The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1889-11-14

way up, stumble and fall down in
horrible massacre. They just wanted
to say they had been on the tops of
those high peaks. And shall we fear
to go out for the ascent of the eternal
bills which start thousand miles be-
yond where stop the highest peaks
Of the Alps, and when in that
ascent there is no perilf A
man doomed to die stepped on the
scaffold, and said In joy: Now, In
ten minutes I will 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 glo-
rious explanation. 1t is demonstra-
ton. 1t is illumination. 1t is sun
burst. 1t is the opening of all the
windows. 1t is shutting up the cate
chism of doubt, and the unrolling Of
all the scrolls of positive and accuratev
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 mys-
terry taken out of botany and geol-
ogy and astronomy and theology. Oh,
will it not be grand to have all ques-
tions answered. The perpetually re-
curing interrogation point changed
for the mark of exclamation. ALI
riddles solved. Who will fear to 90
out on that discovery, when all the
questions are to be decided which we
have been discussing all our livesi
Who shall not clap his hands In the
anticipation of that blessed country, II
it be no better than through holy GU
riosity2 AS this Paul of my text did
not suppress his curiosity, we need not
suppress ours. Yes, I have an unlimit-
ed curiosity about all religious things,
and as this city of Rome was 80 init
mately connected with apostolic times,
the incidents of which emphasize and
explain and augment the Christian re-
ligion, you will not take it as an evi-
dence of prying spirit, but as the out
bursting of Christian curiosity when
/ say must also see Rome.
DESIRE TO BE CONFIRMED IN THE FU-
TURE.
Our desire to visit this city is also
intensified by the fact that we want
to be confirmed in the feeling that
human life is brief, but its work lasts
for centuries, indeed forever There
fore, show us the antiquities of old
Rome, about which we have been
reading for 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 hun
dreds and thousands of years old, but
they are in Yellowstone park, or Cali
fornian canon, and rheir architecture
and masonry were by the omnipotent
God. We want to see the buildings,
or ruins of old buildings, that were
years ago by human hands. They
lived forty or seventy years, but the
arches they lifted, the paintings they
penciled, the sculpture they chiseled,
the roads they laid out, understand,
are yet to be seen, and we want you
to show them to us. l can hardly
wait until Monday morning. must
also see Rome. We want to be im-i
pressed with tho fact that what
men 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 very short space of
time. God is the only old living pres
ence. But it is an old age without
any of the infrmities or limitations Of
old age. There is passage of Scrip
ture which speaks of the birth of the
mountains, for there was time when
the Andes were born, and the Pyre-
nees were born, and the Sierra Ne
vadas were born, but before the birth
of those mountains the Bible tells us,
God was born, aye was never born at
all, because he always existed. Psalm
xc, 2: Before the mountains were
brought forth, or ever thou hadst form
ed the earth and the world, even from
everlasting to everlasting, thou art
God" How short is human life, what
antiquity attaches to its worthl How
everlasting is Godi Show us the an
tiquities, the things that were old when
America was discovered, old when
Paul went up and down these streets
sight seeing, old when Christ was born.
| must, l must also see Romel
CHRISTIANITY FOR STRONG MEN.
! 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 Chris
tan religion. We have been told in
America by some people Of swollen
heads that the Christian religion Is a
pusillaninOus thing, good for children
under years of age and small BRAIN
ed people, but not for the intelligent
and swarthy minded. We have heard
of your Constantine the mighty, who
pointed his army to the cross, saying:
''By this conquer" If there be any
thing here connected with his reign or
his military history, show 1t to us.
The mightiest intellect of the ages
was the author of my text, and,
if for the Christian religion he
was willing 10 labor and suffer
and die, there must be something
exalted and sublime and tremendous
! in il; and show me every place he
visited. and show me If you can where
he was tried, and which of your roads
leads out to Ostia, that may see where
he went out to die We expect before
we finish this journey to see Lake Gal
lice and the places where Simon, Peter
and Andrew fished, and perhaps we
may drop net or n hook and line into
those waters ourselves, but when fol-
lowing the track of those lesser apos-
ties will learn quite another lesson.
| want while in this city of Rome to
study the religion of the brainiest 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 logician, he was a
metaphysician, he was an all conquer
ing orator, he was a poet of the highest
type. He had a nature that could
swamp the leading men of his own
day, and, hurled against the Sanhe-
drim, he made it tremble. He learned
all he could get in the school of hi:
native village, then he had gone to 9
higher school, and there had mastered
the Greek and the Hebrew and per
fected himself in bellies lettres, until
in after years, he astounded the Gre
tans, and the Corinthians, and the
Athenians, by quotations from Their
own authors. ] have never foune
anything in Carlyle, or Goethe, or Her
bert Spencer that could compare IL
strength or beauty win Paul's epistlss
| do not think there iSanything in th'
writings of Sir William Hamilton tina
shows such mental discipline as 20,
find in Paurs argument about Iustifi
cation and resurrection. ! have no
found anything in Milton finer in th'
way Of imagination than can find IL
. Pauls illustrations drawn from tn
amphrtheatre. There was nothing IL
Robert Emmet pleading for his life
or in Edmund Burke arraigning War
; rem Hastings In Westminster Hall
that compared with the scene in tn,
court room when, before robed offi
cials, Paul bowed and began hi