The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1889-11-28
DIR. TALMAGE IN ATHENS.
PREACHING WHERE PAUL DID. HE
breaches ON PAUL's WORDS.

Vivid Word Picture of Ancient Corinth.
The Classical City OF Athens-Imperfect
Visions = Eternity win Make Them
Clear-Paul's Anticipations of Heaven.
ATHENS, Nov. 24-The Rev. T. De
Witt Talr1age, d. D., of BROOKLYN.
preached in this city this morning to
a group of friends, basing his dis
course on the following two passages
from the Pauline epistles: l Corinthi-
ans, ii, 9: Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard" and | Corinthians, xiii. 2:
For now we see through a glass,
darklyo The sermon was as fol
lows:
Both these sentences were written !
by the most illustlious merely human
being the world ever saw, one who
walked these streets, and preached
from yonder 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 Aris- |
-tot3e, and Deruosfaenes,. ard Pericles, i
and Herodotus, and Pythagoras, and
Xenophon, and Praxiteles wrote or
chiseled, or taught or thundered or
sung, yet in my mind all those men
and their teachings were eclipsed by
Paul and the Gospel he preached in
this city and In your near by city of
COrinth. Yesterday, standing on the
old fortress at Corinth, the Acro-Co-
rinthus, out from the ruins at its base
arose in my Imagination the old city,
just as Paul saw it. have been told
that for splendor the world beholds
no such wonder today as that an
cient Corinth standing on an isthmus
washed by two seas, the one sea bring
ing the commerce of Europe, the other
sea bringing the commerce of Asia.
From her harves, 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 trans
ported them on trucks across the 18TH
mus and set them down in 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 altar of her
stupendous dissipations
THE GLORY OF CoRINTH.
Column and statue and temple be-
wildered the beholder. There were
white marble fountains into which,
from apertures at the side, there gushed
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 standing, as if to
guard the costly display, was statue
of Hercules of FURNISHED Corinthian
brass. Vases Of terra Gotta adorned
the cemeteries of the dead--vases SO
costly that Julius Caesar was not salts
fed until he had captured them for
Rome. Armed officials, the corinth-
arii, paced up and down to see that no
statue was defaced, no pedestal over
thrown, no bas-relief touched From
the edge of the city the hill held its
magnificent burdens of columns and
towers and temples d, 1000 slaves wait
ing at one shrine), and citadel so
thoroughly impregnable that Gibral-
tar is heap of sand compared with
it. Amid all that strength and mag
nificence Corinth stood and detied the
world. Oil it was not to rustics who
had never seen anything grand that
Paul uttered one of my texts. They
had heard the best music that had come
from the best instruments in all the
world; they had heard songs floating
from morning porticos and melting in
evening groves; they had passed their
whole lives among pictures and sculp-
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 it had not glittered,
and no gateway that it had not adorn-
ed. All, it 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 har-
monies of which speak. These wa
! ters rushing in the basin of Pyrene
are not pure. These statues of Bac-
chus and Mercury are not exquisite.
Your citadel of Aero Corinthus is not
strong compared with that which I
offer to the poorest slave that puts
down his burden at that brazen gate.
You Corinthians think this is splen-
did city; you think you have heard all
sweet sounds and seen all beautiful
sights; but I tell yon eye hath not
seen nor ear heard, neither have en-
tered into the heart of man, the things
which God hath prepared for them
that love him" Indeed, both my
texts, the one spoken by Paul and the
one written by Paul, show US that we
have very imperfect eyesight, and that
our day Of vision is yet to come: For
now We see through a glass darkly,
but then face to face. SO Paul takes
the responsibility of saying that the
| Bible Is an ind1stinct mirror, and that
its mission shall be finally suspended.
| think there may be one Bible in
heaven fastened to the throne. Just
as now, in a museum, we have a lamp
exhuned from Herculaneum or Nine
veh, and we look at it with great in
terest and say: How poor a light it
| must have given, compared with our
modern lamps So | think that this
Bible, which was lamp to our feet
in this world, may lie near the throne
of God, exciting our interest to all
eternity by the contrast between It's
comparatively feeble light and the
illumination of heaven The Bible,
now, is the seaffolding to the rising
temple, but when the building is done
| there will be no use for the scaffoldlng.
THE GLORY WHICH IS TO BE.
The idea | shall develop today Is,
! that in this world our knowledge is
comparatively dim and unsatisfactory
but nevertheless is Introductory to
| grlnder and more complete vision.
This is eminantly true in regard to
our view of God. We hear so much
about God that we conclude that we
understand him. lie is represented al
having the Tenderness of a father, the
king and the love of a mother. We
hear about him, talk about him, writt
about him. We lisp his name IN in
fancy. and it trembles on the tongue
of the dying octogenarian. We thlnl
that we know very much about him
Take the attribute of mercy. Do we un
derstand iti The Bible blossoms all ovel
with that word-Mercy. 1t speaks agar
and again of the tender mercies o
God; Of the sure mercies: of the grea
mercies; of the mercy that enduretf
forever; Of the multitude of his mer
cies. And yet l know that the view
we have of this great being are mos
| indefinite, one sided and incomplete
When. at death, the gates shall I'll
open. and we shall look directly upoI
him. how new and surprisingl w
see upon canvas picture of the morn
ing. We study TIE cloud in the sky
J the dew upon the grass, and the hus