Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-05-12

that diseases now by all schools pronounced
incurable may give way under gospel bonn
! bar0ment. 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 Schleiermacher re-
jected the miracles OF the far past. do
not propose to be like them and reject the
miracles of the far future This know
the Christ of Ascension day is 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 is mightier, Drive out IA
talisIn from your theology, and give grace
the throne.
CHRIsT's GESTURES.
Standing today on the Ascension peak of
Mount Olivet am also gladdened at the
closing gesture, the last gesture Christ
ever made. HE lifted up his hands and
blessed them, d" says the inspired account of
our Lords departure. am so glad He
lifted up his hands. Gestures are often
more significant than words, attitudes than
Arguments. Christ had made 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 turn
ed downward, and so he dropped Nbene-
diction upon Oliyet, benediction upon Pal
estine, benediction upon all the earth.
The cruel world took him in at the start
on cradle of straw, and at last thrust
4, 3 h., . !,
benediction 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 MS the excited and in
tehsified 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 gesture of the outspread hands, the
benediction. And that is his attitude today
His benediction upon the worlds climates,
and they are changing, and will keep on
changing until the atmosphere shall be a
commingling of October and June. Bene
diction upon the deserts till they whiten
with lily, and blush with rose, and yellow
with cowslip, and emerald with grass
Benediction upon governments till they
become more just and humane. Benedic
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
Oh, take the benediction of his pardon,
sinners young and sinners old, sinners
moderate and sinners abandoned Take
the benediction of his comfort, all We
cd ,1as lao,
walton and myriad woes Take his bene-
diction, all We sick beds, whether under
acute spasms of pain or in long protracted
invalidism. For orphanage, and childless-
ness, and wdowhood benediction. For
cradles and trundle beds and rocking chairs
of octogenarians, benediction. For life
and for death, for time and for eternity, for
earth and for heaven a benediction Sub
FINEST gesture ever made, the last gesture
of our ascending Lord. and he lifted up
his hands and blessed them"
THE WORLD WANTS KINDNESS.
Is our attitude the same? Is it the
clenched fist or the open palm? Is it wrath
or is it kindness? Is it diabolism or Christ
ism? God give us the grace of the open
palm, open upward to get the benediction,
open downward to pronounce a Denedic
and suddenly ran against Il ragged boy,
and she said; 81 beg your pardon my boy,
did not mean to run against you; / am
very sorry" And the boy took off the
piece of n cap he had upon his head and
said; you have my parding lady, and you
may run agin me and knock me clear down;
| won't care" And turning to comrade
he said: "That nearly took me Off my feet.
Nobody ever asked my parding before"
Kindness! Kindnessl Fill the world with
it. There has always been too much of
disregard OF others. Illustrated in 1880, in
England, when $1,000 acres of marshes
were drained for health and for crop rails
ing, 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 selfshness in all ages Oh, for
kindness that would make our life a sym
phony suggestive of one of the ancient ban
quets where everything was set to music;
the plates brought in and removed to the
sound of music, the motions of the carvcrs
keeping time with the music, the CONVERSE
ton lifting and dropping with the rising
and Sailing of the music. But, instead of
the music of an earthly orchestra, it would
be the music of n heavenly charm, our
words the music of kind thoughts, our
steps the music of helpful deeds, our smile
the music of encouraging 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
benediction ON Olivetic heights on Ascen
sion day.
BY new way none ever trod
Christ mounted to the throne Of God.