The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-04-23


haps the little ones may have been
playing in the dirt, and their faces
may not have been clean, or they may
not have been well clad. or the disci-
pies may have thought Christ's religion
was a religion chiefly for big folks
But Christ made the infantile excite
menJ still 1ivelier by his saying that
he liked children better than grown
people, declaring, Except ye become
as little child We can not enter into
the kingdom of Cod Alasl for those
people who do not like children They
had better stay out of heaven, for the
place is full of them. That, I think,
is one reason why the vast majority
of the human race die in infancy.
Christ is so fond of children that he
takes them to himself before the world
has time to despoil and harden them,
and so they are now at the windows
of the palace, and on the doorsteps,
and playing on the green Sometimes
Matthew, or Mark. or Luke tells a
story of Christ, and only one tells it,
but Matthew, Mark and Luke all join
in hat picture of Christ girdled by
children. and / know by what occurred
at that time that Christ had face full
of genia1ity.
Not only was Christ altogether love-
ly in his countenance, but lovely in his
habits- / know, without being told,
that the Lord who made the rivers.
and lakes, and oceans, was Clearly in
his appearance. He disliked the disease
of 1eprosy, not only because it was
distressing, but because it was not
clean, and his curative words were, II
will be thou clean.'' He declared him
self in favor of thorough washing. and
opposed to superficial washing, when
he denounced the hypocrites for MAX
ing clean only 1.-The outside of the plat
ter and he applauds his disciples by
saying. Now are We clean, y and giving
directions to those who tasted, among
other things he says, Wash thy face;"
and to blind man whom he was
doctoring, go wash in the pool of
Sloan" And he himself actually
washed the disciples feet. / suppose
not only to demonstrate his own
humility, but probably their feet
needed to be washed. The fact is, the
Lord was great friend of water. 1
know that from the fact that most of
the world is water. But when l find
Christ in such constant commendation
of water, l know he was personally
neat, although he mingled much among
very rough populations, and took such
long journeys on dusty highways He
wore his hair long, according to the
custom of his land and time, but
neither trouble nor old age had thinned
or injured his locks, which were never
worn shaggy or unkempt. Yea, all his
habits of personal appearance were
lovely.
Sobriety was also esta blished
habit of his life In addition to the
water he drank the juice of the grape.
When at a wedding party this bever-
age gave out, he made gallons on gall
Ions of grape juice, but it was as un-
| like what the world makes in our time
as health is different from disease, and
as calm pulses are different from the
paroxysms of delirium tremens. There
was no strychnine in that beverage,
or lOgwood, or nux vomica~ The tip
piers and the sots who now quote the
wine-making in Cana of Galilee as an
excuse for the fiery and damning bev-
erages of the nineteenth century for
get that the wine at the New Testa-
ment wedding had two characteristics.
the one that the Lord made it, and the
other that it was made out of water.
Buy all you can of that kind and
drink it at least three times day, and
send a barrel of it around to my Gel
lar. You can not make believe
that the blessed Christ who went up
and down healing the sick, would create
for man that style of drink which is
|. the cause of disease more than all
other causes combined; or that he who
Gained the maniacs into their right
mind, would create that style of drink
which does more than anything else to
fill insane asylums; or that he who
was so helpful to the poor, would
make style of drink that crowds the
earth with pauperism; that he who
came to save the nations from sin,
would create a liquor that is the
source of most of the crime that now
stuffs the peniten tiaries- A lovely
sobriety was written all over his face,
from the hair-line of the forehead to
the bottom of the bearded chin.
Domesticity was also his habit
Though too poor to have a home of his
own, he went out to spend the night at
Bethany, two or three miles walk
from Jerusalem, and over rough and
hil1y road that made it equal to six or
seven ordinary miles, every morning
and night going to and fro. / would
rather walk from here to Central park,
or walk from Edinburgh to Arthur's
Seat, or in London clear around Hyde
Park, than to walk that road that
Christ walked twice a day from Jeru-
salem to Bethany But he liked the
quietude of home life, and he was
lovely in his domesticity
How he enjoyed handing over the
resurrected boy to his mother, and the
resurrected girl to her father, and re-
constructing homesteads which disease
or death was breaking up AS the song.
Home Sweet Home was written by
a man who at that time had no home,
SO | think the homelessness of Christ