Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-08-03

of the flower. what is the particular APP
pearance Of the herb. Suffice IL for you
and me to know that aloes mean bitter
ness the world over, and when Christ
comes with garments bearing that par
ticular odor they suggest to me the bit
terness OF Saviours sufferings 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 a hard reception as Jesus
had2 A hostelry the first, an unjust trial
in oyer and termner another, a foul
mouthcd. yelling mob the last. Was
there a space on his back us wide ms your
two fingers where he was not whipped?
Was there n space on his brow an indh
square where he was not cut of the bri-
ers? When the spike struck at the in
step, did it not go clear through TO the
hollow OF the foot? oh. long, deep, Bit
ter 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 Saviours
heart going ont to the leper and the
adultercss; but who soothed Christ? lie
had fit place neither to be born nor to
die. A poor babe, A poor lad! A poor
young man, Not so much as a taper to
cheer his dying hours. Even the candle
OF TIE sun snuffed out. Was it not all
aloes? Our sins sorrows, bereayements.
losses ard all the agonies of earth and
hell picked up as in one cluster and
squeezed into one cup and that pressed
to his lips until the acrid nauseating
bitter draft was swallowed with a dis
oil aud chnllnr
head to foot and gurglng strangula-
ton. Aloes, Aloes! Nothing but alocs!
All this for himself? All this to get the
fame in the world of being "a martyr? All
this in spirit OF stubbornness. because
be did not like Caesar? No, no, All this
because he wanted to pluck me and you
from hell. Because he wanted to raise
me aud you to heaven. Because we were
lost, and he wanted us found. Because
we were blind. aud he wanted us to see.
Because we were serfs. and he wanted
us manumitted. . ye in whose cup Of
life the saccharine has prcdominated;
q ye who have had bright and spar
king beverages, how do you feel toward
him who i'll your stead and TO purchase
your observation-disclosures took the aloes, the
unsuvory aloes. the bitter aloes?
Your third curiosity is to know why
these garments of Christ are odorous
with cassia. This was a plant which
grew in India and the adjoining islands.
You do not care to hear what kind Of a
flower it had or what kind of a stalk 1t
is enough for me to tell you that it was
used incidentally. In that land and in
that age, where they knew but little
about pharmacy, cassia was used to ar
rest many forms of disease. SO, when in
my text we find Christ coming with gar
ments that smell of cassia, it suggests to
me the healing and curative power of
the Son of God. oh" you say, now
you have a super1uous idea, We are
not sick. Why do we want cassia? We
are athletic. Our respiration is perfect.
our limbs are 1.-the, and on bright cool
days we feel we could bound like roe"
| beg 10 differ, my brother, from you.
None OF you can be better in physical
health than ! am, and yet | must say we
are all sick. | have taken the diagnosis
of your case and have examined all the
best authorities on the subject, and
have to tell You that you are full of
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores,
which have not been bound up or molli-
fed with ointment" The marasmus of
sin is on us, the palsy, the dropsy, the
leproSy. The man that is expiring to-
night in the next street.-the a'lopathic
and homeopathic doctors have given him
MP and his friends now standing around
10 take his last words-is no more GER
tainly dying as to his body than you and
| are dying unless we have taken the
medicine from Gods apothecary. All
the leaves Of this Bible are only so many
prescriptions from the Divine Physician,
written, not in Latin, like the prescrip-
tions of earthly physicians, but written
in plain English so that man, though
q fool, need not err therein Thank
God that the Saviours garments smell OF
caSsia.
Suppose n man were sick, and there
was Il phial on his mantclpiece with
medicine he knew would cure him. and
he refused to take it, what would you
say of him? lie is suicide. And what
do you say of that man who, sick in sin
has the healing medicine of Gods grac,
offered him and refuses to take it? i
he dies, he is suicide. People talk a'
! though God took man and led him on
TO darkness and death, as though II,
! brought him up to the cliffs and ther
| pushed him off. Oh, no, When n MAJ
is lost, it is not because God pushes hin
off; it is because he jumps off. In older
times a suicide was buried at the cross
roads, and the people were accustomed
to throw stones upon his grave. So i
seems 10 me there may be at this time
man who is destroying his soul, and al
though the angels of God were here I,
bury him at the point where the roads o
life and death cross each other, THROWN,
upon the grave the broken law and
great pile of misimproved privileges 81
that those going by may look at the fear
ful mound and learn what a suicide it i
when an immortal soul for which Jesu
died puts itself ont of the way.
When Christ trod this planet with foo
OF flesh, the people rushed after him
people who were sick and those who, be
ing so sick they could not walk, wcr
brought by their friends. Here | see
mother holding up her little child, crying
"Cure this Group, Lord Jesus! Cure thi
scarlet fever!" And others: Cure thi
ophthalmia! Give ease and rest to thi
spinal distress, Straighten this clu
foot" Christ made every house whcr
he stopped a dispensary. | do not be
licye that in the 10 centuries whic
have gone by since, his heart ha
got hard. | feel that we can come nov
with all our wounds Of soul and get hi
benediction. o Jesus, here we are! w
want healing. We want sight We wan
health. We want life. The whole nee
not "A physician, but they that are sick.
Blessed be God that Jesus Christ come
through this assemblage now, his "gaI
linz nt IA 1at