THE THIRST OF CHRIST.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 138, 10 June 1905, Page 10

THE THIRST OF CHRIST.

$By the Bey. W. Everett Johnson, Bector 3 Church of the Redeemer, , New York.) "Jesns, knowing that all things were ?°™ might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst."—St. John xiis. These are the last words of the Son of Maa before His.death to mankind. They # are tttteie'd.foY. a purpose by one dying in full possession of His faculties. All —ottered jrom_ the cross before seems to discourage human aspirations; this ■ unites Him with the-feeblest cry of human flesh. ' -No-one -so--weak, so feeble, so utterly a waif in the gutter that he cannot join in this cry;"' aye. a dog can whine it! The One of Calvary nerer for a moment forgets. His mission. Every little one may understand His last word. The yeiy'need'of His suffering flesh rings out as. His message for the centuries. The same hand that created a tongue to cleave to the jaws by thirst has turned it into the sweetest message ever read by . true heart* and sincere lives. • If one look for a sign of the divine nature in this Man, let him go hack and mark how carefully Ho has prepared for this His last will and testament before -the cross has forced it from His lips. He has set forth the final judgment when He in His glory is to return to earth, hut desolate and alone, but with all the . holy angels and the crowd of earth nround Him. The whole scene is now reversed, and the desolate One lias the companionship of heaven, and the fakirs of religion tremble in the solitude of fears. V ■ His last words on earth were heard by a poor mercenary of the Roman Emperor, ' hired to stand at the cross until the end. This poor soldier had taken a sponge and dipped it in his vessel of wine and touched it to the lips of the crucified One. Poor fellow , } he little -knew how in coming centuries men would envy him this Simple act of a completely human heart. This mere impulse of a sweet human nature had marked the brink of a gulf 'between God and man. and on the other . side, separated by centuries, f-tands the One who had thirsted; Across the gulf conies the long-deferred answer of the Son of God, "I whs thirsty and ye gave .Mc drink." Between the Roman soldier and the , Spn_ of -Man is the crowd in the gulf*(we are in it), crying, "When were you thirsty, and when did we give you •drink.2" -And then the tender and fearful •answer comes, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the." least of. these My brethren, ye did it unto Me."' ■ As you would love mc had I taken your little child,"lost" and desolate, thirsting and hungry, aid.given it drink and food and care, so now the Son of God declares that as ye have done it unto one of the least of 'these ye have done it unto Him. . How supremely simple—you would do ..the same to mc as God would do unto you." ' "J3ut .paiise .'a bit. What does Christ mean by the "least"? Least is a relative word. You may despise a man for his .poverty, and I may admire him for his T'jgenrusY he;Tnay-.be jour least, while tome he is great. We fill the- picture of the judgment ••■ before Christ with' some poor tramp to whom we have shown some cheap bit of kindness, while -we have overlooked the ■ real import. of the words. Perhaps our ■»» "least" , rode \>j iis-.iTr'a,carriage, wearing royal robes, being least, to us because of "'.. .pin - animosity, envy.or hatred: because he had done us injury, had "taken from "us;.-the', world's praise, we thought to be """iult. rjght/ while we at great expense had assuaged his thirst, for- all men have -" their hours of deep solitude and anguish ■ of spirit, and any one of us may act the ■fart of the Roman soldiers