Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-04-28

go to q man or woman Of f~orbidding up
pearancc. But no sooner did Christ APP
pear in the domestic group than there
Was an infantilc excitement and the
youngsters began to struggle to get out
of their mothers arms. They could not
hold the children back. STAND back
with those childrenl' scolded some Of
the disciples. Perhaps the little les
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
disciples may have thought Chrisys re-
ligion was q religion chiefly for big
folks. But Christ made the ~infantile ex-
element still livelier by his saying that
he liked children better than grown peo-
pie, declaring, Except ye become as a
little child We cannot enter into the
kingdom of God"
Alas for those people who do mot like
children! They had better stay out OF
heaven, for the place is full of them.
That, l 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 win
dows of the palace and Gu the doorsteps
and playing OF the green. Sometimes
Matthew or Mark or Luke tells q story
Of Christ, and only one tells it, but
Matthew, Mark and Luke ell join in
that picture of Christ girdled by chill
dren, and / know by what occurred at
that time that Christ had a face full of
g~eniality.
Habits of Chri {.
Not only was Christ altogether lovely
in his countenance, but lovely in his
habits. l know, without being told, that
tho Lord who made the rivers and lakes
and oceans was clearly in his appear.
ance. He disliked the disease of leprosy
not only because it was distressing, but
becauseit was not clean, and his curative
words We're: 81 will. Be thou clean"
He declared himself in favor of thor
ough washing and opposed to superb
cial washing when he denounced the
hypocrites for making clean only "the
outside Of the platter, +" and he applauds
his disciples by saying, Nov are yc
clean" and giving directions to those
who tasted, among other things, he says,
"Wash thy face and to q blind man
whom he was doctoring, go, wash in
the pool of Sloan" and he himself
actually washed the disciples feet, l
suppose not only to demonstrate his
own humility, but probably their feet
needed to be washed.
The fact is, the Lord was a great
friend of water. / know that from the
fact that most of the world is water.
But when / find Christ in such constant
commentator of water / know he was
personally neat, although he mingled
much among very rough populations and
took such long journeys on dusty high
ways. 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 CT unkompt. Yea, all his
habits of personal appearance were
lovely.
Sobriety was also an established habit
of his life. LII addition to the water, he
drank tho juice Of the grape. When at
a wedding party this beverage gave out.
he made gallons on gallons of grape
juice, but it was as unlike what the
world makes III our time as health is
different from disease and as calm
pulses are different from the paroxysms
of delirium tronlons. There was no
strychnino in that beverage or lcgwood
or nux vomica. The tipplers and the
sots who now quote the winemaking in
Cana of Galilee as an excuse for the
fiery and damning beverages of h enine-
teenth century forget that the wine at
the Kew Testament wedding had two
charactcristics-the y 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 q barrel Of it round to my
cellar.
You cannot make me 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 moro 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 thah anything else 10 I'LL insane
asylums, or that he who was SO helpful
70 the poor Would makea style OF drink
that crowds the earth with pauperlsm,
or thai he WHO came TO save II nations
rom sln would create a liquor mat Is
the source OF most OF the crime that
no" SUMS n ehltentlarl a lovely
soprlety was written an over ms race
rom Ihe halr llho OF the ioreheao 10 the
POTION OF the bearded chlh'
Christ the Physician.
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 a rough and hilly
road that made it equal to six or seven
ordinary miles, every morning and night
going to and fro. / would rather walk
trcm here to Central park, or walk from