Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-05-06

Talmage is able TO hold vast audiences spell
bound by his eloquence. whatever subject he
has in hand. he is never so eloquent, or 50 evil
IDENTITY 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
2: o. 1.-THE name which is above every name"
Paul is here making rapturous and
enthusiastic 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 a Kentuckian,
the name of William Writ to Virgin
ian, the name of Daniel Webster to
New Highlander
BY common proverb we have come to
believe that "there is nothing in a
name," and SO parents sometimes at
the baptismal altar give titles to their
children, reckless of the fact shat that
title, that name, will be lifetime hind
rance or lifetime help. You have no
right to give your child name lacking
either in euphony or moral meaning.
1t is sin to call child Jehoialxim,
or Tiglath-pileser-or by any
thing that is disagreeable.
Because you have had an eXasperating
name yourself is no reason why you
should infct it upon your progeny.
And yet how often it is that we see Il
name full of jargon rafting down from
generation to generation, simply be-
cause a long while ago some one hap
pened to be afflicted with it. Institu-
tions and great enterprises something's
without sufficient delibcration take
nomenclature. Mighty Gestinies have
been decided by q name. While we
may, by long course of Christian be-
havior, get over the misfortune of hav-
ing been baptized with the name of
despot or a cheat, how much better it
would have been if we could have all
started life without any such incum-
brance!
When Paul, in my text and in other
passages of Scripture burst forth in as
pirations of admiration for the name of
Christ, / want to inquire what are the
characteristics 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 unpronounccable names, and
you have to listen cautiously TO get the
names, and you have to hear them pro-
nounced two or three times before you
risk trying to utter them; but within
the first two years the child folds it's
hands and looks upward, and
says "Jesus." Can it be
that in all this church this morning
there are representatives of any house
hold whore 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 nance" Sometimes you
forget the name of quite familiar
friend, and you have to thiniS and
think before You get it; but can you
imagine any freak of intellect by
which you should forget the name of
Jesus? 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, Father, do you know
me?" mo. he SAID, 81 don't know YOU"
Then the village pastor came in and
said, "Do you know me?" He said,
"No, don't think ever saw you"
Then said the minister, 'Do you know
jesus" "Oh yesy" said the dying
man, 81 know Jesus; chief among ten
thousand is he, and the one altogether
lovely" Yes, for all ages and for all
languages, and for ali conditions is an
easy name.
Jesus, love thy charming NAME
IT'S music to my ear;
Fain would sound il out so loud
That heaven and earth might hear.
But 1 remark further in regard to
this name of Christ, that it is beauti-
full name. Now you have noticed that
you cannot disassociate name from
the character Of the person who has it.
There are some names, for instance,
JnaJ are repulSlNc W my car lHOsc
names are attractive to your ear. What
is the difference? Why, l happen to
! know some persons of that name who
were cross, or sour, or queer, or unsym-
pathetic, and the persons you have
happened to know of that name were
kind and genial.
Since, then, we cannot disassociate a
name from the character of the person
who has the name, that consideration
makes the name # 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 presense
you think of him who banqueted
with heavenly hierarchs, yet came
down and brcakfasted 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
Emmaus. l cannot speak his name in
your hearing this morning, but you