The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-11-20
Il MUST ALSO SEE ROME.
Or. TALMAesIN "THEeTeRNAL CITY,"
His First Sermon Abroad-why He and Paul
Wanted to Visit Rome, and Ses Its
Many Wonders Full Text
of the Discourse.


Klopsch, arrived in Rome Saturday, Nov.
9, and last Sunday the great Brooklyn di-
vine preachedto a large congregation from
the text, Acts xix. 81: 81 must also see
Rome" A full report of the sermon fol-
lows:
Here is Paups itenerary. He was trav-
cling or circuit preacher. He had been
mobbed and insulted, and the more good
he did the worse the world treated him.
But he went right on. Now he proposes
10 go to Jerusalem and says: AFTER that
i must also see Rome" Why did he want
TO visit this wonderful city in which am
to-day permitted to stand? ITO preach
the gospel, you answer. No doubt OF it,
but there were other reasons why he
wanted to see Rome. A man of Paul's in
telligence and classic taste had fifty other
reasons for wanting to see it. Your
Coliseum was at that time in process OF cree
ton, and he wanted to see it. The Forum
was even then an old structure, and the
eloquent apostle wanted to see that build
ing in which eloQuence had so often
Numbered and wept. Over the Appian
Way the triumphal professions had al
ready marched for hundreds of years, and
he wanted to see that The temple of
liberty was already an antiquity, and he
wanted to see that. The architecture OF
the world-renowned 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 IN
different to the antiquities and the splen-
dors 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 our
selves enter Rome can imagine. If
the inhabitants of all Christendom were
gathered into one plain, and it were
put to them which two cities they would
above all others wish to see, the vast ma
jority OF them would visit Jerusalem and
Rome. So we can understand something
Of the record of my text and its surround.
ing when it saws, Paul purposed in the
spirit when he had passed through Mace
donia and Ichaia to 90 to Jerusalem, say
4
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, 1 am on
the way to Palestine. Since leaving
Brooklyn, \. Y, this is the first place We
have stopped. Intermediate cities are at
tractive, but we have visited them in other
years, and we hasten on, for | said before
starting that while l was going to see
Jerusalem l must also see Rome. Why
do want to see it? Because l 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 expendi-
ture to have their faith weakened. In my
native land l have known persons of very
limited means to pay 90 cents or a
dollar to hear a lecturer prove that
our Christian religion is myth, dream,
cheat, lie On the contrary, will give
all the thousands OF dollars that this Jour
ney OF my family will cost 10 have adj
ditional evidence that our Christian re-
lgion is authenticated grandeur, a
solemn, a joyous. a rapturous, a stipend
GUS, magnificent tact. So | want TO see
Rome. want you 20 show me the places
connected with apostolic ministry. | have
heard that, IN your city and amid its sur
roundings, apostles suffered and died for
That people do not die for the sake of a
falsehood. They NAV practice deception
for purposes 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 anything can gain by losing
it. | hear you have in this city Paul's
dungeon. Show it 10 me. / must see
Rome also. While / am interested in this
city because OF her rulers or her
citizens who are mighty in history
Tor virtue or vice or talents
Romulus, and Caliguh, and Cincinnatus.
and Vespasian, and Corolanus and Brutus,
and hundred others whose names are
bright with an exceeding brightness, or
black with the deepest dye, most of all am
/ interested in this city because the
preacher of Mars hill. and the defer of
Agrippa, and 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 resurrec-
ton, lived and preached and was mas
sacred here. Show me every place con-
nected with His memory. / must also see
Rome.
But my text suggests that in Paul there
was the induisitive and curious spirit
Had my text only meant that he wanted
% preach mere ne NOulu nave SdlQ so. In
deed, in another place, he declared: 81
am ready TO preach the gospel to you who
are at Rome Also" But my text suggests
sightseeing This man who has been
under DIR. Gamaliel had no lack of phrase
ology,- and was used 10 saying ex-
actly what he meant and he said:
az must also see Rome" There is
such a thing as Christian curl
osity. Paul bad it and some OF us have it,
About other peoples business have no
curiosity. About all that can confirm my
faith in the Christian religion and the
worlds salvation and the souls future
happiness, / am full of an all absorbing,
all compelling curiosity. Paul had agreat
curiosity about the next world. and so
have we. i hope some day, by the grace
OF God, 10 90 over and see for myself; but
not now. No well man, no prosperous
man, think, wants to go now. But the
time will come, ! think, when shall go
over. want 10 see what they do there,
and / want TO see how they do it. l do
not want 10 be looking through the gates
ajar forever. want them to swing wide
open. There are 10000 things l want ex-
plained-about you, about myself, about
the government Of this world, about God,
about everything We start in a plain
path of whatiwe know, and in a minute
come up against high wall OF what we
do not know. | wonder how It looks over
to- Co,aab0Jw fol1a - HI