Connecticut western news., 1889-11-27
THE GLORIOUS REVELATION.
Rev. Dr. Talmage Breaches . Sermon
 in Athens.

sery Knowledge and Enjoyment in This
 Worad is Only Introductory to . More
 Compaeee vision in Heaven.
 Especial Dispatch to the Boston Herald.l
 ATHENS, Nov. s4. 1889. Rev. T. Dewitt Taimage, D. D., of Brooklyn, preached Tn this city this morning to group of friends, baSing his discourse on the following two passages from the Pauline epiStles: Corln- thiAns, il. 9: s.Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard," and I Corinthians, xiii. ?: "For now we see through glass, darkiy.' The sermon was as follows: Both these sentences were written by the most iliuStriouS human being the world ever SAW. one who walked these streets, and preached from youder pile of rocks, Mars Hill. Though more classic associations are connected with this city than with any other city under the sun, because here Socrates, and Plato. and Aristotle, and Demosthenes, and Pericles. and Herodotus, and Pythayoras. and Xenophon, and PraNi- te!es wrote or ehiselled, or taught or thun- dered or sung. yet in my mind all those men and their teachings were echpsed by Paul and the gospel he preached in this city and ln your nearby city of Corinth.
 Yesterday, standing on the old fortress at COrinth, the Acro-Corinthus, out from the ruins at its base arose in my imagination the old city. just as Paul saw it. I have been fold that for splendor the world beholds no such wonder today as that ancient Corinth, sanding on an isthmus washed by two seas, the one sea bringing the commerce of Europe, the other sea bringing the commerce of Asia. From her wharfS, in the construction of which whole kingdoms had been absorbed, war galleys with three banks of oars pushed out and confounded the navy yards of all the world. Huge-handed machinery. such as modern invention cannot equal, lifted ships from the sea on one side and transported them on trucks across the isthmus and set them down on the sea on the other side.
 The revenue officers of the city went down through the olive groves that lined the beach to collect . tariff from all nations. The mirth of all people sported in her isthmian games. and the beauty of all lands sat in her theatres, walked her porticos and threw itself on the alar of her stupendous dissipations. Column and statue and temple bewildercd the be hof1er. There were white marble fountains into which, from apertures at the side, there rushed waters everywhere known for health. giving qualities. Around these basins, twisted into Wreaths of stone, there were all the beauties of sculpture and architecture. while sanding, as if to guard the costly display, was . statue of Hercules of burnfshed Corin- thlan brass. Vases of terra cotta adorned the cemeteries of the dead vases so costly that Julius Casar was not satisfied until he had captured them for Rome.
 Armed officials, the corintharii, paced up and down to see that no statue was defaced, no pedestal overthrown. no bas-relief touch ed- From the edge of the city the hill hed its magnificent burdens of columns and tow ers and temples QOO0 slaves waiting at one ahrine), and citadel SO thoroughly impreg- nable that Gibraltar is . heap of sand com pared with it. Amid all that strength and magni6cenee Corinth stood and dehed the world. Oh! it was not to rustics who had never seen anything grand that Paul uttered one of my texts. They had heard the best mmic that had come from the best instru- ments in all the world; they had heard songs floating from morning porticOs and melting whole lives among. pictures and sculpture and architecture and Corinthian brass, which had been moulded and shaped until there WIS no chariot wheel in which it had not sped, and no tower in which it had not gilt tered, and no gateway that it had not adorned.
 Ah, 1t WAS . bold thing for Paul to stand there amid all that and say: "All this Is nothing. These sounds that come from the temple of Neptune are not music compared with the harmonies of which speak. These waters rushing in the basin of the Pyrene are nos pure. These statues of Bacchus and Mercury are not exquisite. Your citadel of Acro-Corinthus Is not strong compared with that which l offer to the poorest slave that puts down his burden at that brazen gate. \ city; you think you have heard all sweet sounds and seen all beautiful sights; but I tell you eye hath not seen nor ear hearu, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
 Paul and the one written by Paul, show us that we have very poor eyesight, and that our day of vision Is yet to come: For now we see through glass darkly, but then face to face. So Paul takes the responsibility of saying that the Bible is an indistinct mirror, and that its mission shall be finally suspend ed. I think there may be one Bible in heaven fastened to the throne. Just as now, in s museum, We have lamp exhumed from Herculaneum or Nineveh, ana we look at il with great interest and say: ''How poor s light it must have given, compared with our modern lamps.' So tn nk thar this Bible which was . lamp to our feet in this world may lie near the throne of God, exciting oul interest to all eternity by the contrast be tween its comparatively feeble light and the illumination of heaven.
 The Bible, now, is the scaffolding to the rising temple, but when the building Is done there will be no use for the scaffolding. The idea I shall develop today is, that in this world our knowledge is comparatively din and unsatisfactory, but nevertheless is in troductsry to grander and more complete our view of God. We hear so much about God that we conclude that we understand him. He is represented as having the tender ness of . father, the firmness of judge, tn, pomp of king and the love of mother We hear about him, talk about him, writ about him. We lisp his name in infancy, ant 1t trembles on the lips of the dying OctOgena rian. We think that we know very mucl about him. Take the attribute of mercy Do we understand it: The Bible blossom all over with that word-mercy. It speak nd i'm of hp fem dor ms of nA of the sure mercies; of the great mercies; O the mercy that endureth forever; of the mul titude of his mercies. And yet know tha the views we have of this great being UT most indefinite, one-sided and incomplete When, at death, the gates shall fly open, am we shall look directly upon Him, how ney and surprising. We sec upon canvass
 picture of the morning. We study the clou In the sky, the dew upon the grass, and tn husbandman on the way to the field. Beaut fcl picture of the morning. But we rise a daybreak and go upon hill 10 see for our selves that which was represented to us While we look the mountains are transfgured The furnished gates of heaven swing ope and shut, to let past host of fiery splendors The clouds are all aDloonl, and hang pendan from arbors of alabaster and amethyst. Tn waters make pathway of inlaid pearl for tn light to walk upon; and there is morning O. the sea The crags uncover their scared vi. aGe and there is morning among the noun taAns. Now you Eo noiue, aho now eauie iooi picture of the morning seems in contrast Greater than that shall be the contrast b, tween this scriptural view of God and tha which we shall have when standing face t face. This is picture of the morning, tha will be the morning itself.
 Again: My texts are true of the Saviour exeellency. By image, and sweet rhythm o expression, and startling antitheSes. Chris h set forth-his love, his compassion, hi work, his life, his death, his resurrection We are challenged to measure it. to comput 1t, to weigh it. In the hour of our broke enthralment, we mount up into high expel fence of his love. and shout until the count,