The Russellville Democrat., 1889-11-21

nlTnstll RtANEG Ht tiiCu
Friends. the exit from this world, or
death, If you please to cali it, TO the
Christian is glorious explanation. 1t Is
demonstration. Il is illumination. 1t
Is sunburst 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 accurate in
formation Instead OF standing at the
foot of the ladder and looking up, ii is
standing at the top Of the ladder and
looking down. 1t IS the last mystery
taken out OF botany, and geology, and
astronomy, and theology. On, viii it
not be grand to have all questions an
swered? The perpetually recurring in
terrogation point changed for the mark
of exclamation? All riddles solved
Who win fear TO go out on that dis
covery, when all the questions are to be
decided which we have been discussing
all our lives? Who shall not clap his
hands in the anticipation Of that blessed
country, If it be no better than through
holy curiosity? As this Paul Of my text
did not suppress his curiosity, we need
not suppress ours. Yes, 1 have an un-
limited curiosity about all religious
things, and as this city Of Rome was so
intimately connected with apostolic
times, the incidents Of which emphasize
and explain and augment the Christian
religion, you will not take it as an evil
dence of a prying spirit, but as the out
bursting of a Christian curiosity when |
say l must also see Rome.
Our desire to visit this city is also in
tensified by the fact that we want TO be
confirmed in the feeling that human
life is brief, but its work lasts for cent
uries, indeed. forever. Therefore
show US the antiquities of old Rome,
about which we have been reading for
a lifetime. but never seen. In our be-
loved America we have no antiquities.
A church eighty years old overawes us
with its age. We have in America
some eathedrals hundreds and thou
sands OF years old, but they are in yell
lowstone Park or California Canyon,
and their architecture and masonry
were by the omnipotent God. We want
TO see the buildings, or ruins of old
buildings, that were erected hundreds
and thousands Of 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. can
hardly wait until Monday morning.
must also sec Rome.
J. -.
fact that what men do on small scale
or large scale lasts thousand years,
lasts forever. that we build for eternity
and that we do so in very short space
of time. God is the only old living
presence. But it is an old age without
any of the infirmities or limitations OF
old age There is passage OF Script
ure which speaks Of the birth of the
mountains, for there was time when
the Andes were born, and the Pyrennes
were born, ana the Sierra Nevadas were
born, but before the birth of those
mountains the Bible tells Us. God was
born, ave was never born at all. because
He always existed. Psalm xc. =: BE
fore the mountains were brought forth,
or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and
the world, even from everlasting to
everlasting, Thou art God. How short
is human life, what antiquity attaches
to its worth How everlasting is God,
Show US the antiquities, 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-I must also see
Romel
Another reason for our visit to this
city is that We want 10 see the places
where the mightiest intellects and the
greatest natures wrought for our Chris
tian religion. We have been told in
America by some people Of swollen
heads that the Christian religion is a
pusillanimous thing, good for children
under seven wears of age and small
Drained people, bat not for the intelli-
gent and swarthy-minded. We have
heard OF your Constantine, the mighty,
who pointed his army to the cross, say
ing: by this conquer If there be
any thing here connected with his reign
or his military history, show it TO us.
The mightiest intellect OF the ages was
the author Of my text and, II for the
Christian religion ne was willing to la
Dor and suffer and die. there must be
something exalted and sublime and ire
mendoas in it; 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 l may see
where he went out to die. We expect
before we finish this journey to see Lake
Galilee and the places where Simon.
Peter and Andrew fished, and perhaps We
may drop net or hook and line into
those waters ourselves, but when follow
ing the track OF those lesser apostles i
viii learn quite another lesson.
l 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 in
teliect 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 nature that could
swamp the leading men OF his own day,
and hurled against the Sanhedrim. he
made 10 tremble. He learned all he could
get in the school OF his native village
then he had gone to higher school, and
there had mastered the Greek ana the
Hebrew and perfected himself in bellies
letters, until in after years, he astOund-
ed the Cretans and the Corinthians, and
the Athenians, by quotations from the
own authors. have never found any
thing in Carlyle, or Goethe, or Herbert
Spencer that could compare in strength
or beauty with Paul's epistles. ] do
not think there is any thing in the writ
ings OF Sir William Hamilton that shows
such mental discipline as you lind in
Pauls argument about Justification and
/ have not found any
thing in Milton finer in the way az
Imagination than can fnl in Paul's
drawn from the amphi-
shp1+ar fTbern was Nothing in Rohqrt