The Opelousas courier., 1892-11-05
REV. DIR. TALMAGE
THE BRO 0KLYN DIVlNE's SUN
DAY SERMON.

SLAMS ill.,, II.
Returned after the most e~ventful summer
OF my life. [ must shortly and as soon I re-
cover from the sea voyage give You an ac-
count Of our mission of bread to famine.
stricken Russia, and Of my spreaching tour
through Germany, England, Scotland and
Ireland; but my first serm3n on reaching
here must be a hosanna of gratitude to
Christ, and from the text [ have chosen, 7
have found that the greatest name in the
ocean shipping, and from Liverpool to Mos
cow. and from Moscow to London and Ed
inburgh and Belfast and Dublin, is Jesus.
Every age of the world has had its his
torians, its philosophers, its artists, its
thinkers and its teachers. Were there his
tories to be written there has always been @
Moses, Or a Herodotus, or a Xenophon, or a
Josephus to write them. Were there poems
to be constructed there has always baen a
Job OF a Homer to construct them. Were
there thrones lustrous and powerful to be
lifted there has always been a David or a
Caesar to raise them. Were there teachers
demanded for the intellect and the hearts
there has been a Socrates, and a Zano, and
a Cleanthes, and a Marcus Antoninus COM
ing forth on the grand and glorious mission.
Every age of the world has had its triumphs
of reason and morality. Tnere has not been
a single age OF the world which has not had
some decided system of religion.
The Platonism, orientalisn, stoicisn.
Brahminisln and Buddhism, considering the
ages in which they were established. vera
not lacking in ingenuity'ani force. Now, in
this line Of bsnefcent institutions and OF
noble men, there appears a parsonage more
wonderful than any predecessor. He cana
from a family without any royal or aristo-
cratic pretension. He came a Galilean me-
chanic. He had no advantage from the
schools. There were people beside Him day
af%a. 1ax xxro Lol M i'd, 4La< uo-1,- 49,
to be anything remarkable or do anything
remarkable. Yet notwithstanding all this,
and without any title or scholarly profession
OF flaming rhetoric He startled the world
with the ~strangest announcements, ran in
collision with solemn priest and proud ruler,
and with a voice that rang through temple
and palace AMI over ships decx and noun
tain top, exclaimed, Il am the light of thu
worldf'
Men were taken all abacx at the idea taat
that hand, yet hard from ths use Of the az,
the saw and adz and hatchet, should wave
the scepter of authority, and that upon that
brow, from which they had SO often seen
Him wipe the sweat of toll. there would yet
come the crown of unparalleled splendor
and Of universal dominion. We all know
how difficult it is to think that anybody
who was at school with US in boyhood has
got to bs anything great or famous, and no
wonder that those who had been boys with
Christ in the streets Of Nazareth and seen
Him in after years in the days Of His COM
plete obscurity. should have been very slow
to acknowledge Christs wonderful mission
From this humble point the stream Of life
flowed out. At first it was just a faint rill.
hardly able to find its way down the rock.
but the tears of a weeping Christ added to
its volume, and it flowed on until by the
beauty and grsenness Of the banks Epu
might know the path the crystal stream was
taking. On and on, until the lepers were
brought down and washed of their leprosy,
and the dad were lifted into the water that
they might have life, and pearls Of joy and
promise were gathered from the brink, and
innunlerable churches gathered on either
bank and the tile flows on deeper and
stronger and wider until it rolls into the
river from under the throne OF God, min
Cling billow with billow, and brightness with
brightness, and joy with JOY, and hosanna
with hosanna.
[ was looking at some of the paintings Of
the artist, Mr.. Kensett. / saw some pic
lures that were just faint outlines; in some
places you would see only the branches of q
tree and no trunk; and in another case the
trunk and no branches. He had not finished
the work. 1t would have taken him days
and months perhaps to have completed 1t.
Well, my friends, in this world We get only
the faintest outline Of what Christ is. 10
will take all eternity to fill up the picture
SO loving, SO kind, SO mercifui, SO greatl
Paul does not, in this chapter, say OF Christ
He is good, or He is loving, or Rs is patient,
or He is kind, but in His exclamation OF the
text he embraces everything when he says,
''Christ is all and in all
Iremark in the first place, Christ is every
thing in the Bible. | do not care where l
open the Bible, l find Jesus. In whatever
poth l start, l come after a while to the
Bethlehem Manager. I go back to the old
dispensation, and sees lamhoa the altar and
say, tBehold the Lamb OF God which taketh
away the sin Of the worldf' Then go and
see the mamma provided for the Israelitss in
the wilderness, and say, Jesus, the breadof
life." Then I look at the ROCK which was
smitten by the prophets rod, and, as the
water gushes OUT, I say, ut is Jesus, the
fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness.."
I go back and look at the writings or Joo
and hear him exclaim, II know tnaS my
Reedeemer liveth." Then I go to Ezekiel
and I and Christ presented there as "a
plant Of renown,n aud then | turn over 10
Isaiah and Christ is spoken of las q sheep
before the shearers." It is Jesus all the way
between Genesis and Malachi. Q turn
over in the New Testament and it is Christ
in the parable, it is Christ in the miracle u
is CHRIST in the evangeIist's story, il il
Christ in the apostles epistles and it il
Christ in the trumpet peal of the Apocalypse.
I know there are a great many people who
do not find Christ in the Bible.
Here is a man who studies the Bible as
historian. Well. if you come as a historian,
you will find in this book how the world was
made, how the seas fed to their places, how
empires were established. how nation fought
with nation, javeiin rim ging against harba
geon, until the earth was CHASTITY with the
dead. You will see the coronation of princes,
At
turned upside down AMI back again and
down again. cleft and Scared with great
agonies of earthquake ami tempest and bat.
tie. Tt is a wonderful history, putting to
the blush all others in thu accuracy of ita
recital and in tle stupendous events it re
cords. Homer ami ~Thucydides and Gibbon
could make great stories out of little events:
but it took Moses to tell how the heavens
and the earth were made in one chapter, and
to give the history of thousands OF years
unon two leaves.
There are Others VINO ZONE to the Bible
mercy as antiquarians. If you co,ne as an
antiquarian, you will find a great many odd
things in the Bible-psculiarities OF manner
and custom, marriage and burial; peculiar
tiles Of DIRE s, tunics. sandals. crisping pins,
amulets and girdies and tinsling ornaments.
If you cone to look at military arrange
ments, you viii ind coats OF mail aud jaw
elins and engines of war and circunnvaIla-
ton and encampments. II yen look for PEE
cu'iar musical instruments, you will find
psalteries and shiginoths AMI rams horns.
The antiquarian will fnd in tbs Bibla curl
osities in agriculture, and in commerce., and
in art, and in religion that viii Keep him
absorbed q great while. There are those
who come to this Bible as you would to q
cabinet of curiosities, aud you pick up this
and say, WHAT a strange sword that isp'
and 'sWhat a peculiar hat this isr' and
.'What an unlocked for lamp that isT' and
the Bible to such becomes a British Museum.
Then there are Others who find nothing in
the Bible but the poetry. Well, IL you come