Delaware Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1843-1874, 1873-08-04
RELIGIOUS.

| As FAR As TO BErnANY.-'sHe led them
Out q far as to Bethany" Dear friends, let us
acc 'mpany them on this memorable Journey,
out along the side streets, aud through the
| deap-yaJ ted gate, over the broken rugged path
| along the bare hillside, down to where the Ked-
| ron rpples over its bed of nd and pebbles.
| across The brook, nearly dry now, us il in sym
palhy with the Saviour's ebbing sorrow, Here
We are in the funeral valley of Jehoslaphat and
we come Either by that dump of melancholy
olives, with trunks of enormous { rth, and roots
OF wildly waited bran hes thar shut out the
SKY here are only struggling elimpses of the
temples light through this slumberng valley
IL is surely fitting that there should be strange
horror OF silence about this 81 vt. Yes and it
Is ht'lng, too thai the Conqueror should PASS il
on hls way to his triumph, for here his fiercest.
Dapt'sin overlook him, and the lightnings of
more li'an mort anger sconrgel lis soul. BE
sun! TINS IS the garden of Gethsemane. Now
c!iflo, the iootway Worn among the rocks,s some
times beneath the forest foliage, and sometimes
up the sparse hillside. Rest here, for the Sa-
\.our did so rs lie gazed upon the fated and de-
Votcu clly, ana IN the tenderness of his reused
il'iiha' soi wept over the wickedness of Jeru-
sa'em as 1t lay stretched in its Inconsistencies
before bun. Let lis 20 on along the stony path,
through the cornield which might have furnish
ca Tue illustrations for the parable of the sower,
lor the trolden pathway is in the midst of it,
There i'e huge blocks OF granite, studded with
clusters OF gav but proiitess wild flowers with |
only here and theie patch of good ground like
an oases in the desert. We have climbed the
ridge, and looking over, just at your feet are
the unpretendng houses of the village Of Beth
any. Travellers tell lis, while superstition has
been busy, of course, in and about Jerusalem,
while controversy wages as to the sites connec- !
ted with the Saviour's death and burial, this
footway from Jerusalem to Bethany remains
indisp'ltable as having been troddcn by the Sa-
yiour If at any time you feel quite sure you
have lrolden in the very footsteps of Jesus, il
Is in the way along which we have just ell
deavorcd to lead you, and on which he led his
disciples on that memorable morning. "lIe
led them ont az far as to Bethany" And was |
it not right that lie should do so? The signifca
ton of Bethany, rs perhaps many of you will |
remember, is ''the house Of sorrow." 1t is |
beautiful Illustration, think alike of the ten |
uerness and OF the completeness of the Saviour |
triumph, that on his way TO his highest exalta- |
ton lie should pass by the place of his ficrcest |
agony, and that from the humiliation and Bit |
terness OF the house Of weeping, he should 90 |
straight up TO the house not made with hands, |
eternal in the heavens. Brethren, If it he allow
able-and surely he will not forbid lis to illus |
trate the less by the s.eater-many time
since then men have passed through Gcthsem-
ane, AMI have attained an elevation of holy
triumph, even in the darkened house of soirow
God has in his mercy so ennobled that which is
III ltseli depressing and contracting. that ms
discipline for usefulness has been full often
discipline of trouble. Those whom he has on
many occasions singally owned, he has on many
other occasions singally tried; and If these have
in any sense Il speak it reverently) received
gifts for men,, they have toiled to get them up
new calvaiys of suffering f1d of shame. Breth-
ren, most of us have been strung to synp thy
by another's suffering most of lis have been
strung to bravery and submission by our own.
cal upoli You this morning to adore with me
that wondaouS grace which sustained our re-
i'nmer through his trial 10 his triumph. and
which, in those for whom he len y pattern. has
made sorrows to become elements ofstrensth- |
has taken thorns, not out of the path of life
that were an unworthy way Of dcliverauce-hut |
has done hettcr tnan tFiat-ffas taken 1f'ossi~
and has woven them uto his peoples crown ;
has made the hearts deepest and hitterest Beth
amy straight road to the Sayiour's highcs. and |
weathicst heaven. "Ile led them ont as far as
10 Bethany."- Pension.