The Forrest City times., 1889-11-16

Joesstsps of the Apostle rasl--A Full ls-
 port
 Ten days after writing his letter on board the steamer city of Paris, announcing his departure for tho Holy Land, Roy. T. Do Witt Talmage spoke to large congregation in tho city of Rome, from the text Acts 19. 2l: II must also see Rome" A full report of the sermon folows;
 Hero Is Paurs itinerary. He was . or circuit preacher. He had boen mobbed and insulted, and the moro good he did tho worse the world treated him. Hut ho went right on. Now he proposes to go to Jerusalem and says: After that must also see Rome" Why did he want to visit this wonderful city in which I am to- day permitted to standi ITO preach the Gospel" you answer No doubt of 1t but there were othee reasons why he wanted to see Rome, A man of Paul's in telligence and classic taste had fifty other reasons for wanting 10 sec it Your Colos- scum was at that time in process of cree tion, and he wanted to sec 1t The Forum was even then an old structure, and the elo- Quent apostle wanted to see that building in which eloqucnce had So often thundered and wept Over the Appian Way the trium~hal processions had already marched for hun dreds of years, and he wanted to see that The Temple of Saturn was already an antiquity, and he wanted to sec that The architect. ure of the world renowned city. hc wanted to sec that. The places associated with the triumphs, the cruelties, tho disasters, tho wars, the military genius, the poetic and the rhetorical fame of this great city, he wanted to sec them. A man like Paul, % many sided, 30 sympathetic, so emotion al, SO full of analogy, could not have been indifferent to the antiquities and the splen- dors which move every rightly organized human being. And with what thrill of in terest he walked these streets, those only who for tho first timc like ourselves enter Rome can imagine If the inhabitants of all Christendom were gathered into one plain, and it wore 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 under. stand something of the record of my text and it's surroundings when 1t says, Paul in tho spirit when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem, saying: After that must also see Romen As some of you are aware, with my family and only Tor the purpose of what we can learn, and for the good wo can get, am on tho way to Palestine. Since leaving Brooklyn, N. Y, this is the first place we havo stopped. In cermediate cities nro attractive, but WIG have visited them In other years, and we hastened on, for said before starting that While was going to sec Jerusalem must nlso see Rome Why do l want to sec it, Because want by visiting regions asso- ciatcd with the great apostle to the Gen tiles, to have my faith in Christianity con- firmed. There are those who will go through large expenditure to have their faith weakened. In my native land l have known persons of very limited means 10 pay hfty cents or dollar to hear a lecturer prove that our Christian religion Is a myth, dream, a cheat, lie. On tho contrary, will give all the thousands or dollars that this Journey of my family will cost to have additional evidence that our Christian religion is m authenticated grandeur, a solemn, a joyous, a rapturous, stupendous, magnificent fact So want to see Rome l want you to show me the places connected with Apostolic minis try. 1 have heard that in your city and amid its surroundings, apostles suffered and died for Christ's sake. My common
 
 the sake of falsehood. They may prac- tice deception for purposes 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 moro than anything can gain by losing it [ near you havo in this city, Pauls dungeon. Show 1t to me 1 must sec Rome also While am interested in this city because Of Ter rulers or her citizens who arc mighty in history for virtue or vice or talents, Romulus, and Calguli, and Cincinnatus, and vcspasian and Corio. Janus, and Brntus, and . hundred others whose names are bright with an exceeding brightness, or black with the deepest dye, most of all am interested in this city be. cause the preacher of Mars hill, and the defer of Agrippa. and the hero of the ship wrecked vessel in tho breakers Of Meiita. and the man who held higher than any one that tho world ever saw the torch of Resnr- rection, lived. and preached, and was massa- cred here. Show mo every place connected with his memory. l must also sec 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. al am ready to preach the Gospel to you who are st Rome also" But my text sug1ests a sight seeing This man who had been under Dr. Gamalicl had no lack of phraseoiogy, and was used to saying exactly what he meant and he said. "I must also see Rome.p Therc is such thing as Christian curiosity. Paul had 1t and some of us have 1t About other peoples business have no curiosity About all that can confirm my faith in the Christian religion and the worlds salvation and the souls future happiness, am full of an all absorbing, all compelling curiosity. Paul had great curiosity about tho next world, and so have we. hopc some day, by the grace Of God, to % over and see for myself, but not now. No we'll man, no prospercd man, l think, war ts to 20 now. But tho time will come, l think, when I shall go over want to soc what they do there, and want to see how they do 1t I do not want to be looking through the gates a1ar forever want them to swing wide open. There arc ten thousand things want you, about myself. about the government of this world. about God, about everything. We start in plain path of what we know, and in minute come up against high wall of what we do not know. l wonder how 1t looks over there. Somebody tells ma 1t Is like q paved city--paved with gold; and another man tells me 1t is like fountain, and it Ia like tree, and 1t is ike triumpnal procas- sion; and the next man meet tells mo 1t is all fgurative. really want to know, after she body is resurrected, what they wear and what they cat; and 1 have an immeasur- able curiosity to know what 1t is, and how t is and where It is. Columbus riskcd his lifo to find tho American continent and shall we shudder to go out on . voyage of discovery which shall reveal vaster and moro brilliant countryi john Franklin rtsked his life to find . passage between iccbergs, and shall VIC dread to find . passage 10 eternal summeri Men in Switzerland travel up to tho heighta of tho Matterhorn. with alpcnstock, and guides, and rockets, and ropes, and, getting half way up, stumble and fall down In horrible massacre. Thcy 1ust wanted to gay they had been on the tops of those high peaks. And shall we fear to 20 out for the accent of the eternal hilis which start . thousand miles beyond where stop tho highest peaks of tho Alps. aud when in that Asccnt there is no pcrilf A man doomed to die stepped on tho scaffold,
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