The Penn's Grove record., 1895-09-06
REV. DIR. MAGE.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE
NOTED DIVINE.
Subject: "The Chieftain.'s

TEXT "The chiefest among ten thou.
sand. "--Canticles ", 10.
The most conspicuous character of histor
stens out upon the platform. The finger,
which, diamond with light, pointed down to
him from the Bethlehem skv was only a rati.
ncation o. the FINGER OF prophecy, the finger
OF ~genealogy, the finger NJ chronology. the
fnger Of events-all five fingers pointing in
one direction. Christ is the overtoppinp
hgnre OF all time. He Is the ''vox humane
10 All music, the grasefulest line in all
sculpture, the most exquisite mingling OF
lights and shades in all painting. the acme
OIL all cltmaNes. the lone Of all cathedraled
grandeur and the peroration OF a~ll.language.
Inc Greek alphabet Is made up of twenty
ionr letters. and when Christ compared Him
sell TO the first letter and the last letter, the Al
pha andthe Omega. lie appropriated to Him
sell all the splendors that You can spell out
either with those two letters or all the let
ters between them. W am the Alpha and
the Omega, the beginning and the end"
What does that Scripture mean which sayi
OF Christ. "He That comRth from above Is
above all?" 1t means that alter you have piled
up all Alpine and Himalayan attitudes. the
glory OF Christ would have to spread its
wings and descend a thousand leagues to
touch those SUBMITS. Pelion, a high noun
tain OF Thessaly; 0ssa, n high mountain,
and OLYMPUS. a hiph mountain; but mythol-
o1y tells us when the giants warred against
the gods they piled up those three noun
fains, and from the top Of them proposed to
scale the heavens; but the height was not
great enough, and there was a complete fall
nre. And after all the giants-Isaiah and
Paul, prophetic and apostolic giants; Raph-
ael and Michael Angelo, artistic giants;
cherubim and seraphim and archangel, ce-
lestial giHnts-have failed to climb to the tor
OF Christ's glory they might all well unite in
The words of Paul. and cry out, "Above
air. "Above all!' But Solomon in nv
text prefers to call Christ "the Chieftain,"
and so to-day ! hail Him.
First, Christ must be chief in orr preach.
ing. There are so many books on homiie-
lies 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 eftectnal which
most pointedly puts forth Christ as the par
don 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 n few phrases.
J There are those who think that If an exhor.
iation or a discourse have frequent mention
| of justification. modification. covenant of
works and covenant of grace, therefore it
must be profoundly evangelical. while they
are suspicious OF a discourse which presents
4 LHV SuLLAC tFhlu buL kNt ullltTful pilTdSC~
| ology. Now, l say there is nothing In all
the opulent realm Of A~nglo-Saxonism; of all
The word treasures that we inherited from
the Latin and the Greek and the Indo-Euro-
pean, but we have a right to marshal it in
| ,eliglous discussion. Christ sets the exam
ole. His illustrations we're from the grass,
he flowers. the bnrnyard fowl. the crystals
II salt, as well as from the seas and the stars:
and We do not propose in our Sunday-school
'eaching and in our pulpit address to be put
IN thel limits.
know that there is a great deal said In
Jur day against words, as though they were
nothing. They may be misused, but they
have an imperial power. They are the
bridge between soul and soul. between
Almighty God and the human race. What
did God write upon the tables of stone?
Words. What did Christ inter on Mount
0livet2 Words. Out Of what did Christ
strike the spark for the illumination of the
universe2 Out Of words. 'Let there be
light" and light was. OF course thought
Is the cargo and words are only the
ship. but how fast would your cargo get
on without the ship What you need, my
friends. in all your work, in your Sab
bath-school class. in your reformatory insti-
t%utions, and what we all need, is TO enlarge
our vocabulary when we come to speak
about God and Christ and heaven. We ride
4 few old words to death, when there is such
lllimitable resource. Shakespeare employed
[ 5 1000 different words for dramatic purposes
Milton employed 5000 different words for
poetic purposes; Rufus Choate employed
over 11,000 different words for legal pur-
poses. but the most of us have less than a
thousand words that we can manage, and
hat makes us so stupid.
When we come TO set forth h love Of
Christ, we are going to take the tenderest
p~hraseology wherever we find 1t, and ii II
has never been used in that direction before
all the more sL.all We useit. When we come
to speak of the glory Of Christ the conquer
or, we are going to draw our SMILES from
triumphal arch and oratorio and everything
grand and stupendous. The French navy
have eighteen flags by which they give sig.
nal, but those eighteen flags they can put
into 6 5000 different combinations. And ]
have to tell you that these standards of the
cross may be lifted into combinations infinite
and varieties everlasting. And let me say t.
.heyoung men who come from the theologi
sal seminaries into our services, n are ate
while going to preach Jesus Christ, you will
nave the largest liberty and unlimited re
source. You only have to present Christ II
your own way.
Brighter than the light, fresher thar tn,
fountains, deeper than the seas, are all thes'
gospel themes. Song has no melody, flow
ers no sweetness, sunset sky no color com
| pared WITH LntSo kiuTioub thoiuoSs Ahco'
harvests Of grace spring up quicker than W,
can sickle them. Kindling pulpits witt
their fire, and producing revolutions witt
/ their power, lighting up dying beds witt
their glory, they are the sweetest though
for the poet. and they are the most thrilling
illustration for the orator. and they ofier tn
most intense scene for the artist, aud the,
are 10 the ambassador OF the sky all enthu
siasm. Complete pardon for direst guilt
l,raa4aof anunforf for phuafiQsf aRnnV
Brightest hope for grimmest death. Grand
est resurrection for darkest sepulcher. Oh
what u gospel to preach! Christ tn
Chief. His birth. His suffering, His mir
acles, His parallels, His sweat, His tears, Hi
blood, His atonement. His intercession-wha
glorious themesl Do we exercise faith
Christ is its object. Do we love? 1t fasten
on Jesus. Have we u fondness for tn
church? 1t Is because Christ died for it
Have we a hope OF heaven? 1t Is becaus'
Jesus went there, the herald and the fore
runner. The royal robe of Demetrius wa
20 costly SO beautiful, that after he had pu
1t off no one ever dared 10 put 1t on, but thi
robe OF Christ, richer than that, the poores
and the weakest, AND the worst may wear
.Where sin ~abounded, grace may mucl
moro abound"
1Oh. nv sins, my sinsl' said Martin Luthe
70 Staupitz, smy sins, my sins!' The fact
that the brawny German student had foun
a Latin Bible that made him quake, an
nothing else ever did make him quake, au
when he found how, through Christ, he Wa
hardened and saved he wrote to q frient
saving, "Gome over and join us great an
awful sinners saved by the grace oil Goo
You seem to be only a slender sinner, an
YOU don't much extol the mercy OF God, bl
we that have been u very awiul sinner
praise His Grace the more now that "
have been redeemed Can 1t be that 70
are so desperately egotistieai that 70
feel yourself in first rate spiritual trim
and that from the root OF the hair to r
tin OF the toe you are scarless and ~
maculate? What you need is a lookir
glass, and here it is in the Bible. Po'
and wretched and miserable and blind an
naked from the crown OF the head to Il
sole OF the foot. full OF wounds and putrei
ing sores. Nc health in us. AMI then ia.
the fact that Christ gathered up all Il
notes against US and pail them aud then
Tered us the receipt And how much y
aeed Him in 9ur sorrowsl We are tndepe
,tsnt OF circums' ances IL we have His grac
WIN. He made Paul sing in the dunSao
and ,nler that grace st. John from desoia
patmos heard the blast of the apocaly,
rumpet After all other candies ma
been snuffed out, this is the lightt hat g
brighter and brighter unto the perfect na
and alter, under the hard hoofs OF ea,ani'
ali the pools OF worldly enjoyment ma
baen trampled into deep mire at the loot
me eternal rock this Christian, rom CUPS