and we are going to do this service a bit a little unusual in the past we've always met at the church building and so on but for a number of reasons we thought it would be easier on people not because we're lazy in circumstances here, anyway, to handle the service this year online like this. So we'll do that and we want to look at, with the help of J.C. Ryle, Galatians 6, verse 14, But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. This topic and this verse relates directly to the today's Romans study. So you might want to be sure and take a look at that one on Romans 1 verse 16, that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. So let's pray and we'll begin. Father, we ask your blessing this evening on us as we consider this great truth about the cross. And as we remember the Lord Jesus going to that cross to take upon himself the curse that was due to us and to make perfect atonement and propitiation for our sin. Father, we pray that you would enable us, as we hear from your servant J.C. Ryle, that you would help us to not only have our faith strengthened, but our love for Christ strengthened as well, and our appreciation and thankfulness that we have such a great Savior. And we pray this in Christ's name, amen. Well, here we are then. This is The Cross is the title of this sermon. It was actually an article that he wrote, but really it is a sermon. J.C. Ryle, he lived from 1816 to 1900, and most of you are familiar with him. his commentaries on the Gospels. I've got one of his books back here, Knots Untied, Practical Religion, Holiness. Those are great and excellent books then to have. But let's begin then. He starts this way, what do you think and feel about the cross of Christ? You live in a Christian land. Of course, he's talking about England. You probably attend the worship of a Christian church. You have perhaps been baptized in the name of Christ. You profess and call yourself a Christian. All this as well, it is more than can be said of millions in the world. But all this is no answer to my question. What do you think and feel about the cross of Christ? I want to tell you what the greatest Christian that ever lived thought of the cross of Christ. He's written down his opinion. He's given his judgment in words that cannot be mistaken. The man I mean is the Apostle Paul. The place where you will find his opinion is in the letter in which the Holy Ghost inspired him to write to the Galatians. And the words in which his judgment is set down are these, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what did Paul mean by saying this? He meant to declare strongly that he trusted in nothing but Jesus Christ crucified for the pardon of his sins and the salvation of his soul. Let others, if they would look elsewhere for salvation, let others, if they were so disposed, trust in other things for pardon and peace. But for his part, the apostle was determined to rest on nothing, lean on nothing, build his hope on nothing, place confidence in nothing, glory in nothing except the cross of Jesus Christ. Let me talk to you about this subject. Believe me, it is one of the deepest importance. This is no mere question of controversy. This is not one of those points on which men may agree to differ and feel that differences will not shut them out of heaven. A man must be right on this subject or he's lost forever. heaven or hell, happiness or misery, life or death, blessing or cursing in the last day, all hinges on the answer to this question, what do you think about the cross of Christ? First, let me show you what the Apostle Paul did not glory in, that is, what he did not boast about. And then I will explain to you what he did glory in, And then I will show you why all Christians should think and feel about the cross like Paul. So first, what did the Apostle Paul not glory in? There's many things that Paul might have gloried in, and he means by that, of course, boasted about, right? Trusted in. If he had thought, as some do in this day, if ever there was one on earth who had something to boast of in himself, that man was the great apostle of the Gentiles. Now, if he did not dare to glory in anything else, who shall? He never gloried, for example, in his national privileges. He was a Jew by birth, and as he himself tells us, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He might have said, like many of his brethren, I have Abraham for my forefather. I am not a dark, unenlightened heathen. I am one of the favored people of God. I have been admitted into covenant with God by circumcision. I am a far better man than the ignorant Gentiles. But he never said so. He never gloried in anything of this kind. Never for one moment. and he never gloried in his own works. No one ever worked so hard for God as he did. He was more abundant in labors than any of the apostles. No living man ever preached so much, traveled so much, and endured so many hardships for Christ's cause. No one ever converted so many souls, did so much good to the world, and made himself so useful to mankind. No father of the early church, no reformer, no Puritan, no missionary, no minister, no layman. No one man could ever be named who did so many good works as the Apostle Paul. But did he ever glory in them? as if they were in the least part meritorious and could save his soul? Never. Never for one moment. Paul never gloried in his knowledge. He was a man of great gifts naturally, and after he was converted, the Holy Spirit gave him greater gifts still. He was a mighty preacher and a mighty speaker and a mighty writer. He was as great with his pen as he was with his tongue. He could reason equally well with Jews and Greeks. He could argue with infidels at Corinth or Pharisees at Jerusalem or self-righteous people in Galatia. He knew many deep things. He had been in the third heaven and heard unspeakable words. He had received the gift of prophecy and could foretell things yet to come. But did Paul ever glory in his knowledge as if it could somehow justify him before God? Never. Not for one moment. And Paul never gloried in his graces. If ever there was one who abounded in graces, that man was Paul. He was full of love. how tenderly and affectionately he used to write. He could feel for souls like a mother or nurse feeling for a child. He was a bold man. He cared not whom he opposed when truth was at stake. He cared not what risks he ran when souls were to be won. He was a self-denying man in hunger and thirst, often in cold and nakedness, in watchings and fastings, And he was a humble man. He thought himself less than the least of all saints and the chief of sinners. He was a prayerful man. See how it comes out at the beginning of his epistles. He was a thankful man. His thanksgivings and his prayers walked side by side. He never gloried in any of this, never valued himself on it. He never rested his soul's hopes on it. Never for a moment. And Paul never gloried in his churchmanship. If ever there was a good churchman, that man was Paul. He was himself a chosen apostle. He was a founder of churches and an ordainer of ministers. Timothy and Titus, many elders, received their first commission from his hands. He was the beginner of services and sacraments in many dark place. Many a one did he baptize, and in many a one did he receive the Lord's table. Many a meeting for prayer and praise and preaching did he begin and carry on. He was the setter up of discipline in many a young church. Whatever ordinances and rules and ceremonies were observed in them were first recommended by Him. But did He ever glory in His office and church standing? Does He ever speak as if His churchmanship would save Him, justify Him, put away His sins, and make Him acceptable before God? No. Never. Not for a moment. And now, reader, mark what I say. If the Apostle Paul never boasted in any of these things, who in all the world, from one end to the other, who has any right to glory in them in our day? If Paul said, God forbid that I should glory in anything, whatever, except the cross, Who is there among the readers of this paper that trusts in any goodness of his own? Who is there that's resting on his own amendments, repentances, his morality, his performances of any kind, whatever? Who is there that's leaning the weight of his soul on anything whatever of his own, in the smallest degree possible? Learn, I say, that you are very unlike the Apostle Paul. Learn that your religion is not apostolic religion if you rest on these things. Who is there among the readers of this tract that trusts in his churchmanship for salvation? Who is there that is valuing himself on his baptism, or his attendance on the Lord's table, his church going on Sundays, or his daily services during the week, and saying to himself, what do I lack? Learn, I say this day, that you are very unlike Paul, if you trust in these things. Your Christianity is not the Christianity of the New Testament. Paul would not glory in anything but the cross, and neither must you. Reader, beware of self-righteousness. Open sin kills its thousands of souls, but self-righteousness kills its ten thousands. Go and study humility with the great apostle of the Gentiles. Go and sit with Paul at the foot of the cross. Give up your secret pride. Cast away your vain ideas of your own goodness. Be thankful if you have grace, but never glory in it for a moment. Work for God and Christ with heart and soul and mind and strength, but never dream for a second of placing confidence in any work of your own. Think, you who take comfort in some fancied idea of your own goodness. Think, you who wrap up yourselves in the notion, all must be right if I keep to my church. Think for a moment what a sandy foundation you're building upon. Think for a moment how miserably defective your hopes and pleas will look in the hour of death and in the day of judgment. Whatever men may say of their own goodness while they are strong and healthy, they will find but little to say of it when they are sick and dying. Whatever merit they may see in their own works here in this world, they discover none in them when they stand before the bar of Christ. The light of that great day of Asai, that means judgment, will make a wonderful difference in the appearance of all their doings. It will strip off the tinsel, shrivel up the complexion, expose the rottenness of many a deed that is now called good. Their wheat will prove nothing but chaff. Their gold will be found nothing but dross. Millions of so-called Christian actions will turn out to have been utterly defective and graceless. They passed current and were valued among men, but they will prove light and worthless in God's balances. They will be found to have been like the whitened sepulchres of old, fair and beautiful outside but full of corruption within. for the man who can look forward to the day of judgment and lean his soul in the smallest degree on anything of his own. Reader, once more I say, beware of self-righteousness in every possible shape and form. Some people get as much harm from their fancied virtues as others do from their sins. So take heed, lest you be one of them. Do not rest until your heart beats in tune with Paul's. Do not rest until you can say with him, God forbid that I should glory in anything but the cross. And now secondly, let me explain what you are to understand by the cross of Christ. The cross is an expression that's used in more than one meaning in the Bible. What did Paul mean then when he said, I glory in the cross of Christ here in the epistle to the Galatians? So this is the point I now wish to make clear. Sometimes the cross means the wooden cross on which the Lord Jesus was nailed and put to death on Mount Calvary. This is what Paul had in his mind's eye when he told the Philippians that Christ became obedient unto death, even death of the cross. This is not the cross in which Paul gloried. He would have shrunk with horror from the idea of glorying in a mere piece of wood. I have no doubt that he would have denounced the Roman Catholic adoration of the crucifix as profane, blasphemous, and idolatrous. The cross sometimes means, in the Bible, the afflictions and trials which believers in Christ have to go through if they follow Christ faithfully for their religion's sake. This is the sense in which our Lord Jesus uses the word when he says, He that take not his cross and follows after me cannot be my disciple. This also is not the sense in which Paul uses the word when he writes to the Galatians. He knew that cross well, he carried it patiently, but that's not what he's speaking of here. But the cross also means, in some places, the doctrine that Christ died for sinners upon the cross, the atonement. that he made for sinners, by his suffering for them on the cross, the complete and perfect sacrifice for sin which he offered up, when he gave his own body to be crucified. In short, this one word, the cross, stands for Christ crucified. the only Savior. And this is the meaning in which Paul uses the expression when he tells the Corinthians, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. This is the meaning in which he wrote to the Galatians, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross. He simply meant, I glory in nothing but Christ crucified as the salvation of my soul. Jesus Christ crucified was the joy and delight, the comfort and the peace, the hope and the confidence, the foundation and the resting place, the ark and the refuge, the food and the medicine of Paul's soul. He did not think of what he had done himself and suffered himself. He didn't meditate on his own goodness and his own righteousness. He loved to think of what Christ had done. what Christ had suffered, of the death of Christ, the righteousness of Christ, the atonement of Christ, the blood of Christ, the finished work of Christ. In this he did glory. This was the Son of his soul. This is the subject he loved to preach about. He was a man who went to and fro on the earth proclaiming to sinners that the Son of God had shed his own heart's blood to save their souls. He walked up and down the world to tell people that Jesus Christ loved them and died for their sins upon the cross. Notice how he says to the Corinthians, I delivered to you first of all which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins. I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He, a blaspheming, persecuting Pharisee, had been washed in Christ's blood. He could not hold his peace about it. He was never weary of telling the story of the cross. This is the subject he loved to dwell upon when he wrote to believers. It is wonderful to observe how full his letters generally are of the sufferings and death of Christ, how they run over with thoughts that breathe and words that burn about Christ's dying love and power. His heart seems full of the subject. He enlarges on it constantly. He returns to it continually. It's the golden thread that runs through all his doctrinal teaching and practical exhortations. He seems to think that the most advanced Christian can never hear too much about the cross. This is what he lived all his life from the time of his conversion. He tells the Galatians, the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. What made him so strong to labor? What made him so willing to work? What made him so unwearied in endeavoring to save some? What made him so persevering and patient? I'll tell you the secret of it all. He was always feeding by faith on Christ's body and Christ's blood. Jesus crucified was the meat and drink of his soul. And reader, you may rest assured that Paul was right. Depend upon it. The cross of Christ, the death of Christ on the cross to make atonement for sinners is the center truth in the entire Bible. This is the truth we begin with when we open Genesis. The seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head is nothing else but a prophecy of Christ crucified. This is the truth that shines out, though veiled, all through the law of Moses and the history of the Jews, the daily sacrifice, the Passover lamb, the continual shedding of blood in the tabernacle and temple. All these were emblems of Christ crucified. This is the truth that we see honored in the vision of heaven before we close the book of Revelation. in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, we're told, and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as if it had been slain. Even in the midst of heavenly glory, we get a view of Christ crucified. Take away the cross of Christ and the Bible's a dark book. It's like the Egyptian hieroglyphics, without the key that interprets their meaning. Curious and wonderful, but of no real use. Mark what I say, you may know a good deal about the Bible. You may know the outlines of the histories it contains and the dates of the events described, just as a man knows the history of England. You may know the names of the men and women mentioned in it, just as a man knows Caesar, Alexander the Great, or Napoleon. You may know the several precepts of the Bible and admire them, just as a man admires Plato, Aristotle, or Seneca. If you have not yet found out that Christ crucified is the foundation of the whole volume, you have read your Bible to this point to very little profit. Your religion is a heaven without a sun, an arch without a keystone, a compass without a needle, a clock without spring or weights, a lamp without oil. It won't comfort you. It won't deliver your soul from hell. Mark what I say again, you may know a good deal about Christ by a kind of head knowledge. You may know who he was, where he was born, what he did. You may know his miracles, his sayings, his prophecies, and his ordinances. You may know how he lived, how he suffered, how he died. But unless you know the power of Christ's cross by experience, Unless you know and feel within that the blood shed on that cross has washed away your own particular sins, unless you are willing to confess that your salvation depends entirely on the work that Christ did upon the cross, lest this be the case, Christ will profit you nothing. The mere knowing of Christ's name will never save you. You must know His cross and His blood or else you will die in your sins. As long as you live, beware of a religion in which there is not much of the cross. You live in times when the warning is sadly needful. Beware, I say again, of a religion without the cross. There are hundreds of places of worship in this day in which there is everything, almost, except the cross. There's carved, oaken, sculptured, stone, stained glass, brilliant painting. There are solemn services and a constant round of ordinances. But the real cross of Christ is not there. Jesus crucified is not proclaimed in the pulpit. The Lamb of God is not lifted up, and salvation by faith in Him is not freely proclaimed. And hence, everything is wrong. Reader, beware of such places of worship. They are not apostolical. They would never have satisfied the Apostle Paul. There are thousands of religious books published in our times in which there's everything. except the cross. They're full of directions about sacraments and praises of the church. They abound in exhortations about holy living and rules for the attainment of perfection. They have plenty of fonts and crosses both inside and outside. But the real cross of Christ is left out. The Savior and His dying love are either not mentioned or mentioned in an unscriptural way, and therefore they are worse than useless. Beware of such books. They are not apostolic. They would never have satisfied the Apostle Paul. St. Paul gloried in nothing but the cross, so strive to be like him. Set Jesus crucified fully before the eyes of your soul. Don't listen to any teaching which would interpose anything between you and Christ. Don't fall into the old Galatian error. Don't think that anyone in this day is a better guide than the apostles. Don't be ashamed of the old paths in which men walked who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. Don't let the vague talk of men who speak great swelling words about Catholicity and the church and the ministry disturb your peace and make you loose your hands from the cross. Churches, ministers, sacraments are all useful in their way, but they're not Christ crucified. Don't give Christ's honor to another. He that glories, let him glory in the Lord. Third then, let me show you why all Christians ought to glory in the cross of Christ. I feel that I must say something on this point because of the ignorance that prevails about it. I suspect that many people see no peculiar glory and beauty in the subject of Christ's cross. On the contrary, they think it painful, humbling, and degrading. They don't see much profit in the story of his death and sufferings. They rather turn from it as an unpleasant thing. Now, I believe that such persons are quite wrong. I cannot hold with them. I believe it's an excellent thing for us all to be continually dwelling on the cross of Christ. It's a good thing to be often reminded how Jesus was betrayed into the hands of wicked men, how they condemned him with most unjust judgment, how they spit on him and scourged him, beat him and crowned him with thorns, how they led him forth as a lamb to the slaughter without his murmuring or resisting. How they drove the nails through his hands and feet and set him up on the cross between two thieves. How they pierced his side with a spear, mocked him in his suffering, and let him hang there naked and bleeding until he died. Of all these things, I say, it is good to be reminded. It's not for nothing that the crucifixion is described four times over in the New Testament. There are very few things that all the four writers of the gospel describe. Generally speaking, if Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell a thing in our Lord's history, John does not tell it. But there's one thing that all four give us most fully, and that one thing is the story of the cross. This is a telling fact, and it's not to be overlooked. People seem to me to forget that all Christ's sufferings on the cross were foreordained. They didn't come on him by chance or accident. They were all planned, counseled, and determined from all eternity. The cross was foreseen in all the provisions of the everlasting Trinity for the salvation of sinners. In the purposes of God, the cross was set up from everlasting. Not one throb of pain did Jesus feel. Not one precious drop of blood did Jesus shed, which had not been appointed long ago. Infinite wisdom planned that redemption should be by the cross. Infinite wisdom brought Jesus to the cross in due time. He was crucified by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. People seem to me to forget that all Christ's sufferings on the cross were only necessary for man's salvation. He had to bear our sins if ever they were to be born at all. With his stripes alone could we be healed. This was one payment of our debt that God would accept. This was the great sacrifice on which our eternal life depended. If Christ had not gone to the cross and suffered in our place, the just for the unjust, there would not have been a spark of hope for us. There would have been a mighty gulf between ourselves and God which no man could ever cross over. People seem to me to forget that all of Christ's sufferings were endured voluntarily. and of his own free will. He was under no compulsion. Of his own choice he laid down his life. Of his own choice he went to the cross to finish the work that he came to do. He might easily have summoned legions of angels with a word and scattered Pilate and Herod and all their armies like chaff before the wind. but he was a willing sufferer. His heart was set on the salvation of sinners. He was resolved to open a fountain for all sin and uncleanness by shedding his own blood. When I think of all this, I see nothing painful or disagreeable in the subject of Christ's cross. On the contrary, I see in it wisdom and power, peace and hope, joy and gladness, comfort and consolation. The more I keep the cross in my mind's eye, the more fullness I seem to discern in it. The longer I dwell on the cross in my thoughts, the more I am satisfied that there is more to be learned at the foot of the cross than anywhere else in the world. Would I know the length and breadth of God the Father's love toward a sinful world? Where shall I see it most displayed? Shall I look at His glorious Son shining down daily on the unthankful and evil? Or should I look at seed time and harvest returning in regular yearly succession? No, I can find a stronger proof of love than anything of those. I look at the cross of Christ. I see in it not the cause of the Father's love, but the effect. It's there that I see that God so loved this wicked world that He gave His only begotten Son, gave Him to suffer and die, and that whoever believes in Him should not perish. but have eternal life. I know that the Father loves us because He did not withhold from us His Son, His only Son. I might sometimes fancy that God the Father is too high and holy to care for such miserable, corrupt creatures as we are, but I cannot, I must not, and dare not think it when I look at the cross of Christ. Would I know how exceedingly sinful and abominable sin is in the sight of God? Where shall I see that most fully brought out? Shall I turn to the history of the flood and read how sin drowned the world? Or shall I go, perhaps, to the shore of the Dead Sea and mark what sin brought on Sodom and Gomorrah? Shall I turn to the wandering Jews and observe how sin has scattered them over the face of the earth? No, I can find a clearer proof still. I look to the cross of Christ. There I see that sin is so black and damnable that nothing but the blood of God's own Son can wash it away. There I see that sin has so separated me from my Holy Maker that all the angels in heaven could never have made peace between us. Nothing could reconcile us short of the death of Christ. If I listened to the wretched talk of proud men, I might sometimes fancy sin was not so very sinful. But I can't think little of sin when I look at the cross of Christ. Would I know the fullness and completeness of the salvation that God has provided for sinners, where shall I see it most distinctly? Perhaps go to the general declarations in the Bible about God's mercy, or rest in the general truth that God is a God of love. But no, I will look at the cross of Christ I find no evidence like that. I find no balm for a sore conscience and a troubled heart like the sight of Jesus dying for me on that accursed tree. It is there that I see a full payment has been made for all of my enormous debts. The curse of that law which I have broken has come down on one who there suffered in my place. The demands of that law are all satisfied. Payment has been made for me, even in the uttermost farthing. It will not be required twice over. I might sometimes imagine I was too bad to be forgiven. My own heart sometimes whispers that I'm too wicked to be saved. But I know in my better moments, this is all my foolish unbelief, I read and answer to my doubts in the blood shed on Calvary. I feel sure that there is a way to heaven for the very vilest of men when I look at the cross. Would I find strong reasons for being a holy man? Where shall I turn for those reasons? Shall I listen to the Ten Commandments alone? Shall I study the examples given me in the Bible of what grace can do? Or shall I meditate on the rewards of heaven and the punishments of hell? Is there no stronger motive still? Yes, I will look at the cross of Christ, because there I see the love of Christ constraining me to live not to myself, but for Him. There I see that I am not my own anymore. I'm bought with a price. I am bound by the most solemn obligations to glorify Jesus with body and spirit, which are His. There I see that Jesus gave Himself for me, not only to redeem me from all iniquity, but also to purify me and make me one of a special people, zealous for good works. He bore my sins in His own body on the tree. that I, being dead to sin, should live to righteousness. There is nothing so sanctifying as a clear view of the cross of Christ. It crucifies the world to us and us to the world. How can we love sin when we remember that because of our sins Jesus died? Surely no one ought to be so holy as the disciples of a crucified Lord. Would I learn how to be contented and cheerful under all the cares and anxieties of life? What school shall I go to? How shall I attain this state of mind most easily? Shall I look at the sovereignty of God, the wisdom of God, the providence of God, the love of God? It's good to do so, but I have a better argument still. I will look at the cross. I feel that he who spared not his only son but delivered him up to die for me will surely with him give me all things that I really need. He that endured that pain for my soul will surely not withhold from me anything that's really good. He that's done the greater things for me will doubtless do the lesser things also. He that gave his own blood to procure me a home will unquestionably supply me with all that is readily profitable for me by the way. There is no school for learning contentment that can be compared with the foot of the cross. Would I gather arguments for hoping that I shall never be cast away? Where shall I go to find them? Shall I look at my own graces and gifts? Shall I take comfort in my own faith and love and penitence and zeal and prayer? Shall I turn to my own heart and say, this same heart will never be false and cold? No. God forbid. I will look at the cross of Christ. This is my grand argument. This is my mainstay. I cannot think. that he who went through such sufferings to redeem my soul will let that soul perish after all when it has once cast itself on him. Oh no, what Jesus paid for, Jesus will surely keep. He paid dearly for it. He will not let it be easily lost. He died for me when I was still a dark sinner. He will never forsake me after I have believed. When Satan tempts you to doubt whether Christ's people will be kept from falling, you should tell Satan to look at the cross. And now, will you marvel that I said all Christians ought to glory in the cross? Will you not rather wonder that anyone can hear of the cross and remain unmoved? I declare I know no greater proof of man's depravity than the fact that thousands of so-called Christians see nothing in the cross. Well, may our hearts be called stony. Well, may the eyes of our mind be called blind. Well, may our whole nature be called diseased. Well, may we all be called dead when the cross of Christ is heard of and yet it's neglected. Surely we may take up the words of the prophet and say, ìHear, O heavens, and be astonished, O earth, a wonderful and horrible thing is done. Christ was crucified for sinners, and yet many Christians live as if he was never crucified at all.î The cross is the grand peculiarity of the Christian religion. Other religions have laws, moral precepts, forms and ceremonies, rewards and punishments. But other religions cannot tell us of a dying Savior. They cannot show us the cross. This is the crown and glory of the Gospel. This is that special comfort which belongs to it alone. Miserable indeed is that religious teaching which calls itself Christian and yet contains nothing of the cross. A man who teaches in this way might as well profess to explain the solar system and yet tell his hearers nothing about the sun. The cross is the strength of a minister. I for one would not be without it for all the world. I should feel like a soldier without arms, like an artist without his pencil, like a pilot without his compass. like a laborer without his tools. Let others, if they will, preach the law and morality. Let others hold forth the terrors of hell and the joys of heaven. Let others drench their congregations with teachings about the sacraments and the Church. But give me the cross of Christ. This is the only lever which has ever turned the world upside down, made men forsake their sins. And if this will not, nothing will. A man may begin preaching with a perfect knowledge of Latin and Greek and Hebrew, but he will do little or no good among his hearers unless he knows something of the cross. Never was there a minister who did much for the conversion of souls. who did not dwell much on Christ crucified. Luther, Samuel Rutherford, George Whitefield, and McShane were all most eminently preachers of the cross. This is the preaching that the Holy Ghost delights to bless. He loves to honor those who honor the cross. The cross is the secret of missionary success. Nothing but this has ever moved the hearts of the heathen. Just according as this has been lifted up, missions have prospered. This is the weapon that has won victories over hearts of every kind in every quarter of the globe. Greenlanders, Africans, South Sea Islanders, Hindus, Chinese, all alike felt its power. Just as that huge iron tube which crosses the Minai Straits is more affected and bent by half an hour's sunshine than by all the dead weight that can be placed on it, so in like manner the hearts of savages have melted before the cross, when every other argument seemed to move them no more than stones. Brethren said a North American Indian after his conversion, I have been a heathen. I know how heathens think. Once a preacher came and began to explain to us that there was a God, but we told him to return to the place from where he came. Another preacher came and told us not to lie or steal or drink, but we didn't mind him. At last another came into my hut one day and said, I am come to you in the name of the Lord and of heaven and earth. He sends to let you know that he will make you happy and deliver you from misery. For this purpose he became a man, gave his life as a ransom, and shed his blood for sinners. I couldn't forget his words. I told them to my other people an awakening began among us. I say, therefore, preach the sufferings and death of Christ our Savior. If you wish your words to gain entrance among the heathen, never indeed did the devil triumph so thoroughly as when he persuaded the Jesuit missionaries in China to keep back the story of the cross. The cross is the foundation of a church's prosperity. No church will ever be honored in which Christ crucified is not continually lifted up. Nothing whatever can make up for the lack of the cross. Without it, all things may be done decently and in order. Without it there may be splendid ceremonies, beautiful music, gorgeous churches, learned ministers, crowded communion tables, huge collections for the poor But without the cross, no good will be done. Darkened hearts will not be enlightened. Proud hearts will not be humbled. Mourning hearts will not be comforted. Fainting hearts will not be cheered. Sermons about the Catholic Church and then apostolic ministry. Sermons about baptism and the Lord's Supper. Sermons about unity and schism. About fasts and communion. About fathers and saints. Such sermons will never make up for the absence of sermons about the cross of Christ. They may amuse some, but they will feed none. A gorgeous banqueting room and splendid gold plate on the table will never make up to a hungry man for the lack of food. Christ crucified is God's grand ordinance for good to men. Whenever a church keeps back Christ crucified, or puts anything whatever in that foremost place which Christ crucified should always have, from that moment a church ceases to be useful. Without Christ crucified in her pulpits, A church is little better than a cumberer of the ground, a dead carcass, a well without water, a barren fig tree, a sleeping watchman, a silent trumpet, a silent witness, an ambassador without terms of peace, a messenger with no message, a lighthouse without a fire, a stumbling block to weak believers, comfort to infidels, a hotbed for formalism, a joy to the devil, and an offense to God. The cross is the grand center of union among true Christians. Our outward differences are many, and that without a doubt. One man is an Episcopalian. Another is a Presbyterian. One is an independent churchman. And another a Baptist. One a Calvinist. Another an Arminian. One's a Lutheran. Another a Plymouth Brethren. One's a friend to establishments. Another a friend to the voluntary system. One prefers liturgies. And another to extemporary prayer. But after all, What shall we hear about most of these differences in heaven? Nothing, most probably nothing at all. Does a man really and sincerely glory in the cross of Christ? That is the grand question. If he does, he's my brother. We're traveling on the same road. We are journeying toward a home where Christ is all and everything outward in religion will be forgotten. But if he doesn't glory in the cross of Christ, I cannot feel any comfort about him. Union on outward points is only union for a time. Union about the cross is union for eternity. Error on outward points is only skin deep disease, but error about the cross is disease at the heart. Union about outward points is mere man-made union, but union about the cross of Christ can only be produced by the Holy Spirit. I know not what you think of all this. I feel as if I had said nothing compared to what might be said. I feel as if the half of what I deserve to tell you about the cross has been left untold, but I do hope that I have given you something to think about. I do trust that I have shown you that I have reason for the question with which I began this paper. What do you think and feel about the cross of Christ? Listen to me now for a few moments while I say something to apply the whole subject to your conscience. Are you living in any kind of sin? Are you following the course of this world and neglecting your soul? Listen, I beg you, what I say to you this day. Behold the cross of Christ. See there how Jesus loved you. See there what Jesus suffered to prepare for you a way of salvation. Yes, careless men and women, for you that blood was shed. For you those hands and feet were pierced with nails. For you that body hung in agony on the cross. You are those whom Jesus loved and for whom he died. Surely that love ought to melt you. Surely the thought of the cross should draw you to repentance. Oh, that it might do so this very day. Oh, that you would come at once to that Savior who died for you and is willing to save. Come, cry to Him with a prayer of faith. I know He will listen. Come and lay hold upon the cross. And I know He will not cast you out. Come and believe on Him who died on the cross. In this very day, you shall have eternal life. How will you ever escape if you neglect so great a salvation? No one surely will be so deep in hell as those who despise the cross. And are you inquiring for the way toward heaven? Are you seeking salvation but doubtful where you might find it? Are you desiring to have a share in Christ but doubting whether Christ will receive you? To you also I say this day, Behold the cross of Christ. Here's encouragement if you really want it. Draw near to the Lord Jesus with boldness, for nothing need keep you back. His arms are open to receive you. His heart's full of love towards you. He's made a way by which you may approach Him with confidence. Think of the cross. Draw near and fear not. Are you an unlearned man? Are you desirous to get to heaven and perplexed and brought to a standstill by difficulties in the Bible that you can't explain? To you also I say this day, behold the cross of Christ. Read there the Father's love and the Son's compassion. Surely they're written in great plain letters that no one can easily mistake. What though you are now perplexed by the doctrine of election? What if at present you can't reconcile your own utter corruption and your own responsibility? Look, I say, at the cross. Does not that cross tell you that Jesus is a mighty, loving, and ready Savior? Doesn't it make one thing plain? And that is that if not saved, it's all your own fault. Get hold of that truth and hold it fast. And are you a distressed believer? Is your heart pressed down with sickness, tried with disappointments, or overburdened with cares? To you also I say this day, behold the cross of Christ. Think whose hand it is that chastens you. Think whose hand is measuring to you the cup of bitterness which you're now drinking. It's the hand of him that was crucified. It is the same hand that in love to your soul was nailed to the accursed tree. Surely that ought to comfort and hearten you. Surely you should say to yourself, a crucified Savior will never lay upon me anything that's not good for me. There is a needs be. It must be well. And are you a believer that longs to be more holy? Are you one that finds his heart too ready to love earthly things? To you also I say, behold the cross of Christ. Look at the cross, think of the cross, meditate on the cross, and then go and set your affections on the world, if you can. I believe that holiness is nowhere learned so well as on Calvary. I believe you cannot look much at the cross without feeling your will sanctified and your tastes made more spiritual. As the sun gazed upon makes everything else look dark and dim, so does the cross darken the false splendor of this world. As honey tasted makes all other things seem to have no taste at all, so does the cross, seen by faith, take all the sweetness out of the pleasures of the world. Keep on every day steadily looking at the cross of Christ, and you will soon say of the world, as the poet does, its pleasures now no longer please. no more content afford. Far from my heart be joys like these, now I've seen the Lord. As by the light of opening day the stars are concealed, so earthly pleasures fade away when Jesus is revealed. And finally, are you a dying believer? Have you gone to that bed from which something within tells you you will never come out alive? Are you drawing near to that solemn hour when soul and body must part for a season and you must launch into a world unknown? Look steadily at the cross of Christ and you shall be kept in peace. Fix the eyes of your mind firmly on Jesus crucified. and He shall deliver you from all your fears. Though you walk through dark places, He will be with you. He will never leave you, never forsake you. Sit under the shadow of the cross to the very last. and its fruit shall be sweet to your taste. Ah, said the dying missionary, there is but one thing needful on a deathbed, and that is to feel one's arms around the cross. I lay these thoughts before your mind, what you think now about the cross of Christ I cannot tell, but I can wish you nothing better than this, that you may be able to say with the Apostle Paul before you die or meet the Lord, God forbid, that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you for these great insights and applications from the truth that there is only one thing to glory in, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ and his death on the cross for us, this great salvation that you've given to us. We remember this cross, Father, particularly, On this day, when we remember the Lord Jesus went to that cross for our sins, we pray, Father, that this truth, the word of the cross, would always be before us. And we pray this all in Christ's name. Amen.