Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-03-07
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVI MES Sun
DAY SERMON.
subicct: THE Glorious Christ"

ton ont upon the platform. The finger
which dianlonded with light, pointed down
- uir, from the Bethlehem sky, was only
ratification Of the finger OF prophecy, the
Gngaro Of genealogy, the finger Of chronology,
tbe finger of events-all five fingers pointing
=; one direction Christ is the overlapping
foure Of all time He is the vox humana in
al music the gracefulest line in all sculp-
tlIre the most exquisite mingling Of lights
and shades in all painting the acme of all
climates the dome Cf all cathedraled gran
deur. and the peroration Of AL splendid Ian
gua2e.
The Greek alphabet is made up of twenty
four letters and when Christ compared Him
self to the first letter and the last letter. the
alpha and the omega He appropriated
10 Himself all the spendors that you
can spell out either with those two let
ters and all the letters between them. Il
am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning
and the end, the first and the last" Or, if
ssI"
What does it mean? 1t means, after you
have piled up all Alpine and Himalayan
attitudes the glory of Christ would have to
spread it's wings and descend a thousand
leagues to touch those SUBMITS Pelion, a
high mountain Of Thessaly; Ossa, high
mountain, and Olympus, high mountain;
but mythology tells us when the giants
warred against the gods they piled up these
three mountains, and from the top of them
was not great enough, and there was COM
plete fl lure. And after all the giants
Isaiah and Paul. prophetic and apostolic
giants; Raphael and Michael Angelo, artistic
angel celestial giants-haVe failed to climb
to the top of Christ's glory they might all
well unite in the words of the text and say:
lie that cometh from above is above all"
First Christ must be above all else in our
preaching. There are so many books on
IL. fpn ,fY@Ty
that all laymen, as well all clergymen,
have made up their minds what sermons
ought to be. That sermon is most effectual
which most pointedly puts forth Christ as
the pardon Of all sin and the correction of all
tvil-mdividual social, political, national.
There is no reason why we should ring the
endless changes on a few phrases. There are
those who think that if all exhOrtation or
discourse have frequent mention of justi-
icatiOn sanctlfcatiOn, covenant OF
works and covenant of grace, that
therefore it must be profoundly evangelical
while they are suspicious OF discourse
which presents the same truth, but under
different phraseology. Now, [ say there is
nothing in all the Opulent realm of Anglo
SaxOnsm of all the word treasures that we
inherited from the Latin and the Greek and
the Indo-EurOpean, but we have a right to
marshal it III religious discussion. Christ
sets the example. His illustrations were from
the grass, the flowers, the spttle the salve,
we'll as from the seas and the stars; and we
do not propose i'll our Sabbath-schOOl teach
ing and in our pulpit address to be put OH the
limits.
know that there is great deal said in our
day against words, as though they were
nothing They may be MISSED, but they
ave an imperial power. They are the
ridge between soul and soul, between Al
mighty God and the human race. What did
God write upon the tables of stones? Words.
~, 4
Words. Out of what did Christ strike the
park for the illumination of the universe?
nut of words Let there be light" and
light was Of course thought is the cargo
and words are only the ship; but how fast
would your cargo get on without the
N all your work, in your Sabbath
school class in your refOrmatOry
institutions, and what we all need is to en-
large our vocabulary when we come to speak
about God and Christ and heaven. We ride
a few old words to death when there is such
ilIimitable resource. Shakespeare employed
fifteen thousand different words for dra-
matte purposes; Milton employed eight thou
sand different words for poetic purposes;
Rufus Choate employed over eleven thou
sand different words for legal purposes; but
the most of us have less than a thousand
words that we can manage, less than five
hundred, and that makes us SO stupid.
When we come to set forth the love of
phraseology wherever we find it, and if it
has never been used in that direction before,
all the more shall we use it. When we
come to speak of the glory of Christ, the
COnQuerOr, we are going to draw our STILES
from triumphat arch and oratOrio and
everything grand and stupendous. The
French navy have eighteen flags by
which they give signal, but those
eighteen flags they can put into sixty-six
thousand different combinations. And l
Fave to tell you that these standards of the
cross may be lifted into combinations infinite
and varieties everlasting. And let me say
TO these young men who come from the the
illogical seTinaries into our services every
Sabbath, and are after a while going to
preach Jesus Christ you will have the
largest liberty and unlimited resource. You
only have tOpresent Christ in your own way.
jonathan Edwards preached Christ in the
SeNereNt ar"O'0"nT ever penned 'nd J0hn
bunyan preached Christ IN the subLmeSt al
leg0ry ever composed. Edward Payson. sick
ana exhausted, leaned up against the side of
the pulpit and wept out his discourse, while
george W hLtdeld, with the manner and the
voice ana the start of an actor, overwhelmed
ms AUDITORY. 1t would have been a different
thing II Jonathan Edwards had tried to
write and dream about the pilgrims progress
70 the celestial city, or John Bunyan had at
tempted an essay on the human will.
Brighter than the light, fresher than the
fountains, deeper than the seas, are all these
gospel themes Song has no melody. flowers
nave no sweetness sunset sky has no color
compared with these glorious themes These
harvests OF grace spring up quicker than we
Fan sickle them. kindling pulpits with
their fire, and producing Revolutions with
their ptwer, lighting up dying beds with
their glory, they are the sweetest thought
Tor the poet, and they are the most thrilling
Illustration for the orator, and they offer
the most intense scene for the artist
and they are to the ambassador of the
SKY all enthusiasm. Complete pardon for