The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-07-24

will have his one foot cured. Man !
only half wrong, not altogether wrong
In what is mans nature right? In hi
will? his affections? his Judgment
No, There is an old book that says
"The whole head is sick, and the whol'
heart faint" Mephibosheth lame IL
both feet. Our belief of the fact tina
sin has sacrificed and deformed our soul'
increases as we 60 on in years. Wher
you started life you thought that mar
was little marred by sin. and he wal
| about one-tenth wrong. BY the time
you had gone through the early ex
perience of your trade or occupation
or profession, you believed that mar
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, you
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. y
Now you believe with the prophet:
'tThe heart is deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked. f"
Whatever you may have believed be-
fore, now you believe that Mephibo-
sheth is lame on both feet.
Again, Mephibosheth in the text
stands for the disabled human soul
humbled and restored. When this in
valid of my text got command to
come to King David's palace, he trem-
bled. The fact was that the grand
father of Mephibosheth had treated
David most shockingly, and now
Mephibosheth says to himself: What
does the king want of me? Isn't it
enough that l am lame? Is he going
to destroy my life? Is he going to
wreak on me the vengeance which he
holds toward my grandfather Saul?
It's too bad" But 60 to the palace
Mephibosheth must. since the king has
commanded it. With staff and crutches
and helped by his friends, see Me-
phibosheth going up the stairs of the
palace. l hear his staff and crutches
rattling on the tessellated floor of the
throne room. No sooner have these
two persons confronted each other
and David, the king
than Mephibosheth throws him
self fat, on his face before the
king, and styles himself dead
dog. In the east when man styles
dog he utters the ut
most term of self-abnegation. 1t is
not term SO strong in this country.
where, if dog has fair chance, he
shows more nobility of
character than some human specimens
that we wot of; but the NANCY ours
Of the oriental cities, as 1 know by my
own observation, are utterly detesta-
BILE. Mephibosbeth gives the utmost
term of self-lothing when he compares
himself to dog, and dead at that.
And again: Mephibosheth in my text
stands for the disabled human soul
saved for the sake of another. Mephi-
bosheth would never have got into the
palace on his own account. Why did
David ransack the realm to find that
poor man, and then bestow upon him
! great fortune, and command a farm
n by the name of ,Ziba to culture the
,state and give to this invalid Me-
,hibosheth half the proceeds every
rear? Why did King David make
uch mighty stir about poor fell
ow who would never be of any use
o the throne of Israel? It was
or Jonathan's sake. 1t was what |
Robert Burns calls for ''auld lang
yne." David could not forget what |
Jonathan had done for him in other
lays. Three times this chapter has it
hat all this kindness on the part of |
David to Mephibosheth was for his |
ather Jonathan's sake. The daughter |
# Peter Martyr, through the vice of |
Ter husband, came down to perjury,
nd the senate of Zurich took care of |
Ter for her fathers sake. Sometimes |
person has applied to you for !
lelp, and you have refused him; |
nut when you found he was the son or |
brother of some one who had been |
our benefactor in former days, and |
~ a glance you saw the resemblance |
# your old friend in the face of the |
applicant, you relented, aud you said:
oh, will do this for your fathers |
AXE" You know by your experience |
What my text means. Now, my friends,
t is on that principle that you and 1
ire to get into the Kings palace.
The most important part of every |
prayer is the last three or four words |
# it-"For Christ's sake" Do not |
attic off those words as though they |
we're merely the finishing stroke of the |
prayer. They are the most important
part of the prayer. When in earnest
less you go before God and say. For
Christ's sake" it rolls in, as it were.
lpon Gods mind all the memories
If Bethlehem and Gennesaret and
iolgotha. When you say be-
Eore God ssEnr Christ,s xalra .ror,