The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1888-07-19

| " Ailt Spiiltl u lldEllll IlN~lff BIb u IL
not so easy 10 endure when no one but tho
nurse and the doctor are the witnesses of
the Christian fortitudc. Besides that you
never had any pains worse than Chr.-rs.
The sharpness that stung through liis
| brain, through His hands, through His
feet, through His heart, were as great as
yours certainly. H was a. sick and as
weary. Not a nerve, or muscle, or liga-
mcnt escaped. All the pangs Of all the
! nations Of all the ages compressed into
one sour cup. He took the vinegar.
There IS also the sourness of poverty.
Your income does not meet your Oltgo-
| ings, and that always gives an honest man
anxiety. There is no sign Of destitutiOn
about you-pleasant appearance and a
| cheerful home for you; but God only
knows what a time you have had to man
age your private finances. Just as the
bills run up the wages seem 10 run down.
But you are not the only one who has not
been paid for hard work. TIE great Will
kie sold his celebrated piec', "The Blind
Fiddler" for fifty guineas, although aft
| erwards il brought its thousands The
world hangs in admiration over the sketch
Of Gains borough, yet that very sketch
hung for years in the shop-vinlow b.
cause there was not any purchaser.
Oliver Goldsmith sold his "Vicar Of
Wakefield" for a few pounds, in order to
keep the baliff ont Of his door: and the
vast majority Of men in all occupations
and professions are not fully paid for
their work. You may say nothing, but
life to you is a hard push; and when you
sit down with your wife and talk over the
expenses, you both rise up discouraged.
You abridge here, and you absidge there,
and you get things snug for smooth sail
! ing. and 10, suddenly there is a large doc
tors bill 10 pay, or yoI have lost your
| pocketbook or some creditor has failed,
| and you are thrown abaam eni Well,
| brother, yOu are in glorious company.
! Christ owned not the house in which He
! stopped, or the colt on which II ro1n, or
the boat in which He sailed II livel in
a borrowed housa: He was buried in
| borrowed grave. Exposed to all kinds OF
weather, yet He had only one suit OF
| clothes. He breakfasted in the morning,
and no one could possibly tell whore He
| could get any thing to eat before night
He would have been pronounced fnan-
! cial failure. He had TO perform a miracle
| to get money to paw a tax bill. Not dol
lar did He own. Priyation OF domesticity;
privation of nutritious food; priyation of
comfortable couch on which to sleep;
privation Of all worldly resources The
kings Of the earth had chased chalices
out OF which to drink, but Christ had
nothing but a plain cup set before Him.
and it was very sharp, and 1t was very
sour. He took the vinegar.
There also is the sourncSs Of Dereave-
mcnt. There were. years that passed
along before your family circle was in
vaded by death: but the moment the
| ,bo hrp fhf n ~
seemed to dissolve. Hardly have you put
the black apparel in the wardrobe before
you have again to take it ont. Great and
rapid changes in your family record. You
got the house and rejoiced in If, but the
charm was gone as soon as the Grape
| hung on the door bell. The one upon
whom you most depended was taken away
| from you. 4 cold marble slab lies on
your heart to-day. Once, as the children
| romped through the house, you put your
hand over your aching head and said:
"Oh, if could only have it still" Oh, it
is too still now. You lost your patience
when the tops and the strings and the
shells were left amid the floor, but oh,
| you would be willing to have the trinkets
scattered all over the floor again, if they
| were scattered by the same hands. With
! what a ruthless plow share bereavement
| rips up the heart. But Jesus knows all
| about that. You can not tell II I'm any
thing in regard to bereavement. He had
only few friends, and when He lost one
! it brought tears 10 His eyes. Lazarus had
often entertained Him at his house.
Now Lazarus is dead and buried, and
| Christ breaks down with emOtior-the
| convulsion Of grief shuddering through
| all the ages of bereavement. Christ
! l. hot = 70 fIrpurb the hOnSp
missing familiar inmate. Christ knows
what it is to see an unoccupied place at
the table. Were there not four of them
Mary, and Martha, and Christ. and
Lazarus? Four Of them. But where is
Lazarus? Lonely and afflicted Christ, His
gre at loving eyes filed with tears, which
drop from eve TO cheek, and from cheek to
beard, and from beard to robe, and from
robe to floor Oh, yes, yes, He knows all
bout the loneliness and the heartbreak.
II took the vinegar!
Then there is the sourness Of the death
hour. Whatever else we may escape, that
acid sponge will be pressed TO our lips.
sometimes have a curiosity 10 know how
will behave when l come to die. Whether
| will be calm or excited; whether Will
be filled with "reminiscences OF with an
ticipation. / can not say. But come to
the point must anu you must. IL INC
six thousand years that have passed, only
two persons have got into the eternal
world without death, and do not suppose
that God is going to send a carriage for US
with horses of flame, to draw us up the
sleeps of Heaven: but l suppose we will
have to go like the preceding generations.
An officer of the future world will knock
at the door of our heart and serve on us
the writ of eiectment. and We will have to
surrender. Aud we will wake up after
these autumnal, and wintry and vernal,
and summery glories have vanished from
our vision-we will wake up into realm
which has only one season, and that the
season Of everlasting love. But you say:
~ don't want 10 break out from my
present associations. 1t is so chilly and
so damp to go down the stairs of that
vault don't want any thing drawn so
tightly over my eyes. If there were only
some way of breaking through the parti-
| ton between worlds without tearing this
| body all TO shreads. l wonder if the sur
geons and the doctors can not compound
mixture by which this body and soul
can all the time be kept together: Is
there no escape Eom the separation"
None; absolutely none. So | look over
| this audience to-day-the vast majority
of you seeming in good health and spirits
and vet realize that in short time all
| of us will be gone-gone from earth and
| gone forever. A great many men tumble
through the gates of the future, as 1t were,
| and we do not know where they have
| o.ono and thev only add gloom and myS-