The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-10-14
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: 1.-THE March of Christ
Through the Centuries"

soul aroused While speak TO YOU OF 'Cne
march of Christ through the centuries"
You say, "Give us, then. a good start in
rooms of vermillion and on floors of mosaic
and amid corridors of porphyry and under
canopies dyed in all the splendors of the
setting sun" You can have no such start
ing place. At the time our Chlettaln
was born there were castles on the oeacn
of Galilee and palaces at Jerusalem and
imperial bathrooms at Jericho and ooeilsks
at Cairo and the Pantheon at Rome, WIN
its Corinthian portico and its sixteen granlte
columns, and the Parthenon at Athens, with
its glisrening coronet Of temples, and there
were mountains OF fine architecture in many
parts of the world, but none OF them was 10
be the starting plaza of the Chieftain cele-
brate.
A cows stall, winter month, an atnos-
phere in which are the moan OF camels, anu
the haaing of sheep, and the barking or dogs,
and the rough banter of hostalries He takes
His first tourney before He could walk.
Armed desperadoes with hands of blooo,
were ready to snatch Him down into butch
cry. Rev. William H. Thompson, the vete-
ran and beloved missionary, whom l saw
this last mouth in Denver, in his eighty
sixth year, has described, in his volumne en-
titled. 1.-THE Land and the Book, " Bethiehem
as be saw it.
Winner before last walked up and down
the gray hills OF Jura limestone on which
the village now res. The fact that King
David had been born there. had not during
ages elevated the village into any special
attention. The other fact that it was the
birthplace of our Chiettian did not keep
the place in after years from special dis
honor. for Hadrian built there the Grove OF
Adonis. AMI for one hundred and eiGhty
wears the religion observed there was the
most abhorrent debauchery the world has
tair r0 cnnStdarA6
DANGEROUS from the start. The world mad
mt suspicious eyes upon Him because nt the
fine of His birth the astrologers had seen
stellar comniotions-a world out OF its place
and shooting down toward a caravansary.
Star diyination was science. AS late as
fhe Eighteenth century it had its votarles
At tae Court of Catherine de Medlcl 1t was
honored. =, .,.
the world ever saw, declared it was true
scierce. As late as the reign OF Charles ii.
lilly an astrologer, was called before the
House of Commons in England to give his
onin;on as to future events. For ages the
hr;~ht appearance Of Mars meant war; or
Jnni,er. meant power, Of the Pleiades, meant
storms at sea. And, as history moves IN
circ;es. l do not know but that after wnlle
IL NAV be found that, as the moon Lifts the
tides of the sea and tho sun anects tne
growth or blasting Of crops, other worlas oe-
TO do with the destiny of individuals and ma
tions in this world.
do not wonder that the commotions in
the heavens excited the wise men on the
nioht our Chieftain was born. As He came
from another world and after thirty-three
years was again to exchange worlds, IL does
not seem strange to me that astronomy
should have felt the effect Of His coming.
And instead of being unbelievlnE about the
one star that stopped wonder that all the
worlds in the heavens did not that Christ
mas night make some special 6emonstra-
ton. Why should they leave to one world
or meteor the bearing Of the news OF the
humanization of Christ? Where was Mars
that night that it did not indicate the
mighty wars that were to come between
Righteousness and iniquity? Where was
Jupiter that night that it did not celebrate
omnipotence incarnated? Where was the
,Ple;ades that night that they did not an.
nounce the storms OF persecution tnat wouid
assail our Chieftian?
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 Him while not yet in His
teens, up Jerusalem terrace, to a build
ing six hundred feet long and six hundred
feet wide and under the lowering splen--
dor Of gateways, and by 8 pillar crowned
with capital ciissled into the shape Of fow-
ers and leaves, and along by walls
of beveled masonry and near mar
BILE screen, until group Of white-halred
philosophers and theologians gather around
a, him, and then the boy bewilders and con-
founds and oyerwhelms these scholarly
septuagenar:ans with questions they can
not 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 stats hard down on ths marble
door as they arise to 60, they must feel like
'chiding the boldness that allows twelve
years Of age to ask seventy-fve years OF age
such puzzlers
Out of this building we follow Him into
the Quarantanla. the mountain OF tempta-
ton, its side to this day black with robbers
dens. Look! 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 abstl-
nence, He hurls all Pandemonium down the
rocks, suggestive of how He can hurl into
helpessness 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 it 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
the crest Of the wave, stepping from crest
to crest, walking the white surf solid as
though it were t:ez4n SNOW. the sailors
think ghost is stridinC the tempest, but He
cheers them into p!acidity, showing Himself
to be a great Christ for sailors. And He
walks the Atlantic and the Pacific and the
Mediterranean and Adriatic now, and If e1-
hausted and attirigntet voyagers will listen
for His voice at half past tnree O'CLOCK in the
morning on any sea. indeed at any hour,
they will hear His voice Of compassion aud
encouragement.
We continue to follow our Chieftain, and
here IS blind man by tie wayside. 1t ls
not from cataract of the eye or from opE-
tha!m:a, the eye extiusulsaer OF the east.
but he was born blind. BE openedm He
cries. and first there is q saSrtiny OF the
eyerids, and then twilight, AMI then mid
noon, and tnen a shoaI. II see! seeT
Tell it to oil 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. ''Live!" our Chieftain
cries. and they live. Tell it through all the
bereft households. tell it among the graves.
And here around Him gather the deaf,
and the dumb, and the sicS, and at His
word they turn on their couches and blush
from awful pallow Of helpless illness to