The Cross

The Token of the Cross. — I had the pleasure of riding into the Leonine city in Rome a short time after the Italian troops had taken possession, and I noticed that every house had marked up most conspicuously the arms of the kingdom of Italy and the name of Victor Emmanuel. They were not content to have it over their doors, but all over the fronts of the houses you read “Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy,” showing that they were right glad to escape from the dominion of the Pope, and to avow their allegiance to a constitutional king. Surely if for a human monarch and the earthly freedom which he brought men could thus set up his escutcheon everywhere, you and I who believe in Jesus are bound to exhibit the blood-red token, and to keep it always conspicuous.

Salvation at the Foot of the Cross. — There was a young man in Edinburg who wished to be a missionary. He was a wise young man; he thought — “Well, if I am to be a missionary, there is no need for me to transport my self far away from home; I may as well be a missionary in Edinburg.” There’s a hint to some of you ladies, who give away tracts in your district, and never give your servant Mary one. Well, this young man started, and determined to speak to the first person he met. He met one of those old fishwives; those of us who have seen them can never forget them; they are extraordinary women indeed. So stepping up to her he said, “Here you are, coming with your burden on your back; let me ask you if you have got another burden, a spiritual burden! “” What! “she said,” do you mean that burden in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress? Because if you do, young man, I have got rid of that many years ago, before you were born. But I went a better way to work than the Pilgrim did. The evangelist that John Bunyan talks about was one of your parsons that do not preach the gospel; for he said, ‘Keep that light in thine eye and run to the wicket-gate, Why, man alive! that was not the place for him to run to. He should have said, ‘Do you see that cross? Run there at once! But instead of that, he sent the poor Pilgrim to the wicket-gate first; and much good he got by going there! He got tumbling into the slough, and was like to have been killed by it.” “But did not you,” he asked, “go through any Slough of Despond?” “Yes, young man, I did; but I found it a great deal easier going through with my burden off than with it on my back.” The old woman was quite right. John Bunyan put the getting rid of the burden too far off from the commencement of the Pilgrimage. If he meant to show what usually happens, he was right; but if he meant to show what ought to have happened, he is wrong. We must not say to the sinner, “Now, sinner, if thou wilt be saved go’ to the baptismal pool; go to the wicket-gate; go to the church; do this or that.” No, the cross should be right in front of the wicket-gate; and we should say to the sinner,” Throw thyself there, and thou art safe; but thou art not safe till thou canst cast off thy burden, and lie at the foot of the cross, and find peace in Jesus.

The Cross a Stumbling-Block. — Nothing provokes the devil like the cross. Modern theology has for its main object the obscuration of the doctrine of atonement. These modern cuttle-fishes make the water of life black with their ink. They make out sin to be a trifle, and the punishment of it to be a temporary business; and thus they degrade the remedy by underrating the disease. We are not ignorant of their devices. Expect, my brethren, that the clouds of darkness will gather as to a centre around the cross, that they may hide it from the sinner’s view. But, expect this also, that there darkness shall meet its end. Light springeth out of that darkness — the light eternal of the undying Son of God, who having risen from the dead, liveth for ever to scatter the darkness of evil.

The Plea of the Cross. — If I had offended my father, I should wish to be at peace with him directly; and if my father said to me, “My son, I will be reconciled to you if you will go and speak to your brother about it,” well, I should not think it hard, for I love my brother as well as my father, and I would go to him at once, and so all would be well. God says, “Go to Jesus; I am in him. You can reach me there — go round by his cross; you will find me reconciled there. Away from the cross I am a Judge, and my terrors will consume you. With the cross between you and me, I am a Father, and you shall behold my face beaming with love to you.”