News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-08-17
THE RESURRECTION.
DIR. TALMAGE SPEAKS OF PAUL's
BOLD CHALLENGE.

The Sublime Tragedy of Calvary-The Les
sons of Christ's Death and Resurrection.
His Intercassions For Us-The Consola-
lions of Christianity.
BROOKLYN, Aug. 13.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage today chose for his subject ga
Bold Challenge" the text being Romans
viii, 81: "Whois he that condemneth? 1t
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 I shall ever
preach" said Christmas Evans on the
18th of June, 1888. Three days after
ward he expired. 1 do not know what
bis text was, but I know that no man
Bould 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 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, Saviour risen, a 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 de-" 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. at is
Christ that died."
Can you tell me how tender hearted
Paul could find anything to rejoice at in
+I,o brrr;T,lo dao+b coapa of CaIvarv2 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 q
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 a Saviour's death
could Paul be exultant?
DELIvERANCE BY DEATH.
1t was because Paul saw in that death
his own deliverance and the deliyerance
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 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
:. 80
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!
I 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 been heaped upon him,
and on top of that burden were the sor-
rows of his poor old mother, and on the
top of these burdens the crimes of the
ruffians who were executing him.
''Stop!' you cry. 1T is enough. Christ
can bear no more" And Christ says,
"Roll ON more burdens; roll on me the
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 nostril and
lip seems to cry out: ''Enoughl He can
endure no more" But Christ says: Roll
on greater burden, roll on the sins of
the next 1900 years, roll on me the
sins of all the succeeding ages, roll on
me the agonies of hell, ages on ages, the
furnaces and the prison houses and the
fortunes. That is what the Bible means
when it says, He bore our sins and
carried our sorrows."
Nov" says Paul, Il am free. That
suffering purchasedmy deliverance. God
never collects debt twice. l have re-
ceipt in full. If God is satisfied with
me, then what do all the threats of earth
and hell amount to? Bring ON all your
witnesses" says Paul. "Show all your
force. Do your worst against my soul.
defy you. l dare you. | challenge
you. Who B he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died" Oh, what strong
argument that puts in the hand of every
Christian man! Some day all the past
sins of his life come down ON him in a
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 0,0O0
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 can
think it.
at is Christ that died" Why, then,
bring up to us the sins of our past life?
What have we to 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 cannot be
found; it cannot be fetched up. e'Now."
says God, "your sins have been cast into
she depths of the sea-" Mid-Atlantici All
The machinery ever fashioned in foun-
dries of darkness and launched from the
doors of eternal death, working for TO-
100 years, cannot bring up one of our
Inns forgiven and forgotten and sunken
into the depths of the sea. When a sin
Is pardoned, it is gone. 1t is gone out of
The books; it is gone out of the memory;
1t is gone out of existence. 'Their sins
and their iniquities will 1 remember no
MORE
THE SUBLIME TRAGEDY.