Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1899-09-08

all our neCcSSltleSP ! struggle lOr 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 lashed 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 a softer type, a
gentler comparison. We have seemed
10 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 10 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 haLds and rushed
through the streets because he he'd
found the solution of mathematical
problem, how will you feel leaping
from the fountain of Sayour'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
lashed 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 sufferings. We're 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 a space on His back as wide
as your two fingers where he was not
whipped? Was there space on His
brow an inch square where he was not
cut of the briers? When the spike
struck at the instep, did il not go clean
through 10 the hollow of the foot? Oh,
long, deep, bitter pilgrimage! Aloes,
aloesl
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? lie
had fit place neither to be born nor to
die. A poor babe! A poor lad' A poor
young mani Not so much as taper 10
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 that
pressed to His lips until the acid, nau-
seating, bitter draft was swallowed
with a distorted countenance and
shudder from head to foot and
gurgling strangulation. Aloes! Aloea!
Nothing but aloes! All this for Him
self? All this to get the fame in the
world of being a martyr? All this in
spirit of stubboruess, because lie did
not like Caesar? No, no. All this be-
cause He wanted to pluck me and you
from hell. Because He wanted 10
raise me and you to Heaven. Because
we were lost, and lie wanted us found.
Because we were blind, and He wanted
us to see. Because we were serfs, and
He wanted us manumitted. o ye
in whose cup of life the sacchar-
inc has predominated; o ye who
have had bright and sparkling bev-
erages, how do you feel toward
Him who in your stead and to purchase
your dsinthrallment took the aloes,
the unsavory aloes, the bitter aloes?
Your third curiosity is TO know why
these garments of Christ arc odorous
with cassia. This was plant which
grew in India and the adjoining islands
You do not care TO hear what kind of Il
flower it had or what kind of 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
men's 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 superfluous ideal 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 TO differ, my brother, from you.
None Of you can Ee 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 hound up
or Modified with ointment" The
marasmus of sin is on US, the palsy, the
dropsy, the leprosy, The man that is
expiring tonight in the next street
the allopailic and homeopathic doctors
have given him up and his friends now
standing around to take his last words
is no more certainly dying as 10 his
body than you and ! are dying unless
we have taken he medicine from Gods
apotbecary. All the leaves OF this Bible
are only so many prescriptions from
the Divine Physician, written, not in
Latin, like the prescriptions Of earthly
H., IL.