Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-05-12


things. Did He build them? If He did, He
is God. If He did not. He Is an impostor.
A man comes into your place OF business
with Jewish countenance and German
accent and says ~ am Rothschildi the
banker. of London. 1 have the wealth OF
Nations in my pocket. I loaned that largo
amount to Italy and Austria in their perplex-
ity." But after while you find that ne mas
never loaned any money to Italy or Austria
that he never had q large estate enat ne Is
no banker at all that He owns nothing.
What is he? An impostor. Christ says he
owns the cattle on thousand bills he owns
this world He owns the next worldI He
owns the universe. He is the banker OF all
Nations. Is He? If He is, He is God. is
he not? Then He is an impostGr.
A man enters the White House at Washlne
ton. He saws ~ am Emperor William, OF
,Germsnv T am travelling incognito. have
come over here for recreation and pleasure.
I own castles in Dresden and Berlin: buC
4he president finds out the next day tnas no
ie NOT Emperor william that he owns no cas-
Ties at Berlin and Dresden; that he has no
authority. What is he? An 1mpostor. CHRIST
saws He is the king over all-the king lmmof-
tai. invisible. If He is, Heis GOO Ii he S
not, He is an impostor
Strauss saw that alternative, and ne tries
to Get out of it by saying that Christ was SIN
full in accepting alteration and wcrsnlp:
Renan tries to get out Of 1t by saying tnat
Christ-not through any fault OF HIS own,
mt through tae fault of others-lost HIS
purity OF conscience, and he slyly intimates
that dishonorable women had damaged His
soul. Anything but believe that Christ Is
God. Now you believe the Bible to be true.
If you do not, you would hardly have ap-
peared In this church. You would have gone
over and Joined the Broadway Intdel club,
or you would go to Boston and kiss the foot
of the statue of Thomas Paine. You would
hardly come into this church, where the most
of us are the deluded souls who believe in
whole Bible and take it all down as easily as
you swallow ripe strawberry. =,
have shown you what inspired men said
of Christ : have shown you what Christ SAID
Of Himself; now, if you believe the Bible, let
us go out and see His wonderful achieve
ments-surgical. alimentary, marine, mortu-
airy. Surgical achievements Where is the
medical journal that gives an account OF SUCH
exploits as Christ wrought? He used no
knife. He carried no splints. He employed
no compress. He made no patient squirm
under cauterization. He tied no artery. Yet
behold Him With word He struck fast
Malchus' amputated ear. He stirred little
dust and spittle into a salve and with ii
caused man who was born blind and with
out optic nerve or cornea or crystalline lens
to open his eyes on the sunlight. He beat
music on the drum of the deaf ear. He
Strengthened a woman who, through contrac-
ton OF muscle, had been bent almost double
for well nigh two decades. He made man
who had no use of his limbs for 3S years
shoulder his mattress and walk on.
Sir Ashley Cooper, Abcrnethy, Valentine
Mott. stood powerless before withered arm,
but this doctor of omnipotent surgery, comes
in and He sees the paralytic arm useless and
ifeless at the mans side, and Christ says TO
him, "Stretch forth thine hand, and ne
stretched it forth whole as the other de
was God.
Alimentary achievements He found lad
who had come out of the wilderness with five
loayes of bread for a speculation Perhaps
the lad had paid five pennies for the hve
loaves and expected to sell them for ten PEN
MES, and so he would double his money.
Christ took those loaves of bread and per-
formed e. miracle by which He fed 1000 fam
ishing people, and warrant you the lad lost
nothing, for there were twelve baskets OF
fragments taken up, and if the boy had five
,oayes at the start | warrant you he had at
least ten at the close.
The Sayiour's mother goes into neigh
borS house to help get up wedding party.
By calculation she finds out that the amount
of wine is not sufficient for the guests. Sho
calls in Christ for help, and Christ, not bythe
slow decay of fermentation, but by word,
makes 100 gallons of pure wine.
Marine achievements He turns whole
school of fish into the net of men who were
mourning over their poor luck, until the boat
is so full they have to halloo to other boats,
and the other boats come up, and they are
laden to the waters edge with the game, so
that the sailors have to be cautious in gong
from larboard to starboard lest they upsettne
ship.
Then there comes squall down through
the mountain gorge, and Gennesaret. WIN
long locks of white foam, rises up to battle
II and the boat drops into trough and ships
a sea. and the loosened sails crack In the
tornado. and Christ rises from the back part
Of the boat and comes walking across the
staggering ship until He comes to the PROV,
and there He wipes the spray from HIS brow
and bushes the crying storm on the knee OF
His omnipotence. Who wrestled down that
euroclydon2 Whose feet trampled the rougn
Galilee into a smooth floor?
Let philosophers and anatom1sts 80 ~
Westminster Abbey and try to wake ny
Queen Elizabeth or Henry VIII. No hu'
mar power ever Weakened the dead. There
is a dead girl in Capernaum. What does
Christ do2 Alas that she should have died 90
Young and the world so fair! Only twelve
wears of age. Feel her cold brow and colo
hands. Dead dead The house is full o.
weeping. Christ comes, and He takes hold
OF the hand of the dead girl, and instantly
her eyes open, her heart starts. The whltt
lily OF death bushes into the rose of life anC
health. She rushes into the arms OF he
rejoicing kindred. Who wokeup that death
Who restored her to life? A man? Tel
that to the lunatics in Bloomingdale asylum.
1t was Christ the God.
But there comes test which more than
anything else will show whether He was God
or man. You remember that great passage
which says, "We m st all appear before the
Judgment seat of Christ" The earth will be
stunned by blow that will make it stagger
in midheaven the stars will circle like dry
leaves in an equinox the earth will unrou
the bodies, and the sky will unroI the spirits,
and soul and flesh will come into 1ncorruptl-
BILE conjunction. Day of smoke and fire and
darkness and triumph. On one side, piled
up in galleries of light, the one hundred ana
forty and four thOusand-yea, the qulntll-
lions-of the saved. On the other side, piled
up in galleries of darkness, the frowning, the
glaring multitude of those who rejected God.
Between these two piled up galleries a
throne, high throne, throne standing on
two FURNISHED pilIars-justice, mercy--a
throne so bright you had better hide your
eye lest it be extinguished with excess OF
vision But it is an empty throne. Who WILL
come up and take it2 Will you?
VAh, nor you say II am but child OF
dust. would not dare to climb that throne.
Would Gabriel climb it2 He dare not. Who
will ascend it? Here comes one. His back is
to US. He goes up step above step, height
above height until He reaches the apex. Then
He turns around and faces all the Nations,