Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1894-05-09

l rather walk from here TO Central Park, OF
| walk from Edinburgh to Arthurs Seat, or In
| London clear around Hyde Park, than to
walk that road that Christ walked twice a
day from Jerusalem to Bethany. But He
| liked the Quietude of home life, and 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
| fine had no home, so I think the homeless
pess OF Christ added to His appreciation Of
| domesticity.
Furthermore, He was lovely In His sym
| pathies- Now, dropsy Is most dktressful
| complaint. 1t infiames and swells and tor
lures any limb or physical organ 1t touches.
As soon as a case OF that kind Is submitted
| to Christ, He, without any use of diaphor-
| etics, commands its cure. And 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
| fever5 without so much as a 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 healthful ner-
vous system to cataleptics Sympathy He
did not give them stoical advice or philoso-
| phizs about the science OF grief. He sat
down and cried for them.
1t Is spoken of rs the shortest verse In the
| Bible, but to me 1t Is about the longest and
grandest, Jesus wept." All, many of US
1 know the meaning of that When we were
, , in great trouble, some one came in with vol
uble consolation and quoted the Scripture IN
a sort OF heartless 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 flood of tears at the sight of
our woe, and somehow 1t helped US right
away. "Jesus wept" You see II 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. I will be to you both
father and mother. My arm Is strong. Girls,
you can depend on me- y
But now Lazarus was sick-yea, Lazarus
was dead. All broken up, the sisters sit
disconsolate, and there is knock at the
door. 'Come in" says Martha. Come
In, says Mary. Christ entered, and He Just
broke down. 1t was too much TOR Him. He
had been 50 often and so kindly entertained
in that home before sickness and death dev-
Rstated 1t 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, "I am a man of few
words, or 81 am woman OF few words
Why, your dear soul. words arc not neces-
sary. Initiate your Lord and go to those al
John Murphy! Well, you did not know
him. Once, when 1 was In great bereave-
ment, he came TO my house. Kind ministers
Of the gospel had como and talked beaur-
fully and prayed with US and did all they
could to console. But John Murphy, one of
the best friends l ever had, a big soulei,
glorious Irtshman, came in and looked into
my face, put out his broad, strong hanl AMI
said not a word, but sat down and cried with
US am not enough of philosopher to say
how IT was or why It was, but somehow from
door to door and from floor to ceiling tho
room was filed with an all pervadlng COM
tort- Jesus wept."
think that is Whist makes Christ such n
popular Christ. There are so many vino
want sympathy. Miss Fiske, the fGmoIs
HISTORIAN missionary, was in the chlpol Oas
day talking to the heather, and she was in
very poor health and so weak she sat upon
mat while she talked and felt the need OF
something to lean against, when she felt a
woman's form at her back and heard a
woman's voice saying, LEAN on me-" She
leaned little, but did not want to be too
cumbersome, when the womsn's voice said,
"Lean hard II you love me, lean hard"
And that makes Christ so lovely. He
wants all the sick and troubled and weary to
lean against Him. and He says, Lean hard
II you love Me, lean hard" Aye, He Is
close by with His sympathetic help. HOd-
ley Wears, the famous soldier and Christian
was wounded his regiment was too far off
from the tent Of supplies. He was not NOR
tally wounded, and If the surgeons could
only have got at the bandages and the medi-
cines he would have recovered: So much
of human sympathy and hopefulness 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 who ask
for it. Sympathy @ss
Aye, He was lovely in His doctrines. Self
others by our own suffering. He was the only
physician that ever proposed 10 cure His pa
tients by taking their disorders. Self sacri-
fee! And what did He not give up for
others The best climate IN 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, a palace for a cattle pen, a throne
for a cross. Self sacrilcei What is more
lovely? Mothers dying for their children
down with scarlet fever, railroad engineers
going down through the open drawbridge to
save the train, hremen scorched to death
trying to help some one down the ladder
from the fourth story of the consumn:
house. All these put together only faint and
insufficient SMILES by which to illustrate the
grander, mightier, farther reaching self sac
Vifice of the "altOgetner lovely"
Do you wonder that the story of His self
sacrifice has led 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 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 lie vas es-
tinct. All for Christ HuyuenOts dying For
Christ Albigenses dying for Christ. The
Vaudots dying for Christ Smithfeld fires
endured for Christ The bones of martyrs.
II distributed, would make path OF moller-
ing life all around the earth. The loveiness
of the Saviour's sacrifice has inspired all tho
heroisms and all the martyrdoms of suh--
quent centuries. Christ has had more M z
and women die for Him than all the other in
habitants OF all the ages have had die for
.hnm.
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, so 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 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 he only
sixteen minutes long and prayers only half
n minute long. Christ had such infinite
power of compression that He could put
enough iIitO His sixteen minute sermon and
HIS half minute prayer TO keep all the fol-
lowing ages busy in thought and action. No
one but "~-'"- could AFFORD to pray or
preach as short as that, but He meant to
teacN US compression.
At 1elma, Ala, the other day was shown |
/ cotton press by which cotton was put In |
such shape that IL occupied in transporter |
ion only one car where three cars we're for |
merry 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 80 lovely for senti- |
nent and practically and simplicity and il
ustratiou. The light of candle, the crystal |
u the salt, the cluck of hen for her chick