Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1902-08-29


not they turned hack again to Jerusalem,
seeking Him" Mary and Joseph have
made journey to the feast and they are
homeward bound. As they move out from
Jerusalem up toward Gallee they are busy
with the scenes about them, doubtless CON
versing with those who are travelling with
them, when suddenly they begin to look
about for the child Jesus, Where can lie
be? Every search fails TO locate Him.
YEARLY they trudge back to Jerusalem,
and there they find Him with the wise
men Many of US have lost fellowship
with our Saviour. Time was when we
were close to Him, when we walked in
sweetest communion with Him, but now
we have been busy about other things and
we have lost the old joy. Let us learn
from the lesson of this morning that If we
have missed step with Him we must so
back to Jerusalem, or that is the place
where we lost Him and begin over again
the old life of peace and JOY, God pity the
man who is crying out in his heart to-day
if not with his lips, They have taken
away my Lord.
Fifth, Lost Saviour. Matthew 27: 3-5,
"Then Judas which had betrayed Him,
pented himself, and brought again the
thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests
and elders. saying, II have sinned in that
have betrayed the innocent blood. And
they said, What is that to us? See thou
to that. And he cast down the pieces of
silver in the temple, and departed, and
went and hanged himself" You have
seen a storm held back by the force of the
wind when suddenly the wind ceased and
the storm would break with all its fury:
This was like Judas, l doubt not in all
his following after Jesus that again and
again he was filed with the desire to be
true to Christ, but the time passes and he
is false to the appeal of his conscience, and
suddenly the Master withdraws from him
and all the storm of his awful spirit of be-
trayal breaks upon him, and Judas hangs
himself. There are some of us who have
been resisting Christ, for this spirit has in
huenced us. We are persuaded of His di-
vine character. Some day His divine hold
upon us may be broken. 1t would be an
awful thing for us to have to say, "They
have taken away my Lord"
II.
The text again. Let us now think to-
gether especially OF Christ's care. There
are some texts very like it in the Bible, as
for example, Take not Thy holy spirit
from me" Restore unto me the JOY of
Thy salvation" without God, without
hope in the world" for only those can APP
preciate Mary's position who have been in
the same place with her, and the most of
us have been there, and there have been
times without number when we felt that
all was lost, that our position was hope
less. Notice first of all the weakness of
Mary's faith. If she had but stopped to
consider she would have remembered His
word that He must rise again. If in the
dark hour of trial we would pause for mo-
ment to think OF His messages we shall be
delivered from this awful fear. Oh, that
God would strengthen our faith in the
hour of trial: Notice also the strength of
her love. Nothing could keep her away
from Christ; the Jewish soldiers had no
terror for her; she would see His body, for
she loved that. There are certain things
that cause as to lose conscious fellowship
with Christ.
First, physical weakness. When the
body is weak be sure to watch al pray,
for the devil will easily overthrow"us at
this time
Second, weakness of faith, but since faith
is the gift of God it becomes weak only
because of lack of exercise, and it is not
necessary that any of us should fail be-
cause of this.
Third, sin. BLESSED are the pure in
heart, for they shall see God" It is not
given to great minds alone to see Him, nor
great hearts to feel His presence, but to
pure hearts, and this blessing is within the
reach of us all.
Oh, to have no hope. What if we should
lose Christ, what dreary world this would
be. Let us imaginesIiim as taken out of
art, and with this would 60 Hoffman's
Christ in, the Garden" Christ before Pi-
late" and every other painting that has
gone to enrich the galleries of the world.
Suppose we have Him taken out of music,
the music of the Old Testament would go,
for they sang of the Saviour to come; the
music Of the New Testamsnt would be ban
ished, for He is the theme of the Psalms.
All the music that is worth singing in the
worlds history would depart from US, for
He is the subject of our prasing. Sup
pose He were taken out of literature; the
best books in the world are either written
directly concerning Him, or have been in
spired indirectly by His matchless love. If
He were taken out of preaching there is no
man in all the world that could hold a con,
gregatlon for any length of time, for men
delighted to hear concerning Christ, and
without Christ the message would be as
sounding brass and tinkling symbol.
What If He were taken out of our living.
Men who do not call themselves religious
yet believe in Christ and flee to Him again
and again in the hour of temptation and
trial, and without Christ they would be
like a boat upon the sea, rudderless and
helpless. What if He were taken out of
our homes; how could we live when the
baby goes away and the mothers heart is
breaking.
oh to have no hope, no Saviour,
How dark this world would be-"
There is story written by Dr. Henry
Van Dyke entitled "The Lost Word" 1t
gives an account of one Hermas, the son of
Demetrius, who became a Christian. Be-
cause of this his father, man of large
wealth, disinherited him. He becomes a
disciple of John, and at last wearies of
this discipleship, and utterly discouraged
he wanders back in the vicinity of his old
home. There he meets a magician, who
reads his fortune in q leaf, and finally
promises if he viii give him but one word
out of his vocabulary that he will restore
him to the old joy that once was his. The
promise is at last made, and suddenly Her
mas Is in his home again without the one
word, and the one word is the name of his
Lord. He finds his father dying and the
old man welcomes his return and cries out,
My son, when you left me you found
something that made your life beautiful.
Mine has been failure; willyou not tell me
what / must do now, for l am to die" and
uneonsciously the boy began, Father. you
must believe in" and behold, the word
had gone from him. He had parted with
it, and he stands shamefaced in the pres
ence Of his dying father He marries
beautiful girl, and God gives him a lovely
child. They are seated one day in the
garden with their hearts Overlooking with
gratitude, when the wife suggests that they
kneel down and express their thanks for
all their treasures, and again he begins,
1--WE thank thee, oh" and speech fails
him, for he has sold his Lord and he can
not even recall His name. He is compet-
ltor in the chariot races and wins the prize,
but cares nothing for it, because his heart
is heavy. He takes his little son in the
chariot with him and whirls about the
course. The horses become unmanageable
and the child is thrown from the chariot
and seriously injured Nenrer dead HIM