The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-11-16
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
a Greeting to the Christians of
the Eternal City.
Ahe brooklyn Pastor, Like st. Paul Of
oid' Visits the Christians at Rome,
Carrying Them Words OF
Good Cheer,

carrying Ihem Words OF
Good Cheer.
Ihe following is tho discourse on
Kew. I. Dewitt Talmage's programme
Tor delivery at Rome, which is predicat-
ed on the follow text:
Unjust also see Rome.-Acts xix, 81.
Hero is Paul's Itinerary. He was a
travelling or circuit preacher. He had
been mobbed and insultod, and the
moro good he did the worse the world
treated him. But he went right on.
Now he proposes to go to Jerusalem,
n says: "After that | must also see
Rome" Why did he want to visit
this wonderful city in which | am to-day
permitted TO stand? ITO preach the
Gospel" you answer. No doubt Of it;
but thcro were other reasons why he
wanted to SEQ Rome. A man Of Paul's
intelligence and classic taste had fifty
other reasons for wanting to see it.
your Colosseum was at that time in
process OF erection, and no wanted to
see 1t. The Forum was ever then an
Old structure, and the eloquent apostle
wanted to see that building in which
~eloquenco had so often Numbered and
wept. Over the Appian Way tho tri-
umphal professions had already
marched for hundreds OF years, and he
wanted to see that, The Temple
OF Saturn was already an antiquity,
n he wanted to see that. The ar
chitecture of the world-renowned city,
he wanted to sec that. The places as
ISOLATED with the triumphs, tho cruel
ties, the disasters, the wars, the mill
tary genius, tho poetic and the rhe-
torical fame of this great city, he
wanted to see them. A man like Paul,
SO many sided, so sympathetic, so emo
tional, so full of analogy, could not have
been Indifferent to the antiquities and
the splendors which move every rightly
organized human being. And with what
thrill of interest he walked these
streets, those only who for tho first time
.@tka o4r<tivgs enter Rome can imagine.
n thft4hRbitan of all C~hristendom
%9re tKatff1ed into one plain, and It
Wete npt To thom which two cities they
would Aboyea all others wish to soc, the
vast majority OF them would vote Jeru-
salem and Rome. So we can under
stand something of tho record of my
text and its surroundings when 1t says,
Paul ~purposed in the spirit when he had
passed through Macedonia and Achaia
to go to Jerusalem, saying: AFTER that
! must also see Rome"
AS some of you are aware, with my
family, and only for tho purpose of what |
we can learn M the good we can get, i
am on the way to Palestine. Since leav-
ing Brooklyn, N. Y, this is the first
place we have stopped. intermediate
cities are attractive, but we have visited
them in other years, and we fastened
on, for | said before starting that while
] was going to see Jerusalem | must also
see Rome. Why do I want to see it?
Because | want by visiting regions asso-
ciatod with the great apostle, to see the
Gentiles, to have my faith in Christianity
confirmed. There are those who will go
through large Expenditure to have their
faith weakened. In my native land !
have known persons of very limited
means to pay fifty cents or a dollar to
hear q lecturer prove that our Christian
religion is. q myth, q dream, a cheat, a
lie. On the contrary. T. will give the
thousnndf u DOT nf& IAatth journey Of
my fefs}3y &iiI1 cost VI have additional
evidhpca 3hat our Christian religion is
an'autbontic1ted grandeur. q solemn, a
Joyous, rapturous. a ~stupendous, a
magnificent fact.
So | want to see Rome. l want you
to show me the places connected with
apostolic ministry. ] have heard that
in your city and amid it's surroundings
apostles suffered and died for Christ's
sake. My common sense tells me that
people do not die for the sake of a false
hood. They may practice n deception
the purpose OF gain. but put the
sword to their heart, or arrange the hal
ter around their neck, or kindlo a fire
around their feet, and they would say
cangain 10y losing it. | hear you have
in this city Paul's dungeon. Show it to
me. ] must see Rome also. While I am
in this city because OF her citi-
zens who are mighty in history or virtue,
vice or talents, Romulas, and Caligu-
la, and Cincinnatus, and Vespasian, and
Coriolanus. and Brutus, and a hundred
whose names are bright with an
exceeding brightness, or black with the
deepest dye, most of all am | interested
In this city because the preacher of Mars
Hill, and defer Of Agrippa, and the hero
Of the shipwrecked vessel in the break
ers OF Melita, and the man who held
thar any one that the world ever
saw the torch of Resurrection, lived
and preached and was massacrod
here. Show me every place connected
his memory ] must also see
But my text suggests that in Paul
was tho inquisitive and curious
spirit. Had my text only meant hat no
To preach hero. he would have
said so Indeed, in another place, he
declared: Il am ready to preach the
gospel to you who are at Rome also.'
But my text suggests q sightseeing. Z
This man who had been under DIR. GntHr3
aliel had no lack of phraSrolo<<3 q
was used to saying what he 1r41t<<
said: II must al3<<Es o
There is such a thint
Paul hid t1t z6ze 81 US have
It. Aboufgpttef hssiness have
no curis4 sd Nat can o
Cd 8..sz 81 .h< Nhristian religion
md lie H3fi4 salvation n the souls
'af,ft<t 1~arBiness am full Of an allah
.tfE;ht. aiLcompcling curiosity. Paul
bad . great curiosity about tho next
world, and so have we. / hope some
lay by the grace of God. to go over and
for myself. but not now. No well
no prospcred man, i think. wants
10 go now. But the time will come, ]
think, when / shall go over. ] want to
see what they do there, and ! want To
sec how they do 1t. do not want To be
through the gates ajar forever.
[ want them ~ swing right open. There
lre ten thousand things 1 want ex-
,lained-about you, about myself, about
he government Of this world, about
3od, about every thing. We start in a
,iain path of what VIZ know and In a
minute come up against a high wall OF
that we do not know.
i wonder how It looks oyer there.
Somebody tells me 1t is like a paved
with gold; and another man
ellis me it is like q fountain, and It is
ike a treo, and It Is like a triumphal
procession; and the next man / meet
ellis me it Is all fgurative. / really
want to know, after the body is resur-
ected, what they wear and what they
and | have an unreasonable Curl
)sity TO know what IT. is, and how it Is,
md where it is. Columbus risked his
life to find the American continent, and
hall we shudder TO go out on a voyage
u discovery which shall reveal a vaster
md more brilliant country? John
franklin riskcd his life to find a passage