The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-01-15
THE ALPHA AND Omega
Interesting Discourse Delivered
Yesterday by the Rev.
r. X. Wick.

81 am Alpha, and Omega, the beginning
and the end, the first and the last" was the
subject of discourse by the Rev. R. K. Week
Of Wayne Street Reformed Church yester-
| day. He said:-AOriental and Bible teach
ing is largely pictorial. 1t is becoming more
and more the approved mode among us, Ii
we take up a book the first thing we do is to
look at the pictures. We are told that a
new style of employment is opening up for
women which consists in furnishing inustra-
ions for the daily newspapers, and for other
forms of current literature. An old hearel
of the Gospel was once asked her opinion or
a sermon preached by a learned Divine. She
repliedAIt was, no doubt, good, but it had
mo- lights in it, meaning that it wanted illus
t~rations. Our Lord was not only the great.
| est. but the most popular OF preachers, and
| he not only endorsed, but rendered most sue
| cessful the illustrative mode, for it is said
that without a parable he spake not unto
Them N mulitudes focked to hear and
| heard him gladly. Now the Apostle John,
| when he would teach the p~re-eminence of
Christ, speaks of Him by the W familiar let
| tiers of the Greek alphabet, the Alpha end
Omego, the first and the last"
A OF L THINGS.
The preacher, in a graphic manner,
preached Christ, first, as the creator OF al
things. showing that even on the theory OF
4 tll6 64OlQVlOA1lCl 14O . bHO LAoU "a
| power, because whether the first thing
formed in the creation of man, for example,
be the insignificant eyolutionist p~rotopiasm,
or whether Adam be taken as our protoplast.
it is evident that such a creature as man
| could not grew spontaneously, and that the
| only reasonable account of his existence is
| the prior existence and creative power OF
| Him who is the First and the Last. He inn
| pressively showed also how the starry
heavens pictoriafly teach the truth of the
Great Creators power and wisdom, and how
our wonderful frame, with its complicate
mechanism and adaptedness OF form and
function to vital uses. instruets US in the same
truth.
Mr.. Weeks secondly described the pre-
eminence of Christs moral example. There
had been in all ages great examples OF hui
man nobility and holy hving-worthy OF
record by the pen of inspiration such as
Moses, David, Paul and many others, but
though excellent they were not perfect,
Christ having been the first and only
exen1plar of unsIl1ied God-likeness. Thirdly,
Christ was the first and last and only ac-
ceptable sacrifice for sin. The sacrifices OF
the patriarchal and Mosaic times, though by
divine appointment had no virtue or power
to take way sin, being merely typical and
pietorially Indicative of the coming Saviour.
FIRST AND LAST
1.-THE words first and last" continued Mr.,
Week, point to the fact that the sacrifice
offered by Christ as the Lamb of God
slain from the foundation of the
world was the first human
sacrifice accepted by God for the remission
of sin and that this offering was made once
for ali. It could not be repeated being per-
feet, sufficient. and accepted for al the pur-
poses of human salvation, and differing in
various important respects from the imper-
feet and merely 'shadowy' oblations of the
Jewish Church"
Mr.. Wick concluded by Illustrating the
need of the Divine impulse and teaching
which renders every Christian service and
sacrament, lifetgiying and renewing.
I'VE may have all the appliances of Chris
tianity at hand, i'll the word and holy insti-
buttons of the Church, bat communion with
Christ the life giver, is essential to their
vital and saving efficiency. The new meth
DDS of teaching TO play the piano show the
progress of mechanical art, but the soul OF
music, the inward sense and genius of the
true musician is the gift of God which nc
m~etiodical practice can supply. Our faith
therefore, should look up to Him who is the
Alpha and Omega, the first and the last"