Dodge City times., 1889-06-27

and the hand withered as will all tn,
hands lifted against Christ? Is tha
, more wonderful than the scene posi-
lively recorded by Matthew where the
D. DIS and the IL. DIS stood around
Christ at II years of age in the temple
utterly confounded at his precocious'
ness? Or that story that Christ the boy
questioned by astronomers, told them
the number of the worlds. their size,
their circuits; and, questioned by physl-
clans, told them more about anatomy
and physiology than they had evel
dreamed of, the number of VEINS,
arteries. nerves and bones? If Christ
were divine, was he not able at ten oI
twelve years to describe the human sys-
tenn as well as though he had been fifty
years standing at an operating table OF
in q dissecting room.
In other words, while do not believe
that any of the so-called apocryphal
New Testament is inspired, believe
much of it is true; Just as l believe
thousand books, none of which are d.
vinely inspired. Much of it was just
like Christ. Just as certain as the man
Christ was the most of the time getting
men out of trouble. l think that the
boy Christ was the most of the time get
ting boys out of trouble. 1 have de-
clared to YOU this day boys Christ.
And the world wants such a one. He
did not sit around moping over what
was to be, or what was. From the way
in which natural objects enwreathed
themselves into His sermons after He
had become a man / conclude there was
not rock or a hill or a cavern or a tree
| for miles around that He was not famll-
lar with in childhood. He had eau
| . CO. 4 int ha sc
/ and had with 1.-THE and agile limb gained
poise on many a high tree top. His
boyhood was passed among grand
scenery as most all the great natures
have passed early life among the noun
tains. They may live now on the flats,
but they passed the receptive days of
ladtooc among the hills. Among the
mountains of New Hampshire or the
mountains of Virginia or the mountains
of Kentucky or the mountains of
Switzerland or Italy or Austria or Scot
land or mountains as high and rugged
as they, many of the worlds thrilling
biographies began. Our Lords boyho
was passed in neighborhood twelve
hundred feet above the level of the sea
and surrounded by mountains five or six
hundred feet still higher. Before it
could shine on the village where this
boy slept, the sun had to climb far
enough up to look over the hills that
held their heads far aloft. From yonder
height his eye at one sweep took in the
mighty scoop of the valleys and with
another sweep took in the Mediter-
ranean Sea, and you hear the grandeur
of the cliffs and the surge of the great
waters in His matchless sermonology.
| One day / see that divine boy, the wind
A,,r &c ad
fore head. standing on hill top looking
off upon Lake Tiberias, on which at one
time according to profane history are,
not four hundred four thousand ships.
Authors have taken pains to say that
Christ was not affected by these sur
roundings, and that He from within lived
outward and independent of circum-
stances. So far from that being true,
He was the most Sc nsltlve being that
ever walked the earth, and if a pale
invalid's weak finger could not touch
His robe without strength going out
from him, these mountains and seas
could not have touched His eye without
irradiating His entire nature with their
magniicence. l warrant that He had
mounted and explored all the fifteen
hills around Nazareth, among them
Hermon with its crystal corOnet of per-
petual snow, and Carmel and Tabor and
Gilboa, and they all had their sublime
echo in after time from the Ollvetic
pulpit.
And then it was not uncultivated
grandeur. These hills carried in their
arms or on their backs, gardens, groves,
orchards, terraces, vineyards, cactus.
sycamores. These outbranching foli-
ages did not have to wait for the floods
haf. hnIr hrnH fnr
through them and over them and in
circles round them and under them were
pelicans, were thrushes, were sparrows,
were nightingales, were larks, were
quails, were blackbirds, were partridges,
were bulbuls. Yonder the white focks
of sheep showed down over the pasture
lands. And yonder the brook rehearses
to the pebbles its advantages down the
rocky shelving. Yonder are the oriental
homes, the housewife with pitcher on
the shoulder entering the door, and
down the lawn in front children revel-
ing among the flaming flora. And all
this spring and song and grass and sun
shine and shadow woven into the most
exquisite nature that ever breathed or
wept or sung or suffered. Through
studying the sky between the hills
Christ had noticed the weather signs,
and that a crimson sky at night meant
dry weather next day, and that a Grim
son sky in the morning meant wet
weather before night. And how beauti-
fully He made use of it in after years as
He drove down upon the pestriferous
Pharisee and Sadducee by crying out:
When it is evening We say it will be
the morning it will be foul weather to-
low fnr = ha cEr
o We hypocrites, We can discern the face
of the sky, but can We not discern the
signs of the times" By day, as every
boy has done, He watched the barnyard
fowl at sight of overswinging hawk
cluck her chickens under wing and in
after years He said: 20, Jerusalem,
Jerusalem! How often would / have
gathered thee as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wing By night
He had noticed His mother by the plain
candle light which, as ever and anon it
/! was snuffed and the removed wick put
down on the candlestick, beamed brightly
through all the family sitting room as
His mother was mending His garments
that had been torn during the days wan
derings among the rocks or bushes, and
years afterwards it all came out in the
simile of the greatest sermon ever
preached: Neither do men light
candle and put it under bushel but in
a candlestick and it giveth light to all
who are in the house. Let your light
SO shine" Some time when His mother
in the autumn took out the clothes that
had been put away for the summer He
noticed how the moth miller flew out
and the coat dropped apart ruined and
useless, and so twenty years after He
enjoined: Lay up for yourselves treas
ures in Heaven where neither moth nor
rust can corrupt" His boyhood spent
among birds and flowers they all caroled
and bloomed again fifteen years after as
He cries out: Behold the fowls of the
air" Consider the lilies A great
storm one day during Christ's boyhood
| blackened the Heavens and angered the
rivers. Perhaps standing in the door
of the capenters shop He watched it
gathering louder and wilder until two
| cyclones. one sweeping down from
| MOnnf Tohnr onH ba ~ har fro,, Nn,ox