The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-11-24

gag road from the plain of Esdraeion to
Nazareth. Familiar was Christ with their
appearance, also with that small insect, the
gnat, which he had seen his mother strain
out from = cup of water or pail of milk,
and no wonder he brings afterward the
large quadTuped, aud the small insect into
his sermon, and while seeing the Pharisees
careful about small sins, and reckless about
large ones, cries out: ''Woe unto you blind
guides which strain out a gnat and swallow
camel"
He had in boyhood seen the shepherds get
their flocks mixed up, and, to one not famll-
lar with the habits f shepherds and their
fiocks, hopelessly mixed up. And sheep
stealer appears on the scene and dishonesty
demands some of those sheep, when he owns
not one of them "Well' say the two
honest shepherds, "we will soon settle this
matter and one shepherd goes out in one
direction and the other shepherd goes out in
rile other direction, and the sheep stealer
II another direction, and each one calls,
and the flocks of each of the honest shep-
herds rush to their owner, while the sheep
stealer calls, and calls again, but gets not one
of the flock. No wonder that Christ years
after, preaching on a great occasion and
illustrating his own shepherd qualities, says:
"When he putteth forth his own sheep he
goeth Def re them, and the sheep follow
him, for they know his voice, and the
stranger they will not follow, for they know
not the voice Of the stranger" The sides
of these hills are terraced for grapes The
hoy Christ had often stood with great
round eyes watching the trimming of the
grape vines. Cliff, goes the knife, and off
falls branch. The child Christ saws to the
farmer, "What do you do that forp oh"
saws the farmer, that is dead branch,
and it is doing nothing and is only
in the wav, so l cut it off. Then
the farmer with his sharp knife prunes
from a living branch this, and that
tendril and the other to ldrl. but" says
rhe child Christ, ''these twigs that you cut
off now are not dead; what do you do that
forF' "Ohn says the farmer. I'VE prune
off these that the main branch may have
more of the sap. aud so be more fruitful"
No wonder in after years Christ said IN
his sermon: ~ am the true vine and my
father is the husbandman; every branch
in me- that beareth not fruit he taketh
away, and every branch that beareth
fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring
forth more fruit" Capital No one who
had not been country boy would have
said that.
Streaks of nature all through Christie
sermons and Conversations When pigeon
descended upon Christ's head at his baptism
in The Jordan it was not the first pigeon he
had seen. And then he has such wide
sweep of discourse, as you may imagine from
one vino hes stood on the hills that overlook
Nazareth. AS far as / understand, Christ
visited the Mediterranean sea only once, but
any clear morniug he could run up on a
hill near Nazareth and look off to the west
and see the Mediterranean, while there in
the north is snowy Mount Lebanon, clad as in
white robe of ascension, and yonder on the
east and southeast Mount Gilboa, Mount
Tabor and Mount Gilead, and yonder in the
south is the Plain of Esdraelon, over which
we rode yesterday on our way to Nazareth.
Those mountains of his boyhood in his
memory, do you wonder that Christ, when
he wanted good pulpit, made it out of
rnountain-"seeing the multitudes he went
up into the mountain" And when he
wanted especial communion with God, he
took James and John and Peter into "a
mountain apart"
Oh, this country boy of Nazareth, come
forth to atone for the sins Of the world, and
10 correct the follies of the world, and to
stamp out the cruelties of the world, aud to
illumine the darkness of the world and TO
transigure the hemispheresl So it has
been the mission of the country boys in all
ages to transform and inspire and rescue.
They come into our merchandise aud our
court rooms, and our healing art, and our
studies and our theology. They
lived in Nazareth before they entered
Jerusalem. And but for that
amman 1DHUN our Clues ROulu nave
ennervated and sickened, and slain the
race. Late hours and hurtful ap )arel and
overtaxed digestive organs and crowding
environments of city life would have
halted the world, but the valleys and noun
tains of Nazareth have given fresh supply
of health and moral IMMIGRATION to Jeru-
salem, and the country saves the town.
From the hills of New Hampshire and the
hills Of Virginia and the hills of Georgia
s.,Na oil
the Websters and the Clays and
the Henry w. Gradys From
the plain homes of Massachusetts and Mary
landcome into our national charities the
George Peabodys and the William Corcor-
ans From the cabins of the lonely country
regions come into our national destiuies the
Andrew Jacksons and the Abraham Lin
coins. From pillow boys furrow and village
counter ana blacksmiths forge come most
of our city giants. Nearly all the Messiahs
in all departments dwelt in Nazareth before
they came to Jerusalem. | send this day
thanks from these cities, mostly made pros
porous by country boys, to the farmhouse
and the prairies and the mountain cabins.
and the o, scure homesteads of north and
south and eas. and west, to the fathers and
mothers in plain homespun, if they be still
alive, or the hillocks under which they
sleep the long Sleep Thanks from Jerusa-
lem TO Nazareth.
sSSBut alas, thai the city should so often
treat tho country tboys, as of old the one
from Nazareth was treated at Jerusalem
Slain not by hammers and spikes, but by
instruments just as cruel. Ga every street
of every city the crucifixion goes on. Every
year shows its tea thousand of the slain.
Oh, how We grind them up! Under what
wheels, in What mills and for what an
awful grlstl Let the city take better care
of these boys and young men arriving from
the country. They are worth saving
They are now only the preface of what they
will be if, instead of sacrificing, you help
them. Boys as grand as the enc, who. with
bis elder brother, elm bed into church
tower and. not knowing their danger,
went outside on some timbers, when
oIe of those timbers broke and
the boys fell and the older boy caught on a
beam and the younger clutched the foot of
the older; the older could not climb up with
The younger hanging to his feet, so the
younger said: John, am going to let 60
you can climb out into safety, but you can't
climb up with me holding fast; am going
to let go; kiss mother for me and tell her
not to feel badly; good-byi" and he lei go,
and was so hard dashed upon the ground be
was not recognizable. Plenty of such brave
boys coming up from Nazareth! Let Jeru-
salem be careful how it treats them! A
gentleman long ego entered a school in
Germany and he bowed very low before
the boys, and the teacher said
why do You do that ~ ''Oh,'
said tho visitor GI do MT