The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-08-21
THE RESURRECTION.
DR.. Talmage Speaks Of Pauls Bold
Challenge


The Sublime Tragedy of Calvary-The Les
sons of Christ's Death and ResurrectioE
His Intercessions For Us-The Console
lions of Christianity.
| BROOKLYN, Aug. 13.-Rev. DR.. Tai,
image today chose for his subject ga
bold Challenge" the text being Romans
lviii, "a: "Whois he that condemneth? II
lis Christ that died, yea, rather that i,
risen again, who is even at the right
hand of God, who also nnaketh interces
sion for us"
'sThis is the last sermon T shall eve1
preach" said Christmas Evans on the
18th of June, 1888. Three days after
ward he expired. / do not know what
his text was, but know that no mar
could choose better theme though Ll
knew it was the last time he should eve,
preach-than the subject found in this
text.
! Paul flung this challenge of the text
to the feet Of ali ecclesiastical and civil
authority. He feared neither swords mol
lions, earth nor hell. Diocletian slew un.
counted thousands under his administra-
ton, and the world has been full Of per
secution, bat all the prosecutors of the
world could not alright Paul. Was il
because he was physically STRONG? Oh,
mo. suppose he was very much weak
ened by exposure and maltreatment.
Was it because he was lacking in sensi-
tiveness? No. You find the most deli
cate shades Of feeling playing in and out
his letters and sermons. Some of his
communications burst into tears. What
was it that lifted Paul into this triumph.
ant mood The thought of a Saviour
dead, Savfsar risen, a Saviour exalted,
Saviour interceding.
| All the world has sung the praise OF
Princess Alice. One child having died
of contagious diseaee, she was in the
room where another was dying, and the
court physician said to,her, You must
not breathe the breath of this child, or
you yourself will die" But seeing the
child mourning because Of the death Of
her brother, the mother stopped down
and in sympathy kissed the little one
caught the disease and persisted. All the
world sang the heroism and the self
sacrifice of Princess Alice. but have to
tell You that when our race was dying
the Lord Jesus stopped down and gave
JUS the kiss Of his. everlasting love and
iperished that we might live. ut is
Christ that died"
Can you tell me how tender hearted
Paul could find anything to rejoice at in
the horrible death scene of Calvary We
weep at funerals; we are sympathetic
when we see stranger die; when muir
derer steps upon the scafold we pray for
his departing spirit, and how could Paul
the great hearted Paul-fnd anything
Ito be pleased with at the funeral of q
God? Besides that Christ had only re-
Gently died, and the sorrow was fresh in
the memory of the world, and how in
the fresh memory Of Saviour's death
could Paul be exultant?
DELIvERANCM BY DEATH.
1t was because Paul saw in that death
his own deliverance and the deliverance
of a race from still worse disaster. He
saw the gap into which the race must
plunge, and he saw the bleeding hands
of Christ close it. The glittering steel
on the top of the executioner's spear in
his sight kindled into a torch to light
men heavenward. The prosecutors saw
over the cross five words written in He
brew, Greek and Latin, but Paul saw
over the cross of Christ only one word
"expiationl' He heard in the dying
groan Of Christ his own groan Of eternal
torture taken by another. Paul said to
himself, "Had it not been that Christ
volunteered in my behalf, those would
have been my nauled hands and feet,
my gashed side, my crimson temples"
Men Of great physical endurance have
sometimes carried very heavy burdens
800 pounds, 400 pounds-and they have
still said: "My strength is not yet tested.
Put on more weight" But after awhile
they were compelled to cry out: "Stop!
can carry no more" But the burden
Of Christ was illimitable. First, there
was his own burden of hunger and thirst
and bereavement and thousand out
RACES that have been heaped upon him,
and on top Of that burden were the sor-
rows of his poor old mother, and on the
top of those burdens the crimes Of the
rufians who were executing him.
''Stop!" you cry. SIT is enough. Christ
can bear no more" And Christ says,
"Ron on more burdens; roll on me the
the sins Of this entire nation, and after
that roll on me the sins of the inhabited
earth, and then roll on me the sins of
the 1900 years past so far as those
sins have been forgiven" And the
angels of God, seeing the awful pressure,
cry: "Stop! He can bear no more"
And the blood rushing to the nostril and
lip seems to cry out: Enough He can
endure no more" But Christ says: "Roll
on greater burden, roll on the sins of
the next 1900 years, roll on me the
sins of all the succeeding ages, roll on
me the agonies of hell, ages on ages, the
furnaces and the prison houses and the
tortures." That is what the Bible means
when it says, ''IIe bore our sins and
carried our sorrOws."
Now" says Paul, II am free. That
suffering purchased nay deliverance. God