II I do not know whether you generally read the daily news- paper. I think we might get up a " Society for the Suppression of Useless Knowledge." A great deal that appears in the news- papers amounts only to that, and much time is wasted thereon ; but sometimes we get a gem amongst the news, and to my mind there was a gem contained in a Eeuter's telegram from Rio Janeiro, 10th May : — " The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies has voted the immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery in Brazil." ^
1[ The island of Capri in the Bay of Naples is a very tiny island, only about three and a half miles square. But it is a very beautiful island, for small though it is, it has upon it two moun- tains, connected with each other by a ridge or saddle. And the sides of these mountains are covered with gardens and trees. There are orange trees and lemons and olives and vines. And the air in the summer time is heavy with the sweet fragrance they send forth. There are remains also upon the island of Eoman villas and baths and temples. And on one side of the island is a wonderful grotto, which can be reached only from the sea.
Now if we were in the island of Capri on Easter morning we might see a very curious sight. Eising early, we should climb the long flight of steps that lead upward from the shore, past the quaint old houses, by the vineyards and the orange groves, until we reached the church. There we should find a crowd of people waiting; dark-eyed boys and girls with jet black hair; women wearing the many-coloured costume of the island; men with their faces sunburnt from their daily exposure to the rays of the hot, fierce sun.
By and by there comes the priest, with the boy acolytes behind him, chanting as they come. First they enter the church, where they hold a service ; then, after a while, they reappear out- side the church, and people and priests and boys all stand together on the great open square in front, with the wide sea below and the great broad dome of the blue sky above. But
^ C. H. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 1894, p. 349.
456 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
what are those people carrying in their hands ? Cages. And what are in the cages ? Birds. Let us watch. See, there is a signal given. What does it mean ? The doors of the cages are being opened ; and the men, or the boys, or the girls who hold them are putting in their hands. And now they are taking out the birds. They must be about to set them free. And so they are. Another moment and there is a little cloud of birds just above the people's heads, and in another the birds which a minute ago were captives in their cages are flying upward, here and there and everywhere, into the wide sky beyond. They, every one of them, are free. This is what may be seen every Easter morning on the island of Capri, and it may be seen also, I believe, in other places, especially in Kussia.^
Conquering kings their titles take From the foes they captive make. Jesus by a nobler deed From the thousands He hath freed.
4. And it is a message of the opening of the eyes to the blind. None of Christ's miracles astonished more than His making the blind to see ; none cost Him more. In the spiritual sphere it verges on the impossible. The blindness of ignorance is removable : we are to blame if we do not remove that. But who so blind as he that will not see ? Whose eyes are so hard to open as theirs who say, " we see," while yet their sin remaineth ? But the things which are impossible with men are possible with God. This Worker is anointed for His work. Therefore He has the Spirit, and the Spirit will stay with Him till his work is done — even to the opening of the eyes of the blind.
Lo ! the light cometh that shall never cease ; Soon shall the veil be lifted ; be at peace ! Light, and more light, shines from the eternal shore, Light of the life that dieth nevermore.^
III.
The Preacher.
In a dialogue between a Christian and a Jew, which was written in the beginning of the second century, but published in
» J. Byles, The Boy and the Angel, p. 191. ^ Walter C. Smitli.
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English only a few years ago {Expos. 5th ser. v. 302, 443), the Christian quotes this prophecy of Isaiah, upon which the Jew remarks, " All this is to be in the future, though the time is not yet." That is the Jew's admission of the extraordinary wealth of promise this prophecy contains. He does not acknowledge Jesus Christ, but he sees that no one else has yet come to fulfil it. We acknowledge Jesus Christ. We know that He took this sermon and made it His. We believe that
He comes the broken hearts to bind,
The bleeding souls to cure ; And with the treasures of His grace