Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-05-12
THE GREATEST NAME.
JESUS, THE NAME HIGH OVER ALL,
/ IN HEAVEN, EARTH OR SKY.


Tells Of the Potency and Consolation
of the True Religion.
! BROOKLYN, May 1.-While DR.. Talmage
is able TO hold vast audiences spellbound
by his eloquence, whatever subject he has
in hand, he is never so eloquent or so evil
IDENTIFY great orator as when he breaches
Christ as the one hope for the regeneration
of the world. The fact was proved this
morning when he discoursed from the text,
Philippians ii, o, "The name which is
above every name"
Paul is here making rapturous and en-
thusiastic description of the name of
Christ. There are merely worldly names
that sometimes thrill you through and
through. Such was the name of Henry
Clay to Kentuckian, the name of William
Writ to Virginian, the name of Daniel
Webster to New Englander.
By common proverb we have come to be-
lieve that there is nothing in name;"
and so parents sometimes Mt the baptismal
altar give titles to their children reckless
of the fact that that title, that name, will
be a lifetime hindrance or lifetime help.
You have no right to give your child a
name lacking either in euphony or moral
meaning.
1t is sin to call child Jehoialsim or
Tiglath-pileser-or by anything that is
disagreeable. Because you have had an
eXasperating name yourself is no reason
why you should inflict it upon your prog
eny. And yet how often it is that we
see name full of jargon rattling down
from generation to generation simply be-
cause Il long while ago some one happened
to be afflicted with it. Institutions and
great enterprises sometimes without suf-
ficient deliberation take nomenclature.
Mighty destinies have heen decided by a
name. While we may by long course of
Christian behavior get over the misfortune
of having been baptized with the name of
despot or cheat, how much better it
would have been if we could have all
started life without any such incum-
brancel
AN EASY NAME.
When Paul, in my text and in other pas
sages of Scripture, burst forth in aspira-
tions of admiration for the name of Christ,
/ want to inquire what are the character
istics of that appellation, '"The name which
is above every name" In the first place,
speaking to you in regard to the name of
Christ, want to tell you it is an easy
name. You are sometimes introduced to
people with long and unpronounceable
names, and you have to listen cautiously
to get the names, and you have to hear
them pronounced two or three times be-
fore you risk trying to utter them, but
within the first two years the little child
folds its hands and looks upward and says
Jesus"
Can it be that in all this church this
morning there are representatives of any
household where the children are familiar
with the names of the father and mother
and brother and sister, yet know nothing
about that name which is above every
name" Sometimes you forget the name
of quite familiar friend, and you have to
think and think before you get it, but can
you imagine any freak of intellect by
which you should forget the name of
Jesus9 That word seems to fit the tongue
in every dialect. Down to old age, when
the voice is tremulous and uncertain and
indistinct, even then this regal word finds
potent utterance.
When an aged father was dying one of
the children came and said, Father do
you know me-" and in the delirium of the
last sickness he said, "No, | don't know
you" Another child came and said, "Fa-
,ther, do you know me?" mo" he said,
II don't know you" Then the village pas
tor came in and said, 'Do you know me?"
He said, mo; 1 don't think | ever saw
YOU" Then said the minister, "Do you
know Jesus9" "Oh, yesr' said the dying
man, Il know Jesus; chief among ten thou
sand is he, and the one altogether lovely"
Yes, for all ages and for all languages, and
for all conditions is an easy name
Jesus, love thy charming name,
"Tis music to my ear;
Fain would sound it out so loud
That heaven and earth might hear.
A BEAUTIFUL NAME.
But / remark further in regard to this
name of Christ, that it is beautiful name,
Now you have noticed that you cannot dis
associate a name from the character of the
person who has it, There are some names,
for instance, that are repulsive to my ear.
Those names are attractive to your ear.
What is the difference? Why, l happened
to know some persons of that name who
were cross or sour or queer or E-sympa-
thetic, and the persons you have happened
to know of that name were kind and
genial. Since, then, we cannot disassocate
a name from the character of the person
who has the name, that consideration
makes the name of Jesus unspeakably
beautiful
l cannot pronounce that name in your
presence, but you think of Bethlehem and
Gethsemane and Golgotha, and you see his
loving face, and you hear his tender voice,
and you feel his gentle touch. As soon as
pronounce his name in your presence you
think Of him who banqueted with heav-
enly hierarchs, yet came down and break
tasted on the fish which the rough men
hauled out of Genesaret; you think of him
who, though the clouds are, the dust of his
feet, walked footsore on the road to EN-
maus.
cannot speak his name in your hearing
this morning, but you think right away of
the shining one who restored the cen
turion's daughter, and who helped the
blind man to sunlight, and who made the
cripple's crutch useless, and who looked
down into the laughing eyes of the babe
until it struggled to go to him; then, fling
ing his arms around it, and impressing
kiss upon its beautiful brow, said, "Of
such is the kingdom of heaven"
oh, beautiful name, the name of Jesus,
which stands for love, for patience, for
self sacrifice, for magnanimity, for every
thing that is good and glorious and ten
der and sympathetic and kind! 1t is
aromatic with all odors. 1t is accordant
with all harmonies. Sometimes when
look at that name of Jesus Christ it seems
as If the letters were made of tears, and
then they seem to be cleaning crowns.
Sometimes that name seems to be twisted
out of the straw on which he lay, and then
it seems to be built out of the thrones on
which his people are to reign. Sometimes
I sound that word Jesus, and l hear in it
the sob of Gethsemane and the groan of
Calvary, and then speak his name and it
is all ripple with gladness and ring