There is nothing like the cross. It is the meeting of the awful sin of man, with the perfect love of God. Sin risen up to the highest point of evil, and gone, put away, and lost in its own worst act. God is above man, even in the height of his sin; not in allowing it, but in putting it away by Christ's dying for it in love. The soldier's insulting spear, the witness if not the instrument of death, was answered by the blood and water which expiated and purified from the blow which brought it out. Sin was known, and to have a true heart, it must be known; and God was known, known in light. And the upright heart wants that, but known in perfect love, before which we had no need to hide or screen our sin.