The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-04-10
 DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.


Los Angeles, CaL April 3.-In this ser mon the Easter story receives a new and beautiful setting, which appeals equally to the simple and the learned The text is Luke xxiv. Sl, And their eyes were opened, and they knew him. and he vanished out of their sight"
 Familiar truths become impressive when presented in an unfamiliar way It is therefore necessary for the preacher to find new setting for the gospel cam era. Whenever l wish some lesson to be clearly remembered l would wing it, '' once said Thomas Guthrie, the great Edin- burgh pulpiteer. By gratifying the legi- innate play of the imagination salinet truth finds it's way more readily to the heart and makes a deeper impression on the memory The suggestive illustration, like a float, keeps it from sinking; like a nail, fastens it in the mind; like the feathers of an arrow, makes it strike, and, like the bark makes it stick" Win dows For Sermons is the pointed cap- ton of a book of sermonic illustration. Yes; we all need new windows as well as clear windows through which we can learn the great lessons of gospel truth.
 This Is Easter day. The lessons with which the anniversary is traught are at the very foundation of our faith. They are so momentous that the imagin- ation is overwhelmed by their import. The facts are few, but how vital, to look at them from a different standpoint from that to which we are accustomed. Trans porting ourselves in thought to the city of Jerusalem on that evntfu day we hear r-4rrr tlaa elf a5.t. at which the humble Nazaren was con- demned, but we pay no attention to them. l listen not to the excited reports flying everywhere that the high priest and his hirelings and the officers of the law, led by the Apostate Judas, had captured Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. l mingle not with the multitudes that are erowding the courtroom, in which Pilate is the judge and Jesus the prisoner I gaze not at the awful scene when Christ hung upon the cross and his dying lips parted In their last agony. l go not with Mary down among the lilies to the tomb on the first Easter morn. But when the sunglow of Easter afternoon has bathed the Judaean hills in great waves of light l would point you to a couple of pedestrians vending their way from the Jerusalem capital toward the little vil- lage of Emmaus. As these two ordi- narily dressed men walk on I see them aecosted by a third traveller, who ap- peared over the hills. And now as these three come nigh to the village, I would see them enter a humble home Then while they are at supper, I would show you why the stranger revealed himself to these two disciples as the risen Christ
 Easter's Revelation.
 Easter afternoons revelation, in the first place. comes as a welcome eneour- agement to all those who are earnestly and prayerfully trying to increase their faith by reaching out for more light. It comes as divine demonstration that the prayer of a broken hearted father once made to Christ, Lord, l believe. help thou mine unbelief," Is one of the most beautiful and yet humble prayers of earnest beseechment. 1t is a holy in- spiration that though We sometimes in spiritual life have to walk as a blind man feels his way along, step by step. yet if we go on trustfully, and prayerfuly and hopefully Christ, after awhile, will re- veal himself to us in all his glory
 Why do l entertain this hope? l find ground for if in the fact that one of the earliest appearances ef Christ on this first Easter day was to the two men who had doubted the fact of his resurrec- tion Christ, when upon earth. dealt with men as we deal in cur loves with our hltH anu XIII OuppoSlllR that l was a young man and had gone off to a four years war. supposlng after a long se- ries of adventures l should come back to my native town. Who would be the first person l should want to see? Would ] wish to go and call first upon my school friends or upon a merchant in whose store l used to work as A clerk? Would | care first to see my old society friends and the boys with whom l used 10 play baseball in the village lots? Oh mol If I was young man the person whom l would honor first with a visit would be my mother and then my father and my sisters. If I was a manfred man the first person l would honor after my re- turn home would be my wife and then my children. When the telegram was handed to Abraham Lincoln notifying him of his nomination for the presidency of the republican national convention as- sembled in Chicago the first move Abra- ham Lincoln made was to put on his tall hat and say: "Well, boys. there is a lit- tie woman up the street who would like to hear this news I guess I will go and tell her what has happened"
 Seek the Divine Light.
 After important absence we always most. Whom did Christ first seek after his resurrsecton? Was it the gentle John or the brave Luke. or Mary, the widowed mother. or Matthew, who sat at the seat of custom. or James, or the steadfast Lazarus? Oh, no The first person whom Christ honored after the resurrection was