WHAT constitutes the dignity of the gospel? Is it human or divine, earthly or heavenly? It was a most undignified thing from a human standpoint to die on a cross between two thieves. That was the most undignified thing ever done in this world, and yet it was the grandest spectacle that ever heaven or earth gazed upon. With what adoration must the hosts of heaven have gazed upon the illustrious Sufferer as He bowed His head in death. The Pharisees spat in the face of that humbled Man, they wagged their heads in derision and cried, “He saved others, Himself He cannot save.”
Ah! but He was intent on saving others. On that cross we see the dignity of almighty Strength, the dignity of eternal Wisdom, the dignity of everlasting, unquenchable Love, baring its bosom to suffer in the stead of its rebellious creature-man. It was the incarnate God standing in the place of condemned and guilty man-that was the dignity of Love.
Oh, precious Savior, save us from maligning thy gospel and Thy name by our paltry notions of earthly dignity and forgetting the dignity that clothed Thy sacred brow, as, crowned with thorns Thou didst hang upon the cross!
“Jesus, dishonored and dying,
A felon on either side —
Jesus, the song of the drunkards,
Jesus the crucified!
Name of God’s tender comfort,
Name of His glorious power,
Name that is song and sweetness,
The strong eternal tower.
Jesus the Lamb accepted,
Jesus the Priest on His throne —
Jesus the King who is coming —
Jesus, Thy Name alone!”