Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-12

Onarles tne twelfth when he was olctating uis
patches to his secretary. and bombshell fel
into the room, and the secretary dropped hi
pen and attempted flight. Charles said Il
him: go on with your writingi what has thu
Domoshell to do with the letter L am olctat
lng! Ii the ascended Christ be on our SIDE
nothing should disturb us.
Our fellow-sufferer ct retains
fellow-feeling in our pains.
And still remembers in the skies,
HIS tears, His agonies, ana cries.
am SO glad that Christ broke the natural
law of gravitatiou when He shook off from His
feet the clutch of Mount Olivet. People talk
as though cold. iron unsymnathetic natural
law controlled everything. The reign OF law Is
majestic thing, but the God who made it has
right TO break il, and again and again has
broken 1t, and again and again will break
and if He chooses to do them some other way,
He has a right to do so. A law is not strong
enough TO shackle the Almighty. Christ broke
botanical law when, one Monday morning In
lem. by few words He turned full-leavej
fig tree into lifeless stick He broke
ichthyological law when, without any
natural inducement He swung a great
school of fish into part of Lake Tiberias,
where the fishermen had cast their nets for
eight or ten hours without the capture of a
minnow; and by making the fish help paw the
tax by yielding from its mouth Roman sta
ter. Christ broke the law of storms by CON-
pelling, with word, the angered sea to hush
It's frenzy and the winds to quit their believing.
He broke geological law when He made the
devils possess the swine of Gadara. He broke
the law of economics when He made enough
bread for 5000 people out of five biscuits that
would not ordinarily have been enough for ten
OF the hungry. He broke intellectual law
when, by word. He silenced a maniac into
placidity.
HIS MIRACULOUS DEEDS.
He broke physiological law when, by a touch,
He straighteneda a woman who. for Is years had
H., H.
spring into the feet of inhumated Lazarus. and
when, without medicine, He gave the dying
girl back in health to the Syro-Phenician
mother, and when He made the palatial home
of the nobeman resound again with the
laughter of his restored boy, and when, with
out knife or battery, He set cataracted eyes to
seeing again, and the drum of deaf ears to
again, and the nerves Of paralyzed
arms to thrilling again. and then when in leav-
ing the earth He defied all atmospheric law
and physiological law, and that law which has
in It withes and cables and girders enough to
hold the universe, the law of gravitation.
The Christ who proved Himself on SO many
occasions, and especially the last, superior to
law, still lives; and every day, in answer to
prayer for the good Of the world, He is over
ridir 2 the law. Blessed be God that we are not
the subjects of blind fatality but of a sympa
thizing divinity. Have you never seen q
typhoid fever break, or = storm suddenly quiet,
or ship a-beam's-end right itself, or a fog lift
plexity disentangled, or the inconsolable take
solace, or the wayward reform at the call of
PRAYER? have seen it; multltudes have seen
it You have. If you have been willing to see
it. Deride not the faith cure. Because i'm
posters attempt it, is nothing against good men
whom God hath honored with marvellous
Pronounce nothing impossible to
prayer and trust. Because you and cannot
effect it, is no reason why Others may not
BY the same argument l could prove that
Raphael never painted Madonna, and that
Mendelssohn never wrote an oratlo, and that
Phidias never chiseled a statue. Because we
cannot accomplish II ourselves we are not to
conclude that others may not. There are in i'm
nensity great ranges of mists which have
proved, under closer telescope scrutiny, to be
be storehouse of worlds and do not know but
rom that passage in James, which, to some of
Is is yet misty and dim, there may roll out
lew heaven and new earth, THE prayer of
aith shall save the sick" The faith-curlsts
nay,
IN THIS WAR AGAINST DISEASE,
,e only skirmishing before a general engage
nent, In which all the maladies of earth shall
'e routed. Surely, allopathy and homeopathy
nd hydropathy and electricism need reinforce
nent from somewhere. Why not from the
aith and PRAYER of the consecratedf The
1ightIest school Of medicine may yet be the
cbool of Chris. ! do not know but that dis
ases, now by all schools pronounced incurable.
o not know but that the day may come when
aith and prayer shall raise the dead. Strauss
nd Woolston and Spinoza and Hume and
rejected the miracles of the
ar past. do not propose to be like them. and
eject the miracles of the far future. This /
now, the Christ of Ascension Day is mightier
han any natural laws for on the day of which
speak He trampled down the strongest of
hem all. Law is mighty, but he who made it
J mightier. Drive out fatalism from your
heology, and give grace the throne.
Standing to-day OF the Ascension peak of |
lount Olivet am also gladdened at the clos
ng gesture, the last gesture Christ ever made. |
HI lifted up His hands and blessed them" |
avs the inspired account of our Lords de- |
arturo. am SO glad He lifted up His hands. |
iestures are often more significant than words, |
ttitudes than arguments. Christ had made a |
esture of contempt when with His finger He |
,rote on the ground; gesture of repulsion when |
lie said, Get thee behind me, Satan:' gesture |
condemnation when He said "Woe unto |
ou, Pharlsees and hypocrites." But His last |
esture, His Olivetic gesture, is a gesture of |
enediction. He lifted up His hands and |
lessed them. His arms are extended and the |
alms of His hands turned downward, and SO |
lie dropped benediction upon Olivet bene-
iction upon Palestine, benediction upon all |
he earth.
The cruel world took Him in az the start on
cradle Of straw and at last thrust Him out
Iscendiug until beneath, He saw on one side
be Bethlehem where they put Him among the
attle and Calvary on the other side. where
hey put him among the thieves. AS far as the
1clted ana INTENSIFIED vision of the group on /
'liveI could see HIM and after He was so far
p they could no longer hear His words they
aw the gesture of the outspread hands the
enedlction. And that is
HIS ATTITUDE TO-DAY.
His benedictior upon the worlds climates.
nd they are changing and will keep on chang |
lg until the atmosphere shall be a comminr
ng of October and June. Benediction upon
le deserts till they whiten with lily, and blush
ith rose, and yellow with cowslip. and
herald with grass. Benediction upon govern
ents till they become more Just and humane |
enedlction upon nations till they kneel
prayer. Benediction upon the whole
Irth until every mountain is an Oliyet of
'nsecration, and every lake a Galilee on whose
osaic OF crystal. and opal, and sapphire
wine splendors shall walk :, Oh, take the bene-
ction of His pardon, sinners young, and SIN
srs old, sinners moderate, and sinners aban-
)ned. Take the benediction of His comfort
! ye broken-hearted under bereavement, and
1vatlon, and myriad woes. Take His bene-
ction. all We sick beds, whether under acute
'asms of pain. or IN long protracted invalid
m For orphanage, and childlessness and
dowhood benediction. For cradles and
undle-beds, and rocking-chairs of octogen-
ians. a benedlcton. For life and for death.
,aven, a benedction. Sublimest gesture ever |
ade, the last gesture of our ASCENDING I,,rd |
And He lifted up His hands and blessed
en-"
Is our attitude the same7 Is it the clencbed
{ or the open palm2 Is it wrath or is IL kind |
IS? Is it diabolism Christian? Gnd give
the grace OF the open palm. open upward to |
{ the benedction, open downward to pro- |
unce benedictiOn. A lady was passing
ong street and suddenly ran across a ragged
aa.1G G1,< Il. L.. L