The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-05-12

are not to conclude that others may
not There are in immensity great ranges
OF mists which have proved, under closer
| telescopic scrutiny, TO be the storehouse of
worlds, and l do not know but from that
| passage in James, which, to some of us is
yet misty and DIM, there may roll out a
new heaven and a new earth, 'The prayer
of faith shall save the sick.n The faith
curists may, in this war against disease, be
only skirmishing before a general engage
ment, in which all the maladies of earth
shall be routed Surely, allopathy aud
homeopathy and hydropathy and eclecti-
cism need reinforcement from somewhere
Why not from the faith and prayer of
the consecratedl The mightiest school
Of medicine may yet be the school of
Christ. / do not know but that diseases,
now by all schools pronounced incurable,
may give way under gospel bombardment.
do not know but that the day may come
when faith and prayer shall raise the dead.
Strauss and Woolston and Spinoza and
Hume and Scheiermacher rejected the
miracles of the far past. do not propose
to be like them, and reject the miracles of
the far future. This l know, the Christ of
Ascension day Ia mightier than any natural
laws, for on the day of which / speak he
trampled down the strongest of them all.
Law Is mighty, but he who made It
mightier. Drive out fatalism from your
theology, and give grace the throne.
Standing to-day on the Ascension peak of
Mount Olivet l am also gladdened at the
closing gesture, the last gesture Christ ever
made ''He lifted up his hands and blessed
them," says the inspired account Of our
Lords departure. l am 50 glad he lifted
up his hands. Gestures are often more sig
nificant than words, attitudes than argu-
ments. Christ had made a gesture OF
contempt when with his finger he wrote on
the ground; gesture Of repulsion when he
said: "Get thee behind me, Satan" gesture
Of condemnation when he said: ''Woe unto
you, Pharisees and hypocrites." But his
last gesture, his Olivetic gesture, Is gesture
of benediction. He lifted up his hands and
blessed them. His arms are extended, and
the palms of his hands turned downward.
and so he dropped benediction upon Olivet,
benediction upon Palestine, benediction
upon all the earth.
The cruel world took him In at the start
on a cradle OF straw, and at last thrust him
out with the point of tine spear; but bene-
dictionl Ascending until beneath, he saw
on one side the Bethlehem where they put
him among the cattle. and Calvary on the
other side, where they put him among the
thieves. As far as the excited and intensi-
fled vision OF the group on Olivet could see
him, and after he was so far up they could
no longer hear his words, they saw the ges-
ture of the outspread hands, the benedic-
tion. And that is his attitude to-day. His
benediction upon the worlds climates,
and they are changing, and will
keep on changing until the atmos-
phere shall be commingling of
October and June. Benediction upon the
deserts till they whiten with lily, and blush
with rose, and yellow with oowslip, aud
emerald with grass. Benediction upon gov
ernments till they become more just and
humane. Benediction upon nations till they
kneel in prayer. Benediction upon the
whole earth until every mountain Is an
Olivet Of conservation, and every lake a
Galilee on whose mosaic of crystal, and
| opal, and sapphire divine splendors shall
walk. o, take the benediction of
his pardon, sinners young, and
sinners old, sinners moderate. and
sinners abandoned Take the bene-
diction of his comfort, all ye broken-hearted
under bereavement, and privation, and
myriad woes. Take his beneiiction, all We
| sick-beds, whether under acute spasms of
| pain, or in long-protracted invalidism. For
| orphanage, and childlessness, and widow
hood a benediction. For cradles and
trundle-beds. and rocking chairs OF octo-
| genarians, benediction. For life and for
| death, for time and for eternity, for earth
and for heaven, benediction. Sublimest
gesture ever made, the last gesture of our
ascending Lord. "And he lifted up his
hands and blessed them.n
Is our attitude the sames Is 1t the
clenched fist 90 the open palma Is it wrath
| or is 1t kindness Is it diabolism or Christ
isms God give us the grace OF the open
palm, open upward to get the benediction,
open downward to pronounce benediction.
A lady was passing along steeet and sud-
denly ran against a ragged boy, and she
said: II beg your pardon. my boy, did
not mean TO run against you; am very
~ nd tho fnOk oH tha fliaca of "a
cap he had upon his head and said: "You
have my parding, lady, and you may run
a2in me and knock me clear down; /
won't care.n And turning to a
comrade he said: THAT nearly
took me Off my feet Nobody ever asked
my parding before.n Kindnessl Kindnessl /
Fill the world with it. There has always
been too much of disregard of others II
lustrated in 1880 in England, when ninety
five thousand acres of marshes were drained
for health and for crop raising, and the
sportsmen destroyed the drainage works
because they wanted to keep the marshes
for hunting ground, where they could shoot
wild ducks. The same selishness In all ages.
Oh, for kindness that would make our life
symphony suggestive Of one
of the ancient banquets where
everything was set to music; the
plates brought in and removed to the sound
OF music, the motions of the carvers keeping
time with the music, the conversation lift
ing and dropping with the rising and fall
ing of the music. But, instead of the music
of an earthly orchestra, it would be the
music of a heavenly charm, our words the
music of kind thoughts. our steps the music
of helpful deeds, our smile the music of en-
couraging looks, our youth and old age the
first and last bars of music conducted by
the pierced hand that was opened in love
and spread downward in benedic ton on
Olivetic nights on Ascension day.
BY new way none ever trod,
GhriQf mr. fQd m a Of noI