Milford chronicle., 1889-11-29
FOLLOWS PAUL.
THE DOCTOR breaches IN ATHENS
ON PAUL's MISSION THERE.

Vivid Word Pictures Of Ancient Athens
and COrinth-The Bible Is but an Intro
duction to the Great Knowledge Of the
Future-Paul's AntIcipations Of Heaven.
ATHENS, Nov. 24-The Rev T. De Witt
Talmage, D. D., Of Brooklyn, preached in
this city this evening, TO a group Of friends.
basing his discourse on the following two
passages from the Pauline epistles Corinth-
ians ii, 9; Eye hath not sean nor ear heard y
and ! Corinthians xiii, 70; For now we see
through glass darkly." The sermon was as
follows:
Both these sentences written by the most
ilustrious merely human being the world
ever saw, one who walked these streets, and
preached from yonder pile Of rocks, Mars
Hill Though more classic associations are
connected with this city than With any city
under the sun, because here Socrates, and
Plato and Aristotle, and Demosthenes, and
Pericles, and Heroditus, and Pythagoras, and
Xenophon, and Praxiteles wrote or chiseled,
or taught or thundered or sung, yet in my
mind all those men and their teachings were
eclipsed by Paul and the Gospel he preached
in this city and in your nearby city of Cor
inth. Yesterday, standing on the old fortress
J
ruins at its base arose In my imagination the
old city, just as Paul saw it. have been
told that for splendor the world beholds no
such wonder today as that ancient Corinth
standing on an isthmus washed by two seas,
the one sea bringing the commerce Of Eu-
rope, the other sea bringing the commerce Of
Asia. From her wharves, in the construction
Of which whole kingdoms had been absorbed
war galleys with three banks Of oars pushed
out and confounded the navy yards Of all the
world. Huge handed machinery, such as
modern invention cannot equal, lifted ships
from the sea on one side and transported
them on trucks across the isthmus and sat
them down in the sea on the other side The
revenue officers Of the city went down
through the olive groves that lined the
beach to collect a tariff from all nations.
The mirth Of all people sported in her
Isthmian games, and the beauty Of all
lands sat in her theatres, walked her
porticos and threw itself on the altar
of her stupendous dissipations. Column, and
statue, and temple bewildered 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 dis
play, was a statue of Hercules Of FURNISHED
Corinthian brass. Vases of terra Gotta
adorned the cemeteries of the dead-vases so
costly that Julius Cesar was not satisfied un-
til he had captured them for Rome. Armed
officials, the corintharii, paced up and down
to see that no statue was defaced, no pedestal
overthrown, no bas-relief touched From the
edge of the city the hill held its magnificent
burden Of columns and towers and temples
1000 slaves waiting at one shrine), and a
citadel SO thoroughly impregnable that Glib
raltar is heap Of sand compared with it.
Amid all that strength and magni6cence
Corinth stood and deied the world.
PAUL ADDRESSED HIGH INTELLIGENCE.
Ohl 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 I
from morning porticos and melting in even !
ing groves; they had passed their whole lives j
among pictures and sculpture and architect
ture and COrinthian brass, which had been I
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 adorned All, it !
was bold thing for Paul TO stand there amid I
al that and say; IAN this is nothing. These !
sounds that come from the temple of Neptune I
are not music compared with the harmonies !
# which / speak. These waters rushing in g
he basin Of Pyrene are not pure These /.
tatues Of Bacchus and Mercury are not ex- y
luisite. Your citadel Of Aero Corinthus is N
lot strong compared with that which offer 4
o the poorest slave that puts down his bur o
len at that brazen gate You Corinthians +,
hink this is a splendid city; you think you q
ave heard all sweet sounds aud seen all II
BEAUTIFUL sights; but tell you eye hath not .,
cen nor ear heard, neither have entered into ~
be heart OF man, the things which God hath Il
repaired for them that love him" Indeed, i
9th my texts, the one spoken by Paul and
be one written by Paul, show us that we p
ave very imperfect eyesight, and that our ~
ay OF vision is yet to come: for now we SEQ .,
through glass, darkly, but then face TO face. r.
10 Paul takes the responsibility of saying IA
hat even the Bible is an indistinct mirror, =,
nd that its mission shall he finally suspended a
think there may be one Biblo in heaven q,
astened to the throne. Just as now, in a =,
luseum, we have lamp exhumed from, +,
Ierculaneum or Nineveh, and we look at it m
18th great interest and say: "How poor a y
ght it must have given, compared with our IN
iodern lamps so l think that this Bible. q,
hich was lamp to our feet in this world, =,
Iay lie near the throne Of God, exciting our ,y
terest to all eternity by the contrast be- 40
Veen its comparatively feeble light and the h,
Of heaven. The Bible, now, is =,
e scaffolding to the rising temple, but sb
hen the building is done there will he no ~
q for the scaffolding. The idea / shall de e.
slop today is, that in this world our knowl- -,
ge is comparatively dim and unsatisfac- M,
ry, but nevertheless is introductory to Lr
ander and more complete vision. This is Al,
linently true In regard to our View OF God. ~,
''oANsT THOU FIND OUT GoDq be
We hear so much about God that we CON ~,
lde that we understand him. He is repre- vs. vs.
lted as having the tenderness Of father, H. ~,
e iirmness Of judge, the pomp of king ~,
d the love Of a mother. We hear about ,,,i
N, talk about him, write about him. We arr
p his name in infancy, and it trembles on bo,
3 tongue OF the dying octogenarian We ~
ink that we know very much about him.
Ike the attribute Of mercy. Do we under
md ia The Bible blossoms all over with ,yL
At word mercy. 1t speaks again and again 90,
the tender mercies Of God, Of the sure Ia
ircies, of the great mercies, Of the mercy ~,
At endureth forever, of the multitude Of ~, ~,
mercies. And yet know that the views 49,
have Of this great being are most indef-
e, one sided and incomplete When, at una
lth, the gates she'll fly open, and we shall the
k directly upon him, how new and sur the
sing We see upon canvas picture Of tud
morning. We study the cloud in the sky, | 81
dew upon the grass, and the husbandman pit.
the way to the field. Beautiful picture Of the
morning But we rise at daybroak, and wo
up on u hill to SEQ for ourselves that which tho
5 represented to US. While we look, the par
untains are transhgured. The FURNISHED the
es Of HEAVIER swing open aud shut, to let Der
s a host OF fiery splendors. The clouds are Of
abloom, and hang pendant from arbors VIII
llabasUer and amethyst The waters make and
hway Of nlaid pearl for the light to walk on
md 10