That their hearts will leap up in answer, and cry, If this be God, I
can believe in him. If this be God, I can trust him. If this be
God, I can obey him. That one look at Christ upon his cross will
make them--what you could never make them--new men, filled with a
new thought; the thought that God is love, and that he who dwelleth
in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him; and that the poor slaves
and wretches, whom you despise, will look unto the cross and be
saved, and become new men, and lead new lives, and rise to be saints
and martyrs to God and to his Christ, giving themselves up to
torments and death, as Christ did before them; and that out of them
shall spring that church of Christ, which shall reign over all the
world, when you and your philosophies have crumbled into dust.
My friends, let us look, earnestly, humbly, and solemnly this day,
at Christ upon his cross. Let us learn that love, the utter self-
sacrificing love which Christ shewed on his cross, is stronger than
all pomp and might, all armies, riches, governments; aye, that it is
the very power of God, by which all things consist, which holds
together heaven and earth and all that is therein.
Let us learn that love, the utter self-sacrificing love which Christ
shewed on his cross, is wiser than all arguments, doctrines,
philosophies, whether they be true or false; aye, that it is the
very wisdom of God, by which he convinces and converts all hearts
and souls; and let us look to the cross, and see there the wisdom of
God, and the power of God, mighty to save to the uttermost all who
come through Christ to him.
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