Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1890-12-05

Bridegroom! And let us start out TO hail
Him, for / hear the voices OF the judgment
day sounding: Behold the Bridegroom
comethl Go We out TO meet HimT And the
disappointment OF those who have declined
the Invitation to the gospel wedding is pre-
sented under the figure Of a door heavily
closed You hear 1t slam. Too late. The
door is shut
But we must hasten on, for do not mean
to close my eyes tonight till / see from q
m ountain top Lake Galilee on whose banks
next Sabbath we will worship, and on whose
waters the following morning we will take
sail. On and up we go in the severest climb
of all Palestine, the ascent OF the Mount OF
Beatitudes, on the top Of which Christ
preached that famous sermon on the biesseds
blessed this and blessed that. Up to their
knees the horses plunge in molehils and a
surface that gives way at the first touch OF
the hoof. and again and again the tired beasts
halt as much as to say to the riders 1T IS
unjust for you TO make US climb these sleeps"
On and up over mountain sides, where in the
later season hyacinths and DAISIES and phloxes
and anemones kindle their beauty. On and
up until on the rocks Of black basalt We dis
mount, and climbing to the highest peak look
out ON an enchautment Of scenery that seems
be the beatitudes themselves arched into
skies and roupded into valleys and silvered
into waves. The view Is like that of Tennessee
and North Carolina from the top OF Look
out Mountain, or like that of Vermont and
New Hampshire from the top Of Mount
Washington. Hail hills Of Gallileei Hail
Lake Gennesaret, only four miles awayt
Yonder, clear up and most conspicuous, is
Safed, the very city TO which Christ pointed
for illustration In the sermon preached here,
saying: "a city set on n hill cannot be hid"
There are rocks around me on this Mount OF
Beatitudes enough to build the highest pulpit
the world ever saw. Ay. 1t is the highest
pulpit. Itoverlooks all time and all eternity.
The valley Of Hattin, between hero and
Lake Galilee, is an amphitheatre, as though
the natural contour OF the earth had invited
all nations TO come and sit down and hear
Christ preach sermon In which there were
more startling novelties than were ever an
nounced In all the sermons that were
ever preached. To those who heard Him on
this very spot His word must have seemed
the contradiction Of everything that they
had ever heard or read or experienced. Tho
worlds theory had been: Blessed are
the arrogant; blessed are the super
cilious; blessed are the fearless; blessed
are they that have everything their own
way; blessed are the war eagles; blessed
are the prosecutors; blessed are the popular;
blessed are the Herods and the Caesars and
the Ahabs. mo. mol mol? says Christ, with
q voice that rings over these rocks and
through yonder valley Of Hattin, and down
to the opaline lake on one side, and the sap
phire Mediterranean on the other, and across
Europe in one way, and across Asia in the
other way, and around the earth both ways,
till the globe shall yet be girdled with the
nine beatitudes Blessed are the poor; bless
ed are the mournful blessed are the meek;
blessed are the hungry; blessed are the mer-
ciful; blessed are the pure; blessed are the
peacemakers; blessed are the prosecuted;
blessed are the falsely reviled.