The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-04-25

throne fora cross Self-sacrifce! What
is more lovely? Mothers dying for their
children down with scarlet fever, rail-
road engineers going down through the
open draw-bridge to save the train, fire
men scorched 10 death trying TO help
some one down the ladder from the
fourth story of the consuming house, all
these put together only faint and INSULT
cient SMILES by which TO illustrate the
grander. mightier, farther reaching self
Inspiration of Heroisms.
Do you wonder that the story of His
self-sacrifce has led hundreds cf thou
sands to die for Him? In one series of
prosecutions over two hundred thou
sand were put to death for Christ's
sake. For Him Blandina was tied to a
post, and wild beasts were let out upon
her, and when life continued after the
attack of tooth and paw she was put in
a net, and that net containing her was
thrown to a wild bull that tossed her
with its horns till life was extinct. All
for Christ. Huguenots dying for Christ.
Albigenses dying for Christ! The Vau-
dois dying for Christ! Smithfield fires
endured for Christ. The bones of mar
tyrs, If distributed. would make a path
of mOldering life all around the earth.
The loVeliness of the Savior's sacrifice
has inspired all the heroisms and all the
martyrdoms of subsequent centuries.
Christ has had more men and WON
en- die for Him than all the other inhabi-
tants of all the ages have had die for
them.
Furthermore. he was lovely in His
sermons. He knew when to begin, when
TO stop and just what to say The
longest sermon he ever preached, so fan
as the bible reports Him-namely, the
sermon on the mount, was about six
49,
rate Of speech His longest prayer re-
ported, commonly called 1.-The Lords
Prayer" was about half a minute. Time
them by your watch, and you will find
my estimate accurate, by which / 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 COM
preston that He could put enough into
His sixteen-minute sermon and His half
minute prayer TO keep all the following
ages busy in thought and action. No
one but a Christ could afford TO pray
or preach as short as that, but He meant
to teach us compression.
At Selma, Ala, the other day / was
SHOWN cotton press by which cotton
was put in such shape that il occupied
in transportation only one car where
three ears were formerly necessary. and
one ship where three ships had been re-
quired. and l imagine that we all need to
compress our sermons and our prayers
into smaller spaces.
Power of the Gospel
And his sermons were so lovely for
| sentiment and practically and sim
plicity and illustration, the light of
candle. the srystal of the salt. the cluck
of hen for her chickens, the hypocrites'
dolOrous physiognomy, the moth in the
lr1r. oil
| raven, the snOwbank of white lilies. our
| extreme bOtheration about the splinter
| OF imperfectiOn in some one else's char
| acter, the swine fed on the pearls,
wolves dramatizing sheep and the
| perOration made up of cyclone in which
| you hear the crash of tumbling house
unwisely constructed. No technicalities,
| no splitting Of hairs between north and
| northwest side. no dogmaticS, but a
great Christly throb of helpfulness. do
| not wonder at the record which says,
When He was come down from the
| mountain. great multitudes followed
| him" They had but one fault TO find
| with his SermOn-it was too short. God
| help all Of us in Christian work TO get
| down off our stills and realize there is
| only one thing We have TO dO-there is
| the great wound of the worlds sin and
| sorrow, and here is the great healing
| plaster of the gospel. What you and |
| want to do it to put the plaster on the
wound. All sufficient is this gospel if
| it is only applied. a minister preaching
| to an audience of sailors concerning the
ruin by sin and the rescue by the gospel
| accommodated himself to sailors
| vernacular and said, This plank bears"
/ Many years after this preacher was
| called TO see a dying sailor and asked
him about his hope and got the sugges-
| tive reply, This plank bears"
! Yea, Christ was lovely in His chief life's
| work. There were a thousand things for
| Him to co, but His great work was to get
| our ShipWrecked world out of the breakers.
| That He came to do, and that He did. and
/ He did il in three years. He took thirty
| years to prepare for that three years ac-
| tiVity. From twelve to thirty years of age
/ we hear nothing about Him. That inter
/ vening eighteen years think He was in
| India. But He came back to Palestine
/ and crowded everything into three years
| three winters. three springs, three sum-
| mers, three autumns. Our life is short.
! but would God we might see how much
we could do in three years. Concentration
/ Intensification! Three years of kind words
Three years of living for othersi Three
| years of self-sacrifice! Let US try it.
| Aye, Christ was lovely In His demise.
/ He had right in that last hour to deal in
| anathematization. Never had any one been
so meanly treated. Cradle of straw among
| goats and camels-that was the world S
| reception of Him. Rocky cliff, with ham,
| nerves-that was the WORLDS farewell sal
| utatiOn. The slaughter Of that scene some
| times hides the loneliness of the sufferer.
| Under the saturation of tears and blood
| we sometimes fail to see the sweetest face
| of earth and heaven. Altogether lOVelyl
| Can coolest criticism find an unkind word
| He ever spoke. or an unkinG action that He
| ever performed. or an unkind thought that
| He ever harbOred?
| What a marvel il is that all the nations
| of earth do not raise up in raptures of af-
| lection for Hint i must say IL here and
| now. l lift my right hand in solemn attes-
| tatlon. L love Him, and the grief of my
life is that 1 do not love Him more Is il
an impertinence for me to ask do you, my
| hearer-you my reader, love Him2 Has
| He become a part of your nature? Have
| you committed your children on earth into
| HIS keeping as your children in heaven
| are already I'm His bosom? Has He done
| enough to win your confidence? Can you
| trust Him. living and dying and forever?
Is your back or your face toward Him
| Would you like to have His hand to guide
| you? His might to protect you? His grace
| TO comfort you? His sufterings to atone
| for yOu2 His arms to welcome you? His
| love to encircle you? His heaven to crown
| you?
The COnquerOr's Throne.
Oh. that we might all have something
| of the great German reformer's love fol-
this Christ. which led him to say: eff any
says: Who lives there?' my reply is: Jesus
| Christ lives here, not Martin Luther"
VIII il not be grand if when we get
| through this short and rugged road of life
! we can go right up into his presence and
live with Him world without end?
| And if, entering the gate of that heaven
| ~ city, we should be so overwhelmed with
| our unworthiness on the one side and the
| slDernal splendor on the other side we GET
| a little bewildered and should for a few
moments be lost on the streets of gold and
| amOng the FURNISHED temples and the