Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1897-04-08
A DEBT IN Language.
Rev. TaImage on a Subject oil
Worldwide Interest.
Shows What We Owe to the Greeks.
Best Way to Pay the Debt.

Shows What We Owe to the Greeks.
| Best Way TO Pay the Debt.
TEXT: 81 am debtor both TO the Greeks
! and to the barba-ians. "-Romacs L. H.
! At this time. When .ha. behemo,h o.
abominations Mohamnedanism, after hsv-
Ing gorced itself on the carcasses Q: 100. 900
! Armenians, Is trying to put Its paws upon
| one of the fairest Of all nations. that OF the
| Greeks, preach this sermon OF sympathy
and protest, for every intelligent person on
/, this side, like Paul who wrote the text is
debtor to the Greeks. The present crisis Is
| emphasized by the guns OF the Allied Powers
| ~ Europe, ready to be uniimbereo against
| the Helienes, and am asked to speak our.
| Paul, With a master intellect OF the ages
sat in brilliant Corinth. the great Aero
Corinthls fortress frowning from the heigh:
| OF 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 po1r
In this letter to tha Romans. which Chry-
sostom admired so much that he hal it read
to him twice a week, Paul practically says:
Il, the apostle. an bankrupt / owe what l
cannot pay, but will pay as large a percent
age as L can. II is an obligation for what
| dreek literature and Greek sculpture and
Greek architecture and Greek proves have
done for me-. | will pay all l can in Install
ments o' evangelism | am insolyent TO the
Greeks
Hellas, as the Inhabitants call If or Greece,
as we call it, is insignificant in size. about a
third as large as the State OF New York, but
what 1t lacks in breaith it makes up in
height. with its mountains Cylene and
Eta AMI Taysetus 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 intellectual and
moral giants were not bora on the plain,
| hrf had for liza ha liar, batx
mountains. That country. nc part OF which
Is more than forty miles from the SEA, has
made Its impress upon the world rs no other
nation. and it to-day holds n frst mortgage
OF obligation upon all civilized people.
While We must leave to statesmanship and
diplomacy the settlement OF the intricate
, questions which now involve ali Europe and
Indirectly all nations, ii is time for all the
churches, al schools, all universities, all
arts. all ilteratures. TO sound out in the
, most emphatic way the declaration, II am
debtor to the Greelis.''
In the first place, we owe to their language
our New Testament. All Of it was first writ
ten IN Greek exceptthe book of Matthew.
and that, written in the AramBan language,
| was 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
. kindled. All the parallels in Greek. All the
miracles in Greek. The sermon on the
, mount in Greek. The story OF Bethlehem.
aud Golgotha. and Olivet. and Jordan banks,
and Gailiean beaches and Pauline embarka-
ton, and Pentecostal tongues. nnd seven
trumpets that sounded over Patmos, have
0 come to the world in liquid, symnetric,
I picturesque, philosophic, unrivaled Greek.
! Instead Of the gibberish language in which
= many Of the nations Of. the earth at
that time jabbered Who can forget
it, and who can exacgerate its thrill
, ling importance, that Christ and heaven
- were introduced to us in the language
OF the Greeks, the language in which Homer
! had sung. and Sophocles dramatized
Y and Plato dialogued. and Socrates discoursed,
4 and Lycurgus legisated. and Demosthenes
! thundered his Grafton on 1.-The Crown
Everlasting thanks to God that the waters OF
= life Were not handed to the world In the un-
washed cupo of corrupt languages from which
nations had been drinking, but in the clean,
bright, golden Tipped, emerald handled
chalice of the Hellenes. Learned Cuftius
wrote 4 whole volume about he Greek verb.
e PhilOlOgists century after century have been
l. measuring the symmetry OF that language,
o laden with eegy ani philippe drama and
'. comedy. Odyssey" and "lliad." but the
u grandest thing that Greek language ever ac-
o compiished was to give to the world the
;. benediction the comfort. the irradiation
G the salvation. Of tho gospel OF the Son o.
God. For that we are debtors to the Greeks
< From the Greeks the world learned how &c
e and Thucydides there would have been nc
= Macaulay or Bancroft. Had there been nc
- Sophocles in tragedy there would have beer
! no Shakespeare. Had there been no Homer
u there would have ben no Milton. The mod
Il ern wits, who are now or have been out or
the divine mission OF making the worid
laugh IT the right time. can be traced back
u TO AristOphanee, the Athenlan. and many o.
d the jocosities that are now taken as new hac
4 their suggestions $500 years ago IN the ffty
four comedies Of that master Of nerrinent
4 Grecan mythology has been the riches
It mine IRON which orators and essayist:
II have drawn their illustrations aud paint
- ers the themes for their canvas, and, al
though now an exhausted m'ne. Grecial
" mythology has done work that moth
.e ing else could have accomplished. Bo
!, reas. representing the north wind Sisy
: phus. rolling the stone up the hill, onl.
to have the same thing 10 do over again
II Tantalus, with fruits above him that b
re cou,d no, reach; Achilles. with his arrows
N Icarus. with his waxen wings. flying TO-
near the sun; the Centaurs. half-nIan AM
* half-beast: 0rpheus. with his Tyre; Atlas
e with the world on his bacs-ali these an
more have helped literature. from the grad
uates speech on coImeI.ceraent day 10 Ru
! fus Choate's eu .oyIQra on Daniel Webster a
Dartmouth. Tragedy and comedy we-
born IN the festivals Of DionystGs at Athe1:
X Ths lyric and eleEiac and epic poetry {
o | Greece 500 years b@fore Chris, has its echoe
n. in the Iennys0-.s. LoacteIlows and BrEan:s 6
$50 and 1900 wears after Cnris. There
|. lot Al Effective pulQi, y editorial chair Q
t professors r1oa4 or cultured parlo- or ic:e
~ li-ant tarUhoGS. te-9ay IN America r
~ EaC3ire TIA; c3ui! n9t appropriately plo
:. Pau elaeE 'a,loa aai saF. Il an debtor I
eI the Greek
oe The .ac, is .ALs-Paa. la. -. snuca 0. hi
g. orasorlcal power ot expression ;rol II
- Greeks. Tia, he had s:u 1ied tEeir H'eEa'u:
was ey..en. when. Standing IN tie 1resent