Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-01-10

| sprang upward among the thrones. The
| robe Of a SavlOuTS Righteousness IS not
! black. The Christian life is not made up Of
weeping and cross bearing and war waZing.
| Through the revelation OF that Christ
| mas night ] find that religion is not
/ grOan, but a song. In n world Of sin
/ and sick bed and sepulchers, we must have
! trouble; but in the darkest night the heavens
! part with angelic song. You may, Ike
/ Paul be snipwrecked, but | exhort you 10 be
/ Of good cheer, for you shall all escape safe to
/ the land. Religion does not show itself in the
! elongation of the face and the cut of the
garb. The Pharisce who puts his religion
/ into his phylnctcry has none left for his
/ heart Fretfulness and complaining do
/ not belong 10 the family Of Christian
| graces which move into the heart when
the devil moves out. Christianity
/ and recreations. 1t is not a synic, it is not
/ shrew, it chokes no laughter, it quenches no
| light it defaces no art. Among the happy,
/ it is the happiest. 1t Is just as much at homo
| on the playground as it is in the church. 1t
! is just as graceful in the charade as it is in
| the psalm book. 1t sings just as well in Sur
| reg gardens as it prays in ST. Paurs. Christ
| died that we ml.ht lie Christ walked that
| we might ride. Christ wept that we might
! laugh.
| Again, my subject impresses me with the
/ fact that glorious endings sometimes have
very humble beginnings. The straw pallet
! was the starting point, but the shout in the
midnight sky revealed what would be- the
/ glorious cOnSummatlOn. Christ on Mary'S
/ lap, ChrisC on the throne of universal do
! minion-what an humble starting What a
| glorious ending! Grace begins on a small
/ scale in the heart. You sec only men as trees
walking. The grace of God in the heart is
! a feeble spark, and Christ has to keep both
| hands over it lest it be blown out. What
/ humble beginning! Butlool1 at that same man
! when He has entered heaven. No crown able
! to express His royalty. No palace able to ex-
press His wealth. No sceptre able to express
| His power and His dominion. Drinking from
/ the fountain that drips from the everlasting
Rock. Among the harpers harping with their
| harps. On q sea Of glass mingled with fire.
! Before the throne of God, to &c no more out
| forever. The spark Of grace that Christ had
| to keep both hands over lest it come to ex-
| tinctiOn having famed up into honor and
! glory and Immortality. What humble start
| ing! What glorious c0nsummatiOn!
! The New Testament Church was on a
! small scale. Fishermen watched it. Against
the uprising walls crashed internal enginery.
! The world said anathema. Ten thousand
people rejoiced at every seeming defeat and
/ said: AHA! aha! 50 we would have it,"
Martyrs on fire cried: "How long, o Lord,
/ how long?' Very humble starting but SEQ
/ the difference at the contamination, when
! Christ with His almighty arm has struck off
! the last chain Of human bondage, and
Himalaya shall be Mount Zion; and
Pyrenees, Moriah; and oceans, the walking
| place of Him who trOd the wave cliffs OF
| stOrmed Tiberias, and island shall call to
island, sea to sea, continent to continent, and
! the song of the worlds redemption rising
the heavens, like a great sounding board
shall strike back the shout of salvation tc
the earth until itrebounds again to the throne
of God, ana all heaven, rising on theil
thrones, boat time with their scepters. Oh
what an humble beginning! What gloriou.
ending! Throne linked to a manger heavenly
mansions to stable.
My subject also impresses me with the eff
feet of Christ's mission upward and down.
| ward. Glory, to God, peace to man. Whom
| God sent His Son into the world, angels dis
| covered something new in God, something
they had never seen before. Not power, not
wisdom, not love. They knew all that be-
fore: But when God sent His Son into this
world then the angels saw the spirit of self
denial in God, tho spirit of self-sacrifice in
| God. 1t is easier to love an angel OH His
throne than a thief on the cross, a seraph
in his worship than an adulteress in her
crime. When the angels saw God-the God
who would not allow the most insignificant
angel in heaven to be hurt-give up His Son.
His Son, His only, only Son, they saw
something that they had never thought of
| before, and do not wonder that when Christ
started out Gu that pilgrimage the angels in
| heaven clapped their wings in triumph and
called on all the hosts of heaven to help them
! celebrate it, and sang SO loud that the Beth
lehem shepherds heard it: ''Glory to God in
the highest"
| But it was also to be mission of peace to
man. Infinite holiness-accumulated de-
pravity. How could they ever come to-
| gether The Gospel bridges over the dis
! lance. 1t brings God to US It takes us to
! God. God in US, and we in God. Atone
ment! Atonement! Justice satisfied, sins
forgiven, eternal life secured, heaven built
| On manger.
But it was also to be the Dacifcation of all
individual and international animosities.
What a sound this word of peace had in the
Roman Empire that boosted Of tho number
! of people it had massacred, that prided itself
on the number of the slain, that rejoiced
at the trembling provinces. Sicily and Cor
sica and Sardinia and Macedonia and Egypt
| haG bowed to her sword and crouched at the
cry of her war eagles. She gave her chief
honor to Scipio and Fabius and Cfesar-all
men of blood. What contempt they must
have had there for the penniless, unarmed
| Christ in the garb of Nazarine starting out
to conquer all nations. There never was
place on earth where that word peace sounded
so Extensively to the ears of the multitude as in
the Roman Empire. They did not want peace
The greatest music they ever heard was the
clanking chains of their captiveS. If all the
blood that has been she'd in battle could be
| gathered together it would upbear a navy.
The club that struck Abel to the earth has its
echo in the butcherieS Of all ages. Edmund
| Burke who gave no wild statistics, said that
| here had been spent in slaughter thirty-five
thousand millions of dollars, or what would
be equal to that: but he had not seen into
our times, when in our own day, in America,
we expended three thousand millions of dol
lars in civil war.
Oh if we could now take our position on
some high point and see the worlds armies
march past, What spectacle it would be
There go the hosts of Israel through a score
of Red Seas-One of water, the rest of blood
There go Cyrus and his army, with infuriatt
veil rejoicing over the fall of the gates OF