Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-05-15
CHRISTS ASCENSION.
l. -ALMAeE breaches AN ELo-
|oIeNr SERMON FROM Ps. XIV. 7.

wonderful Features of the Rising of
our Lord from Mount oiivet-It Teaches
Ne THAT Nothing Is impossible to .he Al
mighty.
ppooKLYN, May 11.-After resding APP
.onriate passages of Scripture and the
.,,aI nrayers and musical exercises, DIR.
foIr,sge preached the following sermon in
e ID Academy of Music this morning from
r 70 words, "Lift up your heads, o we gates;
"a nd he We lifted up, We everlasting doors;
a nd the King of Glory shall come in" Cps.
xiv, y.
"A IN olden times when great conqueror
#eturned from victorious war, the people
4 Wild transport would take hold of the
"a ates of the city and lift them from their
fjnpes. as much as to say; "This city needs
more gates to defend it since this con-
{neror has got home. Off from the hinges
.,itb the gatesl" David, who was the poet
E h poets, foretells in his own way the tri-
q mphal entrance of Christ into heaven
fter his victory over sin and death and
"a eli 1t was as if the celestial inhabitants
adj said: Here He comesl Make way FOR
iml Push back the bolts of diamond!
fake hold of the doors of pearl and hoist
{bem from their hinges of gold Lift up
our heads, o We gates; and be We lifted up,
everlasting doors; and the King of Glory
hall come in.
Among the mountains of Palestine no
NE Is more uplifting than Mount Olivet
n was the peroration of our Lords minis
Nv On the roof of house in Jerusalem
asked, (Which is Olivets" and the first
lapce transfxed me. But how shall |
escribe my emotions, when, near the close
A Journey, in which we had for two
ghts encamped amid the shattered ma
onry of old Jericho, and tasted of the
Grid waters of the Dead sea, that crystal
srcophagus of the buried cities of the
lan, and waded down into the deep and
wift Jordan to baptize man, and visited
& be ruins of the house of Mary and Martha
4 nd Lazarus, we found ourselves in STIR
tups and on horse, lathered with the long
i nd difficult way, ascending Mount Olivet
IDh, that solemn and suggestive ridgel 1t
81 a limestone hill, mile in length, and
no feet high and 2, 700 feet above the level
II the sea. Over it King David fled with
broken heart Over it Pompey led his de-
astating hosts. Here the famous Tenth
3 egion built their batteries in besiegement
lhe Garden of Gethsemane weeps at the
loot Of it. Along the base of this hill
ashed the lanterns and torches of those
Who came to arrest Jesus From the trees
n this hill the boughs were torn off and
thrown into the path of Christ's triumphal
procession. Up and down that road Jesus
lad walked twice day from Bethany to
Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem to Beth
3ny There again and again, he had
Taught his disciples. Half way up this
mount he uttered his lamentation, 20
Jerusalem, Jerusalem From its height
esus took flight homeward when he had
finished his earthly mission. There is
nothing more for him to do A sacrifice
Vas needed to make peace between the rec
feant earth and the outraged heaven, and
BE- had offered it. Death needed to be con-
ssuered, and he had put his resurrection
toOt upon it, The thirty-three years of
voluntary exile had ended. The grandest,
enderest mightiest good-by ever heard
vas now to be uttered.
ON MOUNT oLIVET.
4 On Mount Olivet Jesus stands in a group
bf Galiiee fishermen. They had been to-
pether in many scenes of sadness and per-
fecution and had been the more endeared
9by that brotherhood Of suffering They
bad expected him to stay until the day of
Coronation when he would take the earthly
lhrone and wave scepter mightier, and
tule a dominion wider than any Pharaoh,
fhan any David, than any Caesar. But now
VI these anticipations collapse. Christ has
given his last advice. He has offered his
Lot T.. Laa HE lagf
FOrd. His hands are spread apart as one
apt to do when he pronounces benedic-
fion, when suddenly the strongest and most
stupendous law of all worlds is shattered.
is the law which, since the worlds were
treated, holds them together. 1t is the law
lFhich holds everything to the earth or,
'emporarily hurled from earth, returns
H. the law which keeps the planets
Fhrlng around our sun, and our solar
|ysem whirling around other systems, and
! n the systems whirling around the throne
b God-the law of gravitation. That law
i suspended. or relaxed, or broken, to let
ihe body of Jesus go That law had laid
bold Of him thirty-three years before, when
be descended IL had relaxed its grip of
him but once, and that when it declined to
link him from the top of the waves on
lake Galilee, on which he walked, to the
bottom of the lake. That law of gravita-
ion must now give way to him who made
he law. It may hold the other stars, but
/ cannot longer hold the Morning Star of
he Redemption. It may hold the noon
BAY sun, but it cannot hold the Sun Of
The fingers of that law
sre about to open to let go the most illus
nous Being the world hos ever seen, and
Rhom it had worst maltreated. The strong
p law of nature which philosophers ever
Feighed or measured must at last give way.
/ will break between the rock of Oliyet
! lad the heel of Christ's foot. Watch it,
/ u We disciplesi Watch it, all the earthi
Watch it, all the heavensl Christ about to
cave this planet How? His friends will
/ lot consent to have him 60 His enemies
catching him would only attempt by an
fther Calvary to put Him into some other
|omb. viii tell you how. The chain of
4 be most tremendous natural law is I'M
mixed. The sacred foot of our Lord and
be limestone rock part, and part forever.
THE ASCENSION.
4 leaning back, and with pallid cheek and
Fpifted eyes, the disciples see their Lord
fSing from the solid earth. Then, rushing
onward, they would grasp his feet to hold
] I'M fast, but they are out of reach and 1t
- l.. 1.4.... Is,,. Isrrbar Thor, a