The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1900-06-08

plete triumph. Notwithstanding His
worldly occupation, His poverty, His
plain face, His unpretentious garb-
the fact that He was schoolless, the
fact that He was not accompanied by
any visible organization-notwith-
standing all that, in an exhilaration
which shall be prolonged in everlast-
ing chorals He declared: Il have fin
ished the work which Thou gavest Me
to do"
See Him victorious oven the forces
of nature. The sea is crystal sep
ulcher. 1t swallowed the Central
America, the president and the Span
ish armada as easily as any fly that
ever foated on it. The inland lakes
are fully as terrible in their wrath.
Some of us who have sailed on it
know that Lake Galilee, when aroused
in storm, is overwhelming and yet
that sea crouched in His presence and
licked His feet He knew all the
waves and the wind. When He beck
oned, they came. When he frowned,
they fled. The heel of His foot made
ter. Medical science has wrought
great changes in rheumatic limbs and
diseased blood, but when the mus
Giles are entirely withered no human
power can restore them, and when a
limb is once dead it is dead. But
here is a paralytic-his hand lifeless.
Christ says to him: stretch forth
thy hand" and he stretches it forth.
In the eye infrmary 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 a tree, but Jesus smites one
dead with a word. Chemistry may do
many wonderful things, but what
chemist at a wedding when the wine
gave out could change a pail of water
into a cask of wine? What human
voice could command a school of fish?
Yet here is voice that marshals the
scaly tribes, until in a place where
they had let down the net and pulled
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. Ma
ture is his servant. The fowers-he
twisted them into his sermons; the
winds-thcy were his lullaby when he
slept in the boat; the rain-it hung
glitteringly on the thick foliage of the
IL s.+, Nf OF lab
sang a Christmas carol over his birth;
the rocks-they beat a dirge at his
death. Behold his victory over the
grave!
Ny subject also treasures us of the
fact that in all our struggles we have
a sympathizer. 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 a 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: 81 thirst" You will never
be surrounded by worse hostility than
that which stood around Christ's feet.
foaming, reviling, livid with rage. howl
ing down His prayers, and snutfing up
the smell of blood. Dye faint hearted,
o We troubled. o We prosecuted one,
here is heart that can sympathize
with you!
Again. and lastly, / learn from all
that has been said to-day that Christ
was awfully in earnest. If it had not
been a momentous mission He would
have turned back from it disguised and
discouraged. He saw you in a cap
tivity from which He was resolved to
extricate you, though it cost Him all
sweat. all tears. all blood. He 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 celes-
tials one being who would do as much
for YOU. / lay His crushed heart at
your feet to-day. Let it not be told
in Heaven that you deliberately put
your foot on it. While it will take
all the ages of eternity to celebrate
Christ's triumph, l am here to make
the startling announcement that be-
cause of the rejection of this mission
on the part of some of you all that
magnificent work of garden and cross
and grave is, so far as you are con-
cerned, failure. Helena, the empress.
went to the Holy Land to find the cross
of Christ. Getting to the Holy Land
there were three crosses eXcavateH.