Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-08-30
REV, DIR. TALMAGF
The Brooklyn Diyine's
Sunday Sermon.
Subject;--"A Bold Challenge" y"

viii. ST.
This IS tho last sermon 1 shall ever
preach. said Christmas Evans on the 18th
of JUne, 1883. Three days afterward he ex-
utrrd. l do not know what his text was.
nut l know that no man could choose a bet
Ter rtheme-though he knew it was the last
time he should ever preach-than the subject
tound in this text.
Plul flung this challenge OF the text TO the
5ent 0f all ecclesiastical and civil authority.
Ha feared neither swords or lions, earth nor
bell. DiOcleuan slew uncounted thousands
under his administration, and the world has
been full OF persecution, but all the perse-
nut1rs Of the world could not alright Paul.
Was II because he was physically strong?
oh. no. I suppose he was very much weak
en~d 10y eNposur, and maltreatment. Was
II because he was lacking in constituencies?
No. You find the most delicate shades of
feeling playing in and out his letters and
sermons. Some OF his communications
hurst into tears. What was it lifted Paul
into this triumphant mood? The thought of
% Saviour dead, a Saviour risen, q Saviour
exalted a Saviour intercediEg.
All the world has sang the praise OF Prin-
o"ss Alice. One child having died OF con-
tHEious disease, she was IN the room where
another was dying, and the court physician
said 10 her, ''NOu must not breathe the breath
o. tins child, or you yourself will die" But
7noiug the child mourning because of the
sinath of her brother the mother stopped
down and IN sympathy kissed the little one,
caught the disease and perished. All the
world sang the neroism and the self-sacriRce
of Princess Alice. but have to tell you that
when unr race was dying the Lord Jesus
stopped down and gave US the kiss of His
everlasting love and perished that we might
live. 1T il Christ that died"
Can you tell me how tender hearted Paul
could find anything TO rejoice at IN the hor-
rihle death scene of Calvary? We weep at
funerals we are sympathetic when we see
stranger die when q murderer steps upon
the scafold we pray for his departing spirit
aiIi how could Paul-the great hearted Paut
--Hnd anything TO be pleased with Mt the
funecsl OF a God2 Besides that Christ had
only recently died. and the sorrow was fresh
in the memory of the world, and how in the
fresh memory OF SaviOur's death could Paul
0e eXuitant2
It was because Paul saw in that death his
own deliverance and the deiiveranre Of q race
from still worse disaster. He sI4 the gap
into which the race must plunge, and he saw
the bleeding hands OF Christ close it. The
g.lttering steel on the top Of the execution
cr's spear in his sight kindled into a torch to
sht men heavenward. The prosecutors saw
over the cross five words written In Hebrew,
Greek and Latin, but Paul saw over the cross
Of Christ only one word-'expiation J" He
heard in the dying Groan OF Christ his own
Croan 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 muuled hands and feet, my
gashed side, my crimson temples"
Men Of great physical endurance have
sometimes carried very heavy burdens-3O0
pounds, 400 pounds-and they have still
said "My strength is not yet tested Fut
on more weight" But after awhile they
were compelled to cry out; ''Stop! can
carry no more" But the burden Of Christ
was illmttable. First, there was His own
burden of hunger and thirst and bereave-
suent and a thousand outraCes that ha-
been heaped upon Him, and on top OF that
guTdsn were the sorrows OF His poor old
mother and on the top of those burdens the
crimes Of the rufIlans who were executing
Him.
stop ~ you cry 'It is enough. Christ
can bear no more" And Christ slys, "Rol
On more burdens roll on Me the sins OF tnls
entire nation, and after that roll on Me the
sins Of the inhabited earth. and then roll on
Me the sins OF the 1000 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 hp seems
to cry out Enough! He can endure nc
more" But Christ says: Poll on Greater
burden, roll the sins OF the next lJOl
years, roll on Me the sins OF the succeeding
ages, roll on Me the agonies Of he'll, ages on
ages, the furnaces and the prison houses ana
the tortures." That is what the Bi6lt
means when it says, 'He bore our sins an.
carried our sOrrOws.'
'.Now," saws Paul, 'I am free. That suf
fering purchased my deliverance. Goi never
collects a debt twice. L have a receipt II
full. II God is satisfied with me, then VIVA
do all the threats OF earth and hell amour
to? Bring on all your witnesses, say'
Paul. ''Show all your force. Do your Wors
against my soul. l defy you. L dare You
/ challenge You. Who Is he that condcin-'
eth? 1t is Christ that died" Oh, whR
in a Df ~
cry Christian mani Some day all the pas
sins Of his life come down on him in her.
troop, and they pound away at tOs gate o
his soul, and they say I'VE have come 20
your arrest. Any one Of US could oV'rcom
YOU. We arc 10 900 strong. surrender
And you open the door, and stngle hHnie'
and alone YOU contend against that troop
You fling this divine weapon into their mids'
You scatter those sins as quick as you CT
think il
1T is Christ that died" Why, then, bril-
M 20 US the sins of our past life? What ha
we to do with those obsolete things! lt
know how hard it is for wrecker to briL
up ANYTHING that Is lost near the snore OF
sea. but suppose something be lost halt w
between Liverpool and New York 1t cal
not be found: it cannot be fetched u
GsNow saws God, ''yOur sins have been ca
into the depths of the sea- Mtd-Atlanu
All the machinery ever fashioned in lou
dries of darkness and launched from u
doors OF eternal death, working Tor lo,u
wears, cannot bring up one of our sins 10
given a. I forgotten and sunken into Il
DEPTHS OF the sea. When sin IS parione
It is gone. 1t is gone out OF the books, 1t
gone out of the memory II IS gone out OF e
istence ''Their sins and their iniquItles W
l remember no more
From other tragedies men have come aw;
exhausted and nervous and sleepless, b'
there is one tragedy that soOthes and cain
and saves. Calvary was the stage on wnlC
il Was enacted the curtain of the night In
ing at midnoon was the drop scene, u
thunder of falling rocks the orchestra, ange
in the galleries and devils In the pit II
spectators the tragedy crucillNion- 1t
Christ that died. Oh, triumphant though
If YOU 90 through the picture gallery
Versailles, you will find n great chan
there. 1 said to a friend who had be-
through those galleries, caro- they as tn
were before the French WARP and W
told there was great change there, that I
that multitude of pictures which represent
Napoleonic triumphs had been taken ava
md in the frames wore other pictures re
resentative of German success and victor
oh. that all the scenes of satanic triumph
our world might be blOtted out, and til
the whole world night be picture gale
representing the triumphant Jesusl Doy
with the monarchy of transEressioni
with the monarchy OF our King Hail jest
hall
But must give you the second cause
Paul's exhilaration. II Christ had staid
that grave, we never would have gotten o
of It. The grave would have been dark N
dismal as the conciergerie during the rel!
of terror, where the carts came up only
take the victims out to the scatfold- 1
not wonder that the ancients tried by e.
balmment of the body to resist the dissoluti,
Of death.
rne grave Is the darkest, deepest, Ghast
est chasm that was ever opened if there
no light from the resurrection throne strear
ing into it, but Christ staid in the tomb ;
Friday night and all Saturday, all Saturd
night and a part of Sunday morning.
staid so long in the tomb that He might fit
for us when we 60 there. He tarried ty
whole nights in the grave, so that He 81
how important IT was TO have plenty
light, and He has flooded it with His or
glory.