Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1897-04-07
REV. DR.. TALMAGE
The E9slEent Divtne's Sunday
Discourse.
Subject: "Our. Debt to the Creeks

TEXT: q" an debtor both to the Greeks
and to the barbarlnns. '-Romars l., IA.
Al this time. when that behemoth o.
denominations, Mohammedanism, after hav-
ing gorged itself on the carcasses of 100, ,O0C
Armenians. IL trying to put its paws upon
one Of the fair.st of all nations. that of the
Grerks, l pre- ich this sermon OF sympathy
aul protest, for every Intelligent person on
debtor to the Greeks. The present crisis is
emphasized by the guns OF the Allie Powers
OF Europe, ready to be unllmbered against
the Heilenes. and am asked to speak out.
Paul. with n master intellect of the ages,
sat in briiiant Corinth, the great Aero
Corinthus fortress frowning from the height
of 1886 feet, and in the house OF Gaius,
where he WAS n guest. a big pile OF money
near him. which he was taking to Jerusalem
Tor the poor.
In this letter to the Romans. which Chry-
sostom admired 80 much that he had II read
to him twice a We X, Paul practically says:
IL, the apostle, am bankrupt. owe what
cannot paw. but will pay as lar se perceut-
age "a can. 1t Is An obligation for what
Greek literature and Greek sculpture and
Greek architecture and Greek prowess have
done for me. 1 will pay all l can 10 install
menis OF evangelism. I am insolvent to the
Greeks
Hellas, as the inhabitants call il or dreece,
as We call 1t, is Insignificant in size. about a
third us large as the State OF New York, but
what it lacks In breaith 1t makes up in
height. with its mountains Cylene and
Eta ant Taygetus and Tymphrestus,
each over 700O 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 born on the plain,
but had for cradle the valley between two
Mountains That country OF which
is more than forty miles from the sea, has
ma ie its impress upon the world as no other
nation, and 1t today holds frss mortgage
OF obligation upon all civilized people.
While We must leave 10 craftsmanship and
diplomacy the settlement OF the intricate
questions which now involve all Europe and
iniirnctly ali nations, 1t Is time for all the
churches, al schools, all universities all
arts. all iiteratures. TO sound out In the
most emphatic way the declaration, 81 am
debtor to the Greeks.
In the first place, We owe to their language
our New Testament. All OF II was first writ
ten in Greek, except the book of Matthew.
and that. written in the Aramaan language,
was soon pu. into Greek by our Saviour's 8
brother James. To the Greek language We
owe the best sermon ever preached, the oest
letters ever written. the best visions ever
kin iled. All the parallels in Greek. All the
miracles In Greek. The sermon on the
mount iu Greek. The story of Bethlehem,
| and GolEotha. and Oliver, and Jordan banks,
and aailean beaches, ami Pauline embarka-
| ton, and Pentecostal tongues. and seven
| trumpets that sounded over Patmos have
come to the world in liquid, symmetric,
| picturesque, philosophic, unrivaied Greek.
/ instead OF the gibberish language In which
many of the nations Of the earth at
thar time jabbereJ. Who can forget
/ It, and who can exa2gerate its thrill
| hing importance, that Christ and heaven
/ insr ral 70 In fhsa larr orre
Of the Greeks, the language in which Homer
hal sung, and Sophocles dramatized
and Plato diaiogued. and Socrates discoursed
and Lycurgus iegisated. and Demosthenes
| thundered his oration on "The Crown
Everlasting thanks to God that the waters oi
life We're not handed to the world in the un-
washed cupof corrupt languages from whtct
nations had been drinking, but in the clean
/ bright. golden lippe !, emerald handled
chHl:ce OF the Hellenes. Learned Curtius
wrote a whole volume about the Greek verb
PhiiolOgsts century after century have been
measuring the symmetry of tina. language
laden with elegy aud philippe drama an
/ comedy, Odyssey" aud ''Gliad." but the
/ grsndest thing that Greek language ever nc
comp'ished was TO give to the world the
benedietion, the comfort, ths irradiation
the salvation. of the gospel of the Son ot
| God. For that we are debtors to the Greeks
| From the Greeks the world learned how tc
make history. Had there been no Herodotus
and Thucydides there would have been nc
Macaulay or Bancroft Had there been nc
| Sophocles in tragedy thege would have beer
no Shakespeare. Had there been no Homer
| there wouli have ,en no Milton. The mo /.
/ ern wits, who are now or have been out OF
the divine mission OF making the worlC
laugh ut the right time. can be traced back
to Aristophanes. the Athenian. and many o
the jocosties that are now taken rs new had
their suggestions 23J0 years ago in the fifty
g., - . thntv -
Grecian mythology ha- been the richest
mine from which orators and essayist:
have drawn their illustrations and pa mt.
ers tho themes for their canvas and, al.
though now an exhausted mine. Greciat
mythology has done work that moth
ing else could have accomplished. Bo
I reHs, representing the north wind; Sisy-
phu-. rolling the stone up the hill, only
to have the same thing to do over again
Tantalus. with fruits above him that hs
could NOT reach; Achilles. with his arrows
Icarus, with his waIen wings, flying too
half-beast; Orpheus. with his Tyre; Atlas
with the worlh on his back-all these an(
more have helped literature, from the grad
uate's speech on commencement day to Ru
fus Choate's eulogium on Daniel Webster a
Dartmouth. Tragedy and comedy wer'
born In the festivals Of Dionysius at Athens
The lyric and elegiac and epic poetry o
Greece 500 years before Christ has its echoe
In the TennysOns, Longfellows and Bryants o
1860 and 1900 years after Christ. There I
no, al effective pulpit or editorial chair o
professor room or cultured p:irlor or irtel
ligent farmhouse to-day in America o
Europe that could not appropriately empio,
Paui's -jacu alton and say, 81 nm debtor L
the Greeks"
The act is this-Pau, had got much OF hi
oratorical power OF expression from III
Greeks. That he had stu lied their literal ur
was evident when, standing in the presenc
Of an audience Of Greek scholars on Mar
hill, which overlooks Athens. he dared I
quote from one OF Ihcir own Greek poet!
either Cl,anthus or Aratus, declaring, "A
certain also Of your own poets have sait
For We are also his offspring. And h
made accurate quotation, Cleauibus, one 1
the poets. having written:
For We thi.o offspring are. All things this
creep
Are bur the echo OF the voice divine
And Aratus, one OF their own poets ha
written:
Doth care perplex2 Is lowering dang
nigh?
We are his offspring, and to Jove We fly.
1t was rather a risky thing for Paul to a
tempt to quote oxtemporaneousIy from
poem in a language foreign to his and b
fore Greek scholars. hut Paul did 1t wiiho,
stammering and tnen acknowledged befo
the most distinguished audience on II
planet his indebte mess to the Greeks. or
ing out in his oratiop. ''As one of your ov
poets has said.
Furthermore all the civilized world. lii
Paul, Is indebted TO the Greeks for archite
tuie. The world before the time of I
Greeks had built monoliths. obelisks, GRO,
l,cbs, sphiDxes and pyramids, but they we
mostly monumental, to the dead whom tn
failed to menor a!iZe. We are not certa
even, Of the names of those in whose co
memoration the pyramids We're built. b
Greek architecture did most for the liv.I
Ignoring Egyptian precedents and borro
ing nothing from other nations, Greek arc
lecture carved its own columns. set its O
pediments. adjusted its own entablatur
Ioundsa its own holdings and carried {
as never before the three qualities Of rig
building, cal ei by an old author "armit
utilitas, venustas' frmness, u
J fuiness, beauty.
But there Is another art In my mind-t
most fascinating, elevating and inspiring
all arts and the nearest to the divine
which all the world owes debt to the 3