The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-07-10


lie would have been pronounced a financial
1allure. lie had to perform miracle to get
money TO pay a taX-bill. Not a dollar did he
own. Privation of domestcity; prvation
OF nutritious food: priVation of a comfortable
couch on which to sleep ;privaton of all world
resources. The kings of the earth had chased
chalices out of which to drink, but but Christ
had nothing but plain cup set before Him.
and II was very sour. He took the vinegar.
-, There is also the souness 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 family record. You
got the mouse and rejoiced in it, but the charm
was gone as soon as the Grape hung on the
door bell. The upon whom you most de-
pended 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 I 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 floor
but OH, you would be willing to have the trim
kets scattered all over the floor again. if thew
were scattered by the same hands. With
what ruthless ploughshare bereavement rips
up the heart. But Jesus knows all about that
You cannot tell Him anything new i'll regard
to bereavement lie had only a few
80 NS GNU "A0n IAo ioso ohe IL orouSnC
FEARS to His eyes. Lazarus
had often entertained Him at his house. Now
Lazarous is dead and buried, and Christ breaks
down with emotion-the CONFUSION of grief
shuddering through all tho ages of bereave-
ment. 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 them
Mary, and Martha, and Christ, and Lazarus?
-Four of them. But whore is Lazarous? Lonely
and afflicted Christ, His great loving eyes
filed with tears, which drop from eye to cheek,
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 heart
break. He took the vinegar.
Then there is the sourness of the death hour
Whate ? or else we may escape, that acid
sponge will be pressed to our lips. l some
times have curiosity to know how will be
have when l come to die. Whether l will be
calm or excited; whether will be filled with
Renaissance or with anticipation. L cannot
say. But come to the point; L 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 flame,
to draw us up the sleeps of heavens
but suppose we will have to 90 like the pre-
ceding generations. An officer from 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. And we will
wake up after these autumnal and wintry and
vernal and summary 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 to break out from my present associations.
1t is too chilly and too 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 parti-
ton between worlds without tearing this body
all to shreds. L wonder if the surgeons and
the doctors cannot compound a mixture by
which this body and soul can all the time be
kept together? Is there no escape from this
separation ?" None; absolutely none. So ! look
over this audience today-the vast majority of
you seeming in good health and sprits-and yet
l 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 it were, and we do not know
where they have gone, and they only add
| gloom and mystery TO the passage; but Jesus
Christ so 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 the beauty of which He was
moro appreciative than we ever could be. He
knows the exquisiteness of the phosphorescence
of the sea He trod it, He knows the glories
of the midnight heayens; for they were the
spangled canopy of His wilderness pillow. He
knows about the lilies; He twisted them
fowls of the air; they whirred
their way through His discourse. He knows
about the sorrows of leaving this beautiful
world. Not taper was kindled in the dark
ness. He died physicianless. He died in
cold sweat, and dizziness, and hemorrhage,
and agony that have put Him in sympathy
with all the dying. He goes through Chris
tendon, and He gathers up the stings out of
all the death pillows, and lie puts them un-
der His own neck and head. He gathers on
His own tongue the burning thrsts of many
generations. The sponge is soaked in the
sorrows of all those who have
diedIin their beds as well as soaked in the sor-
rows of all those who persisted i'll icy or fiery
martyrdom. While heaven was plying, and
earth was hooking, and hell was deriding, lie
took the vinegar!
TO all those in this audience to whom life
had been an acerbity-a dose they could no
swallow, q draught that set their teeth mt
edge and a-raspmg-I preach the omnipoteof
sympathy of Jesus Christ The sister of
HelSchel, tho astronomer, used to help his
i'll his work. lie 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
ambition now, this hour, to clear the lens of
your spiritual vision, 50 that looking through
the dark night of your earthly troubles you
may behold the glorious constellation of
Sayiour's mercy and a Sayiour's love- q, my
friends, do not try to carry all your ills alone.
Do not put your poor shoulder under the
Apennnes when The Almighty Christ is ready
to lift up all your burdens. When you have
IfouDIe OF any kmuj you rush JhlB 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 prescription, and that prescription,
and the other prescription. o, why do you
not 90 straight to the heart OF Christ, knowing
that for our own SHINING and suffering race,
lie took the yinegar
There was vessel that has been tossed ON
the seas for great many weeks, and been dis
abled, and the supply Of water gave out, and
the crew were dying Of thirst. After many
days, they saw a sail against the sky. They
signalled it. When the vessel came nearer,
the people on the suffering ship cried TO the
captain of the other vessel: "Send us water.
We are dying for the lack Of
water" And the captain on the
vessel that was hailed re
sponded: "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 brought up the clear,
bright, fresh water, and put out the fire OF
their thirst. So hail you today, after long
and perious voyage, tliirsting for eternal life;
and ask you what is the use Of your going
in that death-struck state, while all
around you is the deep, clear, wide sparkling