Psalm 73. a psalm of Asaph, Truly God is
good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. But
as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh
slipped. For I was envious at the foolish
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there is no bands
in their death, but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble
as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore,
pride can pass at them about as a chain. Violence covered
them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness
they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt and speak
wickedly concerning oppression. They speak loftily. They set
their mouth against the heavens and their tongue walketh through
the earth. Therefore, his people return hither. and waters of
a full cup are wrung out to them. And they say, how doth God know?
And is their knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are
the ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in riches.
Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in
innocency. For all the day long have I been
plagued and chastened every morning. If I say I will speak thus, behold,
I should offend against the generation of thy children. When I thought
to know this, it was too painful for me, until I went into the
sanctuary of God. Then understood I their end.
Surely, thou didst set them in slippery places, thou castest
them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation,
as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream,
when one waketh, so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt
despise their image. Thus my heart was grieved, and
I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I and ignorant.
I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless, I am continually
with thee. Thou hast holden me by my right
hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy
counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven
but Thee? There is none upon earth that
I desire besides Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
For lo, they that are far from Thee shall perish. Thou hast
destroyed all them that go a-whoring from Thee. But it is good for
me to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord
God that I may declare all Thy works. Our heavenly, merciful Father,
we thank you again, Lord, where you have permitted us to assemble
together as a local body. And Father, we thank you for
all your blessings which you continue to pour out upon us,
including this great blessing, Lord, where we can assemble together
on a consistent basis and to hear, Lord, the unsearchable
riches of the glory of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father,
will you remember us this evening, especially as we sit here? Give
us, Lord, what we stand in need of, that we may benefit from
this message put before us, that our faith may be increased, that
our hearts and souls may be directed towards the Lord Jesus Christ
once again. And remember Brother Eric, Lord,
remember him each day as he prepares these messages Continue, Lord,
to give him health for his body and strength and courage that
he may open your word before us again this evening, Lord,
and pour out your grace and mercy upon him and us also. Continue,
Lord, to strengthen us. Lord, you have given health where
it was necessary again. Father, remember all of us that
gather here. Some are struggling, and Father,
will you continue to give strength and comfort where it is needed. Remember, Lord, our loved ones,
our children, our neighbors, our friends, our families. Lord,
will you have mercy upon them? All things are possible with
you. And remember also, Lord, Brother Gabe, as he hopes to
come with his wife, Hannah. Lord, watch over them and protect
them as they travel to our location. Watch over them, Lord, and all
of us. For Jesus' sake alone, amen. As you remain sitting, let's
turn to 489. Glory to His name. 489. We have that plugged in Plug
the wire in Down at the cross where my Savior
died, Down where for cleansing my sin I cried, There to my heart
was the blood applied. Glory to His name! Glory to His name! There to my heart was the blood
applied, Glory to His name. I am so wondrously saved from
sin, Jesus so sweetly abides within, There at the cross where
He took me in, Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name. O precious fountain that saves
from sin I am so glad I have entered it There Jesus saves
me and keeps me clean Glory to His name Glory to His name Glory
to His name There to my heart was the blood
applied, Glory to His name. Come to this fountain so rich
and sweet, Cast thy poor soul at the Savior's feet, Plunge
in today and be made complete, Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name. Thank you. Good evening. Let's be turning to John chapter
19. John 19. I want to read our text, which
is the first, predominantly the first four verses. So we'll just
be reading them. Then Pilate, therefore took Jesus
and scourged him. And the soldiers plaited a crown
of thorns. That's like plaiting of the hair,
it's a braiding. They braided a crown of thorns
together and put it on his head. And they put on him a purple
robe and said, Hail, King of the Jews. And they smote him
with their hands. Pilate therefore went forth again
and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that
ye may know that I find no fault in him." This account here of
the scourging and mocking of our Lord On the surface, it shows
us that Pilate was seeking to find a way to release Jesus. He was looking to appease the
Jews in scourging our Lord, in doing this to Him. He was trying
to find a way to set Him free. But, there's a deeper and a more
meaningful thing to what is going on here. It shows us the determinate
will and counsel of the Father. And, in these verses, we are
given emblems. Emblems that show us how that
Jesus Christ fulfilled, accomplished our salvation. And so he's fulfilling
the scriptures and he's accomplishing our salvation and these emblems,
what we see done here to Christ is showing us the salvation he
wrought for you that believe on him. You that believe him. So everything that's described
in this text here, everything that's done to Christ, was done
under the authority of Pilate. He's not to be excused. What he's done to our Lord, it's
been done under his command and authority as the Roman governor. As the Roman governor, he did
this. It says, then Pilate, therefore, took Jesus and scourged him. It's Pilate who commanded this
to be done to our Lord. He gave the word. He didn't do
it with his own hands, but he might as well have. It was under
his commandment for this to be done to the Christ. And the soldiers
that were under his command are the ones who executed these deeds
under Pilate's authority. Matthew adds that the soldiers
put a reed in his right hand, picturing the scepter of a king
by which he rules. And they put a reed in his hand
to mock him as though they were mocking him as a king being coronated. And Matthew adds that they spit
upon him and took the reed and smote him on the head. And so what we're seeing here
was that he was shamefully treated. He was treated shamefully, what
they did to him. Now Pilate tells the Jews at
the end of verse four, I bring him forth to you. I bring him
forth to you scourged. I bring him forth to you, bleeding
from his head, his face, his body, from the beatings and the
mockery that my soldiers have put on him. I bring him forth
to you with a crown of thorns on his head and a purple robe
draped about his bloody body, that ye may know that I find
no fault in him. I believe Pilate when he said
on multiple occasions here that he found no fault in Jesus of
Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of God. He said it three times. Back in chapter 18, verse 38,
it says that he went out again unto the Jews and saith unto
them, I find in him no fault at all. Then in chapter 19 verse
4, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that
I find no fault in him. And then in verse 6, Pilate saith
unto them, Take ye him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. The first time that he spoke
those words, he was trying to release Christ under the The
thing that they typically did around this time, where the Romans
would release to the Jews one of the prisoners that they had.
There was a tradition that they would follow and they would release
a prisoner that the Jews wanted, but the Jews chose Barabbas,
a robber. And then he scourges them and
mocks him cruelly, hoping that he might engage their sympathy
and their pity, seeing him like this, thinking perhaps that,
all right, enough's been done to him. We'll take him. You can
let him go now. but they didn't want him released. It says in verse 5, Then came
Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe,
and Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man. Now the people seeing
him there possibly were astonished at what they saw, at the figure
that they saw of what was done to Christ. They weren't expecting
this, and yet this is what was done to him, and perhaps they
gasped with silence. And some think this is what Isaiah
was writing of back in Isaiah 52, when he said, as many were
astonied at thee, astonished at thee. And the word astonied,
giving that sense of they turned to stone when they saw him. I mean, not literally, but they
froze just looking at him. His visage, his face was so marred
more than any man and his form more than the sons of men. I
don't know if that's speaking of this moment here or when he
was hanging on the cross. I tend to think it was the latter,
when he was on the cross. maybe some of the people there
were feeling some pity and shock, so that in verse six it says,
when the chief priests, therefore, and officers saw him, they cried
out saying, crucify him, crucify him. And Pilate saith unto them,
take ye him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. Surely, this next word that Isaiah
says, in Isaiah 53, verse three, This speaks of him that he is
despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not." And that's how the people that were there accusing
Christ of being the King of the Jews accusing him for he said
that he was one with God, and they wanted him put to death
for it. And they hid their faces from him and had no pity. Took
no pity and had no care for what was done to him. They were able
to shut their bowels of compassion toward a man who had fed the
hungry, who had healed the diseased and the sick, and the lame and
the lepers, who taught the people as one having authority." And
he was no criminal. He was no criminal, but when
you read that, he was treated as one of the most vile, worthless
evil, criminals, sinners that ever were. That's what you do
to people that you hate and despise for some wicked deed that they've
done. And that's what they did to our
Lord. They treated Him as the worst of criminals. Now, Pilate
was a sinful man, and Pilate was very troubled about this,
and he was a confused man, and he made one foolish decision
after another concerning Christ. And you think under normal circumstances,
any other man would have just been set free, regardless of
what the Jews thought. Pilate had the authority and
the power to release him. He did not have to crucify him. But he felt compelled, for some
reason, to do what the Jews wanted him to do. And so when we see
this, this pattern, this time and time again that Pilate kept
trying to release him, we know there's a greater purpose here.
There's the purpose and will of God, the Father, being implemented
concerning his Son, Jesus Christ. His will and determinate counsel
was being accomplished for your redemption, you that believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, you that have no other hope of righteousness. that you should be delivered
from your sins and be given eternal life, reconciliation, and fellowship
with holy God. For your sakes, the father gave
up his son. The father put his son to death,
was pleased to bruise his son to put away the sins of his people. Acts 2.23 is confirmed in that
it says, "...him being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have
crucified and slain." Now, as believers, we're well aware that
God's will, the Father's will and purpose was being done here
for the Son. But as we look now at what our
Lord endured at the hand of these sinners, we find that what was
done actually serves as emblems. They serve as emblems to make
known to us what our Lord endured for His people. What He went
through because He loved us and sacrificed Himself for His beloved
bride. Now an emblem is an object. It's
an object and the picture of that object conveys an understanding. It gives us an understanding
about something and so what we're trying to understand is made
clearer by the emblem. For example, Noah's Ark is an
emblem. Noah's Ark is an emblem. It gives us an understanding
of the salvation of sinners from the wrath and judgment of God
by the Lord Jesus Christ. It gives us a picture. It's an
emblem. It's an object that makes clear
to us the salvation that Christ himself has wrought for us who
are sinners. The ark carried eight living
souls of Noah and his family and it brought them all safely
through the wrath of God. It brought them safely through
the flood and the rain of God's wrath. Now the ark itself bore
the wrath of God. It was lifted up so that the
waters of the flood were underneath it and the rain came down upon
it. That ark was entirely engulfed by the wrath of God. However, not a single drop of
wrath touched one living soul inside that ark, and they were
all carried safely through to the other side from the old world
to the new world. And so it is that all God's chosen
people are hid in Christ, the ark of their salvation, who bore
them, who bore them in his body and bore the wrath of God poured
out upon himself for their sins, making payment for their sins.
bearing their death, dying their death in their place, in their
room instead, as our substitute, just like the ark did for Noah
and his family. So that's what an emblem is. So let's see these emblems that
are described here in this brief passage, verses one through three
specifically. Now first, were told that Pilate
took Jesus and scourged him. Now, according to those familiar
with scourging, the way someone was scourged is they would be
stripped down of their clothes and they would be fastened to
a pillar, tied to a post, and then whipped severely, brutally. whipped and just beaten time
after time after time. Now, it is difficult for myself
or for any of us to enter into what Christ endured on the cross
under the wrath of the Father as our sacrifice and as our surety. It's hard for us to really enter
into that because we, by the grace of God, really don't know
what it is to have all the wrath and fury of God for the sins
of many poured out upon you. We don't know what that's like,
but this scourging of Christ, it serves as an emblem for us
because we can enter into a certain level of understanding about
that. We have a certain understanding
of what it must be like for someone to be whipped severely and not
even be able to cover their body underneath the blows. And so,
our Lord bore this. He was given wounds that only
vile, sinful criminals should ever receive. He received that
in Himself for something that is only rightfully kept for those
who deserve it for horrible, sinful acts and deeds. The bruises that must have appeared
on his body, well, the bruises are the rising up of blood that
cover where the iniquity was that took that blow, that was
struck with that hit, made with that blow that was dealt. Another thing, a chastening.
A beloved son received is a son who is chastened by the Father. We're told in scriptures that
whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth. And I was thinking about that,
and you know who takes comfort in that verse? that the son that is received
of the father, that the father chastens those whom he receives.
You know who is comforted by that verse and has peace from
that verse? A chastened son. You that are chastened, a child
chastened, are comforted to know that God chastens those whom
he loves, and they find peace in that. And healing can only
follow after stripes have been laid upon that flesh. Now Christ bore this scourging
not for his own sins. Christ is innocent. Christ is
sinless. He is without sin. Peter saying
he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Pilate said
three times, I find in him no fault at all. He bore these wounds
then for another. even for you that believe him.
He bore these wounds, this scourging, for you. And so the emblem helps
us to enter in. He bore this beating that I deserve. He took my place that I should
have taken for my sins. Under the wrath of God, he bore
this in my place. And so it gives us some understanding
of the strictness of God's justice being meted out, poured out upon
the Lamb of God in the place of you that believe on Him. And
another thing that we can consider in that is, what love to do that? What graciousness to bear that
for you? What condescension to take your
place, Him who is The Name above every name, the Beloved Son,
the Most Precious to the Father, He took the lowest place as the
Servant for you, His Beloved Bride. And behold His patience,
how He patiently endured that cruel mocking to redeem you to
Himself. Isaiah captured that in this
way, Isaiah 53 verse 5, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. And he bore that. Second, the
second emblem we see, we're told the soldiers plaited a crown
of thorns and put it on his head. So Christ was crowned upon his
head. And it signifies that he, it
shows us that he is the head of his people. He is the preeminent
one, the head of the body, the church. He is the preeminent
one of his people. He's our husband. He's our family's
head. He is our king. He's our forerunner
who has gone before us. He's the representative of the
church, his bride. And so the suffering that he
bore, he bore for her, for his church. the price that he paid
to God's justice, he was there paying it for the sins of his
people, to pay the debt that we had incurred. The crown of
thorns is an emblem that speaks of the curse. The thorns speak
of the curse that came upon Adam and all his seed when we fell
in Adam in the garden. And God pronounced the curse
on the man, saying unto Adam, Because thou hast hearkened unto
the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I
commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is
the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it
all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall
it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the In
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto
the ground, for out of it thou wast taken. For dust thou art,
and unto dust shalt thou return. It is any wonder, then, if we
are but dust, if this flesh is dust, that the only fruit that
we bring forth of the works of this flesh are thorns and thistles,
briars and things that are of no value. And these thorns picture
that curse. And so this crown of thorns being
woven and placed on Christ's head, him who is the head of
his people, tells us he's there settling our debt. He's settling
my debt. He's paying for my sins. He's satisfying holy justice,
holy God, for me, the sinner. And the debt he satisfied was
that curse of the law as our head and representative. Turn
over to Galatians 3. Galatians 3 verses 13 and then
we'll read verse 14 in a minute. Speaking of this curse. It tells
us plainly, Galatians 3.13, that Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. We're the chosen people
of God in Christ. We fell in transgression in Adam,
and we came under the curse because of our sin and trespasses. We
earned the wages of sin, which is death, death eternal. But
as our surety, the Son of God came. He is the Christ, and he
came as a surety of his people saying, they can't pay it, I'll
pay it. Every last drop of my blood will
pay and satisfy all that my people owe. So that they're mine now. I paid for them. I redeemed them
with my own blood and they are my precious people. He died our death. The death that you and I deserve
for our wicked sins, our trespasses, our deeds. He died that death. that we in him should have life
eternal, and joy and peace with our God forevermore. As it says
in the next verse, Galatians 3.14, that the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. Not by our paying it off,
not by our works and deeds, but in faith, believing Christ, trusting
Him, committing all our care and righteousness to Him, saying,
Lord, not my works. Don't look at what I've done.
Look to the precious one, to the Son of God. Look to Him who
came for this very purpose, to make me righteous by His righteousness,
to satisfy your law by His satisfaction. to know and fellowship and be
reconciled to my God, not by my works, but his works. I have no hope of righteousness,
no standing before you, but Christ, the rock, my salvation, my savior. So we have this promise given
to us because of the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
stood there and bore. all that mocking and beatings
and spittings and cruelty against him. He stood in our place and
bore that penalty that we earned. Verse six, sorry, Isaiah 53 verse
six says, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone
to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us
all. He laid it on his son. Third,
we're told that the soldiers, they put on him a purple robe,
a purple robe. Now, the color purple speaks
of his royalty. He's someone that you want to
know. He is our God and creator. All things are given into his
hand for his glory, for his purpose, for his good pleasure. All things
are and were created. They're all given to him. He's someone that we want to
know. But they mocked him. They treated
him shamefully and despitefully, despising his purpose. Normally, we want to know loyalty.
Normally, we want to know them because they're people of influence.
They're people who can get things done. They're well-known around
town. They're people of renown, people
of importance. And normally, we like to know
people of importance. But he wasn't important to them.
They despised him. They treated him as the lowest
creature, most despised, unable to do anything for them. That's
the flesh. That's the nature and the wicked
heart of man. And when they crucified him,
they crucified him just outside of Jerusalem so that they could
shame him. It was a shameful thing to be
crucified. And they shamed him. They crucified
him just outside of Jerusalem. And just as they sought to shame
him when they put the crown of thorns on his head and the purple
robe, and they brought him out before the Jews to see him like
that. They crucified him just outside
of Jerusalem to mock him and to ridicule him and to shipwreck
the faith of those that trusted in him, to demoralize his followers. But wisdom is justified of all
her children. He's a friend of publicans and
sinners. He ate with sinners and received
them. He let them touch him, and he
was kind. merciful and gracious to the
sinner and to those who could give him absolutely nothing but
a bad name for even associating with him and that's how kind
and gentle he is and a perfect Savior wherefore in Hebrews it
says Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his
own blood suffered without the gate let us go forth therefore
unto him without the camp bearing the His reproach. The Lord did
this, that He would put away your sin and take away our shame. He put away our shame. It's no
shameful thing to know Christ. It's a blessing to know Christ,
our Savior. It's a blessing to know Him and
to call Him friend and Savior. Father, mighty God, the Prince
of Peace, our husband, our all. It's good to know him. The father,
it says, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him
to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall see you
that are new creatures in Christ. He shall prolong his days, and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall
accomplish that which he came to do, and he did accomplish
it. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. seeing all his people whom he
successfully redeemed and saved. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. And so we see our Lord, he never
wavered from his purpose of salvation. He was faithful, faithful to
the end to accomplish our deliverance, our redemption. We're told in
Hebrews that for the joy that was set before him, he endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God. And all who look to him, who
believe on his name, his word promises, and his spirit testifies,
you shall never be ashamed, that trust him and believe him for
all your righteousness and acceptance with God. Don't be moved from
Christ. you'll never be ashamed knowing
him, the friend of sinners. Fourth, we're told, this is the
final one, we're told they said, hell, king of the Jews, and smote
him with their hands. Well, this is an emblem of the
coronation of our risen Lord and Savior, who returns to heaven,
who returns to the Father and is now seated on the right hand
of the throne of God. These wicked men, they mocked
Christ. They gave Him a mock coronation.
A coronation of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. But our
God tells us that all His enemies are in derision. They're in confusion. They're fighting against Him
and they cannot prevail. The will and purpose of God is
accomplished and being implemented and executed in the earth and
all things are working and going exactly according to the plan
and the will of our sovereign God. Christ, the Lamb of God,
is the one opening the seals of the book and implementing
the perfect will of the Father in all things. The psalmist asks,
why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together. You can see Pilate and the chief
priests of the Sanhedrin. Taking counsel, gather against
the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bands
asunder and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the
heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in
his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my
holy hill of Zion. You know, you think about in
death, That's when we're most weak. If an enemy is standing
over us, putting us to death, there's nothing we can do about
it when we're dying. We can't overcome the grip of
the enemy of death. And yet, at that point, when
Christ hung on the cross and said, it is finished, and gave
up the ghost to the Father, That's when he triumphed gloriously
over all his enemies and put them to shame and destroyed all
of them and delivered all his people. It says that when he
was on the cross, he spoiled principalities and powers. He
made a show of them openly, meaning he made a public spectacle of
them. He put them to shame, triumphing over them in him. And by the
power and glory of God He's risen. God hath made Him both Lord and
Christ. And we're blessed. We're blessed
to bow our faces before Him. to kiss the Son and to confess
His name and to speak of Him to others, to come here and worship
Him, worship our God in song as we'll do very shortly, to
sing praises to Him, to rejoice in Christ our everlasting King.
So we thank God for His gracious salvation. We thank God for everything
Christ endured. Like I said, it's hard for us
to enter into what Christ bore and endured for us, but these
words here give us emblems, a sense by which we can enter in what
our Savior patiently, graciously, condescendingly, lovingly endured
for you who believe Him, and trust Him, and love Him, and
follow Him. I pray the Lord bless your hearts. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your grace. We thank you for these pictures. These, they're more than pictures.
They are what our Savior endured for us. And we thank you for
what they show us of what our Savior accomplished for us in
his death, burial, and resurrection. The blood he shed on the cross
in our place, bearing our sin and our shame, and was not ashamed
of us. but did this all for His bride,
His church. Lord, we thank You. We confess
how weak we are, but Lord, thank You for enabling us to know what
He's done. enabling us to see what He bore
for us, and more than that, giving us Your Spirit, whereby we may
know and understand the grace and mercy of our God, given to
us freely and abundantly in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray
for Your people, Your people here, others that we know. Lord,
You know our struggles, You know our sicknesses, our weaknesses,
and and the things which we suffer. And Lord, you take care of us,
and you do care for us, and are very merciful, very patient,
very kind with us, to us, Lord, and we thank you for that. We
thank you and pray that you would continue to bless us with this
gospel word, in turning our eyes upon Christ our Savior, and blessing
your people richly in Him. We pray, Lord, that you would
Indeed, bless this work. Continue to bless this work.
Continue to bless our hearts, opening our ears to hear it.
Gather your people here, Lord, to hear this word of our Savior. We thank you for it. We know
it's all of your grace. And it's in Christ's name we
pray and give thanks. Amen. Our closing hymn will be 129. Alas, and did my Savior bleed. We're at the cross. 129. Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die? Vote that sacred head for such
a worm as I. Was it for crimes that I have
done he groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity, grace unknown,
and love beyond degree. How might the sun in darkness
hide, and shut his more reason? When Christ the mighty Maker
died, for man the creature sinned. What drops of grief can ne'er
repay the debt of love? Dear Lord, I give myself away,
Tis all that I can do. Thank you.