The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1890-03-06
ALPHA AND OMEGA.
THR MOST CONSPICUOUS CHARAC-
TER OF HISTORY.


Witt Ta,mage, D. D., preached on ''Th'
Glorious Christ" His text was: "H'
that cometh from above is above all."-
John iii, 81. The preacher said:
The most conspicuous character OF
history steps out upon the platform.
The finger which, diamonded with light,
pointed down to him from the Bottle
hem sky, was only ratification Of the
finger Of prophecy, the finger of gene
alogy, the finger of chronology, the fin
ger of events--all.fve fingers pointed in
one direction. Christ Is the overtop-
ioing figure of all time. He is the vox-
pumana in all music, the gracefulest line
Ta all sculpture, the most exquisite ming
ling Of lights and shades in all paint
lpgs, the acme of all climaxes, the dome
OF all cathedral grandeur, and the pero-
ration of all splendid language.
The Greek alphabet is made up of
twenty-fonr letters, and when Christ
compared himself to the first letter and
the last letter, the alpha and the omega,
he appropriated to himself all the splcn-
dors that you can spell out either with
those two letters or all the letters be-
tween them. II am the Alpha and the
Omega, the beginning and the end,
the first and the last" Or, if you pre-
fer the words. of the text, "above all. "
What does it mean2 1t means after
you have piled up all AL pine md Him
alayan attitudes, the glory of Christ
would have to spread its wings and de-
scehd thousand leagues to touch those
submits. Pelion, high mountain, of
Thessa,y; Ossa, high mountain, and
Olympus, a high mountain; but mythol-
ogy tells US when the giants warred
against the gods they piled up these
three mountains, and from the top of
them proposed to scale the heavens :;
but tho height was not great enough,
and thdko vas complete failure. Aud
after all the giants-Isaiah and Paul,
prophetic and apostolic giants; Raphael
and Michael Angelo, artistic giants :;
chcrubim and seraphim and archangels,
celestial giants-have failed to climb to
the top Of Christ's glory. They might all
we'll unite in the words Of he text and
say: "He that cometh from above is
above all"
First, Christ must be above all else in
our preaching. There are 80 many
books on homiletics scattered through
the country that all laymen, as we'll as
~dii cicrgymen, have made up their min Is
what sermons ought to be. That ser.
mon is most effectual which most point-
ediy puts forth Christ as the pardon of
all sin and the correction of all evil-in-
dividual, social, political and national.
There is no reason why we should ling
hn aho,
There are those who think that if an ex-
hortation or a discourse have frequent
mention Of justification, sanctification,
covenant Of works and covenant of
grace, that therefore 1t must be pro-
foundly evangelical, while they are sus-
picious Of q discourse which presents the
SAME truth, but under different phrase
ology. Now, I say there is nothing in
all the opulent realm Of Anglo. Saxonism
Of all the word treasures that we inherit
ed from from the Latin and the Greek
and the Iado- European, but we have q
right to marahal it in religious discus
sions. Christ sets the example. His
illustrations were from the grass, the
flowers. the spittle, the salve, the barn.
yard fowl, the crystals of salt, as we'll
as from the seas and tho stars; and We
do not propose in our Sunday schoo
teaching and in our pulpit address to be
put on the limits.
know that there is great deal said
in our day against words. as though
they were nothing. They may be mis-
used, but they have an imperial power
They are the bridge between soul anG
soul, between Almighty God and th'
human race. What did God write upor
the tables of stoue2 Words. What die
Christ utter on Mount Olivct2 Words
Out OF what did Christ strike the sparl
for the illumination of the universe
Out of Words. LET there be light,
and light was. OF course, thought i
the cargo and words are only the ship
but how fast would our cargo get Of
without the ship7 What you need, m.
friends, in oil your work, in your Sab
bath school claas, in your Heformator,
Institutions, and what we all need is tt
enlarge our vocabulary when VIC como t.
apeak about God and Christ and heav en-
We ride few old words to death W ne
there is such an illimitable resources
Shakespeare employed $1,000 differen
words for dramatic purposes; Milte
employed 5000 different words for pc
etic purposes; Rufus Choate employe
over H. 900 different words for legs
purposes; but the most of us have lee
than /. 900 words that we can manage
less than 500, and that makes us so str
pid.
When we como to set forth the love
Christ we arc going to take the tendereI
phraseelOgy whenever we find 1t, and
it has meyer bean used in that directio
before, all the more shall We use 1
When We come to speak of the glory
Christ, the Conquerer, we are going
draw our similes from triumphal arc
and oratorio, and everything grand or
stupendous. The French navy ha'
eighteon fags by which they give 81
nails, but those eighteen flags they ca
put into sixty-six thousand differer
combinations.
And I have to tell you that the
standards of the cross may be lifted In
combinations infinite and varieties eve
lasting. And let me say to these your
men who come from the theological sen
naries into our services every Sabbat
and are after O while going to preR
Jesus Christ, you will have the large
liberty and unlimited resources. Y
u. - "a T..