Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1891-11-26


lis-that moment all agitter with idols and
temples. He cries out, "God who made
the world" Why, they thought that Pro.
metheus made it, that Mercury made it,
that Apollo made it, that Poseidon made it,
that Eros made it, that Pandrocus made it,
that Boreas made it, that it took all the gods
of the Parthenon, yea, all the gods and god
desses of the Acropols to make it, and
we're stands a man without any ecclesias-
fical title, neither a ID. d., nor even a
reverend, declaring that the world was
made by the Lord of heaven and earth, and
hence the inference that all the splendid
covering of the Acropolis, so near that the
people standing on the steps of the Par
thenon could hear it, was a deceit, "A false
hood, sham, u blasphemy. Look at the
faces of his auditors; they are turning pale,
and then red, and then wrathful. There
had been several earthquakes in that
region, but that was the severest shock
these men had ever felt.
The Persians had b o. 'arded the Acropo-
lis from the heights - -1ilrs Hill, but this
Pauline bombardment was greater and
more terrific. what" said his hearers,
"have we been hauling with many Jokes of
oxen for centuries these blocks from the
quarries of Mount Petroleum, and have we
lures of unparalleled splendor, and have
we had the greatest of all scuiptors, Phid-
las, with his men chiseling away at those
wondrous pGdimcnts and cutting away at
these friezes, aud have we taxed the ma
tion's resources to the utmost, now to be
told that those statues see nothing, hear
nothing, know nOthingP"
On, Paul, stop for moment and give
these startled and overwhelmed auditors
time to catch their BREATH Make a rhe-
torical pause! Take "A look around you at
the interesting landscape, and give your
hearers time to recoverl No, he does not
make even period, or so much as a colon
or semicolon, but launches the second
thunderbOt right after the first, and in the
same breath goes on to say, God "dwelleth
not in temples made with hands" Oh,
PAUL. Is not deity more in the Parthenon,
or more IN the Thescum or more in the
Erechthelui1, or more in the temple of
Zeus Olympus than in the open air, more
than on the Hill where are sitting, more
than on Mount lIymettus out yonder,
from which the bees get their honey? "No
more" responds Paul, "lGe dwelleth not
in temples made with hands"
But surely the preacher on the pulpit of
rock on Mars Hill will stop now. His all-
derbolts are enough. No, in the same
breath he launches the third thundcrbolt,
which to them is more fiery, more terrible,
more dcmolishing than the others, as he
cries out, "hath made of one blood all ma
tons" Oh, Paul! you forget you are
speaking to the proudest and most eXclu-
sve audience in the world. Do not say "Of
one blood" You cannot mean that. Had
Socrates and Plato and Demosthenes and
Scion and Lycurgus and Draco and Sophie
cles and Eurpides and .Iischylus and Peri
cles and Phidias and Mitiades blood just
like the Persians, like the Turks, like the
Egyptians, like the common herd Of hui
mainly? "ies," says Paul, "of one blood
all nations
TnR ORATORS OF GREECE.
Surely that must he the closing para
graph of the sermon. His auditors must
let up from the nervous strain. Paul has
smashed the Acropols and smashed the
national pride Of the Greeks, and what
more can he say? Those Grecan orators,
standing on that place, always closed theiy
addresses with something sublime and eli
mactoric--a per0ratiOn-and Paul is going
to give them Il pcroration which will eclipse
in power and majesty all that he has yet
said. Heretofore he has hurled one thun-
hurting two at once. The little old man,
under the power of his speech, has straight
ened himself up and the stoop has gone
ont of his shoulders, and he looks about
three feet taller than when he began; and
his eyes, which We're quiet, became two
flames of fire; and his face, which was
calm in the Introduction, now depicts a
whirlWlnd of emotion as he ties the two
thundcrh0liS together with a cord of in.
consup@be courage and hurls them at the
crowd now standing or sitting aghast-the
two thunderbolts of Resurrection and Last
Judgment. His closing words WERE BE
cause he hath appointed a day in the
which he will iud4e the world in righteous
ness by that Wan whom he hath ordained
whereof lie hath given assurance unto al
men in that he hath raised him from the
dead"
Remember those thoughts were to them
novel and provocative; that Christ, the
despsed Nazarene, would come to lie theiI
judge, and they should have to get up out
of their cemeteries to stand before him ;,uC
take their eternal doom. MiShtiest burst
of evolutionary power ever heard. The an
cestors of some Of those Greeks had heard
Demosthencs in his Grafton on the crown
had heard .L,chines in his speeche,
against Timarchus and Ctesiphon Ia,
heard Plato in his great argument fOl
immortality of the soul, had heard Socrt
ties on his deathbcd, suicidal cup of hem
lock in hand leave lis hearers in emotion
too great to bear; had in the thcater 0
Diony.ius at the foot Of the Metropolis 0h'
ruins OF its piled up amphitheater and thu
marble floor Of its orchestra still there
seen enacted the tragedies of 4Esch ylus An,
i>OpLOCles, but neither had the ancestors