Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-11-28


The Persians easily and terribly assaulted
the Acropolis from this hilltop. Here as
sembled the court to try criminals. II was
held in the night time. 50 that the faces of the
judges could not be seen, nor the faces of the
lawyers who made the plea, and So instead
of the trial being one of emotion, it must
have been one of cool justice. But there was
one occasion on this Mill memorable above
all others.
A little man, physically weas, and his
rhetoric described by himself as contempti-
be, hal by his sermons rocked Athens with
| commotion, and he was summoned eitner by
writ of law or hearty invitation TO come
upon that pu pit of rock and give a spec
linen of his thee ogy. All the wiseacres OF
Athens turned out and turned up to hear
him. The more venerable of them sat in an
ampnitheater. the granite seats of which
| are still visible. but the other people
swarmed OIL all sides of the hill and at the
/ base of it TO hear this man. whom some
called fanatic, and others called a mad
cap, and others a blasphener, and others
| styIei conbomDtuousY this fellow"
Paul arrived in answer to the writ or in
! vitation, and con rontel them and gave
| them the biggest dose that mortalS ever took.
He was 50 Guilt that nothing could scare
1 him, and as Tor Jupiter and Athena, the
| god and the goddess, whose images were in
| full sight on the adjoining hill, he had not so
much regard for them as he had for the ant
that was craving in tue sand under his
feet. In that audience were the first orators
4 of the world, and they had voices like flutes
when they were passive, and like trumpets
when they were aroused, and | think they
laughed In the sleeves of their gowns as this
Insignificant man rose to speak.
In that audience were Schoiiasts who
knew everything, or thought they did, and
from the end of the longest hair on the top
| of their craniums to the end of the nail On
| the longest toe they were stuffed with
! hypercriticisn, and they leaned back with
supercilious look to listen. AS in 1889, [
1 stood on that rock where Paul stooi and
1 S alb of which I brought from Athens by
consent OF the queen, through Mr.. Tricoupis
| the prime minister, and hal pl cad in yon.
der Memorial Wall, read the whole story,
! Bible Ia hand
/ What have SO far said in this discourse
was necessary in order that you may un-
( derstand the boldness. the defiance, the hoy
/ recklessneSs thu magnifcence Of Paufs
| speech. The first thunderbot he launched
/ at the opposite hill-the Acropolis-that
moment all aglitter with idols and temples
He cries out. God who made the worlds
| Why. they thought that Prometheus made it,
that Mercury made 1t, that Apollo made it,
| that Poseidon made it, that Enos 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
here stands man without any ecclesiastical
title, neither d. D., nor even a reverend,
declaring that the world was made by the
Lord of heaven and earth, and hence the in
| ference that all the splendid covering of the
Acropolis, so near that the people standing
on the steps of the Parthenon could haar it,
was deceit, falsehood a sham, blasphe-
my. Look at the faces of his auditors; they
are turning pale, aud then rel, AMI tlen
wrathtul. There had been several earth
quakes in that region, but that was the Sc
verest shock these men had ever felt.
The Persians had bomoarde1 the Acropo-
lis from the heights of Mars Hill, but this
Pauline bombardnlent 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 Pentelicum, and have we had our
architects putting up these structures of IN
paralleled splendor ami have we had the
greatest OF all sculptors Pnidias, with his
men chiseling away at those won 1rous peii-
ments and cutting away at these friezss and
have we taxed the nations resources to the
utmost, now to be told that those statues sss
nothing, hear nothing, know nothing2
Oh, Paul, stop for moment and give
these startled and overwhelmed auditors
time to catch their breata. Maze rhetorical
pausel Take look around you at the inter-
ssting landscape, aud give your hearers tlme
to recover! No. he does not make even
period, or so much as colon or semicolon,
but launches the second thunderboit right
after the first and in tue same breath goes
on to say, God 'dwelleth not in temples
made with hands" o., Paul! Is not deity
more in the Parthenon, or more in the The
scum, or more in the Erecatheium, or more
in the temple Of zeus Olympus than in the
open air, more than on the hill where we are
sitting, more than on Mount Hymettus out
I ft.Dy,, wxr,T nh h. rvnE ttn1r
honey2 mo more" responds Paul, HE
dweleth not in temples made with hands"
But surely the preacher on the pulpit OF
rock on Mars till will stop now. His au-
dience can endure no more. Two thunder
bolts are enough. No. in the same breath he
launches the third thunderb bolt, which to
them is more fiery, mora terrible, more de-
molishing than the Others as he cries out:
''hath made OF one blood all natiors." Oh,
Paul! you forget you are speaking to the
prou lest and most exclusive au1ience in toe
world Do not say ''of one blood" You
cannot mean tnat. Hal Socrates and Plato
ami Demostheues au1 Scion and LFcur Jus
and Draco and SopaocleS and Euriplde5 AMI
Eschylus an Pericles aud Phidias AMI Nit
tiades blooi jus5 like the Persians, like the
Turks, like tae Egyptians, ike the coHmou
! herd of humanity Eyes" says Paul, ''oi
one blood ali uatiJ
Surely that must be the closing paragraph
{
from the nervous strain. Paul has smashed
the Acropols and smashed the national pride
of the Gree IS and what more Can he says
Those Grecian orators, standing on that
place, always closed their addresses with
something sublime and climacteric-a peror-
ation--and Paul is going to give them a
peroration which will eclipse in power and
majesty all that he has yet said. Hereto
fore he has hurled one thunderbolt at a
time; now he will close by hurting two
at once. The little old man, under the
power of his speech, has Strengthened
himself up, and the stoop has gone out
OF his shoulders, and he looks about
three feet taller than when he began; aud
his eyes, which were quiet. became two
flames of fire; and his face, which was calm
In the introduction, now depicts whirt-
wind of emotion as he ties the two thunder
bolts together with cord of inconsuma5ie
courage and hurls them at the crowd now
/ standing or sitting agh1st-tne two thuu
! derbolts Of Resurrection and Last Judg
ment. His closing words were, "B-cau-e
/ He hath appointed day in the W llch He will
| judge the world in righteousness by thaS
man whom He hath ordained, whereof He
hath given assurance unto all men in that
| he hath raised him from the dead.
! Remember those thoughts were to them
novel and provocative: tnat Christ the de-
| splsed Nazarene, would come to be their
/ judge. and they should have to get up out
I OF their cemeteries to stand before Him and
take their eternal doom. Mightiest burst OF
| evolutionary power ever heard The ances-
| tors Of some of those Greeks had heard
Demosthenes in his Grafton on the crown.
mad heard Asehines in his speeches against
Ilmarchus and Ctesiphon, hal heard Plato
IN us great argument for immortality of
! the soul, had heard Socrates on his death
bed, suicidal cup of hemlock in hand. leave
ms hearers IN emotion too great too bear;
| had III the theater of Diouysus, at the
foot of the Acropolis (the ruins
| OF its piled up amphithsater and the
marble floor of its orchestra still tnere) seen
/ enacted tie tragedies Of lEschylus and Sophie
cles, but neither had the ancestors of these
+recians on Mars Hill or themselves eya~
heard or witnessed such tornadoes of moral
/ power as that WITH which Paul now whelme1
his hearers. At those two thoughts of re-
surrect1oa and judgment the audience sprang
TO their feet. Some moved they adjourn to
/ some other day to hear more on the same
! theme, but others would have torn the sacred
orator to pieces.
The record says ".Some moczed.,' SUD.
/ pose it means that they mimickei tha
/ soiemnitY of his voice; that they took off
MS lmpassioned gesticulation and they cried
out: "Jewi Jew. Where did YOU study
rnetoricg You ought to hear our orators
/ speak! You had better go back to vour
business Of tentmakilg Our IycurgI,s
knew more IN minute than you will know
IN month, Say, where did you get that
crooked back, and those wsaS ewes fro nj
! Hal ha! You try to teach us Grecisnsi
What nonsense you talk about when you
| speak of resurrection AMI judgment Now,
little old man, climb down the side OF Mars
u Il I