Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-17
AT THE GATE OF MAIN
Nature Was Bright and Joyous in
the Presence of Death When
CHRIST RAISED THE WIDOWS SON.
The Power Of Sympathy as Expressed by
Our Lord.
GODS LAST AND GREATEST ENEMY
rwR1rrEN FoR THE p1sp,rcuI

acle Of healing In Capernaum, curing the
centurion's servant-it came to pass-by one
of those condolences which we call chance,
but which are themselves, as plain even as
8 miracle, q revelation of Gods power in
the ordering of human lives-it came to
pass that He went into a city called Main.
There is no city any longer in that coun-
try to be called Main. ga few houses of
mud and stone, with low doorways, scat
tered among heaps of stone and traces of
walls" are all which a traveller can find
to-day along the street where the young
man of this gospel lived and died and took
up life again. Main" means ''the place
of pleasantness, and no doubt but it had
look which answered to its namei upon
that evening In the Syrian spring-time, when
the master with many of His disciples"
going with Him, "and much people, came
first in sight of it, after days walk from
Capernaum. The city stood upon gentle
hill, so they say who have seen the place.
To the north rose Tabor with its veSture OF
green; ana towering high up beyond, the
peaks of Hermon, white with snow, upon
oneside was Nazareth, upon the other Endor.
To the south lay that great battlefield, the
plain of Jezreel. But here, beside this
quiet gate, was to be fought greater battle
than any whose shouts ever echoed up that
hillside from the days of Pharaoh to the days
OF Napoleon.
For "when He came nigh to the gate of
the city, behold, there was dead man car
ried out" And so the Lord of Life came
into the presence of death. And so there |
was stain upon the beauty of the evening |
in the pleasant village, Death must almost |
ALWAYS seem tragically out of place in the |
world. Sometime when 1t comes to one ad- |
vaneed in years. who sits in his
chair and reads his Bible, and |
Just shuts his eyes and passes |
away into that blessed life where all mys-
terry will be made plain, and nobody knows |
that death has come till all is over, and |
hardly then can be persuaded that it is not
sleep; sometimes 1 say,
WHEN DEATH COMES
with that tender touch, there seems beauty |
and a blessed fitness about 1t. But more |
commonly death is dreadfully out of place |
here. And never more so than when the |
strong and the young are earned out, and |
the desolate follow behind, and all the air
is full of sunshine and the song of the |
spring birds, and all nature seems perfectly |
and heedlessly happy. Oh! what a fright
full discOrd in the harmony; and yet the or
chestra of nature goes on playing as merrily |
as ever, and paws no heed. For nature has
g pretty face, and sweet voice, sometimes; |
but no heart at all ever.
All the pleasantness of the little village |
was turned into bitterness by that pitiful
procession, where there was "a dead man
carried out, the son of his mother, and she |
was a widow" The householder arose one |
morning, in the parable, and 10, there we're |
tares among the wheat. And he said: "An |
enemy hath done thisl'' Christ looked out |
over the fair world, and saw the sin that |
was in il, and the sorrow and the death |
which marred it, and said, no doubt, the |
same words over again: "An enemy hath |
done thisr' For God has planted no tares |
among the wheat; He has put into the world
neither sin, nor sorrow, nor even death. We
have brought these ills into human life our
own selves. Do you remember that in the
O. ~rv of Eden, first comes sin, and after that
death? And do you remember how St. Paul
repeats and emphasizes that? Death, then,
is the enemy Of God. We have the Scrip
lures for that THE last enemy that shall
be destroyed is-death."
Let no one think that God sent down a
dread messenger into that poor widows
home and took away her son, her comfort
and her sole support. No; the enemy came.
And God, who knows the end from the be-
ginning: God, who knows how to turn even
curses into benedictions; God suffered it to
be SO. He knew-what we cannot know
lust vhv it was best that there In that little
mouse IN N anu III uOuetS D6NOuO !
bering, some of them verT much nearer at
at hand than Main, the enemy should have
his wav Somehow it was, and is, best. Oh,
thank Godl one day even that last enemy
shall be utterly destroyed; thank God that
beyond this life is another into which the
gate of death gives entrance, where sorrow
and CRYING will have no place at all, where
there will be no death, no bitter parting,
forever and ever.
CHRIST's SYMPATHY.
{ "And when the Lord saw her. He had
compassion on her. and said unto her,
Weep not How easy it is to say that!
and how hard to heed it! And yet the very
saying OF il, even from our lips, does good.
Because 1t means sympathy. And SYM
pathy helps when nothing else can help. |
Christ does not forbid tears. Some people
are afraid that to be sorrowful is itself an !
act of unbelief; that God is angry at human
grief. But there is no foundation for that
fear. Christ Himself wept beside the grave
of His friend.
Sorrow is butthe natural effect of af1iction. |
1t means love. 1t is the cry of pain which
comes at the breaking of a bond which God |
Himself has madestrong. God, Who put love
into our hearts, made grief at loss of the
sight Of those we love part of our nature.
There is only one kind of sorrow which
offends God. That is selfish sorrow.
The wisdom OF God and the love of God
let us 60 TO these in the presence of the
enemy. God knows best, and loves US.
That is the best kind Of comfort
Somebody sent me a tract the other day
entitled "Karma as q Cure for Trouble"
The tract began by stating the old problem
of pain. The world is full of trouble, pain.
Injustice, suffering of all sorts. Why? WHY. |
saws the political economist, because SIN
eouallties in social life"-troubles of that ,
kfnd-are the necessary effect OF high civlli-
Estion. Or, ''it is the will of God" SO the
parish clergyman says HE has been
pleased to make few rich and many Door.
some healthy and others weak-and we I
must accept the fact with devout
not eye it with doubt ]
or bitterness" The writer of the tract
thinks but meaaly of these meagre and un- j
words of attempted comfort He
has a word of his own. The cure for trouble ,
is the doctrine of Karma. This doctrine ]
holds that men are what they have made
themselves; that their lot has been fashioned ,
bv their own acts; that thev suffer and en- ,
iov because they have earned either suffer-
ing or enjoyment" This seems, however.
but hsrd-hearted comforting. ''You Door ,
fellow" it says to the man in trouble; dvou {
deserve all this. 1t is your own fault" j
WHY this is precisely what Jobs comforter
tried TO persuade him Of
But wait. There is more in this doctrine
Men will say. continues the essayist, how
,au that be true? my condition began
With nv infancy" 1 was born poor, or /.
weak. or subject to temptation, to which the !
theosoph1st viii answer: "Ah, but before
rou were born there was a life, perhaps 20
lives. perhaps a hundred. There is where
he blame belongs. If you are unhappy in !
his life. beyond doubt you were a scoundrel
in your previous life, and are now getting
properly punished for it. This is the