The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-11-27

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 penciled, the sculpture
they chiseled, the roads they laid out, un-
derstand, are yet to be seen, and we want you
to show them to US. can hardly wait until
/ Monday morning. I must also see Rome.
We want to be impressed with the fact that
| what men do on a small scale or large scale
lasts thousand years, lasts forever, that we
build for eternity and that we do so in very
short space Of time. God is the only old liv-
any of the infirmities or limitations Of
! old age. There is a passage Of Scrip
ture 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 Neyadas were born, but
before the birth of those mountains the Bible
tells us, God was born, aye was never born
at all, because He always existed. Psalm
xc, 2: "Before the mountains were brought
forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth
and the world, even from everlasting to ever
lasting, Thou art God" How short is human
life, what antiquity attaches to its worth!
How everlasting is God! Show us the antiq-
uities, the things that were old when Amer
lea was discovered, old when Paul went up
Christ was born. I must I must also see
Rome!,,
Another reason for our visit to this CITY is
that we want to see the places where the
mightiest intellects and the greatest natures
wrought for our Christian religion. We have
been told in America by some people Of
swollen heads that the Christian religion is a
pusillanimous thing, good for children under
years Of age and small Drained people, but
not for the Intelligent and swarthy minded.
We have heard Of your Constantine the
mighty, who pointed his army to the cross,
saying: by this conquer" If there be
anything here connected with his reign or
his military history. show it to us. The
mightiest 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 tremendous 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 may
see where he went out to die. We expect
before we finish this journey to see Lake
and Andrew Ashed, and perhaps we
may drop net or a hook and line into
those waters ourselves, but when fol-
lowing the track of those lesser apos-
ties I will learn quite another lesson I
want whileil this city of Rome to study the
religion oE the brainiest Of the apostles. I
want to follow, as far as we can trace it, thu
wanted to see Rome also. He was a log-
clan, he was metaphysician, he was an all
conquering 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 Sanhedrim, he made it
trcmble. He learned all he could get in the
school of his native village, then he had gone
to higher school, and thero had mastered
the Greek and the Hebrew and per-
ter years. he astounded the Cretans. and
the Corinthians. and the Athenians, by quo
tations from their own authors. I have
never found anything in Carlyle, or Goethe,
or Herbert Spencer that could compare in
strength or beauty with Pauls epistles. I do
not think there is anything in the writings
of Sir William Hamilton that show such
mental discipline as you find in Pauls argu-
ment about Justification and resurrection. I
have not found anything in Milton finer in
the way Of imagination than I can find
in Paups illustrations drawn from tho
amphitheatre There was nothing in
Robert Emmett pleading for HE life,
or in Edmund Burke arraigning Warren
Hastings in Westminster Hall, that COM
pared with the scene in the court room when,
before robed officials Paul bowed and began
his speech, saying: II think myself happy,
King Agrippa, because 7 shall answer for
myself this day" repeat, that religion
that can capture man like that must have
some power in it. 1t is time our wiseacres
stopped talking as though all the brains of
the world were opposed to Christianity:
am glad to know that Christ has, in the diff.
ferent ages Of the world, had in
His discplesnip a Mozart and a Han
del in music; Raphael and
Reynolds in painting; an Angelo and
Canova in sculpture; Rush and a Harvey
in medicine; Grotius and Washington in
craftsmanship; Blackstone, Marshall and
when the religion Of Christ will conquer all
the observatories and universities, and phil
osophy will, through her telescope behold
the morning star of Jesus, and in her labora-
tory see that 'tall things work together for
good" and with her geological hammer
discern the "Rock Of Ages" Oh, in
stead of covering and shivering when the
skeptic stands before us and talks of re-
ligon as though it were pusillanimous
thing-instead Of that, let us take out our
New Testament and read the story OF Paul
at Rome. or come and see this city for our
selves, and learn that it could have been no
weak Gospel that actuated such man, but
that it is an all-conquering Gospel Aye!
for all ages the power of God and the wis
dom of God unto salvation.
Men, brethren and fathers! I thank you
for this opportunity of preaching the Gospel
to you that are at Rome also. The churches
Of America salute you. Upon you who are,
like us, strangers in Rome, pray The pro
tecting and journeying care Of God. Upon
you who are resident hero, I pray grace
mercy and peace from God our Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ. After tarrying here
few days we resume our journey for Pales'
tine and we shall never meet again, eitherll
Italy or America, or what is called
the Holy Land, but there is holler
land, and there we may meet, saved by the
grace that in the same way saves Italian and
American, and there in that supernal cline.
after embracing Him who, by His sufferings
on the hill back of Jerusalem, made our
heaven possible, and given salutation to our
own kindred whose departure broke our
hearts on earth, we shall, I think, seek out
the travelling preacher and mighty hero OF
the text who marked out his journey through
Macedonia and Achaia to Jerusalem, saying:
"After I have been there, must also see
Rome"
Ex-senator JONES, of Florida, Is