Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-12-22

He fished with the fishermen. He smote
with his own hammer in the carpenters
shop. He ate raw corn out of the field.
He fried fish on the banks of the Gen.
nesaret. He was howled at by crazy
people in the tombs. He was splashed
Of the surf of the sea. A pilgrim with
out any pillow. A sick man without
and medicament. A mourner with no
sympathetic bosom in which he could
pour his tears. Disguise complete. L
know that occasionally his divine roy
atty flashed out, as when in the storm
on Galilee, as in the red wine at the
wedding banquet as when he freed the
shackled demoniac of Gadara, as when
he turned whole school OF fish
into the net of the discouraged
boatmen, as when he throbbed life into
the shriyeled arm of the paralytic; but
for the most part he was in disguise.
No one saw the kings jewels in his
sandal. No one saw the royal
robe in his plain coat. No one
knew that that shelteriess Christ
owned all the mansions in which
LilC ulCI ti vi lCdNCh nul tiiCii hstD
itation. None knew that that hun
gered Christ owned all the olive
groves, and all the harvests which
shook their gold on the hills OF Pal
estine. No one knew that he who said
Il thirst poured the Euphrates out
the ocean lay in the palm of his hand
like dewdrop in the vase of a lily.
No one knew that the stars, and
moons. and suns, and galaxies, and
consultations that marched on age
after age, were, as compared with his
lifetime, the sparkle of FREELY on a
summer night. No one knew that the
sun in mid-heaven was only the shad-
ow of his throne. No one knew that
his crown Of universal dominion was
covered up with bunch Of thorns.
Omnipotence sheathed in human
man eye. Infinite love beating in a
human heart. Everlasting harmonies
subdued into a human voice. Royalty
EN- masQue. Grandeurs Of heaven in
earthly disguise.
My subject also impresses me with
lar are Gods providences. Just at the
moment that woman entered the city,
the child died. Just as it was prcphe-
sled. so it turned out, so it always
turns out. The event occurs, the death
takes place, the nation is born, the
HncnntiCp, &c, or hn
pointed time. God drives the universe
with a stiff rein. Events do not just
happen So Things do not go slip
shod. In all the book of Gods provi-
dences there is not one IF" Gods
providences are never caught in disha-
no disappointments and no accidents.
The most insignificant event flung out
in the ages is the connecting link be-
tween two great chains-the chain Of
eternity past and the chain Of eternity
to come. | am no fatalist, but | should
be completely wretched if / did not
feel that all the affairs of my life are
in Gods hand, and all that pertains to
me and mine, just as certainly as all
the affairs of this woman Of the text,
as this child of the text, as this
king OF the text, were In Gods
hand. You may ask me a hundred
questions | cannot answer, but / shall
until the day of my death believe that
! am under the unerring care of God;
and the heavens may fall, and the
world may burn, and the judgment
may thunder and eternal ages may
roll, but not hair shall fall from
my head, not shadow shall drop on
my path, not sorrow shall transfix
my heart without being divinely ar
ranged-arranged by loving, sympa-
thetic Father He bottles our tears, he
catches our sorrows, and to the orphan
he will be Father, and TO the widow
he will be husband. and to the out
cast he will be home, and to the
most miserable wretch that this day
crawls up out of the ditch of his abom-
ination crying for mercy, he will be
an all-pardoning God. The rocks shall
turn gray with age, and the forests
shall be unmoored in the last hurri-
cane, and the sun shall shut its fiery
eyelid, and the stars shall drop like
blasted figs, and the continents shall
go down like anchors in the deep, and
the ocean shall heave its last groan
and lash itself with expiring agony,
and the world shall wrap itself in a
winding sheet of flame and leap on
the funeral pyre of the Judgment day;
but Gods love shall not die. 1t will
kindle it's suns after all other lights
have gone out. 1t will be billowy
sea after the last ocean has wept it
self away 1t will warm itself by the
fire of a consuming world 1t will
sing while the archangels trumpet is
pealing forth and the air is filled with
the crash of broken sepulchres and the
rush of the wings of the rising dead.
Oh, may God comfort all this people
with this Christian sentiment.