The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-12-14

in over and terminer another, q foul
mouthed, yelling mob the last. Wa.
there a space on His back a. wide as your
two fingers where He was not whipped!
Was there a space on shis brow an inch
square where he was not cut of the briarsl
When the spike struck at the instep, did il
not go clear through to the hollow of the
foot' o, long. deep, bitter pilgrimage
Aloes! A !oes!
John leaned his head on Christ, but who
did Christ lean on? Five thousand men fed
by the Saviour; who fed Jesus? The sym.
cathy of Saviour's heart going out to the
leper and the adulteress; but who soothed
Christ! Denied both cradle and death.
bed. He had q fit place neither tc
be born nor to die! A poor babel A
poor ladi A poor young man! Not SO
mpch as q taper to cheer his dying hours.
Even the candle of the sun snuffed out
o, was it not all aloes? All our sins, sor-
rows, bereavements, losses and all the
agonies Of earth and hell picked up as in
one cluster and squeezed into one cup and
that pressed to His lips until the acrid,
nauseating, bitter draught was swallowed
with distorted countenance and a shud-
der from head to foot and a gurgling
strangulation. Aloes! Aloes! Nothing
but aloes. All this for Himself? All this
to get the fame in the world of being a
martyrI All this in a spirit of stubborn
ness, because He did not like Caesar! No!
no! All this because He wanted to pluck
you and me from nell. Because He wanted
to raise you and me to Heaven. Because
we were lost and he wanted US found.
Because we were blind and He wanted us
- 81 uo tod
us manumitted. o, We in whose cup of
life the saccharine has predominated; o,
We who have had bright and sparkling
beverages, how do you feel toward Him
who in your stead, and to purchase your
disenthrallment, took the aloes, the I'M
savory 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 stalk. 1t is enough
for me to tell you that it was used me-
dicinally. In that land and in that age,
where they knew but 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 suggests to me the healing and
curative power of the Son of God.
CO." you say, snow you have a super
fuous 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 we could
bound like the roe." beg to differ, my
brother. from you. None of you can be
4 I'D
yet l must say we are all sick. l have
taken the diagnosis of your case and have
examined all the best authorities on the
subject, and l have come now to tell you
that you are full of wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores which have not been
bound up nor Modified with ointment.
The marasmus of sin is on us-the palsy,
the dropsy, the leprosy. The man
who is expiring tonight on Fulton street
the allopathic and homeopathic doctors
have 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 and l 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 physi-
clan, written, not in Latin, like the pre-
scriptions of earthly physicians, but writ
ten in plain English so that q man, though
a fool, need not err therein. Thank God
that the Saviour's garments smell of cassia.
Suppose a man were sick and that there
was phial on the mantelpiece with med
icine he knew would cure him and he re-
fused to take it what would you say to
him? He is q suicide. And what do you
say of that man who, sick in sin, has the
healing medicine of Gods grace offered
him, and refuses to take itf If he dies he
is suicide.
People talk as though God took a man
and led him out to darkness and death, as
though He brought him up to the cliffs and
then pushed him off. o, no. When a
man is lost it is not because God pushes
him off; it is because he jumps off. In
olden times a suicide was buried at the
crossroads, and the people were accus-
toned 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 misimproved privileges,
so that those going may look at the fear
full 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-peo-
pie who were sick, and those who, being so
sick they could not walk, were brought by
their friends Here see mother holding
up her little child and saying: "Cure this
Group. Lord Jesus. Cure this scarlet
fever" And others saying: "Cure this
ophthalmia- Give ease and rest to this
spinal distress. Straighten this club
foot" Christ made every house where He
stopped dispensary. do not believe that
in the nineteen centuries that have gone by
since, His heart has got hard. 1 feel that
we can come now with all our wounds of
soul and get His benediction. o Jesus.
here we are. Wewant 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 garments smelling of myrrh"
that means fragrance-"and aloes"-
they mean bitter sacrificial memories :
sand cassia'-that means medicine and
cure; and according to my text,
He comes ''out Of the ivory palaces, 4"
You know, or if you do not know 1 will
tell you now, that some of the palaces of
olden times 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 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. o, white and
overmastering beauty! Green tree bran.
ches sweeping the white curbs; tapestry
trailing the snowy floors; brackets Of light
flashing on the lustrous surroundings;
silvery mn sic rinnlinp tn the hand of tho