Connecticut western news., 1892-08-04
THE ONE FROM ABOVE
A SERMON DELIVERED IN THE CHIEF
 CITIES OF SCOTLAND

CIItGS UT SCO LANO,
 Dr. Talmage Much Sought for Since His
 Return from Russia-His Views on the
 Method of Preaching, Right Use of
 Words, the Joys of Faith and Life.
 LONDON, July 31.-Since his return from Russia Dr. Talmage has been lit orally flooded with invitations to address congregations and lyceums on the sub- ject of his journey to the land of the czar, whither he went with MT. Louis Klopsch to direct the distribution of The Christian Herald relief cargo. While expressing his high appreciation of the cordial welcome and splendid hospitality extended by the officials of St. Peters burg and Moscow, of the civic honors heaped upon the American visitors and of Russia's national gratitude to Amer ica, as personally expressed by the czarowitz at Peterhof, where he enter tained them as guests, Dr. Talmage has been compelled to adhere to his original programme. During the week he has been preaching in the leading Scottish cities. His arrangements for next week include services at Newcastle and Sun derland, and thereafter he goes to the Isle of Man for few days. The sermon selected for this week is entitled 'Pre- eminent" the text being John iii, 31, "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 Bethle- hem sky was only a ratification of the finger of prophecy, the finger of geneal- ogy, the finger of chronology, the finger of events-all five fingers pointing in ping figure of all time. He is the vox humana in all music, the gracefulest line in all sculpture, the most exquisite mingling of lights and shades in all painting, the acme of all climaxes, the dome of all cathedraled grandeur and the peroration of all splendid Ian guage.
 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 splen- dors that you can spell out either with those two letters and all letters between them. Fl am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last" Or, if you prefer the words of the text, "above all"
 ALL HUMAN MEANS FALL INFINITELY
 SHORT.
 It means, after you have piled up all Alpine and Himalayan attitudes, the glory of Christ would have to spread it's wings and descend thousand leagues to touch those summits. Pelion, high mountain of Thessaly; Ossa, a 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 failure. And after all the giants-Isaiah and Paul, prophetic and apostolic giants; Raphael and Michael Angelo, artistic giants; cherubim and seraphim and archangel, celestial giants-have failed to climb to the top of Christ's glory, they might all well unite in the words of the text and say, "He that cometh from 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 we'll as all clergymen, have made up their minds what sermons ought to be. That ser mon is most effectual which most point edly puts forth Christ as the pardon of all sin and the correction of all evil, individual, social, political, national. There is no reason why we should ring the endless changes on few phrases. There are those who think that if an exhortation or a discourse have frequent mention of justification, sanctification, covenant of works and covenant of grace, that therefore it must be pro- foundly evangelical, while they are sus- picious of discourse which presents the same truth, but under different phraseology.
 Now, say there is nothing in all the opulent realm of Anglo-Saxonism or all the word treasures that we inherited from the Latin and the Greek and the Indo- o-European but we have right to marshal it in religious discussion. Christ sets the example. His illustrations were from the grass, the flowers, the spittle, the salve, the barnyard fowl, the crys- tals of salt, as we'll as from the seas and the stars, and we do not propose in our Sabbath school teaching and in our pulpit address to be put on the limits.
 THE POWER OF RIGHT WORDS.
 1 know that there is great deal said in our day against words, as though they were nothing. They may be misused but they have an imperial power. They are the bridge between soul and soul between Almighty God and the human race. What did God write upon the tables of stones? Words. What did Christ utter on Mount Olivet? Words Out of what did Christ strike the spark for the illumination of the universei Out of words. "Let there be light" and light was. Of course thought is the cargo and words are only the ship; but how fast would your cargo get on-with out the ship?
 What you need, my friends, in al your work, in your Sabbath school class in your reformatory institutions, and what we all need is to enlarge ou1 vocabulary when we come to speal about God and Christ and heaven. w. ride few old words to death wher there is such illimitable resource Shakespeare employed fifteen thousand different words for dramatic purposes Milton employed eight thousand differ ent, words for poetic purposes, Rufus Choate employed over eleven thousand different words for legal purposes, bu tthe most of us have less than thousand words that we can manage, less thar five hundred, and that makes us st