Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-11-21
Especial Despatch TO the Boston Herald.l

great Brooklyn divine preached to a large
congregation from the text. Acts XIX, 81
81 must also see Rome.v A full report OF
the sermon follows:
Here is Pau's itinerary. He was a travel
ling or circuit preacher. He had been mob
bed and insulted, and the more good he did
the worse the world treated him. But he
went right On. Now he proposes to go to
Jerusalem and says: "After that | must also
see Rome.' Why did he want to visit this
wonderful city In which | am today permit
ted to stand? .'To preach the Gospel" you
answer. Nodoubt of it, but there were 9TH
er reasons why he wanted to see Rome A
man Of Pauls intelligence and Classic taste
had fifty other reasons for wanting to see 1t.
-FOUR Colosseum was at that time in process
os erection, and he wanted to see 1t.
The Forum was even then an old struc-
ture, and the eloquent apostle wanted TO see
that building in which eloquence had so often
Numbered and wept. Over the Appian Way
the triumphal professions had already
marched for hundreds Of years, and he
wanted to see that. The temple of Saturn
was already an antiquity, and he wanted to
see that. The architecture Of the world-re-
nowned city, he wanted to see that. The
places associated with the %triumphs, the
cruelties, the disasters, the wars the military
genius, the poetic and the rhetorical fame OF
this great city, he wanted to see them. A man
like Paul, so many sided, so sympathetic, so
emotional, so full OF analogy, could not have
been Indifferent to the antiquities and the
splendors which move every rightly organized
human being. And with what thrills of in
terest he walked these streets. those only who
for the first time like ourselves enter Rome
can imagine.
II the inhabitants Of Christendom were
gathered into one plain, and 1t were put to
them which two cities they would above
others wish to see, the vast majority OF them
would vote Jerusalem and Rome. So we
can understand something Of the record Of
my text and its surroundings when IL says,
Paul purposed In the spirit when he had
passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go
TO Jerusalem, saying after that must also
see Rome, As some of you are aware, with
my family, and only for the purpose of what
we can learn and the good we can get, / am
on tie way TO Palestine. Since leaving
Brooklyn, n. Y, this is the first place we
have stopped. intermediate cities are at
t~ractive, but we have visited them In other
years, and we FASTENED on, for said before
starting hat while / was going TO see Jeru-
salem | must also see Rome. Why do l want
TO see itl Because | want, by visiting re-
gions associated with the great apostle to the
Gentiles, to have my faith in Christianity
confirmed.
There are those who viii go through large
expenditure TO have their faith weakened.
III IL 7 AtfA't u AAAAN ~ HAAh0A -
very limited means to pay fifty cents or a
dollar TO hear n lecturer prove that our Chris
tian religion is a myth, a dream, a cheat, a
lie. On the contrary, | viii give all the
thousands of dollars that this journey OF my
family will cost 20 have additional evidence
that our Christian religion is an authenticated
grandeur, a solemn, a joyous, a rapturous,
a stupendous, a magnificent fact. SO / want
to see Rome. | want you to show me the
places connected with apostolic ministry. l
have heard that, IN your city and amid its
surroundings, apostles suffered and died for
Christ's sake.
My common sense tells me that people
do not die for the sake Of a falsehood. They
may practice q deception for purpose OF
gain, but put the sword to their heart,
or arrange the halter around their neck, or
kindle the fire around their feet, and they
would say my life is worth more than any
thing | can gain by losing it. / hear you
have in this city Paufs dungeon. Show 1t
to me. l must see Rome also. While j
am interested in this city because Of her
rulers or her citizens who are mighty In
history for virtue or vice or talents, Romu-
lus and Caliguli, and Cincinnatus, and Yes
pasian, and CariOlanus, and Brutus, and a
hundred Others whose names are bright
with an exceeding brightness, or black with
the deepest dye, most Of all am ! interested
In the city because the preacher of Mars
NIL anu lIt utHtI OF AEIlUDh. ana the
hero Of the shipwrecked vessel in the
breakers of Melita and the man who held
higher than any one that the world ever
saw the torch of resurrection, lived and
preached and was massacred here. Show
me every place connected with bis memory. /
must also see Rome.
But my text suggests that in Paul there
was the inquisitiye and curious spirit. Had
my text ohly meant that he wanted to preach
here he would have said so. Indeed, in an
other place, he declared: II am ready to
preach the gospel to you who are at Rome
Also" But my text suggests a sight seeing.
This man who had been under DIR. Gamaliel
had no lack of phraseOlogy, and was used to
saying exactly what he meant, and he said
II must also see Rome.n There is such a
thing as Christian curiosity. Paul had it and
some of us have it. About other peoples
business | have no curiosity. About all that
can confirm my faith in the Christian relig-
ion and the worlds salvation and the
SOULS future happiness | am full of
an all-abs0rbing. al-compeliing curiosity.
Paul had a great curiosity about the next
world, and so have we. / hope some day, by
the grace OF God, TO 90 over and see for my
self; but not now. No well man, no pros
pered man. | think wants to go now. But
the time will come, | think, when / shall 20
over. l want to see what they do there, and
i want to see how they do il. | do not want
to be looking through the gates ajar forever
/ want them TO swing wide open. There are
ten thousand things Iwant explained-about
you, about myself, about the government Of
this world, about God. about everything.
We start in a plain path Of what we know,
and in a minute come up against a high wall
OF what we do not know. | wonder how il
looks over there. Somebody tells me /. is
like n paved city-paved with gold; and an
other man tells me it is like a fountain. andi
is like a tree, and It Is like 4 triumphal pro-
c%ession; and the next man | meet tells me it
Is all figuratiye. / really want to know. after
The body is resarrected, what they wear and
what they eat aad | have an unreasonable
curiosity to know what it is. and how it is,
md where it is. Columbus risked his life TO
md the American continent. aud shall we
shudder TO 90 out on a voyage Of discovery
which shall reveal 4 vaster and more brilliant
country?
John Franklin risked his life to find a pass-
age between icebergs. and shall We dread to
ind a passage between eternal summer Men
In Switzerland travel up the heights of Mat
terhorn, with alpenstock and guides and
rockets and ropes. and. getting haii-wav up.
humble and fall down IN ahorrible massacre.
They just wanted TO say they had been on
The tops Of those high peaks. And shall we
Tear tn 90 olf for tho usaou4 ~ 81. @~..I /