The Yale expositor., 1897-01-08

of millions of miles In a second, HIM
self rich In love, rich in alteration, rich
in power, rich in worship, rich in holi-
ness, rich in "all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily"
But one day there was big disaster
in a department of Gods universe. A
race fallen! A world in ruins! Our
planet the scene of catastrophe! A
globe swinging out into darkness, with
mountains, and seas, and islands, an
awful centrifugal of sin seeming to
overpower the beautiful centripetal of
Righteousness, and from it a groan
reached heaven. Such a sound had
never been heard there. Plenty OF
sweet sounds, but never an outcry of
one groan the Prince rose from all the
blissful circumjacence, and started for
the outer gate and descended into the
night of this world. Out of what a
bright harbor into what a rough sea!
Stay with u.s." cried angel after angel,
and potentate after potentate. mo"
said the Prince, II cannot stay; must
be off for that wreck of a world. l must
stop that groan. / must hush that dis
tress. l must fathom that abyss. must
redeem those nations. Farewell,
thrones and temples, hosts cherubic,
seraphic, archangelic! l will come
back again, clrrying on my shoulder
ransomed world. Till this is done
choose earthly scoff to heavenly ac-
clamation, and a cattle pen to kings
palace, frigid zone of earth to atmos-
phere of celestial radiance. / have no
time to lose for bark ye to the groan
that grows mightier while l wait! Fare
we'll! Farewell! 'Ye know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though
he was rich, yet for your sakes he be-
came pocr.'"
Was there ever a contrast so over
powering as that between the MONDAY
of Christ's celestial departure and the
midnight of his earthly arrival? Sure
enough, the angels were out that night
in the sky, and an especial meteor act
ed as escort, but all that was from 9TH
er worlds, and not from this world.
The earth made no demonstration of
welcome. II one of the great princes
of this world steps out at depot,
cheers resound, and the bands play,
and the flags wave. But for the ar
rival of this missionary Prince of the
skies not a torch flared, not trumpet
blew, not a plume fluttered. All the
music and the pomp were overhead.
Our world opened for him nothing bet
ter than a barn-door. The Rajah of
Cashmere sent to Queen Victoria
bedstead OF carved gold and a canopy
that cost seven hundred and fifty thou
sand dollars, but the world had for the
Prince of Heaven and Earth only a lit
ter of straw. The crown jewels in the
Tower OF London amount to fifteen mill
lion dollars, out this member OF eter-
nal Royalty had nowhere to lay his
head. TO know how poor he was, ask
the camel drivers, ask the shepherds,
ask Mary. ask the three wise men of
the East, who afterward came to Beth
lehem. To know how poor he was ex-
anime all the records of real estate in
all that Oriental country, and see what
vineyard or what field he owned. Not
one. OF what mortgage was he the
mortgagee? OF what tenement was he
the landlord? OF what lease was he
the lessee? Who ever paid him rent?
Not owning the boat on which he
sailed, or the beast on which he rode.
or the pillow on which he slept He
had'so little estate that in order to pay
his tax he had to perform a miracle.
putting the amount of the assessment
in a fish's mouth and having it hauled
ashore And after his death the world
rushed in TO take an inventory of his
goods, and the entire aggregate was
the garments he had worn, sleeping in
them by night and travelling in them
by day, bearing on them the dust of
the highway and the saturation of the
sea. st. Paul IN my text hit the mark
when he said of the missionary Prince
For your sakes he became poor"
The world could have treated him
better If 1t had chosen. 1t had all the
means for making his earthly condition
Only few years before
when Pompey, the general, arrived in
Brindisi he was greeted with arches
and a costly column which celebrated
the twelve million people whom he had
killed or conquered and he was al
lowed to wear his triumphal robe in the
senate. The world had applause for
imperial butchers, but buffeting for
the Prince of Peace. Plenty of golden
chalices for ne favored to drink out
of, but our Prince must put his Inns
to the bucket of the well by the road
side after he lad begged for a drink.
Poor? Born in another mans barn.
and eating at another mans table, and
cruising the lake in another mans
fishing-smack, and buried in another
mans tomb. Four inspired authors
wrote his biography, and innumerable
lives of Christ have been published,
but he composed his autobiography in
most compressed way. He said, Il
have trodden the wine-press alone"
But the Crown Prince of all heavenly
dominion has less than the raven, less
than the chamois, for he was homeless.
Aye, in the history of the universe
there is no other instance of such cOn-