pictures from Pilgrim's Progress by C.H. Bergen, Christian, at the sight of the cross. Now I saw in my dream that the highway up which Christian was to go was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. Up this way, therefore, did Bert and Christian run, but not without great difficulty because of the load on his back. He ran thus till he came to a place somewhat ascending. Upon that place stood a cross, and a little below in the bottom, a sepulcher. A voice said, Away, away to Calvary. Yet he trembled at the voice, for he said within himself, Why should I go there? For there my blackest sin was committed. There I murdered a Savior by my transgressions. But mercy beckoned and said, Come, come away, poor sinner. And a sinner followed. Chains were on his legs and hands, but he crept as best as he could till he came to the foot of the hill called Calvary. on the summit of which you saw a cross. O sinner, at what did you withstand at the foot of the cross? And think of Jesus till you could find comfort. I believe the shortest way to faith is to consider well the object of faith. The true way to get comfort is not to try to comfort yourself away from the cross, but think of Christ dying for you till you are comforted. Say to your soul, I will never remove from the cross until I am washed in this precious blood. Blessed Savior, at your feet I lie. Here too receive a cure, or die. The grace forbids that painful fear. Almighty grace, which triumphs here. Healing came to the sin-bitten by looking at the serpent, not by looking at their own wounds, nor yet by hearing about the cure of others. And even so, healing will come to you not by looking at sin, nor hearing about Christ, so much as by fixing your mind's eye upon the cross, and meditating upon Him who died thereon till as by considering His merits you believe on Him, and so are saved. So I saw in my dream that Justice Christian came up with the cross, his burden loose from off his shoulders, and fell from off of his back. and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulcher where it fell in, and I saw it no more. The pilgrim was never eased of his burden till it came to the foot of the cross, and there he lost it forever. Bunyan did not intend by this a popish symbol which is now so commonly had in reverence. He had no respect for such baubles and idolatries. He meant that the burdened soul finds no peace until it trusts in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. Sin must be punished. Conscience knows this and makes the sinner tremble. Jesus was punished in the stead of those who trust him. The believer knows this and feels that he is justly secure from further penalty. His conscience rests and his heart is glad. If Jesus bore the penalty of the law for me, then God is just, and yet I am safe. Two punishments for one offense cannot be demanded by justice. A suffering Jesus prevents the possibility of those being condemned for whom he died as a substitute. In the wounds of Jesus, there is rest for the weary consciences but nowhere else. They who trust in the merit of his atonement are saved from wrath through him. When Dr. Neil, the imminent ritualist, romanized pilgrims' progress, He represented the pilgrim as coming to a certain bath, into which he was plunged, and there his burden was washed away. According to this doctored edition of the allegory, Christian was washed in the laver of baptism, and all of his sins were thus removed. That is the high church mode of getting rid of sin. The true way to lose it, is it to cross. Now Mark, what happened? According to Dr. Neal's pilgrim's progress, that burden grew again on the pilgrim's back. I do not wonder at that. For a burden, which baptism can remove is sure to come again. But the burden which is lost at the cross never appears again forever. And was Christian glad and lifesome and said with a merry heart, He has given me rest by his sorrow and life by his death. Then he stood a while to look and wonder, for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked, therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks. Let awakened sinners beware of receiving comfort from those who depreciate repentance. It is after all no little thing to tell us that it is only a change of mind. But what a change of mind! The words sound little enough, but repentance itself is no trifle. They tell us that repentance does not necessarily imply sorrow for sin. But we solemnly warn them, and all others whom it may concern, that if their repentance has in it no grief or heaven offended, it is not repentance after a godly sort. and will need to be repented of. A dry-eyed repentance is no repentance. Dei, return to the Lord aright, mourn for sin, and are in bitterness as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. It is from the cross that both repentance and faith arise. We do not bring these graces to the cross. but find them at the cross, dear love-tokens from Jesus, when He arises in us as the Son of Righteousness, dear as His early beams. Oh, that all poor sinners would come and sit in the sunshine, when I think of my transgressions better known to myself than to anyone else. and remember too that they are not known even to me as they are to God. I feel a hope swept away in my soul left and under despair until I come anew to the cross and bethink me of who it was that died there and what designs of infinite mercy are answered by his death. It is so sweet to look up at the crucified one again and say, I have naught but you, my Lord, no confidence but you, If you be not accepted as my substitute, I must perish. If God's appointed Savior be not enough, I have no other. But I know you are the Father's well-beloved, and I am accepted in you. You are all I have or want. Beloved, I think that you know in your own experience that it was Christ's death that really operated most upon you in the manner of your conversion. I hear much talk about the example of Christ having great effect upon godly men, but I do not believe it, and certainly have never seen it. It has great effect upon men when they are born again, and are saved from the wrath to come, and are full of gratitude on this account. But, before that happens, we have known men to admire the conduct of Christ, and even write books about the beauty of His character, while, at the same time, they have denied his Godhead. Thus they have rejected him and his essential character, and there has been no effect produced upon their conduct by their cold admiration of his life. But when a man comes to see that he is pardoned and saved through the death of Jesus, he is moved to gratitude and then to love. We love him because he first loved us. That love which he displayed in his death has touched the mainspring of our being and moved us with a passion to which we were strangers before. And because of this, we hate the sins that once were sweet, and turn with all of our hearts to the obedience that once was so unpleasant. There is more effect and faith in the blood of Christ to change a human character than in every other consideration. The cross once seen, sin is crucified. The passion of the master once apprehended, is being endured for us. We then feel that we are not our own, but are bought with a price. This perception of redeeming love in the death of our Lord Jesus makes all the difference. This prepares us for a higher and a better life than we have ever known before. It is his death that does it. Now as he stood looking and weeping, behold, three shining ones came to him and saluted him with, Peace be to you. So the first said to him, Your sins are forgiven. The second stripped him of his rags and clothed him with a change of raiment. The third also set a mark upon his forehead and gave him a roll with a sill on it. She bid him look on as he ran. and that he should give it in at the celestial gate. So they went their way. Then Christian gave three leaves for joy and went on singing. Imagine the experience of some dear friend who has just believed in Jesus, in whom the Spirit of God bears witness that he is forgiven. What sort of man will he be? I will try to picture him to you. Already I see his eyes glistening with a light I never saw there before. The man looks positively handsome. You would hardly recognize him if he knew him before this great change happened to him. He had a burden on his mind that made him always look cakeworn. Dad is gone, and now he looks supremely blessed. But I also see tears in his eyes. How did they come there? He was not much given to weeping in his old days. He is grieving to think that he should ever have offended so kind a God. For nothing makes us so sorry for sin as the sense of being completely forgiven. He knows he is pardoned. He is sure of it. He knows that God loves him and now he loathes himself that he should ever have sunk so low. Yet if he will take one of his tears and put it under a microscope, or analyze its component parts. You will find that there is no bitterness in it. Joy is mingled with the sorrow as he stands at the foot of the cross and bathes his Lord's feet with his penitential yet rainbow of tears. Now, see him go home. He has some Christian friends there, I hope. And if so, he will not be long with them before they begin to notice a change in him. and he is not long before he wants to tell them the blessed secret. Mother wants to know what has happened to her boy, and his arms are thrown around her neck, and he says, Mother, I have found the Lord. She is very delighted, and perhaps very surprised, for it was not his usual way to talk about religion. He used sometimes to sneer and cheer at it. Will he go to bed without prayer? No, he needs nobody to tell him to pray. He has been praying all the way home. And while he has been sitting there, these are the first real prayers he has ever presented. But it has now become as natural for him to pray as it is for a living man to breathe. The time when Christians begin to sing in the ways of the Lord is when they first lose their burden at the foot of the cross. Not even the songs of the angels seem so sweet as the first song of rapture which gushes from the inmost soul of the forgiven child of God. Well might, poor pilgrim, having lost his load, give three great leaps for joy and go on singing. Bless cross, bless sepulchre, bless rather be the man that there was put to shame for me. Believer, do you recollect a day when your fetters fell off? Do you remember the place where Jesus met you and said, I have loved you with an everlasting love? I blotted out as a cloud your transgressions, and as a thick cloud your sins. I shall not be mentioned against you anymore forever. Oh, what a sweet season is that when Jesus takes away the pain of sin. When the Lord first pardoned my sin, I was so joyous that I could scarce refrain from dancing. I thought on my road home from the house where I'd been set at liberty, that I must tell the stones in the street the story of my deliverance. So full was my soul of joy that I wanted to tell every snowflake that was falling from the heaven of the wondrous love of Jesus, who had blotted out the sins of one of the chief of rebels. That happy day, When I found the Savior and learned to cling to his dear feet, was a day never to be forgotten by me. I can testify that the joy of that day was utterly indescribable. There was no expression however fanatical, which would have been out of keeping with the joy of my spirit at that hour. Many days of Christian experience have passed since then. But there has never been one which has had the full exhilaration, the sparkling delight which a first day had. I thought I could have sprung from the seat on which I sat, and have called out with the wildness of those Methodist brethren who were present. I am forgiven. I am forgiven. a monument of grace, a center saved by blood. My spirit saw its chains broken to pieces. I felt that I was an emancipated soul, an heir of heaven, a forgiven one, accepted in Jesus, plucked out of the miry clay and out of the horrible pit, with my feet set upon a rock and my goings established. I could understand what John Bunyan meant when he declared that he wanted to tell the crows on the plowed land all about his conversion. I have heard a Christian say that when he found the Savior, he was so happy that he did not know how to contain himself. And he sang like a whole band of music. Happy, happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away. It is a privilege of true believers to be singing all the time. Joy in God is suitable to our condition. Joy in the Lord is more injurious to Satan's empire than anything. I am of the same mind as Luther, who, when he heard any bad news, used to say, Come, let us sing a psalm, and spite the devil. They shall sing in the ways of the Lord. When the ways get very rough and become the paths of suffering and the pains are frequent and intense, still sing. No music that goes up to the throne of God is sweeter in Jehovah's ear than the song of suffering saints. They shall bless him upon their beds and send his high praises in the fire. to go right through the valley of the shadow of death, and sing all the way, to climb the hill of difficulty, and to sing up its crags, to pass by giant grim, and even by the castle of giant despair, and through the enchanted ground, and still keep singing, and to come to the river's brink, and descend into it still singing. This is lovely in a Christian. May the statues of the Lord be our songs in the house of our pilgrimage, till we mount, to sing above. We owe all to Jesus crucified. What is your life, my brethren, but to cross, whence comes the bread of your soul? But from the cross, what is your joy? But the cross, what is your delight? What is your heaven? But the Blessed One, once crucified for you, whoever lives to make intercession for you. Cling to the cross then, put both arms around it. Hold to the crucified and never let them go. Come afresh to the cross at this moment and rest there now and forever. Then, with the power of God resting upon you, go forth and preach the cross. Tell out the story of the bleeding lamb. Repeat the wonder's tale and nothing else. Never mind how you do it. Only proclaim that Jesus died for sinners. The cross held up by a babe's hands is just as powerful as if a giant held it up. The power lies in the word of God itself, or rather in the Holy Spirit who works by it and with it. O glorious Christ, when I have had a vision of your cross, I have seen it at first like a common gibbet. and you are hanging on it like a felon. But, as I have looked, I have seen it begin to rise and tower aloft till it has reached the highest heaven, and by its mighty power has lifted up myriads to the throne of God. I have seen its arms extend and expand until they have braced all the earth. I have seen the foot of it go down deep, as our helpless miseries are, and what a vision I have had of your magnificence. O thou crucified one, brethren, believe in the power of the cross for the conversion of those around you. Do not say of any man that he cannot be saved. The blood of Jesus is omnipotent. Do not say of any district that it is too sunken, or any class of man that they are too far gone. The word of the cross reclaims the lost. Believe it to be the power of God, and you shall find it to be so. Believe in Christ crucified, and preach boldly in his name, and you shall see great and gladsome things. Do not doubt the ultimate triumph of Christianity. Do not let a mistrust flit across your soul. The cross must conquer. It must blossom with a crown. A crown commensurate with the person of the crucified. In the bitterness of his agony, his reward shall parallel his sorrows. Trust in God and you'll lift the banner high. And now with psalms and songs advance to battle, for the Lord of Hosts is with us. The Son of the Highest leads our van. Onward with a blast of the silver trumpet and shout of those that seize the spoil. Let no man's heart fail him. Christ has died. Atonement is complete. God is satisfied. Peace is proclaimed. Heaven glitters with proofs of mercy already bestowed upon 10,000 times 10,000. Hell is trembling, Heaven adoring, Earth waiting. Advance, you saints, to certain victory you shall overcome through the blood of the Lamb.