Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-12-01

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 hilIed lake and mountain coast.
All heaven and earth were still-though not in
Sleep
But GREATNESS, as we grow when feeling most.
'tBut, says some one, why was it
that Christ coming to save the world
should spend so much of his time on
and around so solitary place as Lake
Galilee? There is only one city of any
size on its beach, and both the western
and eastern shores are a solitude, brol1
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, at Cairo the his
toric, at Thebes the hundred gated at
Rome the triumphant If Christ was
going to save the world, why not go
where the worlds people dwell2 Would
a man, wishing to revolutiOnize for
good the American continent, pass his
time aIslid the fishing huts on the shores
of Newfoundland
Ny friends Galilee was the hub of
the wheel of civilization and art, and
the center of a population that stag
gers realization. On the shore of the
lake we sail today stood nine great cities
-Scythopolis, Tarich, Hippos Gam
ala, Chorazin, Capernaum, Bethsaida,
Magdala, Tiberias-and many villages,
the smallest of which had Is, 900 inhab-
itants according to Josephus, and
reaching from the beach back into the
country in all directions. Palaces, tenn
pies. coliseums, gymnasiums amphithe-
atres, towers, gardens terraced on the
hiIlsides, fountains bewildering with
sunlight, baths upon whose mosaic
floors kings trod; while this lake, from
where the 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, mingIing blood with pure and sparkling
foam.
In her last throes Judea 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 massacred in the amphitheatre at
Liberals. 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 its sorrows,
and pardon its sins, and heal its sick,
and emancipate its enslaved, and re-
animate its 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
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 presses! Asy-
lurns 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 a city has the
worse it is off, and that a city which
has ten thousand good people is more
to be admired than a city with one
hundred thousand bad people, let us
take a moral census and see how many
good men and good women are leading
forth how large a generation of good
children who will eonsecrate themselves
and consecrate the round world to holi
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 IF the world
Oh, thou blessed Christ, who on the
night when the disciples were trying to
cross this lake and 1.-THE wind was con-
trary," after nine hours of rowing had
made only three miles, didst come
stepping on water that at the touch Of
thy foot hardened into crystal, meet
all our shipping, whether on placid or
stormy seas, and say to all thy people
now by whatever style of tempest tossed
or driven as thou didst to the drenched
disciples in the cyclone: BE of good
cheer. 1t is l. Be not afraidr'
THANK GODi
Thank God that have seen this lake
of Christly memories, and | can say
with Robert McCheyne, the assembled
of Scotland whO seated on
the banks of this lake, wrote in his last
sick days, and just before he crossed
the Jordan, not the Jordan that emp
ties into Galilee, but the Jordan that
empties into the 'sea of glass mingled
with fire. these sweet words fit to be
played by human fingers on strung
strings of earthly lutte, or by angelic
fingers on seraphic harps:
1t is that the wild gazee
Comes down to drink thy tide,
But he that was pierced to save from he'll
Oft wandered by thy side.
GaSceful around thee the mountains meet,
Thou calm, repoSing sea;
But ah far more, the beautiful feet
OF Jesus walked DER thee.
o Saviourl gone to Gods right hand,
Yet the same Saviour still,
Graved on thy heart is this lovely strand,
And every fragrant hill
Light Absorbing Diamonds.
The Journal of the Franklin Insti- |
tute contains a paper on precious stones