The Sufferings of Christ.
By A. M. L.
I HAVE twice read sister White’s little tract of sixteen pages, “The Sufferings of Christ.” My throbbing pulses almost ceased to beat as I was carried, in imagination, to the scenes there portrayed with such life-like minuteness and reality. I seemed to hear the terribly agonizing cry of Jesus, as with the weight of the sins of the whole world upon him and his Father’s smiles withdrawn, he cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Oh! for a deep and constant sense of what our salvation cost the Son of God who left the Father’s and his own glory, that he might die the “just for the unjust,” bear our sins for us, and so open a way for our escape. Truly, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” How inexpressibly great the love of God, that he could give his Son, and how great the love and constancy of that Son in filling out the wonderful programme till “It is finished” rang out to the defeat of Satan’s kingdom, and to “joy in Heaven that the sons of Adam could, through a life of obedience, be finally exalted to the throne of God.” What love does it call for from all those who profess to have “passed from death unto life!” Surely, the sacrifice of all time, talents, property, reputation, yea, life itself, is but a poor offering; yet God will receive it if we come with all the heart. We need that love, that devotion, that will say, not, How little can I do to inherit eternal life? but, O Lord, what can I do for thee, who hast done so much for me? I can adopt fully the words of the poet Hartsough:— “I’d tell of the power of sin,
How fallen my soul had become,
How hopeless and cheerless within,
While recklessly wand’ring from home;
Thus burdened with sin and its woe,
My vileness was all I could see,
When Jesus said, Go with me, go,
Thy soul from its sorrows I’ll free. “I gave him my poor, fainting heart,
And quickly salvation received;
I felt his dear life in each part
As I in his mercy believed.
Blessed Saviour! now seal me thine own,
Thine image stamp wholly in me;
My heart, be it ever thy throne,
From sin keep it evermore free. “Henceforth this vain world must all go,
Its claims, I can see, are but dross;
For none but my Jesus I’ll know,
I’ll glory alone in the cross.
I am thine, blessed Jesus, all thine,
Thy virtues impart unto me,
The death that I die is to sin,
The life that I live is to thee. “Go, friends that would keep me from him!
Go, joys that would share with his love!
Go, hopes that would draw me to sin,
Go, all that from him would remove!
Come, sorrow, if only in thee
I shall cling to my Saviour and God;
Come, scorn and reproach, if left free
To be drawn evermore to my Lord.”