Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1894-04-26

him He had been 50 often and 50 kindly
IN that home before sickness
and death devastated It that he ohoked up
and sobbed aloud. and the tears trickled
down the nd face Of tho sympathetic /
Christ. Jesus wapt." Why do you not
Try that mode Of helplngf You say, "I am
q man Of few words, " or ''I am woman
Of few words" Why, you dear soul, words |
are not necessary. Initiate your Lord and /
no 70 those afflicted homes and cry with |
them
True Sympathy.
John Murphyi Well you did not know |
kim Once when was In great bereave-
ment he came TO my house. Kind minis |
ters Of the gospel had come, and talked |
and prayed with us, and did
all they could to console. But John Muir
ply, one of the best friends ever had, q
big souled, glorious Irishman, came in and
looked into my face, put out his broad,
strong hand and said not q word, but sat
down and cried with u.s. lam not enough
Of a philosopher t0say how ID was or why it
was, but somehow from door to door and
from floor to ceiling the room was filed
with an all pezvading comfort. Jesus
wept."
think shat Is what makes Christ such
o popular Christ. There arc so many who
want sympathy. Miss Fiske, the famous
HISTORIAN missionary, was In the chapel
one day talking to the heathen, 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 woman's form at her back and
heard q woman's voice saying, Lean on
me-" She leaned little, but did not want
to be too cumbersome, when the woman's
voice said: "Lean hard If 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. IF you love me, lean hard. Aye, he
Is close by with his sympathetic help. He'd
ley Wears, the famous soldier and Chris
tian Of the Crimean war, died because
when he was wounded his regiment was
too far of from the tent of supplies He
was not mortally wounded, and If the sur
geons could only have got at the bandages
and the medicines he would have recov-
cred. 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
Aye, he was lovely in his doctrines. Self
sacrifice or the relief of the suffering of
others by our own suffering. He was the
only physician that ever proposed to cure
his patients by taking their disorders. Self
sacrificed And what did he not give up for
others2 The best climate in the universe,
the air Of heaven, for the wintry weather
Of Palestine, scepter Of unlimited do
minion for prisoners box in an earthly
courtroom, flashing tiara for crown Of
stinging brambles, palace for a cattle
pen, throne for a cross. Self sacrifice!
What is more lovelyf Mothers dying for
their children down with scarlet fever,
| railroad engineers going down through the
open drawbridge to save the train, flremen
scorched to death trying to help some one
down the ladder from the fourth story of
| the consuming house, all these put together
only faint and insufficient similes by which
to illustrate the grander, mightier, farther
reaching self sacrifice of the altogether
lovely"
Inspiration of Heroisms.
| Do you wonder that the story of his self
sacrifice has led hundreds of thousands to
die for himf In one series of prosecutions
over 200, 600 were put to death for Christ's
sake. For him Blandina was tied to 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 o
wild bull that tossed her with its horns
till life was extinct. All for Christi HUI
guenots dying for Christi Albigenses dy-
| ing for Christi The Vaudois dying for
| Christi Smithfeld fires endured for Christi
The bones of martyrs If distributed, would
make path of moldering life all around
the earth. The loveliness of the Saviour s
sacrifice, has inspired ell the heroisms and
all the martyrdoms of subsequent CEN
turies. 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
Bible reports him-namely, the sermon on
the mount, was about 16 minutes in de-
livery at the ordinary rate Of speech. His
longest prayer reported, commonly called
|
minute. Time them by your own watch, and
you will find my estimate accurate, by
which do not mean to say that sermons
ought to be only 16 minutes long and
prayers only a half minute long. Christ
had such infinite power Of compression
that he could put enough into his 16 min
ute sermon and his half minute prayer to
keep all the following ages busy in thought
and action. No one but Christ could af-
ford to pray or preach as short as that,
but he meant to teach us compression.
At Selma, Ala, the other day was
shown O cotton press by which cotton was
put In such shape that it occupied in trans
portation orly one car where three cars
were formerly necessary, and one ship
where three ships had been required, and
imagine that we ell need to compress oul
sermons and our prayers into smaller
spaces.
Power of the Gospel.
And his sermons were SO lovely for sen
timent and practicality and simplicity an6
illustration, the light Of candle, the crys
tai of tho salt, the cluck of hen for hel
chickens, the hypocrites' dolorous physi
ognomy, the moth in the clothes closet
the black wing of q raven, the snowbanl
of white lilies, our extreme botheratioI
about the splinter of imperfection in somt
one else's character, the swine fed on tht
pearls, wolves dramatizing sheep and thu
peroration made up Of cyclone in which
you hear tho crash of tumbling houst
unwisely constructed. No technicalities
no splitting of hairs between north ant
northwest side, no dogmatics, but grea
Christly throb of helpfulness. do no
wonder at the record which says, "WheI
he was come down from the mountain
great multitudes followed him." They hat
but one fault to find with his sermon-i
was too short. God help all Of us in Chris
tian work to get down off our stilts ant
realize there is only one thing we have t.
do-thereis the great wound of the world
sin and sorrow, and here is the great heal
ing plaster of the gospel What you and
want to do it to put the plaster on th