Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1893-05-26

ashamed to cry over human misfortune. Look
II that deep lake Of tears opened by the two
words of the evangelist Jesus weptr' Be
hold Christ on the only day Of His early
triumph marching ON Jerusalem, the glitter
Ing domes obliterated by the binding rain oil
tears in His eyes>and on His cheeks, for when
He beheld the city He wept over it. o man
of the many trials, o woman of the heart
break, why do you not touch Him?
ooh" saws some one, "Christ doesn't care
for me. Christ is looking the other way.
Christ has the vast affairs OF His kingdom to
look after. He has the armies of sin to over
throw, and there are so many worse cases OF
trouble than mine He doesn't care about me,
and His face Is turned tho other way. SO
His back was turned to this invalid OF the
text. He was on His way TO effect cure
which was famous and popular and wide re-
sounding. But the context says, "He turned
Him about" II He was facing to tho north,
He turned TO the south II He was facing TO
the east, He turned 20 the west. What
turned Him about? The Bible says He has no
shadow Of turning He rides on His chariot
through the eternities. He marches Oh.
crushing scepters as though they were the
cracking alders on brooks bank, and toss
ing thrones on either side of Him without
looking which way the fnil. Prom everlnst-
ing to everlasting. ale turned Him about. "
He. whom all the allied armies OF he'll can
not stop minute or divert an inch by tho
wan. sick, neryeless finger OF human suffer-
Ing turned clear about.
oh, what comfort there is in this subject
for people who are called nervous or course
II is a misapplied word in that case, but use
Il In the ordinary parlance. After II years
ofsuffering. oh. what nervous depression she
must have had You all know that good
deal OF medicine taken II it does not cure
leaves the system exhausted, and in the Bible
In so many words she "had suffered many
things Of many physicians and was nothing
bettered, but rather grew worse. she was
Es nervous as nervous could DO. She knew
oil about insomnia, and about the awful ap-
prehension OF something going to happen,
and irritability about little things that in
health would not have perturbed her. I war
rant you it was not straight stroke she gave
to the garment of Christ, but n trembling
forearm. and an uncertain motion OF the
hand, and quivering finger with which she
missed the mark toward which she aimed.
She did not touch the garment Just where
she expected TO touch it.
When l see this nervous woman coming to
the Lord Jesus Christ. ! say she is making
the way for all nervous people. Nervous
people do not get much sympathy. II man
breaks his arm, everybody is sorry and they
talk about 1t all up and down the street. II &
woman has an eye put out by accident they
say That's dreadful thing" Everybody
Is asking about her cOnvalescence. But when
person is suffering under the ailment Of
which am now speaking they say "Oh,
hats nothing. She's LITTLE nervous, that's
all. putting a slight upon the most agoniz-
Ing of suffering.
I have N DregpriDtiOn to give
do not ask you to discard human medica-
ment. | believe in it. When the slightest
thing occurs in the way OF sickness in my
household we always run for the doctor. |
10 not want to despise medicine. II you can
not sleep nights. do not despise bromide oil
potassium. Ifyou have nervous paroXysm,
90 not despise morphine. II you wants to
strengthen up your system, DO not dcspisc
uuinine as a tonic. Use all right and proper
medicines. But | want you to bring your
insomnia, and bring your irritability, and
bring all your weaknesses, and with them
Touch Christ Touch Him not only on the
hem of His garments, but touch Him on the
lhoulder. where Hecarries our burden, touch
Him on the head where He remembers all
bur sorrows, touch Him on the heart, the
senter of all His sympathies. Oh, yes, Paul
was right when he said, I'VE have not high
priest who cannot be tOucncd.
The fact is Christ Himself is nervous. All
those nights out OF doors in malarlal districts,
where an Englishman or an American dies IL
he goes at certain seasons. Sleeping ont OF
doors so many nights, as Christ did. and so
hungry. and His feet wet with the wash Of
the sea. and the wilderness tramp. and the
persecution, and the outrage must have
broken His nervous system fact proved by
the statement that He lived 50 short time
on the cross. That is lingering death or
dinarily. and many a sufferer on the cross
has writhed in pain "a hours, 4Shours. Christ
lived only six. Why? He was exhausted be-
fore He mounted the bloody tree. Oh, it is
a wornout Christ, sympathetic with all peO-
pie worn out.
A Christian woman went to tho Tract
House in New York and asked for tracts for
distribution. The first day she vas out on
her Christian errand she saw. a policeman
taking an intoxicated woman 10 the station
house After the woman was discharged
from custody, this Christian tract distributes
saw her coming away all unkempt and un-
lovely. The tract distributor went up. threw
her arms around her neck and kissed her.
The woman said, "Oh. my God, why do you
kiss me?' well, replied tho other, Il
think Jesus Christ told me to-" "Oh, no"
the woman said, don't you kiss me. 1t
breaks my heart. Nobody has kissed me
since my mother died. But that sisterly
kiss brought her to Christ. started her on the
road to heaven The world wants sympathy.
1t is dying for sympathy large-heared
Christian sympathy. There is omnipotence
in the touch.
Oh, l am 50 glad that when we touch Christ
Christ touches us Tho knucklcs, and the
limbs. and the joints. all falling apart with
that living death called the leprosy. man is
brought to Christ. hundred doctors could
not cure him. The wsest surgery would
stand appalled, before that lolthsoms pa.
tent. What did Christ do? He did not am
putats He did not poulticc He did not scar
fly. He touched him. aud he was well. The
mOther-in-law of the Apostle Peter was in 4
raging fever-brain fever. typhoid fever. or
what, do not know. Christ was the physi-
clan. He offered no febrlusc lie prescribed
no drops He did not put her Oh plain diet
He touched her end she was perfectly well.
Two blind men come stumbling into room
rhere Christ is. They are entirely sghtlcss.
hrist did not lit the cyclid 20 see whether it
was cataract or ophthamls. He did not put
he men into q dark room for three or fOuf
~ chg Iietouched them. and they saw every
thing. A man came to Christ. The drum of
his ear had ceased to vibrate, and he had
tongue. Christ touched the ear,
and he heard touched his tongue, and he
articulated. There is a 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 a resurrection day.
o my brother. ] am so glad when we touch
Christ with our sorrows He touches MS. 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. 700 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 in the
saints bed. while st. 700 passedth night on
the doorstep in the cold. Somebody asked
nm why that eccentricity. He replie1g TIT
lsnt an eccentricity. l want to know how
The poor suffer. / want to know their agonies
That may sympathize with them. and there
lore / slept on this cold step last night " This
Is the way Christ knows 80 much about our
forrows. He slept on the cold doorstep Of an
world that would not let Him in.
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 utta- your voice in a mountain pass,
and there come back 10 echoes. 20 echoes. 80
echoes perhaps-weird echoes. Every voice
Of prayer. every ascription Of praise, every
yroan OF distress mas divine response and