The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-04-23


ening crooked backs without any pane
OF surgery, and standing whole choirl
of music along the silent galleries of {
, deaf ear, and giving healthful nervous
= system to cataleptics! Sympathy! HI
did not give them stoical advice or phi
Josephine about the science of grief. HI
sat down and cried with them.
; 1t is spoken Of as the shortest verse
In the Bible, but q me it is about the
longest and grandest, "Jesus wept. y
All, many Of us know the meaning Of
thatl When we were in great trouble,
some one came in with voluble consola.
ton and quoted the Scripture in 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 it help
ed us right away. "Jesus wept." You
see, it was 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. will be to you botl
father and mother. My arm is strong
Girls, you can depend on me!''
Comfort of Tears.
But now Lazarus was sick-yea, Lag.
arus was dead. All broken up, the sis.
tiers 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 twas tSI-<as4sh
for him. He had been SO often and so
kindly entertained in that home before
sickness and death devastated it 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 help
ing? You say, 81 am a man of few
words" or 81 am woman Of few
words" Why, you dear soul, words are
not necessary. Initiate your Lord and
go to those afflicted homes and Cry with
them.
John Murphy Well, you did not
know him. Once, when was in great
bereavement, he came to my house.
Kind ministers of the gospel had come
and talked beautifully and prayed with
us and did all they could to console.
But John Murphy, one of the best friends
I ever had, big souled, glorious Irish
man, came in and looked into mx-face,
put out his broad, strong hand and SAID
not word, but sat down and cried with
us. am not enough of a philosopher to
say how it was or why it was, but some
how from door to door and from floor
to ceiling the room was filled with an
all pervading comfort. "Jesus wept."
I think that is what makes Christ
such a popular Christ. There are SO
many who want sympathy. Miss Fiske,
the famous HISTORIAN missionary, was
in the chapel one day talking to the
heather, and she was in very poor health
and so weak she sat upon a mat while
she talked and felt the need of some
thing to lean against, when she felt
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 y..oIaa,l's
voice said, LEAN hard; if you love NE
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; if you love me, lean hard.
Aye, he is close by with his sympathet- |
ic help. Hedley Wears, the famous SOL
der and Christian Of the Crimean war,
died because when he was wounded his |
regiment was too far off from the tent |
of supplies. He was not MORALLY wound |
ed, and if the surgeons could only have |
got at the bandages and the medicines
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 medi-
cines ready, and has eternal life for all
who ask for it, Sympathy ~
Sublime Self Sacrifice.
Aye, he was lovely in his doctrines.
Self sacrifice or the relief of the suffer-
ing of others by our own suffering. He
was the only physician that ever pro-
posed to cure his patients by taking their
disorders. Self sacrificed And what did
he not give up for others? The best eli
mate in the universe, the air of heaven,
for the wintry weather of Palestine, a
scepter of unlimited dominion for a
prisoners box in an earthly courtroom,
a flashing tiara for crown of singing
brambles, a palace for a cattle pen, a
throne for cross. Self sacrifice! What
is more lovely? Mothers dying for their
children down with scarlet fever, rail-
road engineers going down through
the open drawbridge to save the train,
firemen scorched to death trying to help
some one down the ladder from the
fourth story of the consuming house
ALI these put together only faiSs TfSd
SMILES by which to illustrate
the grander, mightier, farther reaching
self sacrifice of the altogether lovely"
Do you wonder that the story Of his
self sacrifice has led hundreds of thou
sands to die for him? In one series of
prosecutions over 200, 900 were put to
Heath for Christ's sake For him Blan-
lima was tied to post and wild beasts
we're let out upon her, and when life
continued after the attack of tooth and ]