Democratic messenger., 1893-05-27

lrTlJdDlllty, anu DflnS all your weaknesses.
and with them touch Christ. Touch him
not only on the hem OF his garments but
touch him on the shoulder, where he carries
our burden; touch him on the head. where
he remembers all our sorrows: touch him
on the heart, the center of ali his sympathies.
Oh. yes, Paul was right when he said. We
have not a high priest who cannot be
touched"
The fact is Christ himself is nervous. All
those nights out of doors in malarial dis
tricss where an Englishman or an American
dies IL he goes at certain seasons. sleeping
out 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 down his nervous system, "a
fact proved by the statement that he lived
SO short time on the cross. That is n lin
gering death ordinarily, and many suf-
ferer ON the cross has writhed in pain "a
hours, IS hours. Christ lived only six.
Why; He was exhausted before he mounted
the bloody tree. Oh. it is IA wornOut Christ.
sympathetic with all people worn out.
A WONDERFUL POWER.
y Christian woman went to the Tract
House in New York and asked for tracts
for distribution. The first day she was cut
on her Christian errand she saw policeman
taking an intoxicated woman to the station
house. After the woman was discharged
from custody this Christian tract distribu-
ter saw her coming away. all unkempt and
unlovely. 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 the
other. II think Jesus Christ told me to-"
"Oh, no. the woman said, don't you kiss
me. II breaks my heart. Nobody has kiss
ed me since my mother died" But that
sisterly kiss brought her to Christ-started
her on the road to heaven. The world
wants sympathy. IL is dying for sympa-
thy-large hearted, Christian sympathy.
There is omnipotcnce in the touch oh.
am so glad that when we touch Christ
Christ touches us. The knuckles, and the
limbs, and the joints. all falling apart with
that living death called the leprosy. a man
is brought to Christ. \ hundred doctors
could not cure him. The wisest surgery
would stand appalled, before that loathsome
patient. What did Christ do: He did not
amputate. He did not pOultice. He did
not scarify. He touched him. and he was
well The mother-in-law Of the Apostle
Peter was in a raging fever-brain fever.
Christ was the physician. He offered no
febrfuge; he prescribed no drops; he did
not lnit her ON plain diet; he touched her.
and she was perfectly well. Two blind men
come stumbling into a room where Christ
is. They are entirely sightless. Christ did
not lift the eyelid To see whether il was cat
aract or ophthalmy. lie did not put the
men into n dark room for three or four
weeks. He touched them, and they saw ev-
erything a man came 10 Christ. The
drum of his ear had ceased to vibrate, and
he had suffering tongue. Christ touched
the ear, and he heard; touched his tongue,
and he artic,lated. There is funeral COM
ing 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 obscquies turn into a resurrection
day.
Oh, my brother, | am So glad when we
touch Christ with our sorrows he touches
us. When out of your grief and veNation
you put your hand ON Christ. it wakens all
human "Reminiscences. Are we tempted.
He was tempted. Are sick: He WA
sick. Are we prosecuted: He was perss-
cuted. Are we bereft, He was bcrcft.
THE SUBLIME CIRCUIT.
St. Yoo OF kermartin one morning went
out and saw beggar asleep on his door
step. The beggar had been all night in
the cold. The next night st. 700 com
PEELED this beygar to come up in the house
and sleep in the saints bed. while 81. Yoo
passed the night on the doorstep in the
cold. Somebody asked him why that eccen-
tricity lie replied: 1T isn't an eccentric
ity. want to know how the poor suffer.
want To know their agonics that / may
sympathize with them and therefore slept
on this cold step last night" That is the
way Christ knows so much about our sor
rows. He slept ON the cold doorstep Of an
inhospitable world that would not let him
in. He is sympathetic now with all the
suffering and all the tried and all the Pc
picked. Oh, why do you not go and touch
him:
You utter your voice in a mountain pass,
and there come back 10 echoes, 70 echoes,
80 echoes perhaps. weird echoes. Every
voice Of prayer. every ascription of praise
every groan of distress, has divine re-
sponse and celestial rcverberation, and
all the galleries of heaven are filled with
sympathetic echoes. and throngs of minis
tering angels echo, and the temples of the
redeemed echo, and the hearts of God IT,.
Father, God the Son and God the Holy
Ghost echo and re-echo.
! 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 n man take hold of an electric chain.
\ 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 hundred persons taking hold of that
chain will altogether feel the electric power.
You have seen that experiment. Well,
Christ with one wounded hand takes hold
Of one end 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 everlasting circuit runs the
thrill of terrestrial and celestial and broth
erly and sanity and cherubic and seraphic
and archangelic and divine sympathy. 30
that il this morning Christ should sweep
his hand over this audience and say. Who
touched me;" there wonld be hundreds
and thousands of voices responding: Il.