The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-04-14
REV. DIR. TAIMAGE
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE
NOTED DIVINE.
Subject: "Our Debt to the Greeks"

|
and to the barbarians ns'-Romans l., IA.
| At this time, when that behemoth o
! denominations. Mobammedanism, after hav
| ing gorged itself on the carcasses OF lou, ,OO'
Armenians, is irving to put its paws upo1
one Of the fairest of all nations. that of the
Greeks, I preach this sermon OF sympathy
and protest, for every intelligent person OF
this side, like Paul. who wrote the text, |:
debtor to the Greeks. The present crisis Il
emphasized by the guns of the Allied Powers
of Europe. ready to be unlimbered against
the Helenes, and / am asked to speak out
Paul, with a master intellect Of the ages
sat in brilliant Cornth, the great Aero
Cornthus fortress frowning from the height
Of 1856 feet, and in the house OF Gaius,
where he was guest, big pile OF money
near him, which he was taking to Jerusalem
for the poor.
In this letter to the Romans. which Chry.
sostom admired 30 much that he had It read
to him twice a week. Paul practically says
II, the apostle, am bankrupt. owe what
cannot paw, but will pay as large percent
age as can. 1t is IN obligation for what
Greek literature and Greek sculpture and
Greek architecture and Greek prowess have
done for me. will pay all can in install.
ments Of evangelism. am insolvent to the
Greeks"
Hellas, as the inhabitants call tor Greece,
as We call 1t, 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,
Its Parnassus, over 5000. Just the
country for mighty men to be born in, for In
all lands the most of the intellectual and
moral giants were not born on the plain,
but had for cradle the valley between two
MOUNTAINS That country. nc part otwhich
Is more than forty miles from the sea, has
made its impress upon the world as no other
aation, and it to-day holds first mortgage
If obligation upon all civilized people.
While we must leave to craftsmanship and
diplomacy the settlement OF the intricate
questions which now involve all Europe and
indirectly all nations, it is time for all the
churches, all schools, all universities, all
arts. all literatures, TO sound out in the
most emphatic way the declaration, II am
debtor to the Greeks"
our New Testament. All of it was first writ
ten in Greek, except the book OF Matthew.
and that, written in the Aramaan language,
vas soon put into Greek by our Saviour's
brother James. To the Greek language we
owe the best sermon ever preached, the best
letters ever written. the best visions ever
iindled. All the parallels in Greek. All the
Miracles In Greek. The sermon on the
mount in Greek. The story OF Bethlehem,
and GolCotha. and Olivet. and Jordan banks,
md Galilean beaches, and Pauline embarka-
lion, and Pentecostal tongues, and seven
;rumpets that sounded over Patmos, have
picturesque, philosophic, unrivaled Greek.
Instead Of the gibberish language in which
many OF the nations of the earth at
hat time jabbered. Who can forget
it, and who can exa2gerate its thrill
ling Importance, that Christ and heaven
we're introduced to US In the language
If the Greeks, the language In which Homer
lad sung, and Sophocles dramatized,
and Plato dialogued. and Socrates discoursed,
and Lycurgus legislated, and Demosthenes
Numbered his Grafton on "The Crown"
Everlasting thanks to God that the waters OF
life were not handed to the world in the un-
washed cup of corrupt languages from which
nations had been drinking, but in the clean.
bright, golden Tipped, emerald handled
,halice Of the Hellenes. Learned Curtius
wrote whole volume about the Greek verb.
Philologists century after century have been
measuring the symmetry Of that language.
laden with elegy and philippe drama and
comedy, Odyssey" and ''Iliad," but the
yrandest thing that Greek language ever ac-
,omplished was to give to the world the
oenediction, the comfort, the irradiation,
he salvation, Of the gospel Of the Son OF
3od. For that we are debtors to the Greeks.
From the Greeks the world learned how to
make history. Had there been no Herodotus
and Thucydides there would have been no
Sophocles in tragedy there would have been
40 Shakespeare. Had there been no Homer,
here would have been no Milton. The mod
.rn wits, who are now or have been out on
The divine mission of making the world
laugh at the right time. can be traced back
10 Aristophanes, the Athenian. and many of
The jocositieS that are now taken as new had
.heir suggestions 23OO years ago in the fifty
Iour comedies of that master of merriment.
Grecian mythology has been the richest
nine from which orators and essayists
have drawn their illustrations and paint
,rs the themes for their canvas, and, al
:hough now an exhausted mine, Grecian
mythology has done a work that moth
ing else could have accomplished. Bo-
:eas. representing the north wind; Sisy-
phus. rolling the stone up the hill, only
20 have the same thing to do over again;
rantalus, with fruits above him that he
.ould not reach; Achillesswith his arrows;
tcarus, with his waXen wings, flying too
near the sun; the Centaurs, half-man and
half-beast: Orpheus, with his Tyre; Atlas,
with the world on his back-all these and
more have helped literature, from the grad
1ate's speech on commencement day 10 Ru-
,us Choate's eulogium on Daniel Webster at
Dartmouth. Tragedy and comedy were
born In the festivals Of Dionysius at Athens.
Greece 500 years before Christ has its echoes
in the Tennysons. Longfellows and Bryants Of
1860 and 1900 years after Christ. There is
not an effective pulpit or editorial chair or
professors room or cultured parlor or INTEL
Iigent farmhouse to-day in America or
Europe that could not appropriately employ
Paul's ejaculation and say, 81 am debtor to
the Greeks"
The TACT is this-Paul had got much Of his
oratoricaI power of expression from the
Greeks. That he had studied their literature
was evident when, standing in the presence
OF an audience OF Greek scholars on Mars
hill, which overlooks Athens, he dared to
quote from one oflheir own Greek poets.
either Ciranthus or Aratus, declaring, "As
certain also OF your own poets have said.
For We are also his offspring" And he
made accurate quotation, Cleanthus, one Of
the poets. having written:
For we thine offspring are. All things that
creep
Are bur the echo of the voice divine.
And Aratus, one OF their own poets, had
written:
Doth care perplex? Is lowering danger
nigh?
We are his offspring and to Jove we fly.
1t was rather q risky ching for Paul to at
tempt to quote extemporaneously from
poem in language foreign to his and be-
fore Greek scholars, but Paul did it without
stammerinS and then acknowledged before
the most distinguished audience on the
planet his indebtedness to the Greeks, cry
ing out in his oration, "As one OF your own
DoetS has said ="