The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1893-03-18

Christ walks sometimes in the darkness
of prophecy, again in the splendors
with which he walks on Galilee. In
this book, apostle answers to prophet,
Pau TO Isaiah, Revelation to Genesis
glorious light, turning midnight sor-
row into the midnoon Joy, dispensing
every fog, hushing every tempest.
Take this book; it is the kiss of God on
the soul of lost man. Perfect Bible,
complete Bible! No man has ever pro-
posed any improvement.
God provided a Saviour; He is a COM
plete Observation-Disclosures and
humanity united in the same person.
He set up the starry pillars of the uni
verse and the towers of light. He
planted the cedars and the heavenly
Lebanon. He struck out of the rock
the rivers of life, singing under the
trees, singing under the thrones. He
quarried the sardonyX and crystal and
the topaz of the heavenly wall. He
put down the Jasper for the foundation,
and heaped up the amethyst for the
capital, and swung the twelve gates
which are twelve pearls. In one in
slant He thought out a universe; and
yet He became a child, crying for His
mother, feeling along the sides of the
manager, learning to walk. Omnipo-
tence sheathed in the muscle and flesh
of a child's arm; omniscience strung in
the optic nerve of the child's eye; in
finite love beating in a child's heart; a
great God appearing in the form of a
child n year old, five years old, if
teen years old. While all the heavens
were ascribing to Him glory and honor
and power on earth, men said, "Who is
this fel,ow?" While all the heavenly
hosts, with folded wing about their
faces, bowed down before Him, crying,
holy. holy!' on earth they denounced
Him as a blasphemer and a sot. Rocked
in a boat on Gennesaret, and yet He it
is that undirked the lightning from the
storm-cloud, and dismasted Lebanon of
its forests. and holds the five oceans on
the tip of his finger, as a leaf holds the
raindrop.
Again, l learn from this Jordanic
passage that between us and every
Canaan of success and prosperity there
is a river that must be passed. "Oh,
how l would like some of those grapes
on the other side!" said some of the
Israelites to Joshua. "Well," says
Joshua, 'if you want the grapes why
don't you cross over and get them?"
There is a river of difficulty between us
and everything that is worth having;
that which costs nothing is worth moth
ing. God didn't intend this world for
an easy parlor, through which we are
to be drawn in a rocking chair, but we
are to work our passage, climb masts,
fight battles, scale mountains and ord
rivers. God makes everything valuable
difficult to get at, for the same reason
that he put the gold down in the mine,
and the pearl clear down in the sea, to
make us dig and dive for them. We &C.
knowledge this principle in worldly
things; oh, that we were only wise
enough to acknowledge it in religious
things!
You have scores of illustrations under
your own observation where men have
had the hardest lot, and been trodden
under foot, and yet after a while had it
easy. Oh, there is a river of difficulty
between us and every earthly achieve
ment. You know that. You admit
that.
You know this is SO with regard to
the acquisition of knowledge. The
ancients used to say that Vulcan struck
Jupiter on the head, and the goddess of
wisdom jumped out, illustrating the
truth that wisdom comes by hard
knocks. There was n river of difficulty
between Shakespeare, the boy holding
the horses at the door of the London
theater, and that Shakespeare, the
great dramatist, winning the applause
Of all audiences by his tragedies. There
was n river between Benjamin Frank
lin, with n loaf of bread under his
arm walking the streets of Philadel-
phia, and that same Benjamin Frank
lin, the philosopher, just outside of
Boston flying u kite In a thunderstorm.
Lord Mansfield, pursued by the press
and by the populace because Of a cer-
tain line of duty, went on to discharge
the duty, and while the mob was
around him, demanding the taking of
his life, he shook his fist in the face OF
the mob and said: ''Sirs, when ones
last end comes, it cannot come too soon
If he falls in defense of law and the
liberty of his country" And so there
is, my friends, a tug, a tussle, a trial, a
push, an anxiety, through which every
man must go before he comes to world
ly success and worldly achievement.
You admit it Now be wise enough to
apply it in religion. Eminent Christian
character is only gained by the Jor
dauic passage; no man just happens to
get good.
Why does that man know so much
about the Scriptures? He was study
ing the Bible while you were reading a
novel. He vas on fire with the sub
limities of the Bible, while you were
sound asleep. BY tug, tussle, pushing
and running in the Christian life thai
man got so strong for God; in a hun
bred Solferinos he learned how to fight
in a hundred shipwrecks he learned
how to swim. Tears over sin, tear,
over lions desolation, tears over the
impenitent, tears over the graves made
are the Jordan which hat man hat
gained.
The Christian has passed the Red ses
of trouble, and yet he thinks there is 6
Jordan Of death between him ant
Heaven. He comes down to that Jor
dan of death and thinks how many
have been lost there. When Molyneua
was exploring the Jordan in Palestine
he had his boats all knocked to piece.
in the rapids of that river. And Their,
are a great many men who have gone
down in the river of death; tho Allan
tic and Pacific have not swallowed sc
many.
The Christian comes down to THU
raging torrent, and he knows he mus
pass out, and as he comes toward tn,
time his breath gets shorter, and hi
last breath leaves him as he steps int
the stream, and no soonerdoes he toucl
the stream than it is parted and he goe.
through dry shod. while all the waters
wave their plumes, crying, "Oh, death
where is thy sting? o, grave, where is
thy victory?" God shall wipe away al
tears from their eyes and there shall bt
no more weeping and there shall be nj
more death.
Some of your children have already
gone up the other bank. You let then
down on this side of the bank; they
will be on the other bank to help you
up with supernatural strength. Thu
other morning at ny table, all m,
family present. 1 thought to mysel
how pleasant it would be if l could put
all into a boat, and then go in will
them, and we could pull across the rive
to the next world, and be there all to
gether. No family parting, no gloomy