The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-11-26

rs hen gathereth her chickens under
her wingsI' He had seen His mother
open the family wardrobe at the close OF
summer and the moth millers flying
out having destroyed the garments, and
in after years He says: "Lsy not up
for yourselves treasures on earth
where moth doth corrupt" In
childhood He had seen a mile
OF flowers, white as the snow, or
red as the flame, or blue as the sea-
or green as the tree tops, and no wonder
in his manhood sermon He said, "Con-
slider the lilies" While one day on
high point where now stands the tomb
Of Neby Ismail, He had seen winging
past Him so near as almost to furry His
hair, the partridge and the hoopoe, and
tho thrush, and the osprey, and the
crane, and the raven, and no wonder
afterward, in his manhood sermon, he
said, Behold the fowls Of the air" In
Nazareth, and on the road to II, there
are great many camels. / see them
now in memory making their slow way
up tho zig-zag road from the plain OF
Esdraelon to Nazareth. Familiar was
Christ with their appearance. also with
that small insect, the gnat, which He
had seen His mother strain out from a
CUP OF water or pan OF milk, and no
wonder he brings afterward the large
quadruped and the small insect into his
sermon and, while seeing the Pharisees
careful about small sins and reckless
about large ones, cries out: "Woe unto
you blind guides who strain out gnat
and swallow camel"
He had in boyhood seen the shepherds
get their flocks mixed up, and to one not
familiar with the habits Of shepherds
and their fiocks, hopelessly mixed up.
And . sheep-stealer appears on the scene
and dishonesty demands some Of those
sheep when he owns not one OF them.
"Well," say the two honest shepherds,
I'VE will soon settle this matter" and
one shepherd goes out in one direction
and the other shepherd goes out In the
other direction and the sheep-stealer in
another direction, and each one calls,
and the flacks Of each OF the honest
the sheep-stealer calls, and calls again,
but gets not one of the flock. No won
der that Christ years after, preaching on
great occasion and illustrating HIS
own shepherd qualities, says: "When
he putteth forth his own sheep
he goeth before them, and the
sheep follow him, for they know his
voice, and the stranger they will not
follow, for they know not the voice OF
the stranger. The sides OF the hills are
terraced for grapes. The boy Christ had
often stood with greatround eyes watch
ing the trimming Of the grape vines Clip
goes the knife and of falls branch.
The child Christ says to the farmer,
what did you do that for?" "o," says
the farmer, shat is dead branch and
Is doing nothing and is only in the way,
30 cut 1t off," Then the farmer with
his sharp knife prunes from living
branch this and that tendril and the
other tendril. But" says the child
Christ these twigs that you cut now
are not dead; what do you do that for?"
90" says the farmer, I'VE pruns of
these that the main branch may have
more OF the sap and SO be more fruit
full" No wonder In after years Christ
said In his sermon: 81 am tho true vino
and My father is the husbandman;
every branch in Ne that beareth not
fruit He taketh away, and every branch
that beareth fruit He purgeth IL, that 1t
hrln AL
No one who had not been country boy
would have said this.
Streaks OF nature all through Chrisps
sermons and conversationsl When a
pigeon descended upon Christ's head at
his baptism In the Jordan II was not the
first pigeon he had seen. And then he
has such wide sweep Of discourse as
you may imagine from one who has
stood on the hills that overlook Naza-
roth. As far as / understand, Christ
visited the Mediterranean Sea only
once, but any clear morning he could
run up on hill near Nazareth and look
of TO the west and see the Mediter-
ranean, while there in the north is
snowy Mount Lebanon, clad as in white
robe OF ascension, and yonder on the
east and southeast Mount Gilboa, Mount
Tabor, and Mount Gilead, and yonder
in the south is the Plain OF Esdraelon
over which we rode yesterday on our
way TO Nazareth. Those mountains OF
his boyhood in his memory, do you won
der that Christ, when he wanted q good
pulpit, made II out OF a mountain
"seeing the multitudes He went up into
the mountain" And when He wanted
especial communion with God, he took
James and John and Peter into "a
mountain apart"
o. this country boy Of Nazareth, come
forth TO atone for the sins Of the world,
and to correct the iollies OF the world
and to stamp out the cruelties OF the
world and TO illumine the darkness OF
the world and TO transHgure the hemis-
pheresl SO II has been the mission OF
the country boys in all ages TO trans
form and inspire and rescue. They come
into our merchandise and our court
rooms and our healing art and our
studios and our theology. They lived
in Nazareth before they entered Jeru-
salem. And but for that annual influx
our cities would have ennervated and
sickened and slain the race. Late
hours and hurtful apparel and overtaxed
digestive organs and crowding environ
ments OF city life, would have halted
the world, but the valleys and noun
tains Of Nazareth have given fresh sup
ply OF health and moral ivigoration to
Jerusalem, and the country saves the
town. From the hills OF New Hamp-
shire and tho hills Of Virginia and the