Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-04-06

of all nations, that
OF the Greeks, / preach this sermon
OF sympathy and protest, for every in
telligent person on this side OF the sea,
as well as the other side. like Paul, who
wrote the text, is debtor to the Greeks.
The present crisis is emphasized by
the guns of the allied powers of Eu-
rope, ready to be numbered against
the Hellenes, and am asked to speak
out. Paul, with master intellect of the
ages, sat in brilliant Corinth. the great
Acro-Corlnthus fortress frowning from
the height of sixteen hundred and elgh-
ty-slx feet. and in the house OF Gaius.
where ne was guest, a big pile OF
money near him. which he was taking
10 Jerusalem for the poor. In this let
ter to the Romans, which Chrysostom
admired so much that he had it read
10 MIN twice week. Paul practically
says: i, the Apostle. am bankrupt. I
owe what l cannot pay, but I will pay
as large percentage as I can. 1t is
an obligation for what Greek literature
ana Greek sculpture and Greek archi-
lecture and Greek prowess have done
Tor me. will pay all I can in install
ments of evangelism. / am insolyent
10 the Greeks" Hellas, as the inhabi-
tants call 1t, or Greece. as We call it,
Is insignificant in size, about third
as large as the state OF New York, but
wnat 1t lacks in breadth is makes up
IN nelght, with its mountains Cylene,
and Eta. and Taygetus. and Tymphres-
tus, each over seven thousand feet in
elevation, and its Parnassus, over eight
thousand. Just the country for mighty
men 10 be born in, for in all lands the
most or the intellectual and moral
giants were not born on the plain, but
MAD Tor cradle the valley between two
mountains. That country, no part of
winch is more than forty miles from
the sea, has made its impress upon the
world as no other nation, and it today
holds first mortgage of obligation
upon all civilized people. While we
must leave to craftsmanship and di-
pIomacy the settlement of the intri-
cate questions which now involve all
europe, and indirectly all nations. it
Is time for all churches, all schools. all
universities, all arts, all literature to
sound out In the most emphatic way
the declaration. Il am debtor to the
Greeks"
In the first place, we owe to their
language our New Testament. All of
it was first written in Greek, except the
BOOK OF Matthew, and that, written in
the Aramean language. was soon nut
into Greek by our Sayior's brother
James. To the Greek language we owe
the best sermon ever preached. the
best letters ever written, the best Wis.
ions ever kindled. All the parallels in
treeK. All the miracles in Greek. The
sermon on the mount in Greek. The
story OF Bethlehem and Golgotha and
Olivet and Jordan banks and Galilean
beaches and Pauline embarkation and
Pentecostal tongues and seven trumpets
that sounded over Patmos. have come
to the world in liquid, symmetric. pic
turesque, philosophic, unriyaled Greek.
instead OF the gibberish language in
which many OF the NATIONS Of the earth
at that time jabbered. Who can forget
1t and who can exaggerate it's thrilling
importance, that Christ and heaven
were introduced to us in the language
OF the Greeks? the language in which
Homer had sung and Sophocles drama
tiled and Pluto dialogued and Socrates
aiscoursed 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 unwashed
cup Of corrupt languages from which
nations had been drinking, but in the
clean. bright, golden Tipped, emerald
handled chalice OF the Hellenes
Learned Curtius wrote a whole volume
about the Greek verb. Philologists
century after century have been meas
uring the symmetry of that language.
laden with elegy and philippe. drama
and comedy, Odyssey and Iliadl but
the grandest thing that Greek language
ever accomplished was to give to the
world the benediction, the comfort. the
irraditation, the salvation of the Cos
pei VI TIC cOu VI oou fDT tNdt we are
debtors to the Greeks.
And while speaking of our phiIologi-
cal obligation, let me call your atten-
ton to the fact that many OF the in
tellectual and moral and theological
leaders of the ages got much of their
discipline and effectiveness from Greek
literature. It is popular 10 scoff at the
dead languages, but 80 per cent of the
worlds intellectually would have been
taken off if. through learned institu-
tions our young men had not under
competent professors, been drilled in
Greek masterpieces. Hesiod's Weeks
and Days" or the eulogium by Simon
ides of the slain in war, or Pindar's
"Odes of Victory" or The Recollec-
tions OF Socrates" or The Art OF
Words by Corax, or Xenophon's Ana
basis.
From the Greeks the world learned
how to make history. Had there been
no Herodotus and Thucyddes. there
would have been no Macaulay or Ban
croft. Has there been no Sophocles in
tragedy, there would have been no
Shakespeare. Had there been no Ho-