Almost Unbelievable Sacrifice and Devotion, and All for an Unseen Leader
By Carlyle B. Haynes
NINETEEN centuries ago, the Son of God was on earth. He came as the Saviour of men and of the world. By His sacrifice on Calvary, He made a way of escape from death for every human being.
At His first advent, He remained on earth for thirty-three and a half years. The last three and a half years of His life were spent in public ministry. During this time, He not only taught the principles of the gospel Himself, but He made provision, by calling and ordaining the disciples, for the gospel to be preached to the very end of the world.
He told His disciples repeatedly, while with them, that He was soon to depart, and return to the place whence He had come into the world. They heard Him say to the Pharisees, "Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto Him that sent Me." John 7: 33. But like the Pharisees, they were dull of hearing, and did not understand. He said plainly to them, "Now I go My way to Him that sent Me." John 16: 5. He assured them that "it is expedient for you that I go away." John 16: 7. He said again, "A little while, and ye shall not see Me, . . . because I go to the Father." John 16: 16. Yet when He went away, they were not ready for His departure.
But before He returned to heaven, He accomplished the great work which He had come to do. He laid down His life for the salvation of men. Alone in Gethsemane, with none to help or comfort, He drained the last scalding drop of the fiery cup,— the cup that none other could drink. From Gethsemane, He was taken by the mob. Priests and rulers insulted and jeered Him. The whole nation taunted and gibed Him. But not one cry was forced from His pale lips by pain, or thirst, or glaring noonday sun, or thorns, or nails, or smitings of dirty, sin-stained hands. As a sheep before its shearers, so was He dumb.
Watched His Dying Agonies
They hurried Him before Annas and Caiaphas, and then before Pilate, and on to Herod, and back again to Pilate, always in the midst of the vociferating crowd, who buffeted Him, and smote Him with the palms of their hands, and spit in His face, speaking sneeringly of the shame of His birth, and demanding that He perform for them a miracle. Coming the last time from Pilate's judgment hall, after the sentence of crucifixion had been pronounced, they crushed down upon the weary head the cruel crown of thorns, and bowed the knee in mockery, crying, "Hail, King of the Jews!"
With no rest through the long night, hurried from one proud ruler to another, travel-stained, weary, footsore, and bruised and lacerated with the cruel scourging He had received, now, in addition to it all, He is laden with the weight of the heavy cross, and, with no covering on His head from the broiling midday sun, but the crown of thorns which had torn His brow in heavy gashes, He staggers on, the world's Redeemer, through taunts and mocking words.
Reaching the place of Calvary, they stretched Him upon the cross, and drove the nails through His quivering flesh. Then, raising the cross with the Saviour upon it, they let it drop with a heavy thud into the hole they had prepared for it, tearing wider the wounds of the hands and feet where the nails had pierced. With jeers and mockery they watched His dying agonies. And thus the Son of God gave up His life for you.
A Marvelous Brotherhood
But He was brought up again from death, and for forty days He walked and talked with His disciples concerning the great work they were commissioned to do. They were to preach the gospel to all the world, and Jesus promised that His Spirit would be with them to the end.
And then one bright day, on the slopes of Olivet, as many were listening to His instruction regarding their work, He was taken away from them into heaven. Even while they were looking at Him, "He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight." Acts 1: 9.
And from that day to this, there has been a brotherhood of men upon earth who have held themselves subject to a control more mysterious than any other of which the world has seen or heard — the control of this One who has gone into the heavens. The members of this brotherhood, for nearly nineteen centuries, have felt themselves bound by ties which they have placed far above all the ties of earth. The obligations of kinship, the call of pleasure, the authority of kings, and all other motives which sway men, have given way, and been made subordinate, to a more powerful control. Ambition, appetite, desire, passion, and all earthly hopes have been submitted to this authority which sways their souls.
Their Unparalleled Devotion
Men who have been strangers and enemies have been linked together by it; in an hour it has made friends of those who had never before known each other; it has knit together, in the closest sympathy, people of far different tastes, manners, customs, habits, and training; and it has led men forth to far distant places, separating them from fellowships and ties in which they have found the keenest delight, influencing them to sacrifice cheerfully their dearest hopes and highest ambitions, and become dwellers in lands strange to them.
Among barbarians, cannibals, and savages.
At the call of an unseen Leader, these men have crossed seas and traversed deserts; the sands of every shore have felt the pressure of their hurrying feet; their homes have been made in distant islands of the sea; they have climbed the highest mountain peaks; they have not hesitated to leave abodes of luxury and ease, to live lives of toil and pain among barbarians, cannibals, and savages; they have braved the cold of the arctic circle as well as the heat of the tropics; they have left plenty, and chosen to endure hardship, and hunger, and thirst, and poverty, and reproach, and toil; and for the purpose of helping the suffering, they have accepted scourging, and chains, and bondage, and death itself. And they have done this not for riches, or honor, or fame.
All their hardships, they have endured without complaint. Their sufferings have been accepted without repining. They have looked calmly into the face of death, without a word of disappointment or a murmur of regret. For nearly nineteen centuries, this has been going on; and it is going on to-day. There are still thousands of men in this great brotherhood who are willing to sacrifice all they have; and when they fall, there are other thousands ready to press forward and take their place and fill the broken ranks.
Honor has not yet come to them, or wealth, or fame, because of their sacrifices; but they have had a heritage of hatred, of obloquy, of conflict, of affliction. In life, they have been hated and hunted; in death, they have been defamed and slandered. Yet through it all they have triumphed.
All for an Unseen Commander
They have spurned human authority in matters of the highest moment, and calmly taken the consequences. They cannot be awed by emperors, they cannot be controlled by kings, they cannot be frightened by warriors. They are bound together in unity. Through the roll of passing centuries, they have not faltered in their allegiance. Yet they have been following a Commander whom they have never seen. They have been obedient to a Leader whose voice they have never heard.
At His word, they have not faltered to brave676the fury of the ocean, the terrors of the storm, the terrors of the desolate north, the burning deserts of the south, the dangers of tropic jungles, the perils of snow-clad heights, the grinding of great glaciers, and the thunder of avalanches. They have cheerfully faced death in a hundred horrid forms, and have not wavered.
No mortal eyes have looked upon their Leader for nineteen hundred years, still His word of command has not lost one particle of its power. Without either wealth or earthly prestige Himself, standing on Mount Olivet nineteen centuries ago, He said to a group of lowly toilers and a few poor fishermen, as He parted from them: "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Matt. 28: 18-20.
Greater than Caesar’s Word
And that word has had power. There is not a man upon earth to-day who heeds one word spoken by Alexander, the conqueror of the world. There is not a man who would move at any command of Caesar, ruler of the world’s mightiest empire. No one cares to-day for Charlemagne or Napoleon. They are in their tombs, and from their places of silence and darkness there issues no voice of authority. They are dead.
But Jesus is alive, and at the right hand of God in the heavens. And through all the centuries since He ascended to His Father, His followers, in their trials, their afflictions, their hardships, their hunger, their persecutions, their martyrdom, and their death, have been cheered and sustained by that word which He spoke before He departed from this world, "Let not your heart be troubled: . . . I will come again, and receive you unto Myself." John 14: 1-3.
Through the ages of the past, God’s people have looked with eager longing for the fulfillment of that glorious promise. They have been able to endure their hardships and wrongs, because they have believed with profound and implicit confidence that Jesus is coming to make all things right. On that event, their hearts have been fixed. All their hopes have been centered in that time when Jesus will come again. The second coming of Christ is the consummation of the hope of the Christian church.
