The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-09-26
MISSION OF KINDNESS.
Tho Element OF Chiv a!ry in Real
Human Friendship.
DR.. TaImage Trenches of the Poor, De-
crepit Man Who WAS Hronght Into
the FnIacs Of hInE David
Tho EIsablcd soul.

of ruin and restoration. The Bible
scene described is dramatic. His text
was 9 Sam, OIL and is: us there
vet any thai is left of the house OF
Saul, that l may show him kindness
for Jonathan's sake? = So
~Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem; for
he did eat continually at the kings
table; and was lame on both his feet. "
He said:
Was there aver anything more ro-
mantle and chivalrous than the love OF
David and Jonathan? At one time
Jonathan was up and David was down.
Now, David is up and Jonathan's fam
ily is down. AS you have often heard
of two soldiers before going into bat
tie making a covenant that If ono IS
shot the survivor will TAX charge of
the body, the watch, the mementoes,
and perhaps of the bereft family of the
one that dies, so David and Jonathan
had made a covenant, and now that
Jonathan is dead, David is inquiring
about his family, that he may show
kindness unto them for their father
Jonathan's sake. Careful search is
made, and a son of Jonathan by the
dreadfully homely name of Mephibo-
shcth is found. His nurse, in his
infancy, had let him fall, and
the fall had put both his ankles
out of place, and they had never been
set. This decrepit, poor man is
brought into h palace of King David.
David looks upon him with melting
tenderness, no doubt seeing in his face
a resemblance to his old friend, the de-
ceased Jonathan. The whole bearing
of King David toward him seems TO
say: 'IIow glad l am to see you,
Mephibosheth. How you remind me
of your father, my old friend and ben
~efactor. 1 made a bargain with your
father a good many years ago, and l
am going to keep it with you. What
can l do for you Mephibosheth? l am
resolved what to do: l will make you a
rich man; l will restore to you the
confiscated property of your grand
father Saul, and o shall be a guest
of mine as long as you live, and you
shall be seated at my table among tue
princes"
It was too much for Mephibosheth,
and he cried out against it, calling
himself a dead dog. BE STILL" said
David, II don't do this on your w
account; do this for your father
Jonathan's sake. 1 can never forget
| his kindness 1 remember when l was
bounded from place to place low he
befriended me. Can ever forget how
he stripped himself of his courtier ap-
parel and gave it to me instead OF my
shepherds coat, and how he took off
his own sword and belt and gave them
to me instead of my sling? oh, l can
never forget him. l feel as If couldn't
do enough for you, his son. don't do
it for your sake; / do it for your father
Jonathnn's sake"
There is so much Gospel in this
onaint incident that / am embarrassed
TO know where to begin. Whom do
Mephibosheth and David and Johna-
than make you think OFF Mephibo-
sheth, in the first PLACE. stands for the
disn BLEED lunar soul Lore Byron de-
scribes sin as a charming recklessness,
as a pallantry, as n Don Juan George
Sand describes sin rs triumphant In
many intricate plots; Gavarni, with his
engraver's knife, always shows sin as
a great POPULARITY; but the Bible pre-
sents it as n ~Mephibosheth, lamo on
both feet. Sin, like the nurse in
the context, atteflped to carry us,
and let us fall, and we have been
disabled, and in our whole moral ma
ture we are decrepit- Sometimes theo-
logians haggle about n ~technicality.
They use the words total depravity,"
and some people believe in the doc
trine, and some reject it What do you
mean by total depravity? Do you
mean hat every man is as bad as he
can be? Then lido not believe it either.
But do you mean hat sin has let us
fall, that it has sacrificed, and disa-
bled, and crippled our entire moral ma
ture, until we cannot walk straight,
and are lame in both feet? Then l adj
init your proposition?
Mephibosheth lame in both feet. Our
belief of the fact hat sin has scarificd
and deformed our souls increases as
we go on in years, When you started
life you thought that man was a little
married by sin, and he was about one
tenth wrong. by the time you had
gone through the early experience of
your trade, or occupation, or profess
sion, you believed that man was about
half wrong. by the time you came to
mid-life you believed that man was
three-fourths wrong. But within these
past few years, since you have been so
lied about and swindled and cheated,
Won have come to the conclusion that
man is altogether wrong, and now you
can say with the prayer book and with
the Bible: There is no health in us"
Now you believe with the prophet:
1.-THE heart is deceitful above all
things and desperately wicked"
Whatever you may have believed be-
fore, now you believe that Mephibo-
sheth is lame on both feet.
Again, Mephibosheth in h text
stands for the disabled human soul
humbled and restored. When this in
valid of my text got a command to
come to King David's palace, he rem
bled. The fact was hat the grand
father of M~ephibosheth had treated
David most shockingly, and now
Mephibosheth says to himself. What
does the king want of me? Isn't
it enough that / am lame? Is
he going to destroy my life? Is
he going to wreak on me the VEN
geance which he holds toward my
grandfather Saul? It's too bad. But
90 to the palace M~ephibosheth must,
since the king has commanded it.
With staff and crutches and helped by
his friends, 1 see M~ephibosheth going
up the stairs of the palace. l hear his
staff and crutches rafting on the tes-
sellated floor of the throne DON No
sooner have these two persons con-
fronted each other -Mephibosheth and
David, the king-than M~ephibosheth
throws himself fat on his face
before the king. and styles him
self a dead dog. In h east
when a man styles himself II dog, he
utters the utmost term of self-abnega-
ton. 1t is not a term so strong in this
country, where, if a dog has a fair
chance, he sometimes shows more no
bility of character than some human
specimens that we wot of; but the
NANCY ours of the Oriental cities, as l
know by my own observation, are ut
terly detestable. Mephibosheth gives
the utmost term of self,loathing when
he compares himself to a dog, and
dead at that
Consider the analogy. When the
command is given from the palace OF
Heaven to the human soul to come, the
soul begins to tremble. 1t says, what
is God going to do with me nowP Is
He going to destroy me?" There is
more than n eMephibosheth'trembling
now, because God has summoned him
80 Nha nal..o - n..z 1900. NUl,aN