The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-09-29
KAUMAkAplll.
(Conclu$io@ Of Major Danes Id
droSS.)
FOOTSTEPS OF SAINT PAUL.

of Marshill in Paul's day was a
great market. Part of it still stands.
Here Paul, for three weeks, was
occupied in telling the people a new
story. The Athenans were fond of
hearing and talking about new
things. Paul's teaching was soon
noticed, and great excitement was
created by it. The Greeks had
many gods, In sight of Marshill
were 1000 statues of gods, god
desses and heroes. But here was n
man who had come to tell of one
God. Besides the immense number
of their statues, the Athenians had
800 temples. Among these temples
and their affairs, Paul had made
discovery. He had seen on their
tablets one inscription "To the un-
known God" The Greeks have
tradition to account for this singular
inscription. Some years before Paul
was there, a great plague had broken
out among the people. The priests
of their numerous temples told them
the plague was owing to their grow
ing neglect of the worship of the
gods. And then they thought of
their gods, and sent messengers to
another great temple they had in
the mountains at Delphi. In this
temple was what was called an
oracle. In times of trouble the
oracle was consulted and was be-
lieved to be able to tell what should
be done. On this occasion, the
oracle said nothing could be done
for the plague-stricken Athenians,
but said there might be another
power above the gods of Athens
whose interposition they might in
woke. They were directed to go
back to Athens, take a flock of
sheep, drive them up the hill, and
where black sheep would lie down
to rest, there to erect temple in
scribed ''to the unknown God
They did so. Less than 300 years
ago, most of these tablets were still
standing. Paul told them of that
unknown God. The rich, the learn
ed and the wise men of the city be-
gan to be excited, as they had been
at Ephcsus. They said to Paul,
sCome up to Marshill where the
highest courts sit after shutdown,
and tell us what all this is about.
/ took my Bible, one evening, last
summer, and went up to Marshill
and read aloud to myself, the mar
rative of Paul's appearance before
that court, and 1 thought of the
wonderful courage of the man who
could say to these, the proudest
people in the world, ''Iperceive that
in all things, We are too supersti-
tious, have been all round looking
at your affairs and your tablets,
and found one to the unknown God,
and it is of that God, whom you,
in your ignorance do not know,
that ] am here to tell you. 1t re-
CURED a wonderful courage to tell
those men they were ignorant. But
it required still grander courage
to announce to them that God had
made of one blood all nations, there
by intimating that all men were on
an equality. No statement could be
more insulting to the proud Greeks
than to tell them any man was as
good as Greek! He, Jew, dar-
ing to say Jew was equal to a
Greek, and knew more than the
Greek! Then he told them God had
set up Judge, and that one day all
should rise from the dead to be
judged. They were astonished,
offended. and would hear no more.
After my visit here / went over to
Corinth, and used to wonder to my
self where the house of Aquila and
Priscilla stood. 1 thought of the
wonderful man who, while building
churches, labored here and made
tents. And then 1 settled in my
mind that Paul was the greatest
man the world ever saw. 1t is a
great thing to walk through such
places. There is, to-day in Athens,
none of the seven churches of Asia
which have gone down to their
graves. Corinth is now in the dust,
other great places seem to have been
wiped from the face of the earth.
In my boyhood, i can remember
that when the churches were send
ing missionaries, the government
was sending war ships to put down
piracy in the Greek waters. In the
early years of the missions to your
islands, in 1881, woman went to
Greece as missionary. She told
me when she landed there, she rode
ten miles inland, and not house
nor a person was to be seen. A few
days after her arrival, she opened &
school of three girls. The schoo
now numbers 400. The great
church founded by st. Paul, as al
organization, still exists, but it is
,n,,, N .b,,roh xyithout Snirit1olitv 8