| › Preface - Meditations on the Last Days of Christ
PREFACE
In the following meditations I trust I have succeeded in displaying to my readers at least ...read |
| › 1: THE OUTER COURT: The Announcement - The history of our Savior's passion is about to display before us its bleeding mysteries and its awful vicarious scenes. The "Lamb of God, which takes ...read |
| › 2: The Anointing - Six days before the Passover, and, consequently, four before the awful day of crucifixion, we find our Lord in the peaceful village of Bethany, on the ...read |
| › 3: The Entry into Jerusalem - "Are you he who should come, or do we look for another?"' Questions like this lie heavily on the hearts of many in the present day, whose intentions, ...read |
| › 4: Christ Washing His Disciple's Feet - We are approaching, in our meditations, a very solemn section of our Lord's history. Jesus has completed his sojourn on earth, and the eve of the grea ...read |
| › 5: The Passover - The passover is just being celebrated--the most important glorious, and joyful of the festivals of Israel; the birthday-feast of the chosen people--th ...read |
| › 6: The Institution of the Lord's Supper - The Passover has been kept, according to Israelitish usage, the paschal lamb has been consumed by the guests with feelings of deep emotion, and the fe ...read |
| › 7: "Lord, Is It I?" - We return to the chamber in which our Lord and his disciples had assembled to eat the passover, and previous to the institution of the sacred ordinanc ...read |
| › 8: Judas Iscariot - About the same time that the Word became flesh in Bethlehem, and the angels of God sang their seraphic anthem at his appearance, there was joy also in ...read |
| › 9: The Woe Denounced - Were any one to ask me what passage in the whole Bible I regarded as the most awful and appalling, I should not require to reflect long before giving ...read |
| › 10: The Walk to Gethsemane - We return to our narrative at a solemn moment. The Lord Jesus has just instituted the sacred ordinance of his love--the Lord's Supper--and, according ...read |
| › 11: The Converse by the Way - The apostle casts a profound look into the heart of Jesus, when he testifies concerning him, that "For the joy which was set before him, he endured th ...read |
| › 12: THE HOLY PLACE: Gethsemane--Conflict and Victory - It is night. The Lord has left Jerusalem with his eleven confidential followers, fully aware of what awaits him. In deeply affecting converse he desce ...read |
| › 13: Gethsemane--Import and Result - The apostle, in writing to the Hebrews, concerning the priesthood of Jesus Christ, expresses himself in a remarkable manner, when he says in chap. 5:7 ...read |
| › 14: The Sudden Assault - After coming off victorious from his spiritual conflict in Gethsemane, the divine sufferer prepares to enter upon the thorny path of bodily affliction ...read |
| › 15: The Traitor's Kiss - We direct our eyes, once more, to the armed multitude who had reached the Garden of Gethsemane in quest of Jesus. They have just risen up from the gro ...read |
| › 16: The Sword and the Cup - A singular occurrence interrupts the regular course of the sacred narrative of our Lord's passion, and serves as an additional proof how difficult it ...read |
| › 17: Offering and Sacrifice - We shall confine our present meditation to the state of resignation in which we left our great High Priest, at the close of the last chapter. He yield ...read |
| › 18: Christ Before Annas - The armed band have executed their object, with regard to Christ, and the Eleven, perceiving it, have fled to the right and left. A young man who also ...read |
| › 19: The Judicial Procedure - Christ at the bar of the ecclesiastical tribunal is the subject to which our meditations are now to be directed. The apparent contradictions in the li ...read |
| › 20: The Fall of Peter - In addition to all his other sufferings, our blessed Lord had also to endure that of being denied by one of the little company of his confidential dis ...read |
| › 21: The Great Confession - We return to the judgment hall of the Sanhedrin at a moment when profound and gloomy silence reigns. But even this pause has its import. The Spirit of ...read |
| › 22: Peter's Tears - Our present meditation will console us for the grief we experienced when considering the depth of Peter's fall. The star of divine grace rises on that ...read |
| › 23: "Prophesy to Us, You Christ" - We have now to proceed to the contemplation of a scene which, with regard to its horrible nature, is scarcely paralleled in the whole history of our S ...read |
| › 24: Christ before the Sanhedrin - After a horrible night, the morning breaks, and announces the dawn of the most important and momentous of all earthly days. It is Good Friday, that mo ...read |
| › 25: The End of the Traitor - My readers are aware how much depended upon our High Priest accomplishing the work of atonement in the robes of purity. If a blemish was found in the ...read |
| › 26: Christ before Pilate - The day has just dawned--the most momentous, decisive, and eventful in the world. It greets our Lord with dreadful insignia. It approaches in a blood- ...read |
| › 27: The Accusations - After the Jews had gained their first victory over the governor, for as such they might account it, in having succeeded by their imposing attitude, in ...read |
| › 28: Christ a King - Let us now return to the Mighty Captive. He suffers himself to be judged, in order that he may subsequently interfere, both legally and effectually, o ...read |
| › 29: "What is Truth?" - In the whole of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, with the exception of the words prefixed to our present meditation, we do not find a single pass ...read |
| › 30: The Lamb of God - After his first conversation with Jesus, Pilate again comes forward into the open court before the people, bringing the accused with him. The governor ...read |
| › 31: Christ before Herod - Pilate's clear and decided testimony that he found no fault in Jesus, did not fail of its effect on his accusers. They stand aghast, and perceive the ...read |
| › 32: Pilate Our Advocate - Pilate again finds himself in a great dilemma. By transferring the proceedings to Herod, he hoped to have escaped from his painful situation. But, con ...read |
| › 33: Jesus or Barabbas - We resume our place amid the wild and tumultuous assemblage before Gabbatha, the open court, where justice was accustomed to be administered. Pilate, ...read |
| › 34: Barabbas - The most horrible and momentous cry that was ever heard under heaven has been uttered. To the governor's question, "Whom will you that I release unto ...read |
| › 35: The Scourging - The path of the Holy One of Israel becomes increasingly dark and obscure. The night-piece of his passion carries us from the region of the tragical in ...read |
| › 36: Ecce Homo! - We stand, in spirit, before Gabbatha. The judgment-seat is still empty. The scene, as we are aware, has been transferred for a time into the inner cou ...read |
| › 37: The Close of the Proceedings - The judicial procedure against the Lord of Glory hastens to its close. Events crowd upon, and even overthrow each other. The great and decisive moment ...read |
| › 38: The Way to the Cross - "Then delivered he him therefore unto them." How mournful and horrifying this sounds! Alas for Pilate! Had he but known who it was, and all that he ga ...read |
| › 39: Simon of Cyrene - Pilate, driven from the field by the determined opposition of the enemies of Jesus, contrary to the voice of justice in his bosom, has delivered the H ...read |
| › 40: The Daughters of Jerusalem - At length, to alleviate in some measure the oppression of our hearts, a trait of humanity appears in the exhibition of utter obduracy and cruelty whic ...read |
| › 41: THE MOST HOLY PLACE: The Crucifixion - "The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him." Let these words of the prophet Habakkuk be the language of our hearts on ...read |
| › 42: The Dividing of the Clothing - The scene we are about to contemplate, is remarkable even for those who are either unable or unwilling to share in our belief. It represents the takin ...read |
| › 43: The Inscription - Let us again lift up our eyes to the inscription, which beams from the cross of the Divine Sufferer. We there read, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Je ...read |
| › 44: "Father, Forgive Them" - Our visit to the horrible darkness which reigns on Calvary has this time reference only to the ray of compassion which flashes through it, than which, ...read |
| › 45: The Malefactor - Again we direct our eyes upward. The three crucified individuals form the center of our present meditation. The dying men are in so far alike in their ...read |
| › 46: The Legacy of Love - Our present meditation brings us again to the cross on Calvary. And where, my readers, do we linger more willingly than beneath its shade? Every day t ...read |
| › 47: "Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani!" - Once, when a voice spoke from heaven to the people who were assembled around Jesus, the evangelist relates, that "some said it thundered; others, that ...read |
| › 48: "I Thirst!" - That portion of the history of our Savior's passion, which will form the subject of our present meditation, does not apparently belong to the more imp ...read |
| › 49: "It is Finished!" - These are the greatest and most momentous words that were ever spoken upon earth, since the beginning of the world. Who does not find in them a cry of ...read |
| › 50: "Father, into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit!" - We return to Calvary. Let devout and peaceful recollections possess our minds. We are entering a sanctuary. Is there, generally speaking, anything on ...read |
| › 51: The Signs that Followed - Scarcely has the Lord of life and glory bowed his head and expired on Calvary, than the awful scene is changed. Heaven no longer withholds its recogni ...read |
| › 52: The Wound of the Lance - On our return to the scene of suffering on Calvary, we find a great change has taken place. Profound silence reigns on the three crosses. Death, the s ...read |
| › 53: The Interment - After all the heart-affecting and appalling scenes we have been witnessing, how beneficial to our spirits is the solemn stillness that now reigns on C ...read |
