THE

United Methodist Free Churches'

MAGAZINE.

APRIL, 1864.

Lessons from Calvary.

CHRISTIANITY is a great power. During the centuries that have passed since it was given to the world by its Divine Author, it has gradually been diffusing its influence among mankind, and is now the only vital and vitalizing religion of which earth can boast. While other systems, hoary with the lapse of ages, exhibit manifest symptoms of decay, the Gospel stands forth vigorous and beautiful, like a "strong man" rejoicing to run a race, leaving all competitors behind, and certain to obtain the victory for which he strives.

The power of the Truth is not only seen in the marvellous moral transformations which it accomplishes in such individuals as welcome it to their bosoms, and in its indirect salutary influence on the views and habits of society, but also in the profound interest with which it has surrounded countries and places which, apart from it, would probably have been for ever unknown to fame. When, for example, this planet, in obedience to the creative fiat, started into existence, and began its revolutions, who, not gifted with prophetic vision, would have ventured to predict that the territorially insignificant land of Palestine would ever acquire preeminent importance, and ultimately become, as it doubtless will, an object of absorbing interest to the inhabitants of every other country? Such, however, in the counsels of Eternal Wisdom, was its destiny, and, though but a small portion of our race have yet become acquainted with the wondrous transactions of which it was the theatre, it is already, to the most enlightened nations of the world, invested with a solemn grandeur, and exercises a fascination over their most devout and elevated spirits, such as no other country can pretend to. Nor is this phenomenon difficult of explanation. Besides having been the abode of God's people,

chosen by Him to be the conservators of Divine Truth for the race at large, Palestine was, with occasional brief intervals, for about fifteen-hundred years, the scene of those religious observances which were chiefly designed to be typical of Messiah's work, and prepare the way for its accomplishment; "in the fulness of time" the second personality in the ever-blessed Trinity became incarnate within its precints, was numbered with its population, trod its soil, and in its metropolis offered Himself as an oblation for human guilt; and from it, after the departure of their Master to the right hand of the Majesty on high, issued forth those messengers of mercy whom He had commissioned to proclaim the rich provision of His grace to the entire family of man.

The interest, however, which is thus felt in Palestine as a whole, is especially directed to those portions of it which, in the Evangelical history, are associated with the most important events in the Saviour's career. Of all cities Jerusalem is felt to be the most sacred, and to Calvary-the altar on which the "one offering" was consummated-the pious mind reverts with mingled emotions of wonder, gratitude, and awe. Remembering the awful and yet glorious scenes enacted there, we wonder not that in an age of superstition, in which, next to the priestly office, military prowess was held in esteem, Christendom, in obedience to the summons of a supposed infallible Pontiff, should have sent forth its hosts to rescue the "holy places" from the tyranny of the infidel.

"The place that is called Calvary" is mentioned by the Evange list Luke as the spot on which Christ, in fulfilment of the Divine purpose, and in accordance with ancient prophecy, was made to bear the iniquities of a rebel world. The precise spot, however, thus designated it is now difficult to ascertain. The Greek and Romish Churches, indeed, hold it to be within the precints of the Chapel erected by St. Helena, in Jerusalem; but the correctness of this assumption is more than doubted by intelligent and trustworthy travellers. Stephens, who visited the alleged Calvary, could not believe it to be the real one; and Dr. Thompson, in kis fascinating narrative of his travels in the Holy Land, states a similar conclusion. His words are,—

"The only other place that I cared to visit was the chapel of St. Helena, to which I descended eastward from the grand circular aisle by thirty steps. It is a half-subterranean church, nearly fifty feet square. There are various altars and sacred places in it connected with the invention' of the cross, which, however, actually took place in a real cave, to which one descends still further eastward, by twelve steps. In this cave the pious Helena (so the Church tells us) was rewarded for her large travel and labour by finding the three crosses, the nails, the crown of thorns, etc. After examining the place sufficiently, I returned along the south-eastern

aisle, and ascended Calvary, by a flight of eighteen steps, and there looked at the three holes in which the crosses are said to have stood; but this seems to me the most bungling arrangement in the whole invention.' The three holes are too close together, and there is an air of desperate improbability about the entire contrivance that cannot be overcome. Besides, it is notorious that a large part of this Golgotha is an artificial vault, with rooms underneath.*"

The difficulty of ascertaining, with precision, the locality where Christ expired is, probably, the result of Providential ordination. He who caused the sepulchre of Moses to be unknown, lest the Jews should make it the scene of idolatrous worship, may have involved the question as to the exact site of Calvary in similar obscurity, lest mankind, ever prone to superstition, should regard it with a veneration due only to Himself. All that is important for us to know on this subject is, happily, placed beyond reasonable doubt. Luke tells us that the work of redemption was completed on Calvary, while uniform and unbroken tradition testifies that there was such a place; and, aided by these, the imagination finds little difficulty in realizing a vivid conception of the spot where heaven triumphed over hell, and "obtained eternal redemption" for a sin-degraded race. To Calvary we invite our readers, that, with us, they may again mentally behold those "strange things" which, more than eighteen hundred years ago, transpired on its summit, and learn the lessons of instruction with which they are replete.

On that spot there stand three crosses, on each of which is suspended a human being in the agonies of a slow and painful death; and, as we gaze upon the heart-sickening spectacle, how painfully we are reminded of human wickedness! Cruel must have been the men who could devise such a punishment, even for the most atrocious criminals; great were the sins of the malefactors hanging, "one on the right hand, and the other on the left" of the central sufferer; but, above all, how fearful must have been the depravity of those who placed Him there, who "was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." Divesting Himself-in

some sense, beyond our comprehension-of the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, He had come into the world on a mission of mercy, "to seek and to save that which was lost." Of the blessings which He came to dispense the Jews were designed to be the first recipients. During the period of his sojourn among them, He had laboured with untiring benevolence for their welfare. He "went about doing good." Never, in His progress from the manger to the cross, had an angry passion disturbed the quiet, or an impure desire stained the purity, of His soul. Never did His tongue utter

"The Land and the Book," pp. 677-78.