Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-10-02
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun
day Sermon.
inject: "The March of Christ Through
the Centuries"

| You say, Tive us, then, n 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 thu
setting sun" You can have no such 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 obellsks
at Cairo md the Pantheon at Rome. with
its COrinthian pOrtico and its sixteen granite
columns, and the Parthenon 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, O 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 host 'lries He takes
His first journey before He could walk.
Armed desperadoes with hands of bloom.
were ready to snatch Him down into butch
cry. Rev. William II. Thompson, the vete-
ran and beloved missionary, whom l 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 Me1ici 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. l do not know but that after n 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
tions in this world.
l 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 exchange 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 | wonder that all the
worlds in the heavens did not that Christ
mas night make some special demonstrs-
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 iniquity? Where was
Jupiter that night that II did not celebrate
omnipotence incarnatedg Where was the
Pleiades that night that they did not an
nounce the storms OF persecution that would
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.
erental or worshipfu. So we walk behind
Him. We follow Him while not yet In HIS
teens. up Jerusalem terrace, TO build
ing six hundred feet long AM six hundred
feet wide, and under the lowering splen-
dor Of gateways, and by a pillar crowned
with capital chisele1 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-hairei
philosophers and theologians gather aroun1
Him. and then the boy bewilders AMI con-
POUNDS and overwhelms these scholarly
septuagenar.ans with questions they can
not answer. and under His gu OK why's AMI
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 Ike
Gliding the boldness that allows Twelve
years OF age 10 ask seventy-ave years OF ago
such puzzlers.
Out of this building we follow Him into
the Quarantania. the mountain OF tempta-
tion. its side 10 this day black with robbers
dens Look Tp the side Of this mountain
come all the forces Of per1ition 10 effect our
Chieftain's capture. But although weakened
10y forty days and forty nights OF abstl-
nence. He hurls all Pan1emonium down the
rocks. suggestive Of how He can hurl into
helplessness all our temptations And now
we climb right after Him up the tough sides
of the Mount Of Beattudes," AMI on
the highest pulpit of rocks, the Valley
of Hatin before Him, the Lake Of
Galilee to the right OF Him; the Meiiterra-
mean sea to the left of Him, and lie breaches
a sermon that yet will transform the world
with its applied sentiment. Now we follow
our Chieftain on Lake Galilee. We must
eep to the beach, for our feet are not shod
with the supernatural, AMI 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 Hun putting His feet on
the crest of the wave stepping from crest
to crest, walking the white surf solid as
though il were from snow. TIE sailors
think ghost is striding the tempest, but he
cheers them into placidity, showing Himself
to be a great Christ for sailors. And He
walks the Atlantic and the Pacific and the
Mediterranean and Adriatic now, and II ex-
hausted and afirighte1 voyagers will listen
for His voice at half past three O'Clock IN the
morning on any sea, indeed at any hour,
they will hear His voice Of compassion and
encouragement.
We continue to follow our Chieftain, AMI
here is a blind man by the wayside. 1t Is
not from cataract of the eye or from oph-
thalmia, the eye extinguisher of the elst
but he was born blind. BE opsned!' He
cries, aud first there is a smartiny OF the
eyelids, and then twilight, and then mid
noon. and then shout, VI seel seer
Tell it to all tho blind. an they at least
can appreciate it, And here il the widows
dead son. and here is the expired damsei,
and here is Lazarus. "Livel" our Chieftain
cries and thsy 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 touches and blush
from awful pallow Of helpless illness to
rubicund health. and the swollen foot OF
the dropsical sufferer becomes feet as 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 ms the breath OF q child, anil thu
flesh as roseate. Tell it to all the sick,
through oil the homes. through all tho hos
pitfalls. Tell IL at twelve O'Clock at night;
tell 1t at two o'clock in the morning; tell II
at half-past three, AMI In ths last watch Of
the night. that Jesus walks the tempest.
Still we follow our Chiestain until the
government that gave Him no protection In
ssts that He pay tax, and, too poor 10 raise
the requisite two dollars and seventy-five
cents, He orders Peter TO catch fish that has
In its mouth n Roman state, which Is a
bright coin land you know that fish naturally
bite at anything bright, but IL wasa miracle
that Peter should have caught It at the first