The Monitor-register., 1897-01-08


earth made no demonstration OF well
come. If one of the great princes of this
world steps out at a depot, cheers re-
sound, and the bands play, and the flags
wave. But for the arrival of this IRissI
sionary Prince of the skies not4a torch
flared. not trumpet blew, not plume
futtered. All the music and the pomp
were overhead. Our world opened for
him nothing better than barn door.
The rajah of Cashmere sent to Queen
Victoria bedstead Of ca bold and
canopy that cost $76d but the
world had for the Prince of heaven and
earth only litter of stray. The crown
jewels in the Tower Of E1nk}0p amount
to $15, 900, 900, but this men 2seter-
nal royalty had nowhere to f head,
To know how poor he was, sskthe camel
drivers, ask the shepherds, ask Mary,
ask the three wise men of the easE~ho
afterward came to Bethlehem. To know
how poor he was, examine all the rec
ords of real estate in all that oriental,
country and see what vineyard or what
field he owned. Not one. Of what mort
gage 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 mir
acle, putting the amount Of the assess
ment 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. :"
A Succinct Biography.
The world could have treated him
better if it had chosen. 1t had all the
means for making his earthly condition
comfortable. Only few years before;
when Pompey, the general, arrived in
Brindisi, he was greeted with arches
and q costly column which celebrated
the 100000 people whom he had
killed or conquered, and he was allowed
to wear his triumphal robe in the SEN
ate. The world had applause for impe-
rial butchers, but buffeting for the
Prince of Peace. Plenty of golden ohal-
ices for the favored to drink out of, but
our Prince must put his lips to the
bucket of the we'll by the roadside after
he had begged for 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 blogra-
ply, and innumerable lives of Christ
have been published, but he composed
his autobiography in most compressed
way. He said, ''I have trodden the wine
press alone"
Poor in the estimation of nearly all
the prosperous classes. They called him
Sabbath breaker, wine bibber, traitor,
blasphemer and ransacked the dictionary
of opprobrium from cover to cover to
express their detestation. I can think
now of only two well to do men who
espoused his cause, Nicodemus and Jo-
seph of Arimathea. His friends for the
most part were people who, in that cll'
mate where ophthalmia, or inf1amma-
ton of the eyeball, sweeps ever and anon
as a scourge, had become blind, sick
people who were anxious to get well
and troubled people in whose family
there was some one dead or dying. II
he had purse at all, it was empty or
we would have heard what the soldiers
did with the contents. Poor? The pigeon
in the dovecot, the rabbit in its bur-
row, the silkworm in its cocoon, the
bee in its hive is better provided for,
better off, better sheltered. Aye, the
brute creation has a home on earth,
which Christ had not. A poet says:
If on windy days the raven
Gambol like dancing skiff.
= Not the less he loves his haven
On the bosom of the cliff,
If almost with eagle pinion
Ger the Alps the chamois roam,
Yet he has some small dominion
Which no doubt he calls his home.
A II omeless Prince.
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 coming
down. Who can count the miles from
the top of the throne to the bottom of
the cross? Cleopatra, giving banquet
to Antony, took pearl worth $100, 900
and dissolved it in vinegar and swal-
lowed it. But when our Prince, accord
ing to the evangelist, in his last hours
took the vinegar, in it had been dissoly,
ed all the pearls Of his heavenly royalty.
Down until there was no other harass-
ment to suffer, poor until there was no
other pauperism to torture. Billions Of
dollars spent in wars to destroy men,
who will furnish the statistics of the
value of that precious blood that was
shed to save us? eye know the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he
was rich, yet for your sakes he became
poor. :"
Only those who study this text in two
places can fully realize its power-the
Holy Land of Asia Minor and the holy
land of heaven. wish that some day
you might go to the Holy Land and take
a drink out of Jacobs we'll, and take
sail on Galilee, and read the sermon
on the mount while standing on Olivet,
and see the wilderness where Christ was
tempted, and be some afternoon on Cal
vary at about O'Clock, the hour at
which closed the cruciixion, and sit
under the sycamores and by the side of
brooks and think and dream and pray
about the poverty of him who came our
souls to save. But you may be denied
that, and SO here, in another continent
and in another hemisphere and in scenes
as different as possible, we recount as
well we may how poor was our heaven
ly Prince. But in the other holy land
above we may all study the riches that
he left behind when he started for
earthly expedition, Come, let us bar
gain to meet each other at the door of
the Fathers mansion, or on the bank of
the river just where it rolls from updeF
the throne, Or at the outside gate. Jesus
got the contrast by exchanging that
world for this. We will get it by ex-
changing this world for that. There
and then you will understand more of
the wonders of the grace of our LORD
Jesus Christ who, Though he was rich,
yet for your sakes became poor. :"
Yes, grace, free grace, sovereign
grace, omnipotent grace Among the