Sharp County record., 1890-05-15
THE SECRETS OF HEAVEN.
Sermon by Rev. T. Dewitt Tai
mage Delivered at Athens.
What are Seeming Mysteries in the Di-
vine Economy God win in Due Time
Explain and Man VIII Acknowl-
edge His Wisdom.

Standing on ground made sacred by
the miniStrations of Paul, the apostle,
Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage delivered the
following sermon to the Athenians,
from the texts:
Eve hath not seen nor ear heard.-l 20 r
inthianS, ii.,9.
For now we see through glass darkly'-
|. Corinthians, xiiL,2
Both these sentences were written by
the most illustrious merely human be-
ing 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 other city under
the sun, because her Socrates, and
Plato, and Aristotle, and DemOSthenes,
and Pericles, and Herodotus, and Py-
thagoras and Xenophon, and Praxiteles
wrote or chiseled, or taught, or thun-
dered, 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 the nearby city of Cor
inth. Standing on the old fortress
at Corinth, the Acro-Corinthus,
out from the ruins at Its
base arose in my imagination the old
city just as Paul saw it, l have been
told that for splendor the world beholds
no such wonder to-day as that ancient
Corinth, standing on an isthmus washed
by two seas, the one bringing the com
merce of Europe, 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 can not equal,
lifted ships from the sea on one side and
transported them on trucks across the
isthmus and set 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
theaters, walked her porticos, and threw
itself on the altar of her stupendous dis
sipations.
Column, and statue, and temple be-
wildered the behOlder. There were
white marble fountains into which, from
apertures at the side, there rushed wa
ters everywhere known for health-giv-
ing qualities. Around these basins,
twisted into wreaths of stone, there were
all the beauties of sculpture and archi-
lecture, while standing, as if to guard
the costly display, was statue of Her.
cules of FURNISHED Corinthian brass.
Vases of terra Gotta adorned the
cemeteries of the dead-vaseS so
costly that julius Caesar was not
satisfied until he had captured them
for Rome. Armed officials, the Corinth-
arii, 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 "a thousand slaves
waiting at one shrine), and citadel so
thoroughly impregnable that Gibraltar
is heap of sand compared with it.
Amid all that strength and magniticence
Corinth stood and defied the world. OH
it was not to rustics who had never seen
any thing grand that Paul uttered one
of my texts. They had heard the best
music that had come from the best in
struments in all the world; they had
heard songs floating from morning por-
ticos and melting in evening groves; they
had passed their whole lives among pict-
ures, and sculpture, 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 gilt
tered, and no gateway that it had not
adorned.
All, it was a bold thing for Paul to
stand there amid all that and say: "All
this is nothing. These sounds that
come from the Temple of Neptune are
not music compared with the harmonies
of which l speak. These waters rush
ing in the basin of Pyrene are not pure.
These statues of Bacchus and Mercury
are 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 the brazen
gate. You Corinthians think this is a
splendid 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 i'm
perfect eyesight, and that our day Of
vision is yet to come: For now we see
through glass darkly, but then face to
face.
So Paul takes the responsibility of
saying that the Bible is an indistinct
mirror, and that its mission shall be
finally suspended. l think there may
be one Bible in Heaven fastened to the
throne. Just as now, in a museum, we
have a lamp exhumed from Herculane-
um or Nineveh, and we look at it with
great interest and say: "How poor a