The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1894-10-05
lie sson for Oct. Z.


Nazareth, fair Nazareth of the green
hill-sloIe kind Nazareth that first
spread soft carpets for the feet of the
boy Jesus, uni in Ma 'areth that first,
when he had becol a man and
teacher, ca 4 him out. He came TO his
own and his own receiv him not.
Here the paths his youthful feet
tro1, 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
where he worked like ordinary NOR
tails, wi h whom he had coasorted,
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 whore they sought TO do
away with him. Is theie any place
more interesting than Nazareth?
He came to Ma areth. He had been
there before. But this was a nsw and
momentous coming. He comes this
time in his redemptive capacity TO be
accepted or re ,ected Thus he comes
TO each heat. 1t was where he had
been brou hit up" They all knew him.
Nazareth IS fair picture of the or
binary town or village of christ endom
today. Jesus is known there. Few
can plead ignorance of him. The ques-
tion w is-and 1t is very personal
one-will they take him now as
Savior, Gods Son sent to deliver? las
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 lis hab tudes and es-
tablished ways of doing lead him up
ward instead of downward
Jesus was found in the synagogue on
the Sa bath cay. 1t was his custom
TO frequent the house OF God. The
Sabbath was a sacred day with him.
1t was so not only as part of his meek
sub. ection to his parents from youth
up but as part of his di inc intelli-
) gence and his divine righteousness.
He knew w at was right and beat, and
to that his life erfectly 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 UNI
der our hamIe ing conditions that he
might help Us. Remembering that we
are dust, ne himself became dust, that,
thus condescendiug to men of low es-
tate, he might lift us up to his own
high station. He read the word and
then sat down. 81 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 because
he was not OF them-not of tn m in
life and spirit, not Of them In acquies-
ence TO their wrong thought of the king
dom. And 80 they re ect him. What
spectacle, beggars rejecting their
only friend, ca Dtives thrusting away
their deliveIer, blind aud bruised ban.
ishing the great physician! Well
might angels hide their faces to weep.
Hints AMI Illustrations.
Get the scene we'll before the eye:
it is quite wildly sketched in Luke's
veneration. Christ at the brow of q
possible hill of sacrifce-an earlier
Golgotha Ask the question:: /. 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
carnal enmity To the Holy One, and
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, a little
whitewa shed town, hemmed in by the
various hills of exterior Galilee, Is
shown to-day q room in which Mary
and Joseph lived with an altar bear
/ In Ia i,,9n itnfi 10 nd tina
| illis-"Here he was subject to them.
They hated Christ becau he did not
bend the truth to their misconceptions.
How easily he might have gotten their
acceptance by just making it a 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 unbelief. Are you
SHINING away your day OF grace? To
day the Savior calls. F."
They refused and re iected him; God
did not. Sturgeon 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, appeared so>curiously shaped as
TO be untitled for any portion of the
spacious building. They tried 1t here
or there. and at 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 arc: e, Where is
the top stone? Where Is the pinnacle!"
Perhaps it was that strange stone
which the builders had rejected They
dug it out, they raised 1t in place-it
fitted: it was the cap-stone, and amid
hosannas the stone which the builders
refus ed was made { head-stone of
the corner
Next lesson-"The Draught of Fish
es." Luke b. Ill.
Grains of Gold.
FRIENDSHIP is but name
IT takes strong man to hold his own
] NnY