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About Christian herald. (Portland ;) 1882-18?? | View Entire Issue (Dec. 14, 1883)
* i 9 CHRISTIAN HHRAT.D. think any brother has a right to officiate at the Lords table ; but as the elders are the leaders and in- structQis.Qfdheflockltisbutpropoi and natural thiat they should take’ the lead in this matter. But if there is a passage of Scripture in the New Testament that enjoins this duty upon the elders of the church to the exclusion of the evangelists, deacons and other brethren in good standing, we have failed to find it. As a rule, however, we would en courage the elders to administer worlds goods and this man is very rich and if we can only get him to join us his wealth will be a great help to us.—But J^us-wanted -not his riches, but him. He had come to save men, aud must honestly tell them the truth, if it did offend, as in the case when many of his disciples, on account of his “ hard sayings ” “ went back and walked no more with him. 3. He did not become impatient of success, as many who profess to be his followers do. He was will- er he had friends or foes, or wheth- er his friends proved true or false, he moved steadily forward, in his geeat work, tqrntng-aeither_faid oi fer right or to the deft. And this is what is now needed upon the part of overy Christian man and woman. No matter what others may do or how discouraging the outlook may appear, each one .should press for ward in his and her duty, following the example set by the Redeemer. G. //* did not judge his success by the great multitudes that follow- He converted very few during his if a preacher can draw the crowd CHRIST AS A WORKER. public ministry so meager were the that he is a successful preacher. Christ was emphatically a worker. fruits of his personal ministry that But Jesus was able to look into the He went about doing good. And in when he came to the last great hearts of people and thus know the strugglo.tharn was not one f riwulXo. jnotiyes that actuated t.Luun 2= ; and bix-ir by him. All forsook him. he very well knew that the crowd example of industry. He intended that the world should be saved by But he looked beyond, and saw tlio often followed him through some work ; and in every thing that con- “ travail of his soul,” and believed impure motive, for the loaves and ouidos-ity-f and the «cod he waa ^slifulcra. has set us an example. Let us look would spring up in the ages to come hence we find his teaching such, for a few minutes at Christ as a and bear fruit. He wants all to sometimes, that it even cut off many learn the important lesson that he of his disciples so that they “ went t worker. 1. His highest aim was to please aimed to teach, that there is a lime back and walked no more with him.” The day of judgement will God. His will was entirely merged to sow and a time to reap. 4. He was an unselfish worker. decide who has been the successful Unto his Father s will. “ I came not workers in this world. I have not to do mine own will but the will of To save lost man he laid aside the the least doubt but that many an him that sent me,” was character glory which he had with the Father obscure worker who has labored istic of him all throucdi his life. He before the world was, and left tile nere simply witn a view to saving said of the law of Moses that one "courts of glory Tor a Tife ofTumiTia- souls and honoring God,will be more jot or tittle of it should not pass tion and sorrow here with sinful honored in that day than' many away untiH aH should be fulfilled. man, that he might be able to save ~who Eave been"far ahead of them And he fulfilled.it to the letter. He him from his ruined condition. His in the estimation of their brethren kept every moral precept in it, great and loving heart was so un while they were in this world. while living>-and in his wonderful selfish that he willingly bore all the M. death He became the ante-type of shame and ignominy that His ene all the types that related to him as mies could heap upon him, and at DAVID AT HEBRON. last gave himself to the shameful the lamb of God that was to take After Saul’s death, we find Da away the sin of tho world. He death of the cross, that he might came over sixty miles on foot, to save even those who treated him vid anointed king at tlebron, where he ruled for seven years and a half, submit to the institution of baptism, thus. 5. He was a steady"worker. He waxing greater and greater, for the that was binding upon him as well as others, saying “ thus it becometh did not become tired or discouraged, Lord was with him. How many us to fulfill all righteousness.” He, and give up, or turn aside for a socred memories cluster around this in one word, carried out the declar- moment from the purpose he had ancient city, that has been held in ation of the prophet, that “ to obey in view. The combined opposition turn by giants of a lost race, by the of earth and hell was not able to Israelites, by the Edomites, devas was better than sacrifice. tated by the Romans, ruled by the 2. He did not seek to please men make him swerve for a moment He honestly told them the truth, if from his great purpose. Many Moslems or conquered by the cru it did sometimes offend. When the Christian people fail, simply be saders, who gave way again to the victorious followers of Mohammed rich young man came to him asking cause their purpose is not fixed. Two thousand years before Christ what good thing he must do to in They are so fickle-minded that you^ and ’a thousand years before David herit eternal life, there would have cannot get them to stick to any began his reign, the pathetic story been a temptation for some, if they Christian work long enough to is told of Abraham buying a burial had been in his place, to keep back make it a success. Some of them place of the sons of Heth, for his the rugged points in their teaching, need to be converted about every wife Sarah who had died in a land or to soften down’ something a year. And some people go by fits of strangers. Abraham had taken little; but he didncither, He frankly and starts, in church work. They no thought of a place to bury his told the young man that there was are sometimes so zealous that you kindred before, but now in the only one course for him to pursue ; have to hold them back, and at oriental style of obsequious words and that was to go and sell all his other times you can’t get them to he buys the first burial place on re property and give it to the poor, do anything. Now the kind of cord, the cave of Ma^pelah at He and then come and take up his cross work that will always tell is the bron. There were buried Sarah, and follow him. . Some would have steady, constant kind of woik that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Rebekah 1(i4soned thus: We are poor in this the Savior did. No matter wheth- ani.4« as ■ f » » I. and Leah. The little group of. graves lies low in the picturesque» valley of Eschol among the moun- n.<nkl»i) lini t.I l f t j .w ♦ * * m» » l - m .-, Hebron was built. Now we step forward, for the name of that fruit ful valley recalls the searching of the land by the spies sent out from, the wilderness of Paran. It was a goodly country; they bore back with them great bunches of grapes, pomegranates and figs: but their faces fell when they remembered the walled cities and the giant sons afraid. They murmured and for forty years more the city of He bron was the home of the Anakims till Joshua conquered the land of Canaan. In the allotment it...ba- came a Levite city, the 'lnhentance of Caleb, “ who wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.” In the com- BiHud of the Lord to to ap- point six cities of refuge, Hebron, was one of the three chosen west of the Jordan in the tribe of Judah. Into it he who took another’s life by accident fled for protection from those who would become avengers of the blood unwittingly shed. Here David established his house hold and began his prosperous V^fairJu^.. the first, but a civil war arose with the house of Saul which lasted for two years. Abner the captain of — Saul’s hosts was the leading spirit in the insurrection, making Ishbos- heth the son of Saul king, with whom he soon quarrelled, howexer^ and went over unconditionally to the enemy. Ishbosheth was slain and his head brought to DavidatHebron, after which all the tribes of Is rael came swearing allegiance to the king who grew stronger and stronger as the house of Saul grew weaker, till the elders came making a league with him in Hebron be fore the Lord. The Jebusites were soon conquered and David with his retinue left Hebron to enter the gates of the “Stronghold of Zion,” there for more than thirty years to rule the entire Hebrew nation. Hebron was no longer a capital, but - the “ city of David ” perhaps twen ty mileg away grew rich and beau tiful, till the eyes of the world cen tered upon it and the walled city of the Jebusites became Jerusalem , the golden, the synonym of that heavenly city where the tree of life is growing. We come to be skillful doers through the bungling, yet earnest, efforts of the beginning.