Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1900-06-21


opportunity of setting yourselves right
| want to tell you OF one who had the
hardest things said about him, whose So
briefly was disputed, whose mission was
secuted, whose companionship was de-
nounced. who was pursued as a babe and
spit upon as a man, who was howled ut
after he was dead. | will have you 20
unto him with your bruised soul in some
humble, child prayer, saying: 81 see thy
wounds wounds of head, wounds of
feet wounds of heart. Now, look at my
wounds and SEQ what | have suffered
and through what battles | am going,
and l entrcat thee by those wounds of
thine sympathize with me-" And he will
sympathze, and he will help. Go and
tell Jesus.
Comfort For the Bcrcnvcd.
Again, | commend the behavior OF the
disciples to all the bercavcd. Now many
in garb Of mourning? How many en-
blems of sorrow you behold 2 cry
where? God has his own way of taking
apart a family. We must get out Of the
way for coming generations. We must
get off the stage that others may come
on, and for this reason there is II long
procession reaching down all the time
into the valley of shadows. This emigra
ton from time into eternity Is so vast an
enterprise that we cannot understand it.
Every hour we hear the clang of the
sepulchral gate. The sod must be bro
ken. The ground must be plowed for
resurrection harvest. Eternity must be
pcoplcd The dust must press our eye
lids. ut is appointed unto all men once
10 die" This emigration from time into
eternity keeps three fourths OF the fami-
lies of the earth in desolation. The air is
rent with farewells, and the black tas-
seled vehicles OF death rumble through
every street. The body OF the child that
was folded so closely to the mothers
heart is put away in the cold and the
darkness. The laughter freezes to the
girls lip, and the rose scatters. The boy
in the harvest field of Shuncm says: My
head! My head" And they carry him
home to die on the lap of his mother.
Widowhood stands with tragedies Of
woe struck into the palor of the check.
Orphanagc cries in vain for father and
mother. Oh, the grave is cruel With
teeth of stone it clutches for its prey.
Between the closing gates of the sepul-
cher our hearts are mangled and crushed.
Is there any earthly solace? None. We
come to the obscques, we sit with the
grief stricken, we talk pathetically to
their soul; but soon the obsequies have
passed. the carriages have left us at the
door, the friends who staid for few
days are gone, and the heart sits in desc
lation listening for the little feet that will
neve- again patter through the hall, or
looking for the entrance of those who will
never come again-sghing into the dark
ness--ever and anon coming across some
,,.n
that arouses former association, almost
killing the heart. Long days and nights
of suffering that wear out the spirit and
expunge the bright lines OF life and give
haggardness to the face and draw the
flesh tight down over the cheek bone and
draw dark lines under the sunkcn eye,
and the hand is tremulous, and the voice
is husky and uncertain, and the grief is
wearing, grinding, accommodating, exhaust
ing.
Now, what are such to do? Are they
merely to look up into brazen and I'M
plying sky? Are they to walk a blasted
heath unfed OF stream, unsheltered by
overarching trees? Has God turned us
out on the barren common to die? Oh,
no. no. no. He has not. He comes with
sympathy and kindness and love. lie I'M
dorstands all our grief. He sees the
height aud the depth and the length and
the breadth OF it, He is the only one that
can fully sympathize. Go and tell Jesus.
Sometimes when we have trouble we go
to our friends and we explain it, and they
try to sympathiZc; but they do not under
stand it, They cannot understand it. But
Christ sees all over it and all through it.
He not only counts the tears and records
the grOanS, but before the tears started,
before the groans began Christ saw the
| inmost hiding place Of your sorrow, and
he takes it, and he weighs it, and he
measures il, and he pitics it with an all
absorbing pity. Bone of our bone. Flesh
of our flesh. Heart of our heart. Sorrow
OF our sorrow. As long as he remembers
/ Lazarus grave he will stand by you in
the cemetery. As long as he remembers
his own heartbreak he will stand by you
in the laceration of your affections. When
he forgets the footsore way, the sleepless
nights, the weary body, the exhausted
mind, the awful cross, the solemn grave
| then he will forget you, but not until
| then.
An Ever Present Friend,
! Often when we were in trouble we son,
for our friends. but they were far away
! they could not 81 to us We wrote tc
them, Come right away" or telegraph
ed, Take the next train" They came al
! last, yet were a great while in coming OF
perhaps were too late. But Christ is al
ways near-before you. behind you, with
in you. No mother ever threw her arms
around her child with such warmth anc
ecstasy Of affection as Christ has showr
toward you. Close at hand-nearer thar
the staff upon which you lean, nearer
than the cup you put to your lip, nearer
than the handkerchief with which yol
wipe away your tears-I preach him ar
ever present, all sympathizing compass
sionate Jesus. How can you stay away
one moment from him with your grefs
Go now. Go and tell Jesus.
1t is often that our friends have ne
power to relieve US. They would very
much like to do il, but they cannot dis
entangle our finances, they cannot cur,
our sickness and raise our dead, blu
glory be to God that he to whom the dis
cplcs went has all power in heaven ant
on earth, and Mt our call he will balk ou
calamties and at just the right time il
the presence Of an applauding earth anc
4 rcsounding heaven will raise our dead
He is mightier than Herod. lie is swifte
than the storm. He is grander than til,
sea. He is vaster than eternity. AnC
every sword Of Gods omnipotence vii
; leap from its scabbard and all the re
sources of infnity be exhausted rattle
than that Gods child shall not be deliv
! cred when he cries to him for rescue
Suppose your child was in trouble. How
much would Won endure tO got him ont