all faithfulness, are we doing to make real and living to men the
presence of a Lord who is ever suffering in their sin and for it? The
artist was well inspired to give his picture a twentieth-century
setting. What an amount of grim Calvary there is in Glasgow every day
under the shadow of our Churches; ah! and behind the sanction of their
power. That is the word that should smite us; it is the word that must
be said--behind the sanction of their power.

The world would begin to see Christ, if we ourselves would see Him
crucified, not merely in the remote Palestine of the first century,
but, I say once more, in this Glasgow of to-day. In the foul slum, in
the haunt of shame, in the abode of crime and wretchedness, in the
places where children are robbed of their birthright before they know
what things mean; in the sweater's den, in the heartless side of
business competition, in the drink hells, in frivolous pursuits and
brainless amusements, in the insolence of wealth, and the sullenness of
poverty--in every place or thing where despite is done to the Divine
Humanity. Let us feel that whatever wrong is done to a single human
being, throughout the world-wide family of man, is literally done to
Jesus Christ, and we shall better understand that central Figure in the
artist's picture. Let us see Christ crucified in whatever evil is
done, in whatever good is left undone that we could do, and sin will
become to us not a term only, not a thing to be excused and explained
away, but a real and tremendous horror. We shall feel it to be what it
is, a stab struck at the living heart of Jesus Christ. As it has been
truly said: "Fellowship with Christ's sufferings will become less of a
mystical phrase, and more of a vital fact."

"To you is it nothing, all ye that pass by?" As I sat and looked at
that picture, this was the question that oppressed my thoughts. And
then the further question forced itself--Why, in so many cases, and to
all human seeming, is it just that--nothing? It is not enough to talk
of sin, and unbelief, and indifference, outside our life: they are real
enough, but do they suggest no responsibility on our part? Let it be a
call to prayer, an incentive to unceasing watchfulness lest one should
be passing by because there is nothing in us which constrains him, or
persuades her, to look and be saved, to look and live.

I said at the opening of this address that I would tell you later why I
include it in