Spurgeon Saturday

Meditate on Calvary

“Go then in meditation to Calvary. There he hangs. It is the middle cross of these three. Methinks I see him now.

I see his poor face emaciated, and his visage more marred than that of any man. I see the beady drops of blood still standing round his pierced temples—marks of that rugged thorn-crown. Ah, I see his body naked—naked to his shame. We may tell all his bones. See there his hands rent with the rough iron, and his feet torn with the nails. The nails have rent through his flesh. There is now not only the hole through which the nail was driven, but the weight of his body has sunken upon his feet, and see the iron is tearing through his flesh. And now the weight of his body hangs upon his arms, and the nails there are rending through the tender nerves.

Hark! Earth is startled! He cries, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’

Oh, sinner, was ever a shriek like that? God hath forsaken him. His soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death.

But hark, again, he cries, ‘I thirst!’

Give him water! Give him water! Ye holy women, let him drink. But no, his murderers torture him. They thrust into his mouth the vinegar mingled with gall—the bitter with the sharp, the vinegar and the gall. At last, hear him, sinner, for here is your hope.

I see him bow his awful head. The King of heaven dies. The God who made the earth has become a man, and the man is about to expire.

Hear him! He cries, ‘It is finished!’ and he gives up the ghost.

The atonement is finished, the price is paid, the bloody ransom counted down, the sacrifice is accepted. ‘It is finished!’ Sinner, believe in Christ. Cast thyself on him. Sink or swim, take him to be thy all in all. Throw now thy trembling arms around that bleeding body.

Sit now at the feet of that cross, and feel the dropping of the precious blood.”

— C. H. Spurgeon