Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-11-23

THE ETERNAL CITY
The Great Brooklyn Divine
breaches to a Large Congre-
cation in Rome.
The First City Visited by the Tai
mage Party En- Route to
Palestine.
They Look With Amazement on
the Anticipated Ruins of h
Eternal City, Paul's Dun
geoD, Etc.
pol Must Also Sec Romc.,,

and Miss Taimage, with Mr., and Mrs.
Louis Kispsch, arrived in this city last
evening. Today the great Brookiy divine
preached to q large congregation from
the text Acts xix, 81: 81 must also see
Rome" A fun report of the sermon
follows:
Here Is Paul's itinerary. He was a
travelling or circuit preacher. lie had
been mobbed and insulted, and the more
good ne did the worse the world hated
him. But he went right on. Now he
proposes TO go to Jerusalem and says:
"After that | must also sec Rome"
Why did be want to visit this wonderful
city In which | am today permitted to
stand? $40 preach the Gospel" you
answer. TO doubt Of IL, but there were
other reasons why he wanted TO see
Rome. A man of Paul's intelligence
and classic taste had fifty other reasons
for wanting to see it. Your colosseum
was at that tins in process of erection,
and he wanted to sec it. The Forum
was even then an old structure, and the
eloquent apostle wanted 10 see that
building in which ~eloquence had so
often Numbered 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 an
tlQuity, 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 cruel
ties, the disasters. the wars, the mill
tary genius, the poetic and the rhetorical
fame OF this great city, he wanted TO see
them. A man like Paul, so many sided,
so sympathetic, SO emotional, so full Of
analogy, could not have been indifferent
20 the antiquities and the s~plendors
which move every rightly organized
human being. And with what thrill of
interest he walked these streets, those
only who for the tirsttime like ourselves
enter Rome can imagine. IL the inhabi-
tants Of all ChFistendom were gathered
into one plain, and 1t were put TO them
which two cities they would above all
Others wish 70 see, the yast 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:
Al. asses ss ss . %. .Ss aaso Via VIZ INV samify
and only for the purpose OF what we can
learn and the good we a get, l am on
the way to Palestine. Since leaving
Brooklyn, N. ", 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
l said before starting that while l was
going To see Jerusalem ] must also sec
Rome. Why do ] want to see it? Be-
cause l want. BY visiting regions assocl-
Ated with the great apostle to
tho Centiles, 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 i have
known persons Of very limited means to
pay so cents or 81 to hear o lecturer
prove that our Christian religion is a
myth, u dream, a cheat, a lie. On the
contrary, ! will give all the thousands
of dollars that this journey OF my fam
lily will cost to have additional evidence
hat Christian religion Is al au-
thenticated grandeur, a solemn, a joy
u a raptarous, a stupendous, a mag
n~tfcent fact. So l want to see Rome.
/ want yon to show me the places con
nected with apostolic ministry. baYe
heard that in your city amid its sur
roundings, apostles suffered and died
for CArist's sake. My common sense
tells me that people do not die for the
sake Of a falsehood. They may prac-
tice a deception for purpose OF gain, but
put tho sword to their heart, or arrange
the halter around their neck, or kindle
tho fire around their feet, and they
would say my life Is worth more than
anything | can gain by losing ii. /
hear you have in this city Pauls dun
geon. Show 1t 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 Caiiguli, and
Cincinnatus. and Vespasian, and Corio-
Janus, and Erutus, and q hundred others
whose nance are bright with an exceed
ing brightness, or black with the deep
est dye, most Of all l am interested in
this city because the preacher OF Mars
hall, the defer OF Agrippa, and the hero
Of the shipwrecked vessel in the break
erB of Melita, and the man who held
higher than anyone that the world ever
raw the torch al resurrection. lived, and
preached and was massacreed here.
Show me every place connected with his
memory. i must also Q Rome.
But my text suggests that in Paul
there was tho inquisitive and curious
spirit. Had my text only meant that
no wanted to preach hare he would have
said SO. Indeed. in another place he
declared: 81 am ready 20 preach the
gospel to you who are at Rome also"
But my text suggests o sight seeing.
This man who had been under DIR. Gam
aliel had no lack Of phraseolcgy, and
wa used to saying exactly what he
m0ant, AYd he said: ~ must also see
Rome" There Ia such q thing as Chris
tian earnestly. Paul had 1t and so11o u,
US have Il. About other peoples BUSH
ness l have no curiosity. About all
that can eonfirm my faith in tho Chris
tinn religion and the worlds salvation
and the souks future happiness, ! am
full OF IN All sbsorbipg, ell compelling
e~uyiOsity, Paul had . great curiosity
ahout the next world, and 80 hsys we.