Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-10-08

Christ our leader Is on the tOpof the toss /
ing waves, and il is about half past three /
in the morning, and II is the darkest time
Just before daybreak. But by the flashes .
of lightning we see him putting his feet on
the crest of the wave, stepping from crest
TO crest, walking the white surf, solid as
though it were frozen snow The sailors
think ghost is strding the tempest, but
he cheers them into placidity, showing him.
self to be a great Christ for sailors. And
he walks the Atlantic and the Pacific and
Mediterranean and Adriatic now, and If
exhausted and afTrighted vOyagers will
listen for his voice at half past three O'Clock
in the morning on any sea, indeed at any
hour, they will hear his voice of compass
sion and encouragement
We continue to follow our Chieftaiu, and
here is a blind man by the wayside 1t is
not from cataract of the eye or from
ophthalmia, the eye eNtingulsher of the
east. but he was born blind BE OpenedV
he cries, and first there is a asmarting of the
eyelids, and then a twilight, and then
midnoon, and then a shout. 81 seel | seer
Tell it to all the blind, and they at least
can appreciate it. And here is the widows
dead son, and here is the expired damsel
and here is l.azarusl "Livep' our Chief
tain 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 couches and blush
from awful pallow of helpless illness to
rubicund health, and the swollen foot of
81, hoo a..
on the mountains. The music of the grove
and household wakens the deaf ear, and
lunatic and maniac return into bright in
telligence, 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 hos
pitfalls. 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 JEWISH MOB COMES.
Still we follow our Chieftain until the
government that gave him no protection
insists that he pay tax, and, too poor to
raise the requisite two dollars and seventy
five cents, he orders Peter to catch fish
that has in it's mouth Roman state,
fish naturally bite at anything bright, but
it was miracle 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 thousand dollars or
for five hundred dollars, or for one hun
dred dollars your interests were sold out,
consider for how much cheaper a sum the
Lord of earth and heaven was surrendered
to humiliation and death. But here, while
following him on spring night between
eleven and twelve o'clock, we see the fash
of torches and lanterns and we hear the
cry of mob of nihilists. They are break
ing in on the quietude of Gethsemane with
clubs-like a 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? Il will kiss
him." says Judas. 'and 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 demonstration of affec-
ton, for Paul writes to the Romans, and
| the Corinthians, and the Thessalonians
concerning the holy kiss" and Peter
ceLsSrates the kiss Of charity, and with
that conjunction of lips Laban met
Jacob, and Joseph met his brethren,
and Aaron met Noses and Samuel met
Saul, and Jonathan met David and Orpah
| taI
from his friends at Ephesus, and the father
in the parable greeted the returning prodi
gal, 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 ye
perish from the way''-that most sacred
| demonstration of reunion and affection
was desecrated us the filthy lips of Judas
touched the pure cheek of Christ, and the
horrid smack of that kiss has it's echo in
| the treaChery and debasement and hypoc
risy of all ages,
| AS in December, 1889, | walked on the
way from Bethany, and at the foot OF
Mount Olivet, half mile from the wall OF
! Jerusalem, through the Garden of Gethsem-
ane and under the eight venerable olive
trees now standing, their pomological an
cestors having been witnesses of the occur
rences spoken of, the scene of horror and
/ of crime came back to me, until | shud.
dered with the historical "reminiscences
In further following our great Chief
tain's march through the centuries, find
myself in a crowd in front of Herod's pal
ace in Jerusalem, and on a movable plat.
form placed upon tasselated pavement
Pontius PLATE sits. And as once year a
condemned criminal is pardoned, PLATE
let's 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 a murderer tc
the salvation of the world PLATE took d
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 see them looming uE
through all the ages, eight fingers and two
thumbs standing out red with the carnage
Still following our Chieftain, | ascend
the hill which General Gordon, the great
English explorer and arbiter, made clay
model of 1t is hard climbing for oul
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 exhaustion caused by
lack Of food, mountain chills, desert heats
whippings with eImwood rods and years
of maltreatment.
1t took our party in 1889 only fifteer
minutes to climb to the top of the hill and
reach that limestone rock in yonder wall
which | rolled down from the apex o
| Mount Calvary But [ think our ChieftaiI
must have taken a long time for the ascent
for he had all earth and all heaven and al
hell on his back as he climbed from bast
to summit and there endured what Will
lam Cowper and John Milton and Charles
Wesley and Isaac Watts and James Mont
gomery and all the other sacred poets have