The Globe-republican., 1892-08-19
Pre-eninent jesus.

70 address congregations and lyceums
on the subject Of his journey to
the land of the Car, whittier he went
with Mr.. Louis Klopsch to direct the
distribution of The Christian Herald re-
lief cargo. While expressing his high
appreciation Of the cordial welcome and
splendid hospitality extended by the Of
ficials of St Petersburg and Moscow, of
the civic honors heaped upon the Ameri-
can visitors and of Russia's national
gratitude to America, as personally ex-
pressed by the czarowitz at Peterhof.
where he entertained them as guests,
DR.. Talmage has been compelled to ad-
here to his original program. During
the week he has been preaching In the
leading Scottish cities. His arrange
ments for next week include services at
Newcastle and Sunderland, and there
after ne goes to the Isle OF Man for a
few days. The sermon selected for this
week is entitled "Pre-eminent" the text
being John iii, 81, "He that cometh from
above is above all"
The most conspicuous character Of
history steps out upon the platform. The
finger which, diamonded with light,
pointed down TO Him from the Bethlehem
sky, was only a ratification Of the finger
OF prophecy, the finger OF genealo9y,
the finger Of chronology, the finger Of
events-ali five fingers pointing in one
direction. Christ is the overlapping
figure Of all time. He is the vox hu-
mana in all music, the gracefulest line
in aIl.scuIpture, the most exquisite min
CLING OF lights and shadessin all painting,
the acme OF ali climates the dome of all
cathedraled grandeur and the perOration
of all splendid language,
The Greek alphabet is made up 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
spiendors that you can spell out either
with those two letters, and all letters
between them. Il am the Alpha and
the Omega, the beginning and the end.
the first and the last" 'Or, if you pre-
fer the words Of the text above all"
1t means, after you have piled up all
Alpine and Himaiayan attitudes, the
glory of Christ would have to spread its
wings and descend a thousand leagues to
touch those SUBMITS. Pelion, high
mountain Of Thessaly; Ossa, q high
mountain, and Olympus. high noun
tain; but mythology tells US when the
giants warred against the gods they 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 a complete fail
ure. And after all tie giants-Isaiah
aud Paul, prophetic and apostolic
giants; Raphael and Michael Angelo.
artistic giants; cherubim and seraphim
and arch-an1el, celestial giants-have
failed to climb to the top Of Christ's
glory, they might all we'll unite in the
words of the text and say, 'He that
comethsfrom above is above ALL"
First Christ must be above all else in
our preaching. There are so many books
on homiletics scattered through the
world that all laymen, as well as all
clergyman, have made up their minds
what sermons ought to be. That sermon
fs most etfectual which most pointedly
puts forth Christ as the pardon Of all sin
and the correction Of al! evil. individual,
social, political. national There is no
reason why we should ring the endless
changes of q few phrases. There are
those who think that il an exhortatior or
. discourse Lave frequent mention of
Justification. sanctifcation, covenant of
works and covenant of grace, that, there
fore ii must be profoundly evangelical,
while they are suspicious OF . discourse
which presents the same truth, but under
different phraseology.
Now, l say there is nothing in all the
opulent realm OF Anglo-Saxonism or all
the word treasures that We inheI tied
from the Latin and the Greek and the
Indo-EuropeGn but We have right to
marshal it il religious discussion. Christ
sets the example. His illustrations were
from the grass, the flowers, the spittle,
the salve, the BARNARD fowl. the c-ys-
tails Of salt as well as from the seas and
the stars, and we do not propose in our
Sabbath school teaching and in oar pull
pit address 10 be put on the limits.
1 know that there Is a great deal said
in our day against words, as though
they were nothing. They may be mis-
used. but they have an imperial power
They are the bridge between soul sad
soul, between Almighty God and the
race. What did God write upon
the tables OF stones? Words. What
did Christ utter on Mount Olivet?
Words. Out Of @hat did Christ strike
the spark for the illumination Of the uni
verse? Out Of words. LET there be
tight" and light was. OF course Thought
is the cargo and words are only the shia,
but how fast would your cargo get oR
without the ship?
What you need. my friends. in all vour t,
work, in your Sabbath-school class. in |
your reformatory institutions, and what |
we all need is 10 enlarge our vocabulary |
when we come TO speak about God and |
Christ and heaven. We ride . few old |
words to death when there is such /
Illimitable resource. Shakespeare en- |
pioyed fifteen thousand different words |
for dramatic purposes Milton employed /
eight thousand different words for poetic |
purposes; Rufus Choate employed over
eleven thousand different words for legal |
purposes, but the most of US have less /
than . thousand words that We can
manage, less than GSe hundred. and |
that makes US SO stupid.
When We come to set forth the lose of |
Christ We are going to take the tenderest |
phraseology wherever We find 1t, and IL
Il has never been used il that direction
before. all the more shall We use IL.
When We come to speak OF the glory Of
Christ the conqueror, We are going to
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