fe Rey. L. H. Ruge of the 
ational church, Manchester, 
in P eetapied his pulpit last Sun- 
day, after a three eewks’ illness, and 
* preached a much needed sermon on 
“Christian Cross Bearing.” 
Text: “As they came out they 
a man of Cyrene, Simon by 
ne; him they compelled to bear 
Tis cross.’—Matt. 27 :32. 
o was this Simon of Cyrene? 
is he Jew or pagan, foe or friend? 
A briet line or two only do we find 
here about him; slight mention or 
ecture in "the commentaries. 
e suppose him to have been a 
pagan enquirer in the temple of 
truth, one who perchance had heard 
Jesus teach and was strangely in- 
terested. 
: The incident arove in my mind 
uring the past week and once there, 
nanded my consideration. I have 
passed this incident too lightly, now 
it seems to me so important that I 
cannot see how the lesson can be 
pared. 
LT eannot escape the significance of 
t. Iam strangely moved under the 
editation of it. My imagination is 
vung back for centuries, until I 
eel and see this tragic procession 
ul of an ancient crime in the name of 
eligion. I have a new picture paint- 
sd in my soul, I have a new lesson 
ngraved on my conscience. 
PAnd lo, as I bring this all before 
es. you it is a daily lesson on our 
eets that I relate. 
"The incident shows us a human 
su ifferer. We have seen Jesus hun- 
' and thirsty; have seen him 
ary and nervous and sleepless. 
Now we see him as we have seen 
‘other suffering mortals, utterly ex- 
austed. Jesus the man has reached 
the limit of endurance. He is a 
brother sufferer to the last depth of 
u fering. 
; » His body was worn with agony 
faint from loss of blood. He 
‘had been through mental torture. 
He had been buffeted by the mob 
from court to court and the pitiless 
persecution at last begins to tell on 
nerves racked to prostration. 
- The rough beams of the cross are 
eruelly heavy and Jesus staggers 
and falls under them. They beat 
and goad him up and he staggers to 
his feet again for the time being, but 
the measure of his suffering is full 
at last and he is powerless in his 
capacity to endure any more. 
The rabble halt in their inhu- 
-manity, but not in compassion. It 
<4 a 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
“Simon of Cyrene Carrying the Cross of Christ” 
SERMON By Rev. L. H. Ruce 
looked as though their victim would 
defeat their lust for revenge and die 
on the way to Golgotha. They must 
get him onto the cross and complete 
the measure of their inhumanity. 
I know the blood lust of the mob 
still blackens our day with deeds as 
inhuman as this, but a noble spirit 
of humanity lives in the world since 
that day. He said, ‘‘I thirst’’ and 
they give him vinegar and gall to 
drink, but in his suffering he has 
shown all the world how to feel for 
another’s suffering. 
When you run with willing feet 
and with eager hands lift a man who 
falts suffering on the highway, 
when you institute an order today 
to help the helpless you show the 
world the heart of Jesus. The 
world’s heart today compared to the 
world’s heart then is a great, sym- 
pathetic, helpful, loving heart. 
Up to the very last hour of his 
great life and passion, in the mute 
agony of his supreme bodily exhaus- 
tion Jesus teaches the world. this 
sublime truth—get under another 
man’s cross. 
The soldiers compel Simon to 
earry the cross. The word compel 
means nothing more than the act of 
Roman authority that ordered this - 
man to this duty. So the police 
might compel you to stop your car- 
riage or automobile to carry a 
wounded man to a surgeon or hos- 
pital. 
yet willingly perform the service. 
So I like to think of Simon as a 
willing substitute, as a sympathetic 
friend near the Savior when all 
others had forsaken him. The 
thought of Jesus as utterly friend- 
less is too painful. 
IT want to imagine one face there 
in that turbulent mob shining with 
tenderness, sympathy, compassion 
for this lone suffering Savior; to 
think him sorely restrained to come 
to the aid of Jesus. to think how 
onee or twice he has impulsively 
doen little things to help, until now 
the soldiers noting this sav: ‘‘Here 
if you are so eager to help, earry 
his cross up. Golgotha.” 
T eannot bear to think of Simon, 
with a sullen, shame-faced hrow 
driven to the task. T eannot hear to 
think he complained and staggered 
unwillingly under the burden. 
O. sometimes we are compelled to 
eet under another man’s cross,—a 
brother in sore straits. the cares of 
another family are laid as a respon- 
sibility upon us. There is a social, 
Compelled to do it you might 
7 
religious, conscientious compulsion 
that compels us to carry another’s 
cross sometimes. Do we get under 
the cross cheerfully or complain- 
ingly? 
| like to think that Simon jumped 
eagerly, gladly under the cross, that 
he came fresh and strong, a great- 
hearted, broad-shouldered man_ to 
hift this too heavy a_ load from a 
brother’s back as if the task was a 
holy privilege. 
Let us get under another man’s 
cross that way, making it for us a 
great, sacred opportunity instead of 
a duty,or a task. A man misses his 
chance for eternal glory until he sees 
the cross of a fallen brother as a 
means for succoring Christ. 
Jesus was born with this ‘‘eross 
eternal, sign prophetic’? upon his 
back and everyone that ever had 
anything to do with Jesus has gotten 
under Jesus’ eross. The sweet inno- 
cent babes slaughtered by Herod had 
to suffer under his cross. Every loy- 
al disciple got under it. Paul carried 
it, the martyrs carried it, every de- 
voted, self-sacrificing missionary, 
preacher and layman giving ‘them- 
selves for the world’s salvation must 
carry it. 
We are here to get under the Sa- 
vior’s cross. Cross-bearers for Christ 
and humanity, cross-bearers in a 
world’s redemption, that is what we 
are called to be. God give us a real- 
ization of our opportunity, a sense 
of the glory offered to us! 
You say, would that I had been 
Simon that day, would that I had 
had Paul’s privilege of fellowship 
with Christ under the cross! Today 
the same opportunity is yours. 
Simon a vicarious sufferer for the 
Savior of the world then, vicarious 
sufferers in the cause of human re- 
demption are substitutes for Jesus 
still, for Jesus said, ‘‘Inasmuch as 
ve have done it unto one of the least 
of these my brethren, ye have done 
it unto me.’’ 
From the agony of the lower ani- 
mal life under vivisection to the 
highest human self sacrifice the cross 
is laid upon suffering and sin. 
“Cross in nature, pain and travail, 
Wreckage strewn on_ endless 
sands ; 
Love divine in mystic meaning, 
Lo! The age-long symbol stands !”’ 
[ have read of a brave youth, full 
of fresh vitality, laying himself be- 
side the weakened body of another, 
his full veins linked to the depleted 
veins of another, sharing his very 
life, with A Simon under 
a brother’s cross. 
Here today the lesson is repeated. 
A man is sick, out of work, in debt, 
