The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-11-27
!TALMAGE IN ROME
The Brooklyn Divine breaches q
Sermon to the Romans
He Tells Why He Wanted to Go Over the
Ground that Paul Had Traversed-.
w The Crest Apostle aAd His
Work In the Cause OF
L Christianity.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage preached re-
Gently to large congregation in Rome
from the text, Acts xix, 81: 81 must
also see Rome" Following is full re-
port of the sermon: i.7 1919
Here is Paul's itinerary. He was q
travelling or circuit preacher He had
been mobbed and insulted, and the more |
good he did the worse the world treated
him. But he went right on. Now he
proposes to 60 to Jerusalem and says: |
"After that I must also see Rome"
Why did he want to visit this wonderful
city in which am to-day permitted to
stand? "To preach the gospel" you
answer. No,doubt of it, but there were
other reasons why he wanted TO see
Rome. "A man of Pau1's Intelligence and
classic taste had fifty other reasons for
wanting to see it. Your Coliseum was
at that time in process of erection. and
he wanted to see it. The Forum was
even then an old structure, and the elo-
quent apostle wanted to see that build
ing in which eloquence had so often
Numbered and wept. Over the Appian
Way the triumphal professions had al
ready marched for hundreds Of years,
and he wanted to see that. The Temple
Of Saturn was already an antiquity, and
he wanted to see that. The architecture
of the world-renowned city, he wanted
to see that. The places associated with
the triumphs, the cruelties, the disas-
tiers, the wars, the military genius, the
poetic and rhetorical fame of this great
city, he wanted to see them. A man
like Paul, so many sided, so sympathetic,
90 emotional, 80 full analogy, could
not have Been Indifferent to the an
tiquities and the splendors which move
every rightly organized human being
And with what thrill of interest he
walked these streets those only who for
the first time like ourselves enter Rome
can imagine. If the inhabitants of all
Christendom were gathered into one
plain, and it were put to them which
Two cities they would above all others
wish to see, the vast majority of them
would vote Jerusalem and Rome. So
we can understand something of the
record of my text and it's surround
ings when it says, Paul proposed IN
the spirit when he Had passed through.
Macedonia and Acbaia to go to Jeru-
salem, saying: "After that must
also see Rome" AS some of you are
aware, with my family and only for the
purpose of what we can learn and the
good we can get, am on the way to
Palestine. Since leaving Brooklyn, n.
Y, this is the firstplace we have stopped.
intermediate cities are attractive, but
we have visited them in other years,
and we hasten ON, for ! said before start
ing that while I was going to see Jeru-
| oo1aro I mnSf nj On COO Roma Whu do
want to see it? Because l want, by WIS.,
iting regions associated with the great
apostle to the gentiles, to have my faith
in Christianity confirmed. There are
those who will go through large expen-
my native land have known persons Of
very limited means to pay fifty cents or
a dollar to hear lecturer prove that
our Christian religion is myth, a dream,
q cheat, a lie. On the contrary, l will
give all the thousands of dollars that
this journey of my family will cost to
have additional evidence that our Chris
tan religion is an authenticated grand
eur, solemn, a joyous, rapturous, a
stupendOus, magnificent fact So
want to see Rome. want you to show
me the places connected with apostolic
ministry. / have heard that in your city
and amid its surroundings apostles suf-
fered and died for Christ's sake. My
common sense tells me that people do
not die for the sake of a. falsehood. They
may practice deception for purposes Of
gain, nut put the sword to their heart
or arrange the halter around their neck,
or kindle the fire around their feet and
they would say: 'My life is worth more
than any thing ! can gain by losing it,
Ihpar you have in this city Paul's dun
geon. Show it to me. l must see Rome
also. While l am interested in this city
because of her rulers or her citizens who
are mighty in history for virtue or vice
or talents, Romulus, and Caligula, and
Cincinnatus and Vespasian, and Corio.
Janus, and Brutus, and hundred others
whose names are bright with an exceed
ing brightness, or black with the deepest
dye, most of all am interested in this
city because the preacher of Mars Hill
and the defer of Agrippa, and the hero
of the shipwrecked vessel in the break
ers of Melita, and the man who helt
higher than any one that the world evei
saw the torch of Resurrection, lived
and preached, and was massacred here
. Show me every place connected with hi,
memory. must also see Rome.
But my text. suggests that in Pau
there was an inquisitiye and curious
spirit. Had my text only meant that h,
wanted to preach here he would hav,
said so. Indeed, in another place hi
i. declared: 81 am ready to preach tn,
gospel to you who are at Rome" Blu
my text suggests . Sightseeing Thi
man who had been under DR., Gamalie
had 40 lack Of phraseology. and wa
used saying exactly what he meant
and be said: 81 must also see Rome.
, There Is such thing as Christian curl
osity.s Paul had it and some of us hav
it. About other peoples business hav
no curiosity. About all that can confirm
my, faith in the Christian religion an,
the worlds salvation and the souls flu
4 ture happiness, am full of an allah
sorbing, all-compelling curiosity. Pau
! had great curiosity about the mex
|, world, and so have we. hope some day
I by the grace of God, to go over and Sc
Tor myself, but not now. No we'll man
NO prosperous man, think, wants to q
InOw. But the time will come, think
: when shall 60 over. ] want to see wha
Y they do there, and I want to see no,
B they do it. | do not want 10 be lookin
1 through the gates aiar forever. wan
! Ithem to swing wide open. There are te
thousand things l want explained
! about you, about myself, about the go,
eminent of this world. ABOUT God, .abou
1 every thing. We start in plain pat
: Of what we know, and in minute con-,
!, up against high wall of what we
. not know. wonder how it looks owe
fhoro SomahnHv tn1ls mo II ic lilo