The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-02-19
CHRIST ABOVE ALL
Sermon by Rev. DR.. II. Dewitt Tai.
mage, D. D.
The Saviour the Most Conspicuous Figure
In the Worlds History--A Glorious
Name to Christians Living and
to Christians Dying.


cent sermon at the Brooklyn Academy
4 Of Music was ''The Glorious Christ" and
his text, ''He that cometh from above Is
above all"--John ILL, "a. The eloquent
preacher spoke as follows:
The most conspicuous character OF
history steps out upon the platform.
The finger which, diamonded with light,
pointed down to Him from the Bethle-
hem sky, was only ratification OF the
finger of prophecy the finger of genoa
logy, the finger Of chronology, the fin
ger Of events-all FIVE fingers pointing
+ In one direction. Christ is the over
topping figure of all time. He is the vox
humane in all music, the most graceful
line in all sculpture, the most exquisite
mingling OF lights and shades in all
painting, the acme, OF all climaxes, the
dome Of all cathedfaled grandeur, and
9 the eperoration Of all splendid language.
The Greek alphabet is made up of
I tTenty-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 splen-
dors that you can spell out either with
those two letters and all tho letters be-
tween them. 81 am the Alpha and the
Omega, the beginning and the end, the
first and the last" Or II you prefer the
words ofthe text, "above all"
What does 1t mean? 1t means. after
you have piled up all Alpine and Hima.
layan attitudes, tho glory Of Christ
would have to spread its wings and de-
scend thousand leagues to touch those
submits. Pelion, high mountain Of
Thessaly; Ossa, a high mountain: and
Olympus, q ligh mountains; but mythol-
ogy tells us when the giants warred
against the gods they piled up these
three mountains, and from the tor of
them proposed to scale the heavens; but
tho height was not great enough, anc
there was complete failure. And
after all the giants-Isaiah and Paul,
prophetic and apostolic giants; Raphael
and Michael Angelo, artistic piants:
chernbim and seraphim and arcbangel,
celestial giants-have failed to climb TO
the top Of Christ's glory they might all
we'll unite in the words Of the text and
say: she that cometh from above is
above ALL" -,
First, Christ must be above all else in
our preaching. There are so many books
on hcmiletics scattered THROUGH the
country that all laymen, as we'll as 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 evil-individual,
social, political, national. There is no
reason why we should ring the endless
changes on few phrases. There are
those who think that II an exbortation
or discourse have frequent mention Of
justification, sactiaeation, covenant OF
works, and covenant OF grace, that there
fore it must be profoundly evangelical,
while they are suspicious of discourse
which presents the same truth, but
under different phraseolgy. Now, say
there is nothing In all theopulent realm
Of Anglo-Saxonism, Of all the word
treasures that we inheritfrom the Latin
and the Greek and the Indo- European,
but we have right to marshal II in re-
ligious discussion. Christ set the ex-
ample. His Illustrations were from the
grass. the flowers, the spittle, thesalve,
tho barnyard fowl, the crystals OF salt,
as well as from the the seas and the
starw and we do not propose in outS Sab
bath-school teaching and in our pulpit
address to put on the limits.
know there is great deal said in
our day against words, as though they
were nothing. They may be misused,
but they have an imperial power. They
are the bridge between soul and soul,
between Almighty God and the human
race. What did God write on the tables
OF stone? Words. What did Christ
utter on Mount 0livetP Words Out Of
what did Christ strike the spark for the
illumination OF the universe? Out 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 ship? What you need, my friends.
In all your work, in your Sabbath-school
class, in your reformatory institutions,
and what we all need, is TO enlarge our
vocabulary when we come TO speak
about God and Christ and Heaven. We
ride a few old words TO death when
thcre is such illimitable resource.
Shakespeare employed $1,000 different
words for dramatic purposes; Milton
employed 5000 different words for poetic
purposes; Rufus Choate employed over
$4,000 different words for legal purposes;
but the most Of us have less than 1000
words that we can manage, less than
500, and that makes us so stupid
When we como to set forth the love of
Christ we are gping to take tenderest
phraseology wherever we find It, and II
Il 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 SMILES from triumphal arch
and oratorio and everything grand and
Btupendous The French navy have
eighteen flags by which they signal, but
those eighteen flags they can put into
sixty-six thousand different combine
tions. And have TO tell you that these
standards OF the cross may be lifted in
TO combinations infinite and varieties
everlasting. ADi let me say to these
young men who come from the theologi-
cal seminaries into our services every
Sabbath, and are after while going to
preach Jesus Christ, you will have the
largest liberty and unlimited resources.
You only have TO present Christ in your
own way.