The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-06-13

mentS. Aristotle was old; LycurSuS was
old: Seneca was old. The great legislators
OF the modern world have bsen Old.
Christ was young. All this was against:
Him.
II child twelve years OF age should get
up In your presence to discuss great que5-
tions Of metaphysics or ethics or politics
goYernm ent you would be ns contemptu-
Gus as these gray bearded ssscri5es IN the
presence Of this young Christ
So there have been men OF wonderful
magnetism OF person. But hear me while
Itell you OF poor young Man who came uE
from Nazareth to produce thrill which has
never been excited by any other. Napoleon
had around him the memories OF Marengc
and AusterlItz. and Jena, but here was q
Man who had fought no BATTLES, who wore
no.epnulets, who brandished no sword. He
had probable never seen prince or shaken
hands with nobleman.. ..
The only extraordinary person wa know
OF as being In, His company was His own
mother, and she was 80 poor that, in the
most delicate and solemn hour that comes
to woman's soul, she was obliged to lie
down among drivers grooming the beasts
o; burden. at,
Again, remark, there wns no organIza /.
tion In His behalf, and that was against
Him. When men propose any great work,
they band together, they write letters Of
agreement, they take oaths OF fealty, and
the more complete the organization the
more and complete the success. Here was
tion and alone. II men had mind'to 'tn
In His company, all right; II they hao
mind not to join Ia His company, all well.
II they came. they were greeted with nc
loud salutatlon; II 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 any one
ever undertake such an enterprise amid
such infinite embarrassments and by such
modes2 And yet am here to say 1t ended
In q complete triumph. Notwithstanding
His worldly occupation. His poverty, His
plain face, Els unpretending garb, the
fact that He was schoolless, the fact that
He had a brief life, the fnct that he was
not accompanied by any visible organiza'
tion-notwithstanding ull that, in al 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 inlrmary now many diseases
OF that delicate organ havo been cured2
But Jesus says to one tllnd, "Be open"
and the light OF heaven rushos through
gates that have never before been oponed.
The frost Of an ak may kill q 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, conld change a
pail OF water into a cask OF wine? What
human voice could command school Of
tlsh2 Yet here Is Il voice that marshals
the scally tribes until, in q plnce where
they had let down the net and pulled 1t
up with no fish In It, they let it 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 f1owers-He twisted them in
to His sermons; the winds-they were His
lullaby when BE slept In the boat; the rain
1t hung glittering on the thick foliage OF the
O Christmas carol over His Firth; the rocks
they beat u dlrge ut His deatb. 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 sepulcher, but none
oa tho inside. Here comes the Conqueror
OF Death. He enters that realm and says,
Daughter OF Jairus, sit upp' and she 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 to His glrde and cried until nll the
graveyards OF tho earth heard Hlm: 20
death, will be thy plagued q grave, will
be thy destruction"
No man could 90 through oil the OBJ.
stacles have described, you say, without
having q nature supernatural. In that
ifn md and
bones, were intertwIsted the energies 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 Gennesaret shall stamp
Kingdoms OF darkness into demolition.
This poverty struck Christ owned Angus
tus, owned the sanhedrin, owned Tlberlas,
owned all the castles on Its beach and oil
the skies that looked down into its water
owned all the earth and all the heavens.
To Him Of the plain coat beloaged the
robes OF cetastlal royalty. he who
walked the road to Emmaus the light
chariot. Yet there are those who look
on aud see Christ turn water into wine,
and they say, "It was sleight OF handl"
And they see Christ raise the dead to life.
and they say: "EnsIly explained; not
really dead; playing dead!' And they SOC
Christ giving slght to the blind man, and
they say, "Clalrroyant doctor" oh, what
shall they do on the day when Christ rises
up In Judgment and the hills shall lock
and the trumpets shall call, peal on peni..
In the time o. Theodosius the Great there
was great assault made upon the divin.
ity OF Jesus Christ, and during that time
Theodosius the Great called bis own son tc
sit on the tbrore with him aud be copart-
In ba ~ Mira opI
one day the old bishop came and bowed
down before Tbeodosius, the emperor, and
passed out OF the room, and the emperor
was offended, suylng to the old bishop,
"Why didn't you pay the snmo honor
to my son, who shares with me In tho gov.
ernment?" Then the old bishop turned to
the young man and said, "The Lord bless
Thea, my young man." but still paid him nc
such honor as he bad paid TO the Emperor.
And the Emperor was still offended aud
displeased when the old bishop turned tc
Theodoslus the Great and said to him:
"You nre offended with me because don't
pay the same honor to your soa, whom you
have made copnrtner In the government oil
this empire, the same honor pay to you,
and set you encourage muitltudes Of peo-
ple in your realm tc deny the Son OF God
equal authority, equal power, with Goo the
Father" ,~. ...-..
My subject also reassures US OF the fact
that In all our struggles We have sympa-
thizer. You cnnnor tell Christ anything
new about hardship. I donot think that
wide ages OF eternity will take the scars
from His punctured slide and His lacerated
temples and His sore hands. You will never
have burden weighing, 80 many pounds
as that burden Christ carried up the bloody
hill. You will never have any suffering
worse than He endured when, with tongue
bot and cracked aud inaamed aad swollen,
He monned, "I thirst."" You will never be
surrounded by worse hostility than that
which stood around Christ's feet, toaming,
revlIlng, livid with rage. bowling down His