Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-12-10

LlQu EUMIuLDIM " AlN aeAll1NI nON " ~ /.
told that those statues see nothing. hear 1
nothing. know nothingP
Oh, Paul, stop for a moment and give 1
these startled aud overwhelmed auditors ]
time 10 catch their BREATH Make a rhe- /.
toricssl pausei Take look around you At
the interesting landscape, and give your
bearers time TO recoveri No. he does not
make even a period, or so much as a colon
or semicolon, but launches the second
thunderbolt right after the first, aud In the
same breath goes on TO ssy, God -dwelleth
not in temples inside with hands" Oh,
PAUL. Is not deity more in the Parthenon,
or more in the Theseum, or more In the
Erechtheium, or more In the temple Of
Zeus Olympus than in the open air, more
than on the hiH where we are sitting, more
than on Mount Hymettus out yonder,
from which tine bees get their honeyf "No
moref' responds Paul, "He dwelleth not
In temples made with hands"
But surely the preacher on the pulpit Of
rock on Mars Hill will stop now. His au.
dience can endure no more. Two thun-
derbolts are enough. No, in the same
breath he launches the third thunderbolt,
which to them is more fiery, more terrible.
more demolishing than the others, as he
cries out, "hsth made Of one blood all ma
tions" Oh, PAUL you forget you are
speaking to The proudest and most sxclu-
sive audience in the world. Do not say ''of
one blood" You cannot mean that. Had
Socrates and Plato and Demosthenes and
Solon and Lycurgus and Draco and Sopho-
cles and Euripides and Kschylus and Perl
cles and Phil rs and Miltiades blood just
like the Persians, like the Turks, like the
Egyptians, like the common herd of hu-
manityi "Yas," says Paul. ''of one blood
all nations."
THR ORATORS OF GREECE.
Surely thnt must be the closing para
graph Of the sermon. His auditors must
let up from ae nervous strain. Paul has
smashed the Aoropolis and smashed the
national pride of the Greeks, and what
more can he rayi Those Grecian orators,
standing on that place, always closed their
addresses with something sublime and eli
mRctsrio-a 2eroration-and Paul is going
to give them peroration which will eclipse
in power and majesty all that he has yet
said. Heretofors he has hurled one thun-
derbolt at q time; now he will close by
hurting two ut once. The little old man,
under the power of his speech, has straight.
ened himself up, and the stoop has gone
out Of his shoulders, and he looks about
three feet taller than when he began; and
his eyes, which were quiet, became two
flames Of hre; and his face, which was
calm in the Introduction, now depicts a
whirlwind Of emotion as he ties the two
thunderbolts together with cord of in
consumable courage and huris them at the
crowd now standing or sitting aghsst-the
two thunderbolts of Resurrection and Last
Judgment. His closing words were, "Be-
cause he hath appointed a day in the
which he will judge the world in righteous
ness by that 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; that Christ, the
despised Nazarene, would come to be their
judge, and they should have to get up out
of their cemt teries to stand before him and
take their eternal doom. Mightiest burst
of slooutionary power ever heard. The an
cestors of some of those Greeks had heard
Demosthenes in his oration on the crown,
had heard Eschines in his speeches
against Timarchus and Ctesiphon, had
heard Plato in his great argument for
Immortality OF the soul, had heard Socra-
tes on his deathbed, suicidal cup of hem
lock in hand, leave his hearers in emotion
too great to bear; had in the theater of
Dionysius at the foot of the Acropolis (Uhe
ruins of it's piled up amphitheater and the
marble floor Of its orchestra still there)
seen enacted the tragedies of Eschylus and
Sophocles, but neither had the ancestors
of these Grecians ON Mars Hill OF them
selves ever heard or witnessed such tor.
nadoes of moral power as that with which
Paul now wheImed his hearers. At those
two thoughts of resurrection and judg-
ment 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 mocked." Isup-
pose it means that they mimcked the
solemnity of his voice; that they took of
his impassioned gesticulation, and they
cried out, "Jewl Jewl Where did you
study rhetoricf You ought to hear oul
orators speakl You had better go back to
, your business of tentmaking. Our Lycp3
gus knew more in minute than you vii!
, know in a month. Say, where did you get
that crooked back, and those weak eyes
, fromi Hal hal You try to teach MS Gre
ciansl What nonsense you talk about
when you spelk of resurrection and juds
ment. Now, little old man, climb dowr
, the side Of Mars Hill and get out of sight
as soon as possible" "Some Knocked
But that sse-e adjourned to the day o
which the sacred orator had spoken-tht
day Of resur. 3ction and Judgment.
} WEAKNESS OF THE GREEKS.
: As in Athens, that evening in 1889, w
/ climbed dov the pile of slippery rocks
where all this had occurred. on our wsy
. back to our hotel, stood half way be
} tween the Acropolis and Mars Hill in the
} gathering sh, .dows of eventide, / seemed
3 to hear those two hills in sublime and aw
D full converse II am chiefly Of the past;;'
said the Aers 2ol!s. 81 am chiefly of t.S
future;" replied Mars Hill. The Acropoils
, said: Ny SrsE6ss Ses dead. My 1AwgIvsfu
, sre dead. MY pssts are dead. Ny archi-
tects are dead. My ssulptors are dead. ]
am monument Of the dead past. Ishall
never again hsar . song sung. will nsvsX
again see q column Lifted will never
} again heheld goddess crowned"
, Mars Hill responded: ~, teo, have : his
tory. I had On nay heights warriors who
will never agaia ansheath the sword, and
judges who will never again after doom
and orators who will never again make O
/ plea. But my influences Ia to be more In
! the future than 1t ever was in the past
! The words thas missionary, Paul, uttered
that exciting day in the hearing of the
wisest men and the populace en- my rocky
shoulders have only begun their majestic
role; the brotherhood of man, and the
Christ Of God, and the pereration of resur
, rection and last Judgment with which the
| Tarsian orator closed his sermon that
. day amid the mocking crowd shall YET
revolutionixs the planet. Oh, Acrop
| olisl / have stood here long enough
to witness that your gods are nc
gods at all. Your Boreas could not con
tFol the winds. Your Neptune could moi
L.