The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-08-02
THE UNE FROM ABOVE
A SERMON DELIVERED IN THE CHEF
CITIES OF SCOTLAND.


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 invitatioLAtoa address
congregations and lyceums on the sub
ject of his journey to the land of the
car, whittier he went with Mr.. Louis
KIopsch 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
lea, as personally expressed by the
czarowitZ at Peterhof, where he enter
tanned them as guests, DIR. 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, 81,
He that cOmeth from above is above
all"
The most conspicuous character of
history steps ont 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
one direction. Christ is the overtop-
ping figure of all time. He is the vox
humane ia all music, the gracefulest
line in all sculpture, the most exquisite
mingling of lights and shades m ali
painting, the acme of all clima1es,
the dome of all cathedraled grandeur
and the peroration of al 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-
doris 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 prefer the words
of the text, ''above all.
ALL HUMAN MEANS FALL INFINITELY
SHORT.
1t means, after you have piled up all
Alpine and Himalayan attitudes, the
glory of Christ would have to spread its
wings and descend thousand leagues
y touch those submits. Pelion, high
mountain of Thessaly; Ossa, a high
mountain, and Olympus, u 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-Lsaiah
and Paul, prophetic aud apostolic giants;
Raphael and Michael AAaSlo, artistic
giants; cherubim and se-aphim and
archangel, celestial giauts-have failed
to climb to the top of Chrisc's glory, they
might all well unite il the words of the
text and say, He that co1neth 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 laymeu, as well as all
clergymen, have made up their minds
what sermons ought 10 be. That SER
IpQn 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 g few phrases.
There are those who think that if an
exhortation or a discourse have frequent
mention of justification, sanctiication,
covenant of works aud covenant Of
grace, that therefore it must be pro-
foundry evangelical, while they are sus-
picious of q 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,th
ndo-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 bernyard fowl, the crys-
tails of salt, as well as from the. seas
and the stars, and we do not propose m
our Sabbath school teaching and m our
pulpit address to be put ON the limits.
THE POWER OF RIGHT WORDS.
/ know that there Is a 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 universe?
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? s,f1....-,,
What you need, my friends, in all
your work, in your Sabbath school class,
in YOUR reformatory institutions, and