The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1900-07-12
aEV. DR.. TALMAGt
DISCOURSE BY ~HE EMINENT DI
VINE LAST SUNDAY
Subject: The Miracle at Cana-Lesson OF
Changing the Water Into Wine-Christ
Teaches That We Should Not Shadow
joys of Others with Our Own Griefs'
[Copyright 1900. !

illustration of the ubiquity of English
speaking people is furnished by the re-
quests that have reached DIR. Ialmage IN
Northern Europe for sermon III out-oI-
the-way places, where he did not expect TO
find a single person who could understand
him. There, as here, he presents religion
as a festivity and invites all the world to
come as guests and join in its holy merrl-
ment; text, John ii, 10, Thou hast Kept
the good wine until now
This chapter invites us to marriage
celebration. 1t is a wedding in common
life, two plain people having pledged each
other, hand and heart, and their friends
having come in for congratulatlon. The
Joy is not the less because there is no pre-
tension. In each other they find all the
future they want. The daisy in the cup
on the table may mean as much as score
of artistic garlands fresh from the hot
house. When a daughter goes off from
home with nothing but a plain father
blessing and a plain mothers love, she Is
missed as much as though she were prin-
cess. 1t seems hard, after the parents
have sheltered her for eighteen years that
in few short months her affections
should have been carried off by another,
but her mother remembers how it was in
her own case when she was young, and so
she braces up until the wedding has passed
and the banqueters are gone, and she has
a cry all alone.
Well, we are to-day at the wedding in
Cana of Galilee. Jesus and His mother
have been invited. 1t is evident that there
are more people there than were expected.
Either some people 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 sufficient
supply of wine You know that there is
nothing more embarrassing to a house
keeper than a scant supply. Jesus sees
the embarrassment, and He comes up i'm
mediately to relieve it. He sees standing
SIX water pots. He orders 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
yourselves; no logwood in it, no strychnine
in it, but first rate wine. [ will not now
be diverted to the question so often dis
cussed in my own country whether it is
right to drink wine. | am describing the
scene as it was. When God makes wine
He makes the very best wine, and 100 gal
Ions 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 better 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 es-
uscripts were presented in the competition,
but a poet won the prize by just this one
line descriptive of the miracle: The con-
scious water saw its God and bushed"
We learn from the miracle, in the first
place, that Christ has sympathy with
housekeepers. You might have thought
that Jesus would have said: Il cannot be
bothered with this household deficiency of
vine. 1t is not for Me, Lord of heaven
4 C Al
feast. | 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
scant supply in your household? Have
you to make very close calculation? Is it
hard work for you to carry on things de
Gently 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 all
your house unconsecrated by the voice of
prayer. If you have microscope, put
under it one drop of water and see the in
sects 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.
A boy asked if he might sweep the snow
from the steps of house. The lady of
the household said, yes; you seem very
poor He says, Il am very poor" She
says, Don't you sometimes get discouraged
and feel that God is going to let you
starve:" The lad looked up in the wom-
ans face and said, DO you think God
will let me starve when trust Him and
then do the best l CAM Enough theo-
logy for older people! Trust in God and
do the best you can. Amid all the worri-
ments of housekeeping go to Him. He
will help you control your temper and SUI
pervise your domestlcs and entertain your
guests and manage your home economies.
There are hundreds of women weak and
nervous and exhausted with the care of
| commend you to the Lord
Jesus Christ as the best adviser and the
most efficient aid-the Lord Jesus who
performed His first miracle to relieve
| learn also from this miracle that Christ
does things in abundance. | 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 gallon of wine will do; certainly five
gallons will be enough; certainly ten. But
j Jesus goes on, and He gives them thirty
gallons and forty gallons and fifty gallons
and seventy gallons and 100 gallons and
100 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
leaves? He makes them by the whole for
est full-notched like the fern or silvered
like the aspen or broad like the palm,
thickets in the tropics, Oregon forests
Does He go forth to make flowers? He
makes plenty os them. They flame from
the hedge, they hang from the top of the
grapevine in blossoms, they roll in the
blue wave of the violets, they toss their
white surf in the spiraea-enough for
every child's hand a flower, enough to
make for every brow chaplet, enough
with beauty to cover up the ghastlness of
all the grave Does He go forth to create
water! He pours it out not by the cup
full, but by 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, a little
for that and little for the other, but
enough for all. "Whosoever will, let him
come" Each man an ocean full for him
SELF promises for the young, promises for
the old, promises for the lowly, promises
for the blind, for the halt, for the outcast,
for the abandoned; pardon for ALL COM
fort for all, mercy for all, heaven for all
not merely cupful of gospel supply, but
1Q0 90 Hons ba NC 6 exoJ1xy