Connecticut western news., 1892-08-18


 they were, we could understand their ferocity, but it was against inoffensive- ness that they brandished their spears, and shook their fists, and ground their teeth, and howled and scoffed and jeered and mocked.
 What evil had he done? Whose eye sight had he put out? None; but he had given vision to the blind. Whose child had he slain? None; but he restored the dead damsel to her mother. What law had he broken? None; but he had inculcated obedience to government What foul plot had he enacted against the happiness of the race? None; he had come to save world. The only cruelty he ever enacted was to heal the sick. The only ostentation he ever dis played was to sit with publicans and sinners and wash the disciples feet.
 The only selfshness he ever exhibited was to give his life for his enemies. And yet all the wrath of the world surged against his holy heart. Hear the redhot scorn of the world hissing in the pools of Saviours bloodi And standing there today let us see what an unreasonable, loathsome, hateful, blast ing, damning thing is the iniquity of the human heart. Embossed, what will not sin do? It will scale any height, it will fathom the very depth of hell, it will revel in all lasciviousness. There is no blasphemy it will not utter, there are no cruelties on which it will not gorge itself. It will wallow in filth, it will breathe the air of charnelhouses of corruption and call them aroma, it will quaff the blood of immortal souls and call it nectar.
 When sin murdered Christ on the cross it showed what it would do with the Lord God Almighty if it could get at him. The prophet had ddeclared-I think it was Jeremiah-had declared centuries before the truth, but not until sin shot out it's forked tongue at the crucifx and tossed its sting into the soul of mar tyred Jesus was it illustrated, that ''the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked"
 OUR LOVE TOWARD CHRIST.
 Again, ''It beloved Christ to suffer-" that our affections might be excited Christward. Why, sirs, the behavior of our Lord has stirred the affections of all those who have ever heard of it. It has hung the art galleries of the world with such pictures as Ghirlandajo's "Wor- ship of the Magi," Giotto's Baptism of Christ" Holman Hunts "Christ in the Temple" Tintoret's Agony in the Gar den," Angelo's ''Cruciixion," and it has called out HandePs Messiah" :" and rung sweetest chimes in "Young's Night Thoughts" and filled the psalmody of the world with the penitential notes of sorrow and the hosannas of Christian triumph.
 Show me any other king who has so many subjects. What is the most po- tent name today in the United States, in France, in England, in Scotland, in Ire land? Jesus. Other kings have had many subjects, but where is the king who has so many admiring subjects as Christ? Show me regiment of thou sand men in their army and I will show you battalion of ten thousand men in Christ's army.
 Show me in history where one man has given his property and his life for any one else, and will show you in his tory hundreds and thousands of men who have cheerfully died that Christ might reign. Aye, there are hundred men in this house who, If need were, would step out and die for Jesus. Their faith may now seem to be faint, and sometimes they may be inconsistent, but let the fires of martyrdom be kin dled, throw them into the pit, cover them with poisonous serpents, pound them, fail them, crush them, and will tell you what their last cry would be, Come, Lord Jesus, come quicklyr'
 Oh, yesl the Lord Jesus has won the affections of many of us. There are some of us who can say this morning, ''Lord Jesus, my light and my song; my hope for time, my expectation for eter- nity." Altogether lovely thou art. My soul is ravished with the vision. Thou art mine. Come, let me clasp thee. Come life, come death, come scorn and pain, come whirlwind and darkness. Lord Jesus, cannot give thee up. have heard thy voice. have seen thy bleeding side. Lord Jesus, if I had some garland plucked from heavenly gardens I would wreathe it for thy brow. If had some gem worthy of the place would set in thy crown. If I had seraphic harp I would strike it in thy praise. But come lost and ruined and undone to throw myself at thy feet.
 No price bring;
 Simply to thy cross I cling. Thou knowest all things. Thou know ! est that I love thee.
 I But I remark again, "It beloved Christ to suffer-" that the world might learn how to suffer. Sometimes people suffer because they cannot help them selves, but Christ had in his hands all the weapons to punish his enemies, and | yet in quiescence he endured all out | rage. He might have hurled the rocks of Golgotha upon his pursuers; he might | have cleft the earth until he swallowed up his assailants; he might have called | in reinforcement or taken any thunder
 bolt from the armory of God Omnipo- tent and hurled it seething and fiery among his foes, but he answered not again.
 Oh, my nearer! has there ever been in the history of the world such an exam
 pie of enduring patience as we find in
 the cross? Some of you suffer physical distresses, some of you have lifelong
 ailments and they make you fretful.
 Sometimes you think that God has given you a cup too deep and too brim- ming. Sometimes you see the world
 laughing and romping on the highways of life, and you look out of the window | while seated in invaid's chair.
 PATIENT SUFFERING OF CHRISTIAN LOVE. Iwant to show you this morning one
 who had worse pains in the head than | you have ever had, whose back was
 scourged, who was wounded in the
 hands and wounded in the feet, and suf-
 fered all over; and want that example | to make You more enduring in yonr snf-