination in the probate court to be in that condition. A commitment to the insane asylum was made out, afhd, as the other twin, who c osely resembled his insane brother, was able to control him better thar anyone else, he was deputized by the sheriff and the commitment turned over to him to convey the unfortunate brother to the asylum. Shortly after the brothers arrived at the asylum the sheriff received the following tel’g ram from the superintendent: ‘Two brothers who look just alike are her* -from your county with but one commitment. One is constantly tcHrkij’' of building a railroad to the mocn and the other that the republican party is opposed to trusts. Which shall 1 put in?’ ’’—Kansas City Time*.

I rfTHE MEREST CART

BTliriM That the RepaW Itcaas Are \ot a* Oats with the Trusts. ,■ There are many reasons why tha people distrust the anti-ftrust de«» ' laration in the republican platform. It will be recalled that President MeKinley’s attorney general seemed in haste to declare the <Sheripan antitrust law defective and useless; that the attorney general in the president’s «wn state was refused a renomination after he had shown a diaf_ position to enforce the law against trusts; that the president's neglect of what he had said was his “plain duty” in Porto Rico was charged to the influence of certain trusts; that Chairman Hanna made a positive defense of the principle underlying the existence of the trusts, etc, There is now anaddecBreason why the sincerity of the leading republicans who promise anti-trust legislation should be questioned. Chairman Hanna’s chief assistant—his first lieutenant, his right-hand man and his substitute at.the Chicago or western headquarters of the republican national committee—is Henry C. Payne. This Mr. Payne was for iuany years the chairman of the republican state committee of Wisconsin, and later a political agent for I the Chicago, /Milwaukee * St. Paul I railroad. He was mentioned for a place in the cabinet of President McKinley as a reward for his services aa Chairman Hanna’s assistant in 1896. For some time he has been the virtual head of the syndicate which owns the electric railways and light plant of Milwaukee. It is announced that he has become the head of the electric trust, which will monopolise the electricity interests of the Badger state—the V^Esconsin Trae- ~ tion, Light. Boat and Pgper company. There has been no suggestion that Mr. Payne’s interests in this trust will eatise his retirement from. the committee; no indication that Chairman Hanna will decline to associate intimately with the head of a monopoly. Also, there is no desire on the part of Mr. Payne to suspend hi* labors for republican success. Evidently he does not think that a republican victory would be a menace to the trust with which he is so prominently identified. No sane man would wear himself out in an effort to elect men who intended to smash, or in any degree injure, his business. There is no doubt about the sanity of Mr. Payne.—Philadelphia Record. REPUBLICAN IfcIRACLES. What la to Be Iatrrreu the Bros of Melttaltf Boomers. from

One of the leaflets sent forth by the McKinley boomers^ tells ‘Svhat republicanism has tk>ne for wool, pork and beef growers.” ., Republicanism has made the wool grow thicker and finer and warmer and cleaner. The farmers wore themselves out washing sheep during the last democratic administration. Since McKinley was inaugurated, the sheep hare washed themselves. They have not only washed, but scoured, their own wool and given their owners triple prices. With four years%more of McKinley they will shear themselves, carry their fleeces to market and bring home the money for their masters. As for pork, what hasn’t republicanism done for it? It has made the hogs bigger and fatter and maefc their flesh I at once more firm and more tender. It has imparted to pork, and e^>eciall?# hams, that beech nut flavor whicli tickles the palate of the gourmand. I* v has beaten the Westphalian article out of sight and scared all the German swine breeders out of their wits. Who doesn’t know what republicanism has d<?ne for beef ? It has simply made American beef the only beef in the world for those who know what good eating is. Even the Russian government comes to Chicago to buy scores of ship , loads of beef for the great army it is sending to China with the mos*t pacific intentions. And thisL. is omy a little bit of what republicanism has atone for beef. Great is republicanism! — Chicago Chronicle. PARAGRAPHIC POINTERS. -«Burchard gave us “rum. Roman* ism and rebellion,” and Roosevelt has given us disorder, dishonesty and disaster.”—Duluth Herald. -Xevv Jersey trusts cannot understand what Mark Hanna wants with campaign contributions when he considers McKinley as good!as elected and Mr. Bryan’s candictocy a great joke;—" Chicago Record (Ind.). --“Is the Filipino a citizen or a subject?” asks Mr. Bryan. He is a citizen, William Jennings, subject to the receipt of a bullet in his walhutstain hide if he doesn’t keep out of sight of his whiter fellow citizens.— Denver Post. -Hanna professes to be confident of President McKinley's reelection, but he is provoked that the republican party should feel the same confidence* because it interferes with the collection of the campaign assessments.— Peoria Herald-Transcript.^ * s -It is 4he essence of hypocrisy fot the republican party, in view of its present record, to condemn negro disfranchisement in the south as long as it is riding roughshod over the political rights of the Inhabitants of the islands acquired from Spain. It overthrew the government of the Hawaiians and reduced the natives to a condition of po-^, litical servitude. It is waging \v*ir upon the Filipinos for the purpose of extinguishing their liberties and preventing them from realising their political aspirations.—Baltimore Sun.