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

to kiss away our sorrow, such hand
to snatch US out Of the fire, such a
foot to tramDle our enemies, such a
heart to embrace all our necessities?
I struggle for 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 dashed to rage by the tenn
pest. That is too boisterous. He is
not like the mountain, it's brow wreath
ed with the lightning. That is too soli-
tary. Give us a softer type, gentler
comparison. We have seemed to see
him with our eyes and to hear him
with our ears and to touch him with
our hands. Oh, that today he might
appear to some other one of our five
senses! Aye, the nostril shall discover
his presence. He comes upon us like
spice gales from heaven. Yea, his gar
ments smell of lasting and all perva-
sive myrrh
AIoes of Bitterness.
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 hands and rush
ed through the streets because he had
found the solution Of a mathematical
problem, how will you feel leaping
from the fountain of a Saviour's mercy
and pardon, washed clean and made
white as snow, when the question has
been solved, "How can my soul be
savedY Naked, frost bitten, storm
dashed soul, let Jesus this hour throw
around thee the garments that smell
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, what is the color Of the flower,
what is the particular 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
odor they suggest to me the bitter
ness 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 had such hard reception
as Jesus had? A hostelry the first, an
unjust trial in oyer and terminer
another, 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 spike struck at the
instep, did it not go clear through to
the hollow of the foot? Oh long, deep,
bitter pilgrimage! Aloes! Aloes!
Man Made Free.
John leaned his head on Christ, but
sand men fed by the Saviour; who fed
Jesus? The sympathy of a Saviour's
heart going out to the leper and the
but who soothed Christ?
He had a fit place neither to be born
nor to die. A poor 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
it not all alOeS? Our sins, sorrows,
bereavements, losses and all the ago
MES 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 counte-
nance and shudder from head to foot
and a gurgling strangulation. Aloes,
aloes! Nothing but aloes. All this for
himself? All this to get the fame in
the world Of being a martyr? All this
in a spirit of stubbornness, because he
did not like Caesar? No, no. All this
because he wanted to pluck me and
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 manumitted. Oh, We in
whose cup of life the saccharin has
oh, We who have had
bright and sparkling beverages, how
do you feel toward him who in your
stead and to purchase your disenthrall-
ment, took the aloes, the unsavory
aloes, the bitter aloes?
The Divine Physician.
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 is
lands. You do not care to hear what
kind of flower 1t had or what kind Of
a 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 arrest many forms of disease.
So, when in my text we find Christ
coming with garments 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 SUI
perhuouS idea! We are not sick.
Why do we want cassia? We are
athletic. Our respiration is perfect.