The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-03-16

and a very graceful structure, but
suppose it was all guesswork. TIL,
painters of the different ages hav,
tried to imagine the features of Chris
ana put them upon canvas, but we viii
have to wait until with our own eve
we see Him and with our own ears W,
can hear Him. And yet there is wa,
OF seeing and hearing Him now.
have to tell you that unless you Sc,
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 yor
this day-comes down to the blindest
to the deafest soul, saying: "Lool
unto Me, all We ends of the earth, and
be saved, for l am God, and there
Is none else. Proclamation of
universal emancipation for all
slaves Proclamation of universal
amnesty for all rebels. Belshazzar
gathered the Babylonish mobiles to his
table, George l. entertained the lords
OF England at banquet, Napoleon III.
welcomed the czar of Russia and the
Sultan of Turkey to his feast, the en-
peror OF Germany 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 aban-
doned and the forlorn and the wretched
and the outcast 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:
Gomez Clothes for your rags, salve for
your sores, a throne for your eternal
reigning." A Christ that talks like that,
and acts like that, and pardons like
that do you wonder that Stephen
stood looking at Him? 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 nv
shackels. II want to hear that voice
which pronounced my deliverance. Be-
hold 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 falling
eyesight. Behold Him, earth. Behold
Him, Heaven. What a moment when
all the nations of the saved shall gath
er around Christ! All faces that way.
All thrones that way, gazing on Jesus.
His worth II all the nations knew,
Sure the whole earth would love Him. ton
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 preci-
pices. Let every man come up and
drop 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 transfixed 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 will
live godly 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 1 will show YOU
men who utterly abhor him.
If all men speak well of you, it is be-
cause you are either laggard or a
dolt. If steamer makes rapid prog
ress through the waves, the water will
boil and foam all around it. Brave
soldiers of Jesus Christ will hear the
carbines click. When l see a man
with voice, and money, and influence
all on the right side, and some carica-
ture him, and some sneer at him, and
some denounce him. and men who pre-
tend to be actuated by right motives
conspire to cripple him, to cast him out,
to destroy him, l say, stephen stoned"
When l see man in some great
moral or religious reform battling
against grog shops, exposing wicked
ness in high places, by active means
trying to purify the church and better
the worlds estate, and l find that some
't the newspapers mathematics him,
ana men, even good men, oppose him
md denounce him, because, though he
ioes good, he does not do it in their
way, l say: stephen stoned" The
world, with infinite spite, took after
Iohn Frederick Oberlin, and Paul. and
stephen of the text. But you notice,
NY friends, that while they assaulted
lim they did not succeed really in kill
ng him. You may assault a good man,
'ut you cannot kill him.
On the day of his death, Stephen
poke before few people in the San
ledrim; now he addresses all Christen-
lom. Paul the Apostle stood on Mars
Hill addressing handful of philoso-
hers who knew not SO much about sci-
nee as a modern school girl. To-day
e talks to all the millions of Christen-
ON about the wonders of justification
nd the glories of resurrection. John
Wesley was howled down by the mob
whom he preached, and they threw
ricks at him, and they denounced him.
nd they jostled him, and they spat
pom him, and yet to-day, in all lands.
e is admitted to be the great father
Methodism. Booths bullet vacated
ne presidential chair; but from that !
pot of coagulated blood on the floor in !,
ne box of Ford's theater there sprang +.