Part 10 (1/2)

SERMON XV. THE MEASURE OF THE CROSS

EPHESIANS iii. 18, 19.

That ye may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which pa.s.seth knowledge.

These words are very deep, and difficult to understand; for St. Paul does not tell us exactly of what he is speaking. He does not say what it is, the breadth and length, and depth, and height of which we are to comprehend and take in. Only he tells us afterwards what will come of our taking it in; we shall know the love of Christ.

And therefore many great fathers and divines, whose names there is no need for me to tell you, but whose opinions we must always respect, have said that what St. Paul is speaking of is, the Cross of Christ.

Of course they do not mean the wood of which the actual cross was made. They mean the thing of which the cross was a sign and token.

Now of what is the cross a token?

Of the love of Christ, which is the love of G.o.d.

But of what kind of love?

Not the love which is satisfied with sitting still and enjoying itself, as long as nothing puts it out, and turns its love to anger-- what we call mere good nature and good temper; not that, not that, my friends: but love which will dare, and do, and yearn, and mourn; love which cannot rest; love which sacrifices itself; love which will suffer, love which will die, for what it loves;--such love as a father has, who perishes himself to save his drowning child.

Now the cross of Christ is a token to us, that G.o.d's love to us is like that: a love which will dare anything, and suffer anything, for the sake of saving sinful man.

And therefore it is, that from the earliest times the cross has been the special sign of Christians. We keep it up still, when we make the sign of the cross on children's foreheads in baptism: but we have given up using the sign of the cross commonly, because it was perverted, in old times, into a superst.i.tious charm. Men wors.h.i.+pped the cross like an idol, or bits of wood which they fancied were pieces of the actual cross, while they were forgetting what the cross meant. So the use of the cross fell into disrepute, and was put down in England.

But that is no reason why we should forget what the cross meant, and means now, and will mean for ever. Indeed, the better Christians, the better men we are, the more will Christ's cross fill us with thoughts which nothing else can give us; thoughts which we are glad enough, often, to forget and put away; so bitterly do they remind us of our own laziness, selfishness, and love of pleasure.

But still, the cross is our sign. It is G.o.d's everlasting token to us, that he has told us Christians something about himself which none of the wisest among the heathen knew; which infidels now do not know; which nothing but the cross can teach to men.

There were men among the old heathens who believed in one G.o.d; and some of them saw that he must be, on the whole, a good and a just G.o.d. But they could not help thinking of G.o.d (with very rare exceptions) as a respecter of persons, a G.o.d who had favourites; and at least, that he was a G.o.d who loved his friends, and hated his enemies. So the Mussulmans believe now. So do the Jews; indeed, so they did all along, though they ought to have known better; for their prophets in the Old Testament told them a very different tale about G.o.d's love.

But that was all they could believe--in a G.o.d who was not unjust or wicked, but was at least hard, proud, unbending: while the notion that G.o.d could love his enemies, and bless those who used him despitefully and persecuted him--much less die for his enemies--that would have seemed to them impossible and absurd. They stumbled at the stumbling-block of the cross. G.o.d, they thought, would do to men as they did to him. If they loved him, he would love them. If they neglected him, he would hate and destroy them.

But when the apostles preached the Gospel, the good news of Christ crucified, they preached a very different tale; a tale quite new; utterly different from any that mankind had ever heard before.

St. Paul calls it a mystery--a secret--which had been hidden from the foundation of the world till then, and was then revealed by G.o.d's Spirit; namely, this boundless love of G.o.d, shown by Christ's dying on the cross.

And, he says, his great hope, his great business, the thing on which his heart was set, and which G.o.d had sent him into the world to do, was this--to make people know the love of Christ; to look at Christ's cross, and take in its breadth, and length, and depth, and height.

It pa.s.ses knowledge, he says. We shall never know the whole of it-- never know all that G.o.d's love has done, and will do: but the more we know of it, the more blessed and hopeful, the more strong and earnest, the more good and righteous we shall become.

And what is the breadth of Christ's cross? My friends, it is as broad as the whole world; for he died for the whole world, as it is written, 'He is a propitiation not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world;' and again, 'G.o.d willeth that none should perish;' and again, 'As by the offence judgment came on all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the gift came upon all men to justification of life.'

And that is the breadth of Christ's cross.

And what is the length of Christ's cross? The length thereof, says an old father, signifies the time during which its virtue will last.

How long, then, is the cross of Christ? Long enough to last through all time. As long as there is a sinner to be saved; as long as there is ignorance, sorrow, pain, death, or anything else which is contrary to G.o.d and hurtful to man, in the universe of G.o.d, so long will Christ's cross last. For it is written, he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet; and G.o.d is all in all. And that is the length of the cross of Christ.

And how high is Christ's cross? As high as the highest heaven, and the throne of G.o.d, and the bosom of the Father--that bosom out of which for ever proceed all created things. Ay, as high as the highest heaven; for--if you will receive it--when Christ hung upon the cross, heaven came down on earth, and earth ascended into heaven.