The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-04-20
CHRIST AN IMPERIAL EXILE.
REV. TALMAGE breaches A SER
MON ON EXPATRIATION.

Left n Throne and Closed Palace
Gate Behind Him 10 Come 10 Earth
TO save Mems SOuIs-The Earth a
Barren Island in the Ocean of I'm
mensity-The Country Hostile TO
the Newcomer.
Washington, April 19-It is wonderful
TO how many tunes the Gospel may be set.
DR.. Talmage's sermon to-day shows an
other way in which the earthly experience
of our Lord is set forth. His text was II.
sam, 1911, And the king went forth and
1arried in a place which was far on"
Far up and far back in the history OF
heaven. there came a period when its most
iIlustriOus citizen was about TO absent
himself He was not going to sail from
beach TO beach; we have often done that.
He was was not going TO put out from one
hemisphere to another hemisphere; many
OF US have done that But he was to sail
from world to world, the spaces unex-
plored and the immensities untraveled. No
world has ever hailed heaven. and heaven
has never hailed any other world. 1 think
that the windows and the balconies were
thronged, and that the pearly beach was
crowded with those who had come to see
him sail out of the harbor Of light into
and on and on and on, and down and down
and down he sped, until one night, with
only one to greet him, when he arrived
his Decentralization so unpretending, so
quiet. and it was not known on earth until
the excitement in the cloud gave intima-
ton to the Bethlehem rustics that some
thing grand and glorious had happened;
Who comes there? From what port did
he sail? Why was this the place of his
destination? 1 question the shepherds. l
question the camel-drivers l question the
angels. l have found OUT. lie was an
exile. But the world had plenty of eNiles.
Abraham, an exile from Haran; John, an
exile from Ephesus; Kosciusko, an exile
from Poland; MaZzni, an exile from
Rome; Emmett an exile from Ireland; Vic
tor Hugo, an exile from France; kossuth,
whom l speak to-day had such resound-
ing farewell and came into such chilling
reception-for not even hostler went out
with his lantern to light him in-that he Is
more to be celebrated than any other ex-
patriated exile of earth or heaven.
First, remark that Christ was an inn
lie took off a tiara. He closed a palace
gate behind him. His family We're
princes and princesses. Nashu was turn
ed out of the throne room by Anasuerus.
David was dethroned by Absaloms in
fanny. The five kings were hurled into
cavern by Joshua,s courage. some OF
the Henrys of England and some of the
Iouises of France were jostled on their
thrones by disconnected subjects. But
Christ was never more IGNORED, or more
left heaven. Exiles have suffered severe
ly but Christ turned himself out from
throne-room into sheep-pen, and down
from the top to the bottom. He was not
pushed off. He was not manacled for for
eign transportation. He was not put out
him in Celestial domain. but
by choice departing and de-
scending into an exile hve times as long |
as that of Napoleon at st. Helena, ana
a thousand times worse; the one exile |
suffering for that he had destroyed ma
tons, the other exile suffering because
exile King eternal Blessing and hon |
or and glory and power be unto him that
Stitch upon the throne.
But | go further, and tell you he was an |
exile on a barren island. This world is one
Of the smallest islands of light in the
ocean of immensely. Other stellar king
doms are many thousand times larger than
this Christ came to this small Patmos OF |
a world. When eXiles are sent out they
are generally sent TO regions that are san
dy or cold, or hot-some Dry Iortugas or
disagreeableness. Christ came as an exile
10 a world scorched with heat and bitten |
with cold, to deserts simoom-swept, to a !
bowling wilderness. It was the back-door |
yard, seemingly, of the universe. Yea, |
Christ came to the poorest part OF this |
barren island of a world-Asia Minor, with |
Its intense summers, unit for the residence |
of a foreigner, and in the rainy season I'M !
fit for the residence of a native. Christ |
came not to such a land as America, or |
q land one-third of the year drowned, an |
other third of the year burned up, and |
only one-third of the year just tolerable. |
OH II was the barren island OF world. |
Barren enough for Christ, for 1t gave such |
small worship and such inadequate affec- |
ton, and such little gratitude. Imperial ex- I
Sic on the barren island of a world.
go further, and tell you that he was an |
exile in a hostile country. Turkey was |
never so much against Russia, France |
was never so much against Germany, as |
this earth was against Christ. 1t took him |
in through the door of a stable 1t thrust |
him out at the point of a speara The Ro- |
man government against him with every |
weapon of its army, and every decision !
of its courts, and every break of its war !
eagles. For year after his arrival, the only |
question was how best to put him out. He |
rod hated him, the high-priests hated him, |
the PhariseeS hated him, Judas lscariot |
hated him, Gestas, the dying thief, hated |
him. The whole earth seemingly turned |
into a detective to watch his steps And |
yet he faced this ferocity. Notice that |
most of Christs wounds were in front. |
Some scourging on the shoulders, but |
most of Christs wounds in front. He was |
not on retreat when he expired. Face to |
face with the worlds ferocity. Face to |
face with the worlds sin. Face to face |
with the worlds woe. His eye on the rag |
ing countenances of his fOaming antago- |
nists when he expired When the cavalry |
officer roWeled his Steed so that he might |
come nearer up and see the tortured Wis |
age of the suffering exile, Christ saw it. |
When the spear was thrust at his side, |
feet, and when the reed was raised to |
strike deeper down the spikes of thorn, |
Christ watched the whole procedure. When |
his hands were fastened to the cross they |
were wide open still with benediction. |
Mind you, his head was not fastened. he |
could look to the right and he could look to |
the left, and he could look up and he |
could look down. He saw when the spikes |
had been driven home, and the hard, round |
iron heads were in the palms of his hands, |
he saw them as plainly as you ever saw
anything in the palms of your hands. No |
ether, no chloroform no merciful aesthet-
&c TO duh or Supply; but wideawake, he
saw the observation of the heavens, the
unbalancing of the rocks, the countenances
quivering with rage and the exclamation
diabolic. OH IL was the hostile as well as
the barren island of Il world.
l go further and tell you that this exile
was far from home. 1t is ninety-fiVe mil
lion miles from here to the sun, and all as
trop omers agree in saying that our solar
system is only one of the smaller wheels
of the great machinery of the universe
turning around some one great center,
the center so far distant it is beyond ali
imagination and calculation. and if, as
some think, that great center in the dis
lance IS heaven, Christ came far from
home when ne came here. Have you ever
thought of the Inconsistencies of Christ