The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-12-04

having forty-SlX columns, each column
thirty-four feet high and six feet two
inches in diameter. Wondrous inter
columniationsl Painted porticos, archi-
traves tinged with ochre, shields of
god hung up, lines of most delicate
curve, figures of horses and men
and women and gods, oxen on
the way to sacrifice, statues OF
the deities Dionysius, Prometheus,
Hermes, Demeter, Zeus, Hera, Po-
seldom; in one frieze twelve divinities;
centaurs in battle; weaponry from
Marathon; chariot of night; chariot
of morning; horses of the sun, the
fates, the furies; statue of Jupiter hold
ing in his right hand the thunderbolt;
silver footed chair in which Xerxes
watched the battle of Salamis only a
few miles away. Here is the colossal
statue of Minerva in full armor, eyes
of grey colored stone; figure of a
sphinx, on her head, griffins on her side
(which are lions with eagles beak),
spear in one hand, statue of liberty in
the other, a shield carved with battle
scenes, and even the slippers sculptered
and tied on with thongs of gold. Far
out at sea the sailors saw this statue of
Minerva rising high above all the tenn
Piles, glittering in the sun. Here are
statues of equestrians, statue OF a
lioness, and there are the graces, and
yonder horse in bronze.
There is a statue said in the time of
Augustus to have of its own accord
turned around from east to west and
spit blood; statues made out of shields
conquered in battle; statue of Apollo,
the expeller of locusts; statue of Ana
creon. drunk and singing; statue of
Olympodorus. a Greek, memorable for
the fact that he was cheerful when
others were cast down, trait worthy
of sculpture. But, walk on and around
the Acropolis, and yonder you see a
statue of Hygeia, and the statue of
Theseus fighting the Minotaur and the
statue of Hercules Staying serpents.
No wonder that Pretonius said it was
easier to find god than man in
Athens. o, the Acropolis! The most of
its temples and statues made from the
marble uuarries of Mount Pentelicum, a
little way from the city. The Acropo-
lis in the morning light of those an
clients must have shone as though it
were an aerolite cast off from the
MONDAY sun. The temples must have
looked like petrified foam. The whole
Acropolis must have seemed like the
white breakers on the great ocean of
time.
But we cannot stop longer here, for
there is a hill near by of more interest,
though it has not one chip of marble to
suggest statue or temple. We
hasten down the Acropolis to ascend
the Areopagus, or Mars hill, as it is
called. 1t took only about three min
utes to walk the distance, and the two
hill tops are so near that what / said
in religious discourse on Mars hill was
heard distinctly by some English gen.
tlemen on the Acropolis
This Mars hill is a rough pile of rock
fifty feet high. 1t was famous long
before New Testament times. The
Persians easily and terribly assaulted
the Acropolis from this hill top. Here
assembled the court to try criminals
1t was held in the night time so that
the faces of the judges could not be
seen, nor the faces of the lawyers who
made the plea, and so. instead of trial
being one of emotion, it must have been
one of cool justice. But there was one
occasion on this hill memorable above
all others. A little man, physically
weak, and his rhetoric described by
himself as contemplate, had by his
sermons rocked Athens with commo-
ton, and he was summoned either by
writ of law or hearty invitation to come
upon that pulpit of rock and give a
specimen of his theology. All the
wiseacres of Athens turned out and
turned up to hear him. The more
venerable of them sat in an amphi-
theater, the granite seats of which
are still visible, but the other
people swarmed on all sides of
the hill and at the base of it to
hear this man, whom some called
a fanatic, and others called a madcap,
and others a blasphemer, and others
styled contemptuously this fellow"
Paul arrived in answer to the writ or
invitation and confronted them and
gave them the biggest dose that NOR
tails ever took. What have so far said
in this discourse was necessary in order
that you may understand the boldness,
the defiance, the holy recklessness, the
magnificence of Paurs speech The
first thunderbolt he launched at the
opposite hill-the Acropolis-that mo-
ment all aglitter with idols and temples.
He cries out God who made the
world" Why they thought that
Prometheus made it that Mercury
made it, that Apllo made it that
Poseidon made il, 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 Acropolis to make it. and
here stands a man without any ecclesi-
astical title. 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 Parthenon could hear it,
was a deceit, a falsehood, sham, a
blastphemy Look at the faces of his
auditors; they ale 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
But surely the preacher on the pulpit
of rock on Mars hill will stop now. His
audience can endure no more. Two
are enough. No, in the
same breath he launches the third
which to them is more
fiery, more terrible, more demolishing
than the others, as ne cries out: Hath
made of one blood all nations" o.
Paul! you forget that You are speaking
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