Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-06-27
A DIVINE sYMPATHIzER.

Christ, and Jesus stands today in ever,
courtroom, in every house, in every
store and says: "Couragel BY all my
hours of maltreatment and abuse, will
protect those who are trampled upon.
And when Christ forgets that two O'Clock
morning scene, and the stroke of the
ruffian on the mouth, and the bowling
of the unwashed crowd. then he will
| forget you and me in the iniustices OF
| life that may be inflicted upon us.
Further, remark: The last great in.
stallment paid for our redemption was
| the demise of Christ. The world has
seen many dark days. Many summers
ago there was very dark day, when
the sun was eclipsed. The fowl at noon
day went to their perch, and we felt a
gloom as we looked at the astronomical
wonder 1t was dark day in London
when the plague was at its height, and the
dead with uncovered faces were taken
in open carts and dumped in the
trenches. 1t was a dark day when the
earth opened and Lisbon sank but the
darkest day since the creation of the
world was when the carnage of Calvary
was enacted.
1t was about noon when the curtain
began to be drawn. It was not the com
ing ON of night that soothes and re-
freshes; it was the swinging of great
gloom all around the heavens. God
hung it. As when there is dead one
in the house you bow the shutters or
turn the lattice, 30 God in the afternoon
shut the windows of the world. AS it is
appropriate to throw black pail uponthe
coffin as it passes along, so it was appro-
pirate that everything should be somb Der
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. However you may have hated
or caricatured a man, when you hear he
is dying silence puts its hand on your
lips, and yoN would have loathing for
the man who could stand by deathbed
making faces and scoffing. But Christ
in his last hour cannot be left alone.
What! pursuing him yet after so long
pursuit? You have been drinking his
tears. Do you want to drink his blood?
They come up closely, so that notwith-
standing 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 ten
der hearted women. 1t wants heart
that crime has turned into granite.
The waves of mans hatred and OF
hell's 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
Had a Roman officer called out for a
light, his voice would not have been
heard in the tumult; but louder than
the clash of spears and the wailing of
womanhood, and the neighing of the
chargers, and the believing of the cru
cifyers there comes q voice crashing
through-loud, clear, overwhelming,
terrific. 1t is the groaning of the dying
son of God! Look! what scene! Look.
world, at what you have done
| lift the covering from the maltreat-
ed Christ to let you count the wounds
and estimate the cost. Oh! when the
nails went through Christ's right hand
and through Christ'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
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 left Christ's side,
that bought your heart, with all its
power to love and repent and pray.
APPEAL TO SINNERS.
o sinner, come, come back! If a man
is in no pain, if he is prospered, if he is
well, and he asks you to come, you take
your time and you say: IL can't come
now. III come after awhile. There is
no haste" But if he is in want and
trouble you say; 81 must so right away.
| must go now" Today Jesus stretches
out before you two wounded hands, and
he begs you to come. Go and You live.
Stay away and you die. Oh, 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. He is so SYM
pathizing. He is SO good wish we
could put our arms around his neck and
say, "Thine, Lord, will be forever"
Oh, that You would begin to love him!
Would that | could take this audience
and 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 the AL
bany went out to find itg Thirty times
they sank the grapnel two and q half
miles deep in water. After awhile they
found the cable and brought it to the
surface. No sooner had it been brought
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