Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-12-05
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Brooklyn Preacher Talks to
the People Of Athens.
The Mysteries of the Divine Economy
VIII One Day be Made Clear. and
Things Now Dark Shall be
as Light as Day.

clan capital, where Paul formerly
preached to tie Athenia1s. His texts
were:
Eye hath not seen nor ear heard.-L Cor
inthians, IT,, g.
For now we see through a glass darkly.-
1. Corinthians. xiii.,2
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 her Socrates, and
Plato. and Aristotle, and Demosthenes,
and Pericles, and Herodotus, and Py-
thagoras, and Xenophon, and Praxiteles
wrote or chiseled, or taught, or thun-
dered, or sung, yet in my mind all those
men and their teachings were eclipsed
by Paul and the Gospel he preached in
this city and the nearby city of Cor
NTH. Standing on the old fortress
at Corinth, the Acro-Corinthus,
out from the ruins at its
base arose in my imagination the old
city just as Paul saw it. l have been
told that for splendor the world beholds
no such wonder to-day as that ancient
Corinth, standing on an isthmus washed
by two seas, the one bringing the COM
merce of Europe, the other sea bringing
the commerce of Asia. From her
wharves, in the construction of which
whole kingdoms had been absorbed, war
galleys with three banks of oars pushed
out and COMPOUNDED the navy yards of
all the world. Huge-handed machinery,
such as modern invention can not equal,
lifted ships from the sea on one side and
transported them on trucks across the
isthmus 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 all nations. The mirth of all
people sported 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
sipations.
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 wreaths 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
,ules 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
I for Rome. Armed officials, the Corinth-
arii, 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 Ia 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
Torinth stood and defied the world. Oh!
lit was not to rustics who had never seen
any thing grand that Paul uttered one
If my texts. They had heard the best
music that had come from the best in
;truments in all the world; they had
heard songs floating from morning por-
5icos and melting in evening groves; they
| aad passed their whole lives among pict-
Tres, 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,
Icl o1 ,A4
sered, 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
his is nothing. These sounds that
come from the Temple of Neptune are
not music compared with the harmonies
If which l speak. These waters rush
These statues of Bacchus and Mercury
ire not exquisite. Your citadel of Aero
Corinthus is not strong compared with
that which l offer to the poorest slave
that puts down his burden at the brazen
gate. You Corinthians think this is
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 en-
sered into the heart of man, the things
which God hath prepared for them that
owe Him" Indeed, both my texts, the
one spoken by Paul and the one written
by Paul, show US that we have very i'm
perfect eyeSight, and that our day of
vision 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 suspended. l think there may
be one Bible in Heaven fastened to the
throne. Just as now, in museum, we
have lamp exhumed from Herculane-
UNI or Nineveh, and we look at it with
great interest and say: "How poor a
light it must have given compared with
our modern lamps" So l 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 eter-
nifty by the contrast between its COM
paratively feeble light and the illumina-
ton 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 comparatively
dim and unsatisfactory, but neverthe-
less is Introductory to grander and more
complete vision. This is eminently
true in regard to our view of God. We
hear so much about God that we con-
clude that we understand Him. He is
represented as having the tenderness of