The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1900-07-06
THE MARRIAGE FEAST
Joyous Features of the Christian
Religion Clearly Presented.
DIR. TaImage Invites the Whele
World to join In Its Holy
MerriNent-The wedding
in Cana.
copyright, 1900, by Louis Klopsch.l
Washington,

Copyright 1900, by Louis Klopsch.1
Washington,
remarkable illustration of the
ubiquity of English-speaking people
is furnished by the requests that have
reached DR.. Talmage in northern Eu-
rope for a sermon in out-of-the-way
places where he did not expect to find
single person who could understand
him. There, as here, he presents re-
ligion as festivity and invites all the
world to come as guests and join in
it's holy merriment; text, John IL, 10:
Thou hast kept the good wine until
now"
This chapter invites us to a marriage
celebration. 1t is wedding in com
mon life, two plain people having
| pledged each other, hand and heart
and their friends having come in for
congratulation. The joy is not the less
because there is no pretension. In each
other they find all the future they
want. The daisy in the cup on the
! table may mean as much as a score OF
artistic garlands fresh from the hot
house. When a daughter goes off from
home with nothing but a plain fathers
| blessing and a plain mothers love, she
| is missed as much as though she were
a princess. It seems hard, after the
| parents have sheltered her for IS years,
that in a few short months her af-
| fections should have been carried off
| by another, but mother remembers
| how it was in her own case when she
was young, and so she braces up un-
| til the wedding has passed and the
| banqueters are gone, and she has cry
all alone.
Well, we are to-day at the wedding
| in Cana of Galilee. Jesus and His
mother have been invited. 1t is evi-
dent that there are more people there
| than were expected. Either some peo-
pie have come who were not invited
or more invitations have been sent out
| than it was supposed would be ac-
cepted. OF course there is not a suffi-
cient supply of wine. You know that
there is nothing more embarrassing to
housekeeper than a scant supply.
Jesus sees the embarrassment, and he
comes up Immediately to relieve it. He
sees standing six, water pots. He or
ders the servants to fill them with
water, then He waves His hand over
the water, and Immediately it is wine
real wine. Taste of it and see for your
selves. No logwood in it, no strychnine
in it, but tirst-rate wine. will not now
be diverted to the question so often
discussed in my own country whether
it is right to drink wine. I am de-
scribing the scene IS it was. When God
makes wine. He makes the very best
wine, and 13O gallons of it standing
around in these water pots-wine so
good that the ruler of the feast tastes
it and says: ''Why, this is really bet
ter. than anything we have had. Thou
hast kept the good wine until now
Beautiful miracle! A prize was offered
to the person who should write the
best essay about the miracle in Cana.
Long manuscripts were presented in
the competition, but poet won the
prize by just this one line descriptive
of the miracle: 1.-The conscious water
saw its God and bIushed."
We learn from this miracle, in the
first place, that Christ has sympathy
with housekeepers. You might have
thought that Jesus would have said:
81 cannot be bothered with this house
hold deficiency of wine. 1t is not for
me, Lord of Heaven and of earth, to
become caterer to this feast. I have
vaster things than this to attend to-"
Not so said Jesus. The wine gave out.
and Jesus by miraculous power came
to the rescue. Does there ever come
a scant supply in your household?
Have you to make a very close calcula-
ton? 1t is hard work for you to carry
on things decently and respectfully?
If so, don't sit down and cry. Don't go
out and fret, but go to Him who stood
in the house in Cana of Galilee. Pray
in the parlor. Pray in the kitchen.
Let there be no room in your house
unconsecrated by the voice of prayer.
If you have microscope, put under it
one drop of water and see the insects
floating about, and when you see that
God makes them and cares for them
and feeds them come to the conclusion
that He will take care of you and feed
you.
1 learn also from this miracle that
Christ does things in abundance. I
think a small supply of wine would
have made up for the deficiency. |
think, certainly, they must have had
enough for half the guests. One gall
Ion of wine will do; certainly five gal
Ions will be enough; certainly ten. But
Jesus goes on, and He gives them 30
gallons and 40 gallons and so gallons
and 20 gallons and 100 gallons and 13O
gallons of the very best wine. 1t is
just like Him-doing everything on the
largest and most generous scale. Does
Christ, our Creator, go forth to make
loaves? He makes them by the whole
forest full; notched like the fern or sill
vered like the aspen or broad like the
palm: thickets in the tropics, Oregon
forests. Does He go forth to make
flowers? He makes plenty of them;
they fame from the hedge, they hang
from the top of the grapevine in bios
SONS, they roll in the blue wave of the
violets, they toss their white surf in
the spiraea-enough for every child's
hand a fower-enough to make for
every brow a cLaplet, enough with
beauty to cover up the ghastliness of
all the grave. Does He go forth to
create water? He pours it out, not by
the cupful, but by a river full, lake
full, an ocean full; pouring it out until
all the earth has enough to drink, and
enough with which to wash.
Does Jesus provide redemption? 1t
is not little salvation for this one,
little for that and a little for the other,
but enough for all. ''Whosoever will,