Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-10-03
REV. DR.. TALMAGH.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun
day Sermon.
Subject: "The March of Christ Through
the Centuries

TEXT: ''On His head tcere many
crotC,ts. - Revelations xix, 10.
May your ears be alert and your thoughts
concentrated and all the powers of your
soul aroused while speak TO you of ssthe
march OF Christ through the centuries
You say, sGiye US then, a good start in
rooms OF vernillion and on floors of mosaic
and amid corridors of porphyry and under
canopies dyed in all the splendors of the
setting SUM-" You can have no such start
ing place At the time our Chisftain
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 Parthenon at Athens, with
its glisuening 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 l cele-
brate.
A cows STALL winter month, an atmos-
phere in which are the moan of camels an
the baaing of sheep and the barking of dogs,
and the rough banter OF hostalries He takes
His first journey before He could walk
Armed desperadoes, with hands of blooa,
were ready to snatch Him down into butch
cry Rev. William H Thompson, the vete-
ran ami beloved missionary, whom I saw
this last month in Denver, in his eighty
sixth year has described, in his volumne en-
titled, The Land and the Book, . Bethlehem
as he saw it.
Winter 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 village into any special
attention. The other fact that it 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
ever seen. Our Chieftain was considered,
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 down toward caravansary.
Star divination was a science. As late as
the Eighteenth century it had its votaries.
At the Court of Catherine de Meiici 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 ii.
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
ADOILlS at std- Anu, dS ulSlbIJ HIVES Ill
circles, do not know but that after while
it 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 have something
to do with the destiny of individuals and ma
tons in this world.
do not wonder that the connections in
the heavens excited the wise men on the
night our Cheftain was born. AS He came
hos I'D oft thirfxy
years was again to exchange worlds, it 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 | 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
illumination of Christ? Where was Mars
that night that it did not indicate the
mighty wars that were to come between
righteousness and iuiquity? Where was
Jupiter that night that it did not celebrate
omnipotence incarnated2 Where was the
Pleiades that night that they did not an
nounce the storms of persecution that would
assai 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 build
ing six hundred feet long and six hundred
feet wide and under the lowering splen-
dor of gateways, and by pillar crowned
with capital chiseled into the shape of flow
ers and leaves, and along by walls
of beveled masonry and near a mar
bic screen until a group of white-haired
philosophers and theologans gather around
Him, and then the boy bewilders and con-
POUNDS and overwhelms these scholarly
septua genarians 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 the marble
floor as they arise to go, they must feel like
Gliding 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 Qu7. ,dntania. the mountain OF tempta-
ton, lis side TO this day black with robbers
dens. Look Up the side of this mountain
come all the forces of psriition to effect our
Chieftan's capture. But although weakened
by forty days and forty nights OF absti-
hence, He hIIrls all Pan iemonium down the
rocks, suggestive of how He can hurl into
belplessness all our temptations. And now
we climb right after Him UP the tough sides
of the Mount of Beatitudesn and or
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
a 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 JUS
before dayorea's But by the flashes Of
/ lightning we see HIM putting His feet or
the crest of the wave, stepping from ores
to crest, walking the white surf solid a.
/ though it were frozen snow. The sailor
think ghost is striding the tempest, but HI
( cheers them into placidity, showing Himself
/ to be great Christ for sailors. And H,
walks the Atlantic and the Pacific and tbs
I Mediterranean and Adrlatic now, and if ex
hausted and afiirighte1 voyagers will lister
for His voice at half past three o'clock in the
morning on any sea, indeed at any hour,
I they will hear His voice Of compassion anc
encouragement.
We continue to follow our Chieftain, and
here is blind man by the wayside. 1t i:
not from cataract of the eye or from oph-
thalmia, thu eye exsiugusher of the east,
but he was born blind. BE openedp He
cries and first there is a smartinr of the