Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-08-05
GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
TALMAGE breaches 1T IN
SCOTLAND.
lie That Cometh From Above Is Above
All"-The Most Conspicuous Figure In
History, the Most Exquisite MJuglinG
of Lights and Shades.

LONDON, July 81 Since his return from
Russia, DR.. Talmage has been literally flooded
with invitations 10 address congregations and
lyceums on the subject of his journey 10 the
land OF the Car. DIR. Talmage has been com
pelfed TO adhere to bis original program Dur
ing the week he has been preaching in the
leading Scottish cities. The sermon selected
for this week is entitled II re-eminent" the
text being, John 1891, 'Ho that comoth from
above is above all"
The most conspicuous character OF
history stops out upon the platform.
The finger which, diamonded with
light, pointed down to him from the
Bethlehem sky, was only 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
overlapping figure of all time. He is
the voX humana in all music, the grace
fullest line in all sculpture, the most
exquisite nlingling of lights and shades
in all painting, the acme of all eli
makes, the dome of all cathedralled
grandeur, and the peroration of all
splendid language.
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 70 himself all the
splendors 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 fist and the last" Or, if 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 a thousand leagues
TO touch those SUBMITS. 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 pro
posed to scale the heavens; but
the height was not great enough, and
there was complete failure. And
after all the giants-Isaiah and Paul,
prophetic and apostolic giants; Raphael
and Michael Angelo, artistic giants;
cherubim and seraphim and archangcl,
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, "llc that cometh from above
is above all.
First, Christ must be above all else in
our preaching. There are also many
books on homiletics scattered through
the world that all laymcn, as well as
all clergymen, have made up their
minds what sermons ought 10 be. 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 end
less changes on few phrases. There
are those that think that if an exhorta-
ton or a discourse have frequent
mention of justification, sanctifcation,
covenant of works and covenant OF
grace, that, therefore, it must be pro-
foundry evangelical, while they are
suspicious OF a discourse which pre-
sents the same truth. but under diff
lerent phraseology. Nov, 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-Euro-
pean, 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 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
pulpit address to be put on the limits.
know that there is a great deal said
in our day against words, as though
they were nothing. They may be mis-
used, 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 stone? Words,
What did Christ utter on Mount
Olivet? Words. Out of what did
, Christ strike the spark for the illumina-
ton 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 without
the ship? What you need, my friends,
in all your work, in your Sabbath
school class, in your reformatory in
situations, 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 thousand different
words for dramatic purposes; Milton
employed eight thousand different
words for poetic purposes; Rufus Choate
employed over eleven thousand differ
ent words for legal purposes; but the
most of us have less than thousand
words that we can manage, less than
! five hundred, and that makes us so
stupid.
When we come TO set forth the love OF
Christ we are going to take the tend
crest phraseology wherever we find it,
and if IL has never been used in that