Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1905-10-23

Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmage, D. D.

great question of the ages" and marks
the distinction between real and nomt
nal Christians The text is Matthew
xvii, %, What shall l do then with
Jesus who is called Christi"
The small, unpretentious house in
which Abraham Lincoln died is for the
tourist one of the most interesting
places in all Washington. The same
fascination which draws the sightseer
to the tomb of Mount Vernon hovers
about the little room In which the first
martyr president of the United States
breathed his last. There are many
Lincoln memorials gathered within the
modest house just across the street
from Ford's theater. One of the most
interesting is pile Of papers which
contain the Lincoln sermons" which
were preached by some 5000 different
ministers In the United States on the
Sunday after Lincoln was shot. But II
could take you today into room and
show you all the sermons preached up
on the death of Abraham Lincoln l
could say with truth they are as moth
ing in number compared to the SER
mons which have been preached upon
the trial and death of Jesus Christ.
That event has inspired not only
preachers, but artists. Time and again
have those pathetic events been depict
ed on the canvas. Probably no artist
has succeeded in catching the spirit Of
the scenes so completely as the Hunga-
rian painter Munkacsy. His two pic
lures Christ Before PLATE" and
Christ on Calvary" have made the
whole civilized world bow in awe be-
fore the sufferings and the death of our
Master and King.
Most of our older people have seen
the original painting called Christ Be
fore Plate" 1t was carried from city
to city in the United States and placed
on exhibition. You recollect how the
people entered the room with silent
STEP You remember how for hours
some Of us studied those wonderful
typical faces. There were the long
boards and the prominent Hebrew fea-
lures; there were the Pharisees, with
their supercilious and condemnatory
glances; there were the strange looks
of others in a quandary, as much as
to say, What manner of man is this?"
There is Christ, oh, so silent and still!
You can hear the sneering voices of
the multitudes all about him, yet the
defendant himself is saying nothing.
And above all others is the great cen
trail figure of that picture, PLATE him
self. 1t is not here a picture of PLATE
~, 80 iSt -
but of Christ before PLATE. What is
he to do with this Christ? Here are
Christ's enemies demanding his eXecu
ton. Here are justice and right plead
ing for Christs vindication. When the
people commenced to cry, "Barabbas,
Barabbas, Barabbas = give US Barab-
bas!' PLATE turned to them and said,
''What shall 1 do then with Jesus who
is called the Christi He had to do
something with him. He had to either
let him go or to cruelty him. What
PLATE had to do you and 1 must do.
What shall we do then with Jesus
who is called Christ?
What Shall We Do With Christi
What are you going to do with Jesus,
in the first place, as an intellectual
fact? Are you going to shut your eyes
to his very existence? Are you going
to act as if there never was such a
person as Jesus-that there never
was n being who came into this world
working his miracles and by these
miracles proving that he was the Son
of God? Are you going to declare
there never was miraculous concep
ton, that there never was any Easter
resurrection and that there never was
any ascension from Mount Olivet? Al
these questions are continually fac
ing us and demanding an answer, the
same as the guilt or the innocence Of
a defendant is before the jury trying {
case or as the guilt or innocence of {
condemned murderer is before the gov
ernor or a pardoning board.
In spite of ourselves the facts o.
Christ's life are before us, and W,
must accept or reject the evidence. We
start with his birth. Intelligent mel
and women as we are. we cannot shu
our eyes to the historical facts sur
rounding the nativity of Bethlehem il
we would. The facts may not have
impressive significance they confront
us. When young officer at an IndiaT
mess table was ridiculing the idea OF
= the divine birth of Christ, Sir Arthur
Wellesley, who afterward became Ma
poleon's conqueror, turned to him anC
said: Young man, have you ever read
DR.. Paley's Evidences of Christianity
No? Then you had better read it before
you parade such evidence of ignoranc,
in reference to Christs birth as you ar,
doing now" These facts of Christ.
birth were accessible to PLATE. Their
were living in Pilates time the peopl
who had talked to the wise men iron
the east There were sages at that tim
alive who had told Herod that Chris
was to be born in Bethlehem of Judaea
And there were men who were read