Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1872-03-19
Stauntult Spettator.
Tuesday, March 10, 1872.
Auction Sales.

MARCH 2sTH.-N. K. Trout and John b
Watts Commissioners, will sell, near New
Hone. two tracts of land belonging to Jacob l.
Humbert, one containing 1853 and the other III
acres.
APRIL 3RD.-That valuable property in this
county long known as the 'Mossy Creek Iron
Works." will be offered for sale by the repre-
sentatves of the heirs OF Rane @ b acc
at the same time by the executors.
April 4TH-Cochran, Phillips and Bumgard
ner, Commissioners, will sell two tracts neal
Staunton, known as the Smith and "BurwelP'
places-cont aiming respectively, and Is acres
APRIL 4TH.-Trout and Bumgardner, Com.
missoners, BOA acres of land three miles south Of
Greenville
APRIL 4TH.-By Watts g. Bell, commission.
ers, 584 acres of land near Fishersville.
APRIL 5TH.-Commissioners Bumgardner
Trout and White, will sell 347s acres on South
River, four miles East of New Hope. =,
APRIL 6TH-E M. Cushing auctioneer, will
offer for sale house and lot on Lewis street,
lately occupied by John Finn, decd.
APRIL 20TH.-Trout & Fultz, commissioners.
will sell tract of land Middle River con-
tanning 1904 acres.
SERMON BY REV. S. S. RosZELL, d. Don
Sunday morning last, Rev. S. S. Roszell, d. D..
of Washington city delivered an eloquent SER
mon in the M. E. Church South of this place
1t was fine specimen of pulpit eloquence, and
those who had the pleasure Of hearing it enjoy
ed an intellectual feast. His person is hand
some, his manner graceful, his thoughts striking,
his Imagination brilliant, his voice strong, pleas
ant and well modulated his language fluent, and
his elocution cultivated to a high degree. He
spoke without notes. The text which furnished
the foundation of his remarks was the first clause
of the first verse of the first chapter of the Cos
pei according to st. John
I'm the beginning a0as the Word"
No language, he said, could express the sub
Unity of the truth contained in that declaration.
It was the synopsis of the scheme of redemp-
tion-the foundation stone of the edifce of chris
tian faith. Without. it, the bible would be an
engima-a mere repository of riddlers. Well
might Jesus of Nazareth be called the remark
able man''-the wonderful he was the
architect of all things-the author and inisher
of our faith
The infdel says: "Your Jesus is nothing
He grants the proposition that He is no thing for
he was before all things, and was the creator of
all things. He was no thing. He existed before
the sun,-the chronometer of the heavens which
marks the hours for the angels-was placed In
the armament. Deny the declaration of the text.
and the temple of christianity becomes gloomy
edifce inhabited by the hooting owls of deism
and the filthy bats of infdelity, presided over by
the fell spirit Of Despair 'grinning horribly q
ghastly smile"
"In Him was life," and without Him there
would be no life To the objection that religion
was mystery, he said: A religion without my
stery would be wholly unworthy of acceptan ce.
A religion that could be perfectly comprehend
ed by the poor, feeble intellect of man would be
unworthy Of acceptance. All great. elevated
thoughts are mysteries.
Jesus dignifed humanity by assuming the form
of man, and cast halo around its future. He
claimed the divine prerogative to forgive sins
And this is divine prerogative, and yet some
men have engaged in the merchandise of souls,
and have sold the blood of Christ at so many
shillings per gallon, and retaied his shroud at Sc
many pence per yard. He alludes to the specula'
tions of some philosophers-no, he said, moi
philosophers, but philosophers. Their know
ledge was vain for the world by wisdom knew
mott God, nor could it know mans obligations
nor destiny The world is to be converted by
the ''foolishness of preaching" not by foolish
preaching for if that had been the case, it would
have been accomplished long ago. In this con-
nection, he stated that he presumed to differ from
Lghtfoot and Clarke in their Interpretation Of
the passage of scripture containing the phrase
commented upon.
Unaided by revelation, the intellect of man
was unable to form proper conception of God
The Greeks were the most learned and intellec.
tual people that ever lived-their language was
the glory, and their intellect the wonder, of the
world-and yet, in Attica, with territory not
larger than Virginia, they worshipped thirty
thousand gods, and in Athens they erected q
temple to the unknown god. No natural religion
can lead to the knowledge of God
Christ was the author of all kinds of life-na-
tural intellectual. spiritual and eternal In speak
ing of intellectual life, he took occasion to re-
bike the habit of reading light, frivolous, worth
less literature. He spoke contemptuousy of the
"Yaller Rivers" containing the molasse'
literature of the day which made of those who
fed upon it the poor Intellectual dyspeptics who
persisted of mental inanition. He breathed into
their nostrils the breath of life. In the original
the plural is used-He breathed into their nostrils
the breath of tives-showing that there were more
kinds of life than one. Christ is the author Of
intellectual life, without which man would be a
brute Without the knowledge which the bible
gives, man would not be even respectable ami
NAL.
Go where the bible never reached-go for in.
stance to the isles of the sea, which sparkle upon
the bosom of the ocean like jewels upon the
breast of beauty, and though you may have all
the advantages of scenery, climate, &C., yet il
the knowledge which the bible only confers be
not there, man will be scarcely a respectable an
imal-he will have no conception of God, and
but little pleasure in beholding the beautiful see
merry by which he is surrounded.
The only PHILOSOPHERS which possessed any
merit were those which had interviewer in Their
wool some of the threads Of the original relig.
ion.
But for that Gospel (which brought life and
Immortality to light" there would be no intel
lectual life.
For the want of time he did not treat of spir.
tual and eternal life.
This imperfect sketch does not give any ade
quate idea of the sermon. 1t chances merely al
the leading ideas. The beautiful and striking
figures of rhetoric with which it was adorned
we do not. of course, pretend to give, not only
on account of want of space, but for the better
reason, that we could not do so if we tried.
We will not indulge in any eulogium upo1
this effort of this gifted minister. We will give
only the reply made to US by an intelligent and
worthy citizen of the county, who had ridder
six miles through very muddy roads to thu
church. when we asked him if he felt that h,
had been compensated for his ride? In reply t,
TINS enquiry, with Lis face radiant with delight
ne SAID Yes, sir-I aoould a0illimgly ride TWEEN