Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1893-08-14
THE RESURRECTION.
DR.. TALMAGE SPEAKS OF PAUL's
BOLD CHALLENGE.


sons of Christ's Death and Resurrection.
His IntereessIoBs For, Us-The CousoIa-
tions of OhFistianlty.
BROOKLYN, Aug, 13.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage today chose for his subject "a
Bold Challepge," J" the text being Romans
viii, "a; "Wbois he thatcondemneth2 It
is Christ that died, yea. rather that is
risen again. who is even at the right
hand of God, who also maketh interces-
sion for us.
This is the last sermon / shall ever
preach" said Christmas Evans on the
18th of June, 1898. Three days after
ward he expired l donot know what
his text was. but 1 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. Diocletian slew un-
counted thousands under his adminietra-
ton, and the world has been full Of per-
secution, but all the prosecutors of the
world could not alright Paul. Was it
because he was physically strong2 Oh,
no. suppose he was very much weak
ened by exposure and maltreatment.
Was it because he was lacking in sensi
tivenessp No. You find the most deli
cate shades of feeling playing in and out
his letters and sermons. Some OF his
...A Ano l1o4
was it that lifted Paul into this triumph
ant mood? The thought of Saviour.
dead, Saviour risen, Saviour exalted,
a 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 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 perished. 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
us the kiss Of his everlasting love and
perished 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 a stranger die; when a mur-
derer steps upon the scaffold we pray for
his departing spirit, and how could Paul
the great hearted Paul-6nd anything
to be pleased with at the funeral of a
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?
DELIvERANCE BY DEATH.
It 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 executioner's spear In
his sight lindled into a torch to light
men heayenward. 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
"expiationr" 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 mauled hands and feet,
my gashed side, my crimson temples"
Men of great physical endurance have
sometimes carried very heavy burdens :
300 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 a thousand out
RACES that have beon heaped upon him
and on top of that burden were the sor
rows Of his poor old mother, and on th'
top Of those burdens the crimes OF th'
rufians who were executing him.
''Stopr' you cry. "It is enough. Chris
can bear no more" And Christ says
Roll ON more burdens: roll on me thu
the sins of this entire nation, and aftel
that roll on me the sins of the inhabite6
earth, and then roll on me the sins o
the 1000 years past, so far as thos
sins have been forgiven" And tn
angels Of God, seeing the awful pressure
cry: ''Stopi He can bear no more.
And the blood rushing TO the nostril an'
lip seems to cry out; ''Enoughl He cal
endure no more" But Christ says: ''Rol
ON q greater burden, roll on the sins o
the next 1900 years, roll ON me tn
sins Of all the succeeding ages, roll oI
me the agonies of hell, ages on ages, tn
furnaces and the prison houses and tn
tortures." That is what the Bible mean
when 1t says, He bore our SINS an'
carried our sorrows."
Now" says Paul, Il am free Tha
suffering purchased my deliverance' Go'
never collects debt twice. have re
ceipt In full. II God is satisfied witt
80 the, xrl,af AZ all fha fhreata of 6artl