The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-09-26

to your house to pay your rent why
did't You let me in? Were you at
home?" ''Why," she replied, Twas
that you?" Yes, that WAS me; l came
to p0y your rent" "Why," she said,
''if l had had any idea it was you l
would have let you in. l thought it
was an officer come to cast me out of
my home" O., soul, that loud knock
ing at thy gate to-day is not the sheriff
come to put You in Jail; it is the best
friend you ever had come to be your
security. You shiver with terror be-
cause you think it is wrath. 1t is
mercy. Why, then. trouble before the
King of Heaven and earth calls you to
his palace? Stop trembling and start
right away. oh" you say, Il can't
start. l have been so famed by sin,
and so famed by evil habits, l can't
start. l am lame in both feet" My
friend, we come ont with our prayers
and sympathics to help you up to
the palace. If you want to get to the
palace you may get there. Start now.
Mephibosheth's caninal comparison
seems eXtravagant to the world, but
when n man has seen himself as he
really is, and seen how he has been
treating the Lord, there is NJ term We
hement enough to express his self con-
domination. The dead dog of Mephib-
comparison fails to describe
the mans utter loathing of himself.
Mephinosheth's posturing does not
seem too PROSTATE. When n SOU is
first he prays upright.
Then the muscles of his neck re-
and he is able to bow his head.
After awhile, by an almost superhu-
man effort, he kneels down to pray.
After awhile, when he has seen God
and seen himself, he throws himself
fiat on his face at the feet of the king
Just like Mcphibosheth. The fact is,
if we could sec ourselves as God sees
we would perish at the spectacle.
You would have no time to overhaul
other people. You cry would be-: God
be merciful to me n sinner"
And again: Mephibosheth in my text
for the disabled human soul
saved for the sake of another.
Mephibosheth would never have got
into the palace on his own account.
Why did David ransack the realms to
find that poor man, and then bestow
upon him a great fortune, and com
mand a farmer by the name of Ziba to
culture the estate and give to this in
valid Me~phibosheth half the proceeds
every year? Why did King David make
such a mighty stir about a poor fellow
who would never be of any use to the
of Israel? 1t was for Jona-
than's sake. 1t was what Robert Burns
calls for ''auld lang syne." David
not forget what Jonathan had
done for him in other days. Three
his chapter has it that all
this kindness on the part of David to
Mephibosheth was for his father Jona-
than's sake. The daughter of Peter
through the vice of her hus-
band, came down to penury, and the
senate of Zurich took care of her for
her fathers sake. Sometimes n person
has applied to you for help and You
have refused him, but when you found
was the son or brother of some one
who had been your benefactor in for
mer days, and bya glance you saw the
resemblance of your old friend in the
face of the applicant, you %relented, and
Won said; sob, / will do this for you
fathers sake" You know by your eX-
perience what my text means. Now,
my friends. it is IN that principle that
you and l are to get into the Kings
palace.
The most important part of every
PRAYER is the last three or four words
of it-"For Christ's sake" Do not
those words as thou rh they
were merely the finishing stroke of
the ray They are the most inn
portant part of the prayer. When in
earnestness you GO before God and say,
For Christ's sake" it rolls in, as it
were, upon Gods mind all the memo
ries of bethlehem and Genncsaret and
Golgotha. When you say before God,
For Christ's sake" you hold before
Gods mind every groan, every tear,
every crimson drop of his only
begotten Son. If there is anything in
the universe hat will move God 60 an
act of royal b~enefaction, it is to say
''For Christ's sake" God is omnipo-
tent, but he is not strong enough to
resist that cry, For Christ's sake"
If n little child should l5neel behind
God's throne and should say, "kor
sake" the great Jehovah
would turn around on his throne to
look and listen. No prayer ever gets
to Heaven but for Christ's sake. No
soul is aver comforted but for Christ's
sake,
The world will never DO redeemed
for Christ's sake. Our name, how
ever Industrious it may be among men,
before God stands only for inconsist-
ency and sin; but there is n name, a
potent Lame, a blessed name, n glori-
GUS name, an everlasting name, that
xuyn rNrk V-@, @,,- liz. nc 81 .
ment and upon our forehead as a
crown. and hat is the name of Jesus,
our divine Jonathan, who stripped
of his robe and put on our
rags, and gave us his sword and
took our broken reed, so that
now, whether we are we'll or sick,
whether we r living or dying, If we
speak hat name it moves Heaven to
the center, and God says: Let the
poor soul come in. Carry him up into
the throne room of the palace. Though
may have been in exile, though sin
may have crippled him IN this side,
and sorrow may have crippled him on
other side. and he is lame in both
his feet bring him up into the palace,
l want to show him everlasting
kindness for Jonathan's sake"
Again, Mephiposheth in my text
stands for the disabled human soul
to the Kings table. 1t was moro
difficult in those times even than it is
for common men to get int a
dining room. The subject might
nave come around the rail of the pal
ace and might have seen the lights
kindled, and might have heard tho
clash of the knives and the rattle of
the golden Goblets, but not get in,
Stout men with stout feet could not
get in once in all their lives to one BAN
quet, yet poor Mephibosheth goes in,
lives there, and is every day at the
o, what n getting up in the
it was for poor Mephiboshethl
Well, though you and l may be wofully
with sin, for our divine Jona-
than's sake, / hope we will all get in
to dine with the King.
Before dining we must be intro
1uced. If you are invited to n com
pany of persons where there are dis
people present, you are in
PRODUCED: This is the senator" This
is the governor" This is the presi-
dent" Before we sit down at the
II in rr'S IA hla In Hao IVAN fhin1y wa ,,;1I