stand ?" The wicked pray to be buried beneath the rocks of the mountains rather than meet the face of Him whom they have despised and rejected .
That voice which penetrates the ear of the dead , they know . How often have its plaintive , tender tones called them to repentance . How often has it been heard in the touching entreaties of a friend , a brother , a Redeemer . To the rejecters of His grace no other could be so full of condemnation , so burdened with denunciation , as that voice which has so long pleaded : " Turn ye , turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will ye die ?" Ezekiel 33:11 . Oh , that it were to them the voice of a stranger ! Says Jesus : " I have called , and ye refused ; I have stretched out My hand , and no man regarded ; but ye have set at nought all My counsel , and would none of My reproof ." Proverbs 1:24 , 25 . That voice awakens memories which they would fain blot out-- warnings despised , invitations refused , privileges slighted .
There are those who mocked Christ in His humiliation . With thrilling power come to their minds the Sufferer ' s words , when , adjured by the high priest , He solemnly declared : " Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power , and coming in the clouds of heaven ." Matthew 26:64 . Now they behold Him in His glory , and they are yet to see Him sitting on the right hand of power . Those who derided His claim to be the Son of God are speechless now . There is the haughty Herod who jeered at His royal title and bade the mocking soldiers crown Him king . There are the very men who with impious hands placed upon His form the purple robe , upon His sacred brow the thorny crown , and in His unresisting hand the mimic scepter , and bowed before Him in blasphemous mockery . The men who smote and spit upon the Prince of life now turn from His piercing gaze and seek to flee from the overpowering glory of His presence . Those who drove the nails through His hands and feet , the soldier who pierced His side , behold these marks with terror and remorse .
With awful distinctness do priests and rulers recall the events of Calvary . With shuddering horror they remember how , wagging their heads in satanic exultation , they exclaimed : " He saved others ; Himself He cannot save . If He be the King of Israel , let Him now come down from the cross , and we will believe Him . He trusted in God ; let Him deliver Him now , if He will have Him ." Matthew 27:42 , 43 .
Vividly they recall the Saviour ' s parable of the husbandmen who refused to render to their lord the fruit of the vineyard , who abused his servants and slew his son . They remember , too , the sentence which they themselves pronounced : The lord of the vineyard " will miserably destroy those wicked men ." In the sin and punishment of those unfaithful men the priests and elders see their own course and their own just doom . And now there rises a cry of mortal
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