Part 1 (2/2)

We love _the Christ of the Cross_. We may not yet fully understand that cross; may not yet have found any particular theory of the atonement which completely satisfies our intellect. But we have learned to say that we believe in the atonement and in the vicarious death of our Redeemer. Somehow or other we have come, by faith, to throw our trembling arms around that bleeding body and cry out in the desperate determination of our sin-stricken souls to Him who hangs on that cross to save us by His death. We have come to express our faith in that divine sacrifice in the words of the hymn:

Other refuge have I none, Hangs my helpless soul on Thee.

Let us never forget that we reach the Twenty-third Psalm by the way of the Twenty-second Psalm--the Psalm of the Cross. ”The way of the cross leads home.” We love the Christ of the Twenty-second Psalm, the Christ of Calvary, the Christ of the Cross.

We also love _the Christ of the Throne and the Glory_. It may be, that, at times, we have trembled and feared as we have thought of the coming judgment, but when we have remembered that He who sits upon the throne is our Elder Brother, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; that He left His throne in the glory and took on Him the form of a servant, dying the ignominious death of the cross that He might redeem us and save us from the just wrath of G.o.d against sin; that some day, He who loved us and gave Himself for us, will say: ”Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” then we take courage and look forward with joy to the time when, having washed the last sleep from our eyes in the river of Life, we shall gaze with undimmed vision upon Him, whom having not seen, we have yet loved.

We love the Christ of the cross, the Christ of the past, the Christ of Mount Calvary. We love the Christ of the future, the Christ of the throne, the Christ of Mount Zion. But more precious to us, and we say it reverently, than the Christ of the past, or the Christ of the future, is the Christ of the present, He who lives with us now, dwells within us, walks by our side every moment and every hour of the day. We used to sing in our childhood days that beautiful hymn,

I think, when I read that sweet story of old, When Jesus was here among men, How He called little children as lambs to His fold, I should like to have been with Him then.

I wish that His hands had been placed on my head, That His arms had been thrown around me; And that I might have seen His kind look when he said, ”Let the little ones come unto me.”

--_Mrs. Jemima Luke_

Many of us feel that we would have given anything to have walked by the side of the Christ in the days of His earthly pilgrimage, and we almost envy those who saw His face in the flesh. Some of us know the thrill of joy that came to our hearts when we trod the sands of Galilee that once were fresh with His footprints, trod the Temple's marble pavements that once echoed with His tread, and sailed the blue waters of Galilee that once were stilled by His wonderful word.

And yet, we should not forget that the enjoyment of the real presence of Christ is just as truly ours today as it was the possession of the disciples in the days of His flesh. As the old hymn so beautifully says,

We may not climb the heavenly steeps To bring the Lord Christ down; In vain we search the lowest deeps, For Him no depths can drown.

But warm, sweet, tender, even yet A present help is He; And faith has still its Olivet, And love its Galilee.

The healing of His seamless dress Is by our beds of pain; We touch Him in life's throng and press, And we are whole again.

--_John G. Whittier_

The name given to our Lord in connection with His birth was Immanuel, which being interpreted is, ”G.o.d with us.” One of the most beautiful doctrines of the Christian faith is the divine immanence, the continued presence of the ever-living Christ with His people; for

For G.o.d is never so far off as even to be near, He is within.

--_F. W. Faber_

Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands or feet.

--_Alfred Tennyson_

I know not where His islands lift Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift Beyond His love and care.

--_John G. Whittier_

THE SHEPHERD PSALM

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