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


Is there in all the earth parent so migrate
full for the convalescence or restoration of
an imreriled child as not to go into a room
and kneel down and make surrender to the
almighty love that came TO the rescue!
The mightiest agency in the universe is
| prayer, and II tn. ms even the Almighty II
decides the destinies of individuals families
and nations. During our sad civil war a
gentleman was guest at the White House
in Washington, and he gives this incident
He says: III had been spending three weeks
in the White House with Mr.. Lincoln as his
guest. One night-it was Just after the bat
tie Of Bull Rum was restless and could not
sleep. was repeating the part which was
TO take in public performance. The hour
was past midnight Indeed, it was coming
near to the dawn when | heard low tones
proceeding from a private room where the
President slept. The door was partly open.
instinctivey walked in, and there saw q
sight which shall never forget. 1t was the
President kneeling before an open Bible.
"The light was turned low in the room.
His back was turned toward me. For a mo-
ment | was silent as l stood looking in
amazement and wonder. Then he cried out
in tones so pitiful and sorrowful: oh, Thou
God that heard Solomon in the night when
he prayed for wisdom, hear mel / cannot
lead this people, Icannot guide the affairs Of
tulS udbiOu WlIuout my uoip dih pun anu
weak and sinful. Oh, God, who didst hear
Solomon when he cridd for wisdom, hear me
and save the nationF" You see we don't need
| to go back to Bible times for evidence that
| prayer is heard and answered
But some one may say that Christ at Ca.
pernaum healed that courtiers child, vet
| would not have done it for one In humble
| life. Why, in that very Capernaum He did
the Same thing for dying slave belonging
to the man who had made present to the
town Of the church Of which Jesus was pas
| tor, the synagogue among whose ruins | to-
day leap from fragment to fragment. This
| was the cure OF a Roman soldiers slave,
whose only acknowledged rights were the
wishes Of his owner. And none are now so
| enslaved or so humble or so sick or 80 sinful
but the all-sympathetic Christ is ready to
help them, ready to cure them, ready to
emancipate them. Hear it Pardon for all.
Mercy for all. Help for all. Comfort for
| all. Heaven for all. Oh, this lake Galileel
What refreshment for Christ it must have
been after sympathizing with the sick, and
raising the dead, and preaching to the multi
| tudes all day long to come down on these
banks in the night 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 heiveu and earth were still: from the high post
| All heaven and earth were stlll-though not in
sleep.
But breathess, as we grow when feeling most
But" says soma one why was it that
Christ, coming to save the world, should
spend so much of His time on and around so
solitary a place as Lake Gallee' There is
| only one city of any size on Its beach, and
both the western and eastern shores are
| solitude broken 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 historic,
at Thebes the hundred gated, at Rome tho
triumphant II Christ was going to save
the world, why not 90 where the worlds
people dwell? Would man wishing to
revoutionzs for good the American con-
tinent, pass his time amid 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 population that staggers realization. On
the shore Of the lake we sail to-day stood
nine great cities---Scythopolis, Tarich,
Hippos, Gamala, Chorazin, Capernaum,
Bethsaida, Magiala, Tiberias--and many
villages the smallest Of which had Is, 900 IN
habitsnts, according to Josephus and reach
ing from the beach back into tho country in
all directions. Palaces temples, coliseumns,
gymnasiums, amphitheatres, towers, gardens
terracei on the hillsides, fountains bewilder-
ing with sunlight baths upon whose mosaic
floors kings trod; while this lake, from whore
the Jordan enters it to where the Jordan
leaves it was beautiful with all styles Of
shsllop or dreadful with all kinds Of war gal
ley. Four thousand ships, history says were
at one time upon these waters, Battles were
fought there, which shocked all nations with
tieir conseousn
Here minging s.oot with pure and sparkling foam,
| Iu her last throes Judah folght with Rome
Upon those sea tighA looked Vespasian
and Titus and Trajan and whole empires.
From one OF these naval encounters so many
of the dead hoatsd to the beach they could
not soon enough be entombed, aud a plague
was threatened. Twelve hundred soldiers
escaping from these vessels Of war were one
day massacrei in the amphitheatre at Tibs.
rias. For three hundred years that almost
continuous city eucrcling 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, an6
heal its sick, and emanciR its enslaved and
reanimate its dead.
And let the church and the world take the
suggestion. While the :olitary places are
not to bs neglected. we must strike for the
great cities, il this world is ever TO be taken
for Christ. Evangeizs all the earth except
the cities AMI in ons year the cities would
corrupt the earth. But bring the cities and
all the world will come. Bring London and
England will come. Bring Berlin and Ger
many will come. Bring Paris and France
will come Bring ST Petersburg and Russia
will coms Bring Vienns and Austria will
come Bring Cairo aud 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 publishers! purify
your printing pressesl Asylums Of mercy
enlarge your plans Of endeavorl
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 city which has ten thou
sand good people is more to be admired than
a city with one hundred thousand bad peo.
pie, let us take moral census ani sea how
many good men and good women are lead
ing forth, how largo generation OF good
children who will consecrate themselves and
consecrate the round world to holiness an
to God Oh, thou blessed Christ, who didst
come to the mighty cities encircling LAX,
Galileel come in mercy TO all our great citiei
of to-day.
Thou who didst put Thy hand on the ", 1t
name OF the foaming pillows OF Gennesare
and make them lie down at Thy feet, hush al
the raging passions Of the world Oh, Thot
blessed Christ, who on the night when th'
disciples we're trying to cross this lake ant
"the wind was contrary" after nine hour
of rowing had made only three miles dds
come stepping on water that at the touch o.
Thy foot hardened into crystal, meet all oul
shipping, whether on placid or stormy seas
and say to all Thy people now, by whateve'
style Of tempest tossed or driven, as ThoI
didst TO the drsnched disciples 10 the cyclone
"Be OF good cheer. IL is |. Be not afraid T
Thank God that have seen this lake Of
Christly memories, and I can say witt
Robert McCheyne, the assembled minister o
Scotland who, seated ON the banks of thi
lake, write in his last sick days and Just DO
fore he crossed the Jordan, not the Jordan
that emptes into Galilee, but the Jordan
that empties into the ''sea Of glass mingled