The Progress. (Shreveport, La.) 1892-1900, 1897-04-24

| thy for the afiuent; If Christ had appear
| ed with soldiers sash and sword dangling
at his side, that would have seemed to i'm
| ply especial sympathy for warriors; but
| when I find Christ in gardeners habit,
| with perhaps the fakes of the earth and OF
the upturned soil upon his garments, then
l spell 1t ont that he has hearty and pa-
thetic understa nding with everyday work
and everyday anxiety and everyday IA
tigue.
In Working Clothes.
Roll 1t down In comfort all through
| these aisles working day Christ in
working day apparel. Tell it In the dark
| est corridor of the mountain to the poor
miner. Tell it to the factory maid in most
unyentilated establishment at Lowell or
Lancaster. Tell it to the clearer of rough
est new ground in western wilderness
Tell 1t to the sewing woman q stitch in
the side for every stitch in the garment,
some of their cruel employers having no
right to think that they will get through
the door OF heaven any more than they
could through the eye of a broken needle
which has just dropped on the bare floor
from the pricked and bleeding fingers of
the consnmptive sewing girl. Away with
your talk about hypostatic union, and So
teriology Of the council of Trent. and the
metaphysics of religion which would freeze
practical Christianity out of the world,
but pass along this gardeners coat to all
nations that they may touch the hem of 1t
and feel the thrill Of the Christly brother
hood. Not supposint the man to be Caesar,
not surprising him to be Socrates, but
"supposing him to be the gardener
Oh, that Is what helped Joseph WedR-
wood, tOiling amid the heat and the dust
OF the potteries, until he could make for
Queen Charlotte the first royal table serv-
Ice OF English manufacture! That was
what helped James Watt, scoffed at and
earicatured until he could put on wheels
the thunderbolt of power which roars by
day and night in every furnace Of the loco
motive engines of America. That is what
helped Hugh Miller, toi1ing amid the quar-
ries OF Cromarty, until every rock became
to him a volume of the worlds biography
and he found the footsteps of the Creator
In the old red sandstone. Oh, the world
wants a Christ for the office, n Christ for
the kitchen, Christ for the shop, a Christ
for the banking house, a Christ for the
garden, while spading and planting and
trrigattnG the territory! Oh, of course we
want to see Christ at last in royal robe and
bediamonde6, q celestial equestrian mount
Ing the white horse, but from this Easter
Of 1897 to our last Easter on earth we most
need to see Christ as Mary Magdalene saw
him Mt the daybreak. "snpposing him TO
be the gardener
Hope Tor Great Sinners.
Another thing which the church and the
world have not noticed in regard to the
resurrection Of Christ Is that he made his
first post mortem appearance to one who
had been the seven deyiled Mary Magda-
lene One would have supposed he would
have made his first posthunous appearance
to woman who had always been illnstri-
Gus for goodness There are sanity women
who have always been sanity, sanity In
girlhood, sointly ia infancy, always saint
~. In nearly all our families there have
been sanity aunts In my family circle 1t
was sanity Aunt Phebe. In yours sanity
Aunt Martin or sa intly Aunt Ruth. One
always sanity. But not SO was the one
spoken of In the text.
While You are not to copfound her with
the repentant courtesan who had made her
long locks do the work Of towel at Christ
foot washing, you are not to forget that she
was exercised of seven devils What |
capital of demonology she must have
been! What a chorus of all diabolismi