Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1891-06-18


it, High and holy enterprise has always
been followed by abuse The most sublime
tragedy of self sacrifice has come to bur
lesque. The graceful gait of virtue is al
ways followed by grimace and travesty.
The sweetest strain of poetry ever written
has come to ridiculous parody, and as long
as there are virtue and righteousness in the
world, there will be something for iniquity
to grin at. All along the line Of the ages,
and in all lands, the cry has been: s'Not this
man, but Barabbas Now. Barabbas was
And what makes the prosecutions of life
worse is that they come from people whom
you have helped, from those to whom you
have loaned money or have started in bust
ness, or whom you rescued in some great
crisis think it has been the history of all
our lves-the most acrimonious assault
has come from those whom 'we have bene-
fitted, whom we have helped, and that makes
it all the harder to bear. A man Is in dam
ger of becoming cynical.
A clergyman of the Universalist church
went into a neighborhood for the establish
ment of church of his denomination and
he was anxious to find some one of that de-
nomination, and he was pointed TO certain
house and went there. He said to the man
OF the house. 81 understand you are n Uni
versalist; want you to help me in the Ell
terprise." well" said the man, II am q
Universalist, but | have peculiar kind of
Unlversalism.' "Welp replied the other.
II have been out in the world, and have
been cheated and s'andered and outraged
and abused until believe in universal dam
nationp'
Third--There are others who carry great
burdens of physical ailments. When sud-
den sickness has come, and fierce choleras and
malignant fevers take the castles of life by
storm, we appeal to God; but in these chronic
ailments which wear out the strength day
after day, and week after week, and veal.
after year, how little resorting to God for
solace! Then people depend upon their tonics
and their pasters and their cordias rather
than upon heavenly stimulants. Oh. how
few people there are completely WE'LL Some
of you, by dint Of perseverance, and care
have kept living to this time; but how you
have had to war against physical ailments,
Antediluvians without medical college and
infirmary and apothecary shop. multiplied
their years by hundreds; but he who has
gone through the gantlet of disease in our
time, and has come to seventy years of age,
is hero worthy of palm.
The world seems to be great hospital.
and you run against rheumatisms and con-
sllmptions and scrofulas and neuraloias and
scores of old diseases baptized by new no.
menclature. Oh, how heavy a burden sick
nessi; 1t takes the color out of the sixy.
ttuu bHt SlJdIhit OuD OIL Ul1e wave. ana the
sweetness out of the fruit and the lustre out
of the night. When the limbs ache, when
the respiration is painful when the mouth
is hot, when the ear roars with unhealthy
distractions, how hard it is to be patient
and cheerful and assiduous Cast thy bur-
den upon the Lord" Does your head ache?
His wore the thorn. Do your feet hurt? His
We're crushed of the spikes. Is your side
painful2 His was struck by the spear Do
you feel like giving way under. the burdens
HIS weakness gave way under a cross.
prominent merchant of New York said
to member of my family, sMy mother
wants her case mentioned to Mr.. Talmage"
This was the case. He said my mother
had a dreadful abscess, from which she had
suffered untold agonies, and all surgery had
been exhausted upon her, and worse and
worse she grew until we called in a few
Christian friends and proceeded to pray
about it. We commended her case to God
and the abscess began Immediately to be
cured. She is entirely well now, and with
out knife and without any surgery" So that
case has come to me, and there are score of
other cases coming to our ears from all parts
of the earth. Oh, ye who are sick, go to
Christi. Oh, ye who are worn out with
agonies of body, Cast thy burden upon the
Lord, and He shall sustain theel'
Another burden some have to carry is the
burden of bereavement. All! these are the
troubles that wear us out Ii we lose our
by additional industry perhaps we
may bring back the estranged fortune; if we
lose our good name, perhaps by reformation
of morals we may achieve again reputation
for integrity but who will bring back the
dear departed? Alas mel for these empty
cradles and these trunks of childish TOYS that
will never be used again Alas me! for the
empty chair and the silence in the halls that
will never echo again to those familiar foot
e
orphanage.
What bitter Marahs in the wilderness,
what cities of the dead, what long black
shadow from the wing of death, what eyes
snniSen with grief what hands tremulous
with bereavement, what instruments of
music shut now because there are no fingers
to play on them! Isthere no relief for such
souls? Ave, let the soul ride into the harbor
of my text
The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
l will not. will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell shall endeavor to shake,
III never, no never, no never forsake.
There are many who carry the burden of
sin. All. we all carry it until in the appoint
ed way taat burden is lifted. We need no
Bible to prove that the whole race is ruined
What spectacle it would be il we could
tear off the mask of human defllement; or
beat a drum that would bring up the whole
army Of the worlds transgressions- de-
ception, the frand, and the rapine, and the
murder, and.the crime OF all these centuriesl
Aye, if could sound the trumpet of resur-
rection in the soul OF the best men in this
audience, aud all the dead sins of the past
should come up, we could not endure the
sight. Sin, grim and dire, has put its clutch
upon the immortal soul, and that clutch
win never relax unless it be under the heel
OF Him who came to destroy the works of
the devil.
Oh. to have mountain of sin on the soul
Is there no way to have the burden movedy
Oh yes. Cast thy burden upon tho Lord"
The siness One came to take the conse'
quences of our sin! And know He is in
earnest. How do know it, BY the stream
ing temples and the streaming hands as He
says. "Come unto Me all We who are weary
and heavy laden, and will give you rest"
Why will prodigals live on swines'
husks when the robe, and the ring, and the
Fathers welcome are readyY Why so wan
dering over the great Sahara desert of your
sin when you are invited to the gardens of
God the trees OF life aad the fountains of
living water? Why be houseiess and home
less forever when you may become the sons
and daughters OF the Lord God Almighty2
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