Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-06-21


was oltten and at Christ's command the
-. serpent with its own mouth drew forth
1 Gn poison from the wound? Why.
~ has been doing that through ali
!: ages, namely, compelling the very
feninss that wound us, under His sancti-
.sihg power, to bring us to health and
leinSlgoration and eternal life. Or the
unlnsplred story that children were
paying on the housetop and the boy
ohrlst was there and one of the children
was showed from the roof and fell to the
ground and died, and the other children
charged Christ with the misdemeanor
Ana the boy Christ said: Charge not
we with the crime, but let us leave it to
the dead child to settle the controversy,
ana q. the boy Christ said: "Zeinumus!
the, housetop?" Then the dead child
spake and said: Not Thou, but such
one did" Was that more wonderful
than Paul's resuscitation of Eutychus,
VINO fell from the window while the
apostle was preaching? Or the unin-
ssplred story in the apocryphal New Tes-
lament which says that Christ the boy
was taken to school and Zaccheus, the
teacher told Him the first three letters
of the alphabet, whereupon Christ the
boy asked His teacher such profound
questions concerning the alphabet that
the teacher was COMPOUNDED and the boy
Christ Himself explained all to the
teacher until Zaccheus said to Joseph
the father of the wonderful boy: Thou
has brought a boy to me to be taught
then the boy was taken to more
learned master who, angered at the boys
questions. lifted his hand to whip Him
and the hand withered us will all the
hands lifted against Christ? Is that
more wonderful than the scene posi-
lively recorded by Matthew where the
D. DIS and the LII. DIS stood around
Christ at IL years of age in the temple,
utterly COMPOUNDED 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 physi-
clans, told them more about anatomy
and physiology than they had ever
dreamed Of, the number of veins.
! arteries, nerves and bones? If Christ
twelve years to describe the human sys-
tenn as we'll as though he had been fifty
years standing at an operating table or
in q dissecting room?
In other words, while I do not believe
that any of the so-called apocryphal
New Testament is inspired. | believe
much of it is true; Just as I believe q
thousand books, none of which are di-
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. 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 a boys Christ.
And the world wants such q one. He
did not sit around moping over what
was to be, or what was. From the way
in which natural objects enwreathed
| had become q man l conclude there was
not rock or a hill or cavern or tree
for miles around that He was not famil-
lar with in childhood. He had cau-
tiously felt His way down into the caves
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 fats,
but they passed the receptive days of
ladhood 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
biographies began. Our Lords boyhood
was passed in q neighborhood twelve
hundred feet above the level of the sea
and surrounded by mountains five or sis
| hundred feet still higher. Before il
could shine on the village where this
boy slept, the sun had to climb ia,
enough up to look over the hills that
heldtheir heads far aloft. From yonde1
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
furrying His hair over His sun Drowned
forehead, standing on hill top looking
off upon Lake Tiberias, on which at one
time according to profane history are
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 nsitive being that
ever walked the earth, and if q 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 theil
magniticence. I 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 Ollvetie
pulpit.
And then it was not uncultivated
grandeur. These hills carried in theil
arms or on their backs, gardens, groves
orchards, terraces, vineyards, cactus
sycamores. These outbranching foil
ages did not have to wait for the floods
! before their silence was broken, fol
through them and over them and in
circles round them and under them were
pelicans, were thrushes, were sparrows,
were nightingales. We're larks, Were
ouails, were blaclbirds, were cartridges,
were bulbuls. Yonder the white fiocks
of sheep showed down over the pasture
lands. And yonder the brook rehearses
to the pebbles its advantages down the
rocky shelving. Wonder are the oriental
homes, the housewife with pitcher on
the shoulder entering the door, and