The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-06-10
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
4 LEARNED DISCOURSE ENTITLED
:. GOSPEL or THE RESURRECTION =.

inc SUBJECT OIL u 10" cIiuA ny
the Rev. Henry g. Swentzel-He Re
views the Miracle From Every Point,
New YORK C1TY.-Dr. Henry e. Swent.
eel, rector of St. Luke's Church. preached
Sunday morning on 'The Gospel of the Res.
direction" He took his text FROM Acts
xvii: is: "He preached unto them Jesus
and the resurrection" DR.. Swentzel said:
With what noble confidence did the apos-
tolic church set out to serve its worldwide
mission. 1t had new religion to proclaim,
races of mankind. It was not provincial ],
but catholic. 1t began in Jerusalem, but it
looked forward to comprising the whole
earth. Wherever it went it encountered
beliefs and rites which were venerable, i'm.
pressive and upheld by the prestige OF
wealth, rank and culture, but it was none
the less devoted to its huge work. What a
hopeless task it seemed to be to convert
the human family to the gospel of Jesus
Christ. The Master of this latest cult was
a Jew. He had been disgraced by cruciix-
ion, and there was now scarcely more than
a handful of disciples to tell the story tt
whelming odds against which these inen
struggled as they proceeded to evangelize
the multitudes, we are all the more pro.
foundly impressed with the conf dence 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
oppositions 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 we're gladly the earthly champions.
Not always had they been of this temper.
The mightiest among them, the rock-man
himself, had utterly collapsed in the high
priests palace, and after the fatetul dav of
the cross they all accepted the plight
of those who had served 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
walton which burned upon his lips.
Nor is the reason for this radical change
difficult to account for. Those timid and
laundering men had received divine af-
fatus-they had been revomtionized 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 indomitable assurance of the
triumph of their divine Master over death
and the grave. The Lords resurrection
was the dominant doctrina! 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 companied with Him as intimate
associates for several years: their spiritual
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-.
senting Him in every land and willing to
endure every hardship for His cause.
St. Paul on Mars Hill is On illustration
Of the temper of the Apostolic Church. He
is thoroughly imbued with the certainty OF
the Easter story, and hesitates not to
preach it throughout the missionary jour
neys when he SO .,lendidiy served his Office
as the apostle to the Gentiles. 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-
liberately sought. What striking picture
chief intellects of the classic metropolis and
speaking with undaunted boldness of the
risen Jesus. The sun. Drowned traveller, a
stranger in strange land, he knows that
Ee is in the centre of the very best pagan.
ism, and he is as fearless of its prejudices
and subtleties and ridicule as. he had been
of the prisons of Syria. His, training hith-
erto had prepared him to appreciate the
sights on which he gazed. In him the civil.
izations 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 for him to win the respect
of his hearers. Conscious of this handicap,
he would feel the weight also of the quer:
surely evoke. It was probably his first visit
to this seat of enlightenment. Its far
famed glories which he had long since de-
sired to see were now before his eyes in
all their bewildering splendor. He had
mastered its language and literature, and
now he walked on its streets, looked upon
its population, gazed upon objects made
rare in interest and celebrated in epic or
in song, visited its sanctuaries and it's
schools, met it's thinkers and artists, and
realized the beauty and the power of its
lie and thought. From the time that he
disembarked at the pier his attention was
constantly arrested by the monuments and
its genius and culture.
Of monuments the new religion has yet
had scarcely one. 1t was still in the days
Of its poverty. Churches and cathedrals
and endowments were matters Of the fut-
ure. What could St. Paul expect in re-
sponse to his pronouncement? The ambas-
sador of Christ understood that he had
come hither as the legate from the courts
of heaven to the seers and scholars of this
seat of learning to declare the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. He was face
to face with the clever scions of the highest
intellectual culture known to antiquity;
hard by were the temples of Eumenides
and Theseus, the Propylaeum of the Acrop-
oils, the temple. Of victory. and. towering
above all from its lofty pedestal, was the
bronze colossus of Minerva. Well might
he assume that Stoics and Epicureans and
other thinkers would attempt his over
throw, but he did not finch while he al.
nounced a religion as yet without influence
or art or literature, with scarcely conf
Portable resting place for its Scriptures and
its sacraments. In his manner, however.
there are no indications that he was con-
scious of any special advantages. 1t could
not be otherwise, for he had himself senn
the risen Jesus and ne could. therefore,
not he more certain of the shining SUN than
be was of the truth of the Gospel which he
preached. 1t was this nnalterdble convic-
tion which sustained him even on Mars
dll Wnlle ne QlscouFsel 81 tne TeueElpClon
accomplished by Him vino died and rose
again. He was not splitting hairs nor tell
ing fables nor playing with metaphysics.
He upheld the risen Christ to challenge at
tention and support his truths and win the
souls of his distinguished audience.
The basis of st. Paups confidence as an
apostle of Christ Is the only basis of conf
dence in believing. The first Christians
were Easter enthusiasts. Their untailing
belief in the resurrection of Jesus had
much to do in making them worthy of ven.
Grafton as the hest among Gods family of
7aints. All that had 1een written concern
Eng the Ion Of Man they pondered with
pious devotion, but they never forgot that
He came forth alive again from the grave.
They would think Of Him as the Son Of
Mary; they would hear Of His childhood
years; they would srady His sayings and