The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-08-26

us out OF the nTe, Sucn 1OOJ 10 trdinple
our enemies, such heart to embrace
all our necessities? | struggle for some
metaphor with which to express Him
He is not like the bursting forth of a
full orchestra; that is too loud. He is
not like the sea when dashed to rage by
the tempest; that is too boisterous.
He is not like the mountain, its brow
wreathed with the lightnings; that is
too solitary. Give US softer type,
gentler comparison. We have seemed
to see Him with our eyes and to hear
Him with our ears and to'touch Him
with our hands. Oh, that to-day He
might appear to some other one OF our
five senses! Aye, the nostril shall dis
cover His presence. He comes upon us
like spice gales from Heaven. Yea, His
garments smell of lasting and all per-
vasive myrrh.
Would that you all knew his sweet
ness! How soon you would turn from
all other attractions! If the philoso-
pher leaped out of his bath in frenzy
of JOY and clapped his hands and rushed
through the streets because he he'd
found the solution of a mathematical
problem, how will you feel leaping
| from the fountain of a Saviour's mercy
and pardon, washed clean and made
white as snow, when the question has
been solved: How can my soul be
saved?" Naked, frostbitten, storm
| dashed soul, let Jesus this hour throw
around thee the garments that smell
of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of
the ivory palaces
Your second curiosity is to know why
the robes of Jesus are odorous with
aloes. There is some difference of opin-
ion about where these aloes grow, what
is the color of the flower, what is the
particular appearance of the herb. Suf-
flee it for you and me to know that
aloes mean bitterness the world over,
and when Christ comes with garments
bearing that particular odor they sug-
| gest to me the bitterness of Sa-
viour's sufferngs. Were there ever
such nights as Jesus lived through
nights on the mountains, nights on the
sea, nights in the desert? Who ever
had such hard reception as Jesus
had? A hostelry the first, an unjust
trial in oyer and terminer another, a
foul-mouthed, yelling mob the last.
Was there space on His back as wide
as your two fingers where he was not
whipped? Was there a space on His
brow an inch square where he was not
cut of the briers? When the spike
struck at the instep, did it not go clean
through to the hollow of the foot? Oh,
long, deep, bitter pilgrimage! Aloes,
aloes!
John leaned his head on Christ, but
who did Christ lean on? Five thousand
men fed by the Saviour. Who fed
Jesus? The sympathy of Saviour's
heart going out to the leper and the
adultress; but who soothed Christ? He
had a fit place neither to be born nor to
die. A poor babe! A poor ladi A poor
young man! Not so much as taper tc
cheer His dying hours. Even the can.
die of the sun snuffed out. Was it not
all aloes? Our sins, sorrows, bereave
ments, losses and all the agonies Of
earth and hell picked up as in one clus
ter and squeezed into one cup thai
pressed to His lips until the acid, nau
seating, bitter draft was swallowed
with distorted countenance and 6
shudder from head to foot and {
gurgling strangulation. Aloes! Aloe5
Nothing but aloes! All this for Him
self? All this to get the fame in tn
world of being martyr? All this il
a spirit of stubborness, because lie dit
not like Caesar? No, no. All this be
cause He wanted to pluck ne and yo'
from hell. Because He wanted Il
raise me and you to Heaven. Eecaus
we were lost, and He wanted us found
Because we were blind, and He wantet
us to see. Because we were serfs, ant
He wanted, US manumitted. o y
in whose cup of life the sacchar
inc has predominated; O ye VIII
have had bright and sparkling bev
erages, how do you feel towart
Him who in your stead and to purthas
your disinthrallment took the aloes
the unsavory aloes, the bitter aloes?
Your third curiosity is to know VIII,
these garments of Christ are odorou
with cassia. This was plant whicl
grew in India and the adjoining islands
You do not care to hear what kind of
: flower it had or what kind of stalk.
is enough for me to tell you that it wa
used incidentally. In that land and il
: that age, where they knew but littl
about pharmacy, cassia was used to ar
rest many forms of disease. So, when il
! my text we find Christ coming with gar
ments that smell of cassia, it suggest
to me the healing and curative power o
the Son of God. "Oh," you say, NOV
you have superhuous idea! We ar
not sick. Why do we want cassiaP w
, are athletic. Our respiration is perfect
] Our limbs are 1.-the, and on bright coo
days we feel we could bound like roe.
l beg to differ, my brother, from you
: None of you can he better in physica
health than am, and yet must say w
are all sick. have taken the diagnose
of your case and have examined all tn
l best authorities on the subject, and
have to tell you that you are full o