The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-01-24

H.
ivory places"
Your second curiosity is to know why
the robes of Jesus are odorous with aloes.
There is some difference of opinion about /
where these aloes grow, what is the color /
of the flower, what is the particular ap /
pearance of the herb. Suffice it for you |
and me to know that aloes means bitter |
ness the world over, and when Christ |
comes with garments bearing that partic-
ular odor, they suggest to me the bitter. |
ness of a Saviour's sufferings. Were |
there ever such nights as Jesus lived
through-nights on the mountains, nights
on the sea, nights In the desert? Whoever
had such hard reception as Jesus had?
A hosiery the first, an unjust trial IN
| oyer and terIniner another, foul
mouthed, yelling mob the last. Was there
| a space on His back as wide as your two
| fingers where he was not whipped? Was
! there a space on His brow an inch square
where He was not cut of the briarsS When
/ the spike struck at the instep, did it not
go clear through to the hollow of the foot?
oh, long, deep, bitter pilgrimage. Aloes !!
Aloes!
John leaned his head on Christ, but who
did Christ lean on? Five thousand men
fed by the Saviour; who fed Jesus? The
| sympathy of a Saviour's heart going out
to the leper and the adulteress; but who
soothed Christ? Denied both cradle and
death-bed, He had fit place neither to be
born or to die. A poor babe! poor
lad! A poor young mani Not SO much as
a taper to cheer His dying hours. Even
the candle Of the sun snuffed out. Oh, was
it not all aloes? All our sins, sorrows,
befeavements, losses, and all the agonies
4 IF arfh md hpn mir lrnd ms &C Gins
ter and squeezed into one cup, and that
pressed to His lips until the acrid, nauseat-
ing, bitter draught was swallowed with
distorted countenance, and q shudder
from head to foot, and gurgling
strangulation. Aloesl aloes! nothing but
!, aloes, All this for Himself? All this to
get the fame in the world Of being a
martyr All this in spirit eff stubborn
ness because He did not like Caesar? No!
mol All this because He wanted to pluck
you and me from hell. Because He want
. ed to raise you and me to Heaven. Be-
cause we were lost and He wanted us
J found. Because we were blind and He
wanted US to see. Because we were serfs
and He wanted us manumitted. Oh, we in
7 whose cup of life the saccharine has pre-
/ dominated; oh, We who have had bright
and sparkling beverages, how do you feel
toward Him who in your stead, and to
t purchase your disenthralment, took the
aloes, the unsavory aloes, the bitter aloes?
t Your third curiosity is to know why
q these garments of Christ are odorous with
: cassia. This was plant that grew in In
Q dia and the adjoining islands. You do not
b care to hear what kind of flower it had
J, or what kind of stalk. 1t is enough for
Il me to tell you that it was used medicinal
Y ly. In that land and in that age, where
It they knew little about pharmacy, cassia
was used to arrest many forms of disease.
e So, when In my text we find Christ coming
|. with garments that smell Of cassia, it sug.
n gests to me the healing and curative power
!, Of the Son Of God. "Oh,u you say; 'noW
d you have a superhuous idea. We are not
It sick. Why do we want cassia? We are
2 athletic. Our respiration is perfect
n Our limbs are 1.-THE, and in these
st cool days we feel that we could
D bound like the roe" beg
d to differ, my brother, from you. None
II CT YOU can be better in physical health
le than / am, and yet ISmust say we are al
Is sick. have taken the diagnosis of you
lie case, and have examined all the best au
t, thorities on the subject, and / have come
S. now to tell you thatyou are full of wounds
s, and bruises, and putrefying sores which
st have not yet been bound up, or modified
y. with ointinent The Iiarasmus of sin il
Id on us-the palsy, the dropsy, the leprosy
/ The man that is expiring might on Full
t. ton street.-The allopathic and homeo
is pathic doctors having given him up, ant
err his friends now standing around to tax
tic his last words-is no more certainly dyin
I'D as to his body than you are dying, unles
ic We have taken the medicine from God
m apothecary. All the leaves of this Bibl
rd are only so many prescriptions from tn
nd Divine physician, written, not in Latin
nd like the prescriptions of earthly physi
al clans, but written in plain English, s
to that man, though fool, may not e1
up therein. Thank God that the Saviour's gar
ot ments smell of cassia.
I'M Suppose man were sick, and there was
Ike phial on his nlantelpiece with medicine h
en- knew would cure him, and he refused t
h, take it, what would you say to him? H
lg, is suicide. And what do you say of hin
'r- who, sick in sin, has the healing med
i'm cine of Gods grace offered to him, and RI
nd fuses to take it2 If he dies he is asiiieid
i'm People talk as though God took man an
is led him out to darkness and death-a
to though He brought him up to the cliff
lat and then pushed him off. Oh, no. Whe
He man is lost it is not because God pusht
I'd him of; it is because he jumps off.
IS, the olden times q suicide was buried
les the crossroads, and the people were a.
customed to throw stones upon his grav
is So 1t seems to me, there may be in tn
cal house a man who is destroying his ov
AN soul, and as though the angels of &c
an were here to bury him at the point whe1
BPS the roads of life and death cross eat
in. other, throwingupon the grave the broke
1t law and great pile of unsupported pri
ike ilege, so that those going may look at Il
ne- fearful mound, and learn what suici,
e it is when an immortal soul, for viii.
to Jesus died, puts itself out of the way.
it'll When Christ trod this planet with TO
of of flesh, the people rushed after Him
the people who were sick, and those VIII
Dry being so sick they could not walk, we
lch brought by their friends. Here l see
1ss mother holding up her little child, al
tch saying: "Cure this Group, Lord Jesu
pie cure this scarlet fever.n And others sa
all ing: "Cure this ophthalmia. Give ca
me and rest to this spinal distress. Straightt
i'm. this club-foot." Christ made every hou
ull where He stopped a dispensary. do n
not believe that in the nineteen centuries til
age have gone nv since His heart has o