Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1895-08-31
THE ROCK OF REFUGE
REV. DR.. TALMAeE's SERMON ON
CHRIST, THE cHIEFTAlN.

REV. Or. TALMAGE'S SERMON ON
CHRIST, THE cAlEFTAlN.
Remarkable Word Painting Of the Great
Preacher In Picturinx tho Attributes Of
the Saviour = The Hope Of All Chris
tinns.
New YORK, Sept. For his sermon
for this forenoon Rev. Dr.. Talmage se-
lects topic which must prove full Of
inspiration to Christians everywhere
The title Of his discourse is, The Chief
tain" and the text, 1.-THE chiefest
among ten thousand, Canticles V. 10.
The most conspicuous character Of
history steps out upon the platform.
The finger which, diamonded with
light, pointed down to him from the
Bethlehem sky was only ratification
of the finger Of prophecy, the finger of
genealogy, the finger Of chronology, the
finger of events-all five fingers point
ing in one direction. Christ is the over
topping figure Of all time. He is the
"vox humana" in all music, the grace
fullest line in all sculpture, the most
exquisite mingling OF lights and SHADES
tn all painting, the acme OF all climaxes,
the dome of all cathedraled grandeur
and the peroration of all language.
The Greek alphabet is made up Of "a
letters, and when Christ compared him
self TO tho first letter and the last let
ter, the Alpha and the Omega, he APP
propriated to himself all the splcndors
i that you can spell out either with those
two letters or all the letters between
them, II am the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end.
Hail to the Chief.
What does that Scripture mean
which says of Christ, He that ccmeth
from above is above alp" 1t means
after you have piled up all Alpine and
Himalayan attitudes, the glory of
Christ would have to spread its wings
and descend thousand leagues to touch
those submits. Pelion, high noun
tain of Thessaly; Ossa, a high mountain,
and Olympus, high mountain; but
mythology tells us when the giants
warred against the gods they piled up
these three mountains. and from the
! top of them proposed to scale the heav-
ems; but the height was not great
enough, and there was a complete fail
ure And after all the giants-Isaiah
and Paul, prophetic and apostolic giants;
Raphael and Michael Angelo, artistic
giants; cherubim and seraphim and
archangel, celestial gian ts-have failed
to climb to the top of Christ glory they
might all we'll unite in the words of Paul,
and cry out: above allv' above
ALI" But Solomon in my text prefers
to call Christ 'the Chieftain, and so
today hail him.
First, Christ must be chief in our
preaching. There are SO many books
on homiletics scattered through the
country that all laymen, as well as all
clergymen, have made up their minds
what sermons ought to be- That sermon
is the most efIectual which most point
eddy puts forth Christ as the pardon OF
all sin and the correction OF all evil
individual. social, political, national
There is no reason why we should ring
the endless changes on few phrases.
Ihere are those VINO thlnK that II an
exhortatlon or discourse nave frequent
mention OF Justihcation, sanctlncation,
covenant OF works and covenant OF
grace, therefore IL must De PROFOUNDLY
evangelical, While they are suspicious
Oh a discourse whlch presents the same
truth, but under dlnereht phraseology.
Now, say there Is nothing IN al the
opnlentrealm CT Angio-saxonlsm' OF al
the word treasures that we inherited
from the Latin and the Greek ana the
lndo- European, but we nave rlSht 10
marshal 1t In religious discussion
Christ sets the example his lllustra-
tons were from the grass the howersi
the barnyard fowl, the crystals OF salt,
as well as from the seas and the stars;
and we do not propose IN our sunday
school teaching and III our pulpit ad-
!. 5s seT st9 THAT ssa asss vss 4. deal ,1oss s