St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-09-02

NJ
might appear to some other one of our
1--WE 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 nyrrh.
Woal6 that you all knew his sweet
ness, How soon you would turn from
ali o,he- attractions! II tie phiioso-
pher leaped out of his bath in frenzy
of ioy and clapred his haLds ond rusned
tbroneh the streets because he hcd
fonnd the solution of mathematical
nroblem. how will you feel leaping
from the fountain Of Saviour's mercy
and partlon. washed clean and mode
white as snow, when the question has
been solved: How can my soui 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 opm-
ion about where these aloes grow, wnat
is the color of the flower, what Is the
particular appearance of the herb. Sun
fee 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-
pest to me the bitterness Of q Sa-
,iour's sufferings. Were there ever
nights on the mountains, nights on the
sea, nights in the desert? Who ever
had such a 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 space on His back as wide
as your two fingers where he was not
whipped? Was there q space on His
brow an inch square where he was not
cut of the briers? When the spike
struck at the instep, did it not go clean
| 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 Saviour's
heart going out to the lepcr and the
| adultress; but who soothed Christ? He
had q fit place neither to be born nor to
die. A poor babe! A poor lad! A poor
| young man! Not SO much as q taper to
cheer His dying hours. Even the can
die of the sun snuffed out. Was it not
oil aloes? Our sins. sorrows, bereave-
ments, losses and all the agonies OF
eartk 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 distorted countenance and q
shudder from head to foot and =
gurgling strangulation. Aloes! Aloel:
Nothing but aloes! All this for Him
self? All this to get the fame in the
world of being martyr? All this in
spirit of stubborness, because he did
not like Caesar? No. no! All this be-
cause He wanted to pluck ne and You
from hell. because He wanted 10
raise me and you to Hesvtn. fecaCse
we were lost, and He Wanted us found.
Because we were blind, and He wanted
us to see. Because we were serfs, and
in whose cup of life the sacchar-
inc has predominated; 0 ye who
have had bright and sparkling bev-
erages, how do you feel toward
Him who in your stead and to pure hasc
your disinthrallment took the aloes.
the unsavory aloes, the bitter aloes?
Your third curiosity is to know why
these garments of Christ are o.lorous
with cassia. This was q plant which
grew in India and thendj joining islands.
You do not care to hear what kind of q
flower it had or what kind of q 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 q superfuous 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 to differ, my brother, from you.
None of you can be better in physical
health than am, and yet must say we
arc all sick. have taken the diagnosis
of your case and have examined all tho
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 uF
or mollified with ointment" The
, mayasmus of sin is on us, the palsy, the
/ dropxy, the leprosy. The man that j,
/ expiring tonight in the next street
, the allopathic and homeopathic doctors
have given him up and his friends now
!. standing around to take his last word,
, lis no more certainly dying as to hi,
body than you and are dying unless
. we have taken the medicine from God.
, apothecary. All the leaves of this Bibl'
, are only so many prescriptions from
, the Divine physician, written, not ii
, Latin. like the prescriptions of earthl,
. physicians, but written in plain Eng
{ lish so that "man, though q fool. nees
E not err therein" Thank God that th,
. Saviour's garments smell of cassia!
Suppose q man were sick, and ther
!, was a phial on his nsntelpiece witl
medicine he knew would cure him, an
/ he refused to take it, what would yo1
E say Of him? He is suicide. And wha
: do you say Of that man who, sick in sir
: has the healing medicine of Gods grac
! offered him and refuses to take it?
I he dies. he is = suicide. People talk q
i though God took man and led him ou
L to darkness and death. as though H
n brought him up to the cliffs and the
; pushed him of. oh, no: When ma
a is lost, it is not because God pushes hir
o on; it is because he jumps on. In olde
Il times suicide was buried at the cross
t roads, and the people were accustome
4 to throw stones upon his grave. So
4 seems to me there may be at this tim
h q man who is destroying his soul. an
S as though the angels of God were her
h to bury him at the point where tn
: roads of life and death cross each otheI