News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-12-04

Here at Capernaum, the Arabs hav
inc in their arms carried US ashore to
the only place where our Lord ever
had pastorate, and we stepped amid
the ruins of the church where he
preached again and again and again,
| the synagogue, whose rich sculptulnS
lay there, not as when others see it in
spring time covered with weeds and
loathsome with reptiles, but in that De
cember weather completely uncovered
to our agitated and intense gaze. On
one stone of that synagogue is the
sculpturing of pot of mamma, an
artistic commemoration of the time
! when the IsraeliteS we're fed by mamma
in the wilderness, and to which sculp-
turing no doubt Christ pointed up
ward while he was preaching that ser
mon on this very spot in which he
said: mot as your fathers did eat
mamma and are dead; he that eateth
| of this bread shall live forever" Won
derful Capernaum. Scene of more
miracles than any place in all the
earth! Blind eyes kindling with the
morning. Withered arms made to pull
sate Lepers blooming into health.
The dead girl terminated
These Arab tents which on this De
cember day find in Palestine, disap-
pear, and | see Capernaum as it was
when Jesus was pastor of the church
here. Look at that wealthy home, the
architecture, the marble front, the up
holstery, the slaves in uniform at the
doorway. 1t is the residence of q
courtier of Herod, probably Chuza by
name, his wife Joanna, a Christian
disciple. But something is the matter
The slaves are in great excitement, and
the courtier living there runs down
the front steps and takes horse and
puts him at full run across the country.
The boy of that nobleman is dying of
typhoid fever. All the doctors have
failed to give relief But about five
miles up the country, at Cana, there is
a divine doctor, Jesus by name, and
the agonized father has gone for him,
and with what earnestness those can
understand who have had dying child
in the house This courtier cries to
Christ, Come down ere my child
die!"
AFTER THE NOTED DOCTOR.
While the father is absent, and at /
o'clock in the afternoon, the people
watching the dying boy see change in
the countenance, and Joanna, thu
mother, on one side of his couch, says;
why, this darling is getting well; the
fever has broken. See the perspiration
on his forehead9 Did any of you give
tim any new kind of medicine?" No"
is the answer The boy turns on his
pillow, his delirium gone, and asks for
something to eat and says: Where's
fatherp' Oh, he has gone up to Cana
to get young doctor of about 81 years
of age. But 10 doctor is needed now
in this house at Capernaum. The PEG
pie look at the sun dial to find what
time of the day it is. and see it is just
past noon and l o'clock. Then they
start out and meet the returning father, |
and as soon as they come within speak |
ing distance they shout at the top of |
their voices, Your boy is getting
wellr' rs it possible2' says the father
when did the change for the better
take place. lone o'clock, " is the an
swer. Why" says the ccurtier, that
is just the hour that Jesus said to Inc,
THY son Iiveth. One o'clock"
As they gather at the evening meal
what gladness on all the countenances
in that home at Capernauml The
mother, Joanna, has not had sleep for
many nights, and she now falls off into
delightful slumber. The father, Chuza.
the Herodian courtier, worn out with
anxiety as well as by the rapid journey
to and from Cana, is soon in restful un.
Joanna was Christian
before, but | warrant she was more of
a Christian afterward. Did the father
Chuza accept the Christ who had cured
his boy? Is there in all the earth n
parent so ungrateful for the GONZALES
cence or restoration of an imperiled
child as not to go into a room and
kneel down and make surrender to the
almighty love that came to the rescuel
ACCEPT THE DOCTRINE
Do not mix up this case with the an.
cry discussions about Christian science.
but accept the doctrine, as old as the
Bible, that God does answer prayer for
the sick. That Capernaum boy was
not the only illustration of the fact that
prayer is mightier than typhoid fever
And there is not doctor of large prac
tee but has come into the sick room of
some hopeless case and, in a cheerful
manner if he were a Christian, or with
a bewildered manner if he were a
skeptic, said: well, what have you
been doing with this patient? What
have you been giving him2 The pulse
is better. The crisis is past. After all,
| think he will get we'll" Prayer will
yet be acknowledged in the worlds ma.
terra medica, and the cry is just as ap
propriate now as when Chuza, the
courtier from Capcrnaun, uttered in
Christ's hearing Come down ere my
child die" If the prayer be not an
swered in the way we wish, it is because
God has something better for the child
than earthly recovery, and there are
thousands of men and women now
alive in answer 20 fathers and mothers
prayers, myself one of the multitude.
For | have heard my parents tell
how, when at three years of age scarlet
fever seemed to have done its full work
on me, and the physicians had said
there was no more use of their coming
and they had left n few simple direc-
lions to make the remaining hours
peaceful. and according to the custom
in those times in country places, the
neighbors had already come in and
made the shroud, the forlorn case sud.
denly frightened and tile prayer
Come down ere my child der was
in recovery that has not
been followed by moments sickness
from that time to this.
The mightiest agency in the universe
Is prayer, and it turns even the Al
mighty 1t decides the destinies of in
lividuals, families and nations Dur
ing our sad civil war a gentleman was
a guest at the White House in Wash
ington, and he gives this incident. He
says: 81 had been spending three
weeks in the White House with Mr.
Lincoln as his guest. One night-it
was just after the battle of Bull Run
| was restless and could not sleep ! |
was repeating the part which | was tc S
take in a public performance. The
hour was past midnight. Indeed, it
was coming near to the dawn when
heard low tones proceeding from n mi