The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-08-18
THE RESURRECTION.
DR.. TALMAGE SPEAKS OF PAuus
BOLD CHALLENGE.

hitSN f'tbg NiiNoN ANt hio oubJtNt n
Bold Challenge" the text being Romans
viii, "a. "Whois he that condemneth9 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 u.s."
"This is the last sermon l shall ever
PREACH" said Christmas Evans on the
18th of June. 1888. Three days after
ward he expired. I do not know what
his text was, hut l know that no man
could choose better theme-though he
knew 1t 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 I'M
counted thousands under his administra-
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 strong? Oh,
no. suppose he was very much weak
ened by exposure and maltreatment.
Was it because he was lacking in sensi-
tiveness? No. You find the most deli
cate shades of feeling playing in and out
his letters and sermons. Some of his
communications burst into tears. What
was it that lifted Paul into this triumph
ant 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 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
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 ut is
Christ that Gied."
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 MUIR
derer steps upon the scaffold we pray for
his departing spirit, and how could Paul
the great hearted Paul-fnd 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.
II 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 it. The glittering steel
on the top of the executioner's spear in
his sight kindled into torch to light
men heavenward. 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
800 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 thousand out
RACES that have been heaped upon him
and on top of that burden were the sor
rows of his poor old mother, and on tn.
top of those burdens the crimes of thu
ruffians who were executing him.
'Stopm you cry. at 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 after
that roll on me the sins of the inhabited
earth, and then roll on me the sins O
the 1900 years past, so far as thos,
sins have been forgiven" And tn,
angels of God, seeing the awful pressure
cry: stop! He can bear no more.
And the blood rushing to the nostril ant
, lip seems to cry out: Enough! He Cal
: endure no more" But Christ says: "Rol
on greater burden, roll on the sins o
,,o11 T.
sins of all the succeeding ages, roll
me the agonies of hell, ages on ages, til
furnaces and the prison houses and tn
tortures." That is what the Bible mean
when it says, HE bore our sins an,
carried our SORROWS"
Now" says Paul, II am free. Tha
suffering purchased my deliverance. Go,
never collects debt twice. have re
ceipt in full. If God is satisfied witt
me, then what do all the threats of cart
and hell amount to? Bring on all you
witnesses" says Paul. NShow all you
force. Do your worst against my soul
l defy you. l dare you. I challeng
you. Who is he that condemneth? til
Christ that died." Oh, what stron
argument that puts in the hand of ever
Christian man! Some day all the pas
sins of his life come down on him in
fiery troop, and they pound away at tn
gate of his soul, and they sag: "W
! have come for your arrest, A1y one c
us could overcome you. We are 1000
strong. Surrender And you open tn
= door. and single handed and alone yo
contend against that troop. You fin
this divine weapon into their midst. 70
scatter those sins as quick as you ca
think 1t.
! 1T is Christ that died" Why, thel
= bring up to us the sins of our past lif
What have we to do with those obsole
things? You know how hard it is for
wrecker to bring up anything that is 10
near the shore of the sea, but suppo
something be lost half way betwet
: Liverpool and New York. 1t cannot
found; it cannot be fetched up. Now
: says tod, ''your sins have been casth
- the de-lths of the sea" Mid-Atlantic! a