Connecticut western news., 1891-11-26
GIVEN UP TO IDOLATRY.
DR. TALMAGE BREACHES ABOUT PAUL IN THE CITY OF ATHENS.

Wise Men Which Told Them the
 Greatest Truths Their Ears Had Ever
 Listened To.
 BROOKLYN, Nov 22.-The congrega- ton at the Tabernacle, led by cornet and organ, sang this morning with great power the hymn of Isaac Watts, beginning:
 Our God, our help in ages past,
 Our hope for years to come.
 The sermon, which was on the Acrop- olis is the sixth of the series Dr. Tal- mage is preaching on the subjects sug- gested 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 one and two and three and four 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 eloquence, Greek prowess and Greek history. ...... -...
 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 mightiest geographical name on earth today is America. The signature of an American president and secretary of state will take a man where an army could not.
 Those names brought us into the presence of 6 most gracious and beauti- full 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 mon archs are approached, but a cordial shake of the hand and earnest ques- tions 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, and where Paul, the Christian logician, flung many proud Stoic, and got the laugh on many an impertinent Epicurean.
 THE ATHENIAN MARKET PLACE.
 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 com modities, and the Agoranomi who ruled the place could intlict severe punish ment upon offenders. The different schools of thinkers had distinct places set apart for convocation. The Pla- teans must meet at the cheese market, the Decelians at the barber shop, the sellers of perfumes at tie frankincense headquarters.
 The market place was space three hundred and fifty yards long and two hundred and fifty wide, and it was given up to gossip 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. But before we make. our chief visits of today we must take turn at the Stadium. It is little way out, but go we must. The Stadium was the place where the foot races oc- cured.
 Paul had been out there no doubt, for he frequently uses the scenes of that place as figures when he tells us, ''Let us run the race that is set before us" and again, ''They do it to obtain a corruptible garland, but we are an incorruptible. The marble and the gliding have been removed, but the high mounds against which the seats were piled are still there. The Stadium is six hundred and eighty feet long, one hundred and thirty feet wide and held forty thousand spectators.
 There is today the very tunnel through which the defeated racer de- parted from the Stadium and from the misses of the people, and there are the stairs up which the victor went to the top of the hill to be crowned with the laurel In this place contests with wild beasts sometimes took place, and while Hadrian, the emperor sat on wonder height, one thousand beasts were slain in one celebration.
 But it was chiefly for foot racing, and SO l proposed to my friend that day while we were in the Stadium that we try which of us could run the sooner from end to end of this historical ground, and so at the word given by the lockers on we started side by side, but before got through I found out what Paul meant when he compares the spiritual race with the race in this very Stadium. as he says, Lay aside every weight" My heavy overcoat and my friends freedom from such incum- brance showed the advantage in any kind of race of laying aside every weight"
 THE WONDERFUL ACRoPOLIs.
 We come now to the Acropolis. It is a rock about two miles in circum- ference at the base and thousand feet in circumference at the top, and three hundred feet high On it has been ,l,l hi .t