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December 31. 1913.
A FAMILY PAPER.
E D I T O R I A L
John W. Pritchard, Editor.
CRUCIFIED BETWEEN TWO THIEVES
All the gospels tell us that when our Lord
died two thieves were crucified with him, one
on either side.
In our mind's eye we see
three crosses on Calvary, each occupied with
an agonized sufi'erer.
The tragedy of the
world's sin and crime is being wrought out
here as never elsewhere, unless in the final
abode of the lost, yet the darkness which surrounds
that low hill is to be followed with
the clear shining of hope.
Long centuries before the crucifixion, Isaiah
had said concerning the Messiah, "He
was numbered with the transgressors," and
the Lord himself had said, "This which is
written must be fulfilled in me. And he was
reckoned with transgressors; for that which
concerneth me hath fulfilment."
What more
unlikely prospect than this for a prophet of
Israel to foresee, for he would have expected
with Messiah to be reckoned with kings,
deliverers, benefactors, rather than with
criminals. But here he hangs between two
malefactors. If Roman justice had been
overborne by the clamor of Jewish priests in
condemning the one who hung on the middle
cross, it had made no mistake in dealing with
those who hung on eithdr hand. "We," said
one of them, "we receive the due reward of
our deeds." They were so justly condemned
that their own conscience approved the sentence
of the judge. Faith, therefore, looking
at the Book and then at the holy one hanging
between the thieves is assured that this is
the promised Messiah.
The company in which Jesus dies is a
part, and a designed part, of his humiliation.
Hanging alone he might awaken pity
and inspire respect. The memory of his
good deeds and of his words of wisdoin might
turn the tide of feeling toward him. But to
class him with robbers, for the name and
punishment both indicate those who take by
force, to gather round him. the vicious element
of Jerusalem come out to see the end
of men of their own kind, does much to
make him the object of derision and scorn. In
the midst as the worst of the three, is the
place that his enemies have chosen for him,
and it is part of his suifering that he suffers
with men who deserved to die.
The Lord Jesus suffered with the malefactors
the penalty of justice. The penitent
thief recognizes this with regard to himself
and his companion, but he does not see its
truth with regard to Jesus. "This man," he
said, "hath done nothing amiss." But deeper
ttian he; or anyone else there could see, the
law was being honored and justice vindicated.
Utterly unjust and wicked as were the condemnation
and crucifixion of Jesus at the
hand of the Roman judge, he was still the
victim of a higher law and of a greater penalty.
In truth the cause for which the thieve.-;
died was small, almost infinitely small, compared
with the mountains of guilt that were
laid upon Jesus. All the sins of all God's
people from the beginning to tbe end of time
were laid upon his devoted head and tbeir
penalty was exacted of him. Lie was even
"made sin for us." There was another coi!!-
trast in suft'ering. The thieves went to their
death against their will, driven by the condemnation
of their crimes; Jesus went v/illingly,
and was not only the victim, but the
priest of the sacrifice in that he offered himself
for us, "the just for the unjust."
We have here also a representation of the
gospel and of its effect upon men. The life
and death of the Redeemer set forth the
good news of salvation. One of the men beside
him,—was it the one on the left?—rejected
it and, as far as we know, died unforgiven,
the other was softened and became
hack to die in the wilderness.
had
Opportunity
knocked at their d-oor unwelcome and
came not again.
They listened to the counsel
of worldly wisdom and regretted it to
their dying day.
Their last look of earth was
not upon the pleasant hills and valleys of
Canaan, but on the sands of the desert, and
their children whom
they said would be a
helpless prey were permitted to enter the
land which they would never see.
Opportunity to win the victory for God
and his cause and for ourselves comes often
in our day. The fieldof decision for us as
for Israel oomes in the national questions
that rise demanding a settlement. This great
country of ours u'ith all its wealth of lands
and men and institutions -should be taken for
Christ and His kingdom and every year at
Election time we have an opportunity to stand
and testify for him and his truth by refusing
to acccept a Christless Constitution, or
we turn back and choose leaders to take us
into the wilderness of wandering that leads
toward Egypt and its bondage.
If those who profess the name of Christ
would only stand clear of an agreement to
carry on this government without him, if
they would s.tand out only once, intelligently
and faithfully, giving their reasons and supporting
these reasons with a consistent and
determined protest, the battle for the kingdom
iof Christ would be so well begun that
it would be half won. What a discussion
would arise! What arguments worldly wisdom
would offer and faithfulness would answer!
The great moral conflict would be
on, not merely for 'one or the other moral
reform, hut for the whole array of causes for
which Christ stands.
For those who are making this stand the
example of Caleb and Joshua affords g) eat
comfort and enoouragement. They stood for
national obedience to God and were voted
penitent in his agony and prayed for the rememhrance
down. They resisted the counsels of worldly
of the great sufferer hanging be-
tt'isdom which urged that nothing could be
side him. To one Jesus was the savor of done and were like to be stoned. They believed
death, to the other of life, and thus his gospel
that God was right and his word not
has always divided the world. He is set for to be disregarded and they had his approval.
the fall and rising again of many in, Israel.
After all Calvary was a scene of victory.
Jesus Christ completed the work of atonement
and his last cry was one of triumph.
The penitent thief at last made a success of a
bad life. Only the impenitent one failed and
he because he shut his eyes to the hope before
him.
The whole multitude was against them, but
the whole multitude was wrong and were
punished for their disobedience, while the
heroic two were right and were rewarded for
their faithfulness. It is true that they had
to go back into the wilderness with the rest
of Israel, for a man is bound up with his
people and must in some manner suffer with
them, but they were permitted to enter the
THE PROTEST OF CALEB AND. land and had this prospect always before
JOSHUA.
them. They went to the funeral of the tinremembered
The refusal of Israel to enter into tbe
thousands who lacked the faith
to go forward while they themselves, though
Promised Land at Kadesh Barnea was the
hated it may be in their own time, are held
turning point of privilege for that generation,
in everlasting remembrance.
As the direct result of their want of faith
and consequent disobedience, they were sent
Still, few men in our daji are disposed to
follow tbe example of Caleb and Joshua.
It is wonderful how readily men, even
Christian men, go with the multitude to do
evil. How ready they are to have fellowship
^^ith the throne of iniquity which frameth
mischief by a law! How sure they are that
th.ey can do something good without Jesus,
and how necessary they feel it to be to do
something which Jesus would not do in order
to help his cause! No one thinks, at
least no one bas been heard to say, that he
thinks that Jesus would swear, or send anyone
else to swear, to carry on a government
according to a law that did not recognize his
Father whom he always recognized, or that
did not recognize his own kingly authority,
or that paid no respect to his word. W^hy
should those who profess to follow in his
steps do JO?
Caleb and Joshua had courage as well as