It is your Husband who hangs bleeding there!

("The Marvelous Riches of Savoring Christ,
The letters of Ruth Bryan" October 31, 1849)

"I will make you My wife forever, showing you righteousness
 and justice, unfailing love and compassion. I will be faithful
 to you and make you Mine, and you will finally know Me as
 Lord." Hosea 2:19-20

Well may it be asked, Who is this wondrous Beloved,
who would go to such depths for His spouse; and on whom
the weak one is leaning as she comes up out of the wilderness?

Ah! He is the same who, from all eternity, was the great
"I Am!" the mighty God, by whom all things were created,
who is before all things, and who holds all things together!

It is He who, in the fullness of time, scorned not the lowly
Virgin's womb, but became a babe.

It is the same glorious Person who was seen coming with
crimson-stained garments, traveling in the greatness of
His strength, who tread the winepress of Almighty wrath
alone!

It is He whose countenance is as the sun shining in his
strength, yet whose "visage was marred more than any
man's, and His form more than the sons of men."

It is the same glorious Person who is a holy One of the holy
ones; and yet "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief!"

It is the same glorious Person who is "holy, harmless,
undefiled, and separate from sinners;" and yet "numbered
with the transgressors."

Under the weight of sin and its punishment, Jesus agonized
in the sacred garden of Gethsemane, and sweat great drops
of blood falling down to the ground. Oh, those rich, rich
drops from His precious veins! They are of more value than
all the gold and gems His hands have made!

This is the matchless Bridegroom of whom we speak--who,
on Calvary, was stretched on the accursed tree, and there
finished the love-scene of His mystic sufferings!

Come, sit with me a moment beneath the shadow of His
cross! Look up, and remember it is your Husband who
hangs bleeding there!

It is the Bridegroom, in love for the Bride, enduring those
unknown pangs! See how His holy flesh is bruised with
scourging, and His precious hands and feet pierced with
rugged nails! How is His heavenly brow torn with piercing
thorns, and His dear side with the cruel spear; each gaping
wound proclaiming, "Man is guilty--God is love! But
God is justice too!" Oh, see His precious blood trickling
down. It flowed forth for sinners like me--like you!

Look and wonder!

Look and be comforted!

Look and adore!

"Here look until love dissolves your heart,
 And bids each slavish fear depart!"

O glorious Lord, we worship You!

"Your beauties we can never trace
 Until we behold You face to face!"

We love to meditate on Your sufferings, but rejoice
that they are over. You have suffered, and you die
no more! You have gone to our Father and to Your
Father; and we are expecting you to "come again"
and receive us unto Yourself, to be with You, and
behold Your glory; when, in nobler and sweeter
strains we'll sing Your never-dying love, and tell
Your power to save; while with open face and
ravished heart--we forever gaze upon Your
matchless beauty!

"May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so
great you will never fully understand it!" Ephesians 3:19