Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-06-03

TO understand this, that wien man
becomes a Christian he does not become
slave, but that he becomes free man;
that he has larger liberty after he be-
comes a child of God than before he be-
came child of God General Fisk said
that he once stood at a slave block where
an old Christian minister was being sold
The auctiOneer said Of him: "What bid
do | hear for this man? He is a very
good kind of a man; he is a minister
Somebody said twenty dollars" (he
was very old and not worth much)
somebody else twenty y-five"-" thirty"
-" thirty-fve" -" forty" The aged
Christian minister began to tremble. He
had expected to be able to buy his own
freedom, and he had just $40 and ex-
pected with the $40 to get free. AS the
bids ran up the old man trembled more
and more. Forty" -" forty -tive" -
"fifty''-"fifty- -fve"- sixty" -"six-
ty-five." The old man cried out "sey-
enty." He was afraid they would out
bid him. The men around We're trans
fixed. Nobody dared bid, and the auc-
tioneer struck him down to himself
done-donel
Purchased by Christ.
But by reason of sin we are poorer
than that African. We cannot buy our
own deliyerance. The voices Of death
are bidding for us, and they bid US in
and they bid us down. But the Lord
Jesus Christ comes and says: Il will
buy that man. bid for him my Bethle-
hem manger; bid for him my hunger on
the mountain bid for him my aching
head; | bid FOR him my fainting heart;
bid for him all my wounds. " A voice
from the throne Of God says; 1t is
enoughl Jesus has bought him.
Bought with a price. The purchase
complete. 1t is done.
The great transactions done.
am my Lord 5, and he is mine.
He drew me, and followed on,
Charmed to confess the voice divine.
Why. is not man free when he gets
rid Of his sins? The sins Of the tongue
zone; the sins of action gone; the sins
of the mind gone. All the transgressions
of 30, 40, 90, 10 years gOne-no more
in the soul than the malaria that float
ed in the atmosphere 1000 years ago;
for when my Lord Jesus pardons man
he pardons him, and there is no half
way work about it,
Here l see a beggar going along the
turnpike road. He is worn out with dis
ease. He is stiff in the joints. He Is
ulcered all over. He has rheum in his
ewes. He is sick and wasted. He Is IN
rags Every time he puts down his
swollen feet he cries "Oh, the pain!'
He sees a fountain by the roadside un-
der tree, and ne crawls up to that
fountain and says: Il must wash. Here
NAV cool my ulcers. Here l may get
rested" He stoops down and scoops up
in the palm of his hands enough water
N slake his thirst, and that is all gone.
Then he stoops down and begins to
wash his eyes, and the rheum is all
gone. Then he puts III his swollen feet,
and the swelling is gone. Then, willing
no longer to be only half cured he
plunges in, and his whole body is layed
in the stream, and he gets upon the
bank well. Meantime the owner OF the
mansion up yonder comes down. walk
ing through the rayine with his only
son. and he sees the bundle Of rags and
asks. Whose rags are these!' A voice
from the fountain says, Those are my
rags. " Then says the master to his son,
"Go ND to the house and get the best
new suit you can find and bring it
down" And he brings down the clothes,
and the beggar is clothed in them and
he looks around and says: Il was filthy,
but now J. am clean. 1 was ragged, but
now | am robed / was blind, but now
1 see. Glory be TO the owner OF that
mansion. and glory be TO that son who
brought me that new suit Of clothes,
and glory be to this fountain where l
have washed and where all who will
NAV wash and be clean!" Where sin
abounded. grace doth much more
abound. The bird has been dipped now
let it fly away.
The Way Indicated.
The next thing notice about this
bird when it was loosened-and this Is
the main idea-is that it flew away.
Which way did it go? When You let
bird loose from your grasp. which way
does it fly? Up. What are wings for'
To fiy with. Is there anything in the
suggestion Of the direction taken by that
bird to indicate which way we ought to
go?
Thy better portion trace.
Rise from transitory things
To heaven, thy native place
We should be going heavenward
That is the suggestion But l know that
we have a great many drawbacks. You
had them this morning perhaps You
had them yesterday or the day before,
and, although you want to be going
heavenward, you are constantly discour-
aged But l suppose when that bird
went out of the priests hands 1t weut
by sometimes STOPPING. A
bird does not shoot directly up, but this
is the motion Of a bird. SO the soul scars
tOWdTu bOus IlNiilS uP AZ wv ''NN -
hines depressed by trial 1t does not al
kavs 90 in the direction it would like
o 20 but the main course is right
There is one passage in the Bible which
l quote oftener to myself than any 9TH
er, "He knoweth our frame and he re-
membereth that we are dust. "
There is legend in Iceland which
saws that when Jesus was boy playing
with his comrades one Sabbath day, he
made birds of clay, and as these birds OF
clay were standing upon the ground an
old Sadducee came along and he was
disgusted at the sport - dashed the
birds to pieces. But the legend says that
Jesus waved his hand above the broken
birds and they took wing and went sing
ing heavenward. OF course that Is a
fable among the Icelanders. But 1t Is
not fable that we are dust, and that,
the hand Of divine grace waved over us
once, we go singing toward the skies
l wish, my friends that we could
live in higher atmosphere. IL a man $