The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-23

pathy and hopefulness comes too late; but
Christ is always close by if we want him,
and has all the medicine ready, and
has eternal life for all who ask for II.
Sympathy,
Ave. he was lovely in his doctrines.
Self-sacriice, or the relief OF the suner-
ing. He was the only physician that ever
proposed TO cure his patients by taking
their disorders. Self-sacrifce 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; sceptre of unlimited domin-
ion for prisoners box in an earthly court
room; a flashing tiara for crown Of
singing brambles; a palace for cattle
pen a throne for a cross. Self-Sacrlhce!
What is more lovely! Mothers dying for
their children down with the scarlet
fever; railroad engineers going down
through the open draw bridge 10 save the
train: firemen scorched to death trying
TO help some one down the ladder from
the fourth story of the consuming house;
7 all these put together only faint and in
sufficient SMILES by which to illustrate
the grauder, mightier, farther-reaching
/ self-sacrifce OF the Altogether Lovely"
Do you wonder that the story of his
/ selfsacrifice has led hundreds of thou
sands to die for him. In one series of
/ prosecutions over 200 600 were put to
death for Christ's sake. For him Blan-
dina was tied 10 a post and wild beasts
were led out upon her, and when life con-
tinued after the attack of tooth and paw,
she was put in a net, and that net contain
ing her was thrown to wild bull. that
tossed her with its horns till life was ex-
tinct. All for Christ! Huguenots dying
for Christ! Augenses dying for Christ!
The Vaudois dying for Christ! Smith
field fires endured for Christ! The bones
of martyrs, if distributed, would make a
path of Wondering life all around the
earth. The loveliness of the Saviour's
sacrifice has inspired all the heroisms, and
y all the martyrdoms of subsequent centur-
| rles. Christ has had more men and
women die for him than all the other in
habitants of all the ages have had die
| for them.
| Furthermore, he was lovely in his SER
| mons. He knew when to begin, when to
| stop, and just what to say. The longest
| sermon he ever preached, so far as the BIZ
! bic reports him, namely the Sermon on
| the Mount, was about sixteen minutes in
/ delivery, at the ordinary rate of speech.
! His longest PRAYER reported, commonly
! called ''The Lords Prayer" was about
| a half minute. Time them by your own
watch, and you will find my estimate &C
| curate. BY which 40 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 compression that he could put
| enough into his slXteen-minute sermon,
| and his halfminute prayer, to keep all
the following ages busy in thought and
action. No one but 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 a cotton press by which cotton
was put in such shape that it occupied in
| transportation only one car, where three
cars were formerly necessary; and one
ship where three ships had been required,
and l imagine that we all need TO COM
| press ourselves ana our prayers into small
er spaces.
And his sermons were so lovely for sent
iment and practically, and simplicity,
and illustration; the light of a candle,
the crystal of the salt; the cluck of hen
| for her chickens; the hypocrites dolor-
| Gus physiOgnomY; the moth in the
| clothes-closet; the black wing of raven :;
! the snOw-bank of white lilies our ex-
| IRENE botheraJiOn about the splinter of
| imperfection in some one else's character;
the swine fed on the pearls; wolves
| dramatizing sheep; and the peoration
made up of a cyclone in which you hear
the crash'sof tumbling house I'M
wisely constructed. No technicalities !;
no splitting of hairs between north and
northwest side; no dogmatics; but a great
/ AlIlobAy IHIOO VI uClpluluGoS. L 10 uOb
! 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 world sin and sorrow. and here is
| the great healing plaster of the gospel
! What you and | want to do is to put the
| plaster on the wound. All-suff1cient is
this gospel if it is only applied A minis
! ter 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
suggestive reply: This plank bears"
Yea, Christ was lovely in his chief life's
work. There were a thousand things
for him TO do, 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 it in three years
He took thirty years to prepare for that
three years activity. From twelve to
| thirty years of age we hear nothing about
| him. That intervening eighteen years
think he was in India. But he came back
to Palestine and crowded everything into
Jnfee years. Infee winters, Jnre6 springs,
three summers, three autumns Our life
is short, but would God we might see how
much we could do in three years. Con-
centrationl Intensification Three years
of kind words! Three years of living for
others! Three years of self-sacri6ce
Let US try it,
Aye Christ was lovely in his demise.
He had a right that last hour to deal in
INSTRUMENTATION. Never had any one been
so meanly treated. Cradle of straw among
goats and camels-that was the worlds
reception of himl Rocky cliff, with ham
mers pounding spikes through tortured
nerves-that was the worlds farewell
salutation The slaughter of that scene
sometimes hides the rloveliness of the
sufferer. Under the saturation of tears
and blood we sometimes fail to see the
sweetest face on earth and heaven Al
together lovely Can coolest criticism
find an unkind word he ever spoke; or an
unkind action that he ever performed or
an unklnd thought that he ever harbored2
What marvel it is that all the nations of
4 earth do not rise up in raptures of affection
for him | must say it here and now
lift my right hand in solemn atteStation.
| love him and the grief of my life is that
] do not love him more. Is it an imperti-
hence for me TO ask, do you, my hearer-
you, my reader, love him. Has he be-
come part of your naturel Have YOU
committed your children on earth into