CROSS-CRUCIFIXION.

AND he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.--Matthew, x. 38.

Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let Him be crucified.

And the governor said, Why, what evil hath He done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let Him be crucified.--Matthew, xxvii 22 23. For the preaching of the cross, is to them that perish, foolishness; but unto us, which are saved, it is the power of God.--I. Corinthians, i. 18.

But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.--I. Corinthians, i. 23, 24.

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.--Galatians, ii. 20.

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.--Galatians, vi. 14.

Now my frail bark through this tempestuous flood
Is steered, and full in view that port is seen,
Where all must answer what their course has been,
And every work be tried if bad or good.
Now do those lofty dreams, my fancy's brood,
Which made of art an idol and a queen,
Melt into air; and now I feel, how keen!
That what I needed most I most withstood.
Ye fabled joys, ye tales of empty love,

What are ye now if two-fold death be nigh?
The first is certain, and the last I dread.
Ah! what does sculpture, what does painting prove,
When we have seen the cross, and fixed our eye
On him whose arms of love were thus outspread.
From the Italian of Michael Angelo.

My trust is in the Cross, there lies my rest,
My fast, my sole delight.

Let cold-mouthed Boreas, or the hot-mouthed East,
Blow till they burst with spite;

Let earth and hell conspire their worst, their best, And join their twisted might;

Let showers of thunderbolts dart round and round me, And troops of fiends surround me:

All this may well confront; all this shall ne'er confound Francis Quarles.

me.

Christ, when he died,
Denied the cross,
And on death's side,

Threw all the loss:

The captive world awak'd and found
The prisoners loose, the jailor bound.
O dear and sweet dispute,

'Twixt death's and love's far different fruit,
Different as far

As antidotes and poisons are:

By the first fatal tree,

Both life and liberty

Were sold and slain;

By this, they both look up and live again.

O strange mysterious strife,

Of open death and hidden life!

When on the cross my kind did bleed,
Life seemed to die, death died indeed.

Richard Crawshaw.

The sun beheld it-No, the shocking scene
Drove back his chariot: midnight veiled his face;
Not such as this; not such as nature makes;
A midnight nature shuddered to behold;
A midnight new! a dread eclipse (without
Opposing spheres,) from her Creator's frown!
Sun! didst thou fly thy Maker's pain? or start
At that enormous load of human guilt,

Which bowed His blessed head; o'erwhelmed his cross;
Made groan the centre; burst earth's marble womb
With pangs, strange pangs! delivered of her dead?
Hell howled, and Heaven that hour let fall a tear;
Heaven wept that man might smile! Heaven bled that

man

Might never die!

My soul is caught:

Young.

Heaven's sovereign blessings, clustering from the_cross,
Rush on her in a throng, and close her round,
The prisoner of amaze!-In His blessed life
I see the path, and, in His death, the price,
And in His great ascent, the proof supreme
Of immortality.

Young.

Man, know thyself; all wisdom centres there,
To none man seems ignoble but to man;
Angels that grandeur, men o'erlook, admire.
How long shall human nature be their book,
Degenerate mortal! and unread by thee?

The beam dim reason sheds, shows wonders there;
What high contents! illustrious faculties!
But the grand comment which displays at full
Our human height, scarce sever'd from divine,
By heaven composed, was publish'd on the cross.
Young.

There, where the cross in hoary ruin nods,

And weeping yews o'ershade the lettered stones; While midnight silence wraps these dark abodes, And soothes me, wand'ring o'er my kindred bones; Let kindled fancy view the glorious morn,

When from the bursting graves the dust shall rise, All nature smiling; and, by angels borne, Messiah's cross, far blazing o'er the skies.

Mickle.

Hear the just law, the judgment of the skies;
He that hates truth shall be the dupe of lies;
And he that will be cheated to the last,
Delusions strong as hell shall bind him fast.
But if the wanderer his mistake discern,
Judge his own ways, and sigh for a return,
Bewildered once, must he bewail his loss
For ever and for ever? No-the cross!
There, and there only, (though the Deist rave,
And Atheist, if earth bear so base a slave;)
There, and there only, is the power to save.
There no delusive hope invites despair;
No mockery meets you, no delusion there;
The spells and charms that blinded you before,
All vanish there, and fascinate no more. Cowper.

The cross once seen is death to every vice:
Else He that died there suffered all His pain,
Bled, groaned, and agonized, and died, in vain.

Cowper.

Thou who for me didst feel such pain,
Whose precious blood the cross did stain,
Let not those agonics be vain.

Roscommon.

Guide me there, for here I burn
To make my Saviour some return.
I'll rise (if that will please thee, still,
And sure I've heard thee own it will;)
I'll trace His steps and bear my cross,
Despising every grief and loss;

Since He, despising pain and shame,

First took up His, and did the same.-Parnell.

How blessed the man, how fully so,
As far as man is blessed below,
Who, taking up his cross, essays
To follow Jesus all his days.

Parnell.

Through cross to crown! And, through the spirit's life,
Trials untold assail with giant strength.

Good cheer! good cheer! Soon ends the bitter strife,
And thou shalt reign, in peace, with Christ, at length.
Rosegarten.
Or if, at times, wild storms shall hover, dark,
Still fix thy gaze upon that hallowed mark
Which gilds the tempest with hope's bow divine-
Cling to the Cross, and conquer in that sign.

B. D. Winslow.

Lovely was the death

Of Him whose life was love! Holy, with power,
He on the thought-benighted sceptic beamed
Manifest Godhead.

Coleridge.

Thou palsied earth, with noon-day night o'erspread;
Thou sickening sun, so dark, so deep, so red!
Ye hovering ghosts, that throng the starless air,
Why shakes the earth? Why fades the light? Declare!
Are those His limbs, with ruthless scourges torn?
His brows, all bleeding with the twisted thorn?
His the pale form, the meek, forgiving eye,
Raised from the cross in patient agony?

Bishop Heber.

DANGER.

YE have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:

But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.Matthew, v. 21, 22.

WHAT is danger

More than the weakness of our apprehension?

A poor cold part o' the blood; whom takes it hold of? Cowards and wicked livers; valiant minds

Were made the masters of it.

Beaumout and Fletcher.

Dangers of every shape and name
Attend the followers of the Lamb,
Who leave the World's deceitful shore,
And leave it to return no more.

Cowper.

Dangers stand thick through all the ground
To push us to the tomb,

And fierce diseases wait around

To hurry mortals home.

Waken, O Lord, our drowsy sense
To walk this dangerous road,

And if our souls be hurried hence,
May they be found with God.

When dangers compass me around,
And unto Thee I cry,

An ark of safety will be found,
Whereto my soul may fly.

I know that my Redeemer's hand
Will be outstretched to save,
If dangers meet me on the land,
Or on the stormy wave.

And wheresoe'er my feet may go,
Though perilous the road,

My soul assured will keep, and know
That there His feet have trod.

M

Watts.

Egone.