The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-04

the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. that
! though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor"
Was there ever a contrast so overpoWer-
ing as that between the MONDAY of
Christ's celestial departure and the mid
night of his earthly arrival? Sure enough,
the angels were out that night in the
sky, and an especial meteor acted as es-
cOrt, but all that was from other worlds,
and not from this world. The earth made
no demonstration of welcome. If 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 hared, not a trumpet blew,
not plume huttered. All the music and
the pOmp We're overhead. Our world open
ed for him nothing better than barn
door The Rajah OF Cashmere sent TO
Queen Victoria a bedstead OF carved gold
and a canopy that cost seven hundred and
fifty thousand dollars, but the world had
for the Prince of Heaven and Earth only
a litter of straw. The crown jewels in
the tower of London amount to fifteen
million dollars, but 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 att
erward came TO Bethlehem. To know how
real estate in all that Oriental country,
and sec what vineyard or what field he
owned. Not one. OF what mortgage was
he the MORTGAGE? 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 an order to pay his tax he had to
perform a miracle, putting the amount OF
the assessment in tishs mouth and haV-
ing ii hauled ashore. And after his death
the world rushed in to take an inventory
of his goods ana the entire aggregate was
the garments he had worn, sleeping in
them 10y 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 ne
said of the missionary prince: For your
sakes he became poor
The world could have treated him bet
ter if il had chosen. 1t had all the means
for making his earthly condition COM
Portable. Only few years before when
Pompey, the general, arrived in Brindsi
he was greeted with arches and costly
column which celebrated the twelve million
people whom he had killed or conquered
and he was allowed to wear his triumphal
robe in the Senate. The world had APP
plause for imperial butchers. but buffeting
for the Prince of Peace. Plenty of gold
en- chalces 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 a drink. Poor? Born
in another mans barn. and eating at an
other mans table, and cruising the lake
in another mans fishing smack, and bur
led in another mans tomb Four inspir-
ed authors wrote his biography and in
Vulnerable lives of Christ have been pub
lished. but he composed his autobiography
in a most compressed way. He said, II
have trodden the wine-press alone
Poor in the estimation OF nearly all the
prosperous classes. They called him Sab
bath-breaker, wine-bibber, traitor, bias
phemer, and ransacked the dictionary of
opprobrum from cover TO cover to ex-
press their detestation. I can think now
of only two well-to-do men who espoused
his cause Nicodemus and Joseph of Ari-
mathea. His friends for the most part
were people who, in that climate where
ophthalmia or Inflammation of the eyeball
sweeps ever and anon as a scourge, had
become blind, sick people who were anx-
ious to get well, and troubled people in
whose family there was some one dead
or dying. If he had a purse at all it was
empty. or we would have heard what the
soldiers did with the contents. Poor?
The pigeon in the dove-cote, the rabbit in
its burrow, the sill1-worm in it's 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. poet says:
If on windy days the raven
Gambol like a dancing sEif,
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
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 Gross?
Cleopatra, giving a banquet to Antony,
took a pearl worth a hundred thousand
dollars and dissolved it in vinegar and
swallowed it. But when our Prince ac-
cording to the Evangelist. In his last
hours, took the vinegar, in it had been
dissolved all the pearls of his heavenly
royalty. Down until there was no other
| harrassment to suffer poor until there
was no other pauperism to torture. Bill
| lions 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? "Ye 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 so to the Holy Land and take a
| drink out of Jacobs WELL and take a sail
| on Galilee, and read the Sermon on the
| Mount while standing on Olivet. and see
| the wilderness where Christ was tempt
/ ed, and be some afternoon on Calvary at
about o'clock-the hour at which closed
| the crucifXion-and sit under the syca-
| mores 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 hemis-
| phere, and in scenes as different as pos
| sibe, we recount as wen we may how
! poor was our Heavenly Prince. But i'm the
| other holy land above we may all study
| the riches that he left behind when he
| started for earthly expedition. Come, let
us bargain to meet each other at the
! door of the Fathers mansion, or on the
! bank OF the river just where it rolls from
L