Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-08-25
REV. DIR. TALMAGE
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S Sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "a Bold Challenge"


also nedketh intercessiOn for us.''-Ronans
viii, "a.
"This is the last sermon / shall ever
preach" said Christmas Evans on the 18th
of June, 1888. Three days afterward he ex-
pired. do not know what his text was,
but know that no man could choose bet
ter 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 or lions, earth nor
hell. Diocletian slew uncounted thousands
under his administration, and the world has
been full OF persecution, but all the perse-
cutors of the world could not alright Paul
Was it because he was physically strong?
Oh no. suppose he was very much weak
ened by exposure and maltreatment. Was
if because he was lacking in sensitiveness?
No. You find the most delicate shades of
feeling playing in and out his letters and
sermons. Some Of his communications
burst into tears. What was it lifted Pau
into this triumphant mood? The thought of
Saviour dead, n Saviour risen, Saviour
exalted, a Saviour intercedng-
All the world has sang the praise of Prin-
cess Alice. One child having died of a con-
tagiOus disease. 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
OeaCn OF Der DrOIler, the mOtner stopped
down and in sympathy kissed the little one.
caught the disease and persisted All the
world sang the herOism and the seif-sacrifice
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. 1T is Christ that died.
Can You tell me how tender hearted Paul
could find anything to rejoice at in the hor-
rible death scene of Calvary? We weep at
funerals we are sympathetic when we see
stranger die; when murderer steps upon
the scaffOi1 we pray for his departing spirit.
and how could PauI-the great hearted Paul
find anything to be pleased with at the
funeral 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 exutant?
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
gIittering steel on the top OF the execution
er's spear in his sight kinded 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 neutrality-suspicious. ~ 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
have been my mauled hands and feet, my
gashed side, my crimson temples"
Men of great physical endurance have
sometimes carried very heavy burdens-30O
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! I can
carry no more" But the burden of Christ
was illimitable First, there was His own
burden of hunger and thirst and bereave
OoTa%o 4 %ho% hCVyO
been heaped upon Him, and on top of that
burden were the sorrows of His poor old
mother, and on the top OF those burdens the
crimes of the ruffians who were executing
Him.
stop ~ you cry at is enough. Christ
can bear no MORE And Christ says. "RolI
on more burdens roll on Me 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 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 nostriI and lip seems
10 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 Ne the sins of 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 saws. '"He bore our sins and
carried our sorrows.
Now, says Paul. ~ am free That suf-
fering purchased my deiverance. God never
collects a debt twice. | have q receipt in
full. If God is satisfied with me. then what
do all the threats of earth and hell amount
to? Bring all your Witnesses says
Paul. 'ShOw all your force. Do your worst
against my soul. defy you. | dare you.
/ challenge you. Who is he that condemn
eth? 1t is Christ that died" Oh, what a
strong argument that puts IN the hand of ev-
cry Christian man! 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 10000 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 car
think it.
at is Christ that died. Why, then. brine
Dip to us the sins of our past life? What have
veto do with those obsolete things? You
know how hard it is for a wrecker to bring
up anything that is lost near the shore of the
sea. but suppose something be lost half way
between Liverpool and New York. 1t can
not be found it cannot be fetched up.
Now, says God, ''yOur sins haze been cast
INTO the depths of the sea-" Mid-Atlantic'
Al! the machinery ever fashioned in foun-
drIes OF darkness and launched from the
doors OF eternal death, working for 10, 900
years, cannot bring up one Of Oup sins for
given and forgotten and sunken into the
deptns OF the sea. When sin is pardOned,
II Is gone 1t Is gone out of the books it is
gone cut OF the memory; it is gone out of ex-
istence. Their sins and their iniquities will
l remember no more"
From other ira gedies men have oonoa away
exhausted and nervous and sIeeDless but
there is one tragedy that soothes and Gains
and saves. Calvary was the stage OF which