The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1898-04-02

ferent ages have tried to imagine the
features of Christ and put them upon
canvas; but we will have to wait until
with our own eyes we see Him and
with our own eyes we can hear Him.
And yet there is way OF seeing
and hearing Him now. have to tell
you that unless you see and hear Christ
on earth you will never see and hear
Him in Heaven. Look There He is
Behold the Lamb of God. Can you not
see Him? Then pray to God to take
the scales off your eyes. Look that
way-try to look that way. His voice
comes down to you this day-comes
down to the blindest, to the deafest
soul, saying: Look unto Me, all We
ends of the earth, and be We saved. for
/ am God, and there is none else"
Proclamation of universal eman-
cipation for all slaves. Procla-
nation of universal amnesty for all
rebels. Belshazzar gathered the Ba-
bylonish mobiles to his table; George |.
entertained the lords of England at a
banquet; Napoleon III. welcomed the
key to his feast; the emperor of Ger
many was glad to have our minister,
! George Bancroft sit down with him at
his table, but tell me, We who know
most of the worlds history, what other
king ever asked the abandoned and the
| forlorn and the wretched and the out
cast to come and sit beside him?
Oh, wonderful invitation You can
take it to-day, and stand at the head of
the darkest alley in any city, and say:
"Come Clothes for your rags, salve
for your sores, throne for your eter-
nal reigning." A Christ that talks
like that, and acts like that, and par
dons like that-do you wonder that
Stephen stood looking at Him? l hope
to spend eternity doing the same thing.
l must see Him; l must look upon that
face, once clouded with my sin, but
now radiant with my pardon. want
to touch that hand that knocked off
my shackles. l want to hear that
voice which pronounced my deliver
ance. Behold Him, little children, for
if you live to three-score years and ten,
you will see none SO fair. Behold
Him, We aged ones, for He only can
shine through the dimness of your fail
ing eyesight. Behold Him, earth. Be-
hold Him, Heaven. What a moment
when all the nations of the saved shall
gather around Christ! All faces that
way. All thrones that way, gazing on
Jesus.
His worth il all the nations knew,
Sure the whole earth would love Him. too
| pass on now, and look at Stephen
stoned. The world has always wanted
to get rid of good men. Their very
life is an assault upon wickedness.
Out with Stephen through the gates OF
the city. Down with him over the
precipice. Let every man come up and
drop a stone upon his head. But these
men did not so much kill Stephen as
they killed themselves. Every stone
rebounded upon them. While these
murderers were transfxed by the scorn
of all good men, Stephen lives in the
admiration of all Christendom. Ste
phen stoned, but Stephen alive. So all
good men must be pelted. All who
live cody in Christ Jesus must
suffer persecution. 1t is no eulogy of
man to say that everybody likes him.
Show me anyone who is doing all his
duty to state or church and / will show
you men who utterly abhor him.
If all men speak well of you, it is
because you are either a laggard or a
dolt. If a steamer makes rapid pro-
gress through the waves, the water
will boil and foam all around it.
Brave soldiers of Jesus Christ will hear
the carbines click. When / see man
with voice, and money, and influence
all on the right side, and some car
feature him, and some sheer at him,
and some denounce him, and men who
pretend to be actuated by right mo-
tives conspire to cripple him, to cast
him out to destroy him, l say: stephen
stoned"
or religious reform battling against
grog-shops, exposing wickedness in
high places, by active means trying to
purify the church and better the
worlds estate, and l find that some
newspapers anathematize him, and
men, even good men, oppose him and
denounce him, because, though he does
good, he does not do it in their way,
say: stephen stoned" The void
with infinite spite, took after Johr
Frederick Oberlin and Paul, and
Stephen of the text. But you notice
my friends, that while they assaulted
him they did not succeed really in kill
ing him. You may assault a good man
but you can not kill him.
On the day of his death Stephen
) spoke before few people in the san
hedrim; now he addresses all Christen
, dom. Paul the Apostle stood on Mars
J Hill addressing handful of philoso
piers who knew not so much abou
science as modern schoolgirl. To
day he talks to all the millions O
Christendom about the wonders of jus
: tification and the glories of resurrec
, ton. John Wesley was howled dowI
: by the mob to whom he preached, ant
' they threw bricks at him, and the,
denounced him, and they jostled him
and they spat upon him, and yet to
l day, in all lands, he is admitted to b.
1 the great father of Methodism. Booth
7 bullet vacated the presidential chair
} but from that spot of coajulated bloot
/ on the floor in the box of Ford's the
S alter there sprang up the new life of
i nation Stanhen stoned hut Stanhel