Dodge City times., 1889-11-28

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage preached to q
large congregation in the city Of Rome;
from the text. Acts 19, q: Il must also
see Rome. A full report Of the sermon
follows:
Here ID Paurs itinerary. He was q
travelling or circuit preacher. He had
been mobbed and insulted, and the more
good he did the worse the world t.eated
him. But he went right on. Now he
proposes to go to Jerusalem and says:
After that l must also see Rene Why
did he want to sec this wonderful CITY
in which AM to- day permitted to stand?
To preach the Gospel" you answer.
No doubt Of it, hut there were other
ressons why he wanted to see Rome. A
man of Paufs intelligence and classic
taste had fifty other reasons for wanting
to see it. Your Colosseum was at that
time in process of erection, and he
| wanted to see it. The Forum was even
then an old structure, and the eloquent
| apostle wanted to see that building in
which eloquence had SO often thundered
and wept. Over the Appian Way the
triumphal professions had already
marched for hundreds of years, and he
wanted to see that. The Temple of
Saturn was already an antiquity. and he
wanted to BEE that. The architecture Of
the world renowned city, he wanted to
Bee that. The places associated with
! the triumphs, the cruelties, the disas-
ters, the wars. the military genius, the
poetic and the rhetorical fame of this
great city, he wanted to see them. A
man like Paul, SO many sided, SO SYM
pathetic, SO emotional, SO full of anal
NJ - A.
the antiquities and eplendoss which
being, And With what thrill of interest
10 walked these streets, those only who
for the first time like ourselves enter
Rome can imagine. If the inhabitants
OF all Christendom we're gathered into
one plain, and it were put to them
which two cities they weuld aboee 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 its surroundings
when it says, Paul purposed in the
spirit when he had passed through
Macedonia and Achaia to go to
Jerusalem, saying: ''After that 1
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, I
am on the way to Palestine. Since ieav.
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 hastened
on, for said before starting that while
was going to see Jerusalem must also
see Rome. Why do 1 want to see it?
Because l want, by visiting regions as
ta1 hn ~
Gentiles, to have nv faith in Christi
anity confirmed. There are those who
will go through large expenditure to
have their faith weakened. In my native
land l have known persons of very lim-
tied means to pay fifty cents or dollar
to hear lecturer prove that our Chris
tian religion is a myth, dream, acheat,
a lie. On the contrary, will give all
the thousands of dollars that this jour
ney of my family will cost no have ad-
ditional evidence that our Christian
religion il an authenticated grandeur, o
solemn, q JOYOUS. q rapturous, stu
pendous, a magnificent fact. So l want
to see Rome. want you to show me
the places connected with Apostolic
ministry. l have heard that, In yodr
city and amid its suffc findings, apostles
suffered and died for Chfist's sake. My
con mon sense tells me that people do
not uis for the sake of falsehood
They may practice deception for the
purpose of gain, but 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 anything can gain
by losing it. l hear you have in this
city Paurs dungeon. Show it to me. 1
must see Rome also. While 1 am in
terested in this city because of her rul-
ers or her citizens who are mighty in
history for virture, or vice, or talents,
ROmulus, and Caliguli, and Cincin-
natus, and Vespasian, and Coriolanus,
and Brutus, and a hundred others 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 the defer of Agfippa, and the hero
OF the shipwrecked vessel in the break
ers of Melita, and the man who held
higher than any one that the world ever |
saw the torch of Resurrection, lived,
and preached, and was massacred here. |
Show me every place connected with his !
memory. must also see Rome.
But my text suggests that in Paul there |
was the inquisitive and curious spirit. |.
Had my text only meant that he wanted |
to preach here he would have said SO. |
Indeed, in another place, he declared: i
:! am ready to preach the Gospel to You !
suggests sight Seeing. This man who /;
had been under DR.. Gamaliel had NO lack |
of pbraseologt, and WAS used to saying
exactly what he meant, and he said: Il
must also see Rome" There is such |
thing as Christian curiosity. Paul had |
1t and some of us have it. About other |
peoples business l have NO curiosity. |
About all that can confirm my faith in I
the Christian religion and the worlds
salvation and the souls future hsppi- !
ness, l am full of an all absorbing, all |
compelling curiosity. Paul had great |
curiosity about the next world, and SO !
have We. hope some day, by the grace |
of God, to 60 over and see for myself; |
but not now. No we'll man, no pros
pered man, think, wants to go now.
But the time will come, think, when I |
shall go over. want to see what they |
do there, and 1 want to see how they do |
it. do not want to be looking through
the gates ajar forever. I want them to |
swing wide open. There are ten thou
sand things l want explained-about |
You, about myself, about the govern
sASAs Va s0Ao wOIAus uOOuS UOus 6UOut
everything. We start in plain path of !
what We know, and in minute come up
against a high wall of what we do not |
know. wonder how it looks over there.
Somebody tells me it is like paved
city-paved with gold; and another man
tells me 1t is like fountain, and it is
like a tree, and it is like q triumphal
procession: and the next man meet
tells me it is all 6gurative. really
want to know. after the body is resur-
fected, what they wear and what they
eat; and have an unreasonable curios-
ity to know what it is, and how it is,
and where it is. Columbus risked his
life to find the American continent,
and shall We shudder to 90 out on a
voyage of discovery which shall reveal
q vaster and more brilliant country?
John franklin risked his life to find q
passage between icebergs, and thall
We dread to find q passage to eternal
summary Mo~ in