Milford chronicle., 1888-07-13

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and when you sit down with your wife and
talk over the expenses, you both rise up dis
couraged. You abridge here, and you
nbridge there, and you get things snug for
smooth sailings, and lol suddenly there is
large doctors bill to pay, or you have lost
your poclsetbOok, or some creditor has failed,
and you are thrown abecIn end. Well,
brother, you are in glorious company. Christ
owned not the house In which he stopped, or
the colt on which he rode or the boat in
which he sailed. He lived in a bor-
rowed house; he was buried in bor-
Of weather, yet he had only one
and no one could possibly tell where
ho could get anything to eat before night.
He would have been pronounced financial
failure. He had to perform a miracle to get
money to pay tax bill Not dollar did he
own. Privation of domesticity; privation
Of nutritious food privation of a 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 plain cup set
before him, and it was very sharp and it was
very sour. He took the vinegar.
There also is the sourness of bereavement.
There were years that passed along before
your family circle was invaded by death;
but the moment the charmed circle was
broken everything seemed to dissolve.
Hardly have you put the black apparel in the
wardrobe before you have again to take it
out. Great and rapid changes in your fam
lily record. You got the house and rejoiced
in it, 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. A cold marble slab lies on your
heart today. Once, as the children romped
through the house, You put your hand over
your aching head, and said: "Oh, if l could
only have it stilln Oh, it is too still now.
You lost your patience when the tops, and
the strings, and the shells were left amid
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 plowshare
bereavement rips up the heart. But Jesus
knows all about that. You cannot tell him
anything new in regard to bereavement He
had only fow friends, and when he lost one
it brought tears to his eyes Lazarus had
often entertained him at his houSe. Now
Lazarus is dead and buried, and Christ
breaks down with enotion-the convulsion
of grief shuddering through all the ages of
bereavement. Christ knows what it is to go
through the house missing familiar inmate.
Christ knows what it is to see an unoccupied
place at the table. Were there not four Of
and Martha and Christ and
Lazarusg Four of them. But where is
Lazarus Lonely and afflicted Christ, his
great loving eyes filled with tears, which
drop from eye to check and from cheek to
beard. and from beard to robe, and from
robe to floor. Oh, yes, yes, he knows all
about the loneliness and the heartbreaE. He
took the vinegarl
Then there is the sourness OF the death
hour. Whatever else we may escape, that
-cid sponge will be pressed to our lips. 1
sometimes have a curiosity to know how !
will behave when l come to die. Whether I
will be calm or excited-whether will be
filed with reminiscence or with anticipation
1 cannot say. But come to the point must
and you must. In the six thousand years
that have passed only two persons have got
into the eternal world without death, and l
do not suppose that God is going to send
carriage for us with horses of fame to draw
us up the sleeps Of heaven; but | suppose we
will have to go like the preceding genera
tions. An officer from the future world will
knock at the door of our heart and serve on
us the writ of ejectment, and we will have TO
surrender And we will wake up after these
landwintryand vernal and summery
glories have vanished from our vision-we
viii wake up into a realm which has only
one season, and that the season of everlast-
ing love- But you say: Il don't want to
break out from my present associations It
is so chilly and so damp to go down the
stairs Of that vault. don't want anything
drawn so tightly over my eyes. If there
were only some way of breaking through the
partition between worlds without tearing
this body all to shreds. l wonder if the sur
: ons and the doctors cannot compound a
mixture by which this body and soul can all
the time be kept togetherl Is there no es-
cape from this separationp None; alb
solutely none So l look over this audience
vast majority Of you seeming in
good health and spirits-and yet l realize
that in a short time, ell of US
will be gone-gone from earth, and gone for
ever. A great many men tumble through
the gates of the future. as it were, and we do
not know where they have gone, and they
only add gloom and mystery TO the passage;
but JesuS Christ 50 nightly stormed the
gates of that future world that they have
never since been closely shut. Christ knows
what it is to leave this world, Of tine beauty
Of which he was more appreciativs than we
ever could be- He knows the exquisitoness
Of the phosphorescence Of the sea; he trod III
lie knows the glories of the midnight
heavens; for they were the spangled canopy
Of his wilderness pillow. He knows about
the fowls of the air; they whirred their way
through his discourse. He knows about the
sorrows Of leaving this beautiful world.
Not a taper was kindled in the
darkness He died physieianless. Ha
died in cold sweat, and dizziness
and hemorrhage 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
Ihirsts Of many generations. The sponge ia
soaked in the sorrows of all those who have
died in their beds as well as soaked in the
lorrows of all those who perished in icy OF
berry martyrdom While heaven was pity.
ng and earth was mocking and hell was do
riding, he took the vinegari
To all those in this audience to whom life
has been an aeerbity-a dose they could nOi
lwallow. draught that set their teeth on
lge and a-rasping-I preach the omnipotent /
Of Jesus Christ. The ster Of |
Ierschel, the astronomer, used to help him
d his work. He got all the credit she got /
one. She used to spend much Of her timo
olishing the telescopes through which he
rought the distant worlds nigh, and it is my
mbition now, this hour, to clear the lens of |
our spiritual vision, so that looking through |
be dark night of yosr earthly troubles you
my behold the glorious constellation Of a
aviour's mercy and n Saviour's love. o. /
ny friends. do not try TO carry all your ills
lone. Do not put your poor shoulder under
he Apeninnes when the Almighty Christ is /
eady to lift up all your burdens. When /
on have a trouble Of any kind, /
ou rush this way, and that way; |
nd you wonder what this man will (
" about it. and what that man will say /
bout it; and you try this prescription, and
bat prescription, and the other prescription
,h, why do you not go straight to the heart
Christ, knowing that for our own SHINING |
nd suffering race he took the vinegarl