Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1901-01-10

anhoOd! What blasphemleS assau the
heavens! What butcheries sicken the cen.
turtles! What professions OF crime and
atrocity and woe ~encircle the globe! IL
Justice had spoken, it would have said:
sThe world deserves humiliation, and let
humiliation come" lie immutabilitv had
spoken, it would nave said: II have. always
been opposed to wickedness and always
will be opposed to it. The world is to me
an aHront infinite and away with At.
omniscience had spoken it would have
said: Il have watched that planet with
and ] cannot have the ofense longer con-
tinued." If truth had spoken it would
have said: ri declare that they who offend
the law must go down under the law"
But divine love took a different view of
the worlds ~obduracy and pollution. It
said: II pity all those woes of the earth. !
I cannot stand here and see no assuage-
and reform the world. I will medicate it's
wounds. I will calm it's frenzy. | viii
wash off its pollution. [ will. become In
carnated. I will take on My shoulders and
upon My brow and into My heart the con-
sequences of chat worlds misbehavior. !
| start now, and between My arrival at
Bethlehem and My ascent from Ohvet I
will weep their tears and suffer their
qriefs and die their death. Farewell, Ny
/ AVA S4O"AS NY 0OSPtANI T.
environment, My heaven. till ! have
! finished the work and come back!" God
was never conquered but once, and that
was when He was conquered by His own
love. "God is love-"
In this day, when the creeds of churches
are being revised, let more emphasis. be
put upon the thought of my text. Let it
and at the close. The a~ncients used to tell
of a great military chieftains who, about
to go to battle, was clad in armor, helmet
on head and sword at side, and who put
out his arms to give farewell embrace to
his child, and the child, affrighted at
his appearance, ran shrieking away. Then
the father put off the armor that caused
the alarm, and the child saw who he was
and ran into his arms and Struggled against
his heart. Creeds must not have too much
iron in their make up, terrorizing rather
than attracting. They must not hide the
smiling face and the warm heart of our
Father. God. Let nothing imply that
there is a sheriff at every door ready to
make arrest, but over us all and around
us all a mercy that wants to save and save
now.
take you, like a child, out of the arms of
a father, let the next paragraph put you
in the arms of a mother. Gas one whom
his mother comforteth so will I comfort
YOU" Oh, what a mother we have in
God! And my text is the lullaby sung to
lis when we are i'll or when we are NAL
treated or when we are weary or when we
are trying to do better or when we are be-
reft or when we ourselves lie down to the
last sleep. We feel the warm cheek Of the
mother against our cheek; and there sounds
in it the hush of many mothers, Good is
love-"
Out of vast eternity He looked forward
and saw Pilates criminal courtroom and
the rocky bluff with three crosses and the
lacerated body in mortuary surroundings,
and heard the thunders toll at the funeral
of heavens favorite, and understood that
the palaces of eternity would hear the
sorrow of a bereft God.
What do the Bib'e and the church litur.
gies mean when they say, He descended
into help" They mean that His soul left
His sacred body for awhile and went
down into the prison Of moral night and
swung back it's great door and lifted the
chain Of captivity and felt the awful lasl
that would have come down on the worlds
back, and wept the tears of an etcrna
sacrifice, and took the bolt Of divine indig
nation against sin into Himself and, hay
l ing ~vanquished death and hell, came ou'
and came up, having achieved an eterna
, rescue if we will accept it.
) Read it slowly, read it solemnly, read i
: with tears, HE descended into hell" III
1 knew what kind of pay He would get TO
' exchanging celestial splendor for Bethle
I hem caravansary, and He dared all an.
came, the most illustrious example in al
| the ages of disinterested love.
! Yea, it was most expensive love. Their
! is much human love that costs nothing
Il nothing of fatigue, nothing Of money, moth
5 ing of sacrifice, nothing of humiliation
Il But the most expensive movement tina
v the heavens ever made was this expeditio1
salvatory. It cost the life of a King.
n 1t put the throne of God in bereavement
e Il set the universe aghast. It made on
impotence weep and bleed and shudder. I
taxed the resources OF the richest OF a
d empires. 1t meant angelic forces detaile
to fight forces demoniac. It put thre
. worlds into sharp collision-one world t
save, another to resist and another to d.
"a stroy. 1t charged on the spears and ran
N hate.
Had the expedition of love been d,
q feated the throne of God would have fal
= Ell, and Satan would have mounted int
n supremacy, and sin would have foreye
q triumphed, and mercy would have bee
o1 forever dead. The tears and blood of tn
Re martyr of the heavens were only a part {
II the infinite expense to which the Godhea
at went when it proposed to save the world
u Alexander the Great, with his host, we
II marching on Jerusalem to capture en-
ID plumber it. Ihe inhabitants came 0,
clothed in white, led on by the high prizes
ID wearing a inter and glittering breastplaI
a On which was emblazoned the name !,
~ God, and Alexander. seeing that wore
"a bowed and halted his army, and the Gil
te was saved.
10 And if we had the love of God write
" in all our hearts and on all our lives an
on on all our banners at the sight OF IL IL
is hosts of temptation would fall back, ar
we would go on from victory unto victc,
n until we stand in Zion and before God.
20 Ieander swan across. the Hellesrol
guided by the light which Hero the ia
or held from one Of her tower windows, ar
We what Tablespoons of earthly struggles &c
he we not breast as long as we can see Il
N, torch of divine love held from the tow
les windows of the King! Let love Of G.
1g, to us and our love to God clasp hands tn
a minute. O We dissatisfied and DISTRESS
for souls who roam the world over looki1
ed for happiness and finding none, why n
a try this love of God as a solace and insp;
ire alton and eternal satisfaction? When
ad king was crossing a desert in caravan,
pie water was to be found, and man and bea
es. were perishing from thirst. Along Z
ra- way there were strewn the bones of cal
II 49,. 4I.L LII -.~-.1I TI.~. -