The Penn's Grove record., 1891-10-09
REV. DR.. TALMAGE
The Brooklyn Divine's Sunday
Sermon.
Subject: "7he March of Christ
7hrough lie Centuries

Subject. "Ihe March of Christ
Through lie Centuries
--
T. ": "pR rs had sccre mdny
o,egis.n-.Rsveiations xix. 70.
MAY your ears be alert AMI your thoughts
concentrated and all the powers of your
soul aroused while | speak to You OF ''the
march of Christ through ths centuries"
You say, olive us, then, a good start in
rooms OF vermiflion and on floors Of mosaic
and amid corridors Of porphyry and under
canopies dyed in all the ~splendors of the
sun" You can have no suci start
ing place. At the time our Chieftain
was born there were castles on the beach
of Galilee and palaces at Jerusalem and
imperial bathrooms at Jericho and obelisks
at Cairo and the Pantheon at Rome, with
its Corinthian portico and its sixteen granite
columns, and the PartheDou at Athens, with
its glistening coronet of temples. and there
were mountains of fine architecture in many
parts Of the world, but none of them was to
be the starting place of the Chieftain / cele
brate.
A cows stall, a winter month, an atmos-
phere in which are the moan 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 snatch Him down into butch
cry. Rev. William n. Thompson, the vete-
ran and beloved missionary, whom I saw
this last month in Denver, In his eighty
sixth year, has described, in his Volume en-
titled, "The Land and the Book Bethlehem
as he saw 1t.
Winter before last I walked up and down
the gray hills Of Jura limestone on which
the village now rests. The fact that King
M rid had kan~ hn.r. kLnv. kAI 500 I,xr;n-
ages elevated the village into any special
attention. The other fact that 1t was the
birthplace Of our Chieftian did not keep
the place In after years from special dis
honor. for Hadrian built there the Grove of
Adonis, and for one hundred and eighty
years the religion observed there was the
most abhorrent ~debauchery the world has
dangerous from the start. The world had
put suspicious eyes upon Him because at the
time OF His birth the astrologers had seen
stellar commotions-a world out of its place
and shooting Town toward a c~aravansary.
Star divination was a science. As late as
the Eighteenth century it had its votaries.
At the Courtof Catherine de Medici it was
honored.
Kepler, one of the wisest philosophers that
the world ever saw, declared 1t was a true
As late as the reign Of Charles Ii.
Lilly, an astrologer, was called before the
House Of Commons in England to give his
opinion as to future event 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, l do not now but that after q while
1t may be found that, as the moon lifts the
tides Of the sea and the sun affects the
growth or blasting of crops, other worlds be-
sides those two worlds may nave something
to do with the destiny Of individuals and ma.
lions in this world
/ do moi 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 exchange worlds, it does
should AVE felt the effect of His coming.
And instead of being unbelieving about the
one star that stopped / wonder that all the
worlds in the heavens did not that Christ
mas night make some special demonstra-
ton. Why should they leave to 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 were to come between
righteousness and iniquityf Where was
Jupiter that night that 1t did not celebrate
o~mnipotence incarnatedf Where was the
Pleiades that night that they did not IN
oance the storms Of persecution that would
assafl our ChieftianS
In watching this march Of Christ through
the centuries, we must not walk before Him
or beside Him, for that would not be rev.
erential or worshipful. So We walk behind
Him. We follow Film while not yet in His
teens. up a Jerusalem terrace, to q build.
ing six hundred feet long and six hundred
feet wide, and under the lowering splen-
dor Of gateways, and by q pillar crowned
with capital chiseled into the shape of how-
'ers and leaves, and along by walls
Of beveled masonry and near q mar.
BILE screen, until q group of white-haired
philosophers and theologians gather around
Him, and then the boy bewiiders and con.
POUNDS and overwhelms these scholarly
septuagenarians with questions they can
not answer. n under His quick why's and
whyfors and hows and whens they pull their
white boards with embarrassment and rub
their wriukled foreheads in confusion, and,
putting their stats hard down on the marble
floor as they arise to go, they must feel like
years OF age to ask seventy-five years Of age
such puzzlers.
Out of this building we follow Him into
the Q~uarantania, the mountain Of tempta-
ton, its side to this day black with robbers
dens. Looki Up the side Of this mountain
come all the forces Of perdition to effect our
Chieftain's capture. But although weakened
by forty days and forty nights Of absti.
hence, He hurls all Pandemonium down the
rookie, suggestive of how He al 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 Hatin before Him, the Lake Of
Galilee to the right Of Him; the Mediterra-
mean sea to the left of Him, and He breaches
. sermon that yet 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 1t when he
tried to walk the water.
Christ our leader is on the top of the toss-
ing waves, and it is about half past three in
the morning, and it is the darkest time Just
before daybreak. But by the flashes OF
lightning we see HIM putting His feet on
to crest, walking the white surf solid a.
though it were frozen snow. The sailors
think a ghost Is striding the tempest, but He
cheers them into placidity, showing Himself
to DO a great Christ for sailors. And He
walks the Atlantic and the Pacific and the
Mediterranean n Adriatic low, and if ex.
hausted and affirighted voyagers will listen
for His voice at half past three o'clock in the
morning OF any sea, indeed at n hour,
LuE1 WIZ hC1A 4AA H1t~0 "a SoAA III
encouragement.
We continue to follow our Chieftain, and
here is a blind man by the wayside. 1t is
not from cataract Of the eye or from oph-
thalmia, the eye e~xtinguisher OF the east
but he was born blind. BE openedr He
cries, and first there is a smartinz of the
eyelids, and then a twilight, and then a mid
noon. and then a shout, II seei l seer
Tell it to all the blind. and they at least
can appreciate it. And here is the widows
dead son. and here is the expired damsel,
and here is Lazarus. 'Livel'' our Chieftain
cries, and they live. Tell il through all the
bereft households, tell it among the graves.
And here around Him gather the deaf,
and the dumb, and the sick, and at His
word they turn on their couches and blush
from awful pallow of helpless illness to
rubicund health. and the swollen foot of
the dropsical sufferer becomes feet as a roe
on the mountains. The music of the grove
and household wakens the deaf ear, and
lunatic and maniac return into bright in
telligence, and the leper's breath becomes
as sweet as the breath OF q child, and the
iesh as roseate, Tell il to all the sick,
through all the homes. through all the hos
pftais. Tell It at twelve O'Clock at night;
sl it at two O'Clock in the morning: tell il
1t half-past three, and in the last watch OF
the night. that Jesus walks the tempest.
Still we follow our Chieftain until the
government that gave Him no protection in
Ists that He pay tax, and, too poor 10 raise
the requisite two dollars and seventy-ffve
,ents He orders Peter to catch q fish that has
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