The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1889-06-12

most sensitive being that ever walked
the earth, and If a pale invalid's
weak finger could not touch His robe with
out strength going out from Him, these
mountains and seas could not have touched
His eye without irradiating His entire nature
with their magnifcence. warrant that
He mounted and explored all the hills
around Nazareth, among them Hermon with
its crystal coronet Of perpetual snow, and
Carmel and Tabor and Gilboa, and they all
had their sublime echo in after time from the
Olivetc pulpit.
And then it was not uncultivated gran
deur. These hills carried in their arms or on
their backs gardens, groves, orchards, ter
races, vineyards, cactus, sycamores. These
outbranching foliages did not have To wait
for the foods before their silence was bro
ken, for 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 bull
bulls. Yonder the white flocks Of sheep
showed down over the pasture lands. And
yonder the brook rehearses to the pebbles
It's adventures down the rocky shelving.
Yonder are the Oriental homes, the house.
wife with pitcher on the shoulder entering
the door, and down the lawn in front chill
dren reveling among the flaming iora And
all this spring and song and grass and sun
shine and shadow woven into the most ex-
duisite 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 crimson sky
at night meant dry weather next day, and
that crimson sky in the morning meant
wet weather before night And how beau
tifully he made use Of II In after years, as
he drove down upon the pestiferous Phari-
see and Sadducee, by crying out: When it
is evening ye say it will be fair weather, for
the sky is red, and in the morning it will be
foul weather to-day, for the sky is red and
lowering. Oye hypocrites, ye can discern
the face Of the sky, but can vo 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 o hen
gathereth her chickens under her wingw
| BY night he had noticed his mother by the
plain candle light which, as ever and anon
Il was snuffcd and the removed wick put
down on the candlestck, beamed brightly
through all the family sitting-r room as his
mother was mending his garments that had
been torn during the days wandering among
the rocks or bushes, and years afterward II
all came out in the smile of the greatest SER
mon ever preached; Neither do men light n
candle and put II under bushel, but in a
1 al IL II, tal.N 80 Ill
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 ho enioined: clay up
for yourselves treasures 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 liliesp A grea,
storm one day during Chrisrs boyhood
blackened the heavens and angered the
rivers. Perhaps standing In the door OF the
carpenters shop he watched IL gathering
louder and wilder until two cyclones, one
sweeping down from Mount Tabor and the
other from Mount Carmel, met In the valley
Of Esdraelon and two houses are caught in
the fury and crash goes the one and trium.
phant stands the other, and he noticed that
one had shifting sand for a foundation and
the other an eternal rock for basis; and
twenty years after he built the whole scene
into aperoration Of food and whrlwind that
seized the audience and lifted them into the
heights Of sublimity with the two great
arms Of pathos and terror, which sublime
words render, asSing you as far as posi-
bic 10 forget that you ever heard them be-
fore: "Whosoever heareth these sayings
Of mine, and doeth them, will liken him
unto wise man, which built his house
upon a rock; and the rain descended, and
tho floods came, and the winds blew, and
beat upon that house; and II fell not; Tor II
was founded upon a rock. And every one
that heareth these sayings OF mine, and
doeth them not, shall be hkened unto a
foolish man, which built his house upon tho
sand and the rain descended, ana the
foods came, and the winds blew, and beat
upon that house; and itfell; and great was
the fall Of IT,"
Yes, from the natmalness, the simplicity,
the freshness Of His parallels and SMILES
and metaphors in manhood discourse /
know that He had been boy OF the fields
and had bathed IN the streams and heard
the nightingales call, aud broken through
the flowery hedge and looked out Of the
cmbrasures OF the fortress, and drank from
the wells and chased the butterflies, which
travellers say have always been one Of the
fitting beauties of that landscape, and
talked with the strange people Of Damascus
and Egypt and Sapphoris and Syria, who In
caravans or on foot passed through Els
neighborhood, the dogs barking at their ep-
proach at sundown As afterwards He was
perfect man, In the tine Of which speak
He was perfect boy, with the spring OF a
boys foot, the sparkle OF boys eye, the
rebound Of boys life, and Just theopposite
of those Juveniles who sit around morbid
and unelastic, old men at ton. l warrant
He was able to take His own part ard
to take the part Of others In that
village OF Nazareth am certain
there was what is found in all the
neighborhoods OF the earth. that terror of
children, the bully, Who seems born
10 strike, 10 punch, 10 bruise, 10 overpowor
the less muscular and robust The Christ
| who afterward in no limited terms de-
nounced hypocrite and Pharisee, / warrant,
never let such Juvenile villain impose upon
iessvigorous childhood and yet go unscathed
and undefended. At ten years he was In
sympathy with the underlings as he was at
thirty and three want nofurther inspired
or iininspired information to persuade me
that he was splendid boy, a radiant boy,
the grandest holiest, mightiest boy OF all
the ages. Hence commend him as boys
Christ What multitudes between ten and
fifteen years have found him out as the one