Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-05-04


day from Jerusalem to Bethany. But He
liked the quietude of homo life, AMI He was
lovely in His domesticity.
How He enjoyed handing over the resur-
rected girl to her father, and reconstructing
homesteads which disease or death was
breaking up! As the song, 'HOme, Sweet
Home" was written by man WHO at that
time had no home, so think the homeless
ness OF Christ added to His appreciation OF
domesticity.
Furthermore. He was lovely in His sym
pathte5. Now, drOpsy is a most diStressful
complaint. 1t infames and swells and tor
lures any limb or physical organ 1t touches.
AS soon as case of that kind is submitted
to Christ, He, without any use OF diaphor-
etics, commands its cure. AMI what an eye
doctor He was for opening the long closed
gates Of sight to the blue of the sky, and the
yellow OF the flower and the emerald OF the
grass What a Christ He was for cooling
fevers without SO much as q spoonful OF
febrifuge, and strengthening crooked backs
without any pang Of surgery, and standing
whole chOirs Of music along the silent gal
leries Of a deaf ear, and giving healthfui nor
vOus system to catalGpticS Sympathy! He
did not give them stOical advice or philoso-
phiZe about the science OF grief. He sat
down and cried for them.
1t is spoken of as the shortest verse in the
Bible, but to me 1t is about the longest AMI
grandest, Jesus wept." All many OF US
q
In great trouble, some one came in with vol
uble consolation and quoted the Scripture in
sort of he4rtleS5 way and did not help Us
at all. But after awhile some one else came
in, and without saying word sat down and
burst into food of tears at the sight OF
our woe, and somehow it helped us right
away. ''Jesus wept." You see. it was a
deeply attached household, that of Mary and
Martha and Lazarus. The father and mother
were dead, and the girls depended on their
brother. Lazarus had said to them: "Now,
Mary, now, Martha, stop your worrying. L
will take care of you. l will be to you both
father IN mother. My arm Is strong. Girls,
you can depend on mol
But now Lazarus WAS sick-yea, Lazarus
was dead. All broken up the sisters sit
dsconsolate, and there is a knock at the
door. "Come in" says Martha. Come
ln," says Mary. Christ entered, and He just
broke down. It was too much tor Him. He
had been 50 often and 50 kindly entertained
In that homo before sickness and death dew
astated it that He choked up and sobbed
aloud, and the tears trickled down the sad
face of the sympathetic Christ. ''Jesus
Wept." Why do you not try that mode OF
helping. You say, 81 am man of few
words, or 81 am woman OF few words.
Why, your dear soul. words are not n9ces-
sary. Initiate your Lord and go to those af-
f1icted homes and cry with them.
John Murphy! Well, you did not know
him. Once, when [ was in great b2reave-
ment, he came to my house. Kind ministers
of the gospel had come and talked b9auti-
fully nd prayed with u5 and did all they
could to console. But John Murphy, one OF
the best friends I ever had, a big soulo !,
glorious Irlshman, came in and looked into
my face, put out his broad, strong han an /
said not word, bat sat down AMI cried WITH
u.s. am not enough of q philosopher tosay
how it was or why it was, but somehow IRON
door to door and from floor to ceiling tho
room was filled with an all parvadinS com
fort. Jesus wept."
I think that is what makes Christ such o
popular Christ. There are SO many who
want sympathy. Miss Fiske, tho famous
HISTORIAN missionary, was In the chapel o13
day talking to the heather, aud she was in
very poor health and 50 weak she sat upon
mat while she talkel and felt the need OF
something to lean against, when she felt
woman's form at her back AMI heard
wOman'S voice saying, Lean on me-" she
leaned q little, but did not want to be too
cumbersome, when the woman'S voice sail,
Lean hard if you love me, lean hard"
And that makes Christ 50 lovely. H9
wants all the sick and troubled AMI weary to
lean against Him. and H says, Lean hard;
If YOU love Me, lean hard" Aye, He is
close by with His sympathetic help. Hod-
ley Wears the famous soldier and Christian
OF the Crimean war. died because when he
was wounded his regiment was too far OIL
from the tent OF supplies. He was not NOR
tally WOu01el, anu IL INC SURGEONS COutkl
only have got at the bandaS9S and the N 7dt-
cines he would have recovered. SO mucn
OF human sympathy and hopafulne5s comes
too late. But Christ is always close by if
we want Him, and has all the medicines
ready, and has eternal life for all VINO ask
for it. Sympathy
Aye, He was lovely in His doctrines. Self
sacrifice or the relief of the suffering OF
others by our own suffering. He was the only
physician that ever proposed to euro His pa
tients by taking their disorders. Self sacri-
feel And what did He not give up for
others The best climate ill the universe.
the air of heaven, for the wintry weather OF
Palestine, a scepter of unlimited dominion
for prisoners box in an earthly courtroom,
q flashing tiara for a crown of singing
brambles, palace for cattle pen, throne
for cross. Self sacrifice! WHAT Is moro
lovely? Mothers dying for their children
down with scarlet fever. railroad engineers
going down through the open drlWoridge to
save the train, iiremen ScOrch9d to death
trying to help some one down the ladder
from the fourth story Of the consuming
house. All these put together only faint and
insufficient SMILES by which to illustrate the
grander mightier, farther reaching self sac.
ritice of the ''altOgether lovely"
Do you wonder that the story of His self
sacrifice has lei hundreds OF thousands to
die for Him? In one series OF prosecutions
over 200. 900 were put to death for Christ's
sake. For Him Blandina was tied to post
and wild beasts were let out upon her, AMI
when life continued after the attack ftOOth
and paw she was put in Il net, and that net
containing her was thrown to a wild bull
that tossed her with its horns till life was ex-
tinct. All for Christ Huguenots dying for
Christ AlbigenSeS dying for Christ The
NaudOis dying for Christ! Smithheld fires
endured for Christ. The bones OF martyrs
if distributed, would make path Of molder-
ing life all around the earth The loneliness
of thn GoIyi m a
heroisms and all the martyrdOms of subse-
Quent centuries. Christ has had moro men
and women die for Him than all the other in-
habitants of all the ages have had die for
them.
Furthermore. He was lovely in His SER
mons. He knew when to begin, when to
stop and Just what to say. The longest SER
mon He ever preached, 50 far as the Bible
reports Him-namely. the sermon on the
mount was about sixteen minutes in delivery
at the ordinary rate OF speech His long
est prayer reported. commonly called ''The
Lords Prayer" was about half Il minute.
Time them by your watch, and you will find
my estimate accurate. by which l do not
mean to say that sermons ought to be only
sixteen minutes long and PRAYERS only half
a minute long. Christ had such infinite
power Of compression {hat He could put
enough into His sixteen minute sermon and
His half minute prayer to keep all the fol-
lowing ages busy in thought ana action. No
one but n Christ could afford to pray or
preach short rs that, but He meant to
teach US compression.
At Selma, Ala, the other day was shown
a cotton press by which cotton was put in
such shape that it occupied in transporta-
ton only one ear where three ears were for
merly necessary, and one ship were three
ships had been required, and [ imagine that
we all need to compress our sermons and our
prayers into smaller spaces.
And His sermons were so lovely for senti-
ment and practicality and simplicity and il
tustration. The light of q candle, the crystal
OF the salt, the clucs of a hen for her chick
ems, the hypocrite's dolorous physiognomy.
the moth in the clothes closet, the black
wing of a raven, the snowOank of white
lilies, our extreme botheration about tho
splinter of imperfection in some one else's
character, the swine fed on the pearls,
wolves dramatizinS sheep, and the perora-