The Newtown bee., 1897-02-05
thing, every one of you has some special
 thing you are

thing, every one of you has some special thing you are
 TRYING TO OVERCOME;
 want this sermon to be helpful to you all. go to this one quietly. to confirm what say, and ask, ''Is it not so?' 'Oh, ,yes, he says, "for years have been struggling to rid myself of this thing, but l have about abandoned the struggle. It is useless to maintain the conflict longer; l cannot overcome" My dear friend, you can. Take God at His word. Take Jesus as your Helper. Take the Holy Spirit as your Guide. Take hold Of just that one promise, "As thy days thy strength shall be-" Paul did not wish his thorn in the flesh taken away. Gods grace was sufficient for him; the thorn became minister to his good. My friend, you can overcome the Jericho that is in your heart and life.
 What is your Jericho? You answer, Ut is in my home. The thing that I have been struggling these years to obtain has been the conversion of one member of my family. Our family circle is nearly complete about the communion table {; there is one lacking, just one." I know many home in which this is the one Jericho. The home is happy one. The best pleasures of life are there; the sweet amenities of loving intercourse make the shorny road smooth, and the hard hill Tourney plain. Books are there, pic. lures are there, music is there, the tokens of delightful luxury are there-every- thing but complete union in Christ. There are wives who are devoted to their husbands, husbands to their wives. They seem part of each other, the twain have in reality been made one flesh. They talk with each other freely upon every thing except the
 SUBJECT OF PERSONAL RELIGION.
 Upon that they seldom talk because they think the task is useless; the husband or the wife has no sympathy with such things. The wife says. "My husband loves me dearly, but cannot persuade him to acknowledge himself Christian. The things of Christ do not appeal to him." My friend, do not abandon hope. Take the case to God.
 May let you into little study? Have you eyer thought how Jesus first worked along the lines of relationship. and kin Idred? If His enemies had wished, they might we'll have charged that He waa making His religion "a family affair." Who was Christ's forerunner? John ths Baptist, but he was the second cousin o1 Christ. Who were the first disciples thai came to Christ? John and Andrew were lstandin2 beside the Baptist when he lpointed to Jesus and said, "Behold ths Lamb of God!' John went to search fol his brother, and Andrew went to searct for his brother; and we read, s'And An Idrew first findeth his brother Simon John afterwards fluids his brother James The next day, Philip, who it is very clearly stated was of the same city as Andrew and Peter, finds Nathanael, wh, came from Cana, town near by, and said: i've have found Him, of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write" Three days later,
 JESUS WAS AT A WEDDING FEAST in Cana of Galilee. Mary, the mother ol Jesus, was prominent there looking after the arrangements of the feast, showing that she, with Jesus and His disciples, was relative, or intimate friend, of those in the house. This wedding feast was family gathering, to which Jesus and His disciples, probably as being neal Of kin, had been invited. John and James 1 were brothers, Peter and Andrew were brothers. John and James were probably also cousins of Jesus; and, as for the rest of the twelve Apostles, we can trace lines of kindred and friendship among nearly all of them. Most of them came