The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1903-05-13
From Abroad.
LETTER NO. XII .
LETTER NO. XII.
FROM NAZARETH TO "BLUE GALILEE.'
SEA OF GALILEE, !
Saturday, March 7. 1908. {

| OEA Of OALlLEE,
Saturday, March 7, 1908. {
Dear Judge. Every one of the
seventeen miles from Nazareth to
these charmed waters echoes i'm
mortal voices OF thrilling history
OF all these stirring scenes very
little can be said in this letter.
Three miles out from Nazareth a
glance to the left discovered on a
high hill the birthplace and tomb
of Israel's first foreign missionary
His story is as peculiar as it is in
structive. He did not believe in
foreign missions. In that day the
Mission Board exercised such arbi
trary authority, that the man
selected for mission work had to
accept the task assigned or leave
home and fare worse. This great
preacher whose ashes sleep in the
venerated tomb on the hill yonder,
hard by his native village of Gath
hepher, had one extraordinary rea
son for declining to preach to the
heathen-he was afraid they would
believe his message, repent and be
saved On all the pages of the
history of the 2,7O0 years since
that day, the name of no preacher
is found who seemed to be haunted
in his ministry with a dreadful
apprehension that some one might
believe what he was going to say.
This illustrious clergyman seems
to have cherished conscientious"
and invincible conviction that the
heather ought to be damned.
He fled to the wide seas to escape
his call, but was arbitrarily arrest
ed and sent beyond the Euphrates
with credentials that forced his
message upon the hearts of the
people and saved the vast city of
Nincvah from annihiiation. You
may be wondering why the Lord
chose this anti-foreign mission man
to do this great work. 1t was be-
cause, of the two classes of oppon-
ents, this mighty man belonged to
the respectable and noble class who
oppose simply because they do not
desire the salvation of the heather.
Perhaps no other piece of ancient
history exhibits so strikingly them
finite patience and boundless COM
passion of Jehovah that forever
envelop the great family of earth.
Condescendingly adapting his
means to the peculiar conditions of
the Ninevites, he saved them
Patiently waiting and working
with the preacher, fitting his
measures to the silly and wicked
whims of this childish child of
genius, he succeeded in saving the
preacher himself-for the preacher
believed in the people. But no man
of the ignoble second class of hos
tiles has ever been reported saved
in the Bible. They do not think
foreign missions ever do any good.
They have no confidence in the sim
certify of the converts, even when
they die by the thousand for their
faith in Christ, as in Turkey and
China in recent years.
am here by the hallowed sea,
late in the night. The storm that
dscyc &c froSa CapeInaum tonight
is roaring in my ears. The swash
of the tortured waves of Galilee
pounding heavily against the walls
of the Latin Convent in which l
rest, soothe me to tender charity.
These solemn influences calm my
feeling and moderate my speech,
so that shall only mildly remark
that the man who rests in the grip
of the habit of doubling his fellows,
impunging motives and giving un-
favorable Interpretation to words
and actions is the basest character
on earth, and lives in the shadow
of that hopeless sin of which the