Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1893-05-27

husband in the combat against disaster;
woman who by hard saving and
earnest prayer and good counsel,
wisely given, and many years de-
voted to rearing her family for God
and usefulness and Heaven, and who
has nothing to show for it but pre-
mature gray hairs and profusion of
deep wrinkles is like Christ, and
strength has gone out of her. That
strength or virtue may have gone out
through garment she has made for
the home; that strength may have gone
out through the sock that You knit for
thebarefoot destitute;that strength may
go out through the mantle hung up in
some closet after you are dead. So n
crippled child sat every morning on her
fathers front step so that when the
kind Christian teacher passed by to
school she might take hold OF her
dress and let the dress slide through
her pale fingers. She said it helped her
pain SO much and made her so happy
all the day. Aye, have we not in all
our dwelling garments Of the departed.
a touch of which thrills us through and
through, the life of those who are gone
thrilling through those who stay? But
mark you, the principle l evolve from
this subject. No addition Of health to
others unless there be II satisfaction of
health from ourselves. He felt that
strength had gone out Of Him.
Notice, also, in this subject Christ
sensitive to human touch. We talk
about God on vast scale so much we
hardly appreciate his accessibility. God
in magnitude rather than God in min
utiip: God in the infinite rather than
God in the ingnitesimal; but here in my
text we have God arrested by n suf-
fering touch When in III, sham trial
of Christ they struck him on the check
we can realize how that cheek tingled
with pain. When under the scourging
the rod struck the shoulders and back
of Christ. we can realize how he must
have writhed under the decorations.
But here there is n sick and nerveless
finger that just touches the long
threads of the fringe of his coat. and
he looks around and says: WHO
touched Me:
We talk about sensitive people. but
Christ was the impersonation of all
sensitivcness. The slightest stroke of
the smallest finger of human disability
makes all the nerves of His head and
heart and hand and feet vibrate. 1t is
not stolid Christ: not Il phlegmatic
Christ: not hard Christ, not an iron
cascd Christ. but an eXquisitcly sensi-
tive Christ that my text unveils. All
the things that touch us touch Him. If
by the hand of prayer we make the
connecting line between Him and our
selves complete.
You know that in telegraphy there
are two currents of electricity. So
when You put out your hand OF prayer
to Christ there are two currents--a cur
rent of sorrow rolling up from Your
heart to Christ. and Il current of COM
rolling from the heart OF
Christ to you. Two currents. Oh. why
do you go unhelped? Why do you go
about this and wondering
about that? Why do you not touch
Him?
Are you sick? do not think you are
any worse off than this invalid of the
text. Have you had long struggle?
l do not think it has been more than
twelve years. Is your case hopeless?
So was this of which my text is the di-
agnosis and prognosis. 'Oh," you say,
there are so many thing, between me
and God" There was whole mob be-
tween this invalid and Christ. She
pressed through, and guess you can
press through.
Is your trouble n home trouble?
Christ shows Himself especially sympa-
thetic with questions of domesticity,
rs when at the wedding in Cana he al
leviated houselseeper's predicament,
as when tears rushed forth at the brok-
en- home of Mary and Martha and Lag
arus. Men are sometimes ashamed to
weep. There are men who if the tears
start will conceal them. They think it
is unmanly to cry. They do not seem
to understand it is manliness and evil
dence of great heart. am afraid OF
n man who does not know how to cry.
The Christ of the text was not ashamed
to cry over human misfortune. Look at
that deep lake of tears opened by the
two words of the evangelist: Jesus
weptr
''Oh," says some one, "Christ don'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 overthrow, and there
are so many worse cases of trouble
than mine He doesn't care about me,
and His face is turned the other way"
So His back was turned to this invalid
of the text. He was on His way to eff
feet a cure which was famous and
popular and Understanding. But the
context says: "He turned Him about"
He whom all the allied armies OF hell
rob.