Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1906-01-11
CalnnaSe
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmade, b. d.

Los Angeles. Cal, Jan. 7-Appro.
pirate for the new year as the season
for good resolutions am turning over
new leaf" is this sermon. the text for
which Ia taken from Acts xviii, 30. And
the times of this ignorance God winked
at"
What tremor Of excitement must
have stirred the minds and the hearts
Of his men when Horatio Nelson, the
celebrated English admiral, gave the
order to clear the gun deck for action
Mt Trafalgar. All. yes, we can truly
say the ono armed naval hero whose
body now sleeps in st. Paul's cathedral
by the side of the Waterloo chieftain
was no novice in the art of war; Way
back in the uprising Of the American
colonies he fought as a young captain
of twenty-one under Lord Howe. He
was in the midst Of the British strug-
giles off Cape Vincent in 1893. He was
the commander who destroyed the
French feet in the harbor Of AbOukir
when Napoleon was making his Egyp-
ton conquests He was part of the
naval history Of England from 1910 up
to the time of his tragic death. but all
his previous engagements were mere
| preparation for his great battle Of Traf.
Agar. Then he grippcd Nnpoleon's
acknowledgements by name-and
grimly said, Thou shalt not make It
/ possible for the conQuerors Of Prussia
and Spain and Austria and Italy and
Holland and Westphalia TO cross the
channel and fight under the shadow Of
! Westminster abbey and Windsor cas-
tie" Truly that Trafalgar order. Eng
land expects every man to do his duty"
must have aroused the heroic in every
British heart. for Trafalgar was the SUI
preme battle Of Horatio Nelson's life.
What the quarter deck of the British
line Of battle ship Victory was to Mel
son at Ira falgar Mars hill was to the
great gospel warrior Paul. Like Mel
son, Paul was no novice. He had
fought in many a conflict for Christ.
He was SCARED veteran of many
gospel campaigns. In Damascus, at
Jerusalem, over In Corinth in Ephesus.
we can follow his martial footsteps.
But though he had fought many bat
Ties for Christ the supreme battle Of
Paul's life was witnessed at Mars hill
mo moment in the annals OF the
church." wrote the historian. has
larger significance than that in which
the gospel of the living Christ came in
its first contact at Athens with the
worn faiths of paganism. its philosophy
and its science" Here it was that
Paul not only had to grappe with
Plato's philosophy and with the teach
ings of the Stoics and the Epicureans,
but here also he had to preach Christ
in the home of the drama and preach
Jesus from the rostrum made memora-
BILE by the orations Of the greatest ora
tors Of the past. whose silver tongues
had created armies and made laws and
started forth Greece on its conquest of
the world.
When Paul looked up and waved his
hand above him he saw the famous
Acropols crowned with its many tenn
pies. There is the Parthenon with its
beautiful statue Of Pallas, the guard
ian goddess of Athens, which city was
the home Of Demosthenes and Lysas
and Lycurgus and AeschineS. the ora
tors, and of Aeschylus and Sophocles
the dramatists, and Of Thucyddes and
NenophOn. the historians, and of Scion.
the lawyer and Of Socrates, the teach
or and of Pericles, the poet, and OF
Phidias, the Michael Angelo of the
Greeks. To the right of this famous
temple was the marvellous colossal
statue Of Athanae Promachus. And
there is Il beautiful poem in marble
called "The Temple of Wingless Vic
tory Every column. every shrine. ev-
cry intricate covering of that citadel
hand Of master. John Keats once
wrote:
Beauty is truth, truth beauty; that Is all
ie know on earth and all ye need to know.
If that is true, then truth was every
where intrenched on the heights over
topping Mars hill For beauty in her
most exquisite proportions was there
in imperishablc marble.
Not Preaching to snvnGcs.
When Paul ceased to look up and as
a student OF the beautiful looked down
his eyes in amazement wandered over
the massive proportions of the great
Temple of Jupiter Olympus, which was
one of the seven wonders of the world.
The few huge columns Of this mighty
temple still standing inspire more awe
in the minds of the modern students
than do even the gigantic stones of the
pyramids or the ruined foundations Of
the ancient statue Of the god HeliOs
once beStriding the harbor of Rhodes.
There WAS also the beautiful temple of
} the Theseium. perhaps the most per-
fectly preserved temple of all the an
clients. And there before him was the
gigantic temple Of Mars. the god of
war. Paul was not preaching Christ
among set of ignorant savages. He
was preaching Christ to the greatest
students Of architecture, OF sculpture,
! OF poetry and of oratory the world has
ever seen. Wherever Paul's eyes turn
ed he could see the beautiful statues
end shrines erected not only to scores
but to hundreds and thousands Of Gre
, clan gods and 9oddesses. The city was
! literally full of beautiful idols Of all
sorts. at was easier to find there a
god than it was man." Petronius
once quantity said. Yet 1t was on
1 Mars hill that Paul dared to defy all