The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-04-07

as yours certainly. he was dS SICK duO
as weary. Not a nerve or muscle or
ligament escaped. All the pangs Of all
the nations of all the ages compressed
into one sour cup. He took the vine
gari
THE sOURNESS OF POVERTY.
There is also the sourness of poverty.
Your income does not meet your out
SERMON NO -
goings, and that always gives an ION
est man anxiety. There is no Agn Of
restitution about you-plcasant ap-
pearance and a cheerful home for you
but Tod only knows what a time you
have had to manage your private
finances. Just as the bills run up the
wages seem to run down. You may say
nothing, III life to you is a hard push,
and when you sit Town with your wife
and talk over the expenses you both
rise up discouraged. You abridge here,
and o abridge there, and you get
things snug for smooth sailing and, 10,
suddenly there is a large doctors bill
to pay, or you have lost your pocket
book, or some debtor has failed, and
o are thrown abeam end. Well broth
er, o are in glorious company. Christ
owned not the house in which he stop
ped, or the colt on which he rode, or
the boat in which he sailed. He lived
in a borrowed house. He vas buried in
a borrowed grave. Exposed to all kinds
of weather, yet he had only one suit of
clothes. He breakfasted in the morning,
and no n could possibly tell where he
could get anything to eat before night.
He would ave been pronounced a
financial failure. He had to perform a
miracle to get money to pay a tai bill.
Not a dollar did he own. Privation of
domesticity; privation Of nutritious
food; privation of a comfortable couch
on which to sleep; privation of all
worldly The kings of the
earth had chased chalices out Of which
to drink, but Christ had nothing but
a plain cur set before him, and it was
very sharp, and it was very sour. He
took the vinegar.
There were years that passed along
before your family circle was invaded
by death, but the m the charmed
circle was broken everything seemed to
dissolve. Hardly have you put the black
apparel in the wardrobe before o
have again to take it out. Great and
rapid changes in your family record.
You got the house and r~ejoiced in it,
but the charm was gone as soon as the
Grape hung on the doorbell. The one
upon whom you most depended was
Ike away from you. A cold marble
slab lies on your heart today. Once, as
the children romped through the house,
you put your hand owe your aching
head and said, ooh, if I could only
have it still" Oh, it is too still now.
You lost your patience when the tops
and the strings and the shells were left
amid floor; but, oh, you would be will
ing to have the trinkets scattered all
over the floor again if they were scat
tered by the same hands.
With what a ruthless plowshare be-
reavement rips up the heart! But
Jesus knows all about tina You cam
not tell him anything now in regard
to bereavement. He had only a few
friends, and when He lost one It
brought tears to His eyes. Lazarus
a often entertained Him at his house.
Now Lazarus is dead and buried, and
Christ breaks down with emotion, the
CONFUSION of grief shuddering through
all the ages of bereavement. Christ
( knows hat it is to go through the
J house missing a familiar inmate. Christ
knows what it is to see an unOccupied
place at the table. Were there not four
: of them-Mary and Martha and Christ
and Lazarus? Four of them. But
where is Lazarus? Lonely and aff1ict-
ed Christ, His great loving eyes filled
with tears! Oh, yes, yes! He knows
! all about the lonliness and the heart
break. He took the vinegar!
NONE CAN ESCAPE DEATH.
Then there is the sourness of the
death hour. Whatever else ~ may es-
cape, that acid sponge will be pressed
to u lips. I sometimes have a curios-
ity to know how / will behave when
, come to die. Whether 1 will be calm or
excited, whether I will be filled with
"Reminiscences or with anticipation,
cannot say. But come to the point 7
must and o must. An officer from
the future world will knock at the door
of our hearts and serve on US a writ
of ejectment, and we will have to sur
render. And we will wake up after
these autumnal and wintry and verna]
and summary glorieS have vanished
from our vision. We will wake up into
a realm which a only one season,
and that the seasOn of everlasting love
But you say, II don't want to break
out from my present associations. 1t is
so chilly and so damp to go down the
stairs of that vault. l don't want any
thing drawn so tightly over my eyes
If there were only some way of break
ing through the partition between
worlds without tearing this body all to
shreds! l wonder if the surgeons and
the doctors cannot compound a mixture
by which this body and soul can all
the time be kept together. Is there nc
escape from this separation" None
absolutely none. A great many mer
tumble through the gates Of the future
as it We're, and we do not know where
they have gone, and they only ado
gloom and mystery to the passage, blu
jesus ~ IIllSHllly SlOIIl6U LIE
gates of that future world that they
have never since been closely shut
Christ knows what it is to leave this
world, of the beauty of which He was
more appreciative than we ever could
!, be. He knows the exquisiteness of the
phosphorescence of the sea; He trod it
, He knows the glories of the spangle6
! canopy of His wilderness pillow. HI
!, knows about the lilies; He twisted
! them into His sermon. He knows
:. about the owls of the air; they whir.
: red their way through His discourse
= He knows about the sorrows of leavin,
: this beautiful world. Not a taper wa
: kindled IN the darkness. He died ply
sicianless. He died in cold sweat an,
l.. dizziness and hemorrhage and agony
t that have put Him in sympathy wit
Y all the dying. He goes through Chris
Y tendon and gathers up the stings on
S of all the death pillows, and He put
e them under His own neck and head
e He gathers on his own tongue tn
= burning thirsts of many generations
u The sponge is soaked in the sorrows O
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