The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-08-13

are His. and all the vineyards His, and
all the cattle His, and all the part
ridges His? Why walk when weary. and
His feet stone-bruised, when He might
have taken the splendors of the sun
set for His equipage, and moved with
horses and chariots of fire? Why beg
a drink from the wayside, when out of
the crystal chalices of eternity He
poured the Euphrates, the Mississippi
and the Amazon, and dipping His
hand in the fountains of Heaven, and
shaking that hand over the world,
from the tips of His fingers dripping
the great lakes and the oceans? Why
let the Roman regiment put Him to
death, when He might have ridden
down the sky followed by all the cav
airy of Heaven, mounted on white
horses of eternal victory?
You cannot understand. Who can?
You try to confound me. | am con-
founded before you speak. Paul said
it was unsearchable- He went climb
ing up from argument to argument,
and from antithesis to antithesis, and
from glory to glory, and then sank
down in exhaustion as he saw far
above him other heights of divinity
unscaled, and exclaimed, that in all
things he might have the pre-emi-
nence."
Again: Christ was wonderful in His
teaching. The people had been used
to formalities and technicalities; Christ
upset all their notions as to how
preaching ought to be done. There
was this popularity about His preach
ing: The people knew what He meant.
How few pulpits of this day would
have allowed Him entrance? He would
have been called undigni6ed and
familiar in His style of preaching. And
yet the people went to hear Him.
Those old Jewish rabbis might have
preached on the side of Olivet so years
and never got an audience. The
philosophers sneered at his ministra-
tions and said: This will never dor'
The lawyers caricatured, but the com
mon people heard Him gladly.
We spend three years in a college
studying ancient mythology, and three
years in the theological seminary
learning how to make a sermon, and
then we go out to save the world; and
if we cannot do it according to Claude's
'Sermonizing," or "Blair's Rhetoric, 8"
or Kame's Criticism" we will let the
world go to perdition. If we save
nothing else, we will save Claude and
Blair. We see a wreck in sight We
must go out and save the crew and
passengers. We wait until we get on
our fine cap and coat, and find our
shining oars, and then we push out
methodically and scientifically, while
some plain shOresman. in rough fish
ing-smack. and with broken oarlocks,
goes out and gets the crew and pas
sengers, and brings them ashore in
safety.
The work of religious teacher is to
save men; and though every law of
grammar should be snapped in the
undertaking, and there be nothing but
awkwardness and laundering in the
mode, all hail to the man who saves a
soul. Christ, in His preaching, was
plain, earnest and wonderfully sympa-
thetic. We cannot dragoon men into
Heaven. We cannot drive them in
with the butt end of catechism. We
waste our time in trying to catch flies
with acids instead of the sweet honey
comb of the gospel We try to make
crabapples do the work of pome
granates.
Again: Jesus was wonderful in His
sorrows. The sun smote Him, and the
cold chilled Him, the rain pelted Him,
thirst parched Him, and hunger ex-
hausted Him. Shall l compare His
sorrow to the sea? No; for that is
sometimes hushed into a calm. Shall
compare it with the night? No; for
that sometimes CLEANS with Orion, or
kindles with Aurora If one thorn
should be thrust through your temple
crown made from the Rhamnus
or Spina Christi-small, sharp, sting
ing thorns The mob makes a cross.
They put down the long beam, and
on it they fasten a shorter beam. Got
Him at last. Those hands, that have
been doing kindness and wiping away
tears-hear the hammer driving the
spikes through them. Those feet,
that have been going about on minis
trations of mercy-battered against
the cross. Then they lift it up. Look!
look! look! Who will help Him now?
Come, men of Jerusalem-ye whose
dead He brought to life; We whose sick
He healed; who will help Him? Who
viii seize the weapons of the soldiers?
None to help! Having carried such a
cross for US, shall we refuse to take
our cross for Him?
You know the process of migrating.
You bore hole into tree, and put in
the branch of another tree. This tree
of the cross was hard and tough, but
into the holes where the nails went
there have grated branches of the
Tree of Life that now bear fruit for all
nations. The original tree was bitter,
but the branches migrated were sweet,
and now all the nations pluck the fruit
and live forever.
Again: Christ was wonderful in His
victories.
First-over the forces of nature.
The sea is crystal sepulchre. 1t