The Forrest City times., 1889-11-30
TALMACE AT ATHENS.
Progress of the Celebrated Brooklyn
 Divine on His Pilgrimage.

Sermon
 Having reached Athens on his pilgrimage to tho Holy Land, Rev. T. Dewitt Tal.
 mage last Sunday preached to a group of friends, basing his discourse ou the fol-
 lowing two passages from the Pauline epistlcs l. Corinthians, ii, 9: "Eye hath not seen, nor car heard, ,n and l. Corinthians
 xiii, 9, "For now we see through glass, darkly." The sermon was as follows;
 Both these sentences were written by the ( most nlustrious merely human being tho world ever saw, one who walked these streets, and preached from yoifder pile of rocks. Mars Hills. 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 Xenophon, and Prexiteles wrote or chiselcd, or taught or thundered or sung, yet in inv mind all those men and their teachings were clipsed by Paul and the Gospel he preached In this city and in your near by city of Corinth. Yesterday, standing on the old fortress of Corinth, tho Aero Corinthus, out from tho ruins at it's base arora in my imagination the old city, just as Paul saw it l have been told that for splendor the world heholds no such wonder today as that ancient Corinth standing on an isthnus washed by two seas, tho ono sea bringing the commerce of Europe, tho other sea bringing the commerce of Asia From her whnrves in the construction of
 which whole kingdoms had been absorbed,
 war galleys with three banks of oars rush. ed out and confounded the navy yards
 of all the world. ugehanded ma chinery, such as modern invention
 cannot equal lifted ships from tho sea
 on one sido and transported them on trucks across the isthmus and set them down In tho sea on the other side The revenue officers of ths 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 18th milan games, and the beauty of all lands sat
 in her theatres, walked her portcos and
 threw itself on the altar of her stupendors
 dissipatons. Column and statue and tenn pie bewildered the beholder There were white marble fountains into which, from
 apertures at tho sides, there rushed waters everywhere known for health giving quali- ties, Around these basins, twisted into
 wreaths of stone, there were all the beau. ties of sculpture and architecture, whilo 1 standing, as II to guard the costly displa was statue of Hercules of furnished i Corinthian brass. Vases of terra cotta adorned tho cemeteries of the dead so costly that Julius Caesar was not satis.
 fled until he had captured them for l Rome. Armed ofliccials, the corinth-
 arii, paced up and down to sec that
 no statue was defaced, no pedestal over thrown, no bas-relief touched From the edge of tho city the hill held it's mag. niiicent burdens of columns and towers and temples tl,0o0 slaves waiting at one shrine), n ri inl 1 Gibraltar is 6 heap of sand compared with
 1t Amid all that strength and magnificence Corinth stood and dehed the world. Ohl Ii was not to rustics who had never seen anything grand that Paul uttered one of my 1 texts. They had heard the best music that had como from the best instruments in | all the world; they had heard sougs floating
 rom morning portcos and melting in ! evening groves; they had passed their 1 whole lives among pictures and scnlp. | ture and architecture and Corinthian
 brass, which had been nodded and shaped until there was no chariot wheel in which It had not sped, and no tower in | which Il had not glitterod, and no gateway
 that 1t had not adorned Ah, 1t was a bold thing for Paul to stand there amid all tha, ] and say; All this Is nothing These sounds that come from the temple of Nep- ] monies of which 1 speak These wa. 1 fers rushing in the basin of Pyrenc are not pure. These statues of Bac. chus and Mercury are not exquisite. Your 1 citadel or Acro-Cornthus Is not strong 1 compared with that which l offer ] 10 tho poorest slave that puts ! down his burden at that brazen gate. You ] Corinthians think this is splendid city; { you think you have heard all sweet sounds 1 and seen all beautiful sights; but tell you l eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into tho heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them l that love him." Indeed, both my texts. ] the one spoken by Paul and the one written ] by Paul, show us that we have very imper. i feet eyesght and that our day of vision is i yet 10 come; For now We see through glass i darkly, but then face to face So Paul
 takes tho responsibility of saying that tho 1 olble IS an iDdistnct mirror, and that 1 Us mission shall be finally suspended
 think there may be one Bible in i heaven fastened to tho throne. Just as now. l In museum, We have lamp exhumed ! From Herculaueum or Nineveh, and we look i at it with great interest and say: "How | poor light it must have given, compared
 with our modern lamps" So 1 think that l this Bible, which was a lamp to our feet in
 this world, may lie near tho throne of God. 1 exciting our interest 10 all eternity by the l contrast between ills comparatively feeble | light and the illumination of heaven The ! Bible, now, is the scaGoidiug to the rising 1 temple but when the building is done there ! will he no use for the scaffoiding The l idea l shall develop today is, that ] in this world our knowledge Is 1 comparatively dim and unsatisfactory, but
 nevertheless Is introductory to grander and
 more complete vision. This Is cmineutly
 true in regard tn our view of God We
 hear so much about God that we conclude ! that we understand him. lie is represented
 us having the tenderness of a father. the
 nrmness of judge, the pomp of a king and
 the love of mother We hear about him,
 talk about him, write about him. We lisu [ his name III infancy, and st tremhles ou. tho ! tongue Of the dying octogenarian We < think that we know very much about him. ! Take the attribute of mercy Do we un.
 dersiand iti Tho Bible blossoms ali over ! with that word Mercy IL speaks again
 and again of the tender mercies ot God; of ! the snre mercies; of the great mercies of the mercy that eDdureth forever; of the ! mpihtudes Of his meroies And yet know ] that tho views we have of this great being ! arc most indefinite. one sided and ineom- | piete When, at death. the gates shall fly
 open, and we shall look directly upon him. ! how new and surprisingl We sec upon
 canvas a picture of tae morning. We 1 study tho cloud m the sky, the dew upon
 the grass and tho husband nan on the way
 to the field. Beautiful picture of the morn ingl But we rise at daybreak, and go npon
 htl to see for ourselves that which
 was represented to us, While we look,
 tho mountains are transagurcd. The
 burnished gates of heaven swing open and ] shut to let pass q host of fiery snleudors
 The clouds arc all ahloom, and hang pend
 ant from ar6ors of alabaster and amethyst 1 Tho waters make pathway Of iniaid pearl
 for the ligh. to walk upon; aud there is morning among tho mountains Now you , go homo, apd how tame your picture of tho i morning seems in contrasti Greater than
 thAt shall be tho contrast between thls
 Scrptural view of God and that whlch we
 shall have when standing face to face.
 This is n picture of the morning. that will
 be tho morning itself.
 Again; My texts arc true of tho Say