Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-12-05

by groomsmeu. and preceded by a band OF
musicians with flutes and drums and
horns, and by torches in full blaze,
he starts for the brides home.
This river Of ire is met by another river Of
fire, the torches of the bride and brides
maids, fambeau answering hambeau. The
bride is in white robe and her veil not only
covers her face but envelopes her body.
Her trousseau is as elaborate as the resources
OF her fathers house permit Her attendants
are decked with all the ornaments they own
or can borrow; but their own personal charms
make tame the Jewels, for those oriental wo-
men eclipse in atJractiveness all others except
those Of our own land. The damson rose is
in their cheek and the diamond in the
luster of their eyes, and the BLACK
ness Of the night in their long locks, and III
their step is the gract.fulness Of the morning
At the first sight OF the torches OF the
bridegroom and lbs attendants coming
over the hill the cry rings through the
home of the bride: They are in sight! Get
ready! Behold the bridegroom cometh! Go
We out to meet him. As the two process
sioEs approach each other the timbrels
strike and the songs commingIe, and then
the two professions become one and march
toward the bridegrooms house, and meet
third procession which is made up o. the
friends of both bride and bridegroom.
Then all enter the house and the dance
begins and the door is shut. And all this
Christ uses to illustrate the JOY with which
the ransomed of earth shall meet Him when
He comes garlanded with clouds and robed
in the morning and trumpeted by the thun-
ders Of the last day. LooE! There He
comes down off the hills OF heaven, the
bridegroom. And let lis start out TO hail
Him, for l hear the voices OF the judgment
day sounding: behold the Bridegroom
cometh! Go We out to meet Him. And the
disappointment of those who have declined
the invitation to the gospel wedding is pre-
sented under the figure of door heavily
closed. You hear it slam. Too late. The
door is shut!
But we must hasten on, for I do not mean
to close my eyes tonight till [ see from
mountain top Lake Galilee, on whose banks
next Sabbath we will worship, and on whose
waters the following morning we will take
sail. On and up we go in the severest climb
OF all Palestine, the ascent of the Mount of
BeatlJudes, on the top of which Christ
preached that famous sermon on the bieSseds
blessed this and blessed that Up to their
knees the horses plunge in molehills and a
surface that gives way at the first touch of
the hoof. and again and again the tired beasts
halt, as much as to say to the riders 1T IS
unjust for you to make us climb these steps,"
On and up over mountain sides, where in the
later season hyaclnths and DAISIES and phloxes
and anemones kindle their beauty. On and
up until on the rocks Of black basalt we dis
mount, and climbing to the highest peak look
out Oh an enchantmenG of scenery that seems
be the be9titudes themselves arched into
into waves. The view is like that of Tennessee
and North Carolina from the top Of Look
out Noun tain, or like that of Vermont and
New Hampshire from the top of Mount
Washington. Hail hills OF Gallilee! Hail
Lake Gennesaret, only four miles away!
YOnder, clear up and most conspicuous is
S-2fed the very city to which Christ pointed
Tor illustrator In Jne sermon preached mere,
saying: "a city set on a hill cannot be hid"
There are rocks around me on this Mount Of
fol %hoh Init
the world ever saw. Az, it is the highest
pulpit. 1t OVerlOOkS all time and all eternity.
The valley Of Hattn, between here and
Lake Galilee, is an amphitheatre, as though
the natural contour of the earth had invited
all nations to come and sit down and hear
Christ preach a sermon in which there were
more startling novelties than were ever an
nounced in all the sermons that were
ever preached. To those who heard Him on
this very spot His word must have seemed
the contradiction of everything that they
had ever heard or read or experienced. The
worlds theory had been: Blessed are
the arrogant; blessed are the super
cilious; blessed are the fearless; blessed
are they that have everything their own
way; blessed are the war eagles; blessed
are the prosecutors; blessed are the popular;
blessed are the Herods and the Caesars and
the Ahabs mo! no! nor' says Christ, with
a voice that rings over these rocks and
through yonder valley of Hattin and down
to the Opallne lake on one side, and the sap
phire Mediterranean on the other, and across
Europe IN one way, and across Asia in the
other way, and around the earth both ways
till the globe shall yet be girdled with the
nine beatitudes: Blessed are tho poor; bless
ed are the mournful; blessed are the meek;
blessed are the hungry; blessed are the mer-
cifu,; blessed are the pure; blessed are the
peacemakeTs; blessed are the prosecuted;
blessed are the falsely reViled.