Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-07-31

| Cl6Ecln. lUduk 1OO lludt the SdF-
| iours garments smell of cassia!
Christ eE.k Healer.
Suppose d man were sick, and there
was a phial on his mantelpiece with
medicine he knew would cure him, and
he refused to take it, what would you
say of him? He is a suicide. And
what do you say of that man who, sick
in sin, has the healing medicine of
Gods grace offered him and refuses to
take it? If he dies, he is a suicide.
People talk as though God took a man
and led him out to darkness and death,
as though he brought him up to the
cliffs and then pushed him off. Oh,
mol When a man is lost, it is not be-
cause God pushes him off; it is because
he jumps off. In olden times a suicide
was buried at the crossroads, and the
people were accustomed to throw
stones upon his grave. So it seems to
me there may be at this time a man
who is destroying his soul, and as
though the angels Of God were here to
bury him at the point where the roads
of life and death cross each other,
throwing upon the grave the broken
law and a great pile Of misimproYed
privileges, SO that those going by may
look at the fearful mound and learn
what a suicide it is when an immortal
soul, for which Jesus died, puts itself
out of the way.
When Christ trod this planet with
foot Of flesh, the people rushed after
him-people who were sick, and those
who, being so sick they could not walk,
hU fri
I see a mother holding up her little
child, saying: "Cure this Group, Lord
Jesus! Cure this scarlet fever" And
others: "Cure this ophthalmia! Give
ease and rest to this spinal distress!
Straighten this club foot" Christ
made every house where he stopped a
dispensary. I do not believe that in
the 10 centuries which have gone by
since, his heart has got hard. I feel
that we can come now with all our
wounds Of soul and get his benedic-
ton. 0 Jesus, here we are. We want
healing. We want sight. We want
health. We want life. "The whole
need not a physician, but they that are
sick" Blessed be God that Jesus
Christ comes through this assemblage
now, his garments smelling Of myrrh"
that means fragrance, 'and aloes''-
they mean bitter sacrificial memories,
''and cassia"-that means medicine and
cure.
Out of Ivory Palaces.
According to my text, he comes "out
Of the ivory palaces" You know, or
If you do not know I will tell you now,
that some Of the palaces Of olden time
were adorned with ivory. Ahab and
Solomon had their homes furnished
with it. The tusks of African and
Asiatic elephants were twisted into all
manner of shapes, and there were
stairs of ivory, and chairs Of ivory,
and tables Of ivory and floors of ivory,
and pillars Of ivory, and windows of
ivory, and fountains that dropped into
basins of ivory. and rooms that had
ceilings Of ivory. Oh, white and over
mastering beauty! Green tree branch
es sweeping the white curbs. Tapestry
trailing the snowy floors. Brackets of
light flashing on the lustrous surround
ings. Silvery music ripping on the
beach Of the arches. The mere thought
of it almost stuns my brain, and you
say: "Oh, if 1 could only have walked
over such floors! If l could have
thrown myself in such a chair! If l
could have heard the drip and dash of
those fountainsr' You shall have
something better than that if you only
let Christ introduce you. From that
place he came, and to that place he
proposes to transport you, for his ''gar-
ments smell of myrrh and aloes and
cassia out of the ivory palaces" What
of the French, the Windsor castle of
the English, the Spanish Alhambra, the
Russian Kremlin, are mere dungeons
compared with it! Not so many cas-
ties on either side the Rhine as on both
sides of the river of God-the ivory
palaces! One for the angels, insuffera-
bly, bright, winged, fire eyed, tempest
charioted; one for the martyrs, with
blood red robes from under the altar;
one for the King, the steps Of his pal
ace the crown Of the church militant;
one for the singers, who lead the 144,-
900; one for you, ransomed from sin;
one for me, plucked from the burning.
Oh, the ivory palaces!
Realms of Beauty.
Today it seems to me as if the win
dows of those palaces were illumined
for some great victory, and look and
see, climbing the stairs of ivory and
walking on floors of ivory, some whom
we knew and loved on earth. Yes, I
know them. There are father and
mother, not 80 years and 70 years, as
when they left us, but blithe and
young as when on their marriage day.
And there are brothers and sisters, mer-
rier than when we used to romp across
the meadows together. The cough
gone. The cancer cured. The erysipe-
las healed. The heart break over, oh, |