Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1890 — THE FIVE FINGERS. [ARTICLE]

THE FIVE FINGERS.

Ist. T. Dewitt T&lmaga Discourses on “The Glorious Christ.” Jhrist, the Over-Topping Figure of All Time—Beautiful Significance of Words— The Love of Christ Set Forth in the Tendered Phraseology.

At the Brooklyn Tabernacle on the 9th nsk, Rev. Talmage preached from the text: ‘He that- cometb from above is above all,” -John iii-3L Dr. Talmage said: The boat conspicuous character of history steps >ut upon the platform. The finger which, llamonded with light, pointed down to lim from the Bethlehem sky, was only a •atification of the finger of prophecy, the lnger of genealogy, the finger of chronoogy, the finger of events—all five fingers jointing in one direction. Christ is the jvertopping figure of all time, lie is the rox humana in all music, the gracefulest ine in all sculpture, the most exquisite singling of lights and shades in all paintng, the acme of ail climaxes, the dome of *ll cathedraled grandeur, and the perora;ion of all spendid language. The Greek alphabet is made up of twen-iy-four letters, and when Christ compared limself to the first letter and the last letter ;he alpha and the omega, he appropriated >0 himself all the splendors that you can ipell out either with those two letters, and *ll the letters between them. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and ;he end, the first and the last.” Or, if you prefer the words of the text, ‘"above aIL” What does it mean! It means, after you lave piled up all Alpine and Himalayan iltltudes, the glory of Christ would have ;o spread its wings and descend a thousand eagues to touch those summits. Pelion, a ligh mountain of Thessaly; Ossa, a high nountain, and Olympus, a high mountain; out mythology tells us when the giants warred against the gods they piled up ;hese three mountains, and from the top of ihem proposed to scale the heavens; but ihe height was not great enough, and there was a complete failure. Aud after all the jiants—lsaiah and Paul, prohetio and apostolic giants; Raphael and Michael Angelo, irtistic giants; cherubim and seraphim *nd archangel, celestial giants—have failed X) climb to the top of Christ’s glory they alight all well unite in the words of the oext and say: “He that cometh from above is above aIL” _ ii—. . .

First, Christ must be above all else in >ur preaching. There ares© many books du homiletics scattered through the country that all laymen, as well as all clergymen, have mado up their minds what sermons ought to be. That sermon is most affectual which most pointedly puts forth Christ as the pardon of aIL siu and the correction of all evil—individual, social, political, national. There is no reason why we should ring the endless changes on a few phrases. There are those who think that if an exhortation or a discourse have frequent mention of justification, sanctification, covenant of works and covenant of grace, that therefore it must be profoundly evangelical, while they are suspicious of a discourse which presents the same truth, but under different phraseology. Now, I say there is nothing in all the opulent realm of AngloSaxonism, of all the word treasures that we inherited from the Latin and the Greek and the Indo-European, but we have aright J» marshal it in religious discussion. Christ sets the example. His illustrations were from the grass, the flowers, the spittle, the salve, the barn yard fowl, the crystals of salt, as well as from the seas and the stars; and we do not propose in our Sunday school teaching and in our pulpit address to be put on the limits. I know that there is a great deal said in our day against words, as thougti 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. V\ hat

did God write upon the tables of stones? Words. U hat did Christ utter on Mount Olivet? Words. Out of what did Christ strike the spark for the illumination of the universe? Out or words. “Let there be light,” and light was. Of 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 Sabbath school class, in the reformatory institutions, and what we all need is to enlarge our vacabulary when we come to speak about God and Christ and heaven. We - ride a few old wards to death when there is such illimitable resources Shakespeare employed fifteen thousand different woras for dramatic purposes; Milton employed eight thousand different words for poetic purposes; Rufus Choate employed over eleven thousand different words for legal purposes; but the most of us have loss than a thousand words that we can manage, less than five hundred, and that makes us so stupid. W hen we come to set forth the love of (Christ we are going to take tenderest phraseology wherever we find it, and if it has never been used in that direction before, all the more shall we use it When we come to speak of tbe glory of Christ, the Conqueror, we are going to draw our similies from triumphal arch and oratorio and everything grand and stupendous. The French navy have eighteen fl.igs by which they give signal, but those eighteen flags they can put into sixty-six thousand different combinations. And I have to tell you that these standards of the cross may be lifted into combinations infinite and varieties everlasting. And let me say to these young men who came from the theological seminaries into our services every Sabbath, and are after a while going to preach Jesus Christ, you will have the largest liberty and unlimited resources. You only have to present Christ in your own way. Jonathan Edwards preached Christ in tho severest argument ever penned, and John Bunyan preached Christ in the sublimest allegory ever composed. Edward Fa.vson, sick and exhausted, leaned up uguinst the side of the pulpit and wept out his discourse, while George Whitefield, with the manner and tbe voice and the start of an actor, overwhelmed his auditory. It would have been a different thing if Jonathan Edwards had tried to write and dream about the pilgrim's progress to the celestial city, or John Hunyun had attempted an essay on the hunmrwttt.

Brighter than the light, fresher than the fountains, deeper tban the seas, are all these Gospel themes. Song has no melody, flowers have no sweetness, sunset sky hus no color compared with these glorious themes. These harvests of grace spring u|l quicker than we can sickle them. Kindling pulpits with their lire, and producing r volutions with their power, light ng up dying beds with their glory, thev are the sweetest thought for the poet, and they are the most thrilliug Illustration for the orator, and they o.Ter the most intense scene for the artist, and they are to the embassador of the skv all enthusiasm. Complete pardon for direst guilt. Sweetest . dmtort for ghastliest agonies Brightest hope for grimmest death. Gran lest resurrection for darkest sepulchers. Oh, what a Gospel to pro.ich! ng, his miracles, his parables, his sweat,

his tears, Ms blood, his atonement, bis intercession—what glorious themes I Do we exercise faith? Christ is its object Do we have love? It fastens on Jesus. Hava we a fondness for the church? It is because Christ died for it Have we a hope of heaven 1 It is because Jesus went ahead, the herald and the forerunner. The royal robe of Demetrius was so costly, so beautiful, that after be had put it off no one ever dared put it on; but this robe of Christ, richer than that, the poorest and the wannest and the worst may wear. “Where sin abounded grace may much more abound.”

“Oh, my sins, my sins,” said Martin Luther to Staupitz, “my sins, my sins 1” The fact is, that the brawny German student had found a Latin Bible that made him quake, ana nothing else ever made him quake; and when be fouhd how, through Christ, he was pardoned and saved, he wrote to a friend, saying: “Come over and ; oin us great and awful sinners saved by the grace of God. Yon seem to be only a slender siuner, and yon don’t much extol the mercy of God; but we that have been such very awful sinners praise his grace the more now that we have boon redeemed.” Can it be that you are so desperately egotistical that you feel yourself in first rate spiritual trim, and that from the root of the hair to the tip of the toe you are scarless and immaculate? What you need is a looking glass, and here It is in the Bible. Poor, and wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, full of wounds and putrefying sores. No health in us. Aud then take the fact that Christ gathered up all the notes against us and paid them, and then offered us the receipt.

And how much we need him in our sorrows I We are independent of circumstances if we have his grace. Why, be made Paul slog in the dungeon, and under that grace St. John from desolate Patinos heard the blast of the apocalyptic trumpets. After all other candles have been snuffed out, this is the light that gets brighter and brighter unto the perfect day; and after, under the hard hdofs of calamity, all the pools of worldly enjoyments have been trampled into deep mire, at the foot of the eternal rock the Christian, from cups of granite lily rimmed and vine covered, puts out the thirst of his souL Again, I remark, that Christ is above all in dying alleviations. I have not any sympathy - with the morbidity abroad about our demise. The emperor of Constantinople arranged that on the day of his coronation the stone mason should come and consult him about the tombstone that after a while he would need. Aud there are men who are monomaniacal on the subject of departure from this life by death, aud the more they think of it the less they are prepared "to go. This is an unmanliness not worthy of you, not worthy of mo.

Salad In, the greatest conqueror of his day, while dying, ordered that the tunic he had on him he carried after his deatltbit his spear at the head of his army, and that then the soldier, ever and anon, should stop and say: “Behold, all that is left of Salad in, the emperor and conqueror! Of all the states he conquered, of all the wealth he accumulated, nothing did he retain but this shroud.” 1 have no sympathy with such behavior, or such absurd demonstration, or with much that we hear uttered in regard to departure from this life to the next. There is a com (nonsensical idea on this subject that you and I need to consider —that there are only two styles of departure. A thousand feet underground, by light of torch toiling in a miner's shaft, a ledge of rock may fall upon us, and we may die a miner’s death. Far out at sea, falling from the slippery ratlines and broken on the halyards, we may die a sailor’s death. On mission of mercy in hospital, amid broken bones and reeking leprosies and raging fevers, we may die a philanthropist’s death. On the field of battle, serving God and our country, slugs through the heart, the gun carriage may roll over us, and we may die

a patriot’s death. But, after all, there are only two styles of departure—the death of the righteous and the death of the wicked and we all want to die the former. God grant that when that ho at- ]comes you may be home. You want the hajnd of your kindred in your hand. You want your children to surround you. Yon want the light on your pillow from eye 3 that have long reflected your love. You want the room still. You do not want any curious strangers standing around watching you. You want your kindred from afar to hear your last prayer. I think (hat is the wish of all of us. But is that all? Can earthly friends hold us up when the billows of death come up to the girdle? Can human voice charm open beaven?* gate? Can human hand pilot us through the narrows of death into heaven's harbor? Can any earthly friendship shield us from the arrows of death, and in the hour when Satan shall practice upon us his infernal archery? No, no, no, no! Alas 1 Poor soul, if that is aIL Better die in the wilderness, far from tree shadow and from fountain, alone, vultures circling through the air waiting for body, unknown to men, and to have no burial, if only Christ could say through the solitudes : “1 will never leave thee, I will never forsake thee," From that pillow of stone a ladder would soar heavenward, angels coming and going; and across the solitude and the barrenness would come the sweet notes of heavenly minstrelsy. Gordon Hall, far from home, dying in the door of a heathen temple, said: “Glory to thee, O God!” What did dying Wilbert force say to his wife? “Come and sit beside me, and let us talk of heaven. I never knew what hppplness was until 1 found Christ.” What did dying Hannah More say ? “To go to heaven, think what that is! To go to Christ, who died that I might live! Oh, glorious gravel Ob, what e glorious thing it is to die! Oh, the love of Christ, the love of Christ?" ’ What did Mr. Toplady, the great hymnmaker, say in his last hour? “Who can measure the depths of the third beaven ? Oh, the sunshine that fills my soull I shall soon be gone, for surely no one can live in this world after such glories as God has manifested to my soul”

, What did the dying Jauoway say 1 “1 can as easily die as close my eyes or turn my head in Bleep. Before a few hours have passed 1 shall stand on Mount Zion with the one hundred and forty and four thousand and with the just men made perfect, and we shall ascribe riches, and honor; and glory,- and majesty, and-domin-ion unto God and the Lamb.” Dr. Taylor, condemned to burn at the stake, on his way thither broke away from the men and went bounding and leap inr and jumping toward the fire, glad to go to Jesus and to die for him. Sir Charles Hare, in last moment, had such rapturous vision that he cried: “Upw ird, upward, upward!” And so great was the peace of oue of Christ’s disciples that he put his fingers upon the pulse in his wrist and counted it and observed it; and so great was bis placidity that after a while be said : "Stoppsdf” and bis life hadended here to begin in heaven. But grander than that was the testimony of the worn out first missionary, when, in the Mamirtine dungeon, he cried: “I am now ready to be off jred, and the time of my departure is at baad; I Bare Tonzitt ine gDua n 'rit, I ii ivvj nmsnea my course; I have kept the faith; hence-

forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me in that d *y, and not to me only, bat to all thorn that love his appearing!” Do yon not see that Christ is above all in dying alleviations? Toward the last hour of our earthly residence we are speeding. When I see the sunset, I say, “One day less to live." W hen I see the spring blossoms scattered, I say, “Another season gone forever.” When I close this Bible on Sabbath night, 1 say, “Another Sabbath departed." When 1 bury a friend, I say, “Another earthly at* traction gone forever." What nimble feet the years have! The roebucks aud the lightnings run not so fast. From dreads to decade, from sky to sky, thej go at a bound. There is a place for os, whether marked or not, where you and I trill sleep the last sleep, and the men are now living who will, with solemn tread, carry us to our resting place. Ay, it is known in heaven whether our departure will be a coronation or a banishment. Brighter than a banqueting hall through which the light feet of the dancers go up and down to the sound of trumpeters will be tne sepulcher through whose rifts the holy light of heaven stre&meth. God will watch you. He will .Mod his angels to guard your slumbering ground, until, at Christ’s behest, they shall roll away the stone. So, also, Christ Is above all in beaven. Th * Bible distinctly says that Christ is. tile chief theme of the celestial ascription, all the thrones facing his throne, all the palms waved before his face, all the crowns down at his feet Cherubim to cherubim, seraphim to seraphim, redeemed spirit to redeemed spirit, shall recite the Sav.or’s earthly sacrifice. Stand on some high hill of heaven, and in all the radiant sweep the most glorious object will be Jesus. Myriads gazing on the scars of his suffering, in silence first

Afterward-breaking forth into acclamation. The martyrs, all the purer for the flame through which they passed, will say: “This is Jesus, for whom we died.” The apostles, all the happier for the shipwreck and the scourging through which they went will say: “This is the Jesus whom we preached at Corinth, and at Cappadocia, and at Antioch, and at Jerusalem.” Little children clad in white will say: “This is the Jesus who took us in his arms and blessed us, and when the storms of the wo id were too cold and loud, brought us into this beautiful place.” The multitudes of the bereft will say: “This is the Jesus who comforted us when our heart broke.” Many who wandered olear off from God and plunged into vagabondism, but were saved by grace, will say: “This is the Jesus who pardoned us. We were loston the mountains, and he brought us home. We were guilty, and he has made us white as sno w. ” Mercy boundless, grace unparallelei. And then, after each one.has recited his peculiar mercies, reoited them as by solo, all the voices will come together into a great chorus, which will make the arches echo and re-echo with the eternal .reverberation of gladness and peace and triumph. Edward 1 was so anxious to go to the Holy Land that when he was about to expire be bequeathed siflo,<XW to have his heart, after his decease, taken to the Holy Laud in Asia Minor, and bis request was complied with. But there are hundreds to-day whose hearts are already in the Holy Land of heaven. Where your treasures are, there are your hearts also. Qcains John Bunyan, of whom I spoke at the opening of the discourse, caught a glimpse of that place, and in his quaint way he said: “And I heard in my dre-un; and 10l the bells of the city rang again for joyr and as they opened the gates to let in men I looked in after them, and i o j tlx city shone like the sun, aq<J there were streets of gold, and men walked on them, harps in their hands, to ring praises withal; and after that they shut up the gates, which when I had seen I wished myself among them!”