The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-08-04

from the fountain Of a Saviour's mer-
cy and pardon, washed clean n 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
opinion about where these aloes grow,
hi is the color OF the flower, what
is the peculiar appearance of the herb.
Suffice it for you and me to know that
aloes mean bitterness the world over,
and when Christ comes with garments
bearing that particular dor they sug-
gest to me the bitterness Of a Saviour's
sufferings. Were there ever such nights
as Jesus lived through-nights on the
mountains, nights on the sea, nights
in the desert? Who ever a such a
hard reception as Jesus had? A hos
telry the first, and unjust trial in oyer
and ternIiner another, a foul mouthed,
yelling mob the last. Was there a
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 pix struck at the
instep, did it not go clear 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 a S%aviour's
heart going out to the leper and the
adulteress; but who soothed Christ?
He had a fit place neither to be born
nor to die. A DOOR babe. A poor lad!
A poor young man! Not so much as
a taper to cheer his dying hours. Even
the candle of the sun snuffed out. Was
1t not all aloes? Dur sins, sorrows. be-
~reavements, losses and 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 distorted countenance and a
shudder from head to foot and a gurg-
ling strangulation. Aloes! aloes! Moth
ing to get the fame in the world of
being a martyr? All this in a spirit of
stubbornness, a he did not like
Caesar? No, No! Al lthis because he
wanted to pluck me n you from hell.
Because he wanted to raise me and you
to heaven. Because we were lost, and
he wanted us found. Because we were
blind, and he wanted us to see. Because
we were serfs, and he wanted us man.
united. o we in whose cup of life the
saccharine has predominated; o We
who have had bright and sparkling
beverages, how do you feel toward him
who in your stead and to purchase
YOU disinthrallment too the aloes, the
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 lands.
You do not care to hear what kind of
a flower it had or what kind of a stalk.
r r ic nO,Jo forr wa fo fo1I xyo,r 4I@+ :
was used incidentally. In that land and
in that age, where they knew but little
about pharmacy, caSsia was used to
arrest many forms Of disease. SO, when
in my text we find Christ coming with
garments that smell of cassia, it sug-
gests to me the healing and curative
power of the Son of God. "Oh," you
say, nov you have a su%perf1uous
idea! We are not sick. Why do we
want cassia? We are athletic. Our res
piration is perfect. Our limbs are 1.-the,
and on bright cool days We feel we
could bound like a roe" I beg to diff
fer, my brother, from you. None of you
can be better in physical health than
I am, and yet I must say we are all
sick. I have taken the diagnosis of
your case and have examined all the
best authorities on the subject, inc I
have to tell you hat you are full of
wounds and bruises and putrefying
0ot -, 1l1Sl1 11OS oSC1l op
or Modified with ointment" The mar
asmus of sin is on us, the palsy, the
dropsy, the leprosy. The man that is
expiring tonight in h next street.-the
allopathic and homeopathic doctors
have given him up and his friends now
standing around to lake his last words
is no more certainly dying as to his
body than you and I 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 prescriptions of earthly
physicians, but written in plain Eng
lish so that a man, though a fool,
need not err therein" Thank God that
the S~aviOur'S garments smell of caSSia!
Suppose a man were sick, and there
was a phial on his mantelpiece with
medicine he knew would cure him, n
he refused to take it, what would you
say of him? He is a suicide. And what
10 you say of hat 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, no!
When a man is lost, it is not because
God pushes him off; it is because he
jumps off. In olden times a suicide
was buried at the crossroads, M 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 misimproved
privileges so that those going by may
look at the fearful mound and learn
what a suicide it is when an MINOR
tai soul for which Jesus died puts it
self out Of the way .
When Christ trod this planet with
foot of flesh, the people rushe after
him-people who were sick and those
who, being so sick they could not
walk, were brought by their friends.
Here 1 see a mother holding up her
little child, crying: Cure this Group,
Lord Jesus! Cure this scarlet fever!
others: Cure this ophthalmia!
Give ease and rest to this spinal dis
tress! Straighten this club foot!"
Christ made every house where he