Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-05-13
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINES SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "The Greatest Name of All"

name."-Phihppians IL, 9.
Paul is here making rapturous and en-
thusiastic description of the name OF Christ.
There are merely worldly names that some
times thrill you through and through. Such
was the name Of Henry Clay to Kentuck-
ian, the name Of William Writ to Virgin
ian, 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 at the baptismal altar
gives titles to their children reckless of the
fact that that title, that name, will be a life
time hiIldrance or a lifetime help. You
have no right to give your child a name
lacking either in euphony or moral mean
ing.
1t is a sin to call a child Jehoiakim or
TigIath- pileser-or by anything that Is disa-
greeable. Because you have had an exas-
perating name yourself is no reason why
you should inHict it upon your progeny.
And yet how often it is that we see name
full OF jergOn rafting down from generation
to generation simply because a long while
ago some one happened to be afflicted with
it. Institutions and great enterprises some
times without sufficient elaboration take
nomenclature. Mighty destinies have been
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 a despot or 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 pas
sages of Scripture, burst forth in aspirations
of admiration for the name Of Christ, l want
to inquire what are the characteristics Of
that appeiIation, The name which is above
every name" In the first place, speaking to
you in regard to the name Of Christ I want
to tell you it is an easy name. You are
sometimes introduced to people with long
and 1T1FOYN I'M n0 n
to listen cautiously to get the names, and
you have to hear them pronounced two or
three times before you risk trying to utter
them, but within the first two years the lit
tie child folds its hands and looks upward
and says "Jesus"
Can it be that in all this church this morn
ing there are representatives Of any house
hold where the children are familiar with the
names of the father and mother and brother
and sister, yet know nothing about shat
name which is above every nameT Some
times you forget the name of quite familiar
friend, and you have to think and think be-
fore you get 1t, but can you imagine any
freak OF intellect by which you should for
get the name of Jesus? That word seems to
fit the tongue in every dialect. Down to old
age, when the voice is tremulous and uncer-
tain and indistinct, even then this regal
word finds potent utterance.
When an aged father was dying one Of
the children came and said, FEATHER, do
you know me! ana III tne oeirlum OF the
last sickness he said, 'No, don't know
''Father do you know meg" NO" he said,
II don't know you" Then the village pas
tor camein and said, "Dou you know me?'
He said, mo; don't think lever saw you"
Jesus?" ''Oh, yesp said the dying man, II
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,
'Tis music 10 my ear;
Eain would sound 1t out so loud
That heaven and earth might hear.
But remark further in regard to this
name of Christ that it is a beautiful name
Now you have noticed that you cannot dis
associate 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, I happened
to know some persons of that name who
were cross or sour, or queer or unsympa-
thetlc, and the persons you have happened
to know Of that name We're 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 of Jesus unspeakably beautiful.
l cannot pronounce the name in your
presence, hut you think of Bethlehem and
Gethsemane and Golgouha, 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 Hin who banquered with heavenly
hierarchs. yet came down and breakfasted
on the fish which the rough man 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 moring, but you think right away of
the shining one who restored the centurion'S
daughter. and who helped the blind man to
sunlight, and who made the cripples crutch
useless, and who looked down into the laugh
ing eyes of the babe until it struggled to go
to Him; then, finging His arms around it.
and impressing a kiss upon its beautiful
brow, said: "Of such is the kingdom of
heaven"
Oh, beautiful name, the name of Jesus
which stands tor love, for patience, for self
sacrifice, for magnanlmlty, for everything
that is good ana glorious and tender and
sympathetic and kind! 1t is aromatic with
all odors. It is accoruAnt 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 o. the straw on
which He lay, and then it seems to be built
out Of the thrones on which His people ara
to reign. Sometimes l sound that word
Jesus and l hear in it the sob of Gethsemane
and the groan of Calvary, and then 1 speak
His name and it is all ripple with gladness
and ring with hosanna. Glorious namel
Take all the glories of bookbindery and
put them around the page which that
name is printed. On Christmas morning
wreathe it on the wall. Let it drip from
harp's string and let it thunder out in organs
dlapason. Sound it often, sound it well, uuo
til every star shall seem to shine it, and every
flower shall seem to breathe it, and mount
i