Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-04-27
Habits of Chrl.t.


that time that Christ had face full of
geniality.
l ',.i..- t,.
Habits of Chrlt.
Not only was Christ altogether lovely
| in his countenance, but lovely in his
habits. know, without being told, that
! the Lord who made the rivers and lakes
and oceans was cleanly in his appear
ance. He dishkeCt the disease of leprosy
not only because it was distressing, but
because it was not clean, and his curative
words were; II will, Be thou clean. "
He, declared himself. in favor Of thor
ough washing and. opposed to superb
ciai washing when he denounced the
hypocrites for making clean only 1.-THE
outside Of the platter, and he applauds
his disciples by saying, Now are ye
clean, and giving directions to those
who tasted, among other things, he says,
wash thy face" and to blind man
whom he was doctoring go, wash in
the pool Of Siloam," and he himself
actually washed the disciples feet, l
suppose not only to demonstrate his
own humility, but probably their feet
needed to be washed.
The fact is, the Lord was a great
friend Of water. know that from the
fact that most of the world is water.
But when find Christ in such constant
commentator of water 1 know he was
personally neat, although he mingled
much among very rough populations and
took such long journeys on dusty high
ways. He wore his hair long, according
to the custom of his land and time, but
neither trouble nor old age had thinned
or injured his locks, which were never
worn shaggy or unkempt. Yea, all his
habits of personal appearance were
lovely.
Sobriety was also an established habit
Of his life In addition to the water, he
drank the juice of the grape. When at
wedding party this beverage gave out
he made gallons on gallons of grape
Juice, but it was as unlike what the
world makes in our time rs health Is
different from disease and as calm
pulses are different from the paroxysms
of delirium tremens There was no
strychnine in that beverage or logwood
or nux vomica The tipplers and the
sots who now quote the winemaking i'll
Cana Of Galilee as an excuse for the
fiery and damning beverages of the nine
teenth century forget that the wine at
the New Testament wedding had two
characteristics-the one that the Lord
made it and the other that it was made
out Of water Buy all you can of that
kind and drink it at least three times q
day and send barrel of it round to my
cellar.
You cannot mako me believe that the
blessed Christ who went up and down
healing the sick would create for man
that style of drink which is the cause
Of disease more than all other causes
combined, or that he who Gained the
maniacs into their right mind would
create that style Of drink which does
more than anything else to I'LL insane
asylums or that he who was SO helpful
to the poor would make style Of drink
that crowds the earth with pauperism,
or that he who came to save the nations
from sin would create q liquor that IS
the source Of most Of the crime that
now stuffs the penitentiaries. A lovely
sobriety was written all over his face,
from the hair line Of the forehead to the
| bottom of the bearded chin.
Christ the Physician.
Domesticity was also his habit.
Though too poor to have home of his
own, he went out to spend the night at
Bethany, two or three miles walk from
Jerusalem, and over a rough and hilly
road that made it equal to six or seven
ordinary miles, every morning and night
going to and fro. 1 would rather walk
| from here to Central park, or walk from
Edinburgh to Arthur's Seat, or in Lon
don clear around Hyde park, than to
walk that road that Christ walked twice
a day from Jerusalem to Bethany. But
he liked the quietude Of home life, and
he was lovely in his domesticity.
How he enjoyed handing over the res
directed boy to his mother, and the res
directed girl to her father, and recon-
structing homesteads which disease or
death was breaking up As the song
Home, Sweet Home" was written by
q man who at that time had no home,
SO 1 think the homelessness Of Christ
added to his appreciation Of domesticlty-
Furthermore, he was lovely in his
sympathies. Now. dropsy is a most dis
tressful complaint. 1t inhames and
swells and tortures any limb or physical
organ it touches. As soon rs a case Of
that kind is submitted to Christ he,
without any use of diaphoretics, COM
mands its cure And what an eye doc
tor he was for opening the long closed
gates Of sight to the blue Of the sky,
and the yellow Of the flower, and the
EMERALD Of the grassl What Christ he
was for cooling fevers without so much
as a spoonful of febrifuge and straight
ening crooked backs without any pang
of surgery, and standing whole choirs
Of music along the silent galleries of a
deaf ear, and giving healthful nervous
system to cataleptics Sympathy He
did not give them stoical advice or phi
Josephine about the science Of grief. He
sat down and cried with them
1t is spoken of as the shortest verse
in the Bible, but to me it is about the
longest and grandest, Jesus wept.
All, many of us know the meaning Of
thatl When we were in great trouble,
some one came in with voluble consola-
ton and quoted the Scripture in a sort
Of heartless way and did not help us at
all. But after awhile some one else came
in, and without saying a word sat down
and burst into food Of tears at the
sight Of our woe, and somehow it help
ed us right away. Jesus wept. You
see, it was deeply attached household,
that of Mary and Martha and Lazarus.
The father and mother were dead, and
the girls depended on their brother.
Lazarus had said to them: Now, Mary,