The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-07-10
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
A LEARNED DISCOURSE ENTITLED
Z; GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION -

views the Miracle From Every Point.
NEW YoRH CITY.-Dr Henry G. swent.
lcl rector OF st. Luke's Church, preached
/ Sunday morningon The Gospeloi the BeE.
/ direction lie took his text from Acts
| xvii: is: "He preached unto them Jesus
\ and the resurrection" DIR. Swentze said:
/ With what noble confidence did the apos
! toic church set out TO serve its worldwide
! mission. II bad new religion % proclaim,
glorious message from God for All the
\ races Of mankind. IL was not provincial,
/ but catholic II began in Jerusalem, but it
/ looked forward 10 comprising the whole
earth. Wherever 1t went it encountered
/ beliefs and rites which were venerable i'm.
/ presslye and upheld by the prestige Of
I wealth, rank and culture, but it was none
! the less devoted TO its huge work. What
/ hopeless task it seemed to be 10 convert
the human family to the gospel OF Jesus
/ Christ The Master Of this latest cult was
/ q jew. lie had been dsgraced by crucirx-
ion, and there was now scarcely more than
handful of disciples to tell the story Of
His career When we consider the over
whelming odds against which these inen
| struggled as they proceeded to eyangelize
! the muititudes, we are all the more pro-
! tOundly impressed with the confidence with
which they took up the more than hercu-
lean labor. The magnitude Of the effort to
which they were called did not deter them,
persecution could not alright them, the
opposltions or Indifference OF the better
| classes could not discourage them. On
they went, from city to city. from country
to country, preaching the religion of which
they were gladly the earthly champions.
Not always had they been OF this temper.
The mlghtiest among them, the roek-man
himself, had utterly collapsed in the high
priests palace, and after the fateful dav OF
the cross they all accepted the plight
OF those who had served a lost cause. But
now all this is changed. The towards are
the bravest of the brave, and each Of the
apostles IS ready. to face every peril and to
meet death for the message Of love and sal
walton which burned upon his lips.
Nor Is the reason for this radical change
difficult to account for. Those timd and
laundering men had received a divine af-
fatus-they had been revoutonized in
mind and heart and soul by the Lords res.
direction from the dead. To the gifts of
the. Holy Ghost which they received was
added the indomitabe assurance Of the
triumph OF their divine Master over death
aid the grave. The Lords resurrection
was the dominant doctrinal note in their
thinking and their teaching, and wherever
they went they bore the witness of eve
witnesses to the fact which they so boldly
declared. Although they had known Jesus
and had companed with Him as intimate
associates for several years. their spiritual
perceptions were dull until the last, and
they understood not His oft repeated say
ing that He would rise from the dead. But
as soon as they are satisfied OF His resur.
rection they all come to the front, ready
for the fray, eager for the honor of repre-.
sentlng Him in every land and willing to
endure every hardship for His cause.
st. Paul on Mars Hill is an illustration
of the temper of the Apostolic Church. He
is thoroughly imbued with the certainty OF
the Easter story, and hesitates not to
preach 1T throughout the missionary Jour.
neys when he so s0lendidly served his Office
as the apostle to the Gentiies. As we think
OF him IN the Grecian capital, we can only
wonder at the calmness and courage with
which he met the ordeal which he had de-
llberately sought. What q striking picture
he is as he stands on Areopagus, facing the
chief lntellects of the classic metropolis and
speaking with undaunted bodness of the
risen Jesus. The sun-browned traveller, a
stranger in strange land, he knows that
he is in the centre of the very best pagan.
ism, and he is as fearless of its preiudices
and subtleties and ridicule as he had been
OF the prisons OF Syria. His training hith,
erto had prepared him to appreciate tbc
; sights on which he gaZed. In him the civil
lzatlons OF Jews, Romans and Greeks met
and he had appropriated the finest things
) OF each. His attainments enabled him to
see the difficulties all the more plainly
. Evidently Hebrew, his nationality would
: make It harder t9r him te yin the respect
OF his hearers Conscious OF this handicap
he would feel the weight also of the quer
, les and the bias which his words would
surely evoke 1t was probably his first visit
to this seat of enlightenment It's far
famed glories which he had long since de
sired to see were now before his eyes il
all their bewildering splendor. He had
mastered its language and literature, anC
now he walked on its streets, looked upor
It's population, gazed upon objects made
2 rare in interest and celebrated in epic OF
In. song, visited its sanctuaries and it,
schools, met it's thinkers and artists, anC
realized the beauty and the power Of it!
life and thought. From the time that he
dlsembarked at the pier his attention wa.
, constantly arrested by the monuments anC
, shrines OF Athens, and all the tokens O.
its genius and culture.
Of monuments the new religion has vel
had scarcely one 1t was still in the davl
of its poverty. Churches and cathedrall
} and endowments were matters Of the fut
ure. What could St. Paul expect in re
spouse to his pronouncement? The ambas
sAdor of Christ understood that he hat
-'@N''Nt ~ blC ASSdLG IEbiu JHe COuI q
OF heaven to the seers and scholars of thi
seat OF learning to declare the resurrection
OF Jesus Christ from the dead He was lac,
to face with the clever sc;ons of the highes
intellectual culture known to antiquity
E hard by were the temples of Eumenidei
= and Iheseus, the Propylaeum Of the Acron
oils, The, temple of victory, and, towerin,
above all from its lofty pedestal. was tn,
bronze colossus of Minerva. Well nigh
ne, assume that Stoics and Epicureans anC
other thinkers would attempt his over
throw, but he did not finch while he an
nounced a religion as yet without inhueact
or art. or literature, with scarcely a com
tOrtabIe restIng place for IL Scrint,lrns anl