Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1889-11-30
DIR. TALMAGE In ATHENS.
PREACHING WHERE PAUL DID, HE
breaches ON PAUL's WORDS.

b breaches ON PAUL's WORDS.
Vivid Word Picture of Ancient CorInth-
Tho Classical City of Att,sns-7Inspcrfoct
yisiona Eternity VIII Msko Thsns
Clear-Paul's Antioipntions of Heaven.
ATHENS, Nov. 24.-The Rev. T. De
Witt Talmage, D. D., of Brooklyn,
preached in llis city this morning to
d group of friends. basing his dis
course ON the following two passages
from the Pauline epistles: / Corintlii
ans, ii, 9: Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard" and Corinthians, xiii, 9:
.For now we see through q glass.
darkly." Tile sermon was as fol
lows:
Both these sentences were written
by the most illustrious merely human
being the world ever saw, one who
walked these streets, and preached
rom yonder pile OF rocks, Mars Hill.
Though more classic associations are
connected with this city than with
En- sSn other city underline sun, because
Zero Socrates, and Plato, and Aris-
totle, and: Demosthenes, and Pericles,
end 5Herodotus, and p ythagoras, and
XenophoG, and Praxiteles wrote Or
,chiseled, or taught or Numbered or
sung, yctin my mind all those men
and their teachings were eclipsed by
Paul and the Gospel lie preached in
this city and in your near by city OF
Ccrinth. Yesterday. standing on the
old fortress at Corinth, the Acro-Co-
iinthus, out from the ruins at its base
arose III my imagiHetion the old city,
Just as Paul saw it | have been told
that for splendor the world beholds
no. such wonder to-day as that an
cient Corinth standing on on isthmus
washed by two seas, the one sea bring
ing the commerce of Europe, the other
sea bringing the commerce OF Asia.
From her wharvcs, in the construction
of which whole kingdoms had been
absorbed, war galleys with three banks
Of oars pushed out and COMPOUNDED the
navy yards of all the world. Huge
handed machinery. such as modern
invention cannot equal, lifted ships
from the sen OH one side and trans
ported them on trucks across the 18th
mus and set them down i'll the sea on
the other side. The revenue officers Of
tho city went down through the olive
groves that line.l the beach to collect
a; tariff from all nations. The mirtli
Of all people sported in her 1sthmian
games, and tile beauty OF all lands sat
III her theatres, walked her porticos
and threw itself on the altar of her
stapendous designations.
TIE GLORY or CoRINTH.
Column and statue and temple be-
wildcrcd the beholder. There were
white marble fountains into Which.
from apertures at the side, there gushed
waters everywhere known for health
giving qualities. Around these basins,
twisted into wreaths of stone, there
were all the beauties OF sculpture and
architecture, while standing, as if to
guard the costly display, was a statue
Of Hercules of FURNISHED Corinthian
brass. Vases of terra Gotta adorned
tha cemeteries OF the dead-vases so
costly that Julius Caesar was not salts
fled until he had captured them for
Rsane.. Armed officials, the corinth-.
arm, paced up and down to see that no
statue was defaced, no pedestal over
thrown, no bas-relief touched. From
the edge Of the city the hill held its
magnificent burdens OF columns and
towers and temples Il, 900 slaves wait
ing at ono shrine,, and q citadel 70
thoroughly hnprcgnable that Gfbrsl-
tar is heap of sand compared VITA
it. Amid all that strength and mag
nificence Coripth stood and dcfied the
world. OIL it was not to rustics who
had never seen anything grand that
Paul uttered one of my texts. They
had heard the best music that had come
from the best instruments in all the
world; they had heard songs floating
from morning porticos and melting in
evening groves; they had passed their
whole lives among pictures and sculp-
ture and architecture and Corinthian
brass, which had been nodded and
shaped until there was no chariot
wheel in which it had not sped, and no
tower in which it had not glittered,
and no gateway that it had not adorn-
ed. All, it was bold thing for Paul
to stand there amid all that and say:
':All this is nothing. These sounds
that como from the temple of Neptune
are not music compared with the liar
monies of which speak. These wa
tiers rushing in the basin Of Pyrene
are not pure. These statues of Bac-
chus and Mercury arc not exquisite.
Your citadel of Aero Corinthus is not
strong compared with that which
offer to the poorest slave that puts
down his burden at that brazen gate.
You Corinthians think this is splen-
did city; you think you have heard all
sweet sounds and seen all beautiful
sights; but | tell you eye hath not
seen nor ear heard, neither have en-
tered into the heart of man. the things
which God hath prepared for them
that love him." Indeed, both my
texts, the one spoken by Paul and the
one written by Paul, show us that we
have very imperfect eyesight, and that
our day Of vision is yet to come: For
now we see through a glass darkly,
but then face to face. So Paul takes
the responsibility of saying that the
Bible is an indistinct mirror, and that
It's mission shall be finally suspended.
1 think there may be one Bible in
heaven fastened to the throne. Just
as now, In museum, we have lamp
exhumed from Herculaneum or Nine
web, and we look at it with great in
terest,and say: "How poor a light 1t
must have given, compared with our
modern lamps" So think that this
Bible, which was lamp to our feet
in this world, may lie near the throne
of God, exciting our interest to all
eternity by the contrast between its
comparatively feeble light and the
illumination of heaven. The Bible,