The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-04-08

~ 4SmNEyHHH\SM CctSSCS VI d.
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of all nations, that
of the Greeks, I 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 unlimbered against
the Hellenes, and am asked to speak
out. Paul, with a master intellect of the
ages, sat in brilliant Corinth, the great
Acro-Corinthus fortress frowning from
the height of sixteen hundred and eigh-
ty-slx feet, and in the house of Gaius,
Wnere ne was guest, big pile OF
money near him, which he was taking
TO 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: L, the Apostle, am bankrupt.
owe what cannot pay, but I will pay
as large percentage as I can. 1t is
an obligation for what Greek literature
and Greek sculpture and Greek archi-
lecture and Greek prowess have done
Tor me. I will pay all can in INSTALL
ments of evangelism. I am insolvent
to the Greeks" Hellas, as the inhabi-
tants call it, or Greece, as we call it,
rs insignificant in size, about a third
las large as the state of New York, but
what 1t lacks in breadth is makes up
IN height, with it's mountains Cylene,
and Eta, and Taygetus and Tymphres-
Gus, each over seven thousand feet in
elevation, and it's Parnassus, over eight
Thousand. 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
mad for cradle the valley between two
mountains. That country, no part of
which is more than forty miles from
the sea, has made it's impress upon the
word as no other nation, and it today
holos a first mortgage of obligation
upon all civilized people. While we
plomacy 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, IT am debtor to the
Greeks
In the first place, we owe to their
language our New Testament, All of
1T was first written in Greek. except the
BOOK OF Matthew, and that, written in
the Aramean language, was soon put
into Greek by our Saviors 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
Greek. All the miracles in Greek. The
sermon on the mount in Greek. The
story OF Bethlehem and Golgotha and
Ollvet 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, unrivaled Greek
instead OF the gibberish language ir
which many of the NATIONS of the eartf
at that time jabbered. Who can forge
1t and who can exaggerate it's thrillins
Importance, that Christ and HEAVIER
were introduced to us in the Language
of the Greeks? the language in which
Homer had sung and Sophocles drama
tized and Pluto dialogued and socrate:
discoursed and Lycurgus legislated anf
-Demosthenes Numbered his Grafton q,
The Crown" Everlasting thanks t.
God that the waters of life were M
handed to the world in the unwashei
cup of corrupt languages from whic,
nations had been drinking, but in tn,
clean, bright golden Tipped, emerald
handled chalice of the Hellenes
Learned Curtius wrote a whole yolum
about the Greek verb. Philologist
century after century have been meas
uring the symmetry of that Language
laden with elegy and philippe, dram
and comedy, Odyssey and Iliad: bu
the grandest thing that Greek languae
ever accomplished was to give to tn
ONAASoASSASAA,
irraditation, the salvation of the Cos
pei of the Son of God. For that we ar
debtors to the Greeks
And while speaking of our philolog
cal obligation, let me call your after
ton to the fact that many of the il
tellectual and moral and theologic:
leaders of the ages got much of the
discipline and effectiveness from Gree
literature. 1t is popular to scott at tt
dead languages, but so per cent Of IL
worlds intellectually would have bee
taken off if, through learned instit,
lions our young men had not, undt
competent professors, been drilled
Greek masterpieces. Hesiod's .'Weel
and Days. or the eulogium by Simon
ides of the slain in war, or Pindar
"Odes of Victory" or THE Recolle
lions Of Socrates" or 1.-THE Art
Words" by Corax, or Xenophons An
basis.