Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-04-27

TO be Caesar, not suppoSing him to be
Socrates, but "supposing him to be the
gardener"
Oh, that is what helped Joseph
Wedgwood, toiling amid the Eeat and
the dust OF the potteries, until he could
make for Queen Charlotte the first
royal table service of English manu-
facture. That was what helped James
Watt, scoffed at and caricatured, until
he could put on wheels the thunderbolt
OF power which roars ny day and night
in every furnace of the locomotive en-
gines of America. That is what helped
Hugh Miller, toiling amid the quarrles
OF Cromarty, until every rock became
to him volume of the worlds biog-
raphy, and he found the footsteps OF
the Creator in the old red sandstone.
On, the world wants q Christ for the
oihce, Christ for the kitchen, Christ
for the shop, Christ for the banking
house, Christ for the garden, while
spadinS and planting and irrigating
the territory. Oh, of course, We want
to see Christ at last in royal robe and
! bediamoned, celestial equestrian
mounting the white horse, but from
this Easter OF 1897 to our last Easter on
| earth we most need to see Christ as
Mary Magdalen saw him at the day
break, "supposing him to be q gar
! dener."
Another thing which the church and
the world have not noticed in regard
1 TO the resurrection OF Christ is that he
made his first post-mortem appearance
to one who had been the seven-deviled
Mary Magdalen. One would have sup
| posed he would have made his first
| posthumous appearance to a woman
who had always been illustrious for
! goodness. There are sanity women
who have always been sanity, sanity
in girlhood, sanity in infancy, always
sanity. In nearly all our families
there have been sanity aunts. In my
family circle it was aunt Phebe; in
yours sanity aunt Martha or sanity
| aunt Ruth. One always sanity. But
| not SO with the one spoken of in the
| text.
While you are not to confound her
with the repugnant courtesan who had
made her long locks do the work of
towel at Christ's footwashing, you are
not to forget that she was exercised OF
seven devils. What q capital OF de-
| monology she must have been. What
chorus Of all diabolism. Seven devils
two for the eyes, and two for the
hands, and two for the feet, and one for
the tongue. Seven devils. Yet all
these are extirpated, and now she is as
good as once she was bad, and Christ
honors her with the first postum
nous appearance? What doth that
mean?
There is man seven-deviled-devil
of avarice, devil of pride, devil of hate,
devil OF Incidence, devil of falsehood,
devil of strong drink, devil of impuri-
~. God can take them all away, sew
en- or seventy. / rode over the new
cantilever bridge that spans Niagara
a bridge 900 feet long, $50 feet of
clasm from bluff to bluff. / passed
over it without anxiety. Why? Be-
cause twenty-five locomotives and
twenty-five cars laden with gravel had
tested the bridge, thousands of people
standing on the Canadian side, thous-
and5 standing on the American side to
applaud the achievement. And how
ever long the train of our immortal in
terests may be We are to remember
that Gods bridge of mercy spanning
the chasm of sin has been fully tested
by the awful tonnage Of all the pardoned
sin of all ages, church militant stand
ing on one bank, church triumphant
standing on the other bank. Oh, ii
was to the seven-deviled Mary that
Christ made His first post -mortem ap-
pearance.
There is another thing that the world
and the church have not observed in
regard to this resurrection, and that is,
it was the morning twilight.
If the chronometer had been invent
ed and Mary had as good a watch as
some Of the Marys of our time have.
she would have found 1t was about
half-past o'clock a. m. Matthew says
it was in the dawn. Mark says it was
at the sunrising; Luke says it was very
early in the morning; John says it was
NullS IL WOE yCI udl III OtueT WORDS
it was twilight. That was the O'Clock
at which Mary Magdalen mistook Christ
for the gardener. What does that
mean? 1t means there are shadows
over the grave untitled, shadows of
mystery that are lowering. Mary
stopped down and tried to look to the
other end of the crypt. She gave hys-
teric cutlery. She could not see to the
other end of the crypt. Neither can you
see to the other end of the grave of
your dead. Neither can we see to the
other end of our grave. Oh, il there
were shadows over the family plot be- |
longing to Joseph Of AriEathea, is it |
strange that there should be some |
shadows over our family lot? Easter |
dawn, not Easter noon.
Shadow of unanswered question! |
Why were they taken away from us? |
why were they ever given to us II they |
were to be taken so soon? why were |
they taken so suddenly? why could they |
not have uttered some farewell words? |
why? A short question, but whole
of agony in it. Why?
Shadow on the graves of good men and |
women who seemed to die before their
work was done. Shadow on all the
Il