The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1888-12-14


A hOstelry the first, an unjust trial in
oyer and terminer another, a foul
mouthed, yelling mob the last. Was there
a space on His back as wide as your two
fingers where he was not whipped? Was
there a space on His brow an inch square
where He was not cut Of the briarsg When
the spike struck at the instep, did it not
go clear through to the hollow of the footg
Oh, long, deep, bitter pilgrimage. AlOes
Aloes!
John leaned his head on Christ, but who
did Christ lean on? Five thousand men
fed by the Saviour; who fed Jesus? The
sympathy of a Saviour's heart going out
to the leper and the adulteress; but who
sOothed Christ? Denied both cradle and
death-b bed, He had a fit place neither to be
born or to die. A poor babe! A poor
lad! A poor young mani Not so much as
a taper to cheer His dying hours. Even
the candle of the sun snuffed out. Oh, was
it not all alOes? All our sins, sorrows,
bereavements, losses, and all the agonies
of earth and hell picked up as in one clus-
ter and squeezed into one cup, and that
pressed to His lips until the acrid, nauseat-
ing, bitter draught was swallowed with
a distorted countenance, and shudder
from head to foot, and a gurgling
strangulation. AIoesl aloes nothing but
aloes. All this for Himself? All this to
get the fame in the world of being a
martyr? All this in a spirit eff stubborn
ness because He did not like CRsarl No!
no! All this because He wanted to pluck
you and me from hell. Because He want
ed to raise you and me to Heaven. Be-
cause we were lost and He wanted us
found. Because we were blind and He
wanted us to see. Because we were serfs
and He wanted us manumitted. Oh, ye in
whose cup of life the saccharine has pre-
dominated; oh, ye who have had bright
and sparkling beverages, how do you feel
toward Him who in your stead, and to
purchase your disenthralment, took the
alOes, the unsavory aloes, the bitter aloes?
Your third curiosity is to know why
these garments of Christ are odOrous with
cassia. This was plant that grew in In
dia and the adjoining islands. You do not
care to hear what kind of flower it had
or what kind of a stalk. 1t is enough for
me to tell you that it was used medicinal
ly. In that land and in that age, where
they knew little about pharmacy, cassia
was used to arrest many forms of disease.
So, when in my text we find Christ coming
with garments that smell of cassia, it sug
gests to me the healing and curative power
of Che Son of God "Oh," you say, 'now
you have a superfuOus idea. We are not
sick. Why do we want cassia? We are
athletic. Our respiration is perfect.
Our limbs are 1.-THE, and in these
cool days we feel that we could
bound like the roe." beg
to differ, my brother, from you. None
of you can be better in physical health
than I am, and yet must say we are all
sick. have taken the diagnosis of your
case, and have examined all the best au-
thorities on the subject, and / have come
now to tell you that you are full of wounds,
and bruises, and putrefying sores which
have not yet been bound up, or Modified
with ointment. The marasmus of sin is
on us-the palsy, the dropsy, the leprosy.
The man that is expiring tonight ON Full
ton street.-the allopathic and homBO-
pathic doctors having given him up, and
his friends now standing around to take
his last wOrds-is no more certainly dying
as to his body than you are dying, unless
we have taken the medicine from Gods
apothecary. All the leaves of this Bible
are only so many prescriptions from the
Divine physician, written, not in Latin,
like the prescriptions of earthly physi-
clans, but written in plain English, so
that man, though a fool, may not err
therein. Thank God that the Saviour's gar
ments smell of cassia.
Suppose man were sick, and there was a
phial on his mantelpiece with medicine he
knew would cure him, and he refused to
take it, what would you say to him? He
is q suicide. And what do you say of him
who, sick in sin, has the healing medi-
cine of Gods grace offered to him, and re-
fuses to take it? If he dies he is suicide.
People talk as though God took q man and
led him out to darkness and deatE-as
though He brought him up to the cliffs
and then pushed him off. Oh, no. When
man is lost it is not because God pushes
him off; it is because he jumps off. In
the olden times a suicide was buried at
the crossroads, and the people were ac-
custOmed to throw stones upon his grave.
So it seems to me, there may be in this
house a man who is destroying his own
soul, and as though the angels Of God
were here to bury him at the point where
the roads of life and death cross each
other, throwing upon the grave the broken
law and great pile of unsupported priv
ilege, so that those going may look at the
fearful mound, and learn what suicide
it is when an immortal soul, for which
Jesus died, puts itself out of the way.
When Christ trod this planet with foot
Of flesh, the people rushed after Him
people who were sick, and those who,
being so sick they could not walk, were
brought by their friends. Here l see a
mother holding up her little child and
saying: "Cure this Group, Lord Jesus;
cure this scarlet fever" And others say
ing: "Cure this Ophthalmia. Give ease
and rest to this spinal distress. Straighten
this club-foot." Christ made every house
where He stopped a dispensary. / do not
believe that in the nineteen centuries that
have gone by since His heart has got
hard. feel that we can come now with
all our wounds Of soul and get His
benedictiOn. D Jesus, here we are. We
want healing. We want sight. We want
health. We want life. The whole need
not a physician, but they that are sick.
Blessed be God that Jesus Christ comes
through this assemblage now, His "gar-
ments smelling Of myrrh"-that means
fragance-"and aloes"-they mean bitter
sacrifcial memories-''and cassia''-that
means medicine and cure; and according
to my text, He comes tout Of the ivory
palaces"
You know, or if you do not know / will
tell you now, that some of the palaces Of
the olden time were adorned with ivory.
Ahab and Solomon had their homes fur
nished with it. The tusks OF African and
Asiatic elephants were twisted into all
manners Of shapes, and there were stairs
Of ivory and chairs Of ivory and tables Of
ivory and floors Of ivory and pillars Of
ivory and windows of ivory, and fountains
that dropped into basins Of ivory, and
rooms that had ceilings Of ivory. Oh,
white and Overmastering beauty! Green
tree branches sweeping the white curbs.
/ Tapestry trailing the snowy floors. Brack-
cts Of light flashing on the lustrOus sur
rOundings. Silvery music ripping to the
beach Of the arches. The mere thought
Of it almost stuns my brain, and you say
"Oh, if / could only have walked over
/ such floors! If I could have thrown my
! self in such a chair If / could have heard
/ the drip and dash Of those fountains J"
/ You shall have something better than
that il you only let Christ introduce you.
/ From that place He came, and to tnat
/ place He proposes 10 transport YOU Tor
/ His garments smell Of myTTh and aloes
and cassia out Of ivory palaces"
u. NIT . r,Iace Haven must be- Ine