The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-08-09

orrhage. and agony that have put Him In
sympathy with all the dying. He goes
through Christendom, and He gathers up
the stings out of all the death pillows,
and He puts them under His own neck
and head. He gathers on His own tongue
the burning thirsts of many generations.
The sponge is soaked in the sorrow of all
those who have died in their beds as we'll
as soaked in the sorrows of all those who
persisted in icy or fiery martyrdom. While
Heaven was p1tying, auI earth was mock
ing, and hell was deriding, He took the
vinegar?
To all those in this audience to whom
life has been an acerbity-a dose they
could not swallow, adraught that set their
teeth on edge and a-rasping-I preach
the omnipotent sympathy of Jesus Christ
The sister of Hersche1, the astronomer,
used to help him in his work. He got all
the credit; she got none. She used to
spend much of her time polishing the
telescopes through which he brought the
distant worlds nigh, and it is my ambi-
ton now. this hour, to clear the lens of
your spiritual vision, so that, looking
through the dark night of your earthly
troubles, you may behold the glorious
constellationIof a Saviour's mercy and a
Saviour's love. O.. my friends! do not try
to carry all your ills alone. Do not put
your poor shoulder under the Apeninnes
when the Almighty Christ is ready to lift
up all your burdens. When you have a
trouble of any kind, you rush this way,
and that way; and you wonder what this
man will say about it, and what that man
will say about it; and you try this pre-
scription, and that prescription, and the
other prescription. o, why do you not
go straight to the heart of Christ, know
ing that for our own shining and suffer-
ing race, He took the vinegar!
There was vessel that had been tossed
on the seas for great many weeks and
been disabled, and the supply of water
gave out, and the crew were dying of
thirst. After many days they saw sail
against the sky. They signaled it. When
the vessel came nearer the people on the
suffering ship cried to the captain Of the
other vessel:
"Send us some water. We are dying for
lack of water"
And the captain on the vessel that was
hailed responded:
dip your buckets where you are. You
are in the mouth of the Amazon, and
there are scores of miles of fresh water
all around about you, and hundreds of
feet deep"
And then they dropped their buckets
over the side of the vessel and brough
up the clear, bright, fresh water, and put
out the fire of their thirst. SO hail you
to-day, after long and perilous voyage,
thirsting as you are for pardon, and
thirsting for comfort, aad thirsting FOR
eternal life, and l ask yoa what is the use
OF your going in that DEATH struck state.
while all around you is the deep, clear,
wide, sparkling flood of Gods sympa-
thetic mercy. o. dip your buckets, and
drink, and live forever.
Whosoever will, let him come and take of
the water of life freely.
Yet, my utterance is almost choked at
the thought that there are people here
who will refuse this divine sympathy, and
they will try to fight their own battles,
and drink their own vinegar, and carry
their own burdens; and their life, instead
of being a triumphal march from victory
to victory, will be a hobbling- on from
defeat to defeat, until they make final
surrender to retributive disaster. : o, I
wish could to-day gather up in mine
arms all the woes of men and women-all
their heartaches-all their disappoint-
ments-all their chagrins-and just take
them right to the feet of a sympathizing
Jesus. He took the vinegar.
Mana Sahib, after he had lost his last
battle in India, fell back into the jungles
of Iheri-jungles SO full of malaria that
no mortal can live there. He carried
with him also ruby of great luster anG
OF great value. He died in those jungles;
his body was never found and the ruby
has never yet been recovered. And fear
that to-day there are some who will fall
back from this subject into the sickening,
killing lungles of their sin, carrying
gem of infinite value-a priceless soul-to
be lost forever. o, that that ruby might
haAh in the eternal coronation.
But no. There are some, 1 fear, in the
audience, who turn away from this offer
ed mercy and comfort and Divine SYM
pathy, Notwithstanding that Christ, for
all who would accept His grac e, trudged
the long way and suffered the decorating
thongs and received in His face the ex-
pectorations of the filthy mob, and for the
guilty, and the discouraged, and the dis
comforted of the race, took the vinegar.
May God Almighty break the infatuation
and lead you out into the strong hope,
and the good cheer, and the glorious sun
shine of this triumphant Gospel.