Basic HTML Version
360
From Here to Forever
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 on the cross; the priests and rabbis deriding
His expiring agony; the supernatural darkness marking the moment
when the world’s Redeemer yielded up His life.
The awful spectacle appears just as it was. Satan and his subjects
have no power to turn from the picture. Each actor recalls the part
he performed. Herod, who slew the innocent children of Bethle-
hem; the base Herodias, upon whose soul rests the blood of John
the Baptist; the weak, time-serving Pilate; the mocking soldiers;
the maddened throng who cried, “His blood be on us, and on our
children!”—all vainly seek to hide from the divine majesty of His
countenance, while the redeemed cast their crowns at the Saviour’s
feet, exclaiming, “He died for me!”
There is Nero, monster of cruelty and vice, beholding the ex-
[405]
altation of those in whose anguish he found satanic delight. His
mother witnesses her own work, how the passions encouraged by
her influence and example have borne fruit in crimes that caused the
world to shudder.
There are papist priests and prelates who claimed to be Christ’s
ambassadors, yet employed the rack, the dungeon, and the stake
to control His people. There are the proud pontiffs who exalted
themselves above God and presumed to change the law of the Most
High. Those pretended fathers have an account to render to God.
Too late they are made to see that the Omniscient One is jealous of
His law. They learn now that Christ identifies His interests with His
suffering people.
The whole wicked world stand arraigned on the charge of high
treason against the government of heaven. They have none to plead
their cause; they are without excuse; and the sentence of eternal
death is pronounced against them.
The wicked see what they have forfeited by their rebellion. “All
this,” cries the lost soul, “I might have had. Oh, strange infatuation!
I have exchanged peace, happiness, and honor for wretchedness,
infamy, and despair.” All see that their exclusion from heaven is just.