The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-05-08
DIR, TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: In Praise of the Worlds Re-
deemer-Portraits Of Some OF His Great
Disciples and Exponents-The Love of
Christ Set Forth.

Disciples and Exponents-The Love of
Christ Set Forth.
lCoypright 1901
WASHINGTON, D. Gin this discourse
DR.. Talmage sounds the praises Of the
worlds Redeemer, and puts before US the
portraits OF some OF His great disciples
and exponents; text, John iii, 81, He
that cometh from above is above all
The most conspicuous character of his
tory steps out upon the platform. The
finger which, diamonded with light, point
was only a ratification of the finger of
prophecy, the finger of genealogy, the
finger OF chronology; the finger OF events
all five fingers pointing in one direction.
Christ is the overtopping figure of all time.
He is the voX humana in all music, the
gracefullest 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 splendid language.
The Greek alphabet is made up of twen-
ty-four letters. and when, Christ com
pared Himself to the first letter and the
last letter, the alpha and omega, He ap-
propriated to Himself all the splendors
that you can spell cut with those two let.
ters and all the letters between them. Il
am the alpha and omega, the beginning
and the end, the first and the last" Or,
if you prefer the words OF the text
"Above all"
It 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. a high mountain
of Thessaly; Ossa, a high mountain, and
Olympus, high mountain, but mythology
tells us when the giants warTed against the
gods they piled up these three mountains
and from the top of them proposed to
scale the heavens, but the height was not
great enough, and there. was complete
failure. And after all the giants-!saiah
and Paul, prophetic and apostolic giants;
Raphael and Michael Angelo. artistic
giants; cherubim and seraphim and arch
angel, celestial giants-have failed to climb
to the top of Christ's glory they might all
well unite in the words of the text and
say, "He that cometh from above is above
First, Christ must be above all else in
our preaching. There are so many books
on homiletics scattered through the world
that all laymen, as well as all clergymen,
have made up their minds what sermons
ought to be-. That sermon is most etfec-
Christ as the pardon of all sin and the
correction of all evil, individual, social. po-
litical, national. There is no reason why
we should ring the endless changes on a
few phrases. There are those who think
that if an eXhorta ton or discourse have
frequent mention of justification, sanctlti..
cation, 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,
SC ,nthinr in all thp nnnIp0f
realm of Anglo-Saxonism or all the word
treasures that we inherited from the Latin
and the Greek and the IDdo-European,
but we have a right to marshal it in reii-
gious discussion. Christ sets the example.
His illustrations were from the grass, the
flowers. the spittle, the salve, the barnyard
fowl, the CRYSTALS OF salt, as well as from
the seas and the stars. and we DO not pro-
pose in our Sunday-school teaching and IN
our pulpit address to be put on the limits;
I know that there is great deal SAID
in our 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 utter on Mount
Olivet? Words. Out of what did Christ
strike the spark for the illumination OF the
universe? Out of words. Let there De
light" and light was. Of course thought
is the cargo and words are only the ship,
but how fast would Your cargo get on With
out the ship? What you need, my friends;
in all your work, in your Sunday-school
class, in your reformatory institutions,
and what we all need is to enlarge our vo-
cabulary when we come to speak ABOUT
God and Christ in heaven. We ride
few old words to death when there is such
an illimitable resource. Shakespeare en-
ployed $4,000 different words Tor dramatic
purposes. Milton employed 5000 different
words for poetic purposes; Rutus Choate
EMPLOYED over 1000 different words for
legal purposes, but the most of us have
less than a thousand words that we can
manage, less than 500, and that makes us
80 stupid.
When we come to set forth the love OF
Christ, we are going to take the tenderest
phraseology wherever we tnd 1t, ana II IL
has never been used in that direction De-
fore all the more shall we use it.. When
we come to speak of the glory OF Christ
the conqueror, we are going to draw our
SMILES from triumphal arch and oratorlo
and everything grand and stupendous. The
French navy has eighteen flags by which
they give signal, but those eighteen flags
they can put into $4,000 different combina-
tions, combinations infinite and varieties
everlasting. And let me say to young men
who are after a while going to preach
Jesus Christ, you will have the largest lib
erty and unlimited resource. You only
have to present Christ in your own way.
Jonathan Edwards preached Christ in
the severest argument ever penned, and
John Bunyan preached Christ i'll the sub.
limest allegory ever composed. Edward
Payson, sick and exhausted, leaned up
against the side of his pulpit and wept out
bis discourse, while George Whitetield,
with the manner and the voice and the
art of an actor, overwhelmed his auditory.
1t would have been a different thing if
Jonathan Edwards had tried to write and
dream about the pilgrims progress to the
tempted an essay on the human will.
Brighter than the light, fresher than the
fountains, deeper than the seas, are these
gospel themes. Song has not melody,
flowers have no sweetness, sunset sky has
no color, compared with these glorious
themes. These harvests Of grace spring
up quicker than We can sickle them
Kindling pulpits with their fire and pro-
ducing revolutions with their power, light
ing up dying beds with their glory, they
are the sweetest thought for the poet, and
the orator, and they offer the most in
tense scene for the artist, and they are to
the ambassador of the sky all enthusiasm.
Complete pardon for direst guilt. Sweet
est comfort for ghastliest agony. Bright.
est hope for grimmest death. Grandest
resurrection for darkest sepulcher.
'Oh, what a gospel to preach! Christ
over all in it. His birth, His suffering,
His miracles, His parallels, His sweat, His
fears. His blood, His atonement, His in
tercession-wnat glorious themes! DO we
exercise faith? Christ is its object. DO
We have love? 1t fastens on Jesus. Have
we fondness for the church: 1t is be-
cause Christ died for it. Have we hope
&C ba,ranr II ;c ber.uce Jesus went ahead