The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-04
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
sv TIE REV. FRANK DE WITT TALMAeE. Q. Q


 accord with one another? The men who wrote the Bible were not historical noy- elists like the author of the Tower of London" or of Wentworth or of aRo- mola" or of "The Crisis They did not accept historical facts when they wanted to use them for the benefit of their plots and reject those facts when II aid not suit their convenience to use them. They did not put Christ in imaginary places at impossible times and put fictitious and impossible statements in his mouth AL most every detail of Christ's earthly life can be verified by geographical position and eastern custom. That classic book of travels written by Richard Henry Dana, called TWO Years Before the Mast" is supposed to contain perfect geographical account of the early coast of southern California and it's people. But the Bible is a more wonderful guidebook to the Holy Land than Dana's master piece could ever be to California. The best guidebook through the Holy Land ever written is the Bible. In it's every detail the Christ life is found to have a perfect geographical setting. Is there nothing wonderful to you that the land and the book in reference to Chrlsts life are one.
 Jesus was not a mythologieal eharac- ter. Before you can obliterate the story of Jesus Christ from this earth, on which he so sublimely lived, you will have to . grind out of sight and forever erase the sacred hills of Palestine" once wrote David Gregg in a book for which author ship he was elected an honorary member of the Royal Geograp phical society of Lon don. You will forever have to grind out of sight the sacred hills of Palestine. where Christ was tempted and where he preached his wonderful sermon. and where be was transhgured and where he died. and where he ascended God be praised for the gospel according to geography! God be praised for the Holy Land, with its Jordan and Bethlehem and Hermon and Zion and Calvary and Olivetl These are all indes,ruetible pages of the divine and indestructble book. These are all witnesses tha, Christ has spoken to men and lived among men and wrought out salvation for man." Christ was God. Yes, Christ was a man! By the evidence of the pages of rock know it.
 Other Evidences of Divinity.
 But we find Christ as the "evidence of things not seen" in ano1ner way. By the fulhllment of Scripture prophecies in re- ference to his birth, his life. his death and his resurrection we know that the prophecies of his second coming will be fulfilled as well as was his first coming We know there will come a time. when upon the white horse of victory, Christ shall ride down the blue hillsides of heav- en. He shall come to put all his enemies under his feet. He shall come to claim his own. For then his name shall be written, King of kings ana Lord of Lords We know by the words of his own lips that he has gone to heaven for little while to prepare place for his ehlldreH so he will come again and re- eelVe them unto himself, tat where he is there they may be also.
 The prophetic studies of the Bible are among the most instructive and fascinating of all the Scriptures. But In order to limit our studies let us con hne our thoughts for but a brief mo- ment to the wonderful birth and life and death of Jesus Christ. No ration al man can read the fulfilled prophe- eies in reference to the birth of Jesus ana not declare that his nativity was divine. Supposing I should come to you some day and say: Mrs. So-and- so, that little child of yours is going 10 nave a wonderful history. When he gets to be eighteen years of age he is going to the Tar east and will settle in one of the Pacific islands. Then he is going to be elected ruler over that island, and the people are going to obey him as their ruler and their king. Then he is going to marry and have children, and his chil- dren will have children. His descendants are going to reign in that island for hum dreds Of years. Then one of his descend ants hundreds of years from now is going To visit London, and while there he is gong to have a child born in the out skirts of London. in the suburb of Chel- sea. Then that child is to stay in Eng land and grow up and become a leader of the people until at last the king of Eng land will become jealous of him. and he VIII be hanged in the Tower of London. D
 FuIfiIIment of Prophecy.
 Suppose l should ramble on in a long rigmarole like that in reference to your baby what would you say? Why, you would look at me askance and then say,
 You are crazyl No uninspired man can look into the future and tell what .s going to happen to my descendants thousands of years from now. A cran, or fool might happen for once to de clare aright, that 1t will snow in Canada in July-as one weather profit did a few years ago. But to declare what is to happen a thousand years from now, that is beyond all range of human posslbili.
 
 1 made a few moments ago in reference to a little child is not nearly as wonder ful and seemingly absurd from a human standpoint as those Messanic prophecies which were made not by one. but b, many writers of the Old Testament ir reference to the birth, the lire, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ When the wise men came to Jerusalem to find the newborn king who was vel to be king of kings and Lord of lords 9 what answer was given to the Orienta strangers by those learned In the He brew law? They promptly answered, "Ir Bethlehem" and gave for their author ity the words of the prophet Micah, whC lived and wrote TOO years before Chris was born. Yet, when the wise men wen to Bethlehem, they found there the in fant Christ, as Micah had foretold. l, not this fulfilled prophecy a startling ev idence that Jesus was born a man, yet that he was the Being whose divine at tributes were foreseen by the prophets?
 If as rational man I want to find tn, proof that Christ Is some day going tt return to earth to claim his disciples a, his own all that I have got to do is tt turn to the prophecies of Isaiah and reaC first the account of Christ birth and earl, life. ''He was oppressed, he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth. He 1, brought as a lamb to the slaughter ant as sheep before her shearers Is dumb so he opened not his mouth" Did not tn, prophecy of Isaiah written 800 years be fore Christ died. come true? Then vii not also Isaiah's prophecy come tru which declares that there shall com forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse" wh shall make the "lon eat straw like al OK and the sucking child play on tn hole of the asp2' For then "the glory o