Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1892 — PRE-EMINENT JESUS. [ARTICLE]

PRE-EMINENT JESUS.

Christ is the Over-Topping Figure of All Time. Brighter Than the Light, Fresher than the Fountains and Deeper Than tbe Seas J. are Bible Themes. The. sermon selected for this week is entitled “ Pre-ettwnent, ” the text . r" being John iii, 31, He that Cometh from above is above all. ” He said : The most conspicuous character of history steps put upon the platform. The finger which, diamonded with light, pointed down to him from the Bethlehem sky, was only a ratification ofthe finger of prophecy, the finger of genealogy, the finger of chronology, the finger of events —all five fingers pointing in one direction. Christ is the overtopping figure of all time. He is the vox humana in all musiq, the gracefulest line in all sculpture, the most exquisite mingling of lights and shades m all painting. the acme of all climaxes, the dome of all cathedraled grandeur and the peroration of all splendid language. V? The Greek alphabet js made up of twenty-four letters, arid when Christ comparedTiimself to the first letter and the last letter*? the plpba and the omega, he appropriated to himself all the splendors that yon can spell out either' with those two letters and all letters between them. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. ** Or, if you prefer the words of the text, “ above all. ” First, Christ must be above all else in our preaching. There are so many books on homiletics scattered world that all laymen, ~as“wett ~Ss~all clefgymen7Tiav~emade up theirminds what sermons ought to be. That sermon is most effectual which most pointedly, puts forth Christ as the pardon of all sin and the correction of all evil, individual social, political, national. There is no reason why we should ring the endless changes 011 -a few phrases. There are those who think that if an exhortation or a discourse have frequent mention of justification, Sanctification, covenant, of .words 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 Anglo-Saxon-ism or all the word treasures that we inherited from the Latin and the Greek and the Indo Luropean but we have a right to marshal it in religious discussion. Christ sets the example. His illustrations were from the grass, the flowers, the spittle, the salve, the barnyard fowl, the crystals of salt, as well as from the seas and* the stars, and we do not propose in our Sabiyith school teaching and in our pulpit address to be put on the limits. Jonathan 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. aJLCL jKept.,.o.ut his discourse, while George Wjhitefield, with the manner and the vdice and the start of au actor, overwhelmed his audience,/ It would hjttve been a different ‘thing if Jonathan Edwards had tried to write and dream about the pilgrim’s progress to the celestial city or John Bunyan had attempted an essay on the human will. Brighter than the light, fres lifer than the fountains, deeper than the seas are all these gospel themes. Song has no melody, flowers have no sweetness, sunset sky has no color compared with these glorious themes. These harvests of grace spring up quicker than we can sickle them. Kindling pulpits with their fire, and producing involutions with their power, lighting up dying beds with their- glory, they are the sweetest thought for the poet, and they are the most brilliant illustration for the orator, and they offer the most intense scene for the artist, and they are to the ambassador of the sky ail enthusiasm. “Complete pardon for direst guilt. Sweetest comfort for ghastliest asrony. Brightest hope for grimmest death. Grandest resurrection for darkest sepulcher. Oh, what a Gospel to preach! Christ over all in it. His birth, His suffering, His miracles. His para bles, His sweat. His tears, His blood, His atonement, His intercession—what glorious themes! And how much we need Him in our sorrows! We are independent of circumstances if we have His grace. Why, He made Paul sing in his dungeon, and under that grace St. John from desolatj&Patmos 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. A thousand feet underground, by light of torclj, 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 acid our country,, 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 tb die the former. * God grant that when that hour comes you may be at home! You want the hand of your kindred la

your hand. Yog want your children to surround you. You want the light on your pillow from eves that have long reflected your love. You want tbe room still. You do riot want any curious strangers standing around watching vbu. Yqil want your kindred from afar to hear your last prayer. I/think that is the wish of all of us. But is that all? Can learthly frieriils hold us when the billows of death come up to the girdle? Can huynan voice charm open heaven’s gate? Can human hands pilot us through the narrows o! death into heaven’s harbbr? Can an earthly frit/ndsbip* shield Us from the arrows of death and iu the hour

whensatan shall practice upon u* his infernal archery? No, no, no, no! Alas! poor soul, if that is all. Better die in the wilderness, far from tree shadow and from fountain, alone, vultures circling through the air waiting body, unknown to men, and to have no burial, if only Christ could say through the solitudes, “I will never leave thee, I will never forsake thee. From that pillow of stone 1 a ladder would soar heaven-ward angels coming and going; and across the solitude and tbe barrenness would come the sweet notes of heavenly minstrelsy. There is a place for us, whether marked or not, where you and I will sleep Our last sleep, and the men are now living who will, with solemn tread, carry us to our resting place. Aye, it is known in heaven whether our departure will he 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 the trumpeters will be the sepulcher through whose rifts the holy light of heaven streameth. God wilt watofi you. He will send his angels to guard your -ground until-—at- UhrtsTx-behestp they shall roll away the stone. So also Christ is above all in heaven. The bible di.st|nctlv says that Christ is chief theme of the celestial ascription,- all the thrones facing his throne, all the palms waved before his face, all the crowns down rit his feet. Cherubim to cherubim, seraphim to seraphim, redeemed spirit to redeemed spirit shall recite the Savior’s eatthly 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 (ns 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 sayj~**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 world were too cold and loud brought us int& this beautiful place.” The multitudes .of the bereft will say, “This is the Jesus who cpimforted us when our heart broke.” Many who had wandered clear off from God and plunged into vagabondism,but were saved by grace will say: “This !s ; the Jesus who pardoned us. We wiere lost on the

mountains, and be brought us home. We were guilty,and he made us white as snow.” Mercy boundffess* gfice unparalleled. And then, after each one has recited his peculiar deliverances and peculiar mercies, recited them as by solo, all the voices \v“ill eotiie together in a great chorus, which shall make the archer echo and re-echo with the eternal reverberation of gladness aud peace and triumph. -i Edward I was so anxious to go to “the Holy Land that when he was about toexpii-e he bequeathed $160,000 to have his heart after,his decease taken to the Holy Land in Asia Minor, and hi's request was complied with. But there are hundreds to-day whose hearts are already in the holy land of heaven. Where vour treasures arc there are,,your hearts also. John Bunyan, of whorif 1 I spoke at the opeUing of the discourse, caught a glimpse of that place, find in his quaint way lie said; •‘And I heard in my dream, and lo! the bells of the city rang again for joy; and as they spened the gates to let jn the men i looked in after them, analo! the city shone like the sun, and .there were streets of gold, and men walked on them, harps in their hands, to sing praises wij;h all; and after that they shut up - the gates whiqh when 1 had seen I wished myself among them!”