Descent from the Cross

“ In my bosom burned the terror as of old, and my soul was consumed of a mighty anguish. None of those that passed in that street knew me; centuries had ground to dust all my kin. 'O God!' I cried in agony, 'suffer my sin to be forgotten,—suffer me to sleep, to sleep forever beneath the burden of the cross I sometime spurned!' As I spake these words there stood before me one in shining raiment, and lo! 't was he who bore the cross to Calvary! ”

“ Nor can we gaze long at the cross, at the cruelly mutilated brow of our Saviour, at His body torn and bruised by the merciless scourging, at the five bleeding wounds, nor can we listen to the cry of His broken heart, 'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' without being melted with love and filled with a holy zeal to serve Him every moment of our lives. One real view of the cross changes all. The things of this life, where we shall be located and how we shall be situated, will have no more effect upon us, if only we may glorify Him. ”

“ Such was indeed His cry, as He hung on the cruel and shameful cross and suffered the blasphemy of the priests, who surrounded the cross and shouted and hissed out the mocking words: He trusted in God: let him now deliver him. ”

“ We should expect no share in the fruits of Christ’s death, unless we participate in the work of his life. The cross is a meaningless symbol until we approach it over the pathway of humility, trust, self-denial and obedience. ”

“ Christ had but to will it, and the cross of shame would instantly have been exchanged for the throne of glory, and the mocking crowds have been stretched blackened, blasted corpses before Him! We speak of our Lord's temptation in the wilderness—what must have been His temptation "on the cross"? Such as none but Deity could have resisted—none but God have overcome. A Paul might have consented to be crucified for the sake of his brethren—but could even a Paul have remained long on the cross had it needed but an act of volition to release him? Human nature must have failed under the trial. ”

“ To complete the idea of the attractiveness of the Cross, it must further be kept in view that this particular form of the manifestation of the Divine love was adapted to the needs of those to whom it was made. To sinners the love of God manifested itself in providing a sacrifice for sin. The death on the cross was not an irrelevant display, but was an act required for the removal of the most insuperable obstacles that lay in man’s path. ”

“ Jesus falls under the Cross a second time.
Jesus proceeds, the blood still flowing from Him, and his anguish and pains increasing at every step. Again His strength fails Him; again He falls to the ground, re-opening, by the shock, all His wounds, and causing them to smart afresh.
Thou didst fall again, oh my Jesus, to expiate my repeated and shameful falls. How often hast Thou pardoned me! and yet I have relapsed, with base ingratitude, into the same crimes. Give me grace, I beseech Thee, by virtue of this Thy second fall, to persevere henceforth in serving Thee until my last hour. ”

“ The evening shadows are beginning to fall as we see Christ raised on the cross. He hangs there for twenty minutes, and most indescribably sublime are the words given from thence. When all is over, it is so real, you think that this time death must really have taken place. The three crosses, the bound thieves, the fainting women, the mounted centurion, the soldiers drawing lots, all seem to belong to real events, enacted, not acted. ”

“ In the future, growing nearer every day, and ever present in that Child's Heart, there is that dark Cross on Calvary—the wood of the awful Sacrifice and the cruel nails by which the Victim will be bound obedient to the Father's will, bonds all powerless but for the stronger cords of love. ”

“ Cease, then, O my soul, to despair, self-accused though thou be of so many sins. Entangled as thou art in the snares of so many evil lusts, assailed as thou art by so many temptations, thou hast still, unhappy one, the hope of life: bowels of mercies yearn for thee — of this the Cross, the Nails, the Lance, all the blood-stained Wounds of Jesus are witnesses. Hide thyself, O my soul, hide thyself within the deep Wounds of the Crucified, kiss the wales of His Stripes, clasp with loving arms the Tree of life, hold fast to that most sure pledge of thy Salvation, Jesus hanging on the Cross. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Well for thee, O cross, which hast put on the Lord, hast gathered in the robber, hast called the apostle to repentance, and hast not deemed us unworthy to be received by thee! But why do I speak yet so long and allow not the cross to embrace me, in order to be raised to life in the cross, when I, through the cross, have gone from life to death, which is the lot of all? Come then, servants of my joy and beadles of Aegeates, and fulfill the wish of both of us and bind the lamb to the cross of suffering, the man to the demiurge, the soul to the Saviour! ”

“ The Son of God died on the cross that he might take possession of his glory; the saints have arrived at heaven only by the path of sufferings. Shall we, then, imagine that what the Son of God and the saints have so dearly purchased, shall be given to us for nothing? No; the cross is the distinctive mark and portion of the elect; a soul which suffers nothing, and is resolved to suffer nothing, bears the strongest character of a reprobate. We must, of necessity, suffer either in this world or in the next. ”

“ And when you are taken down from the cross, I will rub your strained limbs and bedew your burning brow with the tears of all the sorrows Mary and Magdalene suffered for the Crucified One, and--when you have rested and again raise your eyes to mine with a smile, I will rest your head upon my breast in the blissful feeling that you are no God Who will ascend to Heaven--but a man, a tender, beloved man, and--my own. ”

“ All our miseries come from not loving it. The fear of crosses increases them. A cross carried simply, and without those returns of self-love which exaggerate troubles, is no longer a cross. Peaceable suffering is no longer suffering. We complain of suffering! We should have much more reason to complain of not suffering, since nothing makes us more like Our Lord than carrying His Cross. Oh, what a beautiful union of the soul with Our Lord Jesus Christ by the love and the virtue of His Cross! I do not understand how a Christian can dislike the Cross, and fly from it! ”

“ It dare not face a future in which man is his own redeemer.
Wherefore God be thanked that right down in the heart of that situation you can set the Cross! Rising out of the midnight of man's despair, smiting the darkness like a sudden dawn, comes the solving word, the divine decisive deed; and all the classic answers of Jew and Greek and Roman fade away before the glory of it.
Now when you set the Cross in the context of the world's sin, there will be three main notes in your preaching. ”

“ Our Lord's cross consists of the labors of my state, and the pain and sorrow that go with labor, of whatever sort it be, as God said in the beginning to Adam: in the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat thy bread: thorns and briers shall the earth bear to thee (Gen, iii. 18, 19) . This cross I must submit to be nailed to, and never come down till death releases me, never abdicate, never resign. The devil's cross consists of feelings of wretchedness, black discontent, irritation, complainings, downheartedness, and misery - as it were whirls from the cloud that envelopes Satan in eternal despair. ”

“ Dear children, I have had much sorrow since we last met and talked of the joys of heaven—a beloved brother has, I trust, through Christ’s merits, joined the bright hosts rejoicing there. But should not I meekly bear the cross which my heavenly Father sees good to send me? To every one passing through this life is given a cross—a trial to bear. To some it is so light that they scarcely feel it; with others so heavy that it bows them to the dust. Each of you knows, or will know, its weight. But let none be afraid nor cast down. The cross prepares for the crown. ”

“ My meditation of him shall be sweet when I consider his cross and mine.
The cross is the emblem of our religion. To it the awakened sinner flies when conscience fills him with gloomy fears. There is no place of safety for him save in its blessed shadow. Looking up with faith, he sees Jesus, the suffering Saviour, and with the sight peace and joy fill his heart. As he starts upon his pilgrim course the cross is set before him, and these are his marching orders: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." ”

“ The saint’s cross assumes many and diverse shapes. Sometimes it is the bitter trial, the crushing pang of bereavement—desolate households, and aching hearts. Sometimes it is the crucifixion of sin, the determined battle with “lusts which war against the soul.” Sometimes it is the resistance of evil maxims and practices of a lying world; vindicating the honor of Christ, in the midst, it may be, of taunt, and obloquy, and shame. ”

“ So, then, brethren, when your trials come thick and fast; when your temptations seem more than you can endure; when you are pinched by poverty, slighted by your neighbors, forsaken—as it seems to you—even by God himself, then remember the way of the cross. Remember the agony in the garden; remember the mount of Calvary. {198} Grasp the palm firmly in your hand to-day; let it be in fancy the wood of the cross. Cry aloud as you journey on: "Through humility and suffering to exaltation and glory." Keep close to Jesus. ”

“ Every Christian has to endure trials of this kind; the promise is sure, 'He giveth power to the faint.' 'They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.' In times of trouble, when everything seemed to be going against me, I have yet found the cross of Jesus a sure refuge. ”

“ 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? ”

“ Jesus Christ became obedient unto death, even unto the death of the cross. Son of God, dying upon the cross for the salvation of souls, we adore thee; eternal Father, we offer Thee this, thy divine Son; accept, we beseech thee, His merits in behalf of the suffering souls in purgatory, for the conversion of all poor sinners, and of all in their agony. ”

“ While the body was lying in the grave, His soul descended into hell in order to suffer the qualms and pangs required to satisfy the wrath of God, complete the work of redemption, and render a plenary satisfaction, satisfactio plenaria. The descent is the last stage of Christ's humiliation and suffering, His triumph first beginning with the resurrection. ”

“ Salvation in the cross.
1 Here at thy cross, my dying God,
I lay my soul beneath thy love,
Beneath the droppings of thy blood,
Jesus, nor shall it e'er remove.
2 Not all that tyrants think or say,
With rage and lightning in their eyes,
Nor hell shall fright my heart away,
Should hell with all its legions rise. ”

“ Yet by that they would be thought his disciples, who never did his own will, but the will of his heavenly Father.
VIII. This is such a cross as flesh and blood can carry, for flesh and blood invented it; therefore not the cross of Christ, that is to crucify flesh and blood. Thousands of them have no more virtue than a chip: poor empty shadows, not so much as images of the true one. Some carry them for charms about them, but never repel one evil with them. They sin with them upon their backs ”

“ But do not mutilate the Gospel of the Cross by reducing it to a doctrine of subjective influence. Preach the Cross as victory. Here where the very greatness of the apparent triumph of iniquity was its own irrevocable defeat; here where evil once for all has shot its bolt, and its deadly weapon is turned against itself; here where eternal love is seen asserting its sovereignty, not just in spite of the tragic mystery of sin, but—as by a master-stroke of divine strategy—precisely through that mystery—here is the ground of all our hope. ”

“ And even the suffering and death of Christ effect our reconciliation not simply by themselves, but as the completion of His sinless, holy life, in which, through doing and suffering, He was obedient even to the death of the cross, and through that obedience fulfilled the law as the holy will of God for us, and bore and suffered the punishment of our transgression. ”

“ CONSIDER how Jesus, after three hours’ agony on the Cross, consumed with anguish, abandoned himself to the weight of his body, bowed his sacred head, and died.
O my dying Jesus, I kiss devoutly the Cross on which thou didst die for the love of me. I have merited by my sins to die a miserable death, but thy death is my hope. Ah! by the merits of thy death, give me grace to die embracing thy feet, and burning with love for thee. I commit my soul to thy hands. I love thee, O Jesus, above all things. ”

“ It seems to me that those who, in the name of the highest paternal love of God, reject the thought of Christ's sacrificial death, are kicking away the ladder by which they have climbed, and are better than their creeds, and happily illogical. It is the Cross that reveals the love, and it is the Cross as the means of propitiation that pours the light of that blessed conviction into men's hearts. ”