Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1897-04-02

} W ASHINGTON, Marcn Zo.-AS Ut. 1al-
rnage's sermons are published on both
sides the ocean, this discourse on a sub
ject Of worldwide interest will attract
universal attention. His text was Ro.
mans i, IA, 81 am debtor both to the
Greeks and to the barbarians
At this time, when that behemoth OF
denominations, Mohammedanism, after
having gorged itself on the carcasses OF
100, 900 Armenians, is trying to put its
paws upon one Of the fairest Of all ma.
tions, that of the Greeks. preach this
sermon Of sympathy and protest, for ev-
cry intelligent person on this side, like
Paul, who wrote the text, is debtor to
the Greeks The present crisis is EN-.
phasized by the guns Of the allied pow
ers Of Europe, ready to be unlimbered
against the Hellenes, and l am asked to
speak out. Paul, with a master intellect
of the ages, sat in brilliant Corinth, the
great Aero Corinthus fortress frownine
from the height of l 1856 feet, and in the
house Of Gaius, where he was a guest,
big pile Of money near him, which he
was taking TO Jerusalem for the poor.
In this letter to the Romans, which
! Chrysostom admired so much that he
had it read to him twice a week, Paul
practically says: 81, the apostle, am
bankrupt. l owe what l cannot pay,
but l will pay as large percentage as
can. 1t is an obligation for what Greek
literature and Greek sculpture and
( Greek architecture and Greek prowese
have done fer me. / will pay all can
in installments Of evangelism. | am in
solvent to the Greeks" Hellas, as the
inhabitants call it, or Greece, as we call
| it. is insignificant in size, about a third
as large as the state Of New York, but
what it lacks in breadth it makes up in
height, with its mountains Cylene and
Eta and Taygetus and Tymphrestus,
each over 1000 feet in elevation, and
its Parnassus, over 5000. Just the
country for mighty men to be born in,
for in all lands the most Of the intellec-
tual and moral giants were not born on
the plain, but had for cradle the valley
between two mountains. That country,
no part Of which is more than 40 miles
from the sea, has made its impress upon
the world as no other nation. and II to-
day holds first mortgage Of obligation
upon all civilized people. While we
must leave to craftsmanship and diplo-
macy the settlement Of the intricate
questions which now involve all Eu'
rope and indirectly all nations, 1t il
time for all churches, all schools, all
universities, all arts, all literatures, &c
sound out in the most emphatic way
the declaration, Il am debtor to the
Greeks. "
The Best Sermon.
In the first place, we owe to theii
language our New Testament. All Of II
was first written in Greek, except the
book Of Matthew, and that, written IL
the Aramaan language, was soon pu
into Greek by our Sayiour's brother
James. To the Greek language we owe
the best sermon ever preached, the bes
letters ever written, the best visions
ever kindled All the parallels in Greek
All the miracles in Greek. The sermon
on the mount in Greek The story O.
Bethlehem, and Golgotha, and Olivet
and Jordan banks, and Galilean beaches
and Pauline embarkation, and Pente
costal tongues, and seven trumpets tina
sounded over Patmos, have come to tn
world in liquid, symmetric, picturesque
philosophic, unrivaled Greek, instead
Of the gibberish language in whicl
many Of the nations Of the earth at tha
time jabbered. Who can forget it, ant
who can e1aggerate its thrilling impor
tance. that Christ and heaven were in
troduced to us in the language OF tn
Greeks, the language in which Home
had sung, and Sophocles dramatized
and Plato dialogued, and Socrates dis
coursed. and Lycurgus legislated, AM
Demosthenes thundered his Grafton ol
"The Crown" Everlasting thanks :
God that the waters Of life were NO
handed to the world in the unwashe
/ cup Of corrupt languages from whic
nations had been drinking, but in th
clean, bright, golden Tipped, emeral
handled chalice Of the Hellenes. Learn
3 cd Curtius wrote whole volume abou
the Greek verb. Philologists centur
after century have been measuring II
symmetry of that language, laden wit
e elegy and philippe, drama and comedy
Odyssey and "Iliad," but the granC
est thing that Greek language ever az
! complished wiS to give to the world II
> benediction, the comfort, the irradis
tion, the salvation, of the gospel Of th
! Son Of God. For that we are debtors
- the Greeks.
And while speaking Of our philolot
! ical obligation let me call your after
a ton to the fact that many of the int
lectual and moral and theological lea'
ers Of the ages got much of their disc
r Mine and effectiveness from Greek l.
erature. 1t is popular to scoff at the dea
languages, but so per cent OF the world
y intellectually would have been take
off if through learned institutions OF
| Young men had not, under competei
Y professors, been drilled i'll Greek ma
terpieces Hesiod's Weeks and Days,
or the eulogium by Simonides OF u
n slain in war. or Pindar's "Odes OF Vi
tory" or "The Recollections OF so
rates" or "The Art Of Words,
VI Corax, or Xenophon's "Anabasis.
( Leaders Of the Ages.
From the Greeks the world learn'
how TO make history. Had there be-
q no Herodotus and Thucydides the
would have been no Macaulay
% Bancroft. Had there been no Soph
- cles in tragedy there would have be-
y no Shakespeare. Had there been
Homer, there would have been no MI
u ton. The modern wits, who are now
have been out on the divine mission
making the world laugh at the rig
| time, can be traced back to Aristophane
~ the Athenian. and many Of the jocoslti
as that are now taken as new had their So
pestions 1900 years ago In the o. Co 20
edies Of that master Of merriment u
n' clan mythology has been the r, ricn
Is r,ine from which orators ana essayi