The Princeton union., 1891-10-08
IL Us TRIUMPHANT.
Christ's March Through the Long
Centuries Of the History Of the
World.
A Graphic and Vivid Description Of
the Life Of the Savior Of
Men.

BROoKI.YN. Special. .-Thisis Sacra-
ment Sunday at the Brooklyn taber-
nacle. DR.. Talmage's discourse was on
''The March OF Christ Through the
Centuries and his text, Revelation
xix: l2, Con his head were many
crowns
May your ears be alert and your
thoughts concentrated, and all the
powers OF your soul aroused, while I
speak to you OF "The march OF Christ
through the centuries" You say,
"give us then a good start, in rooms
OF vermillion and on floor of mosaic
and amid corridors Of porphyry and
under canopies dyed in all the splen-
doris Of the setting SUM-" You can
have no such starting place. At the
time our Chieftain was born, there
were castles on the beach of Galilee,
and palaces at Jerusalem, and imper-
ial bath rooms at Jericho, and obe-
lisks at Cairo and the Pantheon at
Rome, with it's corinthian portico and
it's 16 granite columns: and the Par
thenon at Athens with it's gllstening
coronett,o of temples; and there were
mountains OF fine architectural in many
parts of the world. But none OF them
were to be the starting-place of the
Chieftain l celebrate.
A cows stall, winter month, and
All atmosphere in which are the means
OF camels and the baaing of sheep and
the barking of dogs and the rough
banter OF hostelries. He takes his
first journey before he could walk.
Armed desperadoes with hands Of
blood were ready to smirch him down
into butchery. Winter before last I
walked up and down the gray hills of
Jura limestone on which the village
now rests. Our Chieftain was consid-
cred dangerous from the start. The
world had put suspicious eyes upon
him because at the time Of his birth,
astrologers had seen stellar commo-
tions, world out OF place and shoot
ing down towards a caravansary.
Star divination was a science. As
late as the 18th century it had it's vo-
taries. At the Court of Catherine de
Medici it was honored. Kepler, one
OF the wisest philosophers the world
ever saw, declared it was a true science.
AS late as the reign Of Charles H.,
Lilly, an astrologer, was called before
the house OF commons in England to
glYe his opinion as to future events.
For ages the bright appearance OF
Mars meant war; Of Jupiter, meant
power; Of the Pleiades, meant storms
at sea.
I do not wonder that the commo-
tions in the heavens
EXCITED THE WISE MEN
on the night our Chieftain. was born.
AS he came from another world and
after thirty-three years was again to
exchange worlds, it does not seem
strange to me that astronomy should
have felt the effects OF his coming.
And instead OF being unbelieving
about the one star that stooped, I
wonder that all the worlds in the
heavens did not that Christmas night,
make some special demonstration.
In watching this march of Christ
through the centuries, we must not
walk before him or beside him, for
that would not be reverential or
W0rshlpful. So we walk bahind him.
We follow him while not yet in his
teens, up q Jerusalem terrace, to a
building six hundred feet long and six
hundred feet wide, and under the
hovering splendor OF gateways, and
by a pillar crowned with capital
chiseled into the shape Of flowers and
leaves, and along by walls OF bevelled
masonry and near marble screen
until a group of white-haired philoso-
piers and theologians gather around
him, and then the boy bewilders, and
confounds, and overwhelms these
scholarly septuagenarians with ques-
tions they cannot answer, and under
his quick why's and whyfors, and hows
and whens, they pull their white
boards with embarrassment, and rub
their wrinkled foreheads in confusion,
and putting their staff hard down on
the marble floor as they arise to 90,
they must feel like chiding the bold
ness that allows II years OF age to
ask 75years OF age such puzzles.
Out of this building we follow him
into the Quarantania, the mountain
OF tempatation, it's side to this day
black with robbers dens. Look! Up
this side OF this mountain, come all
the forces OF perdition to effect our
Chieftain's capture. But although
weakened by 40 days and 40 nights
OF abstience, he hurls all Pandemon-
ium down the rocks, suggestive ofhow
he can hurl into helplessness all our
temptations. And now we climb right
after him, up the tough sides Of the
Mount Of Beatitudes," and on the
highest pulpit Of rocks, the Valley Of
Hatln before him, the lake Of Gaiilee
to the right of him; the Mediterranean
Sea to the left Of him, and he breaches
sermon that will transform the
world with its applied sentiment.
Now we follow our Chieftain on Lake
Galilee. We must keep to the beach
for our feet are not shod with the
supernatural, and we remember what
poor work Peter made Of it when he
- l. 81, ~