The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-11-20

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yond where stop the highest peaks of
the the Alps, and when in that ascent
doomed to die stepped on the scaffold
and said in ioy. "Now, in ten minutes
1 know the great secret One minute
after the vital functions ceased the little
child that died last night knew more than
Paul himself before he died. Friends, the
exit from this world, or death, if you
please to call it, to the Christian is glori-
Gus explanation. 1t is demonstration. 1t
is illumination. 1t is sunburst. 1t is the
opening up OF all the windows. 1t is
shutting up the catechism of doubt, and
the unrolling of all the scrolls of positive
and accurate information. Instead OF
standing at the foot OF the ladder and
looking up it is standing at the top of the
ladder and looking down. 1t is the last
mystery taken out OF botany and geology
and astronomy and theology. Oh, will it
not be grand TO have all questions
answered. The perpetually recurring in
terrogation point changed for the mark of
exclamation. All riddles solved. Who
will fear 10 20 out on that discovery,
when all the questions are to be de-
cided which we have been discussing
all our lives? Who shall not clap his
hands in the anticipation OF that blessed
country, If it be no better than through
holy curiosity? As this Paul of my text
did not suppress his curiosity, we need
not suppress ours. Yes. / have an I'M
limited curiosity about all religious things,
and as the city of Rome was so intimately
connected with apostolic times, the incl
dents of which emphasize and explain
and augment the Christian religion, you
need not take it as an evidence of prying
spirit, but as the outbursting of Christian
curiosity when ! say Unjust also see Rome.
Our desire to visit this city is also inten-
sified by the fact that we want to be con-
tirmed in the feeling that human life is
brief, but its work lasts for centuries, in
deed 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 hundreds and thousands of
years old, but they are in Yellowstone
park, or California canon, and their archi-
lecture and masonry were by the omnipo-
tent 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 paint
ings they penciled, the sculpture they
chisled, the roads they laid out, I'M
derstand, are vet TO 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 what nen do on small scale or
large scale lasts a thousand years, lasts for
ever, that we build for eternity and that
we do so in a very short space of time.
God is the only living presence. But it Is
an old age without any OF the iDtirmltles
or limitations Of old age. There is a pas
sage of scripture which speaks of the birth
of the mountains, for there was a time
when the Andes were born, and the
Pyrenees were born, but before the birth
of these mountains, the bible tells
US, God was born, aye was never born
at all, because He always existed. Psalm
&c, ii, Before the mountains were brought
forth, or even thou hadst formed the
earth and the world even from everlast-
ing to everlasting, thou art God" How
short ishuman 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 sightseeing, old when Christ was
BOIu. 1 uluel, luuot ~ anu bCC INOllC.
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-brained people. but not for the in
telligent and swarthy-minded. We have
heard of your Constantine the mighty,
who pointed his army to the cross,
saying: "By this, conquer" II 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 if Won can where he was tried,
and which Of your roads leads out to 0stla.
that 1 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 fshed, and
perhaps we may drop net or hook and
line into those waters ourselves, but when
following the track of those lesser apostles
! will learn quite another lesson. l want
while in this city OF Rome to study the re-
ligion of the braipiest of the apostles. |
want TO follow, as far as we can trace it, the
track of this great intellect OF my text who
wanted to see Rome also. He was a logic
ian, he was metaphysician, he was an all
conqueringora he was poet of the high
est type. He had anature 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 higher school, and there he
mastered the Greek and the Hebrew and
perfected himself in bellies lettres, until in
after years, he astounded the Cretans, 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 PauPs
epistles. / do not think there is anything
in the writings of Sir William Hamilton
that shows such mental discipline as you
| find in Paul's argument about justification
and resurrection. / have not found any
thing in Milton finer in the way of imagi-
nation than l can find in Paul's illus
trations drawn from the amphitheater.
| There was nothing in Robert Emmett
/ pleading for his life, or in Edmund Burke
/ arraigning Warren Hastings in West
minister hail. that compared with the
| scene in the courtroom when, before
| robed officials, Paul bowed and be-
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