Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-11-22
TALMAGES SERMON.
Weekly Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
SubirCls "a BEusi Also Sec
RgGEtsc." tsercuCi.FSi as
Rome, Hta5y.)

10, 81.
Hero is Pauls itinerary He was travel
ing or circuit preacher. lie had baea mobbed
and insultcd, and the more good lie did the
worse the world treated him. But he went
right on. Now he proposes to 80 TO Jerusa-
lem, and says: "Altor chat | must also sec
Rome.n Why dill he want 10 visit this won
dcrful city in which | an to-day permitted
TO stand? ITO preach the Gospel you an
swer. No doubt of it, but there were other
reasons why he wanted TO see Rome. A man
of Parfs intelligence and classic taste had
fifty other reasons for wanting TO see it,
Your Colosseum was at that tino in process
of erection, and he wanted TO see it. Tho
Forum WGs even then an old structure, and
the eloquent apostle wanted to see that
building IN which eloquenco had 50
often Numbered and wept, Over the
Appian Way the triumphal procession had
already marched for hundreds OF years and
he wanted 10 see that. The Temple of Sat
turn was already an antiquity and he wanted
to see that. The architecture of the world
renowned city, he wanted TO see that. Tho
places associated with the triumphs tho
Crueltes the disasters tho wars the mill
tsry genius, the poetic and the rhetorical
famo of this great city, no wanted to seq
them. A man like Paul, so many sided, 50
sympathetic, so emotional so full Of analogy,
could not have been indifferent to tho antiq-
uities and the splendors which move every
rightly organized human being. And with
what thrill of interest he walked these
Streets those only who for the first time like
ourselves enter Rome can imagine. If tho
inhabitantsof oil Christendom were gathered
into one plain, and it were put to them which
two cities they would above all others wish TO
zee, the vast majority Of them would vote
Jerusalem and Rome. SO VIC can understand
something Of the record Of my text and its
the spirit whom he had passed through Mace.
donna and Achaia TO 80 TO Jerusalem saying:
''After that must also see Rome" As soma
of you are aware with my family and only
for the purpose of what VIC can learn and tho
good we can get, l am on the way TO PGleS-
zinc. Since leaving Brooklyn N. Y, this is
the first place VIC have stopped. Intermedl-
ate cities are attractive, but we have visited
them in other years, and we fastened on, for
said before starting that while was going
TO sec Jerusalem / must also SEQ Rome.
Why do l want 70 see it? Because | want
by visiting regions associated with the
great apostle TO the gentiles, to have
my faith in Christianity confirmed.
There are those who will go through large
expenditure to have their faith weakened.
In my native land | have known persons Of
very limited means to pay fifty cents or
dollar to hear a lecturer prove that our
Christian religion is q myth dream, a
cheat lic On the contrary, | will give all
the thousands Of dollars that this journey of
my family will cost TO have additional owl
denco that cur Christian religion is an au-
thenticatod grandeur, solemn, joyous,
rapturous, stupandous, q magnificent fact
So I want to see Rome. want you to show
mo the places connected with Apostolic
ministry. 1 have heard that, in your city
and amid its surroundings, apostles suffered
and died for Christ's sake. My common
sense tells NE that people do not die for tho
sake Of q falsehood. They may prac-
tice a deception for purposes of gain,
but put tho sword to their heart
or arrange the halter around their neck, OF
kindle tho fire around their feet, and they
would say my life is worth more than any
thing can gain by losing it. | hear you
have III this city Paule dungeon. Show it to
me. must sec Rome also. While am in
terested in this city because of her rulers or
her citizens who are mighty in history for
virtur1 or vice or talents, Romulus and
Caiiguh, and Cincinnatus, and Vespasian,
and Coriolanus and Brutus, and hundred
Others whose names are bright with an ex-
ceeding brightness, or black with the deepest
dye, most OF all am interested in this city
because the preacher of Mars hill, and the de-
fer of Agrippa, and the hero Of the ship
wrecked vessel in the breakers OF Melita and
the man who held higher than any one that
She world ever saw the torch Of Resurrection,
lived, and preached, and was massacrod here.
Show me every place connected with his
memory | must also SEQ Rome.
But my text suggests that in Paul there
WAS the inquisitiye 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: Il am ready to
preach the Gospel to you who are at Rome
also" But my text suggests sight seeing.
a Al
had no laci; Of phraseology, and We used to
saying exactly what he meant, and he said; 81
must also see Rome" There is such thing
as Christian curiosity. Paul had it and some
of Us have it, About other peoples business
/ have 40 curiosity. About all that can con.
firm my faith in the Christian religion and
the worlds salvation and the souls future
happiness, lam full OF all all absorbing. all
compelling curiosity. Paul had great curl
osity about the next world, and SC
have VIC. I hope some day. by thu
grace of God, 10 go over and see fol
myself; but not now. No well man, no pros
pered man, l think, wants to go now But
the time will come, [ think, when | shall e
over | want to see what they do there, anC
want to sec how they do il. | do not wan
to be looking through the gates aiar for
ever. / want them to swing wide open
There are ten thousand things J. want ex
plaincd-about you, about myself about tn
government Of this world, about God, abou
everything. We start in a plain path o.
what we know, and in a minute come III
against high wall of what we do not know
[ wonder how it looks over there. Some
body tolls me it is like paved city-pavet
with gold; and another man tells me it i
like fountain, and it is like tree anC
it is like triumphal procession; and tht
next man met tells me it is all figurative
/ really want to know, after the body il
resurrectcd, what they wear and what they
eat; and / have an immeasurable curiosity
to know what it is and how il is, and WHERE
it is. Columbus risked his life to find thu
American continent, and shall we shudder t.
go out on voyage Of discovery which shall
reveal q vaster and more brilliaINB country
John Franklin risked his life to find pas
sage between itebergs, and shall we dread *
find n passage TO eternal summer? Men il
Switzerland travel up the heights Of the Mat
terhorn, with alponstock, and guides, anc
rockets, and ropes and getting half wa,
up, stumble and fall down in horri
bic massacre. They just wanted t
say they had been on the tops 0
those high peaks. And shall we fear to e,
out for the ascent Of the eternal hills whicl
start thousand miles beyond where sto,
the highest peaks of the Alps, and when il
that ascent thore is no peril? A. man doomet
TO die stepped on the scaffold, and said il
JOY: NOW, IN ten minutes VIII know th
great secret" Ono minute after the vita
functions ceased, the little child that die,
last night knew moro than Paul himself DO
fore he del Friends, the exit from thi
world, or death, il you please to call it, t.
the Christian is glorious explanation Il i,
demonstration. 1t is illumination. 1t /;
sunburst, It is the opening Of all the win
dows'. 1t is shutting up the catechisn
OK DOUBT and the unrolling o.
all the scrolls of positive and accurat,
information. Instead of standing a
The foot of tho ladder and looking up, it i
standing at tho top of the ladder and iooktn,
down. 1t is the last mystery taken out o
botsny and geology and astronomy an,
theology: Oh, viii it not be grand to hav