The Bossier banner., 1893-06-01
OVER ALL FOREVER.
Dr.. Talmage Talks on the Chief
tainship Of Christ.
His Divinity Shown by His Words ana
Works-If Christ be Not God, Then
are We Idolaters-The Great
Test Yet to Come.

Christ came who is over all.-Romans, TX, 3.
For four thousand years the world
had been waiting for Deliverer-
waiting while empires rose and fell
Conguerors came and made the world
worse instead of making it better, still
the centuries watched and waited. They
looked for Him on thrones, looked for
Him in palaces, looked for Him in i'm
perial robe, looked for Him at the head
of armies. At last they found Him In
barn. The cattle stood nearer to Him
than the angels, for the former were in
the adjoining stall, while the latter
were in the clouds. A parentage OF
peasantry. No room for Him in the inn,
because there was no one to pay
the hotel expenses. Yet the pointing
star and the angelic cantata showed
that Heaven made up in appreciation
of His worth what the world lacked.
"Christ came, who is over all, God
blessed forever. Amen"
But who is this Christ who came? AS
to the difference between different de-
nominations of evangelical Christians I
have no concern. If l could, by the
turning over of my hand, decide wheth-
er all the world shall at last be Baptist,
or Methodist, or Congregational, or
Episcopalian, or Presbyterian, would
not turn my hand. but there are doc
trines which are vital to the soul. If
Christ be not God, we are idolaters.
To this Christological question I de-
vote myself this morning, and pray
God that we may think Alright and do
Alright in regard to question in which
mistake is infinite.
l suppose that the ma jority of those
here to-day assembled believe the
Bible. 1t requires as much faith to be
an infidel as to be Christian. 1t is
faith in different direction. The
Christian has faith in the teachings of
Matthew, Luke, John, Paul, Isaiah,
Moses. The infdel has faith in the
freethinkers. We have faith in one
class of men. They'have faith in an
other class of men. But as the maior-
ity of those, perhaps all of those here
assembled, are willing to take the
Bible for standard in morals and In
faith, make this book my starting
point.
They say there was no miraculous
birth in Bethlehem, but that it is all a
fanciful story, just like the story of
Romulus said to have been born of Rea
Silvia and the god Mars. They say
there was miraculous making of bread,
but that is corruption of the story
that Elisha gave twenty loaves of
hrood fn hY,nAraI
the water was never turned into wine,
but that it is corruption of the story
that the Egyptian plague turned the
water into blood. They say it is no
wonder that Christ sweat great drops
of blood; He had been out in the night
air and was taken suddenly ill. They
say that there were no tongues
of fire on the heads of the
disciples at the Pentecost; that there
was only great thunder storm, and
the air was full of electricity which
snapped and flew all around about the
heads of the disciples. They saw that
Mary and Martha and Christ felt it i'm
protant to get up an excitement for the
forwarding Of their religion, and SO
they dramatized funeral and Lazarus
played the corpse, and Mary and Martha
played the weepers, and Christ was the
tragedian. l put it in my own words,
this is the exact meaning of their state.
ments. They say the Bible is spuri.
GUS book written by superstitious OF
lying men, backed up by men who died
for that which they did not believe.
Now, take back the limited state.
ment which I made a few moments
ago, when I said it requires as much
faith to be an infidel as to be a Chris.
tian, 1t requires thousand fold more
faith to be an infidel than to be a
Christian, for if Christianity demanded
that the whale swallowed Jonah. then
skepticism demand that Jonah swal
lowed the whale! l can prove to YOU
that Christ was God, not only by the
supernatural appearances on tha,
Christmas night, but by what inspired
men said of Him, by what He saws o.
of Himself, and by His wonderful
achievements, ''Christ came, who i.
over ALL" All! does not that prove tos
much? Not over the Caesars, not owe,
Frederick, not over Alexander tn.
Great, not over the Henrys, not ove1
the Louises? Yes. Pile all the throne.
of all the ages together, and nv tex
overspans them as easily as rainbow
overspans a mountain top. Chris
came, who is over ALL" Then He mus
be God.
The Bible says that all things were
made by Him. Does not that prove to,
much? Could it be that He made tn,
Mediterranean, that He made tn,
Black sea, that He made the Atlantic
the Pacific, that He made Mount Leb
anon, that He made the Alps, tn,
Sierra Nevadas, that He made tn,
hemispheres, that He made the mi
verse? Yes. The Bible saws so, anf
lest we be too stupid to understand
John winds up with a magnificent re
iteration, and says: "Without H;r
was not anything made that was made
Then he was God.
Philosophers say that the law q
gravitation decides everything. ant
that the centripetal and centrifupa
forces keep the world from clashins
and from demolition. But Paul saw,
that Christ's arm is the axle on which