Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-08-05
REV. DR.. YALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun,
day Sermon.
Subject: "Pre-emincnt." preached in
LondOn0

Inc most cO0S.1CuOuS cudTdcleT OF history
steps out upon the platform. The finger
which. diamonded with light, pointed down
TO Him from the Bethlehem sky was only a
ratification of the finger OF prophecy. the
finger of genealogy. the finger Of chronology,
the finger of events--all five fingers pointing
in one direction. Christ is the overtoppiug
figure of all time. He is the vox humana in
al music, the gracefuest line in all scup-
ture, the most exquisite ming,ing of lights
and shades in all painting, the acme of all
climaxes, the dome of all cathedraled grand
eur 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 spendors that you can
spell out either with those two letters an |
all letters between them. 81 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"
1t means, after you have piled up all AL
pine and himalayan attitudes, the glory of
Christ would have to spread its wings AMI
descend thousand leagues to touch those
SUBMITS. Pegiou, a high mountain of Thes-
sally; Osss. a high mountain, and Olympus,
@ high mountain; bat mythology tells us
when the giants warred against the gods
they piled up these three mountains and
from the top of them proposed 10 scale the
heavens; but the height was not great
enough and there was a complete failure.
Aud after ali the giants-lsaiah and Paul.
prophetic and apostolic giants; Raphael and
Michael Angelo, artistic giants; cherubim
and seraphim and archangei, celestial
giants-have failed to Climb to the top of
Christs 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 rise in our
preaching There are SO many books on
homiletics scattered through the world that
all laymen, as well as all cergymen, have
made up their minds what sermons ought to
lie. That sermon is most effectual which
most pointedly 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 a few phrases There ara
those who think that if au exhOrtation or
discourse have frequent mention Ok Justih-
cation, sanctiilcatioD, covenant OF works
and covenant of grace that therefore 1t
must be profoundly evangelical, while they
are suspicious OF a discourse which presents
the same truth, but under different phrase
,logy.
NOW. i SdN lUtTG II HOAlll- III VIC OPu-
ent realm of Anglo-SlXOniSm or all the
word treasurers that We inherited from the
Latin and the Greek and the lndo-European
but we have right to marshal it ia relig-
ious discussion. Christ sets the example.
His illustrations were from the grass, the
lowers, the spittle, the salve, the barnyard
lowI. the CRYSTALS of salt, as well as from the
seas and the stars, and we do not propose in
our Sabbath-school teaching and in our pull
Dit address to be put on the u 'lits.
know that there is a great deal said in
our day against words, as though they were
nothing. They may be inisused, but they
nave an imperial power. They are the
fridge between soul and soul, between Al
mighty God aud the human race. What did
God write upon the tables of stonesy Words.
What did Christ utter on Mount Oliver
Words. Out of what did Christ strike the
spark for the illumination of the universey
Out of words Let there be light, and
light was. or course thought Is the cargo
and words are only the ship; but how fast
would your cargo get on without the shlpf
What you need. my friends in all your
work, in your Sabbath school class in your
.eformatory institutions and what We all
need is to enlarge our vocabulary when we
come TO speak about God and Christ and
heaven. We ride few old words to death
when there is such illimitable resource
Shakespeare employed fifteen tlousan dif-
ferent words for dramatic purposes. Milton
employed eight thousand different words for
poetic purposes. Rufus Cnoate employer
aver eleven thousand different words for
legal purposes, but the most OF US have less
than a thousand wor Is that we can manage
less than five hundred, and that makes us so
STUPID.
When we come 10 set forth the love OF
Christ we are going to take the tenierest
phraseology wherever we fn1 it, aud It 1t
has never been use1 in that direction before,
all the more shall we use It, When we como
10 speak of the glory of Christ, the Conquer
or. we are going to draw our SMILES from
triunnbal arch and OratOriO and everything
grand and stupendous. The French navy
have eighteen flags by which they give sig
nal; but those eighteen flags they can put
into sixty-siX THOUSAND different comolna =
tions And / nave to tell you that these
standards Of tie cross may be lifted into
combinations infinite and varieties everlast-
ing. And let Inc say to young men who are
after awhile gOlng to preach Jesus Christ,
yol will have tue largest liberty ano un-
limited resource. You only have to present
Christ in Jour own way.
Jonathan Elwarls preached Christ In the
severest argument ever penned, and John
Bunyan preached Christ in the subllmest
allcgory ever composed. Edward Payson,
sick and exhausted, leaned up against tn
side Of the pulpit and wept out his discourse.
While George Whitefeld, with the manner
and the voice, and the start of an actor
overwhelmed his auditory. 1t would have
been different thing If Jonathan E iwar Is
had tried to write and dream about the pill
grim's progress to the celestial city or John
- hc
human will.
Brighter than the light. frasher than the
fountains, deeper than the seas are all these
Gospel themes. Song has no melody, flowers
have no sweetness, sunset sky has no color
compared with these glorious themes. Thess
harvests OF grace spring up quicker than we
can sickle them. Kindling pulpts with
their fire, and pro iucing revolutions with
their power, lighting up dying beds with
their glory, they are the sweetest thought
for the poet, and they ara the most thrilling
illustration for the orator, and they offer
the most intense scene for the artist, ant
they are to the ambassador of the say all en-
thusiasm. Complete pardon for direct
guilt. Sweetest comfort for ghastliest
agony. Brightest hope for grimmeSt death.
Grandest resurrection for darkest sepulcher
Oh, what gospel to preach Christ over
all In it. His birth, His suffering His mira
cles, His parallels His sweat, His tears, His
blood, His atonenent, His intercession, what
glorious themess DO we exercise faith
Christ Is its object Do We have love? 1t
fastens on Jesus. Have we a fondness for
the church, 1t Is because Christ died for it.
Have we a hope Of heaven IL is because
Jesus went ahead, the herald aud the fore
runner.
The royal robe Of Dsmstriu3 was 50 cost
IL, so beautiful, that after he hal pit it or
no one ever dared put it on; but this robe OF
Christ, richer than that, the poorest An | thu
wauest and the worst may wear. where
sin abounde1 grace may much more
abound"
'Ob. my sins, my sins" said Martin
Luther 10 Staupitz; my SINS my sins"
The fact is that the brawny German student
had found Latin Bible that bad male him
quake and nothing else ever did make him
quake, and when he found how, through
Christ, he was par3onsd aud saved he wrote
to friend, saving: Come over aud join
US great and awful sinners saved by thu
grace Of God. You seem to be only a
slender sinner, and yousdon't much extol the
mercy of God. but we who have been such
very awful sinners praise His grace the mOrs
now that we have been reds7nled'
Can it be that you ars 50 desperately
egotistical that you fell yourself in first rate
spiritual trim, and that fro n the root of TIE
hair to the tip Of the tos you are scarless
and immaculate What you need is look
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