The Wounds of Jesus
A Sermon
(No. 254)
Delivered on Sabbath Evening, January 30th, 1859, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.
"He shewed them his hands and his feet."–Luke 24:40.
I HAVE selected this sentence as the text, although I shall not
strictly adhere to it. What was to be seen on Christ's hands and feet?
We are taught that the prints of the nails were visible, and that in
his side there was still the gash of the spear. For did he not say to
Thomas? "Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands, and reach hither
thy hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but
believing." I wish to draw your attention to the ample fact, that our
Lord Jesus Christ, when he rose again from the dead had in his body the
marks of his passion. If he had pleased he could readily have removed
them. He rose again from the dead, and he might have erased from his
body everything which could be an indication of what he had suffered
and endured before be descended into the tomb. But, no! Instead
thereof, there were the pierced hands and feet, and there was the open
side. What was the reason for this? There was no absolute necessity for
it: it could easily have been dispensed with, What, then, were the
reasons? I shall endeavor to enter into this subject, and I hope we may
draw some profitable instructions therefrom.
First, what influence did the exhibition of the hands and feet have
upon the disciples? Secondly, why is it that Jesus Christ, now in
heaven, bears with him the scars in his flesh? And, then, thirdly, is
there any lesson to us in the fact that Jesus Christ still wears his
wounds? I think there is.
I. First, then, OF WHAT USE WAS THE EXHIBITION OF THOSE WOUNDS TO THE
DESCIPLES? I reply at once that they were infallible proofs that he was
the same person. He said, "Behold my hands and feet, that it is, I,
myself." It was to establish his identity, that he was the very same
Jesus whom they had followed, whom at last they had deserted, whom they
had beheld afar off crucified and slain, and whom they had carried to
the tomb in the gloom of the evening; it was the very same Christ who
was now before them, and they might know it, for there was the seal of
his sufferings upon him. He was the same person; the hands and feet
could testify to that. You know, beloved, had not some such evidence
been visible upon our Saviour, it is probable that his disciples would
have been unbelieving enough to doubt the identity of his person. Have
you never seen men changed, extremely changed in their external
appearance. I have known a man, perhaps, five or six years ago; he has
passed through a world of suffering and pain, and when I hare seen him
again, l have declared, "I should not have known you if I had met you
in the street." Now, when the disciples parted with Jesus it was at the
Lord's Supper. They then walked with him into the garden. There did the
Saviour sweat, "as it were great drops of blood." Do you not imagine
that such a wrestling, such a bloody sweat as that, must have had some
effect upon his visage. It had surely had enough to mar it before. But
now the ploughshares of grief were sharpened, and anguish made deep
furrows upon him. There must have been lines of grief upon his brow,
deeper than they had ever seen before. This would have produced a
change great enough to make them forget his countenance. Nor was this
all. You know he had to undergo the flagellation at the pillar of the
Praetorium, and then to die. Can you imagine that a man could pass
through the process of death, through such astonishing agony as that
which the Saviour endured, and yet that there should be no change in
his visible appearance? I can conceive that in passing through such a
furnace as this, the very lineaments of Christ's face would seem to
have been melted, and would have need to be restruck ere the disciples
could discern that he was the same.
Besides that? when Jesus rose, he rose, you know, as he now sits in
heaven. His body was flesh and bone, but, nevertheless, it had
miraculous powers; it was capable of entering into a room without the
ordinary modes of access. We find our Saviour standing in the midst of
his disciples, the doors being shut. I believe that Jesus had a body
such as we are to have in the next world. Jesus Christ was not a
phantom or spectra. His body was not a spirit; it was a real body. And
so in heaven imagine not that we are to be spirits. We are to be
spirits until the great resurrection day; but, then, our spirit is
afterwards to receive a spiritual body; it is to be clothed upon; it is
not for ever to be a naked, bodiless spirit. That body will be to all
intents and purposes the same body which shall be laid in the tomb. It
is sown in dishonor, and the same it is raised in glory: it is sown in
weakness, and the same it is raised in power. Mark, Jesus was flesh
still! All flesh is not the same flesh: all bodies have not the same
qualities. So our Saviour's flesh was flesh that could not
suffer,–flesh that had extraordinary powers about it,–flesh however,
that could eat, although it was under no necessity to do so. And such
may be the body, the glorified body, which shall be given to us when we
shall rise at the first resurrection, and shall be made like unto our
head. But, now, think! If Christ had to undergo in his countenance
those matchless transformations, that must have been, first of all,
connected with his bloody sweat, then, with his agony, and after that,
with the transforming, or, if I may use such a word, the transmutation
of his body into a spiritual body, can you not conceive that his
likeness would be changed, that the disciples would scarcely know him
if there had not been some deeply graven marks whereby they would be
able to discover him? The disciples looked upon the very face, but,
even then they doubted. There was a majesty about him which most of
them had not seen. Peter, James, and John, had seen him transfigured,
when his garments were whiter than any fuller could make them; but the
rest of the disciples had only seen him as a man of sorrows; they had
not seen him as the glorious Lord, and, therefore, they would be apt to
doubt whether he was the same. But these nail-prints, this pierced
side, these were marks which they could not dispute, which unbelief
itself could not doubt. And they all were convinced and confessed that
he was the Lord; and even faithless Thomas, was constrained to cry, "
My Lord and my God!"
II. Let us turn to tile second question: Why SHOULD CHRIST WEAR THESE
WOUNDS IN HEAVEN AND OF WHAT AVAIL ARE THEY? Let me give you some
thoughts upon the matter.
I can conceive, first, that the wounds of Christ in heaven will be a
theme of eternal wonder to the angels. An old writer represents the
angels as saying, "Oh, Lord of glory, what are these wounds in thy
hand?" They had seen him depart from heaven, and they had gone with him
as far as they might go, singing, Glory to God in the highest, peace on
earth.'" Some of them had watched him through his pilgrimage, for "he
was seen of angels." But when he returned, I doubt not that they
crowded round him, bowed before him in adoration, and then put the holy
question, "What are these wounds in thy hand?" At any rate they were
enabled to behold for themselves in heaven the man who suffered, and
they could see the wounds which were produced in his body by his
sufferings; and I can readily imagine that this would cause them to
lift their songs higher, would prolong their shouts of triumph, and
would cause them to adore him with a rapture of wonderment, such as
they had never felt before. And I doubt not that every time they look
upon his hands, and behold the crucified man exalted by his Father's
side, they are afresh wrapt in wonder, and again they strike their
harps with more joyous lingers at the thought of what be must have
suffered who thus bears the sears of his hard-fought battles.
Again, Christ wears these sears in his body in heaven as his ornaments.
The wounds of Christ are his glories, they are his jewels and his
precious things. To the eye of the believer Christ is never so
glorious, never so passing fair, as when we can say of him, "My beloved
is white and ruddy," white with innocence, and ruddy with his own
blood. He never seems so beautiful a' when he can see him as the rose
and the lily; as the lily, matchless purity, and as the rose, crimsoned
with his own gore. We may talk of Christ in his beauty, in divers
places raising the dead and stilling the tempest, but oh! there never
was such a matchless Christ as he that did hang upon the cross. There I
behold all his beauties, all his attributes developed, all his love
drawn out, all his character expressed in letters so legible, that even
my poor stammering heart call read those lines and speak them out
again, as I see them written in crimson upon the bloody tree. Beloved,
these are to Jesus what they are to us; they are his ornaments, his
royal jewels, his fair array. He does not care for the splendor and
pomp of kings. The thorny crown is his diadem–a diadem such as no
monarch ever wore. It is true that he bears not now the scepter of
reed, but there is a glory in it that there never flashed from scepter
of gold. It is true he is not now buffeted and spit upon: his face is
not now marred more than that of any other man by grief and sorrow, for
he is glorified and full of blessedness; but he never seems so lovely
as when we see him buffeted of men for our sakes, enduring all manner
of grief, bearing our iniquities, and carrying our sorrows. Jesus
Christ finds such beauties in his wounds that he win not renounce them,
he will wear the court dress in which he wooed our souls, and he will
wear the royal purple of his atonement throughout eternity.
Nor are these only the ornaments of Christ: they are his trophies–the
trophies of his love. Have you never seen a soldier with a gash across
his forehead or in his cheek? Why every soldier will tell you the wound
in battle is no disfigurement–it is his honor. "If" said he, "I
received a wound when I was retreating, a wound in the back, that were
to my disgrace, If I have received a wound in a victory, then it is an
honorable thing to be wounded." Now, Jesus Christ has scars of honor in
his flesh and glory in his eyes He has other trophies He has divided
the spoil with the strong: he has taken the captive away from his
tyrant master; he has redeemed for himself a host that no man can
number, who are all the trophies of his victories: but these scars,
these are the memorials of the fight, and these the trophies, too.
For do you not know it was from the side of Jesus that Death sucked its
death. Jesus did hang upon the cross, and Death thought to get the
victory. Aye, but in its victory it destroyed itself. There are three
things in Christ that Death never met with before, all of which are
fatal to it. There was in Christ innocence. Now; as long as man was
innocent, he could not die. Adam lived as long as he was innocent. Now
Christ was about to die; but Death sucked in innocent blood; he sucked
in his own poison and he died. Again, blessedness is that which takes
away the sting of death. Now Christ, even when he was dying, was "God
over all, blessed for ever." All that Death had ever killed before was
under the curse; but this man was never by nature under the curse,
because for our sakes he was not born into this world a cursed man. He
was the seed of woman it is true, but still not of carnal generation.
He did come under the curse when he took upon himself our sins, but not
for his own sins. He was in himself blessed. Death sucked in blessed
blood: he had never done that before–all others have been under the
curse–and that slew Death. It was innocence combined with blessedness
that was the destruction of Death. Yet another thing. Death had never
met before with any man who had life in himself. But when Death drank
Christ's blood it drank life. For his blood is the life of the soul,
and is the seed of life eternal. Wheresoever it goeth, doth it not give
life to the dead? And Death, finding that it had drunk into its own
veins life in the form of Jesus' blood gave up the ghost; and Death
itself is dead, for Christ hath destroyed it, by the sacrifice of
himself; he hath put it away; he hath said, "Oh death, where is thy
sting? oh grave, where is thy victory?" But now, since it was from
these very wounds that Death sucked in its own death, and that hell was
destroyed; since these were the only weapons of a weaponless Redeemer,
he wears and bears them as his trophies in heaven. David laid up
Goliath's sword before the Lord for ever. Jesus lays up his wounds
before the Lord, for his wounds were his weapons, and this is why he
wears them still.
I was thinking while coming here of Jesus Christ in heaven with his
wounds, and another thought struck me. Another reason why Jesus wears
his wounds is, that when he intercedes he may employ them as powerful
advocates. When he rises up to pray for his people, he needs not speak
a word; he lifts his hands before his Father's face; he makes bare his
side, and points to his feet. These are the orators with which he
pleads with God–these wounds. Oh, he must prevail. Do you not see that
Christ without his wounds, in heaven might be potent enough. but there
would not be that glorious simplicity of intercession which now you
see. He has nothing to do but to shew his hands. Him the Father heareth
always. His blood crieth and is heard, His wounds plead and prevail.
Let us think again. Jesus Christ appears in heaven as the wounded one,
this shews again that he has not laid aside his priesthood. You know
how Watts paraphrases the idea He says,
"Looks like a lamb that has been slain,
And wears his priesthood still."
If the wounds had been removed we might have forgotten that there was a
sacrifice; and, mayhap, next we might have forgotten that there was a
priest. But the wounds are there: then there is a sacrifice, and there
is a priest also, for he who is wounded is both himself, the sacrifice
and the priest. The priesthood of Melchisedec is a glorious subject. He
who reads that with the eye of faith, and is blessed with the Spirit,
will find much cause for joy when he contrasts the priesthood of Christ
with that of Aaron. The priesthood of Aaron began, and it finished; but
the priesthood of Melchisedec had no beginning, and it had no end. He
was, we are told, "Without beginning of days, and without end of
years;" without father, without mother, without descent. Such is the
priesthood of Christ' It shall never end. He himself is without
beginning, and his priesthood is without end. When the last ransomed
soul is brought in. when there shall be no more prayers to offer,
Christ shall still be a priest. Though he has no sacrifice now to slay,
for he is the sacrifice himself, "once for all," yet still he is a
priest, and when all his people as the result of that sacrifice shall
be assembled around his glorious throne, he shall still be the priest.
"For thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." I take
it that this is a further reason why he still bears his wounds in
heaven.
There is another and a terrible reason why Christ wears his wounds
still. It is this. Christ is coming to judge the world. Christ has with
himself to-day the accusers of his enemies. Every time that Christ
lifts his hands to heaven, the men that hate him, or despise him, are
accused. The Jewish nation is brought in guilty every day. The cry is
remembered, "His blood be on us and on our children;" and the sin of
casting Christ away, and rejecting him, is brought before the mind of
the Most High. And when Christ shall come a second time to judge the
world in righteousness, seated on the great white throne, that hand of
his shall be the terror of the universe." They shall look on him whom
they have pierced," and they shall mourn for their sins. They would not
mourn with hopeful penitence in time, they shall mourn with sorrowful
remorse throughout eternity. When the multitude are gathered together,
when in the valley of Jehoshaphat Christ shall judge the nations, what
need he to summon accusers? His own wounds are his witnesses. Why need
he to summon any to convict men of sin? His own side bears their
handiwork. Ye murderers, did you not do this? Ye sons of an evil
generation did ye not pierce the Saviour? Did ye not nail him to the
tree? Behold these holes in my hand, and this stab in my side; these
are swift witnesses against you to condemn you I There is a terrible
side, then to this question. A crucified Christ with his wounds still
open will be a terrible sight for an assembled universe. "Well," but
says one of my congregation "What is that to us? We have not crucified
the Saviour." No but let me assure You that his blood shall be on you.
If ye die unbelievers his blood shall be required at your hand. The
death of Christ was wrought by the hand of manhood, of all and entire
manhood. Others did it for you, and though you gave no consent
verbally, yet you do assent in your heart every day. As long as you
hate Christ you give an assent to his death. As long as you reject his
sacrifice, and despise his love, you give evidence in your hearts that
you would have crucified the Lord of glory had you been there. Nay, and
you do yourself, so fares you can, crucify him afresh and put him to an
open shame. When you laugh at his people, when you despise his word,
and mock at his ordinances, you are driving nails into his hands, and
thrusting the spear into his side; therefore those open hands and that
pierced side shall be witnesses against you, even against you, if ye
die rejecting him, and enter into eternity enemies to Christ by wicked
works.
I think I have thus supplied severe excellent reasons. But now there is
one more which I shall offer to your consideration before I come to the
lesson which you shall learn. Christ v, ears those marks in his hands
that, as believers, you may never forget that he has died. We shall
need, perhaps, nothing to refresh our memories in heaven. but still'
even if we should, we have it here. When we shall have been in heaven
many a thousand years we shall still have the death of Christ before
us, we shall see him reigning. But can you not conceive that the
presence of the wounded Christ will often stir up the holy hearts of
the celestial beings to a fresh outpouring of their grateful songs?
They begin the song thus, "Unto him that liveth." Jesus looks upon them
and shows his hand and they add, "and was dead, and is alive for
evermore, and hath the keys of hell and death." They would not forget
that he died; but certainly that part of the song where it said, "and
was dead," will have all the more sweetness, because there he sits with
the very marks of his passion–with the nail-prints of his crucifixion.
If we shall be in heaven at all constituted as we are on earth, we
shall need some visible token to keep us continually in remembrance.
Here, you know, the most spiritual saint needs the bread and
wine–sweet emblems of the Saviour's body. There we shall have nothing
to do with emblems, for we shall have the sight of him. And I say, if
we be in heaven anything like what we are here, I can imagine that the
presence of Jesus may be highly beneficial, may be gloriously precious
to the saints in reviving their love continually, and causing their
hearts, which are like fountains of love, to bubble up afresh, and send
out again the living water of gratitude and thanksgiving. At any rate,
I know this thought is very delightful to me, that I shall see the man
that did hang on Calvary's cross, and that I shall see him as he did
inane there. I delight to see my Saviour in all the glories of his
Father, but I long to go back and see him as he was, as well as he is.
I think I should sometimes envy Peter and the rest of them that they
should have seen him crucified. Yes, I should say, I see him glorified,
but you saw the most marvellous sight. To see a God is an every-day
sight with glorified beings, but to see a God covered with his blood,
this is an extraordinary thing. To see Christ glorified, that we may
see each day, but to have seen him on that special occasion, made
obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross, that was an
extraordinary sight which even angels themselves could see but once.
You and I cannot see that. But those wounds are there still manifest
and visible, and we shall be delighted with the rapturous sight of the
Lord in glory, with his wounds still fresh upon him. May the Lord grant
that we may all be there to see it. May we refresh ourselves with that
glorious sight. I can say that I would part with all the joys of sense
to view his face Everything that is good on earth I would give away
without a wish, without one single lingering thought, if I might but
behold his face, and lie in his bosom, and see the dear pierced hands
and the wide-open side. We must wait his pleasure. A few more rolling
suns shall do it. The moon shall rise and wane for us a few more times,
and then
"We shall see his face, and never, never sin
But from tile rivers of his grace, drink endless pleasures in."
III. This brings me now to the third point. WHAT DOES CHRIST MEAN BY
SHOWING TO US HIS HANDS AND FEET? He means this that suffering is
absolutely necessary. Christ is the head, and his people are the
members. If suffering could have been avoided, surely our glorious Head
ought to have escaped; but inasmuch as he shows us his wounds, it is to
tell us, that we shall have wounds too. Innocence ought to escape
suffering. Did not Pilate mean as much when be said, "I find no fault
in him, therefore let him go?" But innocence did not escape suffering.
Even the captain of our salvation must be made perfect through
suffering; therefore, we who are guilty, we who are far from being
perfect, must not wonder that we have to be wounded too. Shall the head
be crowned with thorns, and do you imagine that the other members of
the body are to be rocked upon the dainty lap of ease? Must Jesus
Christ swim through seas of his own blood to win the crown, and are you
and I to walk to heaven dryshod in silver slippers? No, the wounds of
Christ are to teach us that suffering is necessary. In fact, that
doctrine was taught upon Mount Calvary. There are only three sorts of
men that have ever lived–a good man, a bad man, and the God-man. Now,
on Calvary's cross, I see three characters, I see the thief, the
representative of the bad. I see the penitent thief, the representative
of the righteous, and I see the God-man in the midst. All three must
suffer. Do not imagine, for a moment, that wicked men get through this
world without suffering. Oh, no. The path to hell is very rough, though
it seems smooth. When men will damn themselves, they will not find it a
very pleasurable task. The cutting the throat of one's soul is not such
a pleasant operation. The drinking the poison of damnation is not,
after all, an enviable task. The path of the sinner may seem to be
happy, but it is not. It is a gilded deceit. He knows there is
bitterness in his bowels, even here on earth. Even the wicked must
suffer. But, mark, if any out of the world would have escaped it would
be the God-man; but the God-man did not escape. He shows us his wounds;
and do you think that you shall remain unwounded? Not if you are his,
at any rate. Men sometimes escape on earth; but the true-born child of
God must not, and would not, if he might, for if he did, he would then
give himself cause to say, "I am no part of the body; if I were a part
of the body, my head suffered, and so must I suffer, for I am part of
his living body." That is the first lesson he teaches us, the necessity
of suffering.
But next he teaches us his sympathy with us in our suffering. "There,"
says he, "see this hand! I am not an high priest that cannot be touched
with the feeling of your infirmities. I have suffered, too. I was
tempted in all ways like as you are. Look here! there are the
marks–there are the marks. They are not only tokens of my love, they
are not only sweet forget-me-nots that bind me to love you for ever.
But besides that they are the evidence of my sympathy. I can feel for
you. Look–look–I have suffered. Have you the heart-ache? Ah, look yon
here, what a heartache I had when this heart was pierced Do you suffer,
even unto blood wrestling against sin? So did I. I have sympathy with
you." It was this that sustained the early martyrs. One of them
declared that while he was suffering he fixed his eyes on Christ; and
when they were pinching his flesh dragging it off with the hot harrows,
when they were putting him to agonies so extraordinary, that I could
not dare to mention them here, lest some of you should faint even under
the very narrative, he said, "My soul is not insensible but it loves."
What a glorious speech was that! It loves–it loves Christ. It was not
insensible, but love gave it power to overcome suffering, a power as
potent as insensibility. "For," said he, "my eyes are fixed on him that
suffered for me, and I can suffer for him; for my soul is in his body;
I have sent my heart up unto him. He is my brother, and there my heart
is. Plough my flesh, and break my bones; smash them with veer irons, I
can bear it all, for Jesus suffered, and he suffers in me now; but he
sympathises with me, arid this makes me strong." Yes, beloved, lay hold
on this in all times of your agony. When you are sweating, think of his
bloody so eat. When you are bruised, think of the whips that tore his
flesh. And when you are aging, think of his death. And when God hides
his face for a little from you, think of "My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me!" This is why he wears his wounds in his hands, that he may
show that he sympathises with you.
Another thing. Christ wears these wounds to show that suffering is an
honorable thing. To suffer for Christ is glory. Men will say, "It is
glorious to make others suffer." When Alexander rides over the necks of
princes, and treads nations beneath his feet, that is glorious. The
Christian religion teaches us it is glorious to be trodden on, glorious
to be crushed, glorious to suffer. This is hard to learn. There we see
it in our glorified Master. He makes his wounds his glory, and his
sufferings are part of the drapery of his regal attire in Paradise Now,
then, it is an honorable thing to suffer. Oh, Christian, when you are
overtaken by strange troubles, be not afraid. God is near you. It was
Christ's honor to suffer, and it is yours too. The only degree that God
gives to his people is the degree of "Masters in tribulation." If you
would be one of God's nobles you must be knighted. Men are knighted
with A blow of the sword. The Lord knights us with the sword of
affliction; and when we fight hard in many a battle, he makes us barons
of the kingdom of heaven, he makes us dukes and lords in the kingdom of
sorrowful honor, not through honor of man, but through dishonor of man,
not through joy, but through suffering, and grief, and agony, and
death. The highest honor that God can confer upon his children is the
blood-red crown of martyrdom. When I read, as I have been reading
lately, the story of the catacombs of Rome, and those short but very
pithy inscriptions that are written over the graves of the martyrs, I
felt sometimes as it I could envy them. I do not envy them their racks,
their hot irons, their being dragged at the heels of horses; but I do
envy them when I see them arrayed in the blood-red robe of martyrdom.
Who are they that stand nearest to the eternal throne, foremost of the
saints in light? Why, the noble army of martyrs. And just as God shall
give us grace to suffer for Christ, to suffer with Christ, and to
suffer as Christ, just so much does he honor us. The jewels of a
Christian are his afflictions. The regalia of the kings, that God hath
made, are their troubles, their sorrows, and their griefs Let us not,
therefore, shun being honored. Let us not turn aside from being
exalted. Griefs exalt us, and troubles lift us.
Lastly, there is one sweet thought connected with the wounds of Christ
that has charmed my soul, and made my heart run over with delight. It
is this: I have sometimes thought that if I am a part of Christ's body
I am a poor wounded part; if I do belong to that all-glorious whole,
the church, which is his fullness, the fullness of him that filleth all
in all, yet have I said within me, "I am a poor maimed part, wounded,
full of putrifying sores." But Christ did not leave even his wounds
behind him, even those he took to heaven. "Not a bone of him shall be
broken," and the flesh when wounded shall not be discarded,–shall not
be left. He shall carry that with him to heaven, and he shall glorify
even the wounded member. Is not this sweet, is not this precious to the
troubled child of God? This, indeed, is a thought from which one may
suck honey. Poor, weak, and wounded though I am, he will not discard
me. His wounds are healed wounds, mark! they are not running sores; and
so, though we be the wounded parts of Christ, we shall be healed;
though we shall seem to ourselves in looking back upon what we were
upon earth only as wounds, only parts of a wounded body, still we shall
rejoice that he has healed those wounds, and that he has not cast us
away. Precious, precious truth I The whole body he will present before
his Father's face, and wounded though he be, he shall not cast his own
wounds away, Let us take comfort, then, in this; let us rejoice
therein. We shall be presented at last, without spot or wrinkle, or any
such thing. Mark, Christ's wounds are no spots to him, no wrinkles,
they are ornaments; and even those parts of his church on earth that
despair of themselves, thinking themselves to be as wounds shall be no
spots, no wrinkles in the complete church above, but even they shall be
the ornaments and the glory of Christ. Let us now look up by faith and
see Jesus, the Wounded Jesus, sitting on his throne. Will not this help
us to gird up our loins to "run with patience the race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who
for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the
Shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."
I cannot send you away without this last remark. Poor sinner, thou art
troubled on account of sin. There is a sweet thought for thee. Men are
afraid to go to Christ, or else they say, "My Sins are so many I cannot
go to him; he will be angry with me." Do you see his hands outstretched
to you to night? He is in heaven, and he still says, "Come unto me all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Are you
afraid to come? Then, look at his hand–look at his hand, will not that
induce you? "Oh," but you say, "I cannot think that Christ can have it
in his heart to remember such a worm as I." Look at his side, there is
easy access to his heart. His side is open, and even your poor prayers
may be thrust into that side, and they shall reach his heart, holy
though it be. Only do thou look to his wounds, and thou shalt certainly
find peace through the blood of Jesus. There were two monks of late
years in different cells in their convent. They were reading the Bible.
One of them found Christ while reading the Scriptures, and he believed
with a true evangelical faith. The other one was timid, and could
scarcely think it true; the scheme of salvation seemed so great to him
he could scarcely lay hold upon it. But, at last, he lay upon the point
to die, and he sent for the other to come and sit by him, and to shut
the door; because if the superior had heard of that of which they were
about to speak, he might have condemned them both. When the monk had
sat down, the sick man began to tell how his sins lay heavy on him; the
other reminded him of Jesus. "If you would be saved, brother, you must
look to Jesus who did hang upon the cross. His wounds must save." The
poor man heard and he believed. Almost immediately afterwards came in
the superior, with the brethren and the priests; and they began to
grease him in extreme unction. This poor man tried to push them away;
he could not bear the ceremony, and as well as he could he expressed
his dissent. At last his lips were opened, and he said in Latin, "Tu
vulnera Jesu!"–thy wounds, oh Jesus! thy wounds, oh Jesus!–clasped
his hands, lifted them to heaven, fell back and died. Oh, I would that
many a Protestant would die with these words on his lips. There was the
fullness of the gospel in them. Thy wounds, oh Jesus! thy wounds; these
are my refuge in my trouble. Oh sinner, may you be helped to believe in
his wounds! They cannot fail; Christ's wounds must heal those that put
their trust in him.