Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-05-22

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superior to law, still lives, and every
day, in answer to prayer for the good of
the world, He is overriding the law.
Blessed be God that we are not the sub
:ects of blind fatality, but of sympa-
thizing divinity. Have you never seen
typhoid fever break, or a storm sud-
denly quiet. or ship a-beam's-end right
itself, or fog lift, or a parched sky
break in showers, or perplexity olsen
| tangled, or the inconsolable take solace,
or the wayward reform at the call Of
prayer? have seen 1t; 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 marvellous restors-
tions. Pronounce nothing impossible to
| prayer and trust. Because you and
can not effect it is no reason why others
may not. BY the same argument 1
could prove that Raphael never painted
a Madonna, and that Mendelssohn
never wrote an Oratorio, and that
Phidias never ehise1ed statue.
Because We can not accomplish 1t
ourselves, we are not to conclude that
others may not There are in immen-
Sity great ranges of mistS which have
proved, under closer telescope scrutiny,
to be the storehouse of worlds, and do
not know, but from that passage in
James, which, to some of US, is yet
misty and dim; there may roll out q new
Heaven and new earth. THE prayer
of faith shall save the sick" The faith
curists may in this war against disease,
be only skirrnishing before a general
engagement, in which all the maladies
of earth shall be routed. Surely allo-
pathy and homeopathy and hydropathy
and eclecticism need Reinforcement from
somewhere Why not from the faith
and prayer of the consecrated? 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 I'M
der gospel bombardment. l 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 rejected the
miracles of the far past 1 do
not propose to be like them and reject
the miracles of the far future. This I
know, the Christ of Ascension day is
mightier than any natural laws, for on
the day of which 1 speak He trampled
down the strongest of them all Law Is
mighty, but who He made it is mightier.
Drive out fatalism from your theology,
and give grace the throne.
Standing to-day 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" says the in
spired account of our Lords departure.
1 am so glad He lifted up His hands.
Gestures are often more significant
than words, attitudes than arguments.
Christ had made a gesture of con-
tempt when with His finger He wrote
on the ground; gesture of repulsion
when He said: sect thee behind me,
Satan;" gesture of condemnation when
He said: "Woe unto you, Phsrisees and
hypocrites." But his last gesture is
gesture of benediction. He lifted up
The cruel world took Him in at tho
start on a cradle of straw, and at last
thrust Him out with the point
of the spear; but benediction! AS
cending 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 as the excited
and intensified 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 to-day.
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. Benediction 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. Benediction upon nations
till they kneel in prayer. Benediction
upon the whole earth until every
mountain is an Olivet of conservation
and every lake Galilee on whose mo-
sac of crystal and opal and sapphire
divine splendors shall walk. o, take
the benedictiOn of His pardon, sinners
young and sinners old, sinners moderate
and sinners abandoned. Take the
benediction of His comfort all We
broken hearted under bereavement
and privation, and myriad woes.
Take his benediction all ye sick
beds, whether under acute spasms
of pain or in long protracted invalidism.
For orphanage, and childlessness and
W idowhood benediction. For cradles,
and trundle beds and rocking chairs of
octogenarians a benediction. For life
and for death, for time and for eternity,
for earth and for Hea ven a benediction.
Sublimest- gesture ever made, the last
gesture of our ascending Lord. And
He lifted up His hands and blessed
them"
Is our attitude the same? Is 1t wrath
or is it kindness? Is it diabolism or
Christism? God give us the grace of the
open palm, open upward to get the ben
ediction, open downward to pronounce
benediction. A lady was passing along
a street and suddenly ran against
a ragged boy, and she said: 81
beg your pardon, my boy, 1 did
not mean to run against you,
1 am very sorry" And the boy
took off the piece of 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 a comrade he said: