CHRIST, AND HIM
CRUCIFIED
PREFACE
In presenting these pages to the Christian public, the object of the author
is simply to exhibit Christ and Him crucified as the only hope of a lost
world. In this essay we have endeavored to speak of the Excellency of the
subject- of the Person of Christ- of the Glory of Christ- of Christ
Crucified- of Redemption by Christ- of the New Song in Glory- of the Sum and
Substance of the Gospel- of the only Hope of the Sinner- and of the Cross of
Christ. This volume is now commended to the blessing of God. May He grant
that, through these page, some despairing soul may be led to hope in Christ
and Him crucified. May sinners be attracted by the glory of the cross of
Jesus; may saints he built up in their "most holy faith;" and to the Eternal
Father, Son, and Spirit, a triune God, be all the praise.
And now, dear reader, in the language of William Mason, "I commend you to
God, and to the word of his grace, wishing you sweet comfort in perusing
these meditations. If our Lord gives you as much in reading as I have found
in writing them, you will have great reason for love and praise. Accept
them, as the labor of one who is no prophet, neither a prophet's son, but
who would glory in being a saved sinner, by the cross of Jesus;" and whose
delight it ever is to dwell on the blessed theme of redeeming love.
"Blest Savior, with delight I dwell
On themes no mortal tongue can tell;
The glory of your cross exceeds
All human and angelic deeds."
Blessed Jesus! Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be
acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my Strength, and my Redeemer. Amen.
"Though billows of sorrow should roll,
And surround me on every side;
Yet you can the tempest control,
My Savior, my Refuge, and Guide.
Your smile makes the soul to expand,
And graces celestial to grow;
With rapture I gaze on the land
Where pleasures incessantly flow.
'Tis there my dear Savior resides,
In fullness of glory and grace;
And there the pure river that glides
Through regions of joy and of peace.
The life-yielding tree there shall spread
Its branches luxuriantly round;
The saints robed in white shall be fed,
With fruits from Immanuel's ground.
How deep is the mystery of grace!
The theme of bright seraphs above;
To see the sweet beams of his face,
To dwell in the essence of love!
My Father! your nature is love;
In Jesus your image I view!
Oh may I behold him above,
And praise him eternally too.
May this my delight ever be,
On earth his rich grace to record;
And when from these temples set free
With joy ascend up to the Lord."
THE EXCELLENCY OF THE SUBJECT
"Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it
all as garbage, so that I may have Christ." Philip. 3:8
In the physical, intellectual and moral world there are to be found many
important and interesting subjects. The whole circle of science embraces
many topics of absorbing interest to the man of genius. Human learning
exalts man to that grand elevation of intellectual greatness, from which he
views nature in all her magnificence, revels amid her beauties, and roams,
in imagination, from star to star, from sun to sun, where the Deity reigns
in all the grandeur of his attributes. No wonder, then, that human learning
should be so highly prized, and so assiduously sought after by rational
beings. But there is a subject of infinitely greater importance than all
science or human knowledge; a subject which above all others may be
denominated sublimely great and interesting; and which, to the thirsty soul
of a penitent sinner, is most refreshing and exhilarating. That theme is
Christ and him crucified.
All the holy angels that surround the throne of God, with all the redeemed
in glory, look upon this subject with unbounded delight and increasing
admiration, but can never fully comprehend its sublimity and moral grandeur.
It is the unending theme of heaven, the joy of saints, the astonishment of
angels. It is a subject too lofty for human skill; angelic intellect can
never comprehend it. We cannot adequately declare its vastness, much less
comprehend its fullness. It is inexhaustible in its nature. The highest
intelligences that move amid the glories of Paradise cannot fathom its
profundity. The mighty oceans that divide continents, and dash their waves
on numberless shores, may be exhausted. Not so the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus. The countless luminaries that decorate the
nocturnal sky, and light up the canopy of heaven, may be extinguished in
eternal darkness, but this glorious theme shall shine forever in the
perfection of beauty.
When the last lines of earth's history shall have been written, yes, when
this terrestrial globe itself shall have been wrapped in the flames of the
judgment day, and all the redeemed brought home to glory, Christ and him
crucified will form the all-absorbing subject that shall engage the
capacious and exalted minds of heaven's blissful inhabitants, in holy
meditation and rapturous delight, through a blessed and glorious eternity.
Then, believer, if you are to spend eternity thus, should you not employ the
short space of time which intervenes between you and the realms of glory, in
the contemplation of this wonder of wonders, this mystery of godliness– a
crucified Savior? May God in his infinite mercy grant that you may be led to
form the resolution of the great Apostle, who, when writing to the
Corinthians, declares, "I determined not to know anything among you except
Jesus Christ and him crucified."
"Christ crucified" said Stillingfleet, "is the library in which triumphant
souls will be studying in, to all eternity. Other knowledge makes men's
minds giddy and haughty; this settles and composes them. Other knowledge is
apt to swell men into high conceits and proud opinions of themselves; this
brings them to the truest view of themselves and thereby to humility and
sobriety. Other knowledge leaves men's hearts as it found them; this alters
them, and makes them better. So transcendent an excellency is there in the
knowledge of Christ crucified above the most sublime speculations in the
world."
Should you not then spend much of your time in meditating on this glorious
theme? Where in the whole world can you find a subject so excellent, so
consoling, so animating as this? O, then, study Christ and him crucified. Be
diligent and ardent in the pursuit of this knowledge, for it alone can guide
the Christian to immortal bliss!
A knowledge of Christ and him crucified, is indispensable to salvation. "I
am the way," says Christ, "and the truth, and the life: no man comes unto
the Father, but by me." "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall
be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." By that great
atonement which he made on Calvary, our blessed Savior has abolished death,
and brought life and immortality to light. The radiancy which the knowledge
of a crucified Savior emits light amid the darkness of mortality, dispels
the gloom that overspreads the mind, and dissipates the darkness that hovers
around the pathway to immortality.
This knowledge makes the Christian's eye bright with hope, and animates him
on his way to the mansions of glory. It tears asunder the veil that hides
the unseen world from mortal view, and holds up to the Christian's
enraptured gaze, the untold glories of heaven. It points directly to the
only sacrifice for sin, Jesus Christ, the bleeding Lamb of God. It leads you
to Calvary, where, amid the affecting and overpowering scenes exhibited, it
opens to your astonished view the portals of heaven, and pours in a flood of
light and glory that dazzles the eye of the Christian, sheds effulgence
around the throne of God, and beams with unclouded splendor through eternity
itself.
The saving knowledge of Christ and him crucified, leads the sinner to glory
and happiness at God's right hand. It will crown him with unutterable bliss.
It will prepare him for the enjoyment of heaven; for the reception of that
unfading wreath of glory which shall be entwined around the brow of the
faithful; for that glittering diadem which shall be placed upon his head;
and for those robes of salvation with which he shall be eternally arrayed
before the throne of God.
How important then is this knowledge which leads to such blessed results, to
such unspeakable glory! O that each of us may become experimentally
acquainted with Christ and him crucified. Permit me to urge this momentous
subject upon your serious consideration. You should give it a thorough
investigation. Your immortal destiny is embraced within its extensive scope.
To neglect it, will be at the peril of your eternal happiness. O then, we
beseech you with the utmost compassion for your immortal soul, to attend to
this glorious message, the proclamation of a crucified Savior, and eternal
life through him.
This great and all-important theme, the glory of which no mortal tongue can
express, is more intimately connected with your present and future welfare
than all other subjects within the range of human acquisition. We would not,
in this little volume, display before you the airy speculations of
philosophy or the various charms of human science; but we would, with ardent
language, hold up to your view, Christ and him crucified, as your only hope;
as the only hope of a lost world.
Here, sinner, is your hiding-place. Under the shadow of Him who once groaned
and bled on Calvary, you can find eternal repose. "And a man shall be a
hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of
waters in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Jesus
Christ is here set forth in all the richness of his grace. He is here
offered, freely offered to dying sinners. Embrace him as your only Savior;
while passing through this weary land– through this wilderness world, lean
on Him, who will guide you safely to glory. In Him, you will experience that
joy which the world cannot impart, and that peace of God, which passes all
understanding.
By that blessed side which was once pierced with the soldier's spear, you
will enjoy the favors and smiles of a reconciled God. From those deep wounds
that were inflicted on the Savior's immortal form, fountains of joy, as
inexhaustible as the ocean of divine perfection itself, will flow in the
richest streams of grace, to refresh, invigorate and animate your soul. O!
there is something about Calvary so mysterious in its nature; so glorious in
its results. Time can never disclose, nor vast eternity unravel those things
connected with that affecting scene, displayed when the Son of God bowed his
head and exclaimed "It is finished."
This subject embraces this mystery, and consequently will be the theme of
the redeemed to alt eternity. It comprehends the glorious plan of redemption
and all the wonders of Christ's redeeming love. It does not lead the sinner
to Sinai, and there leave him amid the dreadful thunder and lightning and
flame and smoke. No, it gently draws him to Calvary, that life-giving mount,
where the unbounded love of God for sinners once glowed in the bosom of his
Son, with more than human splendor; where it beamed forth in all the
effulgence of the divinity, when the holy Jesus hung a suffering, bleeding,
victim on the ignominious cross. How glorious is such a subject! It is full
of Christ and salvation through him. It vividly displays the matchless
mercy, and boundless love of God to a lost world.
"Oh! how matchless is this mercy!
How unbounded is this love!
'Tis our joy on earth to feel it;
'Tis the theme of saints above."
Let the knowledge of Christ and him crucified dwell in you richly. Endeavor
to know more and more about the person of your glorious Redeemer; about that
wonderful death which he accomplished at Jerusalem, and that all-sufficient
atonement which he effected on Calvary. Christ and him crucified is the
sweetest, noblest theme on which a soul ever dwelt. Holy angels on their
lofty thrones in glory, desire to stoop from the heights of celestial bliss,
and look into this wonderful abyss of love and mercy to fallen man– the gift
of a Savior– a glorious salvation. Well may we, who are the objects of such
unprecedented love, raise our grateful hearts to the God of heaven, and
shout forth in language like this– Glory to God in the highest for such
peace and good-will toward men.
Christian, may Christ and him crucified ever be your delightful theme on
earth, until mortality is swallowed up in life, until you are admitted into
the glorious presence of Immanuel, and see him face to face, and begin your
unceasing song, unto him that loved you and washed you from your sins in his
own blood. Can you not now say with the Apostle, "Yes doubtless, and I count
all things but loss for the excellency or the knowledge of Christ Jesus my
Lord." O that every reader could join with us in the following beautiful,
glowing lines of the poet,
"You are my all!
My theme! my inspiration! and my crown!
My soul's ambition, pleasure, wealth; my world.
My light in darkness! and my life in death!
My boast through time! bliss through eternity!
Eternity is too short to speak your praise,
Or fathom your profound love to man!
To man of man the lowest, even to me,
My sacrifice; my God!" (Young)