The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-07-13

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 anything TO eat before night.
BE would have been pronounced a financial
failure He had to perform q miracle to get
money to pay tax bill Not dollar did be
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 IL 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 70 dissolve.
Hardly have you put the black apparel In the
wardrobe before you have again to take 1t
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 I 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, IL they were scattered by the same
hands. With what 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 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 CONFUSION
of grief shuddering through all the ages of
bereavement Christ knows what it is to 60
through the house missing q familiar inmate.
Christ knows what 1t is to see an unoccupied
place at the table We're there not four Of
them-Mary and Martha and Christ and
Lazarus2 -Four of them. But where Is
Lazarus Lonely and afflicted Christ, his
great loving eyes filled 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. He
took the vinegarl
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
win behave when come to die. Whether I
will be calm or excited-whether / will be
filed with "Reminiscences or with anticipation.
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 I
do not suppose that God is going to send a
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
lions. 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 viii wake up after these
autumnal andwintryand vernal and summary
glories have vanished from our vision-we
viii wake up into a realm which has only
one season, and that the season of everlsst-
ing love. But you say: 81 don't want to
break out from my present associations It
Is 30 chilly and so damp to go down the
stairs Of that vault. 1 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
geons and the doctors cannot compound q
mixture by which this body and soul can all
the time be kept togetherl Is there no es-
cape from this separation?" None; abb
solutely none So I look over this audience
today-the vast majority of you seeming in
good health and spirits-and yet l realize
that in a short time, all of us
win 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 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 more 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
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 q taper was kindled in the
darkness. 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 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
thirsts Of many generations. The sponge is
soaked in the sorrows of all those who have
died in their beds as well as soaked In the
sorrows Of all those who persisted in icy or
IL .Ns@
ing and earth was hooking and bell was de-
riding, he took the vinegarl
To all those in this audience to whom life
has been an acerbity-a dose they could not
swallow, draught that set their teeth on
edge and a-rasping-I preach the omnipotent
sympathy Of Jesus Christ. The sister Of
Herschel, the astronomer, used to help him
In his work He got all the credit; she got
mona 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, so that looking through
the dark night Of your earthly troubles you
may behold the glorious constellation Of a
Saviour's mercy and Saviours love. o,
my friends, do not try to carry all your ills
alone. Do not put your poor shoulder under
the Apeninpes when the Almighty Christ is
ready TO lift up all your burdens. When
you have a trouble of any kind,
you rush this way, and that way;
and you wonder what this man win
say about it, and what that man viii say
about it; and you try this prescription, and
that prescription, and the other prescription
Oh, why do you not go straight to the heart
Of Christ, knowing that for our own SHINING
and suffering race he took the vinegari
There was vessel that had been tossed on
the seas for a great many weeks, and been
disabled, and the supply Of water gave out,
and the crew were dying Of thirst. After
many days they saw sail against the sky.
They signaled it. When the vessel came
nearer the people on the suffering ship cried
to the captain Of the other vessel: "Send us
some water We are dying for lack Of water"
And the captain Of the vessel that was hailed
responded: "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 q long and perilous voyage, thirsting as
You are for pardon, and thirsting for COM
fort, and thirsting for eternal life; and ask
you what Is the use Of your going in that
death struck state, while oil around you is
the deep, clear, wide, sparkling food Of Gods
sympathetic mercy. o, dip your buckets,
and drink, and live forever. "Whosoever
viii, let him como and take of the water of
life freely"
Yet my utterance is almost choked at the
thought that there are neonie heYa who will