The Brookhaven leader., 1890-05-22
TALMAGES SERMON.
Natures Laws Suspended at the
Divine Will
The story Of the Ascension and It's Les
sons-The Scene on OlIvet Among
the Fishermen OF GaliIee-The
Way Pointed Out.


In olden times when a great con-
queror returned from victorious war the
people in wild transport would take
hold of the gates of the city and lift
them from their hinges. as much as to
say: This city needs no more gates
to defend it since this conqueror has
| got home. OFF from the hinges the
| gates" David, who was the poet of
poets, foretells in his own way the tri-
umphal entrance of Christ into Heaven
after His victory over sin and death
and hell. 1t was as if the celestial in
habitants had said: Here He comes!
Make way for Him! Push back the
bolts of diamond! Take hold of the
| doors of pearl and hoist them from their
hinges of gold Lift up your heads, o
ye gates; and be We lifted up we ever
lasting doors; and the King of Glory
shall come in"
Among the mountains of Palestine no
one is more uplifting than Mount Olivet.
1t was the peroration of our Lord S
ministry. On the roof of house in
Jerusalem i asked, (which is Olivet?"
and the first glance transfixed me. But
how shall describe my emotions when,
near the close of journey, in which we
had for two nights encamped amid the
shattered masonry of old Jericho, and
tasted the acrid waters of the Dead Sea,
that crystal sarcophagus of the buried
cities of the plain, and waded down into
the deep and swift Jordan to baptize a
man, and visited the ruins of the house
of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, we
found ourselves in stirrups and on
horse, lathered with the long and diff
ficult way, ascending Mount Olivet?
Oh, that solemn and suggestive ridge.
1t is limestone hill mile in length,
and three hundred feet high, and twen-
ty-seven hundred feet above the level of
the sea. Over it King David fled with a
broken heart. Over it Pompey led his
devastating hosts. Hero the famous
Tenth Legion built their batteries in
besiegement. The Garden of Gethsem-
ane weeps at the foot of it. Along the
base of this hill flashed the lanterns
and torches of those who came to arrest
Jesus. From the trees of this hill the
boughs were torn off and thrown into
the path of Christ's triumphal process
sion. Up and down that road Jesus had
walked twice day, from Bethany to
Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem to Beth
any. There, again and again, He had
taught His disciples. Half way up to
this mount He had uttered His lamenta
ton: 30 Jerusalem, Jerusalem"
From its heights Jesus took flight home
ward when He had finished His earthly
mission. There is nothing more for
Him to do. A sacrifice was needed to
make peace between the recreant earth
and the outraged Heaven, and He had
offered it. Death needed to be con-
quered, and He had put His resurrec-
ton foot upon it. The thirty three
years of voluntary exile had ended.
The grandest, tenderest, mightiest
goodbye ever heard was now to be at
tered.
On Mount Olivet Jesus stands in a
group of Galilee fishermen. They had
been together in many scenes of sadness
and persecution, and had been the more
endeared by that brotherhood of suffer-
ing. They had expected Him to stay until
the day of coronation when He would
take the earthly throne and wave a
ycepter mightier, and rule dominion
wider than any Pharaoh, than any
David, than any Caesar. But now all
these anticipations collapse. Christ
has given His last advice. He has Of
fered His last sympathy. He has spoken
His last word. His hands are spread
apart as one is apt to do when he pro-
nounces a benediction, when suddenly
the strongest and most stupendous law
of all worlds is shattered. 1t is the law
which, since the worlds were created,
holds them together. 1t is the law
which holds every thing to the earth
or, temporarily hurled from earth re-
turns it; the law which keeps the plan
cts whirling around our sun, and our
solar system whirling around other sys-
TENS, and all the systems whirling
around the throne of God-the law of
gravitation. That law is suspended, or
relaxed, or broken, to let the body Of
Jesus 60 That law had laid hold of
Him thirty three years before, when He
descended. 1t had relaxed its grip of
Him but once, and that whenit declined
20 sink Him from the top of the waves
on Lake Galilce, on which He walked,
% the bottom of the lake.
That law of gravita tion must now
give way to Him who made the law. 1t
may hold the other stars, but it can not
longer hold the Morning Star of the
Redemption. 1t may hold the monday
sun, but it can not hold the Sun of
Righteousness. The fingers of that law
are about to open to let go the most
ill ,strious being the world had ever
seen, and whom it had worst maltreat-
ed. The strongest law of nature which
philosophers ever weighed or measured
must at last give way. 1t will break
between the rock of Olivet and the heel
of Christ's foot Watch it, all ye
disciples! Watch it, all the earth!
Watch it, all the heavens! Christ about
to leave this planet How? His friends
will not consent to have Him go. His
enemies catching Him would only at
tempt by another Calvary to put Him
into some other tomb. l will tell you
how. The chain of the most tremend-
GUS natural law is unliked. The sacred
foot of our Lord and the limestone rock
part forever.
Leaning back, and with pallid cheek
and uplifted eyes, the disciples see
their Lord rising from the solid earth.
Then, rushing forward, they would
grasp His feet to hold Him fast, but
thew are out of reach, and it is too late
70 detain Him. Higher than the tops OF