Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1892 — ALL IN ALL. [ARTICLE]

ALL IN ALL.

Talmage’s First Sermon Upon Returning Hrmw. Th» Mur «4»»i of tb« BU>!«-Woa4«r----fsl Ancient Learning and gnfcUnaa Fo•trjr. but >lor* Than All, the Power of tied Onto Salvation. At Brooklyn, last Sunday, Ur. Tafanage was greeted with a most generous and efTusive welcome by a vast congregation, which assembled to hear him preach his first sdrmon after his return from his European preaching, tour. The sub’ect was “All in all.*’ Text, Cplossians iii, 11: “Qhrist is all and in all." He said; Returned after the most eventful summer of. my life, I must shortly and as soon as I recover from the sea voyage, give you an account of our mission of bread to famine struck Russia and of my preaching tour through Germany, England, -Scotland and Ireland. But my first sermon on reaching here must be a hosanna of gratitude to Christ, and from the. text I have chosen I have found that tiie greatest name in the ocean shipping and from Liverpool to Moscow, and from Moscow to London and Edinburg and Belfast and Dublin, is Jesus. Every age of the world has had its historians, its philosophers, its thinkers and its teachers. Were there histories to be written there has always been a Moses, or a Herodotus, oraXeuophon, or aJosephus to write them. Were there poems to be constructed there has always been a Job or a Hdmer to construct them. Were there thrones lustrous and powerful to be lifteh there has always been a David or a Cseser to raise them. Were there teachers demanded for the intellect and the hearts there has been a Socrates, and a Zeno, and a Clean thes, and a MarcuS Ansoninufi mission. Every age of the world has had its triumphs of reason and morality. There has not been a single age "of the world which has not had some decided system of religion. I The Platonism, orientalism, stoii cism, Brahmiuism and Buddhism, considering the ages in which they were established, were not lacking in ingenuity and force. Now, in this line of beneficent institutions and of noble men there appeared a personage more wonderful than any predecessor. He came from a family without any rovah or aristocratic pretension. He became a Galilean mechanic. He had no advantage from the schools. There were people beside him day after day who had no idea that, he was going to be anything remarkable or do anything remarkabfe. Yet notwithstanding all this, and without any title or scholarly profession or flaming rhetoric, he startled the world with the strangest aunouncements, ran iu collision with solemn priest and proud ruler, and with a voice that ran through temple and palace, and - over ship’s deck aud mountain top exclaimed, “I am the light of the world.” " 7 I remark in the first place L Christ Is everything in the Bible. Ido not care where I open the Bible—l find Jesus. In whatever path I start I come after awhile to the Bethlehem manger. Igo back to the old dispensation and see a lamb On the altar and say, "Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world 1 ” Then Igo and see the | manna provided for the Israelites in the wilderness, and say, “ Jesus, the bread of life." Then i look at the rock which was smitten by the ahet’s rod, and as the water es out, Isay, “It is Jesus, the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. "

I go back and look at the writings of Job. and hear him exclaim, “ I know that my Redeemer liveth. ” Then I go to Ezekiel, and I find Christ presented there as •* a plant of renown, ” and then I turn over to Isaiah, and Christ is spoken of 44 as a sheep before her shearers. ” It is Jesus alt the way between Genesis and Malachi. Then I turn over to the New Testament, and it is Christ in the parable; it is Christ in the miracle; it is Christ in the evangelist's Storm ; it is Christ in the apostle’s epistles ; and it is Christ in the trumpet peal of the Apocalypse. I know there are a great many people who do not find Christ in the Bible. Here is a man whp studies the Bible as a historian. Well, if vou come os a historian, you will fintf in this book how the world was made ; how the seas fled to their places; how empires were established ; how nation fought with nation, javelin ringing against harbegeon, until the earth was ghastly with the dead. You will see the coronation of princes, the triumph of conquerors, and the world turned upside down and back aga n and down again, cleft and scarred with great agouies of earthquake and tempest and battle. There are others who come to the Bible merely as antiquarians. If you come as an antiquarian, you will find a great many odd things in the Bible —peculiarity sos manner and custom, marriage aud burial ; peculiarities of dress, tunics, sandals, pins, amulets and girdles tnd tinkling ornaments. If you come to look at military arrangements yoi will find coats of mail and ju\ elins and engines of war and circuisvaliation and encampments. If you look for peculiar musical instruments, you will fiud psalteries and shiglouoths and ruin’s horns. The antiquarian will find in the Bible curiosities in agriculture, aud in commerce, and in art, aud in religion that will keep him absorbed a great while. ’ V Then there are others who find nothing in the Bible but the poetry. Well, if you come as a p efc, you will fiud in this book faultless rbytbm, and bold imagery, and surtliug antithesis, and rapturous, lyric, and sweet pastoral and instructive narrative, and devotional psalm thoughts expressed in a style more solemn than that of Montgomery, more bold than that o! Milton, moire terrible than that, of Dante, more natural than that of Wordsworth more impassionxl than that or Pollock, more ten ler than that of Cow

makes beautiful, from the plain stones of the summer thrashing floor, and {the daughters of Naobr filling Hie trough for the'camels, and the fish pools ol Heshbon. up to the psalmistpratsicg God witfr diapason of storm and whirlwind, and-Job leading forth Orion, Areturus and the, Pleiades. $ is a Sronderful poem; and a great many people read it ak they do Thomas Moore’s “Lalla Lookh. ” atfd Walter Scott’* “ Lady of the Lake. ” and Tennyson's “ Charge of the Light Brigade. ” Then there are others who come to this book a skeptics. They marshal passage against passage, and try to get Matthew and Luke to quarrel, and would have discrepancy between wbat Paul and Jama?say about work and faith and they try the account of Moses concerning the creation by decisions of science, and resolve that in all questions between the scientific explorer and the inspired writer' they will give the preference to the geologist* These men—these spiders, I will say—suck poison out of the sweetest flowers. They fatten their infidelity upon the truths which have led thousands to heaven, and in their distorted vision prophet seems to war with prophet, and evangelist with evangelist, and apostle with apostle, and if they can find some bad trait of character in a man of God mentioned in the Bible these carrion crows caw and flap their wings over the carcass,

I am amused beyond bounds when I hear one of these men talking about a future life. Just ask a man who rejects that Bible what heaven is, and hear him befog your soul. Ho will tell you that heaven is merely the development of the eternal resources of a man; it is aneffiorescence of dynamic forces into a state of ethereal and transcendental lucubration, in close juxtaposition to the ever present “was,” and the great “to be,” and the everlasting “no.” Considering themselves wise, they are fools for time, fools for eternity". Then there is another class of persons who come to the Bible as controversialists. They are enormous Presbyterians or fierce Baptists or violent Methodists. They cut the Bible to suit their creed instead of cuttig their creed to suit the Bible. If the scriptures think as they do, well; if not, so much the worse for the scriptures. The Bible is merely the whetstone on which they sharpen the dissecting kutfe of controversy. What do they care about the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ? I have seen some such men come back from an ecclesiastical massacre as proud of their achievements as an Indian warrior boasting of the number of scalps he has taken, I have more admiration for a man who goes fourth with his fists to get the championship than I have for these theological pugilists who make our theological magazines ring with their warcry.

Those only get i nto the heart of God’s truth who come seeking Christ. Welcome all such! They will find him coming out from behind the curtain of prophecy until he stauds in the full light of New Testament disclosure, Jesus, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. They will find him in genealogical table and in chronogical calculation, in poetic stan -a and in hystoric narrative, in profound parable and ia startling miracle. They will see his root on every sea, and his tears in the drops of dew on Hermon, and hear his voice in the wiud and behold his words all abloom in the valley between Mount Olivet and Jerusalem. There are some men who come and walk around the Temple of Truth and merely see the outside. There are otters who walk into the porch and then go away. There are others who come in and look at the pictures but they know nothing about the chief attractions of the Bible. It is only the man who comes and knocks at the gate, saying, “I would see Jesus." For him the glories of that book open, and be goes in and finds Christ, and with him peace, pardon, life, comfort and heaven. “All in all is Jesns” in the Bible: I remark again that Christ is everything in the great plan of redemption. We are slaves; Christ gives deliverance to the captive. We are thirsty; Christ is the river of salvation to slake our thirst We are hungry; Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.’’ We are condemed to die; Christ says, “Save that man from going down to to the pit; lam the ransom.” We are tossed on a sea of troubles; Jesus comes over it, saying, “It is I, be not afraid.” We are in darkness; Jesus says, “I am the bright and morning, star.” We are sick; Jesus is the balm of Gilead. We are dead; hear the shrouds rend apd the grave hillocks heave as he cries, “I am the resurrection and the life; he that beiieveth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” We want justification; “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We want to exercise faith; “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” I want to get from under condemnation; “Thereis now, therefore, no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.” The cross —he carried it. The flames of belllie suffered them. The shame—he endured it. The crown —he won it. Heights of heaven sing; it, and worlds of light to worlds of light ell round the hoavena cry, “Glory, glory!" Let us go forth and gather the trophies for Jesu9. Krom Golconda mines we gather the diamonds, from Ceylon banks we gather the pearls, from all lands and kingdoms we gather precious stones,aqd we bring the glittering burdens and put them down at the feet of Jesus and say: “All these are thine. Thou art worthy. ” We go torth again for more trophies, and into one sheaf we gather all the scepters of the earth, of a.l royalties and dominions, and then we bring the sbeaf of scepters and put it dowu at the feet of Jesus and say, “Tbon art King of Kings, and tlieso thou hast conquered. " Apd then we go forth again to gather more trophies, and r we bid the redeemed of all ages, the sons aiic daughters of the Lord Almighty, to «»:no. We ask them to come and offer their thanksgivings, and the hosts of ii-aven bring crown aud StSing d f^ P and byv*Si

wer~be —to hi thtglttath ever and eve:-1 ” Tell me of a tear that he did not weep, of a burden be did not carry, of a battle that be did not fight, of a victory that be did net achieve. “ All in aU is Jesus ” lathe great plan of redemption. I yemark-again, Christ is everything to a Christian in timeof trouble Wbo has escaped trouble? We must all stoop down and drink of the bitter lake. The moss has no time to grow on the buckets that came up out of the heart’s well, dripping with tears. Great trials are upon our track ascertain as grey hound pack on the scent of deer. From our hearts in ever? direction there are a thousand chords reaching out behind us to loved ones, and ever and anon some of these tendrils snap. The winds that cross the sea of life are not all abaft". The clouds that cross our sky are not feathery and afar, straying like flocks of sheep on heavenly pastures, but wrathful and somber, and gleaming with terror, they wrap the mountains in fire and come down baying with their thunders through every gorge. The richest fruits of blessing have a prickly shell. Life here is not lying at anchor; it is weathering a gale. It is not sleeping in a soldier’s tent with our arms stacked; it is a bayonet charge. We stumble over gravestones, and we drive on with our wheel deep in the old rut of graves. Trouble has wrinkled your row, and it has frosted your head. Falling in this battle of life is there no angel to bind our wounds? Hath God made this world with so manv things to hurt and non? to heal? For this snakebite of sorrow, is there no herb growing by all the brooks to heal the poison? v Blessed be God that in the Gospel we find the antidote! Christ has bottled an ocean of tears. How many thorns he hath plucked out of human agony! Oh, he knows too well what it is to carry a cross, not to help us carry ours! He knows too well what it is to climb the mountain not to help us up the steep. He knows too well what it is to be persecuted, not to help those who are imposed upon. He knows too well what it is to be sick not to help those who suffer. Aye, he knows too well what it is to die, not to help us iu our last extremity. Blessed Jesus, thou knowest it all. Seeing tbv wounded side, and thy wounded hand, and thy wounded feet, and thy wounded brow, we are sure thou knowest it all. Oh, when those into whose bosom we used to breathe our sorrows are snatched from us, blessed be God, the heart of Jesus still beats, and when all other lights go out and the world gets dark, then we see coming out from behind a cloud something so bright and cheering, we know it to be the morning star of the soul's deliverance! The hand of care may make you stagger, or the hand of persecution may beat you down, or the hand of disappointment may beat you back ; but there is a hand, and it is so kind, and it is so gentle that it wipeth all tears from all faces.