Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-07-17

and yet, when the name OF Christ was
mentioned, it threw him into IA trans
port. Paul was a cool logician, with
nerves mistaken in the Mediterranean
shipwreck, a granite nature, comfort
able with the whole world against him,
shaking his fist in the face of the
governments of earth and the forces of
darkness; yet the thought of Christ
thrilled him, transported him, over
whelmed him. John Knox was I'M
bending in his nature, and hard in
some respects. The flash Of his in
dignation made the queen shiver and
the duchess quake; yet he sat down as
"A little child rs the feet of
Jesus. Solomon was surrounded by
all p%alatiai splendor-his ships going
ont from Ezion-geber on voyages of
three years, bringing back all the
ders Of the world; his parks aHoat
with myrrh and frankincense, and a
rustic with trees brought from foreign
lands; the traces of his ~stupendous
gardens found by the traveller ut this
day. Solomon sits down in this place
to think of Christ, the altogether love-
ly, and the altogether fair; and whilst
seated there comes n breath of the
spices and aromatic woods, and Of the
blossoms. in through the palace win
dow, and he cries out: "My beloved
is unto m as a cluster OF campfire
from the vineyards of En-gedi."
o rich and rare, exquisite and ever
lasting perfume! Let it in every poor
mans windows; plant it on every
grave; put its leaves under every dy-
ing head; wreath its blossoms for
every garland; wave its branches in
every home; and when / am about to
die, and my hand lies cold, and stiff,
and white upon the pillow, let some
plain and humble soul come and put in
my dying grasp this living branch with
clusters ''of campfire from the vine
yards of En.gedi."
1t is many years now since | found
the Lord, and ! must in your presence
tell you how good he has been to my
soul. Often since then / have given
him a hard thrust in his sore side; ut
he has been patient with me by day and
by night. 1t is the grief Of my life
that have treated him so badly; but
He has never let me 90. | have seen
no wonderful sights, ! have heard no
wonderful sounds, | have no marvel
lous experience; il has been a plain
story of patience on his part and un-
worthiness on my part. Some of my
dear friends before me have had more
rapturous experiences. Christ to them
has been the conqueror On the white
horse, or the sun of righteousness, set
ting everything ablaze with light; or
the bridegroom coming with lantern
and torches. To me il has been a very
quiet and undemonstrative experience.
1t has been something very sweet but
very still. How shall ] describe it? |
have it now: "My beloved is unto me
as "A cluster of campfire from the vine
yards of En-gcdi."
But / remark further: This cam
phire-plant of the text was a symbol OF
Christ in the fact that it gives coloring.
From the Mediterranean TO the Ganges
the people of the east gathered it. drieG
the leaves, pulveriZed them, and then
used them as a dye for identifying gar.
ments of their own persons. 1t was
that fact that gave the camphire-plan,
of the text its commercial value in the
time of King Solomon: a type of my
Lord Jesus, who beauties and adorns
and colors everything he touches.
La-n ,~ f,,tt, - tl,t .,o~ ou..o.-~
whose religion does not color his entire
life. 1t was intended SO to do. IL
man has the grace of God in his hear
it ought to show itself in the life. There
ought to be this ~''cluster of campfire
in the ledger, in the roll Of government
securities, in the medical prescription
in the law book. A religion is of nc
value to "A merchant unless it keeps him
from putting false labels on his goods
or TO the plasteror, unless it keeps hin
from putting up a ceiling which he
knows will crack in six months; or tt
the driver, unless it keeps him from
flashing his horses to eight miles al
hour when the thermometer is at nine
ty, or to the farmer unless it keeps
him from putting the only sound pip
pins on the top of the barrel; or to The
shoemaker, unless it keeps him from
substituting brown paper for gooC
leather in the soles. In other words
the religion of Christ is good fol
everything or it is good fol
nothing. The grace Of God never
affects us by piecemeal. If the hear
is changed the head is changed, anC
the liver is changed, and the spleen i.
changed, and the hands are changed,
and the feet are changed, and the store
is changed, and the house is changed,
and anything over which the man has
any influence m to n complete and
radical change. The religion of the
Lord Jesus Christ is not a pot of hya,
cinth to be set in a parlor bay window
for passers-by to look at. and to be ex
amined only by ourselves when we
have company; but it is to be a perfume
filing all the room of the heart as "A
a cluster Of campfire from the vine,
yards of En-gedi." The trouble is mer
do not take their religion with them
The merchant leaves it outside the
counter lest it disturb the goods. The
housekeeper will not let her religion
trail it's robes in the kitchen on wash,
ing day. The philosopher will not lie,
his rplipion como in amid tho batteries