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The Panoramic Scene Above the Holy City, December 1
We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every
one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath
done, whether it be good or bad.
2 Corinthians 5:10
.
Above the throne is revealed the cross; and like a panoramic view
appear the scenes of Adam’s temptation and fall, and the successive steps
in the great plan of redemption. The Saviour’s lowly birth; His early life of
simplicity and obedience; His baptism in Jordan; the fast and temptation
in the wilderness; His public ministry, unfolding to men heaven’s most
precious blessings; the days crowded with deeds of love and mercy, the
nights of prayer and watching in the solitude of the mountains; the plottings
of envy, hate, and malice which repaid His benefits; the awful, mysterious
agony in Gethsemane beneath the crushing weight of the sins of the whole
world; His betrayal into the hands of the murderous mob; the fearful events
of that night of horror—the unresisting prisoner, forsaken by His best-loved
disciples, rudely hurried through the streets of Jerusalem; the Son of God
exultingly displayed before Annas, arraigned in the high priest’s palace, in
the judgment hall of Pilate, before the cowardly and cruel Herod, mocked,
insulted, tortured, and condemned to die—all are vividly portrayed.
And now before the swaying multitude are revealed the final scenes—
the patient Sufferer treading the path to Calvary; the Prince of heaven
hanging upon the cross; the haughty priests and the jeering rabble deriding
His expiring agony; the supernatural darkness; the heaving earth, the rent
rocks, the open graves, marking the moment when the world’s Redeemer
yielded up His life.
The awful spectacle appears just as it was. Satan, his angels, and his
subjects have no power to turn from the picture of their own work. Each
actor recalls the part which he performed.... All behold the enormity of their
guilt. They vainly seek to hide from the divine majesty of His countenance,
outshining the glory of the sun, while the redeemed cast their crowns at the
Saviour’s feet, exclaiming: “He died for me!”
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