Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-11-20
sTAUNTON; VA. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1850

md the man who held higher than any ont
that the world ever saw the torch of Resur
rection, lived, and preached, and was mas
sacred here. Show me every place con
nected with his memory. must also see
Rome.
But my text suggests that in Paul there
vas the inquisitive and curious spirit. Had
my text only meant that he wanted to
preach here he would have said SO. Indeed,
in another place, he declared, 81 am ready
% preach the Gospel to you vino are at
Rome also." But my text suggests sight
seeing. This man who had been under DR..
Gamsliel had no lack of phraseology, and
vas used to saying exactly what he meant,
and he said, II must also see Rome - There
is such thing as Christian curiosity. Paul
bad il and some of us have it. About their
peoples business / have no curiosity. About
all that can confirm my faith 10 the Chris
tian religion and the world 8 salvation and
the SOULS future happiness am full of an
ail-abso-bing, all-compelling curiosity.
Paul had great curiosity about the next
world. and so have we. I hope some day,
~ the grace of God, to go over and see for
myself; but not now. No we'll man, no
prospered man, think, wants to go now.
But the time will come, think, when
shall go over. | want to see what they do
there and l want to see how they do it. /
do net want to be looking through the gates
ajar forever. l want them to swing wide
open. There are ten thousand things
want xplaiDed-about you, about myself,
about the government of this world, about
| God, about everything. We start in plain
path of what we know, and in minute
come up against high wall of what we do
1 T =
there. Somebody tells me it is like paved
city-psved with gold; and another man
tells me it is like fountain, and it is like
tree, ard it is like a triumphal procession;
and the next man / meet tells me it is all
| igurative. really want to know, after the
| body is resurrecfed, what they wear and
| what they eat; and / have an immeasurable
| curiosity to know what it is, and how 1t is,
ard where it is. Columbus risked his life
| to find the American continent, and shall
| We shudder to go out on voyage OF discOv-
| cry which shall reveal vaster and more
brilliant country? John franklin risked
his life to find passage between icebergs,
and shall we dread to find a passage to eter-
nal summer? Men in Switzerland travel up
the heights of the Matterhorn, with alpen-
stock, and guides, and rockets, and ropes,
| and getting half way up, stumble and fall
down in horrible massacre. They just
wanted to say they had been on the tops of
| those high peaks. And shall we fear to go
out for the ascent of the eternal hills which
start thousand miles beyond where stop
the highest peaks of the Alps. and when in
that ascent there is no peril? A man doom
ed to die stepped on the scaffold, and said
in Joy: "Now, in ten minutes | will know
the great secret" One minute after the
NJ ft,po opH hp hot
died last night knew more han Paul him
self before be died Friends, the exit from
this world, or death, if you please to call it,
to tho Christian is glorious explanation. 1t
is demonstration. It is illumination 1t is
sunbuIst. 1t is the opening of all the win-
dows. 1t is shutting up the catechism of
doubt, and the unrolliug of all the scrolls of
positive and accurate information. Instead
Of standing at the foot of the ladder aud
looking up, it ID standing at the top of the
ladder aud looking down. 1t is the last
mystery taken out of botany and geology
and astronomy and theology. Oh, will it
not be grand to have all questions answer
ed? The perpetually recurring interroga-
ton point changed for the mark of exclama-
ton. All riddles solved Who will fear to
go out on that discovery, when all the
questions are to be decided which we have
been discussing all our lives? Who shall
not clap his hands in the anticipation of
that blessed country, if it be no better than
through holy curiosity? As this Panl of my
text did not suppress his curiosity, we need
not suppress ours Yes, l have an uulimit-
ed curiosity about all religious things, and
as this city of Rome was so intimately con-
nected with apostolic times. the incidents
of which emrhasise and explain aud aug
;st;a ir;a
take it as an evidence of prying spirit,
but as the outbursting of Christian curl
osty when say 1 must also see Rome.
Our desire to visit this city is also intens-
fed by the fact that we want to be con
firmed in the feeling that human life is
brief, but its work lasts for centuries, in
deed forever. Therefore, show us the an
tquities of old Rome. about which we have
been reading for a lifetime, but never seen.
In our beloved America we have no sntiq-
uities. A church eighty years old over
awes Us with it's age. We have in America
some cathedrais hundreds and thousands of
years old, but they are in Yellowstone
| Park, or California canon, and their archi-
lecture and masonry we're by the omnipo-
tent God. We want to see the buildings.
or ruins of old buildings, that were erected
hundreds and thousands OF years ago by
human hands. They lived forty or seventy
years, but the arches they lifted, the paint
ings they penciled, the sculpture they cbsel-
ed the roads they laid out, | understand,
are yet to be seen, and we want you to show
them to us. | can hardly wait until Mon
| day morning. | must also see Rome. We
want to be impressed with the fact that
what men do on a small scale Or large scale
asts Thousand years, lasts forever; that
| hill f,-a nd hat = in
very sho,t space of time. God is the only
old living presence. But it is an old age
without any of the infirmities or limitations
| of old age. There is a passage of Scripture
shieh speaks of the birth Of the mountains,
| for there was a time when the Andes were
horn, and the Pyrenees were born, and the
Sierra Nevadas were born but before the
hirih of those N ountains the Bible tells US,
| God was born, aye was never born at all,
because he always existed. Psalm xe., @:
| Before thu mountains we're brought forth,
or ever thou hadst formed the earth sud
the world, even from everlasting 10 ever
lasting, thou art God" How short is hu-
man life. what antiquity attaches to Its
worth! How everlasting is God! Show Us
the antiquities, the things that we're old
when America was discovered, old when
| Paul went Up and down these streets sight
| seeing, DIG Wnep CurlSb was DOTE. L tluSt,
| I must also see Rome.
Another reason for our visit to this city
| is that we want to see the places where the
nigh, lest intelects and the greatest natures
wrought for our Christian religion. We
have been told in America By some people
of swollen heads that the Christian religion
is pusillanimous thing, good for children
under seven years of age and small BRAIN
ed people, but not for the intelligent aud
aswarthy- minded. We have heard of your
Constantine, the mighty, who pointed bis
army to the cross saying: SPY this con-
queI." If there be anything here connect
ed with his reign or his military history,
show it to us. The mightiest intellect of
the ages was the author of my text and, if
for the Christian religion he was wiling to
labor and suffer and die. there must be
something exalted and sublime aud tremen-
dous in it;and shoW me every place he visit
ed, and show me if you eau where he was
tried and which of YOUR roads leads out to