The Lamb of God.
A stranger Star, that came from far,
To filing its silver ray
Where, cradled in a lowly cave,
A lowlier infant lay;
And led by soft sidereal light,
The Orient sages bring
Rare gifts of gold and frankincense,
To greet the homeless King.
* * *
He wandered through the faithfulness world,
A Prince in shepherd guise;
He called his scattered flock, but few
The Voice did recognize;
For minds unborne by hollow pride,
Or dimmed by sordid lust,
Ne'er look for kings in beggar's garb,
For diamonds in the dust.
* * *
Transfixt he hung—O crime of crimes!—
The God whom worlds adore.
"Father forgive them!" Drained the dregs;
Immanuel—no more.
No more where thunders shook the earth,
Where lightnings, 'thwart the gloom,
Saw that unconquered Spirit spurn
The shackles of the tomb.
Far-flaming falchion, sword of light,
Swift-flashing from its sheath,
It cleft the realms of darkness and
Dissolved the bands of death.
Hell's dungeons burst! Wide open swung
The everlasting bars,
Whereby the ransomed soul shall win
Those heights beyond the stars![1]
The Crucified and Crowned.—An attempt to tell, even in brief, the sublime story of the Christ, would be foreign to my present purpose, Even if space permitted, what pen could do justice to the theme? Suffice it that the Christ came, in the Meridian of Time, as ancient seers and prophets had foretold. Surrendering himself to to death, that there might be no more death, He arose from the grave and ascended on High, glorified with that glory which the Eternal Son had with the Eternal Father before this world was formed.
The Passover Realized.—In the Savior's crucifixion, the prophetic symbolism of the Passover had a most remarkable realization. In nothing was this more strikingly manifest than in certain incidents immediately following the Death on Calvary. The commandment instituting the Paschal Feast required that no bone of the lamb should be broken, and no fragment of it be left to decay, representing as it did the body of the Holy One, which was not "to see corruption."[2] Mark now the exact fulfillment: The Savior had been crucified between two thieves, and at sundown on the day of crucifixion the Jewish Sabbath began. In order that the day might not be "desecrated," the Rabbis prevailed upon the Roman governor to have the three bodies taken down from the crosses and buried.[3] When the soldiers went to remove the bodies, finding the two thieves still alive, they put an end to them by breaking their legs; but Jesus was spared this further indignity, he being "dead already."[4] Pierced with five wounds, yet not a bone of him broken, the Lamb of God, answering in every particular to the likeness of the paschal lamb, was laid in the rocky tomb, whence He came forth on the third day, his perfectly preserved tabernacle glorified in immortality.
The Lord's Supper.—The night before the Crucifixion, Jesus, having partaken of the Passover with his disciples, instituted in its stead the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, commanding them to observe it thenceforth.[5] The Supper, like the Feast, pointed to the Atonement; but in the Passover the pointing was forward to an even that had not yet occurred, while in the Supper, for the reverse reason, the indication is backward. It is said that the paschal lamb was offered in the Temple at Jerusalem about the same hour that Christ died; the substance and the shadow thus corresponding. Thereafter the Passover was obsolete, having fulfilled its purpose, and as the type no longer typified, it should have been discontinued. The Jews, however, perpetuated the old-time observance, not recognizing in Jesus their Messiah.
"It is Finished."—The Savior's dying words, as reported by the Beloved Disciple,[6] have been the subject of much controversy. "It is finished." What did those words signify? The notion has been entertained that Christ's crucifixion completed his work, so far as personal ministrations went, and that after the opening of the so-called Christian Dispensation, there was no further need of communication between God and man. "O most lame and impotent conclusion!" Whatever construction be placed upon that final utterance of our Lord's, it is perfectly clear, from what followed, that it never was intended to convey such a meaning.
Birth and Death Incidental.—The Death on Calvary was no more the ending, than the Birth at Bethlehem was the beginning, of that Divine Career. Both were mere incidents. The Savior's work is universal, extending from Eternity into Time, and back again into Eternity. All the Gospel dispensations, from Adam down to Joseph Smith, are parts of the all-embracing mission of Jesus Christ. Not until "the beginning of the seventh thousand years," the Morning of the Resurrection, "will the Lord God sanctify the earth and complete the salvation of man."[7] Moreover, sanctification will be succeeded by glorification, still another phase of the work of Him who bringeth to pass "the immortality and eternal life of man."
The Sacrifice Complete.—What, then, was "finished" by the Death on the Cross? Simply the pain and sorrow that the Son of God had willed to undergo, that He might ransom a lost creation, and make it possible for redeemed man, by faith and good works, to lay hold upon eternal life. The Savior's self-imposed humiliation, his voluntary sacrifice, his mysterious all-comprehensive suffering, the piled up agony of the human race, endured by him vicariously, to the end that his atonement might be infinite, reaching to every son and daughter of Adam[8]—this was finished, this was at an end; not the work of God, nor the continuous revelation of his word and will to man.
In the Spirit.—While the Savior's body was lying in the tomb, his spirit entered Paradise, and there preached to the spirits of the departed, opening, or causing to be opened, the dungeons of the damned. Returning, He took up his glorified body, and appeared in it to his astonished, half-doubting disciples.
On Both Hemispheres.—Christ died for all; but all are not entitled to his personal ministrations. The sheep, however, have the right to see their Shepherd and to hear his voice. Accordingly, after he had confirmed the faith of his Jewish disciples, had chosen twelve apostles, and sent them forth to preach the Gospel in the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit, he visited the Nephites, in America, for a similar purpose. They, in common with all Israel, had been warned by prophets to prepare for his coming; and the righteous were ready to receive him. Already they had the Gospel and the Priesthood, and now the Savior organized his Church among them. This done, He visited other broken-off branches of the "tame olive tree,"[9] their whereabouts as unknown to Lehi's descendants in the Land Bountiful, as was the existence of the Nephites to the inhabitants of Judea.
The "Other Sheep."—Jesus had said to his Jewish followers: "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice."[10] They inferred that He meant the Gentiles; but such was not his meaning. His direct, special errand was to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel."[11] The Gentiles were to be converted through the preaching of Jewish-Christian evangels.[12]
The "other sheep" were the Nephites, to whom the Savior explained his half-veiled utterance;[13] also declaring that He had still "other sheep," not of the Nephite fold nor of the Jewish fold, and that they likewise should see him and hear his voice.[14] Undoubtedly this allusion was to the "Lost Tribes;" but not to them alone. It included other Hebrew remnants, unknown to man, but known to Jehovah, "keeping watch above his own" in the mystical and remote regions whither his judgments had driven them.
In Remembrance of Him.—Both in Judea and in the Land Bountiful, the Savior instituted, among those who had received the Gospel, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, that memorial of his sacrifice, once prospective, now retrospective; once a prophecy, now a fulfillment. But its institution among the Nephites, unlike its introduction among the Jews, was after his resurrection. Concerning the earlier incident, the New Testament says:
"As they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
"And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it:
"For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins."[15]
"The Real Presence."—After the living oracles had departed, and only the dead letter of the Scriptures remained, uninspired "private interpretation"[16] conceived the notion that Jesus, when he said, "This is my body" and "my blood," meant the words to be taken literally. From that erroneous inference sprang the doctrine of transubstantiation, with its twin heresy, consubstantiation; the former a Roman Catholic tenet, the latter an unorthodox Protestant tenet relating to the Eucharist. So insistent was the Catholic Church upon this point, that men and women were condemned and punished as heretics, for denying "the real presence," the actual flesh and blood of Christ, in the elements of the Lord's Supper.[17]
Figurative, not Literal.—The language of Jesus, when he instituted the Lord's Supper at Jerusalem, was undoubtedly figurative. When He said, of the bread and wine, "This is my body" and "my blood," his body was intact, his spirit in his body, and his blood yet unsplit. He was there in person, whole, complete. This being the case, how could he have meant to identify the bread and wine with the constituents of his mortal tabernacle? "These are the emblems of my body and blood"—that was his meaning. He made this clear to the Nephites, in saying: "This shall ye do in remembrance of my body." Remembrance presupposes absence. Because he would be absent in body thereafter, they were to do this "in remembrance of" his body. What need to remember him, if he were present in person? As well require faith from one having a perfect knowledge.[18]
Use of Wine Forbidden.—The Latter-day Saints have been criticized for using water in the Sacrament; the Savior having sanctioned the use of wine both among the Jews and the Nephites. The explanation for the change is simple. The Church of Christ is not dependent upon books, nor upon tradition. It has an inspired Priesthood, led by immediate, continuous and direct revelation. The Lord has commanded his people in these days not to use wine in the Sacrament under existing conditions. This is the word they are under obligation to obey—not the word given to other peoples in former dispensations.[19]
Christ to Come Again.—Neither the Savior's resurrection, nor his ascension into Heaven[20] signalized the end of his personal ministry, the cessation of his labors in behalf of mankind. After his resurrection, He "went in body to minister to translated and resurrected bodies;"[21] and with these He will return when Enoch's City descends and all is ready for his glorious advent.
Footnotes
1. "Elias," Canto 3, Part 2.2. Psalms 16:10.3. The hypocrites! They could commit murder, could cause the death of the innocent, and feel no compunction: but they were horrified at the thought of a technical Sabbath-day desecration. Could there be a more glaring instance of "straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel"?4. John 19:33.5. Matt. 26:17-20; Mark 14:12-25; Luke 22:7-20.6. John 19:30.7. D. & C. 77:12.8. Ib. 19:16-19.
Such was the mission of him concerning whom Nephi of old prophesied: "And he cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam. And he suffereth this that the resurrection might pass upon all men, that all might stand before him at the great and judgment day." (2 Nephi 9:21, 22.)9. Jacob 5:3.10. John 10:16.11. Matt. 15:24.12. Nevertheless, it was all the work of the Lord; for those evangels were his servants, his messengers, clothed with his authority and acting in his name and stead. The subordinate is swallowed up in the principal. It is the general of an army who wins victory or suffers defeat, though millions of soldiers may have been fighting under his direction. The Roman myrmidons who nailed Jesus to the cross were not so much to blame for the cruel deed, as were Pilate, the Procurator, who permitted, nay, ordered it to be done, and the Jewish Rabbis who instigated the "judicial murder" of the sinless Son of God.13. 3 Nephi 15:21-24.14. Ib. 16:1-3.15. Matt. 26:26-28. Compare 3 Nephi 18:1-7.16. 2 Peter 1:20.17. A fact sufficient, of itself, to show that the Church was in an apostate condition.18. Too much reliance upon either the literal or the figurative in language, is apt to be misleading. An attendant in an art gallery or other public place where statues or paintings are on exhibit, might point out one and say to the visitor: "That is Caesar" or "That is Washington;" but the one addressed would not be likely to infer that Caesar or Washington was there in actual flesh and blood, or that the attendant meant to be so understood. Nor would the visitor need to be told that the statue or the painting represented the original. Such an explanation would be superfluous. The form of the Savior's instruction on the Sacrament—assuming that the correct translation has come down to us—may be accounted for in like manner. He knew that his disciples would understand him—and they did. They were not dependent upon the letter alone; the interpreting Spirit was with them to give it life.19. D. & C. 27:2-5.20. Acts 1:10, 11.21. "Mediation and Atonement," p. 76.
