Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1897-08-13

Blair. We see a wreck in sight, We
must 90 out and save the crew and
passengers We wait until we get on
our fne cap and coat and find our shin
ing oars, and then we push out methodi-
cally aud scientifically, while some
plain shoresman, in rough fishing smack
and with broken oar lock goes ont and
gets the crew aud passengers and brings
them ashore in safety. We throw down
our delicate oars and say: What a
ridiculous thing to save men in that
way! You ought to have done it scien-
tifically and beautifully" All" says
the shoresman, IF those sufferers had
waited until you got out your fine boat
they would have gone 10 the bottom.
The work Of religious teacher is to
save men, and though every law Of
grammar should be snapped in the un-
dertaking, and there be nothing but
awkwardness and laundering in the
mode, all hail to the man who saves
soul.
Christ, in his preaching, was plain,
earnest and wonderfully sympathetic.
We cannot dragon men into heaven.
We cannot drive them in with the butt
end Of a catechism. We waste our time
in trying to catch flies with acids in-
stead Of the sweet honeycomb Of the
gospel We Try to make crab apples do
the work Of pomegranates.
The Sorrows Of Jesus.
Aggin, Jesus was wonderful in his
sorr0ws The sun smote him, and the
cold chilled him, the rain pelted him,
thirst parched him and hunger exhaust
ed him Shall | compare his sorrow to
the scaf No. for that is sometimes
hushcd into a calm. Shall compare
it with the night? No, for that some
times CLEANS with Orion or kindles
with Aurora. If one thorn should be
thrust through your temple you would
faint But here Is a whole crown made
from the rhamnus or spina Christi
small, sharp, stingin2 thorns. The mob
make a cross. They put down the long
beam, and On it they fasten shorter
that have been doing kindnesses and
wiping away tears-hear the hammer
driving the spikes through them Those
!eet, that have been going about on
ministrations of mercy - battered
against the cross. Then they lift it up.
Look. look. lookl Who will help him
now? Come, men Of Jerusalem-ye
whose dead he brought to life, ye whose
sick he healed-who will help himg
Who will seize the weapons Of the sol
diers? None to help. Having carried
such a cross for us, shall we refuse TO
take our cross for him!
Shall Jesus bear the cross alone
And all the world 90 freef
No: there's a cross for every one,
And there's cross FOR me.
You know the process Of migrating.
You bore a hole into a tree and put IN
the branch Of another tree. This tree
of the cross was hard and rough, but
into the holes where the nails went
there have been grated branches Of the
tree of life that now bear fruit for all
nations. The original tree was bitter,
but the branches ingrafted We're sweet.
and now all the nations pluck the fruit
and live forever.
Again. Christ was wonderful IN his
victories.
First over the forces Of nature. The
sea is a crystal sepulcher. 1t swallowed
the Central America, the President and
the Spanish Armada as easily as any
av that ever floated on it, The inland
lakes are fully as terrible in their
wrath. Galilee, when aroused IN
storm. is overwhelming, and yet that
sea crouched in his presence and licked
his feet. He knew all the waves and
winds. When he beckoned, they came.
When he frowned, they fed. The heel
of his foot made no indentatiOn on the
sohdiGed water. Medical science has
wrought great changes in rheumatic
limbs and diseased blood, but when
muscles are entirely withered no human
mower can restore them, and when
limb is once dead it is dead But here
is paralytic-his hand lifeless Christ
SAWS TO him, "Stretch forth thy hand,
and he stretches IL forth.
In the eye infirmary how many dis
eases Of that delicate organ have been
cured? But Jesus says TO one born
blind. "Be open, " and the light Of heay-
en- rushes through gates that have never
before been opened. The frost or an Ak
NAV kill a tree, but Jesus smites one
dead with a word
Chemistry can do many wonderful
things. but what chemist, at wedding
when the refreshment gave out could
change a pail Of water into a cask OF
wine?
What human voice could command a
school of fish? Yet here is a voice that
marshals the scaly tribes, until IN the
nlace where they had let down the net
and pulled it up with no fish in 1t they
let il down again, and the disciples lay
hold and begin to pull. when, by reason
Of the multitude Of fish, the net brake.
Nature is mis- servant. The flowers
he twisted them into his sermons; the
winds-they were his lullaby when he
silent in the boat; the rain-it hung
elittering Oh the thick foliage Of the
parables; the star Of Bethlehem-i'
sang a Christmas carol over his BIRTH
the roc1s-they beat dirge at his
death.
Behold his victory over the grave
The hinges Of the family vault become
very rusty because they are never
opened except to take another in. There
is a knob on the outside Of the sepul-
cher. but none on the inside. Here
comes the conquerOr Of death. He en-.
ters that realm and says, "Daughtero'
.Jairas, sit up" and she sat rp IC
Lazarus. Come forth, and he came
forth. To the widows son he said
"Get up from that bier" aud he goes
home with his mother. Then Jesus
snatched up the keys of death and
hung them to his girdle and cried until
all the graveyards Of the earth heard
him: "Oh, death, I will be thy plague
Oh. grave, | will be thy destructionP
Christ's Coming Victories.
But Christs victories have only jus