The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1895-09-06
THE ROCK OF REFUGE
REV. DR.. TALMAGE's SERMON ON
CHRIST, THE eHlEFTAlN.


the Saviour - The Hope of All Chris
tians.
NEW YORK, Sept. For his sermon
for this forenoon Rev, DR.. Talmage Sc
lccts 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
genealoSy. the finger of chronology, the
finger of events-all five fingers point
ing III one direction. Christ is the over
topping figure of all time. He is the
vox hnmana" in all music, the grace
fullest line in all sculpture the most
exquisite mingling of lights and shades
III all painting, the acme Of all climaxes,
the dome Of all cathodraled grandeur
and the peroration Of all language.
The Greek alphabet is made up of "a
letters, and when Christ compared him
self to the first letter and the last let
ter, the Alpha and the Omega, he ap-
propriated TO himself all the splendors
that you can spell out either with those |
two letters or all tho letters between
them, Il 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 all?" It means
after you have piled up all All inc and
Hlmalayan attitudes, the glory of
Christ would have to spread its wings
and descend a thousand leagues to touch
those SUBMITS, Pelion, high noun
tain of Thessaly; OsSa, u high mountain,
and Olympus, "a high mountain; but
mythology tells US when the giants
warred against the gods they piled IN
these three mountains, and from tho
top Of them proposed to scale the heav-
ems; but the height was not great
enough, and there was 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 giants-have failed
to climb to the top of Christ s glory they
might all well Unite in fireworks of Paul,
and cry out: "Above ALL" "Aboyo
allH' But Solomon in my text prefers
to call Christ "the Chieftain, " and SO
today I hail him.
First. Christ must be chief in orr
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 effectual which most point 4
eddy puts forth Christ as the pardon of +
all sin and the correction of all evil i
individual, social political, national .
There is no reason why we should ring !,
the endless changes on a few phrases. :"
There are those who think that if an 81
eXhortation Or discourse have frequent :,
mention OF justification, sanctificatiun, =
covenant of works and covenant Of q
grace, therefore it must be profoundly u
evangelical, while they are suspicious 81
ef discourse which presents the same u
truth, but under different phraseology g
Now, ] say there is nothing in all tho i
opulent realm of Anglo Saxonism, of all ~
the word treasures that we inherited ?.
from the Latin and the Greek and tho =
but we have right to =, -
marshal it in religious discussion. y, "
Christ sets the example. His ilIustra- "a
lions We're from the grass, the flowers, VI
the barnyard fowl, the crystals Of salt, 81 81
as well as from the seas and the stars: u
and we do not propose in our Sunday -
school teaching and in our pulpit ad- y
dress to be put Oh the limits. ~
Resources of Words. -
l know that there is great deal said y
n our day against words, as though ~
hey We're nothing. They may be mis- -,
Used, but they have an imperial power. ~
They are the bridge between soul and u, IA
oul, between Almighty God and tho Il
human race. What did God write upon sso
he tables Of stone? Words. What did ~
Christ utter on Mount Olivet? Words. y
)nt of what did Christ strike the spark -
OF the illumination Of the universe! ~.
)ut Of words. LET there be light, :" wa
nd light was Of couse thought is the -
argo and words are only the ship, bus w
ow fast would your cargo get on with gu
ut the ship? What you need, my i ~,
rlends, i'll all your work, in your Sab ~, ~"
ath school class i'll your reformatory s'''
and what we all need, is .ne
enlarge cur vocabulary wien we poi
ome to speak about God and Christ and u, 10
eaven. We ride few old words to ~, io'
cath, when there is such illimitabld nus
source. Shakespeare employed 600 ni'
lfferent words for dramatic purposes; die
Lilton employed 5000 different words sha
n poetic purposes Rufus Choate en- tur,
loyed over 1l,000 different words for for
gal purposes, but the most of us have hay
SIS than thousand words that we can thrC
anage, and that makes us so stupid. leay
When we come to set forth the love of Fro
hrist, we are going to take the ten wor
9rest phraseology wherever we find it, and
I'd if it has never been used in that the
rection before all the more shall we note
e IT. When we come to speak of tho
ory Of Christ the conqueror, we ara g
'tiiS " ultN Oul SIHlIltS LTlUll- III
lal arch and oratorio and everything eel
and and stupendous The French navy ing
we IL flags bywhich they give signal, and
1t those IS flags they can put into &c, hea'
% different combinations And | have was
tell you that these standards of thu dyir
oSs may be lifted into Combinations heaV
finite and varieties everlasting. Aud Chr
me say to the young men who como glor
1n the theological seminares into our thin
rvlces, and are after awhile going to the
each Jesus Christ, you will have the Top
'sest liberty and unlimited resource in h
u only have to present Christ in your s snu
II way. ,uii'
Brighter than the light fresher than III
fountains, deeper than the seas, are NO.,
these gospel themes. Song has no w