The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-03-05
FROM A FEW PULPITS
Rev. DIR. SimS'S Able Morning Ser
mon at Meridian-Street Church.
Rev. DR.. COultaS at Roberts Park-A
Young Jap Lectures on His In
teresting Country.

The services in the Meridian-street Church
yesterday morning were of an unusually in
terestins character. 1t was the largest
communion in many years. Seven persons
united with the church on profession of
faith and by letter. Rev. Dr. c. n. Sims.
the pastor, preached, his text being What,
could we not watch with me one hour?''
Matt. XVI. 40. He said in part:
We come again 10 the hour for cele-
brating the last supper of the Lord Jesus
with his disciples We call it the commun-
ION and the phrase Is peculiarly suggestive
ana accurately descriptive-holding sympa-
thetio communion with our departed
solemn AS Service preparation tt3ra for this this
your attention to the loneliness of
Jesus and His yearning for human SYM
pathy. Each of US is. by the conditions of
our nature a dweller In absolute solitude.
The thoughts, plans, temptations, motives
and feelings of the soul dwell in the spir-
own bitterness and a stranger intermed-
dleth not with its joy We can only be-
come acquainted with each other by the
possession or common nature with COM
mon Faculties, moved by common motives.
II we are perfectly alike, under similar con-
ditions, we would be identical, but we are
forever separated; and yet a longing for
human sympathy and human companionship
ture, and particularly does this faculty as
sert itself in times OF great sorrow or great
joy.
There is physical separation from COM
partnership which produces absolute soil
tude, but there Is a physical companion
ship with mental isolation, that is certainly
not less intense and painful. The feeling of
loneliness is, perhaps, never more intense
than when we dwell in the presence of our
kind with no feelings, thoughts or purposes
In common. Ii was the experience Of Jesus
to live among men and yet to cherish plans
and have experiences to which they were
utterly strangers, because He was the son
because q IL nd M
to save us. He was peculiarly susceptible
to social influences and TO the hunger for
human sympathy. All through His life are
indications of the depth and fullness of His
love for human beings. Weary with the
tolls OF the day, His disciples would have
protected Him from the intrusion of the
mothers who came with their children for
His benediction but He said: Forbid them
not and took them in His arms and blessed
them He knew childhood and loved it
tenderly. He set little child in the midst
OF them and said. Except We become as
little child We cannot enter the kingdom of
heaven With His great heart full Of His
mission, He stopped to talk with the Sa-
marian woman at the well concerning her
own past life and the nature of the kingdom
He had come to establish
1.-THE flowers and birds were texts for
glorious sermons. He could find something
good I'm the publicanS and sinners VINO
forever thronged His footsteps. He fire.
quented the homes of the rich and sat at
their feasts whenever invited. He recog-
niZed love and gratitude He pitied the
blind beggar and the childless widow He
wept at the open grave of Lazarus He
lamented for humanity in the approaching
destruction of Jerusalem. Re thought of his
mother as He hung upon the cross His
last conversation with the disciples was
full of ineXpressible tenderness. Who that
did not love His kind could have washed
the feet OF His disciples? And yet His life
was so apart from those about Him that
the gulf which separated them seemed i'm
in the caution of which the evangelist
speaks when He says, He did not commit
. mi ny M 10 hat
was in man. Again and again IL is record
ed of His disciples that they understood
not what things He spake unto them . . .
His actions revealed the loneliness of
His heart. He goes away i'm solitude to
pray. He is all night in the mountain
alone in prayer. On His way to Jerusalem
for the great sacrifice because His heart
was breaking for cOmpaniOnshp and men
had none to give Him. He turns aside to
the heavenly world for the sympathy which
earth denied Him. Moses and Elias come
TO spend the night with Him the trans
hguration mount. and He talks with them
about His decease that He is 70 accomplish
at Jerusalem. He tries to open the subject
to Peter. but only gets such an answer as
cOmpels Him TO say, get thou behind me
Satan What were His thoughts while the
multitudes who had scattered their gar
ments before them and waved their palm
branches and shouted their hOsannas
turned next day to cry cruelty Him? He
found the disciples cOntending about the
first places in an earthly kingdom. even as
they sat down 70 the last sad supper Out
from this chamber went one of his number
TO betray Him. He tried TO tell them of the
coming conflict and prepare them for it,
when Peter, bringing two old swords said.
Master, here are two swords Can you in
terpret His words Of reply? Tt is enough
Look into their hearts and then into His
heart as He speaks, L have many things to
say unto you, but we cannot bear them
now
''TIe begged for their companionship in
Gethsemane but they all fell asleep in that
last doleful night. They all forsOOk Him
and fed Look upon Him, His hands bound,
an old purple robe thrown around Him in
mOckery of His claim to royalty, the crown
of thOrns pressed on His bleeding brow, a
reed thrust in His bound hands foN-a scep-
ter and a jeering multitude haunting Him
in His misery. one only scene remains
the darkness and agony of the crucifXiOn.
The very presence of God seems to be lost
to His consciousness and He cries out MY
God my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
I'VE did not esteem Him stricken Smitten
of God and afflicted, but He was wounded
for our transgressions and bruised for our
niduities O, Lamb of God. was ever pain
or was ever love like thine?'
There Will be services each night this
week at the church.