The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-30

ASA = EAAAs 4NONtl IL "
me to that chair, | shall occupy it. and | shall not
live long anyhow, and then you will put some one
else in the chair" And he was elected to that
position. He moved to it on crutches. Getting to
the chair he threw aside the crutches. He said:
While | was hunting for the keys of st. Peter.
it was appropriate. l stopped; but having found
the keys of St Peter, there is no reason why |
should stoop any longer" So bis ~crutcle s we're
gone and he was we'll. Oh, how suggestive of
temptation! 1t seems at one time to be wan,
and weak. and crippled, but give it a throne
and 1t becomes a tyrant to grind your soul into
ruin.
Well, now you say: AL persons being tempted,
what are we to do whoa we are assailed of
temptationl When the wave dashes against US
is there nothing to hold on to9 Is q man to go
into this war with the world. the flesh and the
devil, with no helpq' l will tell you, my friends:
The wisest thing for you to do in the day of
temptation is, like these disciples of my text, to
go and tell Jesus. In the eyes that wept with
the Bethany sisters / see shining hope. In that
voice that broke the silence of the tomb until
the widow of Naian got back her son and stipend
Gus sorrow made up in the arms of rapture-aye,
in that voice. hear the command and the
promise: Cast thy burden on the Lord, and He
will sustain thee" He knows all about tempta-
ton. Tempted in all points, like as we are. Go
and tell Jesus.
Again, l commend this behavior of the disci-
plies in my text to all those who are slandered,
and abused, and prosecuted. When these dis
ciples saw that Herod had taken the head of
John the Baptist, they knew their own heads
we're not safe. Every John has his Herod.
There are people that do not think overmuch Of
you. Your misfortunes would be honeycomb to
them. They hiss at you through their teeth,
and misinterpret your actions, and would be
glad to see you upset. They would be the most
submissive monrners at your funeral.
Everyone comes, during the course of life, to
be pommeled. Some SANDER comes at you,
horned, and tusked, and hoofed, to trample and
to gore you, and you think you are peculiar in
that respect. No. "All who live godly in Christ
Jesus must suffer persecution" If you are able
this morning to say, Il haven't an enemy in all
the world, it is proof positive you have not done
your duty; for when a man does his duty he chal-
lenges all earth and hell, and that challenge will
bring against him opposition, and scorn, and
persecution. tits so in all circles Of life.
One would have thought that if any man
ought to have been free from persecution it was
George Whitefeld, bringing great masses of the
people into the kingdom of God, wearing him.
self out for Christs sake; and yet the learned
Doctor johnson called him a montebank. Robert
Hall preached about the glories of heaven as no
uninspired man ever preached about them; and
it was said when he preached about heaven his
face shone ike an angels; and yet good Christian
John Foster writes of Robert Hall, saying: Rob
et Hall is a mere actor, and when he talks about
heaven, the smile on his face is the reflection of
his own vanity" John Wesley stirred all Eng
land with reform, and yet he was caricatured
by all the small wits of his day. He was pic
AhoeSAy vi o"0 q &OhSSo "a
London, and everywhere he was the target for
the p~unsters; yet John Wesley stands to day be-
fore all Christendom, his name mightier than
any other name except 1.-The name that is above
can you expect to escape hardship, and assault.
and abuse, and SANDER? You will not
But what are you to do when you are lied
about and assaulted Are you going to hunt up
the slanderl While you are explaining one false
hood there will be fifty people who have just
that moment heard of that particular falsehooi.
While you are not to omit every opportunity of
setting yourself right, | want to tell you of One
VINO had the hardest things said about him., whose
sobriety was disputed. whose mission was
scoffed, whose companionship was denounced,
who was pursued as a babe. spat on as a man,
and howled at after he was dead. Go to Him
with all the wounds Of your soul.
Do not go around trying to crush this falso-
come out of the contest irritated and exasper-
ated; but take the counsel of the
text. Do as those disciples of the
text did-go and tell Jesus. Go into his
wounds of thy head, the wounds of thy feet. the
wounds of thy hands, the wounds of thy side,
and by thine own wounds l ask thee to pity
mine" Try no longer to carry that burden. Oh,
abused soul, go and tell Jesus?
Again I ommend the behavior of these dis
ciples to the bereaved. AS stand here Sabbath
by Sabbath, and l look off upon this audience,
how many signals of mourning do l behold! God
has His own way of breaking up the family. The
emigration from this world to the next is so vast
an enterprise, that God only can conduct it.
That emigration from earth to eternity keeps
three-fourths of the families of the world in des
olation. The chlld that lay near the mothers
heart is taken to lie in the cold and in the dark
ness. The laughter freezes to the girls lips, and
the rose s%catters. The boy comes in from the
harvest-felds of Shunam. saying: my head,
my headf' and dies on the lap of his mother.
Widowhood stands with tragedy of woe struck
tr%n +ho ~oi11~N ri Ia oLno1x .S -
in vain for father and for mother.
Sometimes when we have sorrow our friends
come in, and they try to sympathize with us TO
a certain extent; but they cannot understand all
the grief. They do as we'll as they can but they
cannot understand it altogether. But, blessed be
God! Christ knows. He has been all through
the trouble and all around about it. He has
counted the tears, and counted the groans, and
before the tears started and before the groans
began, he saw the hidingp place of the sorrow.
Bone of our bone. Flesh of our flesh. Heart of
our heart. Sorrow of our sorrow. AS long as
ne remembers LaZaruss tomb, he will stand be-
side US in the cemetery. Aslong ashe remembers
his own heart-breaks, he will stand with you in
the laceratlon of your affections. When he for
gets his ~footsore way, and his lonely nights, and
his weary mind, and mis- exhausted body, and his
awful cross, and his solemn grave, then will he
forget you: but not until then.
Sometimes when we have trouble, our friends
are far away from us. We write a letter saying:
Come right away" or we telegraph to them,
saying: Take the next train; come immedi.
ately;" but it may take hours, it may take days,
before they reach US in our trouble. But l have
to tell you this morning of One who is near to
help. ever near, near before you, behind you,
within you, nearer than the staff on which you
lean, nearer than the cup you press to your
lip. nearer than the handkerchief with which
you wipe away the tears. l preach Him, an
ever-present Jesus. Sometimes when we have
trouble ourfriends come. and they do all they can
for US; but they cannot relieve all the trouble.
they cannot disentangle our fnancies, they can
not cure our sick, they cannot raise our dead.
Blessed be God! the One to whom these disci-
Piles went has all power in heaven and on earth.
and He will, at just the right time, balk our
calamities; and at just the right time, in the
presence of an applauding earth and a resound-
ing heaven, will raise our dead. o I preach
Him, an Almighty Christ! The last sword will
leap from the scabbard of Omnipotence, and
the last resource of infinite God be exhausted,
before God will allow ona of His childran 70