The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-07-08

coming of a night that soothes and re-
freshes; it was the swinging of a great
| gloom all around the heavens God
| hung il. AS when there is dead one
in the house you bow the shutters or
noon shut the windows of the world.
As it is appropriate to throw black
pail upon the coffin as it passes along,
so it was appropriate that everything
should be somber that day as the great
hearse of the earth rolled on, bearing
the corpse of the King. A mans last
hours are ordinarily kept sacred. How
ever you may have hated or caricatured
a man, when you hear he is dying silence
puts its hand on your lips, and you would
have loathing FOR man who could
stand By death bed making faces aad
soothing. But Christ in His last hour
cannot be Lee. alone. What, pursuing
Him yet after so long E pursuit? You
| have been drinking His tears. Do you
want to drink His blood? They come
up closely, so that Notwithstanding the
darkness they can glut their revenge
with the contortions of His countenance.
They examine His feet They want to
feel for themselves whether those feet
are really spiked They put out their
hands and touch the spikes and bring
them back wet with blood and wipe
them on their garments. Women stand
there and weep but can do no good 1t
is no place for the tender hearted wo-
man. II wants heart that crime has
turned into granite.
The wares of mans hatred and Of
helrs vengeance dash up against the
mangled feet, and the hands of sin and
pain and torture clutch for his holy
| heart Had he not been thoroughly
fastened to the cross they would have
torn him down and trampled him with
both feet. How the cavalry horses
arched their necks and champed their
bits, and reared and snuffed at the
| blood! Had Roman officer called out
| for light, his voice would not have
been heard in the tumult; but louder
than the clash of spears and the wall
| ing of womanhood, and the Eeighing
of the chargers, and the believing OF
| the crucifiers there comes a voice crash
ing through-loud, clear, Overwhelm-
| ing, terrific 1t is the grooming of the
| dying Son of God! Look! what n scene!
Look. world, at what you have done!
l lift the covering from the maltreated
Christ TO let you count the wounds and
estimate the cost. o! when the nails
went through Christ's right hand and
through Chsist's left hand, that bought
both your hands with all their power to
| work, and lift and write; when the
nails went through Christ's right foot
| and Christ's left foot, that bought both
your feet, with all their power to walk
or run or climb. When the thorn went
| into Christ's temple, that bought your
brain, with all its power TO think and
plan When the spear cleft Christ's
side, that bought your heart with all
its powers to love and repent and pray.
o sinner, come, come back! If a man
| is in no pain, IL he is prospered, ii he is
well. and he asks you to come, you take
your time and say: Il can't come now.
I'll come after a while There is no
haste" But if he is in want and trou bic
you say: II must go right away. l
must go now" To-day Jesus stretches
ont before you two wounded hands, md
ne begs you to come. Go and you live.
Stay away and you die. o, that
to him who bought us we might
give all our time and all our
prayers and all our successes / would
we could think of nothing else, but
come to Christ. He is so fair. He is so
loving. lie is so sympathizing He is
so good. wish we could put our arms
| around His neck and say: IT lime,
Lord, will be forever" o that you
would begin to love Him Would that
/ could take this audience ard wreathe
it around the heart of my Lord Jesus
Christ
When the Atlantic cable was lost in
1865 do you remember that the Great
Eastern and the Midway and thu Albany
went out to find it? Thirty times they
sank the grapnel two and a-haf miles
deepin water. After awhile they found
the cable and brought it to the surface.
No sooner had it been brought to the
surface than they lifted a shout of ex-
ultation, but the cable slipped back
again into the water and was lost Then
for two weeks more they swept the sea
with the graphing hooks and at last
they found the cable and they brought
IL up in silence. They fastened it this
time Then with great excite
ment they took one end Of the
cable to the electricians room 20 see
if there were really any life in it, and
when they saw a spark and kneS tia.
4 message could be sent, then every hat
was lifted and the rockets flew and the
guns sounded until ali the vesuels on
the expedition knew the work was done
and the continents were dashed to-
gether.
Well, my friends, Sabbath after Sab
bath gospel messengers have come
searching down for your souls We have
swept the sea with the graphing hook
of Christ's gospel. Again and again we
have thought that you were at the sur
face and we began to rejoice at your re-
demption, but at the moment of our
gladness you sank back again TITO the
world and back again into sin. To-day
we come with this gospel searching for
your soul. We apply the cross of Christ
first to see whether there is any life
left in you, while all around the people
stand looking to see whether tbs work
will be done and the angels of God bend
down to witness, and, o, IL now we
could see only one spark of love and
hope and faith we would send up
shout that would be heard on the bat
Elements of Heaven and two worlds
would keep jubilee because communiea-
ton is open between Christ and the
sosll, and your nature that has been
sunken in sin has been lifted into the
light and the JOY OF the gospel