The Red Cloud chief., 1892-08-12
ABOVE ALL.
pr. Talmage Discourses on the Pro-
eminonce Of Christ.
A. Eloquent Tribute TO the Greatness and
Mercy OF the saviour-The beauties
Of tho Gospel Depleted In
Glowing Words.

" - ia - s.sS 1s'
course, selected for his subject the "Prc-
eminence Of Christ" taking his text
from John, III, 81: "He that cometh
from above Is above all" lie said:
The most conspicuous character OF
history steps out upon the platform.
The finger which, diamonded with light,
pointed down TO him from the Beth
1chem sky was only a ratification
Of the finger Of prophecy, the finger OF
gencalogy, the finger Of chronology, the
finger of cvents-all five fingers point
ing in one direction. Christ IL the over
topping figure Of oil time. lie Is the
vox humana In all music, the graceful.
est line In all sculpture, the most ex-
quisite mingling Of lights and shades in
oil painting, tho acme Of all climaxes,
the dome Of all cathedrallcd grandeur
and the p%croration Of all splendid Ian
Ruagc.
The Greek alphabet Is made up of
twcnty-four letters and when Christ
compared Himself to the first letter and
the last letter, the alpha and the ONE
ga, He appropriated 10 Himself all the
splendors that you can spell ont either
With those two letters and all letters
between them. ~ am the alpha and
omega, the beginning and the end, the
first and the Inst" Or II you prefer the
words Of the text 'above ALL"
1t means. after you have piled up all
Alpine and Himalayan attitudes. the
glory Of Christ would have TO spread its
wings and descend 1000 leagues to
touch those SUBMITS. Pelion, q high
mountain OF Thcssaly; Ossa, a high
mountain, and Olympus, n high mount
ain; 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
h heavens; but the height was not
great enough and there was q complete
failure. And after all tho giants
Isaiah and Paul, prophetic and apostolic
giants; Raphael and Michael Angelo,
artistic giants; cherubim and ~scraphim
and archangel, celestial giants-havc
failed to climb 10 tho top of Christ's
glory, they might all well unite in the
words of the text and say, ''He that
cometh from above is oil"
First, Christ must be above all else In
our preaching. There are also many
books on homilctics scattered through
the world that all laymcn, as we'll as
all clergymen, have made up their minds
what ermon ought to be. That SER
mon Is most effcctual which most
pointedly puts forth Christ as the par
hon of all sin and tho correction of all
evil, individual, social, political, ma
tional. There Is no reason why we
should ring the endless changes on q
few phrases. There are those who
think that II an e~xhortation or n dis
course have frequent mention Of justih-
cation, sanctification, covenant of works
and covenant Of grace, that therefore
IL must be profoundly evangelical,
while they are suspicious of a discourse
which presents the same truth, but un-
der different p~rasoology. Now, I 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-
European but we have u right TO mar
shall IL in religious discussion. Christ
sets the example. His illustrations
were from the grass, tho flowers, the
spittle, the salvc, tho barnyard fowl,
the crystals OF salt, rs well as from the
seas and the stars; and we do not pro-
pose In our Sabbath school teaching
and In our pulpit address to be put on
the limits.
I know that there is n great deal said
In our day against words, rs though
they were nothing. They may DO mis-.
used, but they have an imperial power.
They arc tho bridge between soul ant
soul, between Almighty God and the
human race. What did God write upor
the tablets Of stone? Words Wha,
did Christ utter on Mount Olivet1
Words. Out Of what did Christ strike
the spark for the illumination of tn,
the universe? Out Of words. 'Let Their,
be light" and light was. or course
thought Is the cargo and words are onl,
the ship; but how fast would your carg,
get on without the ship? What yo,
need, my friends, In all your work, Il
your Sabbath school class, Ia your re
formatory institutions. and what w
all need Is TO enlarge our vocabular,
when we come TO speak about God, an
Christ, and Heaven. We ride a few oil
words to death when there il such illim
itable our Shakespeare employee
$4,000 different words for dramatic pu,
poses; Milton employed 5000 differen
words for poetic purposes; Rufus Choat
employed over II, 900 different words fo
legal purposes; but the most of us hav
less than 1000 words that we can maj
age, less than 500, and that makes US q
stupid.
When we come to set forth the Low
of Christ we are going to take the ter
derest phraseology wherever we find 1
and II II has never been used In that d
rection before, all tho more shall "
use II. When we come 70 speak of th
glory Of Christ, the Conquerer, we III
going to draw our SMILES from triumph
ri arch and oratorio and cverythin
grand and s~tupendoua The Frcnc
navy has eighteen flags by which the
give signal; but those eighteen flal
they can put into sixty-six thousau
difYe, snt combinations And ! have
tell you that these standards of II
cross may DO lifted into combination