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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS. SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1907.
“BEHOLD THE MAN!”
“Pilate saith unto them,
Behold the man!”
—JOHN xix :5
By REV. RICHARD ORME FLINN,
Pastor North Avenue FVesbyterian Church
, EHOLD the man!** Thu* spake
Pilate a* he led forth this
Person whom he had beaten
and mocked and outraged. With
a diadem of twisted thorns pressed
down upon His brow until the
blood drops reddened it; with a dis
carded robe thrown over his should
er in mock dignity. In scornful token
of royalty; with ^Hls hands tied as
n malefactor, and holding a rod that
had been laid heavily upon His back;
with the marks of spittle upon His
face; with the red welts of cruel tor
ture upon His person, He stood be
held of all.
But Pilate, who bade them thus be-
hold, himself bad never seen the One]
at whom he pointed. Of course he}
looked, at Him—the fascination of the'
spectacle held him; he could not turn
his eye away, unwilling though It was
to consider such a scene—but Pilate,
did not see the man. He saw only a,
man, poor, unknown, defenceless, like
a stricken lamb amid a pack of howling \
wolves, a man of lowly parentage, •
without Influence, power, or wealth, j
And the people that heard him speak— j
they did not see the man, though the
eyes of all were upon Him. They saw
a man—a man against whom the rulers
of their race had risen as though His
very existence were an Impertinence;
a man against whom their leading men
had risen en masse to make away with
him as a traitor, as onfc who had
threatened to overthrow the established
order of things and embroil them with
the Roman power.
They Looked, and Saw.
And thus blinded, both of them—
S|>eaker and hearers—they looked and
saw a man. but not THE man. But
blind though he was, and little think
ing though he did what was the Im
port of his word, Pilate spake better
than he knew; and, today, after the
lapse of centuries which have sprink
led with the dust of dissolution the
proudest monuments which were
reared to defy their passage, today we
pause and gladly hearken ns we are
bidden to “Behold the Man!”
How Shall We Behold Him?
But, how shall we behold Him? He
Is too great for eyes like ours, rising
above all others like some noble moun
tain, pure, sublime, Immovable, we can
not measure His immensity by any
comparison. He ever excels our gate
and exceeds our power to appreciate
or understand. How shall we see Him?
1ft young manhood, going forth in the
power and plenitude of His might,
sweeping the debris of centuries before
Him like the rushing of a mighty,
flood? Shhll we look upon Him as after
the bursting of that Roman seal He
appears unto the apostles and the
chosen ones? Shall we consider Him
as He Is lifted from Olivet and rises
through the blue? Or flball we consider
Him today as He sits at Clod's right
hand? No. I*et us do aa Pilate bids,
as He stands there, despised, disowned,
derided. Let us behold the Man!
A Crown That Cost.
Look at Him! He has a crown upon
His head—the diadem of a monarch.
But see! The brow Is red. incarnadined
by the pressure of the thorn upon His
brow. He wears a crown—yes. a crown
that cost Him blood—the only crown
that the multitudes of earth will ever
recognize os being supreme, and that
thorn crown that cost the agony of
Him who wore It is the only diadetn
before which all others shall be cast.
Queen Victoria looked upon Him
once, and this she said: “f would that
1 "could live until the Lord returns." 1
“Whv?” was the question In response.
“Oh.” she said, “because today 1 sit
upon the throne of an emplfe and wear
the dfsdern of ‘the India* and of the
British Isles, and 1 would like, oh. 1
would like to be living when He comes
again, that I might take this dlndetn
and cast It before the feet of Him who
wore the crown of thorna.”
Look again! He holds a scenter In
His hand. What is It? A Roman
Ilctnr'S rod. It. too. Is reddened by Ills
blood. It has left Its marks upon His
back before He held It In His hand.
But ah! It Is. the only scepter that can
sway the spheres. That scepter which
He first Himself hath felt Is the only
one that we allow now to be lifted over
REV. RICHARD QRME FLINN,
us.
Look again! He wears a robe.
Where did He get It? Some man has
gladly discarded It. It belonged to
another, and now He wears It aa Ills
own. Thank Qod for that. For that
robe Ho wears Is emblematic of the
robe which He In glory wears. The
robe Is worn and torn, marred by sins
committed by another; and your robe,
polluted. He puts on, and you may
wear His robe Instead. Yes, Pilate,
we thank the* for thy word. Today we
will “Behold THE Man.”
Christ the Universal Hero.
No matter how "He may have stood
then. Christ stands before theTVorld to
day the universal hero. So nation cele-
hrates the groat ones of their rivals.
England glories In her Nelson, but hon
ors not Napoleon. France remembers
with pride her Imperial leader, but has
scant wordH of praise for Bismarck.
Germany glories In her Goethe and
gives but second place to the poets of
our own land and the world at large.
But Christ! reigns In Ragland, In
I'Yance and Germany alike. In the Is
lands of the sea and In the nations of
Asia and of Africa. Christ Is the uni
versal hero. Not only Is He reverenced
by all—but, as one has remarked, “All
nations claim Him as their own. Men
of all nations speak of Moses as a He
brew, Socrates as an Athenian, Con
fucius as a Chinaman, Buddha as a
Hindu, Mahomet as an Arab, Luther as
a German, not only In blood but In
spirit; but Jesus belongs to the Afri
can as He does to the American; He Is
loved by the Chinese as He Is by the
Choctaw Indian. To the Welsh Christ
seems to have been a Welshman; to
the Arab Christ seems to have been an
Arabian. No matter what a man's na
tionality, he feels at home with Jesus
Christ”
Not only docs Christ over-reach the
national barriers, but, greater stm. He
breaks down all the partitions which
divide between the classes of society.
The rich man finds In Him the only one
that adequately understands him as he
bears the burden of the day, and, as
true to his trust he taken his place
a leader of affairs. And the pauper
with scarcely a cent for a crust finds
In Christ the one alone who can under
stand and sympathize with him. We
think of Him not as rich, not as poor,
not as a laborer—though He was—not
as a king—though He was that—but as
himself—THE man, embracing ull that
is noblest In manhood, showing and
glorifying all that Is worthiest of the
name.
At What Shall We Look?
In beholding Him let us understand
that we are not to look at His hands
alone, but at Himself. When we look
at Jesus we do not look at what He
did, but at what He was—at Himself.
He excelled all that He accomplished.
We think of Bhakespeare as a writer,
of Caesar as a military leader, of Mo-,
hornet ns a great organizer of those
nomadic Arabic tribes Jnto a mighty
theological bf»dy, swayed by u concept,
united by an Idea; but we think of
Jesus Christ as Himself, above and
greater than what He did. As one has
said, “He wrote no poem, no essay,
no song. In a world where other moral
teachers hove committed their ethical
systems to books He left not one single
written sermon or oration. He organ
ized no church, He developed no eccle
siastical system.” But though He did
not this, He showed us Himself, and
in showing Himself revealed God to
man; and though Ke wrote no book,
the pensVtf the mightiest men of all the
ages have vied each with the other to
write for Him; the brushes of the most
divinely gifted with vain endeavors
have sought to portray the glory and
nobility of His visage. Each act of
His life has been made permanent as
It bos been conceived und depicted by
some great limner, and the choicest
marbles of the hills huve been employ
ed to fix In noble and enduring form
some of the Impressive marvels of His
thought. “Architecture.” as one has
said, “struggles to build temples suita
ble for His worship; schools, colleges,
and all systems of education are so
ciety's attempts to realize His estimate
of the worth and dignity of childhood.”
And It was Gladstone who declared
that “Government Is but the transla
tion of the teachings of Christ Into hu
man laws and Institutions.” Another
has written thus: “You could track
Abraham by his altars; Ghengls Khan
could be traced by his pyramids of hu
man skulls; the Duke of Alva by the
ashes of fire In which he burned mar
tyrs; but Jesus Christ you must trace
by the homes He hath brightened, the
hearts He huth cleansed.''
It was Newell Dwight mills who
said: “When we think of Jesus Christ
moving forward over the centuries and
the continents like an advancing sum
mer sowing all lands with light, adorn
ing all nations with homes ami cities
and civilization, pride becomes Instinc
tive and shame Is a feeling Impossible
for right-minded men;” and he con
tinues: “Looking backward we see the
centuries sloping toward Bethlehem’s
hill, and all the streams of civilization
flowing down therefrom.”
More Than a Hero, Divine.
Napoleon In hla early hours did not
behold THE man as today we seek to
do; his eye was fixed on fame; his
glance swept over Europe and down
into Asia and into Africa, and his in
satiate thirst for glory made him un
thinking and unwijling thus to pause
and see. But on the Isle of St. Helena,
dethroned, exiled, and broken, he look
ed and beheld THE man, and turning
one day to General Bertrand he said:
“I know men, and I tell you that Jesus
is not a mere man. Between Him and
whosoever else in all the world there
an* no possible terms of comparison.
Alexander, Caesar, Chailemagne and
myself founded empires, but upon what
diil we rest the success of our genius?
Upon force. Jesus Christ alone found
ed His empire upon love and at this
hour millions * of men would die for
Him.”
And as Jean Paul beheld Him he
likewise witnessed to the divine power
of Christ: “The Nazarene hath !ift<*d
the gates of empire off their hinges
and turn* '] the streams of the centuries
out of their channels.”
What Vision of Christ Will Do,
But what will be accomplished when
we behold THE man? What will the
vision do for us? First, It will tear
away the mask from sin. Sin comes
to us so beautifully garbed, with such
fascination that unless we have the
clear, strong, noble face of Christ to
light us and by* contrast expose sin's
hideousness we may fall and fall be
fore It
Not long ago a robber broke Into a
residence In the East. The house was
unoccupied; lie had plenty of leisure:
and he collected his plunder from all
the rooms and brought It into the
dining room, there to select from it
what he wonted. In that dining room
was a splendid marble bust called
"Ecce Homo”—“Behold the Man!”—by
Guido.
When the owners of the house
returned and found the desolation
wrought by this man they noticed that
the face of Christ bore the black
marks of the robber's Angers, and that
that face was turned to the wall. The
man could not stand even the sight-
less eyes of a marble Christ as he gave
himself up to plunder. And, oh man,
when we look at Him, sin In its most
alluring' form appears even ns the
tawdry decorations of a pageant seen
In the sunlight.
Tho Transforming Power.
On the way to Damascus one day. a
man caught a vision of Christ. His
whole heart filled with hatred, his
whole life devoted to a violent cause,
he came suddenly, unexpectedly, face
to face with Christ. The glory that
broke above the brightness of the
noonday blinded him; he ceased to see
as he caught the vision, but it changed
a life. Instead of hatred, after that
there welled within him the bound
less compassion and yearning for his
brother man which enabled Paul to
write that wonderful thirteenth chap
ter of Corinthians—that epic of love.
One day a man, a clear, cold, logical,
business man who had known Him.
heard from others whom he knew and
believed concerning Him, but he would
not believe them then. "Unless I see
the nail prints In His hands, unless
I thrust this band Into the spear
wound In His side, I will not believe.”
And Christ appeared, and sail: “Thom
as!” He looked! He saw! The Mas
ter said:, “Reach hither thy finger and
put it In the prints In My hands, and
thrust forth thine hand Into the wound
in My side." “Nay, Lord! I will not!
I need not! I believe! My Lord, and
my God!” He yaw, and he was saved
from doubt.
A woman, broken-hearted, her soul
crushed within her, the woman who
but a short t|me before h%d broken
her most precious treasure, anointing
Him whonf she adored, came Into the
garden one morning when the day was
gray to pay the last sweet tributes of
a loving woman to what was left to
her of her Lord. 8he found the empty
sepulchre and she saw a man, and,
looking with tear-dimmed eye she
said: “Oh, tell me where you have
laid Him, and I will take Him away.”
The Idea of this weak woman carrying
ofT a corpse! -But love known no Im
possibility. He spoke but a word
"Mary!” and. turning, she looked, and
as she looked, she cried, “Rabbonl!”—
“My Master!” Grl*f was assuaged,
winter was forgot, and the glory of
the fullblown spring in a moment filled
her soul with beauty and ytth Joy.
She looked and sorrow tied. } It was
ever thus.
To Look is to Live.
In London, one cold wintry day, when
the snow lay heavy, a youth trudged
down an unfamiliar street and
turned into an unfamiliar house, a lit
tle unpretentious Methodist chapel, a
house belonging to the poor. The min
ister was absent that day, but a sim
ple man arose and spoke to the HUJe
handful gathered, and hla word was
this: “Look! Don't you see Him hang
ing on the tree? He Is hanging there
for you! Look! Don’t you see Him
sweating those great drops of blood
os He prays In the garden? He is
sweating those for yon? Look! He is
rising! Rising for you! See! He has
ascended! Ascended for you! Look
again! He Is at God's right hand! He
is there for you interceding! Look,
young man!* And he pointed back
under the gallery. “Look! Look!” And
the young man looked. For weeks,
for months, lie had been burdened with
a sense of sJn, and nothing gave him
rest, but he looked, and saw, and was
saved. It was Spurgeon, and because
he saw he made all England see, and
there are those In glory now who are
there because he looked, and as he
pointed them the way they looked, and
saw and lived.
Christ Reflected in a Man.
Some time ago In England a woman
infidel addressed a crowd of working
men In a northern English city, at
tempting to prove that Christ is a
myth. When she finished speaking a
man got up at the other end of tho
room and said: “My friends, you know
me; I have I'J/ed among you for twen
ty-five years. Twenty-five years ago
I was a drunken brute, a wife-beating
rascal; but Jesus of Nazereth met mo
and opened my eyes, and I saw that I
was a sinner, and He forgave me. You
know what a change took place in me
then, and you know what kind of a
man 1 have been since then. Perhaps
the lady will be kind enough to explain
—me,” and down he sat The lady did
not attempt to explain him. She did not
finish the Intended course of lectures.
She had her arguments well arranged,
but for this awkward fact of a Chris
tian’s experience she was not prepared.
It completely upset her plans because
this man had beheld Him, and what
had happened she could not explain
away.
Man, if there Is In a look at Jesus
Christ a power for parity, a power to
transform and save the hojH*less, and
to give them peace, then let us behold
Him. Yes, let us behold Him, not
glancing at-him merely with the super
ficial blindness of Pilate and the mob,
but behold Him—see Him as He Is,
SO that being saved from that which
is evil and transformed Into that which
Is good we may bo energized to that
which Is best.
Makes Heroes of Men. '
In that terrible Iroquois Theater fire
a young man named Will McLaughlin,
a senior In Ohio University, saved a
score or more of lives, but they cost
him hla own. When asked how he did
It, and why he did not cease before it
was the means of his destruction, this
was his answer: “I knew I was fol
lowing Christ, and I couldn't do other
wise." Is there any look on earth that
so spurs men, that so ennobles them,
that so glorifies the human and lifts
It toward God as the look at Christ?
Hit Captain"* Voice.
Rome years ago, In a university dor
mitory, a great fire broke out. The
gentleman who tells the story says he
was passing down the street, when In a
moment he heard the thunder of ap
proaching fire engines and the rattle of
hook and ladder trucks. In less than
a minute a stream of water was thrown
upon the burning structure, but it was
soon evident that the building was
doomed. The flames leaped from cel
lar to garret and became a roaring fur
nace. At this moment a cry broke
from the crowd. In the top story, at
one of the windows, appeared a young
man, a member of the baseball team.
He came to the window and looked
out, but all beneath was smoke and
flame; his gaze could not penetrate It,
and he started back. The chief of the
fire department cried out to him to
jump—ladders would nor reach him,
and they stretched the net. He looked
again; nothing but Impenetrable flams
and smoke beneath him, and Are be
hind him rutting off his escape, and he
stood his ground. Again the chief call
ed to him, “Jump!” but he dared not
move. , Just then the captain of the
ball team cried out, “Bill, you're gone
If you stay there. Jump, man, jump!”
He was accustomed to being command
ed by that man. He believed in his
captain. He didn't understand how It
meant anything but death to leap, but
when his captain ordered him to leap
he Instinctively obeyed, and plunged,
and struck the net, and bounced like
a ball. They caught him, and the boys
took him on their shoulders, crying out,
“He's safe! Bill Wssafe!” Yes, thank
God! saved because he dared believe a
man and swing out through the dark
and flame into space because he bade
him.
Oh, soul, hear me! You have tar
ried too long. Behold THE man that
bids you, and then In God's name leap!
It Is death to stand where you are!
Christ says It Is life to leap. Look!
Leap! Live!
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