Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-10-06


| glorious Christianity rear in honor OF on
| glorious Christ a structure large enough t
| hold $4,000 of its worshipers?
| Ii we go cropping now among the ruined
| amphitheaters of Verona and Pompeii ant
| Capua and Puzzuoli and Tarraco, and ther
stand transfxed with amazement at their i'm
mense sweep that held from so, 600 to 100, 0O'
| spectators gathered for carousal and mora
] degradation. could not Christianity AFFORD
one architectural achievement that would
hold and enthrall its $4,000 Christian disci
| pies? Do you say no human voice could BIZ
| heard throughout such building? All
| then you were not present when at the Bos
ton peace jubilee Parepa easily with her voice
enchanted $4,000 auditors.
And the time is near at hand when in theo
logical seminares, where our young men are
being trained for the ministry, the voice will
be developed, and instead Of the mumbline
ministers, who speak with so low tone you
cannot hear unless you lean forward and
hold your hand behind your ear. and then
are able to guess the general drift Of the SUBJ
ject and decide quite we'll whether il is about
Moses or Paul or some one else-instead oil
that you will have coming from the theologi-
cal seminaries all over the land young min
listers with voice enough to command the at
tention of an audience OF 50, 900 people. That
is the reason that the Lord gives us two
lungs instead OF one. 1t is the Divine way
of saying physiologically, "Be heard"
That is the reason that the New Testament
in beginning the account of Christs sermon
on the mount describes our Lords plain
articulation and resound of utterance by say
ing, "He opened his mouth" In that
mighty concert hall and preaching place
which l suggest for this nineteen hundredth
OF mn q 0rn mi ri
all the orchestras, all the oratorios, all the
Philharmonic and Handel and Haydn So
cieties.
Then give US Haydns oratorio of ths
"Creatiop." for our Lord took part in uni
verse building and "without him. says
John, twas not anything made that was
made and Handel's "Messiah" and
Beethoven's Symphonies" and Mendels-
sohn's "Elijah," the prophet that typified
our Christ and the grandest compositions Of
German and English and American masters,
living or dead. ALI instruments that can
hum or roll or whisper or harp or flute or
clap or trumpet or thunder the praises of the
Lord joined to all voices that can chant or
MARBLE or precentor mutitudinous w0r-
shippers. What an arousing when $4,000
join in "Antioch'' or Coronation" or
''Ariej,, rising into halleluiah or subsid-
Yea, LET sculpture stand on pedestals all
around that buiiding-the forms of apostles
and martyrs, men and women, who spoke or
wrought or suffered by headsman's ak or fire.
Where is my favorite of all arts, this art OF
sculpture, that it is not buster for Christ or
that IFS work is not better appreciated? Let
it come forth at that worlds jubilee of the
nativity. We want second Phidias to do
for that new temple what the first Phidi3s
did for the Parthenon. Let the marble of
Carrara come to resurrection TO celebrate
our Lords resurrection. Let sculptors set
up in that auditorium of Christ celebration
bas-relef and intaglio descriptive of the bat
ties won for our holy religion. Where are
the Canovas Of the Nineteenth Century?
Where are the American Thorwaldsens and
Chantreys? Hidden somewhere, l warrant
you.
Let sculpture turn that place into ano thef
Acropolis, but moro glorious by as much as
our Christ is stronger than their Hercules,
and has more to do with the sea than their
Neptune, and raises greater harvestS than
their Ceres, and raises more music in the
heart of the world than their Apollo. "The
gods Of the heather are nothing but dumb
idols, but our Lord made the heavens In
marble pure as snow celebrate Him who
came to make us ''whiter than snow" Let
tuo cH1SSl us We'll dS peuCll pen U6 put
down at the feet OF Jesus.
Yea. let painting do its best The foreign
galleries will loan for such jubilee their
Madonnas, their Angeles, their Rubens, their
Raphaels. their 'Christ at the Jordan" or
"Christ at the Last Supper" or "Christ Com
ing to Judgment" or ''Christ on the Throne
Of Universal Dominion, and our own Morans
will put their pencils into the nineteen hun
dredth anniversary, and our Bierstadts from
sketching "The Domes Of the Yosemite" will
come to present the domes OF the world con-
quered for Emmanuel.
Added to all this l would have a floral
decoration on scale never equaled. The
fields and open gardens could not furnish it,
for it will be winter, and that season appro-
priately chosen, for it was into the frosts and
desolations of winter that Christ immigrated
when he came to our world. But while the
fields will be bare. the Conservatives and
lighthouses within 200 miles would gladly
keep the sacred coliseum radiant and arc
matte during all the convocations.
Added to all let there be banquets, not
like the drunken bout at the Metropolitan
Opera House, New York. celebrating the
centennial Of Washington's Inauguration,
where the rivers of wine drowned the So
briefly of so many senators and governors
and generals, but banquet for the poor, the
feeding of scores of thousands ofpeople OF
world in which the majority of the inhabi-
tants have never yet had enough to eat. not
banquet at which a few favored men and
women of social or political fortune shall
sit, but such a banquet as Christ ordered
when He told His servants to ego out into
the highways and hedges and compel them
to come in Let the mayors OF cities and
the governors of States and the President OF
the United States proclaim a whole week OF
Ghric fp1uc
to New Years day.
Added to this let there be a. that interna-
tional moral and religious exposition n
mammoth distribution OF sacred literature.
Let the leading ministers from England,
Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany and the
world take the pupits of all these cities and
tell what they know of Him whose birth we
celebrate. At those Convocations let vast
sums OF money be raised for churches, for
asylums, for schools, for colleges, all OF
which institutions were born in the heart of
Christ. On that day and in that season
when Christ gave Himself TO the world let
the world give itself to Him.
Why do 1 propose America as the country
for this conyocation? Because most other
lands have a State religion, and while all
forms OF religion may be tolerated in many
lands America is the only country on earth
where all evangelical denominations stand
on an even footing and all would have equal
hearing in slch an international exposition.
Why do select this cluster of seacoast cit
les? Answer-By that time--December %,
19O0-these Jour cities of New York, Brook
Ign, Jersey City and Hoboken. by bridges
and tunnels, will be practically one and with |
an aggregate population Of abont 5000, 900.
no other part of America will |
have such an immensely of population.
Why do now make this nomination OF |
time and place? Answer--Bscause such q |