GOLGOTHA! Calvary! The Place of a Skull! — what sacred memories cluster around these words! Before our Lord was crucified they meant nothing to anyone except as designating a place outside the walls of Jerusalem for the execution of criminals—offenders against the laws of mighty Rome. But for more than nineteen centuries since the Son of Man was lifted up, the very name Calvary, or its equivalent in other tongues, has stirred the hearts of millions as the symbol of a love that was stronger than death, which the many waters of judgment could not quench.
“And still in tender love and grace
Thou did’st with us abide
Until we came unto the place
Where Love was crucified:
And there Love broke the stubborn will
And set the soul aflame.
When from that cross upon the hill
Our great deliverance came:
The burden gone, the beauty seen
Of holy Love’s design.
Oh, matchless grace to intervene,
So wistful and benign!
We, too, would kiss those blessed feet
And bathe them with our tears—
Those feet that followed our dark beat
Adown the misspent years.
Such Love as tracked our wanderings
And would not quit the quest,
Lends to our aspiration wings
And answers every test,
It is not of our changeful moods:
No death can it destroy:
We range its glorious amplitudes,
And share its grand employ.”
—Lewis H. Court.