News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-05-15

never seen typhoid fever break. or
storm suddenly quiet, or a ship a-beam'
end right itself, or a fog lift, or
parched sky break in showers, or
perpleXlty dlsentangled, or the incon
solable take solace, or the waywar,
reform at the call of prayer? | hav
seen 1t; multitudes have seen it. You
have, if you have been willing to SCI
it. Deride not the faith cure. Be
cause lmpostors attempt it, is moth
ing against good men whom God haiti
honored with marvellous reservations
Pronounce nothing impossible t.
prayer and trust. Because you and
cannot effect it is no reason why other.
may not.
BY the same argument could prove
that Raphael never painted Madonna
and that Mendelssohn never wrote al
oratorlo, and that Phidias never CHS
eled a statue. Because we cannot
accomplish it ourselves, we are not tc
conclude that others may not. There
are in immensely great ranges of mists
which have proved under closer tele
scoplc scrutiny, to be the storehouse
OF worlds. and l do not know but from
that passage in James, which, to some
of us is yet misty and dim, there may
roll out new heaven and a new
earth, THE prayer of faith shall save
the sick" The faith curists may, in
this war against disease, be only Skin
mishing before general engagement,
in which all the maladies of earth
shall be routed. Surely, allopathy
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. l do
not know but that disease, now by all
schools pronounced incurable, may
give way under gospel bom5ardment.
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 our past. I do
not propose to be like them, and reject
the miracles of the far future. This |
know, the Christ of Ascension day is
mlghtler than any natural laws, for
on the day of which l speak he
trampled down the strongest of them
all. Law is mighty, but he who made
1t is mightier. Drive out fatalism
from your theology and give grace
the throne.
CHRIST'S LAST BLESSING.
Standing today on the ascension
peak of Mount Olivet am also glad
dened at the closing gesture, the last
gesture Christ ever made. HE lifted
up his hands and blessed them" SAYS
the inspired account of our Lords de-
parture. [ am SO glad he lifted up his
hands. Gestures are often more sig
nificant than words, attitudes than
arguments. Christ had made a gest-
ure of contempt when with his finger
he wrote on the ground gesture of
repulsion when he said, Get thee be-
hind me, Satan;" gesture of condem-
nation when he said Woe unto you,
Pharisees and hypocrites." But his
last gesture, his Olivetic gesture, is
gesture of benediction. He lifted up
his hands and blessed them. His arms
are extended and the palms of his
hands turned downward, and so he
dropped benedictiOn upon Olivet, bene-
diction upon Palestine, benediction
upon all the earth.
The cruel world took him in at the
or ont q IF or Of 1oc+
thrust him out with the point of the
spear; but benedictionl Ascending
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 in
tensiiied 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 Outstretched
hands, the benediction. And that is
his attitude today. His benediction
upon the worlds climates and they
are changing, and will keep on chang
ing 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 govern
ments 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 a Galilee on whose mosaic of |
crystal, and opal, and sapphire divine
spendors shall walk Oh, take The
benediction of his pardon, sinners
young, and sinners old, sinners mod
crate, and sinners abandoned. Take
the benediction of his comfort. all We /
broken hearted under bereavement, |
and privation, and myriad woes.
Take his benedictiOn, all we sick beds,
whether under acute spasms of pain,
or in long protrdcted invalidism. For
orphanage, and childlessness, and |
widowhOod benediction. For cradles
and trundle beds and rocking chairs
of octogenarians, a benediction. For
life and for death, for time and for
COCl my LOI Cebi III anu lOI HEAVEN, a
benediction. Sublimest gesture ever
made, the last gesture of our ascend
ing Lord. And he lifted up his
hands and blessed them"
GOD GIVE US GRACE!
Is our attitude the same? Is it the
clinched fist or the open palma Is it
wrath or is it kindness? Is it diabol-
ism or Christisln2 God give us the
grace of the open palm, open upward
to get the benediction open downward
to pronounce a benediction. A lady
was passing along a street and sudden
ly ran against ragged boy, and she
said: Il beg your pardon, my boy, |
did not mean to run against YOU; [ am
very sorry" And the boy took off
his piece of a cap he had upon his
head and said: you have my pard-
ing, lady, and you may run agin me
and knock me clear down; won't
care" And turning to comrade he
said: THAT nearly took me off nv
feet. Nobody ever asked my parding
before. Kindnessl Kindness! Fiji
the world with it, There has ALWAYS
been TOO much of disregard of Others
Illustrated in 1880 in England. when
thousand acres of marshes
were drained for health and for crop
raising, and the sportsmen DESTROYED
the drainage works because thew
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