Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-05-17


tatingg' If the ascsndei Christ be on our
side, nothing should disturb US.
Our fellow sufferer yet retains
fellow feeling in our pains,
And still remembers. in the skies.
His tears, His agoaies. and cries.
lam Sc glad that Christ broke the natural
law of gravitation when He shook of from
His feet the clutch Of Mount Olivet. People
talk as though cold iron, unsympathetic,
natural law controlled everything Thereign
Of law is majestic thing but the God who
made it has right to break it, and again
and again has broken it, AMI again and again
will break it. A law is only Gods way of
doing things. and if He chooses to do them
some other way He has a right to do 50 a
law is not strong enough to shackle the Al
mighty Christ broke botanical law when,
one Monday morning in March, on the way
from Bethany to Jerusalem by few words
He turned full leaved fig tree into
a lifeless stick. He broke ichthyoiogi-
cal law when, without any natural
into part of Lake Tiberias. where the fish
srmen had cast their nets for eight or ten
hours without the capture of minnow;
and by making fish help pay the tax by
yielding from its mouth Roman slater.
Christ broke the law of storms by compel
ing. with word the angere1 sea to hush
its frenzy, and the winds to quit their bal
made the devils possess the swine of Gadara.
He broke the law of economics when He
made enough bread for five thousand psople
put of five biscuits that would not ordinarily
nave been enough for ten of the hungry.
He broke intellectual law when, by a word
He silenced a maniac in placidity. Hs
broke physioo gical law when, by touch,
he Strengthened a woman who for eighteen
years had been bent almost double, and when
He put spring into the foot of Illuminated
Lezarus, and when without medicine, He
rave the dying girl back in health to the
Syro-P hanician mother, and when He made
he palatial home of the nobleman resound
lgain with the laughter of his restored boy,
md when, without knife or battery, He set
,ataracted eyes to seeing again, and the drum
If deaf ears to vibrating again, and the
nerves of paralyzed arms to thrilling ag ain.
md then when in leaving the earth He deiei
all atmospheric law and physiological law,
! md that law which has in it withes and
| cables and grders enough to hold the uni
verse, the law of gravitation.
! The Christ who proved Himself on so many
occasions, and especially the last, superior to
| aw. still lives; and every day in answer to
! prayer for the good of the world, He is over
/ riding the law. Blessed be God that we are
! not the subjects of blind fatality but of
sympathizing divinity. Have you never
seen typhoid fever break. or a storm sud
ienly quiet, or a ship beam's-end right it
self, or a fog lift, Or parched sky break IN
showers, or perplexity disentangled.
Or the ineonsolable take solace, CIR
the hayward reform at the call of prayer
have seen it; multitudes have seen
! it, You have, if you have been willing
to see it, Deride not the faith cure. Because
impostors attempt it is nothing against good
men whom God hath honored with marvel
Dus reservations. Pronounce nothing lmpos-
l. i xrra1r md
! cannot effect it is no reason why others
may not BY the same al gument | could
prove that Raphael never painted Madon-
na, and that Mendeissohn never wrote an or
atorio and that Phidias never chiseled a
statue Because we cannot accomplish it
ourselves, we are not to conclude that Others
may not There are in immensity great
ranges of mists which have proved,
under closer telescope scrutiny, to be
the store house 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 new heaven and a
new earth; 1.-The prayer of faith shall save
the sckn The faith curists may, in this
war against disease be only skirmlshing be
fore a general engagement, in which all the
maladies of earth shall be routed. Surely
allopathy and homeopathy and hydropathy
and eclecticism need reinforcement from
| somewhere Why not from t1e faith and
PRAYER of the consecratedE 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 lombard
ment | do not know but that the day
may come when faith and prayer shall raist
the dead Strauss and Woolston and Spin
oza and Hume and Schleiermacher rejected
the miracles of the far past. do not pro
pose to be like them and reject the miracles
u.
OF Ascension Day is mightier than any nat
ural 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 fatalism from you
theology, and give grace the throne.
Standing to-day on the Ascension peak Of
Mount Olvet | am also gladdened at the
closing gesture the last gesture Christ evel
made ''He lifted up His hands apd blessed
them" says the inspired account of oul
Lords departure. | am so glad He iftec
no His hands Gestures ara often more sig
niicant than words attitudes than argu
ments. Christ had made a gesture of con
tempt when with His finger He wrote on tn
ground; gesture of repulsion when He said
"Get thee behind me, Satan" gesture of con
demnation when He said: Woe unto you
Phar. sees and hypocrites. But His las
gesture His Olivetic gesture, is a gesture o
benediction. He lifted up His hands anC
blessed them His arms are extea le i, an |
the palms of His h9n1s turned dow1wlri,
an1so He dropped be1eiic5ion up) Olivet,
benediction upon Palestine bene1ictioa upon
all the earth
The cruel world took Him i'll at the star
on cradle of straw, and at last thrus
Him out with the point of the spear. bu
benediction! Ascending until beneath, h
saw on one side tine Bethlehem where the,
put Him among the cattle, and Calvary Of
the other side, where they put Him anon
the thieves As far as the excited aud in
tensified vision of the group on Ohvet coul
see Him, and after He was 50 far up the
could no longer hear His words. they say
t1e gesture of the outsprea1 hands, the ben
edlction. And that is His attitude to-day
His benediction upon the worlds climates
and they are changing, and will keep o.
changing until the atmosphere shall be
commingling of October and June. Benz
diction upon the deserts till they whiten witt
lily, and blush with rose and yellow witt
cowslip, and emerald with grass. Benedic
ton upon governments till they beeom
more Just and humane. Bane1ictiou tlpol
nations till they kneel in prayer Bsnedic
ton upon the whole earth until every mount
ain is an Olive of conservation, AMI every
lake Galilee on whose mosaic of crystal
and opal, and sapphire divine splendors shall
walk
Oh, take the bene1iction of His pardon sin
ners young and sinners old, sinners moderat
and sinners abandoned. Take the bsneiictiol
of His comfort, all We broken hearted unde
bereavement and privation aud myriad woes
Take His benediction, all We sick beds
whether under acute spasms of pain or in
long protracted iuvalidism. For orphanage
and childlessness, and widowhoo1 benedic
ton For cradles and trundle beds and rock
ing chairs of octogenarians, a bsnediction
For life and for death, for time and for eter
nifty, for earth and for heaven, a benedic
ton. Sublimest gesture ever made the las
gesture of our ascending Lord. And H
lifted up His hands and blessed them
Is our attitude the same2 Is it the clenchei
fist or the open palm? Is it wrath or is i
kindness? Is it diabolism or Christisn? Coz
give us the grace of the open palm, open up
ward to get the benediction open downward
to pronounce benediction. Ala1y was pass
ing along a street and suddenly ran agains
a ragged boy, and she said: 81 beg your par
don, my boy, I did not mean to run agains
you; am very sorry" And tle boy took of
the piece of cap he had upon his head an
said you have my parding, lady, and yol
may run agin me and knock me clear down
| won't care" And turning to comrade h
said; That nearly took me off my feet. No
body ever asked my parding before" KIM
J ind .