The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-12-04
TALMAGE AT ATHENS.
The Brooklyn Divine On His Pill
grinage to the Holy Land.
He breaches . Sermon to the AthcniaES
Based on TWO Passages cS IaoI'S
Epistle to the Corinthians
The Profound MySter-
les of Providence.

CWO passages i1C-Li l4.c L siItA-4-S Sp-7~>>''
I. Corinthians. i. Q: Eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard" and I. Corinthians. xiii,
2: s'For now we see through a glass,
darkly." The sermon was as follows:
Both these sentences were written by
the most illustrious merely human pc
ing the world ever saw, one who walked
these streets, and preached from yonoer
pile Of rocks. Mars Hill Though moro
classic associations are connected WIN
this city than with any other city under
the sun. because here Socrates, ana
Plato, and Aristotle, and Demosthenes,
and Pericles, and Herodotus, and Pytsla-
eoras, and Nenophon, and PraNitcIe
wrote, or chiseled, or taught, Or ehun-
dered, or sung, yet in my mind all those
men and their teachings were echpscd
BY Paul and the gospel he preached IN
this city and in your near by city OF
Corinth. Yesterday, standing on the olo
fortress at Corinth, the Acro-Corlnthus,
ont from the ruins at its base arose IN
nv imagination the old city, just as Paul
saw it. have been told that for sp1en-
dor the world beholds no such wonder
to-day as that ancient Co-lntn stano1ng
on the isthmus washed by both seas, the
one sea bringing tho commerce OF Eu-
rope, the other sea bringing the com
merce of Asia. From her wharves, IN
the construction of which whole king
6oms had been absorbed, war galleys
with three banks Of oars pushed out ana
confounded the navy yards Of all tho
world. Huge-handed mahclnery, sGch
as modern invention can not equal,
lifted ships from the sea on one
side and transported them across
the isthmus. and set them down N the
sea on the other side. The revenue otl-
GERS Of the city went down through the
olive groves that lined the beach 10 col
lect e tariff from all nations. The mlrth
of all people sported in her Isthm1an
games, and the beauty OF all lands sat
in her tneaterS, walked her portlcoS,
and threw itself on the altar OF her stu
pen6ous designations. Column and statue
and temple bewildered the beholder.
There were white marble fountains into
which, from apertures at the side, there
rushed waters e. crywhere known for
health giving qualities. Around these
basins, twisted into wreaths of stone,
there were all the beauties "c sculpture
and architecture. while ST, Ing, as II
to guard the costly display, was statue
of Hercules of FURNISHED Corinthian
brass. Vases of terra Gotta adorned the
cemeteries of the dead-vases so costly
that Julius Cesar. was not satisfied until
he had captured them for Rome. Armed
officials, the corinthari, paced up and
down to see that no statue was defaced,
no pedestal oyerthrown, no bas-rellef
touched. From the edge OF the city the
hill held its magnificent burdens Of col
umnstand towers and temples Q,ooO
slaves waiting at one shrine), and q cit
adel so thoroughly impregrable that
Gibraltar is a heap Of sand compared
with it. Amid all that strength and
magnifcence Corinth stood and defed
the world o, 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 heard songs floating from
morning porticos and melting in even
ing groves: they had passed their whole
lives among pictures and sculpture and
architecture and Corinthian brass. which
had been nodded and shaped until
there was no chariot wheel in which 1t
had not sped, and no tower in which it
had not glittere6, and no gateway that
Is had not adorned. An, it was a bold
thing for Paul to sta:.d there amid all
that and say: Cali this is nothing.
These sounds which come from the tenn
pie Of Neptune are not music compared
with the harmonies of which speak.
s1SSsss Ea.srs rushing in the basin Of
PY4eSe aSe not pt-ee--ssss
OF Bacchus and Mercury are not cN-
quisite. Your citadel Of Acro-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 a
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 Panl and the one written by Paul,
show US that we have very imperfect
eyesight, and that our day of vison is yet
to come For now We see through glass
.darkly, but then face to face. So Paul
takes the responsibility Of saying that
the Bible is an indistinct mirror, and
that its mission shall be finally sus-
pended. I think there may be one Bible
I'm Heaven fastened-to the throne. Just
as now, in a museum, We have lamp
exhumed from Herculaneum or Nineveh,
and we look at it with great interest,
and say: ssHow poor light it must have
given, compared with our modern
lamps. So 7 think that this Bible,
Z which was D lamp to our feet in this
world, may lie near the throne Of
God, exciting our interests to all etcr-
t>,y4 CT
paratiyely feeble light and the illumi-
nation Of Heaven. The Bible, now,
is the scafolding to the rising temple,
but when the building is done there will
be no use for the scaffolding. The idea
3 shall develop to-day is, that in this
Yor1d our knowledge is comparatively
dim and unsatisfactory, butnevertheless
IS Introductory to grander and more
complete vision. This is eminently true
in regard to our view of God. We near
so much about God that we conclude We
understand Him. He is represented as
having the tenderness of q father, the
frmness of :. Judge, the pomp of q king,
apSthe love Of mother. We hearaboSt
Him, talk about Him, write about Him.
We lisp His name in infancy, and it
trembles on the tongue of the diving oc-
togenarian. We think that we know
very much about Him. Take the attrib-
ute of mercy. Do we understand it?
The Bible blossoms all over with that
word-Mercy. 1t tspeaks again and again
Of the tender mercies OF God; Of the sure
mercies; of the great mereies, Of the
mercy that endureth forever, of tie null
titude Of His Ioercies.' And yet know
that the views we have Of this great be-
ing are most Indefinite, one-sided, and
incomplete. When at death the gates
shall fly open and we shall look directly
upon Him, how new and surprising! We
see upon canvass picture Of the nor1-
ing. We study the cloud in the sky, the
dew upon the grass, and the husband
man on the way to the field. Beautiful
.picJure Of the morning. But we rise at
daybroak and go u1on hill to see for
ourselves that which was represented to
US, While we look the mountains are