XXIII. Jesus Christ crucified between two Thieves 88 XXIV. Jesus praying for his enemies..................... 91 XXV. The inscription written over the Cross of Jesus 92 XXVI. Jesus reviled upon the Cross INTRODUCTION. THE heart of man finds a natural, but mournful delight in the scenes where every spot awakens some association of departed genius. We know that to such places the visitor becomes a pilgrim, and every spot he visits is looked upon as hallowed. The spirit of the departed haunts with its unseen presence the deep and solemn shade, or steals past on the lonely hill side; and the accents of the voice long mute, come breathing in the whispers of the plaintive winds. Yes, and there have been such pilgrim visitors to the sacred shades of the garden of Gethsemane, to the hill side of the Mount of Olives; and there imagination has pictured the fainting form of the despised and rejected Christ, and gazed with intense emotion upon the pale brow, and the eyes upraised in such inexpressible anguish, and listened to that reiterated piteous appeal, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me!" But is it thus that the true disciple comes, in the course of his pilgrimage, to the garden of the Mount of Olives? Ah, no! Imagination may bring before him, with all the vivid reality of breathing life, the agonies of the Son of man; but imagination is only the handmaid of faith. It is faith that can alone realize the presence of the Saviour, and behold Him who is invisible. Faith, which sees in Christ suffering, sin suffering; Christ agonized, sin agonized; Christ fainting, sin overcome. And then, to change at once the figure: faith, which beholds in Christ strengthened, grace renewed; Christ rising from the earth, grace triumphant; Christ going forth from the garden to meet his enemies with heavenly calmness, grace going forth into the midst of the trials and the temptations of a world at enmity against God. "Lord, it is good for us to be here," was the address of the bewildered apostle upon Mount Tabor; for although much that he beheld there was mysterious, all was resplendent with unearthly glory: and good it seemed to him to be there, shadowing his eyes beneath the dazzling radiance, and beholding the Master whom he had seen scorned and `persecuted, transfigured, not only in form and countenance, but in the very garments that he wore, and holding heavenly converse with the lawgiver and the prophet of his chosen people. Man, it is good for thee to be here, we may add to the faithful disciple; not on Mount Tabor, but on Mount Calvary, and the hill of Olives; and there is a grander manifestation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ defiled with shame and spitting, his brow pierced with thorns, and trickling with blood, than on the mount of transfiguration; for thus strength was made perfect through weakness, and victory was gained by suffering; and through death, with its ghastliness, and its bitterness, and its inexpressible feebleness, him who had the power of death, that is the devil, was destroyed. Thus, by the arm which yielded, and the hand which was transfixed to the cross, the power of death was wrenched away once and for ever from the arch enemy of God and man, and Satan became henceforth a conquered foe. Oh, it is a blessed consideration that man is thus called upon to witness the triumph of man; for the triumph of Jesus was as surely man's triumph, as the agonies of Jesus were human agonies. In his encounters with our great adversary, the Christ of God engaged in the conflict as the Son of man. In the earliest records of the history of man, we find the evil one opposing the power of God, by accomplishing the ruin of man, the first of God's creation; and so in Adam, the representative of all our ruined race, man was overcome, enslaved, degraded, and lost to all eternity. And when, in the fulness of time God sent forth his Son-himself the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace-that Son was born of a woman, was made flesh, became a man, submitted to take the lowest place as a man on earth, and became obedient unto death; and having expired in the manhood, and finished his atoning work as a man, he bore away the manhood from the grave, and went up, at length, to heaven, in the same body in which he had lived, suffered, and died; thus becoming the first-born of many brethren, the firstfruits of the resurrection, and standing as the representative of a redeemed and renewed race at the right hand of the Majesty on high. "Blessed," for ever blessed, "be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ," Ephes. i. 3. We are permitted, in these seasons of conflict and agony and victory, to behold the nature and the power of prayer. The only person that ever adorned the human character with every heavenly grace, has made that character the example of his human brethren, and especially in patience and in prayer. There was no feverish anxiety about Jesus Christ to justify himself before man. To the false accuser, and to the insolent questioner, it is written, he answered not a word; but though silent in his heavenly meekness towards man, he poured forth his soul in unceasing communion with his Father, and received, as the answer to prayer, the support and the strength which he needed. I would call the attention of my Christian reader more especially to the subject of prayer. Surely the result and effect of prayer in the case of our blessed Example, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, is a subject for the deepest consideration of his disciples. We see him entering the quiet |