The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1894-06-07


reaching self-sacriHce Of the alto
gether Lovely"
Doyou wonder that the story Of His
sacrifice has led hundreds of thous-
ands to die for Him? In one ser
les of prosecutions over 200, 900 were
put to death for Ckrist's sake. For
Him Blandina was tied to n post and
wild beasts were let out upon her, end
when life continued after the attack 81
tooth and paw she was put in net and
that net containing aer was thrown 10
wild bull, that tossed her with its
horns till life was extinct All for
Christ! Hugueaots dying for Christi
"Albigenses dying for Christi Smith.
field fires endured for Christi The
bones of martyrs II disturbed, would
make n path of moldering life all
around the earth. The loneliness Of
the Saviour's sacrifice has inspired all
the heroisms and all the martyrdoms
of subsequent centuries Christ has
had more men and women die for Him
than all the other inha bitants Of all the
ages have had die for them.
Furthermore, He was lovely in his
sermons. 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, name.
ly, "The Sermon on the Mount" was
about sixteen minutes IN delivery, al
the ordinary rate of speech. His long
est prayer, commonly called the THE
Lords Prayer" was about half n min
ute. Time them by your own watch
and you will find my estimate accurate.
BY which l do not mean to say that
sermons ought to be only sixteen min.
utes long and prayers only half min
ute long. Q Christ had such infinite
power of compassion that he could put
enough into his sixteen-minute sermon
and his half-minute 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 com.
preston.
At Selma, Alabama, the other day
was shown a cotton press by which cot
ton was put in such shape that it oc-
cupied in transportation only one car,
where three cars were formerly neces-
sary; and one ship where three ships
had been required, and imagine that
we all need to compress our sermons
and our prayers into smaller spaces.
And His sermons were so lovely and SO
full Of practically, and simplicity,
and illustration; the light of candle,
the crystal of the salt; the cluck
of a hen for her chickens; the
hypocrite's dolorous physiognomy;
the moth in the clothes-h house;
the black wing of the raven; the
snow-bank of white lilies; our extreme
botheration about the splinter of i'm
perfection in some one clse's character;
the swine fed on the pearls; wolves
dramatizing sheep; and the pero-
ration made up OF cyclone in
which you hear the crash of tum-
bling house unwisely constructed.
No technicalities, no splitting of hairs,
between north and northwest side, no
dogmatics, but a great Christly throb
of helpfulness. do not 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 worlds sin and sorrow, and here
is the great healing plaster of the Cos.
pei What you and want to do is to
put the plaster on the wound. All suf'
fcient is this Gospel if it is only ap
piled A minister preaching to an au,
dience of sailors concerning the ruin
by sin and the rescue by the Gospel,
accommodated himself to sailors ver-
nacular and said: This plank bears"
Many years after this preacher was
called to see dying sailor, and asked
him about his hope, and got the sug-
gestive reply, This plank bears"