The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-08-30
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: GA Bold Challenge"

: Text: q" Who is he that condenneh? IS
Christ that died. yea, rather that risen Gga1n,'
.oho is ere. at the right hand Of Cod, 'oho
also maketh intercesSion for uS."-Romans
viii, 81.
This is the last sermon shall ever
preach" said Christmas Evans on the 18th
of June, 1888. Three days atterward be e1-
pired. do not know what his text was.
but know that no man could choose bet
ter rtheme-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 aud civil authority.
He feared neither swords or lions, earth nor
hell. Diocletian slew uncounted thousands
under his administration. and the world mas
been full OF persecution, but all the perse-
outors 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 naltreatment. Was
1T 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 1t lifted Paul
into this triumphant mood2 The thought OF
a Saviour dead, Saviour risen, q Saviour
exalted, Saviour interceding.
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
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-sacritice
of Princess Alice but have to tell you that
,vhoo rooa roa 6vipp tho Lord .IaSuS
stopped down and gave US the kiss OF His
everlasting love and perlshed that we m1gnt
live. sit 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 scaffold we pray for his departing spirit.
and how could Paul-tbe grest hearted Paul
find anything TO be pleased with ut the
funeral of a God? Besides that Christ had
only recently died. and ths sorrow was fresh
i'm the memory of the world, and how In the
fresh memory OF Saviour's death could Paul
beSexultant?
It was because Paul saw in that death his
own deliverance and the deliverance OF race
from still worse disaster. He saw the gap
into which the race must plunge, and he saw
the bleeding hands Of Christ close 1t. The
glittering steel on the top OF the execution
er's spear in his sight kindled into torch to
Hight 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 He
heard in the dying groan OF Christ his own
eroan of eternal torture taken by another.
Paul said to himself, "Had 1t not been that
Christ volunteered In my behalf, those would
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: 'iMy 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 bereave-
ment and thousand outrsges that have
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 ruf1ans who were executing
Him.
''Stopr' you cry "It is enough. Christ
s. can bear no more" And Christ says, ''Roll
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
Methe sins Of the 1000 years past, 80 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 nostr:l and lip seems
to cry out Enough! He can endure no
more" But Christ says: ''Rot on greater
burden, roll on the sins OF the next 1900
years, roll on Me 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 says, "He bore our sins and
carried our sorrows."
: ssNow," suys Paul, 'I am free. That sut-
iering purchased my deliverarce. God never
collects debt twice. have q receipt In
full. If God is satisfied with me, then Whit
do all the threats Of earth and hell amount
toP Bring on all your witnesses" says
against my soul. I defy you. I dare you.
7 challenge you. Who is he that condemn
eth2 It Is Christ that died" On. 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 q ley
troop, and they pound away at the gate OF
his soul, and they say: "We have come for
your arrest. Any one Of us could overcome
you. We nre 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.
':It is Christ that died." Why, then. brine
up to US thesi of our past life? What have
we to do with those obsolete things? You
know how hard 1t IS for wrecker to bring
up anything that is3ost 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.
dot n1 ty-N1y cino hor haa no "a
into the depths Of the sea- Mid-Atlantic
All the machinery ever fashioned in foun-
dries of darkness and launched from the
doors OF eternal death, working for 10, ,00O
years, cannot bring up one OF our sins for
given and forgotten and sunken into the
depths of the sea. When 4 sin is pardoned
1t is gone. It is gone out of the books it Is
gone out Of the memory it is gone out OF ex-
tstence. "Their sins and their iniquities will
remember no more"
From other tragedies men have come away
exhausted and nervous and s.eepless. but
there is one tragedy that soothes and Gains
and saves. Calvary was the stage on which
It was enacted, the curtain of tho night fall
ing at midnoon was the drop scene, the
thunder of falling rocks the orchestra. angels
in the galleries and devils Ia the pit the
spectators, the tragedy cruciexion. ut is
Christ that died." Oh, triumphant thought
Ifyou go through the picture gallery of
Versailles, YOU will find great change
there. said to friend who had been
through those galleries, Are they as they
were before the French war; and was
told there was great change there; that all
that multitude Of pictures which represented
Napoleonic triumphs had been taken away.
and in the frames were other pictures rep
resentative OF German success and victory.
Oh. that all the scenes OF satanic triumph in
our world might be blotted out. and that
the whole world might b. picture gallery
representing the triumphant Jesus Down