Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1886-11-04


They felt his hand, made of bone and muscle
and nerves and flesh: just like any other hand
Yet what bold treatment Of subjects, what
supernatural demands, what strange doctrine!
They felt the solid earth under them. and yet
Christ said Il bear up the pillars Of this
~ will turn 1t into blood" They looked at
the sea he said ~ will hush it," They look
ed at the stars; he said: ~ will shake them
down like untimely figs" Did ever one so
young say things so bolds 1t was all against
Him
After the battle of Antietam, when gen.
eral rode along the lines, although the soldiers
were lying down eYhaused they rose with
great enthusiasm aud huZzaed. As Napoleon
returned from his captivity his first step on
the wharf shook all the Kingdoms and 250, 900
men focked TO his standard. 1t took 5000
troops to watch him in his exile. So there
have been men of wonderful magnetism OF
person. But hear me while | tell you OF
poor young man who came up from Nazareth
TO produce a thrill which has never been ex-
cited By any other Napoleon had around him
the memories of Marengo, and Austcrlitz,
and Jena; but here was man who had fought
no battles, who wore no epauettes, who
brandished no sword. He had probably,
never seen a prince or shaken hands with
nobleman. The only extraordinary person
we know of as being In his company was his
own mother, and she was so poor that In the
most delicate and solemn hour that ever
comes to woman's soul she was obliged to
lie down amoug camel drivers grooming the
beasts of burden.
MOCKED AT BUT WONDERFUL.
I imagine Christ one day standing In the
streets OF Jerusalem. A man descended from
high lineage is standing beside him and says:
my father was merchant prince; he had
castle on the beach in Galilee. Who was
your (. Their! Christ answeredi "Joseph, the
carpenter" A man from Athens is standing
there unrollng his parchment OF graduation,
and saws to Christ: ''Nhere did you 90 to
schnoli Christ answered: II never gratuat-
ed.n Aha! the idea OF such an unheralded
Young man attempting to command the at
tention of the world As well some little fish
ing village on Long Island shore attempt to
arraign New York Yet no sooner does He
set His foot in the towns or cities Of Judea
that everything is in connection. The people
90 out on picnic, taking only food enough
for day, Yet are SO fascinated with Christ
that, al the risk of S starvation, they follow Him
out into the wilderness hobeman falls
down fiat before ii in and saws: My daughter
is dead" A bcggar tries to rub the dImness
from his eyes. and saws: Lord, that my eyes
may be opened" A poor, sick painting wo-
man presses through the crowd and says:
IL touch the hem Of HIS garment" Child
f en- who love their mother better than any one
else stru gle to get into His arms, aud to kiss
II check, and to run their fingers through
H HAIR and for all time putting Jesus SO in
nursery in Chr strndom from which H. does
not take one saving: IL must have them. ]
will fill heaven with these; for every cedar
that plant in heaven will have fifty white
lilies In the hour when | was q poor man
in Judca they were not ashamed of me, and
and now that have come to IA throne do not
dcspisc them Hold it not back, o weeping
mother. lay It on NV warm heart. or sucn is
the kingdom of heaven"
TRlUMpIiING IS SPITE OF ALL.
Again, remark, there was no organization
in His behalf, and that was against II m.
When men propose any great WORK they band
tug ther, they write letters of agreement,
they take oaths o ieAlty; and the more and
complete the Orga liza ion, the more and
complete the success. Here was One who
went forth without any organization and
alone. If men had mind to join in II S com
panv, all right; if they had mind not to join
in His company, all well. If they came they
were greeted with no loud salution; if they
went away they were sent with no bitter
anathema. Peter departed aud Christ turned
and looked at him. That was all.
All this was against Him. Did anyone ever
undertake such an enterprise amidst such in
finite cmbarrasSments and by such modes!
And vet ! am here to say 1t ended in COM
;lcte triumph. Notwithstanding His worldly
occupation, His poverty, His plain face, His
unpretcnding glrb, the fact that He was
schOolrss the Tact that he had a brief life,
the fact he was not accompanied by any
visible Notwithstanding al
that in an cxhilaratiOn which shall be pro-
lOnged in everlasting ChOrals: II have finished
the work Thou gavcst me to do See Him
victorious over the forces of nature. The sea
is a crystal scpuchre 1t swallowed the Cen
trail America, the President, and the Spanish
armada as easily as any fly that ever hOated
on it. The inland lakes are fully as terrible III
their wrath. Recent travellers tell us that
Galilec, when aroused in storm, is over
FL, tat,. lis
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
solidihed water.
MIRACLES WROUGHT WITH EASE.
Medical science has wrought great changes
in rheumatic limbs and diseased blood, but
when the muscles are entirely wthered no
human power can restore them, and when
limb is once dead it is dead. But here is
parah tc-his hand lifeess Christ says to
him: "Stretch forth thy hand" and he
stretches it forth. In the eye infrmary, how
many diseases of that delicate organ have
been cured! But Jesus says to one blind
BE OPEN" aud the light of heaven PUSHES
through gates that have never before been
opened The frost or an axe may kill tree,
but Jesus smites one dead with word.
Chemistry can do many wonderful things, but
what chemist at a wedding, when the wine
gave out, could change pail OF water into
cask Of wiuei
What human voice could command school
OF fish, Yet here is a voice that marshals the
scaly tribes until, in place where they had
let down the net and pulled it up with no fish
in il, they let it down again and the disciples
lay hold aud begin to pull, when, by reason Of
the multitude OF fish, the net broke.
Nature is His S rvant The fowers-he
twisted them into his sermons; the winds
they were His lullaby when He slept in the
boat: the rain-it hung gltterngly on the
thick foliage of the PARALLELS; the star of
.thlehem-it sang Christmas carol over His
birth; the rocks-they beat dirge at his
death
VICTORIOUS EVEN OVER DEATH.
Behold his victory over the grave! The
hinges of the family vault become very rusty
because they are never opened except to take
another in. There is a knob on the outside of
| the door Of the sepulchre but none on the in
| side. Here comes the cOnquerer OF death.
| He enters that realm and says: Daughter OF
| Jarus sit up,n and she sits up. To Lazarus:
Come forth" and he comes forth To the
| widows son he said: Get up from that
| biern and he goes home with his mother.
| Then Jesus snatched up the keys OF death
and hung them to his girdle, and cried until
| all the gravryards of the earth heard him:
20, death! will be thy plague; o, grave
| will be thy d structionr'
No man could 20 through all the obstacles
| have described YOU say, without having a ma
|
| arm, amid its muscles and nerves and bones
| were intertwisted the energies OF omnipo-
tence. In the syllables Of that voice there
was the emphasis of the eternal God. Thai
foot that walked the deck of the ship in Gen
nesaret shall stamp king IONS OF darkness into
| demolition. This poverty stricken Chris
ownel Augustus owned the Sanhedrim own
ed 7 berias, owned al the castles on its beacl
| and all the skies that looked down into its va
tiers, owned all the earth and all the heavens
To Him of plan coat belonged the robes o
celestial royalty. He who walked the road u
| Emmaus, the beginnings were the hre-sho'
| sterds to his chariot.
Yet there are those who look on and Sc
Christ turn water into wine, and they say
Sleignt of hand. And they see Christ raise TIL
dead to life and the say, Easily explained
not really dead-playing dead: And they sc
Christ giving sight to the blind man, and the
say, Ciairvoyant doctor. o, what shall the
do on the day when Christ rises up In jude
ment. and the hills shall rock, and the trum
pets shall call, peal on peal!
THEoDosIUs THE GREAT REBUKED.
In the time Of Theodosius the Great ther
| vos q GREAT assault made upon the divinity