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

Very Large Congregation at the Morn
 Ing Service -compassion of Jesus
 Christ.
 Sunday morning the Rev. MT.
 Squires, pastor of the West Haven
 Congregational church, preached very
 interesting sermon to a large congrega-
 tion. which is given in full below.
 Rev. MT. Squires chose for his text:
 Mark 6:34: And He came forth and
 saw great multitude and He had com-
 passion on them, because they were as
 sheep, not having a shepheld; and He
 began to teach them many things. He
 spoke as follows:
 est. Luke's account of this matter says that "He welcomed them, and spoke to them of the kingdom Of God, and healed them that had need of heal ing)
 Mark continues And when the day was now far spent, His disciples came unto Him and said: The place is desert and the day is now far spent; send them away, that they may go into the country and villages round about, and buy themselves somewhat to eat. But He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto Him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread and give them to eat? And He saith unto them, How many 1oaves have ye? Go see. And when they knew they say, Five and two fishes And He commanded them that all should sit down by companies on the green grass. And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by f1fties. And He took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and brake the loaves; and He gave to the disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided He among them all And they did all eat and were filed
 1. The first thing that discovers itself to us in this narrative is the unweary- ing compassion of Jesus Christ.
 Wherever He went it was always the same drain upon His compassion. There were two things He could never successfully escape fron1--one was the sight of human need and suffering, and the other was the multitudes.
 Did He seek to enter a town? It was only to meet a funeral procession. Did He find His way to the gate? There sat the blind Did He trudge along the dusty highway? There were the lepers lifting up their distressful cries.
 Did He enter a synagogue? There were the ever-present lame, halt, pal sled always appealing to His sympa- thies and punctuating His discourses with cries for help. Did He visit the porches of the temple? There lay the helpless Everywhere it was the same t-sin, want, misery, world sick and weary and heavy ladened, always ap- pealing for his sympathy and help.
 I had never supposed the Jewish peo- pie were especially diseased above other people doubt not you have imagined them to be even more than other peo- pie strong robust, healthy sort of folks. They have had that reputation and ap- pearance all the ages down.
 And yet when you read the story of our Lords every day life what impress sions do you get on these points? Why, that Palestine must have been sort of 1eper hospital for all the world-an ear and eye infirmary for all Syria-a home for incurables from everywhere-that great caravans were converging on that little strip of land from all over, and that our Lord must see them all, help them all, cure them all.
 And yet the opposite of all this must in general have been true. There were hundreds and thousands of we'll people physically well, whatever may have been their spiritual condition; whole communities who had but few sick, few helpless, few blind, few afflicted with 1eprosy. A physician may pass fifty houses before he stops at the home of the sick, and the neighbors will scarce 1y know who is sick. It is the physi- elan who knows where the sick and the suffering are. You may go through the street a dozen times the day and not know anything about 1t. Unless you have genuinely compassionate and be- nevolent heart, beware how you get the name of having one, for your house and yard and the street beyond will be thronged with applicants. You will be borne down and carried off your feet by the numberess calls and demands upon l you. There are people who are but sell dom troubled with any demands upon | either their sympathy or their time. 1 And naturally enough they are or be- come the sharpest critics of those who try to help their fellowmen in any di- | rection. Tn fact. they see but very lit- | tie need for the exercise of the compae- sion that met Christ everywhere.
 John Burroughs, the philosopher of nature, writes in a magazine: If we ! think birds, we shall see birds wherever I we go; if we think arrow heads, as Thoreau did, we shall pick up arrow heads in every field. Some people have an eye for four-leaved clovers; and they see them as they walk hastily over the turf, for they already have them in their eyes I once spent a summer day at the mountain home of 8 well-known literary woman and edi- tor She lamented the absence of birds about her house. I named half-doz- en or more I had heard or seen in her trees within an hour."
 Then he told her how he had seen the indigo bird, the purple finch, the vel lowbird, the veery thrust, the song sparrow, etc.
 DO you mean to say you have seen all these birds while sitting here on my porch?" she inquired.
 q really have" said MT. Burroughs. sI do not see them or hear them," she replied land yet I want to very much"