Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1894-04-28

ening crooked backs without any pang
of surgery, and standing whole choirs
of music along the sil,S.t galleries of IA
deaf ear, and giving hcalthful nervous
system to catatcptics. Sympathy! He
did not give th' III stoical advice or phi
Josephine about the science Of grief. lie
sat down and cried with them.
II is spoken of is the shortest verse
III the Bible. but To Inc il is about the
longest and grandest, Jesus wept" "
All, many of us know the meaning of
that! When we We're i'll great trouble,
some one came i'll with voluble coiisula
tion and quoted the Scripture i'll a sort
of heartless way and did not help us ut
all. But after awhile some one else came
in. and without saying a word sat down
and burst into flood of tears ut the
sight Of our woe, and somehow il help
ed US right away. Jesus wept. You
see, ii was deeply attached household,
| that of Mary and Martha and Lazarus.
The father and mother We're dead, and
the girls depended on their brother.
Lazarus had said To them: Now, Mary,
now, Martha, stop your worrying. will
take care of you. will bc to you both
father and mother. My arm is strong.
Girls, you can depend ON met
Comfort of Tears.
But now Lazarus was sick-yea, Laz-
arus was dead. All broken up, the sis
tiers sit disconsolate, and there is "A knock
at the door. Come i'll. says Martha.
Come i'll, says Mary. Christ entered.
4 IL
for him He had been so often and so
kindly entertained i'll that home before
sickness and death devastated il 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? Iou say. Il am man Of few
words, or Il am a 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 III 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
ever had, big souled, glorious Irish
man, came in and looked into my face,
put out his broad, strong hand and said
not word. but sat down and cried with
Us. am not enough of u philosopher to
say how il was or why il was, but some
how from door to door and from floor
To ceiling the room was filled with an
all pervading comfort. Jesus wcpt.
l think that is what makes Christ
such II popular Christ. There are So
many who want sympathy. Miss Fiske,
the famous HISTORIAN missionary, was
in the chapel one ia; 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 q
woman's form at her back and heard u
woman's voice saying. Lean on me. y
She leaned little, but did not want TO
be too cumbersome, when the woman )
voice said, Lean hard; if you love me.
lean hard" "
And that makes Christ So lovely. Hs
wants all the sick ami troubled and
weary to lean against him, and he says.
Lean hard; if you love me. lean hard "
Aye, ne is close by with his sympathet-
ic help Hedley Wears. the famous sol
dier 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 nortally wound
ed, and if the surgeons could only have
got at the bandagcs 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 m,-'ii
zines ready and has eternal life for all
who ask for it, Sympathy.
a Sublime Self Sacrifice.
Aye, ne was lovely III 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 takingstheir
disorders. Self sacrifice! 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, u
prisoner 5 box III an earthly courtroom,
IA flashing tiara for "a crown Of stinging
brambles, u palace for "A cattle pen, u
throne for a cross. Self SACRIFICED 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
All these put together only faint and
insufficient similes by which to illustrate
the grander, niightier, 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 We're put to
death for Christ's sake. For him Blan
dina was tied to u post and wild beasts
were let out upon her, and when life
continued after the attack Of tooth and
paw she was put III u net, and that net
containing her was thrown to wild
bull that tossed her with its horns till
life was extinct All for Christ! Hugue
nots dying for Christ. Albigenses dying
for Christ. The Vaudois dying for
Christ! Smithfield fires endured for
Christ! The bones of martyrs, il distrib
uted, would make "A path of moldcring
life all around the earth. The loyeliness
of the Saviours sacrifice has inspired
all the heroisms and all the martyr
doms of subsequent centuries. Christ
has had more men and women die for
him than all the other inhabitants Of all
the ages have had die for them.
Furthermore. he was lovely in his
sermons. lie knew when 10 begin, when
Ia stop and just what To say. The long
est sermon he ever preached, 50 far as
the Bible reports him-namely, the ser
mon ON the mount was about l6 min
utes i'll delivcry-at the ordinary rate of