The semi-weekly messenger., 1900-06-08

the organization the more and COM
pletey the success. Here was one who
went forth without any organization
and alone II men had a mind to join
in his company. all right; IL they had
a mind not to Join in his company. all
we'll II they came, they were greeted
with no loud salutation; IL they went
away, they were sent with no bitter
anathema- Peter departed. and Christ
turned and looked at him, that was all.
All this was against him. Did anyone
ever undertake such an enterprise
amid such infinite embarrassr7ents
and by such modes? And Yet i am
here TO say il ended in complete tri-
umph. Notwithstanding his worldly
OCCUPATION his poverty, his plain face,
his unpretending garb-the fact that
he was schoolless, the fact that he had
a brief life. the fact that he was not
accompanied by any visible organiza-
tion-notwithstandin all that in an
exhileration which shall be prolonged
in everlasting chorals he declared, Il
have finished the work which thou
gavest me to do"
VICTORY OVER NATURE.
See him victorious over the forces of
nature The sea is a crystal sepulcher.
1t swallowed the Central America, the
President and the Spanish armada as
easily as any fly that ever floated on
it. The inland lakes are fully as ter
rible in their wrath. Some of US who
have sailed on it know that Lake Gal
lice, when aroused in a stomm, is
overwhelming, and yet that sea
crouched in his presence and licked
his feet. He knew all the waves and
the wind When he beckoned, they
came. When he frowned, they fed. The
heel of his foot made no indentation on
the solidified water. Medical science
has wrought great changes in rheu-
matte limbs and diseased blood, but
when the muscles are entirely with
cred, no human power can restore
them, and when limb is once dead 1t
is dead. But here is paralytic-his
hand lifeless. Christ says to him,
Stretch forth thy hand,'' and he
stretches it forth.
In the eye infirmary how many dis
eases of that delicate organ have been
cured? But Jesus says to one blind,
BE open!" and the light of heaven
rushes through gates that have never
before been opened. The frost or an
ak may kill tree but Jesus smiteS
one dead with word Chemistry may
do many wonderful things, but what
chemist at a wedding when the wine
gave out could change pail OF water
into a cask of wine? What human
voice could command a school of fish?
Yet here is a voice that marshals the
scaly. tribes, until in a place where
it up with no fish in it they let it down
again, and the disciples lay hold and
began to pull. when by reason of the
multitude of fish the net broke. Nature
is his servant. The fiowers-he twisted
them into his sermons; the winds
they were his lullaby when he slept
in the boat; the rain-it hung glitter
ingly on the thick foliage of the par
ables; the star of Bethlehem-it sang
a Christmas carol over his birth; the
rockS-they beat a dirge at his death.
Behold his victory over the grave! The
hinges of the family vault become very
rusty because they are never opened
except to take another in. There is
knob on the outside of the door of the
sepulcher, but none on the inside.
Here comes the conqueror of death.
He enters that realm and says,
Daughter of Jairus, sit up!' and sne
sits up. To Lazarus, Come FORTH"
and he came forth, To the widows son
he said, Get up from that bier!' and
he goes home with his mother. Then
Jesus snatched up the keys of death
and hung them on his girdle and cried
until all the graveyards of the earth
heard him, 80 Death, 1 will be thy
plague! o Grave, I will be thy destruc-
tion!''
THE SUPERNATURAL NATURE
No man could go through all the OBJ
out having a nature supernatural. In
that arm, amid it's muscles and nerves
and bones, were intertwisted the en-
ergieS of omnipotence. In the Syllables
of that voice there was the emphasis
of the eternal God. That foot that
walked the deck of the ship in Genne-
saret shall stamp Kingdoms of dark
ness into demolition. This poverty
struck Christ owned Augustus, owned
the sanhedrin, owned TiberiuS, owned
all the castles on it's beach and all the
skies that looked down into it's water,
owned all the earth and all the heaV-
ems. To him of the plain coat belonged
the robes of celestial royalty. He who
walked the road Of Emmaus the light
nings were the fire shod steeds of his
chariot. Yet there are those who look
on and see Christ turn water into wine
and they say, 1T was sleight Of hand!"
And they see Christ raise the dead to
life, and they say: Easily explained;
not really dead; playing dead" And
they see Christ giving sight to the
blind man, and they say: "Clairvoyant
DOCTOR" o, what shall they do on the
day when Christ rises up in judgment
and the rills shall rock and the trum-
pets shall call, peal on hill? In the
time of Theodosius the Great there
was a great assault made upon the
divinity of Jesus Christ, and during
that time TheodoSius the Great called
his own son to sit on the throne with
him and be a copartner in the govern
ment of the empire, and one day the
old bishop came and bowed down be-
fore Theodosius, the emperor, and
passed out of the room, and the en-
peror was offended, saying to the old
bishop: Why didn't you pay the same
honor to my son, who shares with me
in the government" Then the old
bishop turned to the young man and
said, THE Lord bless thee, my young
man." but still paid him no such honor
as he had paid to the emperor. And the
emperor was still offended and dis
pleased, when the old bishop turned to
TheodosiuS the Great and said to him,
You are offended with me because l
don't pay the same honor to your son
whom you have made copartner in the
government of this empire, the same
honor / pay to you, and yet you en-
courage multitudes of people in your
realm to deny the Son of God equal
authority, equal power. with God the
Father"
CHRIST A SYMPATHIZER.
My subject also reassures us Of the