Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1889-11-16

theology. Oh, will IL not be grr.ad TO have
AL questions answered. The periodically re-
curing Interrogation point changed for the
mark of exclamation. All riddles solved.
Who will fear 20 20 out on that discovery,
when all the questions are TO be decided
which we have been discussing all our livesI
Who shall not clap his hands in the anticipa-
ton OF that blessed country, if it be no better
than through holy curiosityI As this Paul
OF my text did not suppress his curiosity, we
need not suppress ours Yes, have an UNI
limited curiosity about all religious things
and as this city of Rome was so intimately
connected with apostolic times, the incidents
OF which emphasize and explain and augment
the Christian religion, you viii not take it as
an evidence of prying spirit, but as the out
bursting OF a Christian curiosity when / say,
l must also see Rome.
CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES OF ROME.
Our desire TO visit this city IS also intonsi.
fed by the fact that want TO be confirmed
In the feeling that human life is brief but
Its work lasts for centuries, indeed. forever
Therefore show us the antiquities OF old
Rome, about which we have been reading
for a lifetime, but never seen. In our beloved
America, we have no antiquities. A church
eighty wears old overawes us with its age
We have in America some cathedrals hun
dreds and thousands Of years old, but they
are in Yellowstone Park, or Californian
canon, and their architecture and masonry
were by the omnipotent God. We want 20
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
hfted, the paintings they pencsled, the sculp
ture they chiseled, the roads they laid out, j
understand are yet to be seen, and we
want you to show them TO us can
hardly wait until Monday morning ]
must also see Rome We want to be
impressed with the fact that what
men do on a small scale or large
scale lasts thousand years, lasts forever
that we build for eternity and that we do SO
In very short space Of time God Is the
only old living presence. But it is an old
age without any of the infirmities or limita-
tions Of old age. There is a passage of Scrip
ture which speaks Of the birth of the noun
tains for there was time when the Ande.
were born, and the Pyrenees were born, and
the Sierra Nevadas were born, but before the
birth OF those mountains, the Bible tells us
God was born, aye, was never born at all
because he always existed Psalm &c. 9:
Before the mountains were brought forth
or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the
world, even from everlasting to everlasting,
thou art God" How short is human life.
what antiquity attaches to its worthl How
the things that were old when America wa
discovered, old when Paul went up and down
these streets sight seeing, old when Christ
was born. L must, must also see Romel
THE PAULINE INTELLECT
Another reason for our visit 10 this city Is
that we want to see the places where the
mightiest intellects 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 a
pusillanimous thing, good for children under
seven years of age and small Drained people,
but not for the intelligent and swarthy mind.
ed We have heard of your Constantine, the
mighty, who pointed his army TO the cross,
saying, "By this conquer IL there be any
thing here connected with his reign, or bis
military history, show it TO us The might
lest intellect of the ages was the author OF
my text, and if for the Christian religion he
was willing 10 labor and suffer and die, there
must be something exalted and sublime and
tremendous in it; and show me every place
he visited, and show me, If you can, where he
was tried, and which of your roads leads out
to Ostia, that 1 may see where he went out
TO die. We expect before we finish thi.
journey to see Lake Gaiilee and the
places where Simon PeUer and Andrew fished
and perhaps we may drop net or a hook and
line into those waters ourselves, but when
following the track Of those lesser apostles
will learn quite another lesson. / want
while in this city of Rome to study the relig.
Ion Of the brainiest of the apostles. want
to follow, as far as we can trace it, the track
of this great intellect of my text who wanted
to see Rome also He was a logician, he was
n metaphysican, he was all conquerirp
orator he was poet of the highest type. He
had nature that could swamp the leading
men of his own day, and, hurled against the
Sanhedrim, he made it tremble. He learned
all he could get in the school of his native
village; then he had gone to a higher school
and there had mastered the Greek and the He
brew and perfected himself in bellies lettres.
until, in after years, he astounded the Gre
tans, and the Corinthians, and the Athenians,
by quotations from their own authors.
have never found anything in Carlyle,
or Goethe, or Herbert Spencer that
could compare in strength or beauty
with Paul's epistles. l do not think
there is anything in the writings OF Sir
William Hamilton that shows such men
tai discipline as you find In Paul's argument
about justification and resurrection l have
not found anything in Milton finer in the
way of imagination than car find in Pauli
Illustrations drawn from the amphitheatre.
There was nothing in Robert Emmett plead
ing for his life, or in Edmund Burke arraign-
ing Warren Hastings in Westminster hall,
that compared with the scene in the court
room, when, before robed officials, Pau
bowed and began his speech, saying: 81
think myself happy, King Agrippa, because
l shall answer for myself this day" / re.
peat, that religion that can capture a man
like that must have some power in it. 1t is
time our wiseacres stopped talking as though
all the brain of the world were opposed to
Christianity. Where Paul leads, we can af-
ford to follow. / am glad to know that
Christ has, in the different ages of the
world, had in his discipleShip a Mozart
and a Handel in music; a Raphael and
a Reynolds in painting; Angelo and
a Canovo in sculpture; a Rush and Har-
vey in medicine; Grotius and a Washing
ton in craftsmanship; Blackstone, a Mar
shall and Kent in the law. And the time
will come when the religion OF Christ will
conquer all the observatories and universe
ties, and philosophy WILL through her tele-
scope, behold the morning star of Jesus, and
in her laboratory see that ''all things work
together for good" and with her geological