The Cross is the Measure of Human Sin by Stephen Higginson Tyng, Jr.

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Apr 3, 1879

The Cross is the Measure of Human Sin.

By Stephen Higginson Tyng, Jr.

St. Bernard says, "From the consideration of the remedy learn, oh, my soul, the greatness of thy danger. Thou wast in error, and behold the Son of the Most High God is ordered to be slain, that thy wounds may be healed by the precious balsam of his blood. See, oh, man, how grievous were thy wounds, for which, in the order of divine wisdom, it was necessary that the Lamb Christ should be wounded. If they had not been unto death, and unto eternal death, never would the Son of God have died for them. The cross of Christ is not only an altar of sacrifice, but a pulpit of instruction. From that pulpit, lifted up on high, Jesus Christ preaches a lesson to the whole world."

The burden of its testimony is the evil of sin. From the manger of Bethlehem to the mount of ascension, this was the whole tone of his teaching. Stand during the hours of night beneath the old olive trees of Gethsemane, and watch the agony of him who bows in prayer that the cup may pass from him. Tell me, what mean those great drops of blood that fall from his writhing form to the sod? What means that bitter wail of supplication, as he pleads with God and fears before death? Why is it that the sinless Man has become so despised a sufferer, save as the burden and responsibility of sin rested upon him? By all the cries, by every groan, by each pang that pierced his heart, measure, oh, believer, the turpitude of that which could in no other way be banished from God's earth. —Dr. S. H. Tyng, Jr.