Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1891-12-10
nh E ACROPOLIS,
With Master Hand DR.. ralma.e Draws
q Picture Of the Sights and Scenes
in Ancient Athens.
The Agora, the Stadium Where Races
We're Run, the Parthenon and
the Acropol!s.

IMAGES sermon was on the "AcrOpO-
lis," one OF the subjects suggested by
his tour in Bible lands. His text was
taken from Acts xvii, 16: "While
Paul waited for them at Athens his
spirit was stirred in him when he saw
the city wholly given to idolatry.'
It seemed as if morning would never
come. We had arrived after dark in
Athens, Greece, and the night was
sleepless with expectation, and my
watch slowly announced to me l and
q and 3 and 4 o'clock; and at the
first ray OF dawn, called our party
to look out of the window upon that
city to which Paul said he was a
debtor, and to which the whole earth
Is debtor for Greek architecture, Greek
sculpture, Greek poetry, Greek elo-
Quence, Greek prowess and Greek his
tory. That morning in Athens we
sauntered forth armed with most
generous and lovely letters from the
president OF the United States and his
secretary OF state, and, during all our
stay in that city those letters caused
every door and every gate and every
temple and every palace to swing
open before us. The mishtiest geo.
graphical name on earth today is
America. The signature OF an Ameri-
can president and secretary OF state
will take man where an army could
not. Those names brought us into
the presence OF most gracious and
beautiful sovereign, the Queen OF
Greece, and her cordiality was more
like that Of a sister than the occupant
of a throne-room. No formal bow as
when monarchs are approached, but
= cordial shake OF the hand and
earnest questions about our personal
welfare and our beloved country far
away. But this morning we pass
through where stood the Agora, the
ancient market place, the locality
where philosophers used to meet their
disciples, walking while they talked,
4nd where Paul, the Christian logician,
dung many proud Stole, and got
the laugh on many an lmpertinent
epicurean. The market place was the
center of
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL LIFE,
and it was the place where people
went to tell and hear the news.
Booths and bazaars were set up for
merchandise of all kinds, except
meat, but everything must be sold for
cash, and there must be no lying about
the value of commodities, and the
Agoranomi who ruled the place could
inflict severe punishment upon Offend
ers. The different schools of thinkers
had distinct places set apart for con-
vocation. The Platforms must meet
at the cheese market, the Decelians at
the barber shop, the sellers of per-
fumes at the frankincense headquar-
ters. The market place was space
$50 yards long and $50 wide,
and it was given up to Cos
sip and merchandise and lounging
and philosophizing. All this you need
to know in order to understand the
Bible when it says OF Paul, Therefore
disputed he in the market daily with
them that met him." You see it was
the best place to get an audience, and
if man feels himself called to preach
he wants people to preach to.
We come now to the Acropolis. 1t
is rock about two miles in circum-
ference at the base and 1000 feet in
circumference at the top and 300 feet
high. On it has been crowded more
elaborate architecture and sculpture
than in any other place under the
whole heavens. Originally a fortress,
afterward a congregation OF temples
and statues and pillars, their ruins an
enchantment from which no observer
ever breaks away. No wonder that
Aristides thought it the center OF all
things-Greece, the center Of the world;
Attica, the center OF Greece; Athens,
the center of Attica and the Acropolis
the center of Athens. Earthquakes
have shaken it: Verres plundered it.
Lord Elgin, the English ambassador
at Constantinople, got permission of
the sultan to remove from the Aero
polls fallen pieces of the building, but
he took from the building to England
the finest statues, removing them at
an expense of SSOO,OOO. A storm
overthrow many OF the statues of the
Acropolis. Morosini, the general at
tempted to remove from pediment
the sculptured car and horses of vic
tory, but the clumsy machinery drop
ped it, and all was lost. The Turks
turned the building into powder ma
gazine where the Venetian guns drop
ped a fire that by explosion sent the
columns flying in the air and falling
cracked and splintered. But after all
that time and storm and war and
iconoclasm have affected, the Acropo-
lis is
THE MONARCH OF ALL RUINS,
and before it bow the learning, the
genius, the poetry, the art, the history
of the ages. I saw it as it was thou
sands OF years ago. 1 had read 80
much about it, and dreamed SO much
about it, that needed no magician's
wand to restore it. At one wave of
my hand on that clear morning in
1889, it rose up before me in theglory
it had when Pericles ordered it and
Ictinus planned it, and Phidias CHS