The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-05

l informs us, as an ingredient In the cost Hest unguents. When the psalm tells us that Christ's wedding garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia we know that he means us to understand how precious | they will be.
 Let us consider what makes them precious. They are the glory o" OUT Lord He will wear them in joy and gratitude l for the sacrifices his people have made l in his cause They are going to cost all the moneys we give to our churches and to our reformatory institutions. We must l give this money for Christs robes. He l bids Us give. They are going to cost all 1 the moneys we send to foreign missions. "Go teach all men is the Bible command. l Not only have they cost money but l blood. are going to cost all the blood of l the martyrs which has been shed in the past Ah, now the expense of those we'd ding robes is rolling up. If the dead body of a common laborer slain by an express l train in New York state is worth S5,000, how much must have been worth the martyred blood of a Paul, Peter, a Stephen. Polycrap, d Justin Martyr, Savonarola. a Ridley, an Elphege, a l Gileyn de Muller, a JoLn Rogers, Law renee Sanders a John Harper, a Bre l boeuf Lallermand and of the thou | sands of men and women slain by sword and spear and battleaN or burned at the stake and tortured with untold agonies,' God alone can know how the value of Christs wedding germents is increasing.
 The Supreme Cost.
 But the supreme element in the cost of those wedding garments is the blood of Christ himself It was by his own suffering and death that he wen the right l to wear them. Do you wonder that Is- aiah when in the prophetic vision he sees these wedding robes describes them by their color-the color of the bloody sac rlfice? "Who is this, cried he, that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah--this that is glorious in his apparel? Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine vat?" Ah, my :, friends. l am glad today that We can talk about the royal crimson and not the royal purple of Christs wedding gar ments. l am glad that even in heaven ] when looking upon the divine face of 1 Jesus, we shall not be allowed for one moment to forget the enormous cost in money and blood of the marriage robes 1 in which Christ will take the church as l his bride in eternal nuptials. Am 1 going beyond my right in declaring that Christ's wedding robes arc to be the most eXpen- sive of garments.
 But, drawing near to the Divine Bride groom, find that Christ's wedding robes have a wonderful curative quality. Their touch Is like the cool hand upon the fev- l cred brow. Oh. yes they are more than that Their touch gives spiritual and i physical healing. It Is the healing pow I CT of Christ's earthly robe when the bord- CT of it was pressed just an instant by the forefnger of the poor woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years. ! No sooner did her flesh come in contact with it's folds than immediately the woman was made whole from that hour" i We have read how the ieient devotees used to travel many miles to be cured of their physical pains at the tomb of St. i Ann de Beappre. or at the healing l spring of Lourdes, or by the flowing robes of St. Anthony. St. Patrick or St. 1 Bernard, but never did tomb or fabled water or flowing garments or dead saints ] have such curative qualities spiritual or l physical, as will have the wedding gar ments of Jesus Christ.
 Their Healing Virtues.
 How do l l1ow this? The symbols of the myrrh and the aoles and the cassia teach it. They were all used medici nally. "The myrrh. as is we'll known" writes an authority, Twas celebrated for it's use in medicines. The ancents pre- l pared a wine of myrrrh and also an oil of myrrh. It was found as ingred tent in many of the celebrated compound medicines" Myrrh is especially of great use" says another author. along with aloetic medicines and compounds of iron." The medicinal quality of aloes Is defined in every dictionary, and cassa was also used as drug by the ancients | Thus when we come in touch with l Christs wedding garments we know they are going to heal all of our diseases and l assuage all our pains and le the balm which will take away every heartache. In Goethe's "Faust" we are taught that the royal robes of God shall appeal to us mostly by sight and not by touch. But l would change the wording of the mast CT poet of Germany. as I describe the healing qualities of Christ's wedding gar ments follows:
 Here at the roaring loom of time I ply
 And weave for God the garment thou feelst him by.
 Pain, sickness. suffering. pain of the 1 head, pain in the heart. all to disappear 1 before the touch of Christ's wedding | robes. Oh. think of the blessed rapture of such wedding ceremony with the | Divine Bridegroom, I remember some years ago I was called to officiate at the saddest wedding of my life. A young woman was dying. Even then the sum mons of death was pounding at her door 1 But before she left earth she wanted as a bride to clasp the hand of the lover by | her side. We silently entered the sick room. The breathing was heavy and low but the eye of the sufferer was bright and , happy, A strong young man stood by 1 the side of the sick bed The nuptial VOWS were spoken. The young bride l groom could give to the bride his love- | but he could not give to her health. The words "til death do you part" never had l such solemnity for me as that service | Even then death was saying to the couple being wed: You must part. You must | part at once. I am death and I am com l ing to court your bride" But at the heav- enly marriage of the Divine Bridegroom there shall be no pain on any face. no heartache in any breast, no hacking cough, no fearful eye. The garments that smell of the myrrh and the aloes and the | cassa are curative robes. They are we'd ding garments scented with myrrh. a. | medicine, and with aloes. a medicine and with cassia, medicine.
 A Joy in Suffering.
 | But have the royal robes of Christ no l higher purpose than the mere preven- l tion of pain or heartaches ?If that be all l the efficacy of these wedding garments of l the Divine Bridegroom. then I say let me have my pain and heartaches. There is | sometimes a joy in suffering. There is 1 sometimes a peace in pain As Tennyson l writes, Tt is better to have loved and | lost than never to have loved at all" That wedding ring upon your hand l would you wish never to have had it. 1 placed there? It may be many years ago