CENTURY CRUSADE BY LYMAN ABBOTT A crusade to make this world New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1918 All rights reserved MAR 20 1919 INTRODUCTION THE THREE CROSSES And when they came unto the place which is called "The Skull," there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left.1 THREE crosses; three sufferers, condemned to death by the courts of their country; suffering the same physical pains; the same oriental sun beating on their naked bodies; the same fever burning in their veins, the same throbbing anguish in their limbs and heads. And the three all suffering spiritual pains; but how different! One of them a criminal whose life had been spent in violation of law and who to the end was defiant of God and man, resentful, angry, with all the torment of a defeated will and a remorseful but unrepentant conscience. The second, looking back on a worse than wasted life, longing to go back and live that life over again, the ghosts of his victims passing before him, the panorama of his evil deeds unrolled before 1 The Scripture references throughout this volume are generally taken from the American Standard Version. |