The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1890-12-05

nave Oeen AFTER sympatnlzlng Witn the
sick, and raising the dead. and preach
ing 10 the multitudes all day long to
come down on these banks in the night
time and feel the cool air OF the sea on
his hot face, and look up to the stars,
the lighted lamps around the heavenly
palaces from which he had descended |!
All heaven and earth were still; from the high
post
OF stars to the hed lake and mountain coast
All heaven and earth were still though not In
| sleep,
But breathless an we grow when feeling most
But" says some one. why was II
/ that Christ coming to save the world
should spend SO much of his time on
and around so solitary Il place IN Lake
Galilee! There is only one city of any
size OH it's beach. and both the western
and eastern shores are solitude. brok
en- only by the sounds coming from the
mud novels of the degraded. Why did
not Christ begin at Babylon the mighty.
at Athens the learned. ut Cairo the his
toric. ut Thebes the hundred gated, at
Rome the triumphant? If Christ was
going to save the world, why not go
where the worlds people dwell? Would
a man, wishing to revolutionize for
good the American continent, pass his
time amid the fishing huts on the shores
of Newfoundland
My friends. Galilee was the hub of
the wheel of civilization and art, and
the center of Il population that stag
gers realization. On the shore of the
lake we sail today stood nine great cities
-Scythopolis, Tarich, Hippos, Gam
ala, Chorazin, Capernaun. Bethsaida.
Magdala, Tiberias-and many villages.
the smallest of which had Is, 600 inhab,
itants, according to Josephus, and
reaching from the beach back into the
country in all directions. Palaces, TEN,
Piles. coliseums, gylnnasiums, amphthe
atres, towers, gardens terraced on the
hillsides. fountains bewilderng with
sunlight, baths upon whose mosaic
floors kings trod; while this lake. from
where tile Jordan enters it to where
the Jordan leaves it, was beautiful
with all styles of shallop or dreadful
with all kinds of war galley. Four
thousand ships, history says, were at
one time upon these waters Battles
were fought there which shocked all
nations with their consequences.
Here, mingling blood with pure and sparkling
foam.
In her last throes Jud@a fought with Rome
Upon those sea fights looked Yes
pasian and Titus and Trajan and whole
empires. From one of these naval en-,
counters SO many of the dead floated to
the beach they could not soon enough
be intombed, and plague was threat
ened. Twelve hundred soldiers escap-
ing from these vessels of war were one
day lnassacred in the amphitheatre at
Tiberias. For three hundred years that
almost continuous city encircling Lake
Galilee was the metropolis of our planet.
1t was to the very heart of the world
that Jesus came to soothe it's sorrows.
and pardon it's sins, and heal it's sick.
and emancipate it's ensiaved, and re
animate it's dead.
STRIKE FOR THE GREAT CITIES.
And let the church and the world
take the suggestion. While the soil
tary places are not to be neglected we
must strike for the great cities if this
world is ever to be taken for Christ
Evangelize all the earth except the
cities and in one year the cities would
corrupt the earth. But bring the cities
and all the world will come Bring
London and England will come Bring
Paris and France will come Bring
Berlin and Germany will come. Bring
St. Petersburg and Russia will come
Bring Vienna and Austria will come
Bring Cairo and Egypt will come
Bring the near three million people in
this cluster of cities on the Atlantic
coast and all America will soon see the
salvation of God.
Ministers of religion! let us intensity
our evangelism! Editors and publish
ers! purify your printing pressesl Asy
luns of mercy! enlarge your plans OF
endeavor! And instead of this absurd
and belittling and wicked rivalry
among our cities as to which happens
to have the most men and women and
children. not realizing that the more
useless and bad people city has the
worse it is off, and that city which
has ten thousand good people is more
to be admired than a city with one
hundred thousand bad people, let us
take moral census and see how many
good men and good women are leading
forth how large a generation of good
children who will consecrate themselves
and consecrate the round world to hol
ness and to. God.
Oh, thou blessed Christ, who didst
come to the mighty cities encircling
Lake Galilee! come in mercy to all our
great cities of today. Thou who didst
put thy hand on the white name of the
foaming pillows of Gennesaret and
make them lie down at thy feet, hush
all the raging passions of the world
Oh thou blessed Christ. who on the