The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1889-12-05
nun SECRETS OF HEAVEN,
oornon by Rev. T. Dewitt Tai
mage Delivered at Athens.
. are Seeming Mysteries In the d.
"n Economy God VIII In Due Time
Explain and Man VIII ACknowl-
odge His Wisdom.

Rev Il. lie 0lJJ laiii'So ~
,ollowinr Sermon to the Athenlans'
from the to It's:
rro hath lot seen nor ear heard.-I. Cor
inthans, H." -,, ,,,oss do-LIv
I Corinthians, kill, z
Roth theie sentences were written by
tbe most i ! ,strious merely human be-
irc the wor ever saw, one who walked
these streets, and preached from yonder
nile Of rocl ;, Mars Hill. Though more
classic asso..ia ions are connected with
tbis city than With any other city under
tbo sun. beCause her Socrates, and
plato and Ariatotle, and Demosthenes,
and Periclcs and Herodotus, and Py-
tbaCoras. an ] Tenophon, and Praxiteles
wrote or chi 80 ed, or taught, or thun-
dcred. or sung, yet in my mind all those
men and Their eeachings were eclipsed
bv Paul anG she Gospel lie preached in
this city AMI Hhe nearby city of Cor
iptb. Standing on the old fortress
at Corinth the Arro-Corinthus,
ont from the ruins at its
base arose ilt my imagination the old
citv lust as Pau: saw it. have been
told that for splerdor the world beholds
no such woIter to-day as that ancient
Corinth. standing On an isthmus washed
BY two seas, Lae one bringing the COM
merce of Europe, the other sea bringing
the commence OF Asia. From her
wharves, in uIe construction of which
whole kingdoms had been absorbed, war
Cslleys with three banks of oars pushed
out and coItDInded the navy yards OF
all the world. IIuge-handed machinery,
such as modem invention can not equal,
lifted ships t,5m the sea on one side and
transported tnem on trucks across the
istnmus 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 a
tariff from al nations. The mirth of all
people sportei in her isthmian games,
and the beauty of all lands sat in her
theaters, walked her porticos, and threw
itself on the altar of her stupendous dis
Sipati0ns.
Column, and statue, and temple be-
wildered the beholder. There were
white marble fountains into which, from
apertures at the side, there rushed wa
ters everywhere known for health-giv-
ing qualities. Around these basins,
twisted into wrcaths of stone, there were
all the beauties of sculpture and archi-
lecture while standing, as if to guard
the costly display, was statue of Her
cules of Furnished Corinthian brass.
Vases of terra Gotta adorned the
cemeteries of the dead-vases so
costly that julius Caesar was not
satisfied until he had captured them
for Rome. Armed officials, the Corinth-
aFl 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 "a thousand slaves
waiting at one shrine), and citadel so
thoroughly impregnable that Gibraltar
is a heap of sand compared with it.
Amid all that strength and magnificence
Corinth stood and defied the world. Oh!
ltwaS not to rustics who had never seen
any thing grand that Paul uttered one
OF my texts. They had heard the best
music that had come from the best in
struments in all the world; they had
heard songs floating from morning por-
ticOS and melting in evening groves; they
had passed their whole lives among pict-
ureS and sculpture, 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 gilt
@red, and no gateway that it had not
adorned.
All, it was a 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 harmonies
Of which l speak. These waters rush
ing In the basin of Pyrene are not pure.
lheSe statues of Bacchus and Mercury
are not exquisite. Your citadel of Aero
VoFlnthus is not strong compared with
'uat which | offer to the poorest slave
Wat puts down his burden at the brazen
gaze You Corinthians think this is
Splendid city; you think you have
neafu all sweet sounds and seen all
Ueautllul sights; but tell you eye hath
nut seen nor ear heard, neither have en-
"'eu INTO the heart of man, the things
SHicn tod hath prepared for them that
hlm.' indeed, both my texts, the
Sue spoken by Paul and the one written
raul show us that we have very i'm
rriect eyesight, and that our day of
,.o'oh IS yet to come: For now we see
Sa a.Ough glass darkly, but then face to
90 Paul takes the responsibility of
asng that the Bible is an indistinct
san' iiT' and that its mission shall be
Laly suspended. I think there may
~ ohe bible in Heaven fastened to the
LoHe' just as now, in museum, we
nu. a'o a lamp exhumed from Herculane-
s.a' a " Nlneveh, and we look at it with
Ja' inS. interest and say: ''How poor a
on. sa' II must have given compared with
III. modern lamps" So 1 think that
in thi niole' which was lamp to our feet
otCn clis world, may lie near the throne
nitr exciting our interest to all eter-
nsr.y ~ the contrast between its COM
suVely sor feeble light and the illumina-
p.sO neaven. The Bible, now, is the
vbon buihg to the rising temple, but
non 'ne building is done there will be
shall ISe ior the scaffolding. The idea /
wor1, ueVelop to-day is, that in this
dim our knowledge is comparatively
less l. Hu unsatisfactory, but neverthe-
comn1. - introductory to grander and more
tnn tpiete vision. This is eminently
bes, N regard to our view of God. We
Ind - much about God that we con-