The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-03-19

having too much Christ, lest you shall
 see too many who need you, or too
 much of the sin and misery of the world in which God has placed you. It is in
 this way that you shall best glorify Je- sus Christ
 But the multitudes. How they
 thronged His footsteps. How they
 jostled and pushed How they blocked
 the village streets and swarmed out of
 the desert. He had just now whis- pered in the ear of His disciples to come
 out into a desert place and rest awhile
 He might as well have posted a notice on the street corner at Capernaum.
 Did He teach divine truth in a pri- vate house? The crowd trod each oth- CT down in the doorway Did he speak of the kingdom of God in the sym agogue and heal the sick and palsied? l Multitudes could scarcely get in sight of the building. A hole in the roof is the only way to gain His presence. Did He attempt to hide away in the desert places? Thousands poured out to see and hear-five thousand men in this in- stance, besides as many more women and children. Their secular affairs were for the time being neglected or |
 : forgotten.
 1 Not so busy an age then as now, you say; probably not. But even now, do you think it would harm the average man or woman to spend a little more time in the company of Jesus Christ? The multitude must have been to Him a living picture of the whole world There always is, in a great crowd of people of all kinds and classes and con- ditions. I do not know of anything more interesting, or suggestive, or even touching to ones inner sense of lifes vicissitudes, than to look over or down into the faces of a great multitude of people. Much depends of course, upon the point of view-Whether you are politician appealing for votes-a dema- sogue appealing to passion-a patriot appealing to the sense of duty-a phi lanthropist appealing to their better natures-a philosopher studying the diff ferent phases of human life-or a Sa- viour, regarding them as sheep scat tered abroad without shepherd.
 You see in a crowd all the pathos of real life-the beginning and the ending of so many bright dreams-the hopes llldl nave DCcn ISoiILSu co lttl eto Ceii eii- ly hopes have been or perhaps can be- the bright visions that have been shat tered, leaving their deep-cut lines upon the face; you see the gladness that has ended in grief; the tragedies of the heart that cannot be hidden; the im- providence that scorns tomorrow and the miserly greed that cannot forget to-day; you hear the fools laugh, the babes innocent prattle, and if your ear be keen enough the moan of pain in many a heart. Hunger in the face hunger in the eye-hunger most of all in the soul. There are more famishing souls in a crowd than empty stomachs.
 And the cry of the great multitude is the cry of pain and of hunger of heart which nothing on earth can satisfy.
 History tells us that when the Per- sian monarch, Xerxes, looked down from his throne which he had erected upon the shores of the Hellespont upon his magnificent army of million men who had followed him for the invasion of Greece, he burst into tears at the re- fection, that in a few years at most ! not one of them would be alive. Death | would sweep them all away. His grief 1 was well founded; but few of that | great multitude lived to return. Our | Lords estimate of men was not like | that. His tears of compassion did not ! spring from such motives.
 He saw in this great multitude an ep- itome of the world-its wants-sins- sufferings disappointments broken hopes and hearts-its pride-hypocrisy | -poverty-the emptiness of pretense- the hollow mockery of self-deceit They were sinners. all of them, and he had come to save them. They were scattered abroad as sheep are scattered by wild beasts, and he had come to shepherd them,
 He pitied their ignorance, through the density of which only the faintest | gleams of their own needs dawned upon | them. He was even then on his way to Calvary to die for them, and some of them present would reject him, and join in the cruel cry, Cruelty him! His compassion was of the divinest kind, and it leads him to do for them the divinest things.
 Mark says he began to teach them many things. He hardly need to say
 
 Luke says He welcomed them, and spoke to them of the Kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of heal ing. He might have omitted the words, ''had need of healing" for they all had that need. A few only may have had need of physical healing, but they all need to be divinely healed; and we as we'll as they.
 Our Lords compassion led to the most practical results. There are about one hundred people who will feel sorry for your burden, to every one who will of fer to help you bear it. There is a vast amount of well meant, but very inef- fective sympathy in the world
 You read popular novel of the day and your compassion is stirred by the of some character therein, but your tears fall into your own lap not like those of Christ, which always 'ell upon the hand of the poor and help ess. You attend a theater and your are greatly excited over the of some heroine in the play, and here again your tears moisten your own cheeks, for instantly you regain your composure, you reflect that the that so excited your compass sion were all assumed for the occasion and you instinctively blame yourself Or the weakness of feeling badly over