Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1891-12-10


burst OF evolutionary power ever
heard. The ancestors of some OF
those Greeks had heard Demosthenes
i'll his Grafton on the Croyn, had heard
Eschines in his speeches ,gainst Tim
archus and Ctesiphon, had heard
Plato in his great argument for i'm
mortality of the soul, had heard Soc
rates on his deathbed, suicidal cup OF
hemlock in hand, leave his hearers in
emotion too great to bear, had in the
theater of Dionysius at the foot Of
the Acropolis the ruins of its piled-up
amphitheater and the marble floor OF
its orchestra still there seen enacted
the tragedies OF Echylus and Sophoc-
les, but neither had the ancestors of
these Grecians on Mars Hill, or them
selves ever heard or witnessed such
tornadoes OF moral power as that
with which Paul now whelmed his
hearers. At those two thoughts OF
Resurrection and Judgment, the
audience sprang to their feet. Some
moved they adjourn to some other
day to hear more OH the same theme,
but others would have torn the sacred
orator to pieces. The record says:
"Some Knocked" l suppose it means
that they mimicked the solemnity ofhis
voice, that took off his impassioned
gesticulation, and they cried out:
"Jew! Jew! Where did you study
rhetoric? You ought to hear our
orators speak. You had better 60
back to your business of tentmaking.
Said Mars Hill: "The words that
missionary, Paul, uttered that excit-
ing day in the hearing OF the wisest
men and the populace on my rocky
shoulders, have only begun their ma
iestic roll; the brotherhood OF man,
and the Christ OF God, and the peror-
alton OF resurrection and last judg-
ment with which the Tarsian orator
closed his sermon that day amid the
mocking crowd, shall yet
Our Lycurgus knew more in a minute
than you will know in amonth. Say,
where did you get that crooked back
and those weak eyes from? Ha! Ha!
You try to teach us Grecians! What
nonsense you talk about when you
speak OF resurrection and Judgment.
Now, little old man: climb down the
side OF Mars Hill and get out OF sight
as soon as possible" "Some Knocked. !"
But, that scene adjourned to the day
OF which the sacred orator had spoken
the day of resurrection and judg-
ment.
REvoLUTIONlZE THE PLANET.
Oh, Acropolis! l have stood here
long enough to witness that yourgods
are no gods at all. Your Boreas
could not control the winds. Your
Neptune could not manage the sea.
Your Apollo never evoked a musical
note. Your god Ceres never grew q
harvest. Your goddess OF wisdom,
Minerva, never knew the Greek alpha
bet. Your Jupiter could not handle
the lightnings, But the God whom l
proclaimed on the day when Paul
preached before the astounded assem-
blage on my rough heights, is the God
OF music, the God of wisdom, the Goa
of power, the God of mercy, the God
of love, the God OF storms, the God Of
sunshine, the God of the land, the
God of the sea, the God over all,
blessed forever"
Then the Acropolis spake and said,
as though in self-defense: "My Plato
argued for the Immortality of the
soul, and my Socrates praised virtue,
and my Miltldes at Marathon drove
back the Persian oppressors.
eyes," said Mars Hill, "your Plato
laboriously guessed at the immortal
ity OF the soul, but my Paul, divinely
inspired. declared it is fact straight
from God. Your Socrates praised
virtue, but expired as asuicide. Your
Miltiades was brave against earthly
foes, yet died from q wound ignomin-
ously gotten in after-defeat. But my
Paul challenged all earth and all hell
q4!M this battle-shout: we wrestle
not against flesh aed blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against
the rulers OF the darkness OF this world,
against spiritual wickedness i'll high
places, and then on the 29th OF June.
in the year 66, on the road to Ostia,
after the sword of the headsman had
given one keen stroke, took the crown
of martyrdom.'
After moments silence by both
hills, the Acropolis moaned out in the
darkness: CALAIS! Alas" and Mars Hill
reSpOnded: "Hosannah! Hosannah!"
Then, the voices of both hills became
indistinct. and as l passed on and
away in the twilight, ] seemed to hear
only two sounds-a fragment of Pen
telcon marble from the architrave Of
the Acropoiis dropping down on the
ruins OF a shattered idol. and the other
sound seemed to come from the rock
on Mars Hill. from which we had just
descended. But we were by this time
so far off that the fragments OF sent
enes were smaller when dropping from
Mars Hill than were the fragments OF
fallen marble on the Acropolis. and I
could only hear parts OF disconnected
sentences waited on the night air
"God who made the world'-"of one
blood all nations '-"appointed a day
in which he will judge the world"-
"raised him from the dead"