Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1894-05-17
My arm is strong. Girls, you can de-

But now Lazarus was sick;. yea, Laz-
arus was dead. All broken up, the Sis
tiers disconsolate, and there is knock
at the door. "Come in" says Martha.
Come in" says Mary. Christ entered,
and he just broke down. 1t was too
much for him. He had been so often
and so kindly entertained in that home
before sickness and death devastated
1t 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 meth
cd Of helping You say: II am man
Of few words" or II am woman Of
few words" Why, you dear soul.
words are not necessary. Initiate your
Lord, and 60 to those afflicted homes
and cry with them.
Do yol. wonder that the story of his
self-sacrifice has led hundreds Of tlcu-
sands to die for him? In one seri IS of
ersecutions over 2OO,0 1000 Were put to
death for Christs sake. For him Blan-
dina was tied to a post and wild beasts
continued after the attack Of TOOTH and
paw, she was put in 4 net, and that
net containing her was thrown to
till life was extinct All for Christ!
Huguenots dying for Christ! The Vau-
dois dying for Christ! Smithfield fires
endured for Christ! The bones of mar
tyrs, if distributed, would make I.;lth
of moldering life all around the earth.
The loneliness of the Savior's sacrifice
has inspired all the leroisms, and all
the martyrdoms of subsequent centur-
les. 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. 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
sixteen minutes in delivery at the ordi-
nary rate of speech. His longest prayer
reported, commonly called The Lords
Prayer" was about half minute.
will find my estimate accurate. By
which do not mean to say that SER
mons ought to be only sixteen minutes
long and prayers only half minute
long. Christ had such infinite power
OF compression 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 af-
ford to pray or preach as short as that,
but he meant to teach us compression.
Yea, Christ Was lovely in his chief
life's work. There were 4 thousand
things for him to do, but his great work
was to get our shipwrecked world out
of the breakers. That he came to do,
and that he did; and he did it in three
years activity. From II to 80 years
/, of age we hear nothing about him.
That intervening eighteen years think
he was i'll India. But he came back to
Palestine and crowded everything into
three, years; three winters, three
springs, three summers, three :lutun!ns.
Our life is short, but would God we
might see how much we could do in
three years. Concentration! Int.nsii-
cation! Three years Of kind words.
Three years Of living for others. Three
years Of self-sacrifce! Let us try it.
Aye! Christ was lovely in his demise
He had right that last hour to deal
in anathematization. Never had any
one been so meanly treated. Cradle Of
straw among goats and cam els-that
was the worlds reception of him.!
Rocky cliff, with hammers pounding
spikes through tortured nerves-that
was the worlds farewell salutation!
The slaughter of rhat scene sometimes
hides the loneliness Of the sufferer I'm
der the saturation of tears and blood
we sometimes fail to see the sweetest
face of earth and heaven. Altogether
lovely! Can coolest criticism find an
unllind word he ever spoke, or an I'M
kind action that he ever performed, or
an unkind thought that he ever har-
bored? What a marvel it is that all
the nations of earth do not rise UP in
raptures of affection tor him! I must
say it here and now I lift my right
hand in solemn attestation. love him!
and the grief of my life is that l do
not love him more. Is it an impertin-
ence for me to ask, do you, my hearer
you, my reader, love him? Have you
committed your children on earth into
his keeping, as your children in heaven
are already in his bosom? Has he done
enough to win your confidence? Can
you trust him, living and dying, and
forever? Is your back. or your face,
toward him? Would you like to have
his hand to guide you? His grace to
comfort you? His sufferings to atone
for you? His arms to welcome you?
His love to encircle you? His heaven
to crown you?
Oh, that we might all have some
thing of the great German reformer's
love for this Christ. which led him to
say: IF any one knocks at the door
Of my breast and says, Who lives
there?' my reply is Jesus Christ lives
here, not Martin Luther" Will it not
be grand if when we get through this
short and rugged road of life we can
go right up into his presence and live
with him world without end. And If,
entering the gate Of that heavenly city
we should be so overwhelmed with our
unworthiness OIL the one side and the
supernal splendor on the other side, we
get little bewildered and should for
u few moments be lost on the streets
of gold and among the FURNISHED tenn
pies, and the sapphire thrones, there
would be plenty to show us the way,
and take us out of our joyful bcwllder-
ment; and perhaps the woman of Main
would say, Come, let me take you to
the Christ that raised my only boy to