The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-11-11

OF the Alps, and when IN that ascent there
is no perils A man doomed todie ste0ped On
the scaffold, and said in joy: Now, i
ten minutes I will know the great sec ct.
One minute after the vital functions ceased,
the little child that died last night knew
more than Paul himself before he died.
Friends, the exit from this world, or death,
if you please 10 call it, to the christian is
glorious explanation. Ii is demonstration.
1t is illumin alton II is sunburst 1t is tie
opening Of all the windows. 1t is shutting
up the catechism of doubt, and the unroll-
ing of all the scrolls Of positive and accu-
rate information. Instead of standing at
the foot Of the ladder and looking up, it is
standing at the top of the ladder ana look
ing down. 1t is the last mystery taken out
of botany and geology and astronomy and
theology. Oh. will II not be grand to have
all questions answered. The perpetually re-
curing interrogation point changed for
the mark of exclamation. All riddles
solved. Who will fear to 60 out on that
discovery. when all the questions
are to be decided which we have
been discussing all our lives7 Who
shall not clap his hands in the
anticipation of that blessed country, if it be
no better than through holy curiosityl AS
this Paul of my text did not suppress his
curiosity, we need not suppress ours. Yes, I
have an unlimited 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 will not take it as an evidence
of prying spirit, but as the outbursting of
a christian curiosity when ] say l must also
see Rome.
Our desire to visit this city is also intensi-
fed by the fact that we want TO be con-
firmed in the feeling that human life is
brief, but its work lasts for centuries, in
deed forever. Therefore show us the an
nquities Of old Rome, about which we have
been reading for lifetime, but have never
seen. In our beloved America we have no
antiquities. A church eighty years old
overawes US with its age. We have in
America some cathedrals hundreds and
Thousands of years OLD, but they are in
Yellowstone Park, or California
canyon, and their architecture and
masonry were by the omnipotent God.
We want to 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 lifted, the paintings they PEN
ciled, the sculpture they chiseled, the roads
they laid out, / understand, are yet to be
seen, and we want you to show them to US.
i can hardly wait until Monday morning
! must also see Rome. We want to be
impressed with the fact that what
men do on small scale or large scale
lasts thousand years, lasts forever, that
we build for eternity and that we do 50 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 limitations
OF old age. There is passage of scripture
which speaks Of the birth of the mountains,
for there was time when the Andes were
born, and the PyreneeS were born, and the
Sierra Nevadas were born, but before the
aRE rN 81 a. n
US, God was born, aye, was never born at
all, because he always existed. Psalm
xc., ?: Before the mountains were
brought forth, or even thou hadst formed
the earth and the world, even from ever
lasting 70 everlasting thou art Cod How
short is human life, what antiquity at
taches to its worth How everlasting is
God! Show US the antiquities, the things
that were old when America was discoV-
cred, old when Paul went up and down
thee streets sightseeing, old when Christ
was born / must, ] must also see Rome!
Another reason for our visit to this CITY
IS that We want TO see the places where the
mIghtiest intellec and the greatest natures
wrought for our christian religion We
have been old in America by some people
OF sw lien heads that the christian religion
Is pusillanimous thing, good for children
under ; ears OF age and small brained peo-
pie, but not for the INTEL gent and swarthy
minded. We have heard Of your Constan-
tine the mighty. who pointed his army to the
cross, saying: by this conquer" Ii there be
anything here connected with his reign or
his military history, show it to U.s. The
inightiest intellect Of the ages was the au-
thor of my text, and, if for the christian
religion he was willing to labor and suffer
and die, there must be something exalted
and sublime and tremend u 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 NAV
see where he went out to die. We expect
before we finish this journey to see Lake
Galllee and the places where Simon Peter
and Andrew fshed, and perhaps we
may drop net or a hook and line into
those waters ourselve but wien following
the track OF those lesser apostles | will
learn quite another lesson. / want while in
this city of Rome to study the religion of
the brainiest of the apostles. l want to
follow, as far as We can trace it, the track
OF this great intellect of my text who
wanted 10 see Rome also. He was
iogiclan, ne was metaphysician, he was
an all-couquering orator, he was poet of
the highest type. He had a nature that
could swamp the leading men of his own
day, and, hurled against the Sanhe-
drim, he made it tremble He learned
all he could get in the school of his
native village, then he had gone to
higher school, and there had mastered
the Greek and the Hebrew and perfected
himself in bellies letters, until, in after
years, he astounded the Cretans, and the
Corinthians, and the Athenians, by quota.
tions from their own authors. l have never
found anything in CARLYLE, or Goethe. or
Herbert Spencer tn could comp are in
strength or beauty with Paul's epistles. /
do not think there is anything in the writ
ings Of Sir William Hamilton that shows
such mental discipline as you find in Pauls
argument about justification and resurrec-
ton l have not found anything In Milton
fiuer in the way Of imagina ion than / can
find in PauPs illustrations drawn from the
amphitheater. There was nothing in
Robert Emmett pleading for his life, or in
Edmund Burke arraigning Warren Hast
1ngs in Westminster hall, that compared
with the scene of the court room when. be-
fore robed officials, Paul bowed and began
his speech, saying: 81 think myself happy,
King Agrippa, because / shall answer for
myself this day" l repeat, that a religion
that can capture man like that must have
some power in it. 1t is time our wissacres
stopped talking as though all the brain of
the world were opposed to Christianity.
Where Paul leads, we can affordi O
follow. am glad to know that Christ has,
IN the different ages of the world, had in
his dlsclpleship a Mozart and a Handel in
music; Raphael and Reynolds in paint
ing; an Angelo and a Canova in sculpture;
a Rusk and Harvey in medicine; a