PART FIVE

IN TIME'S MERIDIAN

ARTICLE TWENTY.

The Lamb of God.

Å stranger Star, that came from far,
To fling its silver ray
Where, cradled in a lowly cave,

A lowlier infant lay;

And led by soft sidereal light,
The Orient sages bring

Rare gifts of gold and frankincense,
To greet the homeless King.

* * *

He wandered through the faithfuless world,
A Prince in shepherd guise;

He called his scattered flock, but few
The Voice did recognize;

For minds unborne by hollow pride,.
Or dimmed by sordid lust,

Ne'er look for kings in beggar's garb,
For diamonds in the dust.

* * *

Transfixt he hung-O crime of crimes!-
The God whom worlds adore.

"Father forgive them!" Drained the dregs;
Immanuel-no more.

No more where thunders shook the earth,
Where lightnings, 'thwart the gloom,
Saw that unconquered Spirit spurn
The shackles of the tomb.

Far-flaming falchion, sword of light,
Swift-flashing from its sheath,

It cleft the realms of darkness and
Dissolved the bands of death.

Hell's dungeons burst! Wide open swung

The everlasting bars,

Whereby the ransomed soul shall win

Those heights beyond the stars!a

a, "Elias," Canto 3, Part 2.

The Crucified and Crowned.-An attempt to tell, even in brief, the sublime story of the Christ, would be foreign to my present purpose, Even if space permitted, what pen could do justice to the theme? Suffice it that the Christ came, in the Meridian of Time, as ancient seers and prophets had foretold. Surrendering himself to to death, that there might be no more death, He arose from the grave and ascended on High, glorified with that glory which the Eternal Son had with the Eternal Father before this world was formed.

The Passover Realized. In the Savior's crucifixion, the prophetic symbolism of the Passover had a most remarkable realization. In nothing was this more strikingly manifest than in certain incidents immediately following the Death on Calvary. The commandment instituting the Paschal Feast required that no bone of the, lamb should be broken, and no fragment of it be left to decay, representing as it did the body of the Holy One, which was not "to see corruption." Mark now the exact fulfillment: The Savior had been crucified between two thieves, and at sundown on the day of crucifixion the Jewish Sabbath began. In order that the day might not be "desecrated," the Rabbis prevailed upon the Roman governor to have the three bodies taken down from the crosses and buried.c When the soldiers went to remove the bodies, finding the two thieves still alive, they put an end to them by breaking their legs; but Jesus was spared this further indignity.

b. Psalms 16:10.

cause

C. The hypocrites! They could commit murder, could the death of the innocent, and feel no compunction: but they were horrified at the thought of a technical Sabbath-day desecration. Could there be a more glaring instance of "straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel"?