Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1868-12-25


event Of time. II dates back to che |
time when Ged changed his purposes
coward men. SO wonderful was the
story of God dwelling in the flesh, tue
-narsssge of Heavens high King with
ehe seed Of Adam, that angels desired to
Book into it, Man alone has dared to
SlisbelieVe it. Yet the ruiR Of Eden
was uDwro1ght in the mauger Of Judes.
The work Of forty centuries had been
fruitiess in eHecting mans return, but
this offspring of che rest Of Jesse, this
scion of Jewish lineage, so took root
and flourisbed in the Gentle world that
every child of the family Of man may
eat Of its fruit and live The Cross has
become an emblem of life and of power.
It's missionaries, bearing their pente-
coastal commissions, have carried it over
the plains of Europe and of Asia, up
she vast rivers and mountains of the
New World, about the islands Of the
deep, and now stand ready 10 overthrow
with its talismauic power the shadowy
despotism of Africa. Strange that the
land of refuge for the babe whom Herod
sought should be the last in yielding to
the faith. Yet that same Jesus who
united the power to punish vita the
capacity to suffer, has fifed the homes
and temples of the prosecuting lsraelite
with the sensual and brutal devotees of
the Ottoman Empire.
The awful darkness of the ninth
hour seems to have been strangely pre-
fgurative of the night of ages which
has overshadowed Jerusalem. That
awful Power which shook from their
tOmbs the Jewish derd, and sent them
walking among the centurians of Plate,
has torn to dust the beautiful temple
and made government and religion
strangers in that accursed land. The
Cross has become an eternal meteoric
splendor, flashing into the dark corners
of heathenism, to the end of the earth.
We have had wor, pestilence and famine;
nation has arisen against nation king
doms have grown Respondent and have
gone out in the world. The pride and
pomp of learning and power bave almost
made the circuit Of the globe, but the
end is not yet. A wicked and gainsAy-
saying people have grown wild with
confidence and iniquitous in unbelief,
but the curse of Cain has not yet again
overtaken them. The bow of promise
and the Cross of G hrist still carry about
us the magic power of our preservation.
Thrones and sceptres have crumbled
and gone to dust; islands have sunk
and arisen in the mighty deep; stars
have shot from their equipoise in space (;
some of iAe planets have gone out in
their fiery track about the sun, but the
Cross brighter than the sun and migbtier
than the tempest still blazous on the
page of time the glory of the babe of
Bethlehem.
It's inception witnessed the overthrow
of taat line of power which had its
origin in the house of Abraham. The
twelve years of Alexander had been
ended, but it found the crown of empire
on the head Of Caesar. Rome was still
glittering like palace of the sky, but
it lived to see the glory of Rome in
ruins; it saw begun and ended the
bloody Ioquisiton of Spain, and still
it lived it lived and 6ourisbed despite
the power of France and the fury of
Aragon and when the power aud do.
muiou of the world had centered in
the British throne, it took the wings Of
the morning and overran the Western
World Yet, in the deep purposes of
God it has allowed iniquity to flourish /:
but that Power which wrote its anathe,
mas against the authors of offences has
left its terrors in the human heart
Declining the vain challenge of human
argument, it unfurls the banner of faith
aud leaves us staggering with amaze.
mcut-- amazement at our folly aud un,
belief, 1t opens heaven TO the deep
vision Of the soul aud compels our
assent. 1t asks us whence and what is
man, and we are silent, To-day its
hcrads are battling with the dew and
the Greek, 1t assails alike the Turk
on the Bosphorus and the idolater in
Delhi, the Pagan in tho howery land of
China, and the Esauimaux in the SHOWS
rf Greepland, The gold of Ophir may
have been dissipatedr but it has been
found in the sands of Ethiopia, and
thilher goes the crpss Of Jerusalem.
1t has hourished amid the desolations
If the plague and triumpbed among
she poor, thence, observing the avenues
~ fortune, it has climbed the giddy
enlsaance of thrones aud swayed the
power OF princes and kings. 1t welded
iho mild sceptre of Constantine, and
has moulded for centuries the destinies
of KuglsOds and still it lives--hves
an6 shnpes the ends Of all things Vain
49,. .a-ln, chn.-rnnl MIN IL HI.