Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1894-10-04
Lesson for Oct. Z.

him that speaketh Heb 12: 25.
This lesson, found in Luke 4: 1880,
tells If Jesus at Nazareth. Here is
Nazareth, fair Nazareth of the green
hill.slore. kind Nazareth that first
spread soft carpets for the feet of the
boy Jesus, unkini Nazareth that first,
when he had become a man and a
teacher, cast him out. He came to his
own and his own receivsd him not.
Here al @ the paths his youthful feet
trod, the high places from which his
youthful eyes looked, the fields of
flowers thr ough which his ardent soul
strayed;, Here, is the carpenter-shop
whore he worked, like ordinary NOR
tails, wi h whom he had consorted,
earning his bread by the sweat of his
brow. Here is the synagogue where
he stood, Scripture in hand, and
pointed to himself Here is the stern
hills brow where they sought to do
away with him. Is there any place
more interesting than Nazareth?
He came to Nazareth. He had been
there before. But tnis was n wv and
momentous coming. He comes this
time in his redemptive capacity to be
accepted or re yected Thus he comes
to each heart. 1t was where he had
been brou hit up" They all knew him.
Nazareth is a fair picture of the or
dinary town or village of Ohrist 5ndom
to-day. Jesus is known there. Few
can plead ignorance of him. The ques-
tion W is-and it is very personal
one-will they take him now as
Savior, Gods Son sent to deliver? "As
his custom was. Jesus had his habit
but they were good habits. Life nat
urally runs in fixed grooves. Hap Y
the man who lets his hab tudes and es-
tablished ways of doing lead him up
ward instead of downward.
Jesus was found in the synagogue on
the Sabbath Gay. 1t was his custom
to frequent the house OF God. The
Sabbath was sacred day with him.
1t was so not only as a part of his meek
subsection to his parents from youth
up but as part of his divine intelli-
gence and his divine righteousness.
He knew what was right and best, and
to that his life perfectly conformed.
Study the example of Jesus. They
gave him the book and then he un-
rolled it and found the place."
Marvellous con1escension of the
Lord OF glory to seek out in
our poor lettering the place. He
stopped to our weakness indeed. He
learned our crude language that he
might talk with us; he put himself un-
der our hampe ing conditions that he
might help Us. Remembering that we
are dust, he himself became dust, that,
thus condescending to men of low es.
tate, he might lift us up to his own
high station. He read the word and
then sat down. Il that speak unto thee
am he"
They rose up and thrust him out of
the city, they sought to destroy him,
and why! For one reason because he
was one # them and unhonored among
his own: for another reason hecause
he was not of them-not of the IN in
life and spirit, not of them in acquies.
ence to their wrong thought of the king.
dom. And so they re .ect him. What
a spectacle, beggars re ,ecting their
only friend, captives thrusting away
their deliverer, blind and bruised ban.
ishing the great physician. Well
might angels hide their faces to weep.
Hints and Illustrations.
Get the scene we'll before the eye:
it is quite vividly sketched in Luke
veneration. Christ at the brow of
possible hill of sacrihce-an earlier
Golgotha Ask the question:: l. What
are they going to do with him? 2
Why are they going to do it? B.
Why don't they do it Bring out the
also the weakness and emptiness of that
opposition. Make the closing query
very personal. What will you do with
him? And this-what will he do with
you?
"At the present Nazareth. little
whitewa ,hed town, hemmed in by the
various hills of exterior Galilee, is
shown to-day a room in which Mary
and Joseph lived, with an altar bear
ing the inscription: Hic erat subd itus
illis-"Here he was subject to them"
They hated Christ bscau he did not
bend the truth to their misconceptions.
How easily he might have gotten their
acceptance by just making it little
easier for them. But he never abated
or lowered the truth TO win men. The
men of Nazareth did not realize how
near they were to supreme blessedness
near and yet they came short of it.
Christ came back again to Nazareth,
but their day of peace was gone. He
could not do many mighty works there
because of their untelief. Are you
SHINING away your day of grace? To
day the Savior calls.
They refused and re ;ected him: God
did not. Spurgeon in one of the dis
courses of his early ministry, the SER
mon on Joseph Attacked by the
ArcherS, tells OF stone which when
brought with the others from the
quarry for the great temple of Solo
mon, apl cared SO curiously shaped as
to be untitled for any portion of the
spacious building. They tried it here
or there. and ut last, vexed, they
threw it away. In the long years Of
construction they rejected the stone
because covered with moss and half
hid in the grass. But at last the day
came when the cry arose, Where is
the top stone: Where is the pinnacle?"
Perhaps 1t was that strange stone
which the builders had rejected. They
dug 1t out, they raised it in place-it
fitted; it was the cap-stone, and amid
hosannas the stone which the builders
refus cd was made { G head-stone of
the corner
Next lesson-"The Draught of Fish-
es." Luke >: Ill.