The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-02-26

lncm Oer ii IN VINO. Sdlu. MY OOu, H.
God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Ia
it struggle for bread? Remember
Him who fed the 5000 with two min
nows and five biscuits, neither of the
biscuits larger than your fist Is it
chronic ailment? Remember the
woman who for eighteen years was
bent almost double, and He lifted her
face until she could look into the blue
sky. Are you a sailor and spend your
life battling with the tempests? Re-
member Him who flung the tempest of
Genesaret fiat on the crystal pave
ment of quiet sea.
That Christ is in sympathy with all
who have tfouble with their eyes, and
that is becoming an almost universal
trouble through much reading in rail
cars, and the over pressure of study in
the schools where children are ex-
pected TO be philosophers at ten, boys
and girls at fourteen with spectacles. 1
say with all such troubles Christ is in
sympathy. Witness blind Bartimeus.
| Witness the two blind men in the
house. Witness the two blind men
near Jericho. Witness the man
born blind. Did he not turn their
perpetual midnight into midnoon, till
they ran up and down clapping
their hands and saying. 81 see.
see!" That Christ is in sympathy
with those that stammer, or have
silenced ears, notice how promptly
he came to that man with impediment
of speech and gave him command of
the tongue SO that he could speak with
ease. And nothing is the matter with
you, but you may appeal to a sympa-
thetic Christ And if you feel yourself
to be great sinner, hear what He
said to that repenting Magdalen. while
with a scalding sarcasm he abashed
her hypocritical pursuers.
And see how he made an immortal
liturgy out of the publican's cry: God
be merciful to me q sinner" a prayer
fender can utter it, and yet long enough
to win celestial dominions.
Christ on a level with suffering
humanity. My text says: "He came
down with them and stood in the
plain" No climbing up through attri-
butes you cannot understand. No as
cending of the heights of beautiful
rhetoric of prayer. No straining after
elevations you cannot reach. ohunt-
ing for a God you cannot find. But GO
ing right strait to Him and looking into
His face and taking His hand and ask
ing for His pardon, His comfort, His
grace, His Heaven.
Christ on the level. When during
the siege of Sebastopol an officer had
commanded a private soldier to stand
on the wall exposed to the enemy and
receive the ammunition as it was
handed up, while he, the officer, stood
in place sheltered from the enemy's
guns, Gen. Gordon leaped upon the
wall to help and commanded the officer
to follow him, and then closed with
the words, ''Never order a man to do
anything that you are afraid to do
yourself" Glory be to God, the CIp-
tain of our salvation has himself gene
through all the exposures in which he
commands US to be courageous. lie
has been through it all aud now offers
his sympathy in similar struggle.
o! join Him in the plain. AS long as
you stay up in the mountain of your
pride you will get no help. That is the
reason so many never find the saliva
ton of the Gospel. They sit up in the
Mont Blanc of their opinionativeness
and they have their own opinion about
God, and their opinion about the soul,
and their opinion about eternity. Have
you any idea that your opinion will
have any effect upon the two tremen-
dous facts that you are n sinner and
Christ is ready at your earnest prayer
to save you.
In the final day of accounts how
much will your opinions be worth?
Your opinion will not be of much i'm
portance before the blast of the arch
angels trumpet When the life Of this
planet shall be threshed out with the
fail of thunder bolts nobody will ask
about your opinions Come down out
of the mountain of opinionativeness
and meet Christ on the plain, where
you must meet Him or never meet Him
at all, except as you meet Him on the
Judgment throne.
A Christ easy to get at! No armed
sentinel to challenge you. No ruthless
v
present. Immediate solace. Through
what struggle people must go to get
pardon from worldly authority By
what petition, by what hindrance, by
what nervous strain of anxiety, by
what adroitness. A count of Italy was
condemned to be put to death at Milan.
The countess hearing of the sentence
hastened to Vienna to seek his
pardon The death warrant was
already on its wav. The count
ess, arriving in Vienna in the
night hastened to the palace gate.
The attendants forbade her entrance
at all, and especially at night, but she
overcame them with her entreaties,
and the empress was wakened and the
countess pleaded before her for the
life of her husband, and then the en-
peror was awakened to hear the same
plea. Communication of the sentence
was granted, but how could she over
take the officer who had started with
the death warrant and would she be
too late to save the life of her
husband? BY four relays Of
horses and stopping not moment
for food she reached the city Of
Milan as her husband was on the
way to the scaffold. Just in time to
save him and not minute to spare,
she came up. You see there were two
difficulties in the way. The one was
to get the pardon signed, and the other
to bring it to the right place in time.
Glory be to God, we need 90 through
no such exigency. No long road to
travel No pitiless beating at a palace
gate. Pardon here. Pardon now.