The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-04-02
Gae @essem9er.
PRAISE FOR GREECE.
REV. DIR. TALMAGE ON A SUBJECT
OF WORLDWIDE INTEREST.

Ho Shows What We Owe the Greeks-A
Debt in Language. Art, Heroism and
Medicine-The Best Way to Pay tho
Debt.
Washington, March 28.-As DR.. Tai
raaxe's ermon are published on both
sides the ocean, this discourse on a
subject OF worldwide interest will at
tract universal attention. His text was
Romans |, IA, Il am debtor both to the
Greeks and to the barbarians.'
At this time, when that behemOth of
examinations. Mohammedanism, after
having gorged itself on the carcasses
OF 100, 900 Armenians, is trying to put
It's paws upon one OF the faireSt or
all nations, that of the Greeks, I preach
this sermon Of sympathy am ~rotest,
for every intelligent person on this
side OF the sea. as we'll as the other
side, like Paul. who wrote the text.
il debtor to the Greeks. The present
crisis Is emphasized by the guns OF
the allied powers Of Europe, ready to
be numbered against the Hellenes,
and / am asked to speak out. Paul,
with a master intellect Of the ages, sat
in brilliant Corinth, the great Aero
wi ~ SAS
height Of 1856 feet. and in the house
Of Gaius. where he was a guest, a big
pile of money near him, which he was
taking to Jerusalem for the poor.
In this letter to the Romans, which
ChrySostOm admired 50 much that he
had 1T rea to him twice a week., aul
practically says: II, the apostle, am
tba nkrupt. / owe what / cannot pay,
but / will pay as large a percentage as
I can. 1t is an obligation for what
Greek literature and Greek sculpture
and Greek architecture and Greek
ess have done for me. 1 will a
All I can in installments OF evange-
fism. / am insolvent to the Greeks
Hellas, as the inhabitants call 1t. or
Greece, as we call it, is insignificant
in size, about a third as large as the
state OF New York but h 1T 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 Parnas-
sus, 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 be-
tween two mountains. That country,
no part of which is more than forty
miles from the sea, has made it's i'm
press upon the world as no other ma
Uion, and it today holds a first mort
gage of obligation upon all civilized
people. While we must leave to states
manship and diplomacy the settle
ment Of the intricate 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,"I am
debtor to the Greeks
THE GREEK LANGUAGE.
In the first place, We owe to their
language our New Testament. AL Of 1T
was first written in Greek, except the
book Of Matthew, and that, written in
the language, was soon put
into Greek by our SaviOurs brother
James. To the Greek 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
Olivet and Jordan banks and Galllean
beaches and Pauline embarkati1n and
Pentecostal tongues and seven trump
cts tina sounded owe PatmoS nave
come to the world in liquid, symmetr1-
cal, picturesque, philosophic, unrivaled
Greek, instead of the gibberish Ian
guage in which many Of the nations or
the earth at that time jabbered. VINO
can forget it, and who can axaggerate
it's thrilling importance, that CHRIST
and heaven were introduced TO US IN
the language of the Greeks, the lam
guage in which Homer had sung and
Sophocles dramatiZed and Plato dia-
IOgued and Socrates diScOurSed and
Lysurgus legislated and DemoSthenes
~thundered his GRAFTON on 'Ihe
Crown" Everlasting thanks to God
that the waters Of life were not hand
ed to the world in the unwashed cup
Of corrpt languages from which ma
ions had been drinking, but in the
clean, bright. golden Tipped, emerald
handled chalice of the Hellenes. Learn
ed CurtiuS wrote a 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
grandest thing that Greek language
ever accomplished was to give to the
world the benediction. the comfort, the
irradiation. the salvation, Of the gos-
pei of the Son Of God. For that we are
debtors to the Greeks.
And while speaking OF our philologi-
cal obligation let me call your atten-
ton to the FAC that many Of the intel
lectual and moral n theological lead
ems Of the ages got much OF their dis
cipline and effectiveness from Greek
literature. 1t Is popular to scott at the
dead languages, but SO per cent. of the
worlds intellectually would have been
taken oft 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 ~ the slain in war. or Pindars
-'Odes of Victory or THE Recollec-
lions of Socrates" or 1.-THE Art OF
Words" by Corax. or xenophon's An
abasis."
HISTORY AND THE GREEKS. !
From the Greeks the world learned
how to make history. Had there been
no Herodotus and Thucydides there
would have been no Macaulay or Ban
croft. Had there been no Sophocles in
tragedy there would have been no
Shakespeare. Had there been no HON.
er there would have been no Milton.
The modern wits. who are now or have
been put on the divine mission Of
making the world laugh at h right