The Iola register., 1896-03-20

Elijah. His two black servants, the
ravens, have got tired waiting on him.
He asks that woman for food. Now
that handful of meal is to be divided
into three parts. Before, it was to be
divided into two parts. Now she says
to Elijah, Come in and sit down at
this solemn table and take a third OF
the last morsel" How many women
like that would it take to warm the
cold world up?
1t was His strong sympathy that
brought Christ from warm Heaven to
a cold world. The land where He
dwelt had a serene sky, balsamic at
mosphere, tropical luxuries No storm
| blasts in Heaven. No chill fountains.
On a cold December night Christ
stepped out of warm Heaven into the
worlds frigidity. The Thermometer
in Palestine never drops below zero,
but December is a cherries month,
and the pasturage is very poor on the
hilltops. Christ stepped ont of a warm
| Heaven into the cold world that cold
December night
The worlds reception was cold. The
surf of bestormed Gallilee was cold.
Joseph's sepulcher was cold. Christ
came, the great warmer, to warm the
| earth, and all Christendom to-day feels
the glow. He will keep on warming
ing the earth until the tropic will drive
away the arctic and the antarctic. He
gave an intimation of what He was 60
ing to do when He broke up the
funeral at the gate of Main and turned
| it into a reunion festival, and when
with His warm lips He melted the
Galilean hurricane and stood on the
deck and stamped His foot, crying
'SilenceI' and the waves crOuched and
the tempest folded their wings
Oh, it was this Christ who warmed
the chilled disciples when they had no
food by giving them plenty to eat, and
who in the tomb of Lazarus shattered
the shackles until the broken links Of
the chain of death ratified into the
darkest crypt of the mausOleum. In
His genial presence the girl who had
fallen into the fire and the water is
healed of the catalepsy and the with
cred arm takes muscular, healthy ac-
ton, and the ear that could not hear
an avalanche catches leafs rustic,
and the tongue that could not articu-
late trills a quatrain, and the blind
eve was relumed, and Christ, instead
of staying three days and three nights
in the sepulcher, as was supposed, as
soon as the worldly curtain of observa-
tion was dropped began the explora-
tion of all the underground passages
of earth and sea, wherever Christians
grave may after awhile be, and started
a light of Christian hope, resurrection
hope, which shall not go out until the
last eerement is taken off and the last
mausoleum breaks open.
Ah! am so glad that the sun OF
righteousness dawned on the polar
night of the nations And if Christ is
the great warmer, then the church is
the great hothouse, with its plants and
trees and fruits of righteousness Do
you know, my friends, that the church
is the institution that proposes
warmth? l have been for q years
studying how to make the church
warmer Warmer architecture,
warmer hymnology, warmer Chris
tian salutation. All outside Siberian
winter, we must have it a princes
hothouse. The only institution
on earth to-day that proposes to make
the world warmer. Universities and
observatories, they all have their work.
They propose to make the world light,
but they do not propose to make the
world warm.
Notwithstanding all the modern in
ventions for heating, tell you there
is nothing so full of geniality and So
ciality as the old-fashioned country
fireplace. The neighbors were to come
in for a winter evening of sociality. In
the middle of the afternoon, in the
best room in the house, some one
brought in a great backlog with great
strain and put it down on the back Of
the hearth. Then the lighter wood
was put on, armful, after armful. Then
shovelful of Goals was taken from an
other room and put under the dry pile,
and the kindling began, and the crack
ling, and it rose until it became a roar
ing fame. which filed all the room
with geniality and was reflected from
the family pictures on the wall.
Then the neigh bOrs came in two by
two. They sat down, their faces to the
fire, which ever and anon was stirred
with tongs and readjusted on the and
irons, and there were such time of rus
tic repartee and story telling and
mirth as the black stove and the blind
register never dreamed of. Meanwhile
the table was being spread, and so fair
was the cloth and SO clean was the
cutlery, they glisten and glisten in our
mind to-day. And then the best lux
ury of orchard and farmyard was
roasted and prepared for the
table, to meet the appetites sharp
ened by the cold ride. OIL my
friends, the church of Jesus Christ
is the worlds fireplace. and the woods
are the cedars of Lebanon, and the
fires are fires of love, and with the
silver tongs of the altar we stir the
fame and the light is reflected from all
the family pictures on the wall-pic-
lures of those who were here and are
gone now. Oh! come up close to the
fireplace. Have your worn faces trans
| @ - D. 4 e.