Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1903-11-11
REMOVING DIFFICULTIES.

On the one side of the stone door of
Lazarus tomb stood the dark messen-
ger we call Death, on the other the
mighty King Of All Life; for Lazarus
had been dead four days, and Christ
had come TO undo the work of death
and TO give to the young man the most
precious of all gifts-that is, life.
He who had created the worlds and
had kept them in righ. relations
through all the ages so that they could
go singing on their journey, could have
hurled that stone away with a word.
But, since He was working from the
human side, He must needs respect
human conditions and give man a
share in His glorious work and also a
chance to learn the lessons of His
great life on earth. for Christ's mis-
sion was not SO much to make eternal
impressions on matter. on the outer
world, as to make impressions on mind
the human soul.
1t happens then that the chief ser
vice of man to his fellow men is to
clear away difficulties that the divine
pfISpu anu DpOEL mar WIN a. VA
that day human hands had to roll
away the stone from before the tomb
that Lazarus might feel the thrill of
life Ditficulties are of various kinds
but all alike prevent the free
working of divine power in the soul
A nonconductor has come between
God and man, and this must be re-
moved from the human side because
of human sin This is why Christ
came around from the side of divinity
to the side of humanity, bringing His
divinity with Him to give effective
ness to salvation.
The business q discovery in the nat
ural world is to clear away hindrances
and to make channels for forces which
were long ago reposed in nature, right
under our hands and so near that
they actually touch us. Just as the
great discoveries in electricity consist
In giving direction to the 6ighty power
that it may become thing of service
rather than a means of destruction, so
the chief business of religion is TO
clear away the difficulties in the di-
vine path, so that God may work nat
urally in the hearts of men. Martha
was unhappy in the incident of the
text because she was not willing to
make way for the full working of the
power of God Most of the unhappi-
ness OF the world is on the same &C
count
Every day we pass by a thousand
graves of buried hopes of other peo-
pie and never stop to see if Ue may
roll away the stone that the light of
God may shine in to give life to the
dead. How wonderful it would be if
we could fully realize that Christ
stands on the human side of every
trial and every trouble and every dis
appointment and every sin and says:
"You do your part and l will do mine!
YC'i remove all that the human hand
take away and l will Danish the
as with a word l put death to
fight at Lazarus tomb
1t may not be much that you can do,
but if it is ever so little it must be
done before the divine power can
work. The world can never be made
better without positive effort. The
cheerful face. the willing heart. the
forgiving spirit, the helping hand and
the Godlike purpose make the journey
of life a grand march of triumph.
But we are also to remove the stone
of Indifference Many people were
there that day who did not seem to
care much whether Lazarus ever lived
or not, and even Martha seemed indif-
ferent to any effort on the part of the
Savior. SO we find in the world to-
day the head-shaking and hand wiring
ing people who say: 1T will do no
good, there is no use in trying"
1t is your place and mine tO III : hard
al this worlds weight of sorrow that
tb, resurrection power OF God may
give life to Il dead world. Martha and
those who We're With her have taught
US how we may roll away the stone
2 of unbeiief and have the power of new
and greater life; for when they hest
tated and doubted He asked: said |
not unto thee that if thou wouldst be-
lieve thou shOuldst see the glory OF
God?"
Then can we not see the glory of
God without believing? No, we can
not. 1t is We only way. There is
many dark grave of departed faith
sealed forever because we don't be-
lieve enough to reach out a hand to
help There are thousands of them
IN this city.
When they believed and removed the
stone what matchless glory did they
see, 1t is by faith that you may see
the glory of God. When we hear that
an astronomer has discovered new
comet we d. not read that he found ii
with the unaided eye. He saw it Y IN
his telescope 'ong before the rest of US
knew anything about it. When a man
announces a mighty truth of Cod; that
he has seen its beauty and felt its
power though we do not see it, we
know that it has been made known to
hic, by the wonderful reach and reve-
latjon Of faith. When we were in the
observatory searching for the stars and
did not find them the teacher said;
"Get the focus; see that you are on
the right live OF vision, then you viii
see Then do we in religious things
uurn AID ask What las the focus 20
do with il? Can l not see? Have /
not eyeiT'
The answer comes. Yes. you have