Crœsus

“ Croesus has a bad dream about his son Atys.
16.—Croesus, king of Lydia, had a son by name Atys. Croesus, in a dream, saw him pierced with an iron weapon, and sprinkled with blood. On awaking, he keeps his son at home; next he hides the javelins and spears in a chest
He purifies a man who comes to him stained with crime. ”

“ The story of the "Son of Crœsus," the poor young man who is slain by his best friend because the gods had foredoomed it, is simple, pathetic, and brief. The finest and sweetest poem in the volume, to our taste, is the tale of "Pygmalion and the Image." The merit of execution is perhaps not appreciably greater here than in the other pieces, but the legend is so unutterably charming that it claims precedence of its companions. ”

“ CHAPTER III. Treatment of Prisoners of War—Crœsus—Roman Triumphs—Sapor and Valerian—Imprisonment of Bajazet—His treatment of the Marshal Boucicaut and his Companions—Changes produced by the advance of Civilization—Effect of Feudal Institutions—Anecdote from Froissart—Conduct of the Black Prince towards the Constable Du Guesclin and the King of France.
The wealth of Crœsus is proverbial, and the vicissitudes of his fortune have been a favourite subject for moralists in all ages. ”

“ OPVLENTIA CROESI. Croesus as the archetype of wealth also at Tr III vii 41-42 'nempe dat ... Fortuna rapitque, / Irus et est subito qui modo Croesus erat'. [Pg 190]
The story of Croesus' downfall and the subsequent sparing of his life by Cyrus is taken from Herodotus I 86-88. ”

“ Croesus treated with generosity those republics which tendered him loyal obedience, and affected a special devotion to their gods. He gave a large number of ex-voto offerings to the much-revered sanctuary of Bran-chidse, in the territory of Miletus ”

“ It would be good if kings |E| and rulers were to set up in the God’s house offerings to Justice 96Temperance, Magnanimity, not to golden and delicate Abundance, in which the very foulest lives have their share.’
XVI. ‘You are forgetting to mention’, said one or other of the guides, ‘how Croesus had a golden figure of the baker-woman made, and dedicated it here.’ ‘Yes,’ said Theon, ‘but that was not to flout the temple with his luxury of wealth, but for a good and righteous cause. The story is [101] that Alyattes, father of Croesus, married a second wife, and brought up a fresh family. ”

“ He tries to move his father with these words: ‘Formerly, my father, this seemed to me most noble and glorious, (namely) to win honour in war and the chase. Therefore, do not keep me at home. What, pray, shall I seem to the citizens to be1 What kind of man shall I seem to my wife!’
Croesus gives his reasons for refusing.
23.—Therefore, Croesus answered as follows: ‘My son, in a dream lately, I saw thee slain by an iron weapon. On this account, I am guarding thee at home.’
Atys urges him to let him go, and gives an explanation of the dream. ”

“ This gives to the cross all its glory and efficacy. It is on the supreme Deity of Christ—on the expiation made for sin by the Maker and Sovereign of worlds—that the whole fabric of evangelical truth rests. On any other supposition, the sacrifice of the cross was a very ordinary affair. If the Saviour of sinners be not God—if he be a created being, of whatever grade,—where is the mystery of Godliness?—Where those unfathomable depths of divine love, into which the angels desire to look? ”

“ As in Palestine, so everywhere, Christ—not only Christ after the flesh, but after the Spirit—is a crucified Christ. Only those can open the Sealed Book—can penetrate the divine Revelation—who bear the mark of the Cross on their forehead, who have eaten the flesh and drunk the blood of the suffering and crucified Christ, who have discovered that the Word of God is eternally a Word of the Cross. ”

“ Section IV And the cruciform seal manifests the inaction of all the impulses of the flesh, and the God-imitated life looking away unflinchingly to the manly most Divine life of Jesus, Who came even to Cross and death with a supremely Divine sinlessness, and stamped those who so live with the cruciform image of His own sinlessness as of the same likeness. ”

“ We ought to stand upright, that is, our heart and mind should be wholly faithful and turned toward God; with the staff of the most holy Cross, where we find the teaching of Christ crucified. This is the staff on which we lean, which defends us from our foes, the world, the devil, and the flesh. And it befits us eat it whole and not in part: that is, in the light of faith, we should contemplate not only the Humanity in this sacrament, but the body and soul of Christ crucified, wrought into unity with Deity, all God and all Man. ”

“ The view of Jesus Christ, said a great servant of God, makes the cross so sweet, that it seems to me impossible to be happy without it. I feel disposed to remain all my life without any consolation, even spiritual. The love of Jesus Christ is everything to me. The cross has its charms, and whoever loves Jesus Christ perfectly, finds ineffable delight in crosses. ”

“ To Thy service and to the honour of Thy most sacred Cross, I dedicate this true man. Bless Thou this shield of his, that it may be between him and his enemies, and his arms, also, that he may go before our host, and save many, and lead us to Thy holy place in Jerusalem! Endue him with grace, fill him with strength, enlighten his heart. Hear me and help me, O Christ, a sinful, loving woman!
"Holy Spirit of God, Most High, Creator, Comforter, let Thy pure gifts descend upon this clean-hearted man, that his courage fail not in life, nor in the hour of death. ”

“ It is only through the acceptance of our crucifixion with Christ that we can live out this confession, and, as crucified to the world, maintain the position of irreconcilable hostility to whatever is of its spirit and not of the Spirit of God; and it is [p199] only God Himself who, by His Divine power, can lead us into and keep us daily dead to sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus. The cross, with its shame and its separation from the world, and its death to all that is of flesh and of self, is the only power that can conquer the spirit of the world. ”

“ Who for us men, and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary,—and was made man.
Was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried.
And rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
And ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father.
And shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, of whose kingdom there is no end. ”

“ Jesus Dies on the Cross
V. We adore Thee, O Christ, and praise Thee:
R. Because by Thy holy cross Thou hast redeemed the world!
MEDITATION
BEHOLD Jesus crucified! Behold His wounds, received for love of you! His whole appearance betokens love! His head is bent to kiss you, His arms are extended to embrace you. His Heart is open to receive you. O superabundance of love! Jesus, the Son of God, dies upon the cross, that man may live and be delivered from everlasting death. ”

“ The cross of Christ is indeed a stumbling-block to those that do not believe, but to the believing it is salvation and life eternal. "Where is the wise man? where the disputer?" [1] Where is the boasting of those who are called mighty? For the Son of God, who was begotten before time began, [2] and established all things according to the will of the Father, He was conceived in the womb of Mary, according to the appointment of God, of the seed of David, and by the Holy Ghost. ”

“ Christ was crucified between two thieves, and in them were represented the different effects which the cross of Christ would have upon the children of men, to whom it would be brought near in the preaching of the gospel. They were all malefactors, all guilty before God. Now the cross of Christ is to some a savour of life unto life, to others of death unto death. To them that perish it is foolishness, but to them that are saved it is the wisdom of God and the power of God. ”

“ Thy time is well spent, very sacred are thy thoughts, when thou art occupied in contemplating Jesus hanging on the Cross. As a cluster of cypress in the vineyards of Engaddi, so is the thought of the Crucified in the heart of a good man. If, then, thine eye is pitiful, if thou hast in thee aught of the milk of human kindness, lift up the eyes of thy mind to meditate upon God, crucified for thee, hanging dead upon the Cross. There before thee is the Tree of the Cross, upon which hangs thy Salvation ”

“ What sign of crucifixion is there in our blameless easy life? Or again, "With Christ I am nailed to the Cross; and I live, not now I, but Christ liveth in me. And that I now live in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself for me." ”

“ What happy effects will this holy enterprise produce! How many, turning towards penitence, will range themselves under the standard of the cross, and will merit, by their efforts, a crown of glory, who perhaps would have perished in their iniquity, after having passed a life entirely consecrated to carnal voluptuousness and to the frivolities of this world. This is an old artifice of Jesus Christ, which he has deigned to repeat in our days for the salvation of his faithful servants. ”

“ Come, all ye faithful, let us worship the holy Resurrection of Christ, for behold, through the Cross joy hath come to the whole world. At all times blessing the Lord, we praise His Resurrection; for, having endured the Cross for us, He hath overcome death by death. Shine out, shine out, new Jerusalem, for the glory of the Lord is spread abroad over thee ”

“ Yet, with all their discouragements, the Crusaders received much spirit- ual help and almost daily evidence, not in their own hearts merely, deeply impressed as they were, but in the incidents attending their work from day to day. It was no small thing to them to see the signs of awakening conscience in men who were apparently hardened in sin. Was it not that which Christ chose for himself—the joy of joys—to see men turn away from sin to purity and a godly life? More than one man gave his testimony to the efficacy of their prayel visited. ”

“ I have felt so strongly that the truth needs to be anew asserted, that I hope, if it please God, to publish a volume, The Cross of Christ, with the inquiry into what God’s word teaches as to our actual participation with Christ in His crucifixion. ”

“ May be the judgment day will come before that light veil is lifted from the well-known crucifix. Great God! our next Good Friday may be spent either in heaven or in hell. Go home, brethren, with these thoughts fixed deeply in your hearts. Come here often to pray. If you have sins come here and confess them; and often and often as we turn to the veiled Christ, let us most devoutly cry: "Jesus, when and how shall we look upon thy face again?" ”

“ Then, with his eyes upon the altar and the crucifix, beneath the changeless smile of the Christ in purple robes, he knew that it was not. He knew that he had sinned the one sin unpardonable in his own eyes; that he had taken the one step from which for him there was no returning—that the sin was insincerity, and the step the one that hid the face of truth.
"He, watching over Israel, slumbers not, nor sleeps. ”

“ As the strength of Jesus, fails, and he is unable to proceed, the executioners seize and compel Simon of Cyrene to carry his cross. The virtue of that cross changed the Cyrenean's heart, and from a compulsory task it became a privilege and a joy.
O Lord Jesus, may it be our privilege also to bear thy cross; may we glory in nothing else; by it may the world be crucified unto us, and we unto the world; may we never shrink from sufferings, but rather rejoice if we should be counted worthy to suffer for thy name's sake. ”

“ This is the life of the blessed Cross of Christ, which is the subject of the following discourse, and what thou, O man, must take up, if thou intendest to be the disciple of Jesus. Nor canst thou be said to receive Christ, or to believe in him, whilst thou rejectest his cross. For, as receiving of Christ is the means appointed of God to salvation, so bearing the daily cross after him is the only true testimony of receiving him, and therefore it is enjoined by him as the great token of discipleship, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." ”

“ Hast thou no needs, for which alone
The cross can find supplies?
O Jesus, Lord divine,
Why was such anguish Thine?
IV
For thee the cross was reared;
For thee the Christ was slain;
For thee He sojourned with the dead,
And rose to life again;—
O Jesus, Lord divine,
Thus was the anguish Thine.
[29] I
When Jesus to the judgment hall
By cruel men was led,
He wore a purple robe of scorn,
And thorns upon His head;—
They called Him King, and bowed the knee,
And paid Him homage, mockingly.
II
“Away! let Him be crucified!” ”

“ But that Jesus Christ should see Himself betrayed by an Apostle, that is, by a man whom this Divine Saviour had chosen in preference to so many others, and to whom he had given such manifest proofs of the most ardent love! But, my Saviour, since it is Thou, that choosest Thy servants and Thy favourites, how long wilt Thou find ungrateful men, even traitors, among those Thou hast chosen? Out of so many Christians, whom Thou hast selected, by a pure effect of Thy love, in preference to so many infidels ”