Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-09-28
THE MARCH OF CHRIST
Through the Centuries the Theme of
DR.. Talmage's Sermon.
FROM THE BIRTH IN THE STABLE
To His Eeath Oh the Cross on Calvary and
His Ascension to Heaven.
TADERNACLE'S SACRAMENT SUNDAY
rsrEc1AL TELEGRAM TO THE prspArcu,, !,

rsPEc1AL TELEGRAM TO THE pIsPArcn,l
BROOKLYN, Sept o7-This is Sacrament
Sunday at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. The
Ferviccs as usual en- these occasions were
very solemn and impressive. The morning
service opened with the Long Meter Doxol,
oCy. The Grand 0fcrtoire by Grison was
eNqnisitely rendered by Prof Henry Eyre
Brown, and tie sorvirc closed with tie I'M,
iestie Coronation Hymn. DR.. Talmase's
discourse was on "The March OF Christ
Through the Centuries and his text Rev.
el&tioEs Y, y. ''0n His head were many
crowns -
May your ears be alert and youT thoughts
conccrtrcd and all the powers Of your soul
aroused. while l speak to You of "the ms rch
OF Christ through tho centuries" You say,
give us thCu good start, in rooms OF YER
nIillion and on floor Of mosaic and amid cor
NiIorS OF pCT2ihyry ana under canopieS dyed
liz the snlendoTS of che setting sun" GCu
can have no such starting place. At the
time our Chiettan wis born, there were cas-
flC> on the bench OF (iaiiee, and palaces at
Jerusalem, and imperial bathrooms at Jcri-
ChO, and o!'liSkS at Cairo and the Pantheon
~ Rome with its COrintAian portlcO and its
is 81 ante columns, and the Parthenon at
Athens, with its glistening coroner Of tenl-
IlC@: and there were mountains of line
architecture in many parts OF the world.
Eut none OF them were to be the starting
place % The Chieftain celebrate.
4 COWS STALL a winter month, an atmos-
DhGre in which are the moan of camcls and
tho ha&iEg .! sleep and the barking of dogs
and the rCuEh banter of hostlcries. He takes
his first journey before he could walk.
Armed desperadOeS with hands of blood
worC ready to snatch hiU. down into butch
eTv Rev. William II. Thompson the vet
evan and beloved missionary whom / saw
Ihis last month in DCnver.in his eighty til
year, has described in his volume entitled
'The Land and the Book, ," Bethlehem he
saw II. Winter before last | walked up and
down the gray hills of Jura lime stone on
winch the village now rests. The fact that
kul@ Davi.' had been born there, had not
during ages elevated the village into any
SPECIAL attention. The other fact that il
was the birthday Ot our Chieftain did not
keep the place in after years from special
Ci,nunor, Tor Hadrian built there the grove
q Adonis.and for lS0 years the religion there
observed was the most adhorrent debauch-
cry the world has ever seen. Our Chieftain
was considered dangerous from the start.
CHRIST'S BIRTH AND CHILnHoon
do nor wonder that the connections in
the heavens excited the wise men on the
night our Chicftain was born. As he came
from another world and after IS years was
again TO exchange worlds, it does not seem
strange to me that astronomy should have
scit the effect of his coming And instead
OF becoming unDelieving about the one star
rhat stopped, ! wonder that all the worlds i'll
tile heavens did not that Christmas night
make some special demonstration. Why
should they leave the one world or meteor
the bearing OF the news of the humaniza-
zion OF CHRIST? Where was Mars that night
that IL did not indicate the mighty wars that
were to come between the righteous and in
iquity2 Where WIS Jupiter that night that
Il did not celebrate omnipOtence incar-
mated: Where were the Pleiades that night
That they did not announce the storms of
persecution that would assail our Chiefta
In watching this march of Christ Through
the centuries we must not walk before Him
or beside Him, for that would not be rever-
eutial or worshipful So we walk behind
Him. We follow him while not yet in His
teens, up Jerusalem terrace to building
600 feet long and 600 feet wide, and under
the towering splendor of gate-ways, and by
3 pillar crowned with capital chiseled into
the shape of flowers and leaves and along
by walls of bevellec masonry and near a
marble screen until group of white haired
philosophers and theoiogianS gather around
Him, and then the boy bewilders and con-
Pounds, and overwhelmS these scholarly
Septuagenarians with questions they cannot
answer and under His quick WINS 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 rs they arise to 20, they must
feel like chiding the boldness that allows u
years of age to ask 75 years of age such
puzZleTS.
Ont Of this building we follow Him into
the Qua;antania, the mountain of tempta-
zion. its side TO this day black with robbers
LrTS. LOOK, l D the side OF this mountain
come up all the forces of perdition TO effect
ogr Chieftain's capture. But, although
weakened hy 40 days and 40 nights of absri-
lscncc, He hurls all Pandemonium down the
rocks. suggestive OF how He can hurl into
heiplessHcss AL our temptations And now
We climb right after Him mp the tough sides
of tie Mount of Beatitudes, and on the
highest pulpit of rocks, the Valley of Hatin
before Him. the Lake Of Galilee to the right
of Hin, the Mediterranean Sea to the left OF
Him. and He prea ches sermon that vet
n
sgntiment.
HE MADE THE BLIND TO SEE.
We continue TO follow our Chieftain, and
here is a blind man by the wayside IT is
not from cataract OF the eye or from oph-
thalmia, the eye-eXtinguisher of the East:
DuJ he was born blind. "Be opened =. He
cries, and first there is a smarting of the
eyclds, and then twilight, and then q mid
noon, and then q shout. 81 sec / see -
Tell it 70 all the blind and they at least can
appreciate il. And here is the widows dead
son, and here is the dead damsel, and here is
Lazarus Live our Chiettain cries. and |
they live. And here around Him gather the |
Gcal and the dumb, and the sick, and at His |
word they turn on their couches and blush
from awful pallor Of helpless illness TO rubi-
cUn0 health, and the swollen foot of the |
droPSical sufferer becomes feet as roe or |
the mountains. Tell it to all the sick, |
through eli the homes, through all the hos
pita.s. Tell it at twelve O'Clock at night; |
tell II nj two O'Clock iii the morning: tell it /
al nail past taree, and in the last watch of /
tie Night tn&t } csus walks the tempest.
Stfll we follow our Chieftain until the poy-
CTuinent that gave Him no protection insists
that lie pay tax. and too poor to raise the
requisite s. %, He orders Peter to catch a
fish shat has in its mouth n Roman srater
which Is a bright coin land you know that
nsh naturally bite at any thing bright bat il
was miracle that Peter should have caught |
il the first haul.
Now We follow our Chieftafn until for the
paltTy sum OF Sl5 Judas sells Him to Ills nur-
your interests We're sold out consider for
how much cheaper L sum the Lord of earth
and heaven was surrendered to humiliat ation
and death.
The kiss which throughout the human
race, and for all time, God intended as the
most sacred demonstration of affection for
Paul writes to the Romans and the Corintbi-
ans and the ThCsSaloliiiEs concerning the
"holy kiss" and Peter celebrates the kiss of
charity, anu with that conjunction of Inns
I.lbaa met jacob and Joseph met his brefh-
ZEN, and Aaron met Moses and Samuel met
saul and Jonathan met David and OrDah
parted from &aor,ri and Paul separated from |
his friends AZ EphSsus and the father in the
para Ele greeted tEc returning prodigal, and
when tie iniliJ nnilim shall come, VIC are
TOLD, righteousness and peace Will kiss each
other, and all tl3 world is invited to greet
Christ a. IN piIatioH cries on. Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry S:rG ye perish from the
w&y'-rhnt mOst sacred demonstration of
TcaAlnn and affection E;sS deSeCrated as the
1lifilt- lips OF Judas touched the pCre check
OF inlIS., and the torrid smack OF that kiss
H.- n