The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1892-09-24
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Prominence Of Christ In and
Above An Things.

ABOVE All Th1ugR
J The Most Conspicuous Character In HI
tory, His Place Should b. Always
First In the Pulpit and In
81 the Home.
Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage selected Il
following discourse from those deliyere
during his European tour for this week
reading by his great American congr,
CATION. The text is:
He that comsth from above Is above ALL.
John H., 81.
The most conspicuous character Z
history steps out upon the platform
The finger which, diamonded wit
light, pointed down to Him from tn
Bethlehem sky, was only a ratification
OF the finger of prophecy. the finger o
genealogy, the finger of chronology
the finger of events-all Eve finger
pointing in one direction. Christ is tn,
overlapping figure of all time. He il
the vox humane in all music, the grace
fullest line in all sculpture, the mos
| exquisite mingling of lights and shade.
in all painting. the acme of climaxes
the dome OF ali cathedraled grandeur.
and the peroration of all splendid Ian.
guage.
The Greek alphabet is made mn Of
twenty-four letters, and when Christ
compared Himself to the first letter and
the last letter, the alpha and the
omega, He appropriated to Himself all
the splendors that you can spell out
either with those two letters and all
letters between them. II am the alpha
and the omega, the beginning and the
end, the first and the last" Or, If YOU
all" 'o
1t means, after you have piled up all
Alpine and Hinalays attitudes, the
glory Of Christ would have to spread
its wings and descend 1000 leagues to
touch those SUBMITS. Pelion, a high
mountain of Thessaly, Ossa, a high
mountain, and Olympus, high noun
tain; but mythology tells us when the
giants warred against the rods thev
piled up these three mountains and
from the top of them proposed to scale
the heavens; but the height was not
great enough, and there was q COM
plete failure. And after all the giants
Isaiah and Paul, prophetic and apos-
tolic giants; Raphael and Michael An
gelo, artistic giants; Cherubim and Ser
aphim and Archangel, celestial giants
have failed to climb to the top of
Christs glory, they might all well unite
IN the words of the text and say: sHe
that cometh from above is above all.
First, Christ must be above all else in
our preaching. There are also many
books on homiletics scattered ali |
through the world that all laymen. as |
we'll as all clergymen, have made up |
heir minds what sermons ought to be.
That sermon is most effectual which
most pointedly puts forth Christ as the
pardon of all sin and the correction Of
III evil, individual, social, political, ma
ional. There is no reason WHY we
hould ring the endless changes on a
ew phrases. There are those who
mink that II an exhortation or dis
curse have frequent mention of justi-
lcation, sanctification, covenant of
works. and covenant of grace, that
therefore, it must be profoundly evan
'elical, while they are suspicious of
iscourse which presents the sameJ
ruth but under different phraseolo1v.
low, say there is nothing in all the
pulent realm of Anglo-Saxonism or all
he word treasures that we inherited
rom the Latin and the Greek and the
ndo- European, but we have a right to
larshal it in religious discussion.
hrist sets the example. His illustra-
ons were from the grass, the flowers,
he spittle, the salve, the BARNARD
wi, the crystals of salt, as well as
ON the seas and the stars; and we do
OF propose in our Sabbath school
aching and in our pulpit addresses to
: put on the limits.
know that there is great deal said :
our day against words as though 2
icy were nothing. They may be mis-
'ed, but they have an imperial power.
hey are the bridge between soul and
ul, between Almighty God and the
imam race. What did God write upon
. table of stones? Words. What did p
lrist utter ON Mount Olivet? Words
IT OF what did Christ strike the spark Il
the illumination of the universe? =
It OF words. Let there be light, and
hit was. OF course, thought is the 8
rgo and words only the ship; but :
W long would your cargo get along q
thout the ship What you need, nv n
ends. in all your work, in your Sab =
th-School, in your reformatory in "
buttons, and what we all need is to "
large our vocabulary when we come o.
speak about God and Christ and u
aven. We ride few old words to "
'th when there is such illimable re- 7,
lrce. Shakespeare EMPLOYED Is, 600 diff -
emit words for dramatic purposes; ~ ~
ton employed 5000 different words u
poetic purposes; Rufus Choate en-
yed over 1900 different words for !"
al purposes, but the most of us have q.
J than 1000 words that we can man =
!, less than 500. and that maks us 70
stupid. 10
When we come to set forth the love y.
Christ we are going to take the ten -
est phraseology wherever we find 1t, -
If it has never been, used in that "'
sction before, all the more shall we ~
it When we come to speak of the :.
~ OF Christ, the Conqueror, we are =.
no IN 6vaU r,,,r ~<,.aA-. 49, A.. | Ao'