The Opelousas courier., 1890-02-01
TALMAGE'S TRIP,
Tue BRO0hLYN N;FINk'a SUNDAY
SERMON.
Preached at Athens, Greece, on the Glory of
the After Life.

~aeooae" al Atnsns, UTeeCe, On tine Gtory OF
the After Life.
TEXTS: "Eye hath not seen nor earheard."
Il Corinthians H., 8. ''For noW Ue see
through a glass darkly."-I Corinthians
xiii, IL.
Both these sentences written by the most
illustrious 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 Numbered 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
NTH. Yesterday, standing IN 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. / nave 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 sea bringing the commerce 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 COMPOUNDED the avy yards of all the
world. Huge handed machinery, such as
modern invention cannot equal, lifted ships
from the sea IN 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
p~orticos and threw itself on the altar of
her s%tupendous designations. 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 Caesar 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, nc 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 a heap Of sal compared with it.
Amid all that strength and magnifcence
Corinth stood and defied the world.
Ohll it was not to rustics who had never
seen anything grand thataBaul 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 even
ing groves; they had passed their whole lives
among pictures and sculpture and architect
ure and Corinthian brass, which had been
nodded and shaped until there was no
chQSiot wheel in which it had not sped, and
no e Ger i'll which it had not giittered, and
no gateway that it had not adorned. All. it
| was q bold thing for Paul to stand there amid
| all hat and say; "AlI this is nothing. These
sounds that come from the temple of Neptune
are not music compared with the harn1onies
of which I speak. These waters rushing in
the basin of Pyrene are not pure. These
statues of Bacchus and Mercury are not ex-
quisite. Your citadel of Acro-C orinthus is
not strong compared with that which I offer
to the poorest slave that puts down his bur-
den 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 l tell you eye hath not
seen nor ear heard, neither lave entered into
the heart of man, the things which God hath
prepared for them hat 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, darby, but then face to face.
So Paul takes the responsibility OF saying
that even the Bible is an indistinct mirror,
and thatits mission shall b~efinally suspended.
| think there may be n Bible in heaven
fastened to the throne. just as now, in a
museum, we lave a lamp exhumed from
Herculaneum or Nineveh, and we look at it
with great interest and say: How poor a
ght it must have given, compared with our
I modern lamps SO | think that this Bible,
which was a lamp to our feet in this world,
may lie near the throne of God, exciting our
interest to all eternity by the contrast be-
tween its comparatively feeble light and the
illumination of heaven. TIL Bible, now, is
the scafolding to the rising temple. but
when the building is done there will be no
use for the scaffolding. The idea l shall de-
velop to-day is, that in this world our knowl-
edge is comparatively dim and unsatisfac-
tory, but nevertheless is Introductory to
! grander and more complete vision. This is
eminently true in regard to our view of God,
We hear SO much about God that we con-
clude that we understand Him. He is repre-
scnted as having the tenderness Old father,
thdRsrmness of a judge, the pomp Of a king
aud the love of a mother. We hear about
LII Rllh 0DJub 1ItD, " Liz W
lisp His name in infancy, and it tTembles Oh
Q tongue Of the dying octogenarian. We
think that we know very much about Him
Take the attribute of mercy. Do we under.
stand it2 The Bible blossoms all over with
that word, mercy. 1t speaks again and again
of the tender mercies of God, of the sure
mercies, of the great mercies. OF the mercy
that endureth forever, of the multitude OF
His mercies. And yet l know that the views
we have IF this great being are most iudei.
mite, one sided and incomplete. When, at
death, the gates shall fly open, and we shall
look directly upon Him, how new and sur.
prisingl We see upon canvas a picture of
the morning. We study the cloud in the sky,
the dew upon the grass, and the h~usbandman
on the way to the field. Beautiful picture Of
the morningi But we rise at daybreak, ane
90 UP ON Rhill to see for ourselves that which
wasrepresented to US. While we look. tint
mountains are t~ransfigured. The burnlshe Zee
gates Of heaven Aswing open and shut to ie
pass q host o@fery splendors. The cloud
are all aSfsss and hang pendant from arbor
Of alabaster and amethyst. The waters max
pathway of inlaid pearl for the light wall
upon; and there is morning on the sea. INT
crags uncover their SCARED visage; and Their
ismorning among the mountains. Now yo'
go home, and how tame your picture OF tn
morning seems in contrast? Greater thai
that shall be the contrast between this script
ural view of God and that which we shal
have when standing face to face. Thisi is
picture of the morning; that will be tn
morning itself.
Again: My texts are true of the Saviour
excellency. By image, and sweet rhythm o
expression, and startling antitheses, Christ j
setforth-His love, His compassion. His work
His life, His death, His resurrection. We arr
challenged to measure it, to compute it, tx