The Story of the Cross; In Daily Contemplations for the Holy Week. in Daily Contemplations for the Holy Week (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1866. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... THE FORSAKING. "And they all forsook Him and fled." Our indignation at this unmanly desertion sometimes blinds us to its mystical character, and the true state of the case. It was necessary that the Sacrifice should be separated from the flock. Of this great conflict it is written, "I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me." No man can make atonement' for his brother; this is the sovereign privilege of the Incarnate God. He must stand isolated and forsaken, bearing His burden unaided to the end. He entered into this loneliness at the time of His great agony, when His troubled soul sought the sympathy of His disciples, and found them heavy with sleep. He has foreseen and prepared for it. "Ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." Still they forsook Him, and may not be excused; only we too often forget our weakness when we judge them with severity. It was He Himself who first suggested they should go their way; when He presented Himself to the band with such a divinity in His protecting form, that "they went backward and fell to the ground." He never reproached them for that flight; what He checked was the rash profession of services that would fail in the hour of trial. In fact, it is the previous self-offered devotion which renders the defection so base and pitiful. Peter's fall looks the worst, only because he was the loudest in promising; for Peter was in truth the disciple who stood longest by his Master, save one who promised nothing. He sought to place himself before others by the vehemence of his protestations, and he remains before them hiding their weakness by his own, and sustaining almost alone the censure of the forsaking. Let us mark the...