St. Landry democrat., 1888-07-21

n0t SO easy to endure when no one but the
nurse and the doctor are the witnesses OF
the Christian fortitude. Besides that you
never had any pains worse than Christ's
The sharpness that stung through His
brain, through His hands, through His
feet, thr ough His heart, were as great as
yours certainly. He was as sick and as
weary. Not nerve, or muscle, or liga.
ment escaped. ALI 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 outgo.
lngs, and that always gives an honest man
anxiety. There is no sign of restitution
about you-pleasant appearance and a
cheerful home for you; but God only
knows what time you have had to man.
| age your private finances. Just as the
bills run up the wages seem to run down.
But you are not the only one who has not
| been paid for hard work. The great Will
kle sold his celebrated piece, "The Blind
Fiddler" for fifty guineas, although aft
erwards it brought its thousands. The
world hangs in admiration over the sketch
OF Gainsborough, yet that very sketch
hung for years in the shop-window be-
cause there was not any purchaser.
Oliver Goldsmith sold his "Vicar Of
| Wakefield" for few pounds, in order to
keep the baliff out Of his door; and the
vast majority Of men in all occupations
| and professions are not fully paid for
| tn cir work. You may say nothing, but
life to you is 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 abridge there,
and you get things snug for smooth sail
ing. and 10! suddenly there is large doc
tors bill to pay, or you have lost your
pocketbook, or some creditor has failed :,
and you are thrown abeam 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 borrowed house; 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 where He
could get any thing to eat before night.
He would have been pronounced a f1nan-
cial failure. He had to perform miracle
to get money to pay tax bill. Not a dol
lar 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 bereave-
ment. There were years that passed
along before your family circle was in
vaded by death; but the moment the
charmed circle was broken every thing
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 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 to-day Once, as the children
romped through the house, you put your
hand over your aching head and said:
ooh, 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 ruthless plow share bereavement
rips up the heart. But Jesus knows all
about that You can not tell lin any
thing in regard to bereavement. He had
only a few 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 emotion-the
convulsion Of grief shuddering through
all the ages Of bereavement. Christ
KIN ows 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 where is
Lazarus? Lonely and afflicted Christ, His
gre at 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 heartbreak.
81 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 to know how |
will behave when / 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 and you must. In the |
six thousand years that have passed, only |
two persons have got into the eternal |
world without death, and I do not suppose |
hat God is going to send a carriage for us |
With horses of fame, to draw US up the |
sleeps of Heaven; but I suppose we will |
nave to go like the preceding generations. |
An officer of the future world will knock |
1t the door of our heart and serve on us |
he writ of eiectment. and we will have to |
And we will wake up after |
5hese autumnal, and wintry, and vernal,
and summary glories have vanished from
our vision-we will wake up into a realm
which has only one season, and that the |
eason Of everlasting love. But you say: I
81 don't want to break out from my
present associations. 1t is so chilly and
20 damp to go down the stairs of that
'ault. don't want any thing drawn so
lightly over my eyes. If there were only
ome way Of breaking throHgh the parti-
ion between WORLDS without tearing this
,ody all to shreads. / wonder If the sur
icons and the doctors can not compound
. mixture by which this body and soul
an all the time be kept together? Is
here no escape from the separ ationw
None; absolutely none. So look over