The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1877-11-17
UNIVERSITY ITEMS.
rRv our Snecial Renorter.l

&OAAt-@N GNU " eoh'N
Schools of West Virginia. The chap
ell was literally crowded. The sub
ject of his lecture, "The Immortality
of Paul and Plato" was handled in a
most scholarly manner He COM
menced his discourse with the appear
ance of Paul in Athens, of whom the
Grecians said, "He seemed to be q
setter forth of strange gods, because
he preached to them Jesus and the
resurrection" About four hundred
years before this, up5n a similar ac
cusation, Socrates had been condemn
ed to death in this same city, Athens,
of whom Melletus said, HE is pub
lie offender in that he does not reeog
nize those gods which the State rec
ognizes, but introduces new demoui-
acal beings. He has also offended by
corrupting the youth Both the ac-
cusations were literally false, yet in
profound sense, both the teachers
were advancing doctrines calculated
to overthrow the existing state Of
things; Socrates laying new and
deeper foundations for truth and mo-
rality, and Paul lifting up faith and
worship from dumb idols to the one
true and living God. Epicureans and
Stoics derided Paul as babbler and
every generation since has had its
Epicureans and Stoics, who laugh
at Jesus and the resurrection. He
said these scotiers are among us to
day, and these old foundations of our
faith, so strongly laid by Paul are
still the central points of assault by
the enemies of the church. The pres
ent chains of Jesus and the resurrec
ton are questions which allow Of no
compromise, and concerning which
the church has never vacillated. Paul
contended so earnestly for the great
fact of the resurrection because, he
saw it was the keystone of the arch,
the Divine sign and seal of the ae-
complfshed work Of redemption. He
did not present this great theme as q
matter Depreciation, but as fact of
knowledge. effectively he knew that
the Savior was risen, because he had
been seen of many-of multitudes of
witnesses. Its certainty is not only
by objective proofs, but also by the
subjective testimony Of the spirit. To
the philosophers of Athens, questions
OF this nature were perfectly familiar
They were questions of daily dispute,
and they had exhausted the argu-
ments as to the immortality of the
soul. The Stoics and the Epicureans
had denied and the Platonists and
the Arstotelians had affirmed till
there was absolutely nothing more to
be said on either side. Speculation
for two thousand years has added
but little to the reasoning of Plato on
the souls immortality, and panthe
ism in the porch of Zeno was as ably
presented as in the subtlest schools
of the present day. Paul did not
raise the old question about the natu-
! raj immortality Of the soul, if he had,
he would never have turned the
world upside down." as was said Of
him; he could not have caused even
ripple in the currents of life, had he
preached these speculations older
than Socrates and familiar as house
hold gods. He took up and discussed
the proofs of the philosophers, the
metaphysical, the theological, and
the theological, which many meta
physicians and theologians still rely
upon, proving them to be merely splen-
did castles in the air, resting on as
sumptions which are themselves base
| less and which Paul and the writer's
of the New Testament utterly ignor-
ed. He then took up Paurs concep-
ton of man, that he is creature of
Coda being not NTH a body, soul,
and spirit, but a being Of, constituted
of, the synthesis of, body, soul and
spirit; in the body allied to earth; in
the spirit, of the nature Of God; and
by the soul, attracted into unity of
person and conscious fellowship with
nature and spirit, and so becoming a
living soul This he beautifully IL
Illustrated in the production Of water
from oxygen and hydrogen. After
treating in mastery manner the va
rious doctrines of the Immortality of
the soul, he closed with a peroration
in beauty and sublimity Of thought
unsurpassed.
No mere abstract could be given
that would in the least degree do JUS
tice to the discourse as q whole: but