ing for sin can be so deep as that which is endured for the bad by the good who love them and do not partake of their guilt.1
(3) In the Cross of Christ we realize the meaning of_stn. Before that, the world treated sin lightly ; after that it could not. The world will always treat sin lightly until it understands the meaning of God condemning sin in the flesh where Christ died. Belief in Christ means, and must mean, a sense of the guilt of sin, a hatred of sin, a personal sense of sin and penitence for it. Apart from this there could be no coming to the Saviour, or trust in Him, since there would be no felt necessity for salvation.
TJ The true cross of the Eedeemer was the sin and sorrow of this world — that was what lay heavy on His heart — and that is the cross we shall share with Him, that is the cup we must drink of with Him, if we would have any part in that Divine Love which is one with His sorrow.2
(4) In the Cross we come to know the victory of failure. The Cross is the revelation and symbol of victory, but of victory in failure and because of failure. There never was such an apparent failure as the Crucifixion. But the Cross was not the end but the beginning — the beginning of victory — an endless victory to the cause of goodness in the world. There are successes that are sadder than any failures, and failures that are more glorious than any successes. And the history of all that is best on this earth is one continuous illustration of this law of the Cross. The lives of not a few of the great religious leaders of r,he last century seemed more or less a failure — Eobertson's, Maurice's, Colenso's; but they are having now a second and a better life — the victory which comes of the apparent defeat, and because of it.
He passed in the light of the sun,
In the path that the many tread, And his work, like theirs, was done
For the sake of his daily bread ; But he carried a sword, and, one by one, Out there in the common light of the sun,
The sins of his life fell dead.
1 P. A. Ellis. a Diriah Morris in Adam Bede.
i CORINTHIANS n. 2 41
His feet never found the way
That leads to the porch of fame, But he strove to live each day
With a conscience void of blame; And he carried a cross whose shadow lay Over every step of his lowly way,
And he treasured its splendid shame.
So life was a long, hard fight —
For the wrong was ever there, And the cross ne'er out of sight,
The cross of a grey world's care ; But right through the day to the failing light He carried the cross and fought the fight,
Great-hearted to do and bear.
Night fell — and the sword was sheathed,
And the cross of life laid down, And into his ear was breathed
A whisper of fair renown; And the nameless victor was glory-wreathed, For the Voice that said, "Let thy sword be sheathed,"
Said also, " And take thy crown." *
(5) To know Christ crucified is to know God as a loving Father. In St. Paul's day this was an idea so new and so wonderful and so wonderfully helpful that it excluded in the Apostle's mind all other knowledge. God was no longer a wrathful potentate, He was no longer the patron of the Jewish nation only, He was the Father of all men, who willed not that any should perish. In the knowledge of Jesus Christ there had burst upon the Apostle's mind the all-transforming thought that God was not law, but love. The death of Christ — this is the great truth of truths in the gospel, the great wonder of wonders, the finishing and perfect proof of that love of God to us, beyond which we can conceive nothing higher. All in the gospel rests upon it; without it the gospel could not be understood. From the Cross of Christ streams all the light which makes the gospel the message of peace and comfort to sinful and dying men.
K In one of the ancient churches of Central Italy there is a unique representation of the Crucifixion. Behind the Christ on
1 Percy C. Ainsworth Poems cmd Sonnets, 17.
42 THE SUM OF SAVING KNOWLEDGE
the Cross we catch a dim vision of the Eternal Father ; the hands of the Father behind the hands of the Son, and the nails which pierce the Son piercing the Father also. We shrink from it at first as coarse and rude, but as we think about it we feel that it is the old painter saying, in the only language which he could command, what has been so long and strangely forgotten, if not in form yet in reality, that God is in Christ, that the Father is in the Son, that His love had not to be won by sacrifice, that it is His love which is embodied in the sacrifice, that the Cross and Passion are the revelation in time and space, in visible and historical form, of the grief and pain of a God who suffers for and with His creation and His children.1