Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1895-09-06
THE ROCK OF REFUGE
REV. DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON ON
CHRIST, THE CHlEFTAIN.

Preacher In Picturing the Attributes Of
the Saviour - The Hope of All Chris
tlans.
NEW YORK, Sept. For his sermon
for this forenoon Rev. DR.. Talmage Sc
lects a topic which must prove full Of
inspiration to Christians everywhere.
| The title of his discourse is, 1.-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 a 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
in 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 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 the 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 cometh
from above is above all?" 1t means
after 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, high noun
tain of Thessaly; Ossa, a high mountain,
and Olympus, a 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 heay-
ems; but the height was not great
enough, and there was a complete fail
ure. And after all the giants-lsaiah
and Paul, prophetic and apostolic giants
Raphael and Michael Angelo, artistic
giants; cherubim and seraphim and
archangel, celestial giants-haye failed
to climb to the top Of Christ S glory they
might all well unite in thewords Of Paul,
and CRY out: above ALL" "Aboye
allr' But Solomon in my text prefers
to call Christ 1.-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 effectual which most point
edlv 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.
There are those who think that If an
exhortation or a discourse have frequent
mention of justification, sanctilcatlon,
covenant Of works and covenant OF
grace. therefore it must be profoundly
evangelical, while they are suspicious
of a discourse which presents the same
truth. but under different phraseology.
Now, / say there is nothing in all the
opulent realm Of Anglo-Saxonism, OF all
the word treasures that we inherited
from the Latin and the Greek and the
Indo- European, but we have a right to
marshal it in religious discussion.
Christ sets the example. His illustra-
tions were from the grass. the flowers
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 in our pulpit ad-
dress to be put on the limits.
Resources Of Words.
I know that there is a great deal said
in our day against words, as though
they we're nothing. They may be mis-
used. but they have an imperial power.
They are the bridge between soul ano
soul, between Almighty God and the
bnman race. What did God write upon
, the tables of stone? Words. What dc
Christ utter on Mount Olivet? Words.
Ont of what did Christ strike the sparl
for the illumination Of the universe
Ont of words. Let there be light,
and light was. OF course thought is tho
cargo and words are only the ship, bu
how fast would your cargo get on with
ont the ship? What you need, my
friends. in all your work, IN your SAP
bath school class, in your reformatory
institutions, and what we all need, Il
To enlarge our vocabulary when W.
: come to speak about God and Christ an'
heaven. We ride a few old words t
death, when there is such illimltapl'
resource. Shakespeare employed 10, OO'
different words for dramatic purposes
Milton employed 5000 different word
for poetic purposes; Rufus Choate em
ployed over 1000 different words 10
legal purposes, but the most OF us hay'
less than thousand words that we cai
manage. and that makes US SO stupid.
When wo come to set forth the love o
r Christ, we are going to take the ten
derest phraseology wherever we find 1t
and if it has never been used IN tina
direction before all the more shall w
use il. When we come to speak OF IN
I glory Of Christ the conqueror, we ar
going to draw our SMILES from trium
phal arch and oratorio and everything
grand and stupendous The French nav:
have IS flags by which they give signal
{ but those IS flags they can put into &C.
I 900 different combinations. And hay
to tell you that these standards OF tn
cross may be lifted into combination
y infinite and varieties everlasting. An
/. let me say to the young men who com
from the theological seminaries into on
services, and are after awhile going {
preach Jesus Christ, you will have tn
s largest liberty and unlimited resourc'
You only have to present Christ IN yor