Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1890-12-12


house of Judas; not Judas the bad but Judas
the good. in another part OF this city one
Ananias, not Ananias the liar, but
Ananias the Christian is told oy
the Lord to go TO this house
oT midas ON Straight street anl put his hands
ON the blind ewes OF Saul that his sight might
return. 'Oh.n said Anenias, 81 dare not goi
that SAN is terrible fellow. He Kills
Christians and he will kill me-" "Go, said
the Lord. and Ananias went. There sits IN
blindness that tremendous prosecutor ne
was a great nature crushed. He had started
for the city of Damascus for the one purpose OF
assassinating Christ's followers, but since
that fall from his horse he has entirely
changed. Ananias steps up to the sight'ess
man, puts his right thumb on one eye and
the left thumb on the other eye and IN an
outburst of sympathy and love and faith
saws: "Brother Saul Brother Saul! the
Lord, even Jesus that appeared unto thee IN
the way as thou camest, has sent
ME that thou mayst receive thy sight and
no Allied with the Holy Ghost" Instantly
something like s-ales fell from the blind
mans ewes. and be arose from that seat the
miqhtiest evangel of all the ages, Sir Will
lam Hamilton for metaphysical analysis a
John Milton for sublimity of thought a
Whitefisld for popular eloquence, John
Howard for widespread philanthropy. but
more tran all of them put together inspiref,
thunderbolted, multpotent apostoiic. Dld
.Judas the kind host Of this blind maii, or
Ananias the visitor, see scales drop from
tbe siohtless eyesy / think not But Paul
knew thew had fallen, and that is all that
happans to any of us when we are converted /:
The binding scales drop IRON our eyes anu
we see things differently.
A Christian woman. missionary among a
most degraded tribe, whose religion wa'
never to wash or improve personal appear
ance. was trying to persuade one OF those
heather women not only of need OF change
of heart but change of habits, which would
result in change of appearance but the enort
failed until the missionary had placed III het
own hallway looking glass ana wnen the
barbaric woman passing through the nan
saw herself in the mirror for the nIst tlne,
she exclaimed. "Can it be possible look like
that91 and appalled, at her own appearance
she renowned her old religion and asked to
he instructed in the Christian religion. And
so we feel that we are all right in our sinful
and unchanged condition until the scales TALL
from our eyes, and in the looking glass oil
Gods word we see ourselves as we really are,
until divine grace transforms us.
There are many reople in this house today
&c hind as Paul was before Ananias touched
his ewes. And there are many here from
whose eyes the scales have already Ialien-
You see all subjects and a ] things dlnerenb'
lv--God and Christ and eternity ana your
own immortal spirit. Sometimes the scales
do not All fall at once When was boy,
at Mount Pleasant one Sunday afternoon
reading bod ridges "Rise an Progress OF
Religion IN the Soul that afternoon some
OF the scales fell from my eyes AMI saw
little. After had bsen in the ministry about
a year one Sunday afternoon in the village
narsonare reading the Bible story OF the SyrO-
Phenician's faith. Othar scales fell from
nv ewes AMI / saw better. Two SUNDAY
evenings ago. while procuring for tine even
inc service in New York, | pickle up
hook that | did not re nenber to have seen
before. and after | hal read page about
remuneration tn God | think the remain
inc scales fell from my eyes. SAan NOT
orr visit 10 Damascus to-day resu u IKE
Paul's visit. in vision to the blind and IN.
creas ed vision for those who saw somewhat
before?
was reading of a painter child WHO ha,
came blind in infancy. But after the enid
was near.y grown a surgeon remover the
blindness. When told that this could be done,
the child's thought her mother being dead,
was she would be abe to see her father who
had watched over her with great tenderness.
When night came she was in raptures' and
ran her hands over her fathers face, and
shut her eyes as if to assure herself that this
was really the father whom she mad only
known bv touch. and now looking upon
him. noble man as he was in appearance as
well as in reality, she cried out just tc
think that had this father so many years
and never knew him" As great and greater
is the souls joyful surprise when the scale,
fall from the eyes aud the long sp ritual
darkness is ended and W look ~ into our
Fathers face always radiant and LOVING. bat
now for the first revealed, and our blindness
forever gone. we cry. abba Father"
TO each one of this vast multitude OF
auditors / say as Ananias did to Saul o,
Tarsas when his sympathetic fingers touched
fine closed evelids brother Saul Brother
Saul! The Lord even Jesus that appeared
unto thee in the way that thou earnest, hath
sent me that thou highest receive thy sight
and be filed with the Holy Ghost!