Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1900-06-01

All this was against Him. DID any one
ever undertake such an enterprise amid
such infinite embarrassments and by such
modest And yet am here to say 1t ended
in q complete triumph. Notwithstanding
His worldly occupation. His poverty, His
plain face, His unpretending garb, the
fact He was schoolless, the fact that
He had brief life, the fact that He was
not accompanied by any visible organiza.
Notwithstanding all that, In an ex.
hilaration which shall be prolonged In
everlasting chorals, He declared, II have
finished the work which Thou gavest Me
to do"
In the eye in1rmary how many diseases
OF that delicate organ have been cured2
But Jesus says to one tlind, "Be openl''
and the light OF heaven PUSHES through
gates that have never before been opened.
The frost OF an ak may XII a tree. but
Chemistry may do many wonderful
things, but what chemist at wedding,
when the wine gave out, could change
pail OF water into q cask OF wine2 What
human voice could command school OF
fish? Yet here Is voice that marshals
the scally tribes until, In place where
they had let down the net and pulled 1t
up with no fish In it, they let 1t down
again, and the disciples lay hold and be-
gan to pull, when, by reason OF the multi
tude OF fish, the net broke. Nature Is His
servant. The fowers-He twisted them In
to His sermons; the winds-they were His
lullaby when He slept In the boati the rain
It hung glitteripg on the thick foliage OF the
parallels; the star of Bethlehem--it sang
q Christmas carol over His birthj the rocks
they beat q dirge at His death. Behold
His victory over the gravel The hinges OF
the family vault become very rusty be-
cause they are never opened except to take
another In. There Is knob on the OUT
side OF the door Of the sepulchet, but none
on the inside. Here comes the Conqueror
OF Death. He enters that realm and says
"Daughter of Jairus, sit upl" and She sits
up. TO Lazarus, "Come forthl" and he
came forth. To the widows son He said,
Get. up from that ber!'' and he goes
homo with his mother. Then Jesus
snatched up the keys of death and hung
them to His glrdle and cried until ali the
graveyards OF the earth heard Him: 20
death, will be thy plagued grave, will
be thy destruction!"
No man could 60 through all the OBJ
stacies have described, you say, without
having nature supernatural. In that
arm, amid its muscles and nerves and
bones, were intertwisted the energies OF
omnipotence. In the syllables OF that
eternal, God. That foot that walked the
deck OF the ship In Gennesaret shall stamp
Kingdoms Of darkness into demolition.
This poverty struck Christ owned Angus
tus, owned the sanhedrin, owned Tiberias,
owned all the castles on Its beach and all
the skies that looked down into Its water
owned all the earth and all the heavens.
10 Him OF the plain coat belonged the
robes Of celestial royalty. He who
walked the road to 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, at was sleight OF handr'
And they see Christ raise the dead to life,
and they say: Easily explained; not
really dead; playing deadp And they see
Christ giving sight to the blind man, and
they say, "Clairvoyant doctorp' On, what
shall they do on the day when Christ rises
I'D in judgment and the hills shall rock
and the trumpets shall call, peal on peal2
| In the time O. Theodosius the Great there
was a great assault made upon the divin-
| ity OF Jesus Christ, and during that time
| Theodosius the Great called bis own son to
| sit on the throne with him and be copart-
| ner In the government OF the empire, and
! one day the old bishop came and bowed
| down before Tbeodosius, the emperor, and
passed out Of the room, and the emperor
| was offended, saying to the old bishop,
why didn't you pay the same honor
| to my son, who shares with me In the gov
Z! ernment?" 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
| Theodosius the Great and said to him,
"You are offended with me because don't
| pay the same honor to your son, whom 20
| have made copartner In the government OF
| this empire, the same honor l pay to you,
| and vet you encourage multitudes OF peo-
! pie In your realm to deny the Son OF God
| equal authority, equal power, with Godthe
| Father"
| My subject also treasures us OF the fact
that In all our struggles we have sympa-
| thizer. You cannot tell Christ anything
| new about hardship. do not think that
! wide ages OF eternity will take the scars
| from His punctured side and His lacerated
temples and His sore hands. You Will never
| have burden weighing so many pounds
| as that burden Christ carried up the bloody
| hill. You will never have any suffering
worse than He endured when, with tongue
| hot and cracked and inflamed and swollen,
| He moaned, II thirst" You will never be
! surrounded by worse hostility than that
L
| reyiling, livid with rage, bowling down His
prayers and snuff1ng up the smell OF blood.
| o We faint hearted. o We troubled, We
| persecuted One. here Is heart that can
| sympathize with you'll
Again. and lastly, learn from oil that
| has been said to-day that Christ was aw-
| fully In earnest. II 1t had not been mo-
| mentous mission. He would have turned
| back from 1t disguised and discouraged.
He saw you In captivity from which He
was resolved to extricate you, though 1t
came great way to save you. He came
| from Bethlehem here, through the place
| of skulls, through the charnel house,
through Punishment. There was not
among all the ranks Of celestials one
being who would do as much for you
| Law His cru shed heart at your feet TO-
| day. Let 1t not be told In heaven that you
deliberately put your foot On 1t. While 1t
will take all the ages Of eternity to cele
| brate Chrst's triumph, am here to make
| the startling announcement that because
| of the rejection of this mission on the part
! Of some OF you oil that magnificent work
| Of garden and cross and grave is, 80 far
| as you are concerned, a failure. Helena,
| the Empress, went to the Holy
Land to find the cross Of Christ. Get.
| ting to the Holy Land, there were three
crosses excavated, and the question
was which OF the crosses was Christ's
cross. Thoy took dead body, tradition
says, and put 1t upon one OF the crosses,
and there was no life, and they took the
| dead body and put 1t upon another cross,
and there was no life; but, tradition says,
| when the dead body was put up against
| the third cross 1t sprang into life. The
| dead man lived again. Oh, that the life
giving power Of the Son Of God might dart
| your dead soul into an eternal life, begin.
| ming this dayl awake, thou sleepest,
| and rise from the dead, and Christ shall
| give thee hfel" Live now And live for.
everl