Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-11-28
DR.. TALMAGE IN ATHENS.
PREACHING WHERE PAUL DID. HE
breaches ON PAUL's WORDS
Vivid Word Picture OF Ancient Corinth-
The Classical City Of Athens-ImPerfeci
vIsions-E,ernHy win Make Them Clear
PauI's AaticipatIons OF Heaven.

The Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage, of
Brooklyn, preached in the ancient city
Of Athens, on Sunday, Nov. "a, to q
group of friends, basing his discourse
on the following two passages from the
Pauline epistles: l Corinthians, ii, 8:
Eye hath nor seen, nor ear beard, and
Corinthians. xiii, 2: For now we see
through n glass, darkly." The sermon
was as follows:
Both these sentences were written by
the most illustrious merely human be-
ing 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 Aristotle, and Demosthenes,
and Pericles, and Herodotus, and Py-
thagoras, and Xenophon, and Praxiteles
wrote or ch!seled, or taught or thun-
dered or sung, yet in my mind all those
men and their teachings we're eclipsed
by Paul and the Gospel he preached in
this city and in your near by city of Cor
inth. Yesterday, standing on the old
fortress at Corinth, the Arco-Corinthus,
out from the ruins at its base arose in
my Imagination the old city, Just as Paul
saw it. / have been told that for splen-
dor the world beholds no such wonder
to- day as that ancient Corinth standing
on an isthmus washed by two seas, the
one sea bringing the commerce of
Europe, the other sea bringing the COM
merce of Asia. From her wharves, in
the construction of which whole king
doms 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
transported them on trucks across the
isthmus, and set them down on 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 1sthmian games
and the beauty of all lands sat in her
theaters, walked her porticos and threw
itself ON the altar of her stupendous
designations.
Column and statue and temple be-
wildered the beholder. There we're
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 ceme-
teries of the dead-yases so costly that
julius Caesar was not satisfied until he
had captured them for Rome. Armed
officials, the corintharii, paced up and
down to see that nc statue was defaced,
no pedestal overthrown, no bas- relief
touched. From the edge of the city the
hill held its magnificent burdens of
columns and towers and temples Q,O00
slaves Whiting at one shrine), and a
citadel so thoroughly impregnable that
Gibraltar is head of sand compared
with it. Amid all that strength and
magniicence Corinth stood and defied
the world. Oh! 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 hear.l 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 adorned. All,
it was o 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 harn1onies of
which I speak. These waters rushing
in the basin of Pyrene are not pure.
These statues of Bacchus 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 q
splendid city; you think you have heard
all sweet sounds and seen all beautiful
sights; but tell you eye hath not seen
nor ear heard, neither have entered 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 u
glass darkly, but then face to face. So
Paul takes the responsibility of saying
that the Bible is an indistinet mirror,
and that its mission shall be finally sus-
pended. I think there may be one
Bible in Heaven fastened to the throne.
| Just as now, in museum, we have q
| lamp exhumed from Herculaneum OF
Nineveh, and we look at it with great
interest and say: How poor 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 its compare
lively feeble light and the illumination
| of Heaven. The Bible, now, is the
scaffolding to- the rising temple, but
| when the building is done there will be
| no use for the scaffolding.
The idea shall develop to-day is,
that in this world our knowledge is COM
parativelv dim and unsatisfactory, but
nevertheless is Introductory TO grandel
and more complete vision. This il
eminently true in regard to our view OIL
| God. We hear so much about God thai
we conclude that we understand Him
He is represented as having the tender.
ness of father, the firmness CT judge
the pomp of king and the love of I
mother. Q hear about Him, talk about
Him, write about Him. We lisp His
name in infancy, and it trembles on tht
tongue of the dying octogenarian. W.
think that we know very much abou
Him. Take the attribute of mercy. d.
We understand it? The Bible blossom
i all over with that Rord-MercY. Il