RELIEF BY THE CROSS

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 4, 1881

RELIEF BY THE CROSS.

BUNYAN does not set Christian to undo his own burden by arguing—"I have fled from the city of Destruction; I have forsaken house and friends, wife and children; I have resisted temptations to return; I have knocked at the gate and entered in, and am in the narrow path;" but with all this done he brings him to "a place somewhat ascending," where stands a cross; and "just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders and fell from off his back." He did not cast off the burden by a process which could easily be explained, but when he set his eye upon the cross, it fell off of itself; and "it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden."

And so it is to others; but however surprising, do thou, my penitent brother, heed no other direction but that which points thine eye straight to the cross, for pardon, for escape from hell, for rest, hope, purity. Look thither, only thither. If thy burden fall not at once, yet still look; look to the cross, and fall it will far sooner and far more surely, than if thou attempt to untie it by thy arguments.—Baptist Flag.