Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-09-28

we CONTINUE TO lOliOW our CtlioII.l1n,
and here is a blind man by the wayside.
1t is not from cataract of the eve OF
from ophthalInia. the eye. extinguisher
of the east, but he was born blind BE
openedl' he cries, and first there is a
smarting of the eyelids, and then IA twi-
light, and then a midnoon, and then a
shout Il see | seer' Tell it to all
the blind, and they at least can appre-
ciate it. And here is the widows dead
son, and here is the expired damsel,
and here is Lazarus ''Livel" our
Chieftain cries, and they live. Tell it
through all the bereft households tell
it among the graves.
And here around him gather the deaf,
and the dumb, and the sick, and at his
word they turn on their touches and
blush from awful pallor of helpless i'll
ness to rubicund health, and the swoll-
en- foot of the dropsical sufferer be-
comes fleet as a roe on the mountains.
The music of the grove and household
wakens the deaf ear, and lunatic and
maniac return into bright intelligence,
and the leper's breath becomes as
sweet as the breath of child, and the
flesh as roseate. Tell it to all the sick,
through all the homes, through all the
hospitals Tell it at twelve o'clock at
night; tell it at two o'clock in the
morning; tell it at half-past three, and
in the last watch of the night, that
Jesus walks the tempest.
THE KISS OF BETRAYAL.
Still we follow our Chieftain until the
government that gave him no protec-
ton insists that he pay tax, and too
poor to raise the requisite two dollars
and seventy-five cents, he orders Peter
| to catch a fish that has in its mouth a
Roman state, which is bright coin
| (and you know that fish naturally bite
at anything bright, but it was mira
Gle that Peter should have caught it at
| the first haul.
Now we follow our Chieftain until
for the paltry sum of fifteen dollars
Judas sells him to his pursuers. Tell
it to all the betrayed If for ten thou
sand dollars, or for five hundred dol
lars, or for one hundred dollars your
interests were sold out, consider for
| how much cheaper sum the Lord of
earth and heaven was surrendered to
humiliation and death. But here, while
| following him on spring night be-
| tween eleven and twelve o'clock, we
see the flash of torches and lanterns
and we hear the cry of a mob of nihil-
lists. They are breaking in on the
quietude of Gethsemane with clubs
like mob with sticks chasing a mad
dog.
1t is herd of Jerusalem ''roughs''
led on by Judas to arrest Christ and
punish him for being the loveliest and
best being that ever lived. But rioters
are liable to assail the wrong man.
How were they to be sure which one
was Jesus? II will kiss him." says
Judas, land by that signal you will
know on whom to lay your hands of
arrest" So the kiss which throughout
the human race and for all time God
intended as the most sacred demon
stration of affection, for Paul writes to
the Romans and the Corinthians and
the Thessalonians concerning the ''holy
kiss, ;" and Peter celebrates the kiss of
charity, and with that conjunction of
lips Laban met Jacob, and Joseph
met his brethren, and Aaron
met Moses, and Samuel met
Saul, and Jonathan met David, and
Orpah departed from Naomi, and Paul
separated from his friends at Ephesus,
and the father in the parable greeted
the returning prodigaI, and when the
millennium shall come we are told
righteousness and peace will kiss each
other, and all the world is invited to
greet Christ as inspiration cries out,
kiss the Son lest he be angry and We
perish fros the way"-that most sa-
cred demonstration of reunion and af-
lection was desecrated as the filthy lips
of Judas touched the pure cheek of
Christ, and the hOrrid smack of that
kiss has its echo in the treachery and
debasement and hypocrisy of all ages.
As, in December, 1889, l walked on
the way from Bethany, and at the foot
of Mount Olivet, half mile from the
wall of Jerusalem, through the Garden
of Gethsemane, and under the eight
venerable olive trees now standing,
their genealogical ancestors having
been witnesses of the occurrences spoken
of, the scene of horror and of crime
came back to me until | shuddered
with the historical Renaissance.
In further following our great Chief
tain's march through the centuries ]
find myself in a crowd in front OF
HerOd's palace in Jerusalem, and on a
movable platform placed upon Il ties
selated pavement Pontius PLATE sits
And as once a year condemned Grim
inal is pardoned, Plate lets the people
choose whether it shall be an assassin
or our Chieftain, and they all cry out
for the liberation of the assassin, thus
declaring they prefer murderer to the
salvation of the world PLATE took a
basin of water in front of these people
and tried to wash off the blood of this
murder from his hands, but he could
not. They are still lifted, and l see
them looming up through all the ages,
eight fingers and two thumbs standing
out red with the carnage.
THE AGONY ON CALVARY.
Still following our Chieftain ascend
the hill which General Gordon. the
great English explorer and arbiter first
made clay model Of tits hard climb
ing for our Chieftain, for he has not
only two heavy timbers to carry on his
back, the upright and horizontal pieces
of the cross, but he is suffering from ex-
haustion caused by lack of food, noun
tain chills, desert heats, whippings with
elmwood rods and years of maltreat-
ment.
1t took our party, in 1889, only fifteen
minutes to climb to the top of the hill
and reach that limestone rock in yon-
der wall, which [ rolled down from the
apex of Mount Calvary. But I think
our Chieftain must have taken a long
time for the ascent, for he had all earth
and all heaven and all hell on his back
as he climbed from base to summit,
and there endured what William Cow
per and John Milton and Charles Yves
ley and Isaac Watts and James Mont
gomery and all the other sacred poets
have attempted to put in verse; and
Angelo and Raphael and Titan and
Leonardo da Vinci and all the great
Italian and CarrnaO and SnaniSb opd