Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-10-25

we'll. II they came they were greeted
with no loud salutation; il they went
away they were sent with no bitter
anathema. Peter departed, and Christ
turned and looked at him. That was all!
All this was against Him. Did any one
ever undertake such an enterprise amidst
such infinite embarrassments and by
such modesy And yet am here to say it
ended in complete triumph. NotWith-
standing His worldly occupation, His
poverty, His PLAIN face, His unpretendlng
garb, the fact that he was sohoolless, the
fact that he had Il brief life, the fact that
he was not accompanied by any visible
organtzation-nOtwit all that,
in an eXhilaration which shall be pro-
longed in everlasting chorals: ~ have
finished the work Thou gavest me TO do"
See Him victorious over the forces OF
nature. The sea 1s a crystal sepulchre.
1t swallowed the Central America, the
President and the Spanish Armada as
easily rs any fly that ever floated on it.
The inland lakes are fully as terrible ia
their wrath. Recenttrayelers tell us that
Galilee, when aroused in a storm, is over
whelming; and yet that sea crouched in
His presence and licked His feet. He
knew all the waves and the wind. When
He beckoned they came. When He
frowned they fled, The heel of His foot
made no indentation on the sOliditical
water. Medical science has wrought
great changes in rheumaticSlimb and
diseased blood, but when the muscles are
entirely withered no human power can
restore them, and when a limb is once
dead il 10 dead. But here is q paraIytio
his hand lifeless. Christ says to him:
''Stretch forth thy hand" and he stretches
il forth.
In the eye infrmary how many diseases
OF that delicate organ have been cured.
But Jesus says to one blind: BE open,"
and the light of Heaven rushes through
gates that have never before been opened.
The frost or an ak may kill a tree, but
Jesus smltes one dead with q word. Chem
istry can do many wonderful things, but
what chemist, at wedding, when the
wine gave out, could change a pail Of
water into a cask of wine?
WHAT human voice could command a
school of 1ish? Yet here is a voice that
marshals the scaly tribes until, in place
where they had let down the net and
pulled IL up with no fish in 1t, they let 1t
down again, and the disciples lay hold
and begin to pull, when, by reason or the
multitude of fish, the neJ broke.
Nature is His servant. The flowers
He twisted them into His sermons; the
winds-they were His lullaby, when He
slept In the boat; the rain--it hung gilt
teringly on the thick foliage of the Para
bles; the star of Bethlehem--it sang a
Christmas carol over His birth; the
rocks--they beat dlrge at His death.
Behold bis victory over the gravel The
hinges Of the family vault become very
rusty because they are never opened ex-
cept TO take another in. There is a knob
OH the outside of the door of the sepulchre,
but none on the inside. Here comes the
Conquerer OF Death. He enters that realm
nd SsDaIfUntaF 4 oil 30
and she sits up. TO Lazarus: "Come
forth;" and he came forth. To the wild
owls son he said: "Get up from that
bler;" and he goes home with his
mother. Then Jesus snatched up the
keys OF death and hung them ot His gIr~
die, and cried until all the gTaveyards Of
the earth heard Him: so Death! | will
be thy plague; . Gravel l will be thy
destructiOnW
No man could go through all the obsta-
cles / have described, you say, without
having nature adj0ined that was super
natural. That arm, amid its muscles,
and nerves, and bones were inLertwlsted
the energies OF fomnipotence. In the syl-
tables of that voice there was the empha-
sis of the eternal God. That foot that
walked the deck OF the ship in Ginnesaret
shall stamp kingdoms OF darkness into
demolition. This poverty Christ
owned Augustus, owned the SanhedrIm,
owned Tiberius, owned all the castles on
its beach, all the skies that looked down
into it's water; owned all the earth and
ali the heavens. To Him Of the plain coat
belonged robes of celestial royalty. He
who walked the road to Emmaus-the
lightnings were the fire-shod steeds 10
His chariot.
Yet there are those who look on and see
Christ turn water into wine, and they
say, sleight OF hand. And they see Christ
raise the dead to life. and they say, easily
explained, not really dead; playing dead.
And they see Christ giving sight TO the
blind man, and they say, Clairvoyant
doctor. Oil what shall they do on the
day when Christ rises up in judgment,
and the hills shall rock, and the trumpets
shall call, peal on peal.
In the time OF Theodosius the Great
there was a great assault made upon the
Divinity of Jesus Christ, and during that
time TbeOdosius the Great called his own
son to sit on the throne with him, and be
a copartner in the government OF the en-
pre; and one day the old Bishop came
and bowed down before TheodOsius the
Emperor and passed out Of the room, and
the Emperor was offended, saying TO the
old Bishop: "Why didn't you pay
the same honor to my son, who
shares with me in the govern
mentW Then the old Bishop turned to
the young man and said: "The LORD
bless thee, my young man." but still paid
him no such honor as he had paid to the
Emperor. And the Emperor was still Of
Tended and displeased, W men the old Bishop
turned TO Theodosius the Great and said
TO him: "YOu are offended with me be-
cause don't pay the same honor to your
son whom you have made copartDer in
the government of this empire, the same
honor pay TO you, and yet you encOur-
age multitudes Of people In your realm to
deny the SON OF God equal authority,
equal power, with God the Father"
My subject also reassures us 0f the
fact that in all our struggles We have q
sympatnizer. You cannot tell Christ
anything new about hardship. | do not
think that wide ages Of eternity will take
the scars from mis- punctured side, and his
lacerated temples, and his sore hande.
You will never have burden weighing SO
many pounds as that burden Christ car
ried up the bloody hill. You will never
have any suffering worse than He en-
dured when with tongue hot and cracked.
and in1amed aud swollen, He moaned:
"I thirst" You will never be surrounded
by worse hostility than that which stood
around Cbrist's feet, foaming, revillng,
llvid With rage. howilng down his prayers,
aud snuflinR up tho smell Of blood. OH
We faint-hearted, OIL ye troubled, oh ye
persecuted one, here Is @ heart that can
sympathize with you'll
Again, and lastly, learn from all that
has baen said this morning. that Christ