517. “What Is in a Name?”

’93What Is in a Name?’94

Php_2:9 : ’93A name which is above every name.’94

By common proverb we have come to believe that there is nothing in a name, and so parents sometimes present their children for baptism regardless of the title given them, and not thinking that that particular title will be either a hindrance or a help. Strange mistake. You have no right to give to your child a name that is lacking either in euphony or in moral meaning. It is a sin for you to call your child Jehoiakim or Tiglath-Pileser. Because you yourself may have an exasperating name is no reason why you should give it to those who come after you. But how often we have seen some name, filled with jargon, rattling down from generation to generation, simply because some one a long while ago happened to be afflicted with it! Institutions and enterprises have sometimes without sufficient deliberation taken their nomenclature. Mighty destinies have been decided by the significance of a name. There are men who all their life long toil and tussle to get over the influence of some unfortunate name. While we may, through right behavior and Christian demeanor, outlive the fact that we were baptized by the name of a despot, or a cheat, how much better it would have been if we all could have started life without any such incumbrance. When I find the apostle in my text, and in other parts of his writing, breaking out in ascriptions of admiration in regard to the name of Jesus, I want to inquire what are some of the characteristics of that appellation.

First, this name of Jesus is an easy name. Sometimes we are introduced to people whose name is so long and unpronounceable that we have sharply to listen, and to have the name given to us two or three times before we venture to speak it. But within the first two years the little child clasps its hands, and looks up, and says, ’93Jesus.’94 Can it be, amid all the families represented here today, there is one household where the little ones speak of ’93father’94 and ’93mother’94 and ’93brother’94 and ’93sister,’94 and not of ’93the name which is above every name?’94 Sometimes we forget the titles of our very best friends, and we have to pause and think before we can recall the name. But can you imagine any freak of intellect in which you could forget the Saviour’92s designation? That word ’93Jesus’94 seems to fit the tongue in every dialect. When the voice in old age gets feeble and tremulous and indistinct, still this regal word has potent utterance.

Jesus, I love thy charming name,

’91Tis music to my ear;

Fain would I sound it out so loud

That heaven and earth would hear.

Still further, I remark it is a beautiful name. You have noticed that it is impossible to disassociate a name from the person who has the name. So there are names that are to me repulsive’97I do not want to hear them at all’97while those very names are attractive to you. Why the difference? It is because I happen to know persons by those names who are cross and sour and snappish and queer, while the persons you used to know by those names were pleasant and attractive. As we cannot disassociate a name from the person who holds the name, that consideration makes Christ’92s name so unspeakably beautiful. No sooner is it pronounced in your presence than you think of Bethlehem and Gethsemane and Golgotha, and you see the loving face and hear the tender voice and feel the gentle touch. You see Jesus, the one who, though banqueting with heavenly hierarchs, came down to breakfast on the fish that rough men had just hauled out of Gennesaret; Jesus, the one who, though the clouds are the dust of his feet, walked footsore on the road to Emmaus. Just as soon as that name is pronounced in your presence you think of how the Shining One gave back the centurion’92s daughter, and how he helped the blind man to the sunlight, and how he made the cripple’92s crutches useless, and how he looked down into the babe’92s laughing eyes, and, as the little one struggled to go to him, flung out his arms around it and impressed a kiss on its brow, and said, ’93Of such is the kingdom of heaven.’94

Beautiful name’97Jesus! It stands for love, for patience, for kindness, for forbearance, for self-sacrifice, for magnanimity. It is aromatic with all odors and accordant with all harmonies. Sometimes I see that name, and the letters seem to be made out of tears, and then, again, they look like gleaming crowns. Sometimes they seem to me as though twisted out of the straw on which he lay, and then as though built out of the thrones on which his people shall reign. Sometimes I sound that word ’93Jesus,’94 and I hear coming through those two syllables the sigh of Gethsemane and the groan of Calvary; and again I sound it, and it is all a-ripple with gladness and a-ring with hosanna.

Let it drip from harp’92s string and thunder out in organ’92s diapason. Sound it often, sound it well, until every star shall seem to shine it and every flower shall seem to breathe it, and mountain and sea and day and night and earth and heaven acclaim in full chant: ’93Blessed be his glorious name forever. The name that is above every name.’94

Jesus, the name high over all,

In heaven and earth and sky.

To the repenting soul, to the exhausted invalid, to the Sunday-school girl, to the snow-white octogenarian, it is beautiful. The old man comes in from a long walk and tremblingly opens the door and hangs his hat on the old nail, and sets his cane in the usual corner and lies down on a couch and says to his children and grandchildren: ’93My dears, I am going to leave you.’94 They say: ’93Why, where are you going, grandfather?’94 ’93I am going to Jesus.’94 And so the old man faints away into heaven. The little child comes in from play and throws herself on your lap, and says: ’93Mamma, I am so sick, I am so sick!’94 And you put her to bed, and the fever is worse, until in some midnight she looks up into your face and says: ’93Mamma, kiss me good-by; I am going away from you.’94 And you say: ’93My dear, where are you going to?’94 And she says: ’93I am going to Jesus.’94 And the red cheek which you thought was the mark of the fever only turns out to be the carnation bloom of heaven! Oh, yes; it is a sweet name spoken by the lips of childhood, spoken by the old man.

Still further, it is a mighty name. Rothschild is a potent name in the commercial world, Cuvier in the scientific world, Irving a powerful name in the literary world, Washington an influential name in the political world, Wellington a mighty name in the military world; but tell me any name in all the earth so potent to awe and lift and thrill and rouse and agitate and bless as this name of Jesus. That one word unhorsed Saul, and flung Newton on his face on ship’92s deck, and today holds four hundred million of the race with omnipotent spell. That name in England today means more than Victoria; in Germany, means more than Emperor William; in France, means more than Loubet; in Italy, means more than Humbert of the present or Garibaldi of the past.

I have seen a man bound hand and foot in sin, Satan his hard task-master, in a bondage from which no human power could deliver him, and yet at the pronunciation of that one word he dashed down his chains and marched out forever free. I have seen a man overwhelmed with disaster, the last hope fled, the last light gone out; that name pronounced in his hearing, the sea dropped, the clouds scattered, and a sunburst of eternal gladness poured into his soul. I have seen a man hardened in infidelity, defiant of God, full of scoff and jeer, jocose of the judgment, reckless of an unending eternity, at the mere pronunciation of that name blanch and cower and quake and pray and sob and groan and believe and rejoice. Oh, it is a mighty name! At its utterance the last wall of sin will fall, the last temple of superstition crumble, the juggernaut of cruelty crush to pieces. That name will make all the earth tremble, and then it will make all the nations sing. It is to be the password at every gate of honor, the insignia on every flag, the battle-shout in every conflict. All the millions of the earth are to know it. The red horse of carnage seen in apocalyptic vision, and the black horse of death are to fall back on their haunches, and the white horse of victory will go forth, mounted by him who hath the moon under his feet, and the stars of heaven for his tiara. Other dominions seem to be giving out; this seems to be enlarging. Spain has had to give up much of its dominion. Austria has been wonderfully depleted in power. France had to surrender some of her favorite provinces. Most of the thrones of the world are being lowered, and most of the scepters of the world are being shortened; but every Bible printed, every tract distributed, every Sunday-school class taught, every school founded, every church established, is extending the power of Christ’92s name. That name has already been spoken under the Chinese wall and in Siberian snow castle, in Brazilian grove and in Eastern pagoda. That name is to swallow up all other names. That crown is to cover up all other crowns. That empire is to absorb all other dominations.

All crimes shall cease, and ancient frauds shall fail,

Returning Justice lift aloft her scale;

Peace o’92er the world her olive wand extend,

And white-robed Innocence from heaven descend.

Still further, it is an enduring name. You clamber over the fence of the graveyard and pull aside the weeds, and you see the faded inscription on the tombstone. That was the name of a man who once ruled all that town. The mightiest names of the world have either perished or are perishing. Gregory VI, Sancho of Spain, Conrad I of Germany, Richard I of England, Louis XVI of France, Catharine of Russia’97mighty names once, that made the world tremble; but now, none so poor as to do them reverence, and to the great mass of the people they mean absolutely nothing; they never heard of them. But the name of Christ is to endure forever. It will be perpetuated in art, for there will be other Bellinis to depict the Madonna; there will be other Ghirlandajos to represent Christ’92s baptism; there will be other Bronzinos to show us Christ visiting the spirits in prison; other Giottos to appal our sight with the crucifixion. The name will be preserved in song, for there will be other Handels to write the Messiah, other Dr. Youngs to portray his triumph, other Cowpers to sing his love. It will be preserved in costly and magnificent architecture; for Protestantism, as well as Catholicism, is yet to have its St. Marks and its St. Peters. That name will be preserved in the literature of the world, for already it has been embalmed in the best books, and there will be other Dr. Paleys to write the Evidences of Christianity, and other Polloks to describe the Saviour’92s coming to judgment. But above all, and more than all, that name will be embalmed in the memory of all the good of earth, and all the great ones of heaven. Will the delivered bondman of earth ever forget who freed him? Will the blind man of earth forget who gave him sight? Will the outcast of earth forget who brought him home? No! No!

To destroy the memory of that name of Christ, you would have to burn up all the Bibles, and all the churches on earth, and then in a spirit of universal arson go through the gate of heaven, and put a torch to the temples and the towers and the palaces, and after all that city was wrapped in conflagration, and the citizens came out and gazed on the ruin’97even then they would hear that name in the thunder of falling tower and the crash of crumbling wall, and see it inwrought in the flying banners of flame, and the redeemed of the Lord on high would be happy yet, and cry out: ’93Let the palaces and the temples burn; we have Jesus left!’94 ’93Blessed be his glorious name forever and ever. The name that is above every name.’94

Have you ever made up your mind by what name you will call Christ when you meet him in heaven? You know he has many names. Will you call him Jesus or the Anointed One or the Messiah, or will you take some of the symbolical names which on earth you learned from your Bible? Wandering some day in the garden of God on high, the place a-bloom with eternal springtide, infinite luxuriance of rose and lily and amaranth, you may look up into his face and say, ’93My Lord, thou art the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley.’94 Some day, as a soul comes up from earth to take its place in the firmament, and shine as a star forever and ever, and the luster of a useful life shall beam forth tremulous and beautiful, you may look up into the face of Christ and say, ’93My Lord, thou art the morning star’97a star forever.’94 Wandering some day amid the fountains of life that toss in the sunlight and fall in crash of pearl and amethyst in golden and crystalline urn, and you wander up the round-banked river to where it first tingles its silver on the rock, and out of the chalices of love you drink to honor and everlasting joy, you may look up into the face of Christ and say: ’93My Lord, thou art the fountain of living water.’94 Some day, wandering amid the lambs and sheep in the heavenly pastures, feeding by the rock, rejoicing in the presence of him who brought you out of the wolfish wilderness to the sheepfold above, you may look up into his loving and watchful eye and say: ’93My Lord, thou art the shepherd of the everlasting hills.’94

But there is another name you may select. I will imagine that heaven is done. Every throne has its king. Every harp has its harper. Heaven has gathered up everything that is worth having. The treasures of the whole universe have poured into it. The song full. The ranks full. The mansions full. Heaven full. The sun shall set afire with splendor the domes of the temple and burnish the golden streets into a blaze and be reflected back from the solid pearl of the twelve gates, and it shall be noon in heaven, noon on the river, noon on the hills, noon in all the valleys’97high noon. Then the soul may look up, gradually accustoming itself to the vision, shading the eyes as from the almost insufferable splendor of the noonday light, until the vision can endure it, then crying out: ’93Thou art the sun that never sets!’94

At this point I am staggered with the thought that, notwithstanding all the charm in the name of Jesus, and the fact that it is so easy a name and so beautiful a name and so potent a name and so enduring a name, there are people who find no charm in those two syllables. Oh, come this day and see whether there is anything in Jesus. I challenge those of you who are furthest from God to come at the close of this service and test with me whether God is good, and Christ is gracious, and the Holy Spirit is omnipotent. I challenge you to come and kneel down with me at the altar of mercy. I will kneel on one side of the altar and you kneel on the other side of it, and neither of us will rise up until our sins are forgiven, and we ascribe, in the words of the text, all honor to the name of Jesus’97you pronouncing it, I pronouncing it’97the name that is above every name.

His worth, if all the nations knew,

Sure the whole earth would love him too.

Oh, that God today, by the power of his Holy Spirit, would roll over you a vision of that blessed Christ, and you would begin to weep and pray and believe and rejoice. You have heard of the warrior who went out to fight against Christ. He knew he was in the wrong, and while waging the war against the kingdom of Christ, an arrow struck him and he fell. It pierced him in the heart, and lying there, his face to the sun, his life blood running away, he caught a handful of the blood that was rushing out in his right hand, and held it up before the sun and cried out: ’93O Jesus, thou hast conquered!’94 And if today, the arrow of God’92s Spirit piercing your soul, you felt the truth of what I have been trying to proclaim, you would surrender now and forever to the Lord who bought you. Glorious name! I know not whether you will accept it or not; but I will tell you one thing here and now: in the presence of angels and men I take him to be my Lord, my God, my pardon, my peace, my life, my joy, my salvation, my heaven! ’93Blessed be his glorious name forever. The name that is above every name.’94 Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever.

Autor: T. De Witt Talmage