Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-06-02

her Christian errand she saw a policeman
taking All intoxicated woman to the station
house. After the woman was discharged
from custody. this Christian tract distributor
saw her coming away all unkempt and IN
lovely. the tract distributor went up, threw
her arms around her neck and kissed her.
The woman said, sob. my God why do you
kiss meT' We'll" replied the ether, II
think Jesus Christ told me to" ''Oh, no,
the woman said, don't you kiss me. 1t
since my mother died" Bat that sisterly
kiss brought her TO Christ, started her on the
road 10 heaven The world wants sympathy.
It is dying for sympathy, large-hearted
Christian sympathy. There Is omnipotence
in the touch
Christ touches US The knuckles, and thu
limbs, and the joints, all falling apart with
that living death called the leprosy. a man is
brought to Christ. 4 hundred doctors could
not cure him The wisest surgery would
stand app allied before that loathsOme pa
tient. What did Christ do? He did not am
putate He did not poultice He did not scar
ify. He touched him, and he was well. The
mother-in-law of the Apostle Peter was in a
raging fever-brain fever, typhoid fever, or
what, 1 do not know. Christ was the physi-
clan. He offered no febrifuge He prescribed
no drops He did not put her on plain diet.
He touched her. and she was perfectly well.
Two blind men come stumbling into room
where Christ is. They are entirely sightless.
Christ did not lift the eyeid to see whether it
was cataract or ophthalmia. He did not put
the men into dark room for three or four
weeks Hetouched them. and they saw eyery-
thing 4 man came to Christ. The drum Of
his ear had ceased to yibrate. and he had q
suffering tongue. Christ touched the ear,
and he heard: touched his tongue. and he
articuIated. There is funeral coming out
Of that gate-a widow following her only boy
to the grave. Christ cannot stand it. and He
puts His hand on the hearse, and the obse-
quies turn into resurrection day.
o my brother, am so glad when we touch
Christ with our sorrows He touches u.s. When
out of your grief and vexation you put your
hand On Christ, it awakens all human remi-
niscence. Are we tempted? He was tempted.
Are we sick? He was sick. Are we perse-
cuted? He was prosecuted. Are we bereft?
he was bereft.
ST. Yoo Of Kermartin one morning went
out and saw beggar asleep on his doorstep.
The beggar had been all night in the cold.
The next night st. 700 compelled this beggar
to come up in the house and sleep IL the
saints bed, while st. 700 passed the night on
the doorstep III the cold. Somebody asked
MIN why that eccentr1c1ty. He replied; lit
isn't an eccentricity. I want to know how
the poor suffer. I want to know their aconies
that may sympathize with them. and there
fore slept on this cold step last night" This
is the way Christ knows so much about our
sorrows. He slept on the cold doorstep of en
inhOspitable world that would not let Him il.
He is sympathetic now with all the suffering
and all the tired and all the perplexed. Oh,
why do you not go and touch Him?
You utter your voice in q mountain pass,
and there come back 10 echoes, 90 -ecnoes. 80
echoes perhaps-weird echoes. Every voice
OF prayer, every ascription OF praise, every
groan Of distress has divine response and
celestial reverberation and all the galleries
of heaven are filled with sympathetic echoes
and thrOngs Of miniStering angels echo, and
the temples of the redeemed echo, and the
hearts of God the Father, God the Son and
God the Holy Ghost echo and re-echos
preach a Christ SO near you can touch
Him-touch Him with your guilt and get
pardon-touch Him with your trouble and
get comfOrt-touch Him with your bondage
and get manumisSiOn. You have seen man
take hold of an electric chain. A man can
with one hand take one end Of the chain, and
with the other hand he may take hold Of the
other end of the chain. Then 100 persons
taking hold of that chain will altogether feel
the electric power. You have seen that eX-
pertinent.
taxes mold OF one emf OF the electric chain
of love. and with the other wounded hand
takes hold of the other end Of the electric
chain Of love, and all earthly and angelic
beings may lay hold Of that chain, and
around and around in sublime and everlast-
ing circuit runs the thrill of terrestrial and
celestial and brotherly and sanity and
cherubic and seraphic and archangelic and
divine sympathy. So that if this morning
Christ should sweep His hand over this
audience and say, ''Who touched Me?" there
would be hundreds and thousands OF voices
responding: II! I! IT.