The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-12-03
THE MARCH OF CHRIST.
DR.. Talmage Follows Jesus From
Bethlehem Down the Ages.
A Constant March of Victory for the
Armies of Our ChIeftaIn, But Still
They Press Onward, Search
ing Out New Fields.


Centuries" His text was:
On his head were many crowns.-Revela.
lions xix. II.
May your ears be alert and your
thoughts be concentered, and all the
powers of your soul aroused, while /
speak to you of "the march of Christ
through the centuries" You say, ''give
us. then good start, in rooms of ver-
million and on floor OF mosaic and
amid corridors of porphyry and under
canopies dyed in all the splendOrs of
the setting sum-" You can have no
understanding place. At the time our
Chieftain was born, there were castles
on the beach of Galilee, and palaces at
Jerusalem, and imperial bath rooms at
Jericho, and obelisks at Cairo and the
Pantheon at Rome, with It's corinthian
portico and its sixteen granite columns;
and the Parthenon at Athens with it's
glistening coronet of temples;and there
were mountains of fine architecture in
many parts of the world. But none of
them were to be the starting place OF
the Chieftain / celebrate.
A cows stall, winter month, an at
mOsphere in which are the means of
camels and the baying of sheep and
the barking of dogs and the rough BAN
ter of hostleries. He takes His first
Journey before He could walk. Armed
desperadoes with hands of blood were
ready to snatch Him down into butch
cry. Rev. William II. Thompson, the
veteran and beloved missionary, whom
/ saw this last month in Denver, in his
eighty-sixth year, has described, in his
volume entitled, 1.-THE Land and the
Book" Bethlehem as he saw it. Win
ter before last / walked up and down
the gray hills of Jura limestone on
which the village now rests. The fact
that King David had been born there
had not during ages elevated the viii
lage into any special attention. The
other fact that it was the birthplace of
our Chieftain did not keep the place in
after years from special dishonor, for
Hadrian built there the grove of Adonis
and for one hundred and eighty wears
the religion there observed was the
most abhorrent debaucherv the
world has ever seen. Our
Chieftain was considered dan
gerous from the start. The world
has put suspicious eyes upon Him
because at the time of His birth the
astrolOgers had seen stellar commo-
tions, world out of it's place and shoot
Ing down toward caravansary. Star
dlvination was a science. AS late as
the eighteenth century it had it's vo-
taries. At the court of Catherine de
Medici it was honored. Kepler, one of
the wisest philosophers that the world
ever saw, declared it was true science.
AS late as the reign of Charles IL, Lilly,
an astrologer, was called before the
house OF commons in England to give
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.
And as history moves in circles, do
not know but that after awhile it NAV
be found that as the moon lifts the
tides of the seas and the sun affects
the growth or blasting of crops, other
worlds besides these two worlds NAV
have something to do with the destiny
OF individuals and nations in this world.
do not wonder that the connections
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 change
worlds, 1t does not seem strange to
me that Astronomy should have felt
the effect of His coming. And instead
OF being unbelieving about the one star
that stopped l wonder that all the
worlds in the heavens did not that
Christmas night make some special
demonstration. Why should thew leave
70 one world or meteor the bearing of
the news of the humanization of Christi
Where was Mars that night that it did |
not indicate the mighty wars that |
we're to come between righteousness |
and iniquity? Where was Jupiter that |
light it did not celebrate omnipotence !
ncarnated? Where were the Pleiades |
hat night that they did not announce
he storms of persecution that would
'ssail our Chieftain?
1t watching this march of Christ
trough the centuries, we must not
Walk before Him or beside Him. for
hat would not be reverentiaI or wor-
hiptul. So we walk behind Him. We
ollow Him, while not yet in His teens.
p Jerusalem terrace, to building
TX hundred feet long and six hundred
eet wide, and under the lowering
plendor of gatewavs, and by pillar
with capital chiseled into the
hape OF flowers and leaves, and along
y walls of beveled masonry, and near
marble screen. until group of white
aired philosophers and theologians
ather around Him, and then the bov be-
-ilders. and confounds, and overwhelms
lese scholarly septuagenarians with
uestions they can not answer, and un-
or His quick why's and whyfors, and
ows and whens, they pull their white
cards with embarrassment and rub
leir wrinkled foreheads in confusion.
I'd putting their staff hard down on
le marble floor as they rise to go, they
ust feel like Gliding the holiness that
lows twelve years of age to ask {,
twenty-five years of age such puzzles. =,
Out of this building we follow Him !
to the Quarantania, the mountain of ,
imitation its side IN tb;s a. -