The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-08-25
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
PauTs Triumphant Challenge to An
Earthly Authority.
christ is lie Thatscondemneth-As Saviour
Dead. Saviour Risen, Saviour
IntercedIng-Christa at the
Right Hand

that died. yea. rather that is~rfsen again,
who Is even at the right hand Of God. who
also maketh fntercession for us--Romans
viii. 81
This is the last sermon I shall ever
preach" said Christmas Evans on the
18th of June, 1888. Three days after
wards he expired. do not know what
his text was, but I do know that no
man could choose a better theme
though he knew it was the last time he
should ever preach-than the subject
found in this text.
Paul flung this challenge of the text
to the feet of all ecclesiastical and
civil authority. He feared neither
swords nor lions, earth nor hell Dio-
cletian slew amounted thousands un-
der his administration, and the World
has been full of persecution; but all
the prosecutors of the world could not
alright Paul. Was it because he was
physically strong? Oh, no. / suppose
he was very much weakened by ex-
posture and maltreatment. Was it be-
cause he was lacking in sensitiveness?
No; You find the most delicate shades
of feeling playing in and out of his let
tiers and sermons. Some of his commu-
nications burst into tears. What was
IL that lifted Paul into this triumphant
mood? The thought of Saviour dead,
a Saviour risen, Saviour exalted,
Saviour interceding.
All the world has sung the praise of
Princess Alice. One child having died
of contagious disease-she was in the
room where another was dying, and
the court physician said to her: 'You
m ust 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 he
roism and the self-sacrifce of Princess
Alice, but have to tell you that when
our race was dying the Lord Jesus
stopped down and gave us the kiss of
His everlasting love, and persisted 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 sympa-
thetic when we see stranger die, when
a murderer steps upon a scaffold we
pray for his departing spirit; and could
Paul-the great-hearted Paul-find
anything to be pleased with at the fu-
neral of God? 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 be exultant?
1t was because Paul saw in that
death his own deliYerance and the de-
liverance of a race from still worse dis
ter; he saw the gap into which the
race must plunge, and he saw the
bleeding hands of Christ close il. The
glittering steel on the top of the exc
cutioner's spear in his sight kindled
into a torch to light 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-''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 volun-
teered in my behalf these would have
been my mauled hands and feet, my
gashed side, my crimson temples"
Men of great physical endurance
sometimes carried very heavy burdens
three hundred pounds, four hundred
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: ''Stopl /
can carry no more" But the burden
of Christ was illimitable. First, there
&c Of
thirst, and bereavement, and a thou
sand outrages that have been heaped
upon Him, and on top of that burden
was the sorrows of his poor old moth
er, and on the top of those burdens the
crimes of those ruffians who were exc
cutting Him. Stop you cry, sit is
enough; Christ can bear no more" And
Christ says: Roll on more burdens;
roll on me the sins of this en-
tire nation, and after that, roll on me
the sins of the inhabited earth, and
then roll on me the sins of the four
thousand years past, so far as those
sins have been forgiven" And the
angels of God, seeing the awful pres
sure, cry: "Stopl 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 a greater
burden-roll on the sins of the next
nineteen hundred 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:
'He bore our sins, and carried our
sorrowS."
Now" says Paul, Il am free; that
Suffering purchased my deliverance;
God never collects a debt twice, have
a receipt in full; if God is satisfied with
me, then what do all the threats of
earth and hell amount to? Bring on
all your witnesses" says Paul; ''show
all your force, do your worst against
my soul: 1 defy you; dare you; chal-
lenge you. Who is He that condemn
eth? IL is Christ that died" Oh, what
a strong argument that puts in the hand
of every Christian mani Some day all
the past sins of his life come down
on him in fiery troop, and they pound
away at the gate of his soul, and they
say: 1--WE have come for your arrest
Any one of us could overcome you; we
are ten thousand strong; surrender
And you open the door, and single
handed and alone you contend against
that troop; you fling this Divine weapon
into their midst, you scatter those sins
as quick as you can think of it. fsIt is
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