Milford chronicle., 1889-11-15

CURING interrogation point cilanged Tor tne
mark Of exclamation. All riddles solved.
Who viii fear to go out on that discovery,
when all the questions are to be decided
which we have been discussing all our livesl
Who shall not clap his hands in the anticipa-
tion Of that blessed country, if it be no better
than through holy curiosityi As this Paul
of my text did not suppress his curiosity, we
need not suppress ours Yes, have an un-
limited curiosity about all religious things,
and as this city Of Rome was so intimately
connected with apostolic times, the incidents
Of which emphasize and explain and augment
the Christian religion, you viii not take it'as
an evidence Of a prying spirit, but as the out
bursting Of a Christian curiosity when say
must also see Rome.
CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES OF ROME.
Our desire TO visit this city is also intensi.
fed by the fact that we want TO be confirmed
In the feeling that human life Is brief, but
its work lasts for centuries, indeed, forever.
Therefore show US the antiquities OF old
Rome, about which we have been reading
for a lifetime, but never seen. In our beloved
America, we have no Antiquities. A church
eighty years old overawes US with its age.
We have in America some cathedrals hun
dreds and thousands Of years old, but they
are in Yellowstone Park, or Californian
canon, and their architecture and masonry
were by the omnipotent God. We want TO
see the buildings, or Fuins 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 sculp-
ture they chiseled, the roads they laid out
understand are yet 70 be seen, and we
want you to show them to us. can
hardly wait until Monday morning. ]
must also see Rome. We want to be
impressed with the fact that what
men do on small scale or large
scale lasts a thousand years, lasts forever,
that we build for eternity and that we do SC
in very short spsce Of time. God is the
only old living presence. But 1t is an old
age without any Of the inhrmities or limita.
tions of old age. There is a passage Of Scrip
ture which speaks Of the birth of the noun
tains, for there was time when the Andei
were born, and the Pyrenees were born, and
the Sierra Nevadas 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 everlasting,
thou art God.n How short Is human life,
what antiquity attaches to its WORTH How
everlasting is God Show us the antiquities,
the things that were old when America was
discovered, old when Paul went up and down
these streets sight seeing, old when Christ
was born must, must also see Romel
THE PAULINE INTELLECT.
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
seven years of age and small Drained people,
but not for the intelligent and swarthy mind
ed. We have heard Of your Constantine, the
mighty, who pointed his army to the cross,
saying, by this conquer" If there be any
thing here connected with his reign, or his
military history, show it to U.S. The might
lest intellect of the ages was the author ol
my text and if for the Christian religion he
was willing to labor and suffer and die, there
naust 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 l may see where he went out
to die. We expect before we finish this
journey to see Lake Galilee and the
places where Simon Peter and Andrew fished,
and perhaps we may drop net or a hook and
line into those waters ourselves, but when
following the track of those lesser apostles
will learn quite another lesson. / want
while in this city of Rome to study the relg.
ion OF the brainiest Of the apostles. want
to follow, as far as we can trace it, the track
,N
to see Rome also. He was a logician, he was
a metaphysician, he was an ell conquering
orator, he was poet ofthe highest type. He
had nature that could swamp the leading
men Of his own day, and, hurled against the
Sanhedrim, he made it tremble. He learned
all he could get in the school OF his native
village then he had gone to a higher school,
and there had mastered the Greek and the He
brew and perfected himself in bellies lettres,
until, in after years, he astounded the Gre
tans, and the Corinthians, and the Athenians,
by quotations from their own authors. ]
have never found anything in Carlyle,
or Goethe, or Herbert Spencer that
could compare in strength or beauty
with Paul's epistles. do not think
there is anything in the writings of Sir
William Hamilton that shows such men
tai discipline as you find in Paurs argument
about justification and resurrection. l have
not found anything in Milton finer in the
way Of imagination than can find in Paul's
illustrations drawn from the amphitbeatre
There was nothing in Robert Emmett plead
ing for his life, or in Edmund Burke arraign-
ing Warren Hastings in Westminster hall
that compared with the scene in the court
room, when, before robed officials, Paul
bowed and began his speech, saying; u
think myself happy King Agrippa, because
l shall answer for myself this day" re-
peat that a religion that can capture man
like that must have some power in it. 1t is
time our wiseacres stopped talking as though
all the brain of the world were opposed to
Christianity. Where Paul leads, we can af
ford TO follow. I am glad to know that
Christ has, in the different ages of the
world, had in his discipleship a Mozart
and a Handel in music; a Raphael and
q Reynolds in painting; an Angelo and
a Canovo in sculpture; a Rush and = Har-
vey in medicine; Grotius and a Washing
ton in craftsmanship; a Blackstone, Mar
shall and a Kent in the law And the time
will come when the religion Of Christ will
conquer all the observatories and universi-
ties, and philosophy will, through her tele-
scope, behold the morning star OF Jesus, and
In her laboratory see that ''all things work
together for good, and with her geological
hammer discern the Rock Of Ages" Oh,
instead or covering ana snIverfng when the
skeptic stands before Us and talks Of religion
as though it were pusillanimous thing-in-
stead Of that, let us take out our New Testa-
ment and read the story Of Paul at Rome, or
come and see this city for ourselves, and learn
that it could have been no weak Gospel that
actuated such man, but that It is an all con-
quering Gospel Ayei for all ages the power
Of God and the wisdom OF God unto saliva
tion.
CONCLUDING ExHoRTATIoN.
Men, brethren and fathersi 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 protecting
and journeying care Of God Upon you who
are resident here, pray grace, mercy and
peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. After tarrying here few days
we resume our journey for Palestine, and we
shall never meet again either Ia Italy or
America or what is called the Holy Land, but
there is a Holier Land, and there we may
meet, saved by the grace that In the same