Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1901-04-26
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VI tnt WI III hCNCCIltk DulS OC-
fore us the portraits of some of his
great disciples and exponents; text,
John i'll, 81, "He that cometh from
above is above ALL
The most conspicuous character of
history steps out upon the platform.
The finger which. diamouded with light.
pointed down to him from the Bethle-
hem sky was only a ratification of the
finger Of prophecy, the finger of gene
alogy, the finger of chronology. the fin
ger of evepts-all five fingers pointing
in one direction. Christ is the overtop.
ping figure OF all time. lie is the vox
humana In all music. the gracefullest
line in al sculpture. the most exquisite
mingling of lights aud shades in al
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 %
letters. and when Christ compared him.
self to the first letter ard the last let
ter. the alpha and the omega. he appro-
pr;ated TO himself all the splendors
that you can spell out with those two
letters and all the letters between them.
Il am the alpha aud the omega. the be-
ginning and the end. the first and the
last" Or, IL you prefer the words OF
the text. "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 thousand
leagues to touch those SUBMITS. Pclion.
high mountain OF Thessaly: Ossa. q
high mountain, and Olympus. 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 heavens. but the height was
not great enough, and there was a
complete failure. 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 10 the top
of Christ's glory they might all well
unite in the words of the text aud say,
He that cometh from above is above
ALL"
Christ Sets the Example
First, Christ must be above all else
In our preaching. There are so many
book on homiietics scattered through
the world that all laymen. as well as
all clergymen. have made up their
minds what sermons ought TO he. That
sermon is most effectual which most
pointedly puts forth Christ as the par.
don OF all sin and the correction Of all
evil. individual. social. political. IA
tional. There Is no reason why we
should ring the endless changes on n
few phrases. There are those who
think that il an exhortation or dis
course have frequent mention OF justi-
flea ton. sanctiGcation, covenant of
works and covenant OF grace. there
fore IL must be profoundly evan
gelicai. while they are suspicious OF
discourse which presents the same
truth, but under different phraseology.
Now, j say there is nothing In all the
opulent realm OF Auglo-Sa xonlsm or
all the word treasures that we Inherit
cd from the Latin and the Greek and
the indo- European but we have right
10 marshal IL la religious discussion.
Christ sets the example. His ilustra.
tons were from the grass. the flowers.
the spittle, the, salve, the harnyard
fowl. the crystals OF salt. as well as
from the seas and the stars, and we do
not propose In our Sunday school teach
ing and In our pulpit address to be put
on the limits
l know that there Is great deal said
In our day against words, as though
they were nothing. They may be mis-
used. but they have an Imperial power.
They are the bridge between soul aud
soul. between Almighty God aud 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 universcy
Out OF words. "I.et there be light"
and light was. or 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 sun
day school class. In your reformatory
institutions, and what we all need is
come to speak about God and Christ
and heaven. We ride few old words
to death when there Is such illimItable
resource. Shakespeare employed IL. 900
different words for dramatic purposes;
Milton employed 5000 different words
Tor poetic purposes; Rufus Choate EN-
ployed over 1900 different words for
legal purposes. but the most OF us have
less than Il thousand words that we
can manage. less than 600, and that
makes us so stupid.
Pardon For Direst Guile.
! When we come to set forth the love
OF Christ. we are going 10 take the ten.
uerest phraSeology wherever W.. find II.
and If 1t has never been used In that
direction before all the more shall we
use Ii. When we come TO speak of the
glory OF Christ the conqueror. we are
going TO draw our SMILES from triuin-
Dhal erch and oratorio and everything
grand and stupendous. The French
navy has lS flags by which they give
signai, bit those Is flags they can put
into $4,000 different combinations
And i have to tell you that these stand
navy have is flags by which they give
combinations infinite and varieties
everlasting. And let me say to young
men who are after while going to
preach Jesus Christ, you Will have the
largest liberty 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 in
the sublimest allegory ever composed
Edward Payson, sick and exhausted.
leaned up against the side of the pulpit
and wept out his discourse, while
George Whitefeld. with the manner
and the voice and the start of an actor,
overwhelmed his auditory. 1t would
have been n different thing IL Jonathan