Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1902-08-28
NEW SERIES--VOL. XXI. No. 80

sin to lay hold upon u.s. We have lost our /,
Bible. and if we have our position is as sad
as Mary in the garden when she said,
They have taken away my Lord"
Fourth Lost Fellowship Luke .: 42-45,
"And when He was twelve years old they
went up to Jerusalem, after the custom
Of the feast, and when they had fulfilled
the days, as they returned, the child Jesus
tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph
and His mother knew not of it,. But they,
supposing Him to have been in the COM
pany, went days. journey; and they
sought Him among their kinsfoll1 and ac-
quaintances. And when they found Him
not they turned back again to Jerusalem,
seeking Him. Mary and Joseph have
made a journey to the feast and they are
homeward bound. AS they move out from
Jerusalem up toward Galilee 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 He
be? Every search fails to locate Him.
Wearily 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
nave HlSseu sLep WlCn Illm we must go
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, ''Ihey have taken
away my Lord
Fifth, a Lost Saviour. Matthew 27: So,
''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
I have BETRAYED the innocent blood. And
they said, What is that to us? See thou
to that. And he cast down the pieces Of
| went and hanged himself" You have
seen storm held back by the force of the
wind, when suddenly the wind ceased and
the storm would break with all it's fury.
This was like Judas. I doubt not in all
his following after Jesus that again and
again he was filled with the desire to be
true to Christ, but the time passes and he
| 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
! fuenced us. We are persuaded of His di-
upon us may. be broken. It 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:
Thy salvation,' without God, without
hope in the world" for only those can ap-
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
! 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. Ii 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.
body is weak be sure to watch and 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 Cod" 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
i reach of us all.
There is story written by DR.. Henry
Van Dyke entitled "The Lost Word'' It
gives an account of one Hermas, the son of
Demetrins. who became Christian. Be-
cause of this his father, a 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 leaf, and finally
promises if he will 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,
t'My son, when you left me you found
something that made youi life beautiful.
Mine has been failure; will you not tell me
what must do now, for am to die and
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 a
beautiful girl, and God gives him a lovely
child. They are seated one day in the
garden with their hearts overfowing with
gratitude, when the wife suggests that they
kneel down and express their thanks for
all their treasures, and again he begins,
eve thank thee, oh" and speech fails
him, for he has sold his Lord and he can
not even recall His name. He is a compet-
itor 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 Nearer dead than
alive he is carried back to the palace, and
the father kneels down by his bedside.
There is no hope now except in prayer.
He cries out, "Spare him, oh, spare him,
oh" and there is no word to fill the
place, for he has sold his Lord. Then sud-
denly his old master, John, appears, and
after tears of repentance he is restored
again to his priceless position. Is this not
| an illustration for mauv of us who have in