Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-11-26
WHERE ST. PAUL STOOD
AND HURLED THE CHRISTIAN
TRUTHS AT THE ORECIANs.
Talmage Draws n Comparison he
tween AcrOpolIs and Aefopagus
HtIls--Trutbs OF tbe Latter Live,
the IdolaIries OF the Former Dead.


Greece, and the night was sleepless
with expectation, and my watch slow
ly 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 tt
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 THAI
| 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 of our stay in
that city those letters caused evcry
door and every gate and every temple
and every palace to swing open before
u.s. We pass through where stood the
Agora, the ancient marketplace, the
locality where philosophers used &c
meet their disciples, walking while
they talked, and where Paul the Chris
tian logician flung many proud Stoic
and got the laugh on many an imperti.
nent Epicurean. But before we make
our chief visits of to-day we must take
turn at the Stadium. 1t is little
way out, but'go we must. The Stadium
was the place where the foot-races
occurred.
We come now to the Acropolis. 1t
is a rock about two miles in circumfer-
ence at the base and 1000 feet in
circumference at the top, and 300 feet
high. On it has been crowded more
elaborate architecture and sculpture
than In any other place under the
whole heavens. Originally fortress,
afterward a congregation of temples
and statues and pillars, their ruins an
enchantment from which no observer
ever breaks away. No wonder that
Aristides thought it the center of all
things-Greece the center of the
world: Atticu the center of Greece:
Athens, the center of Attica, and the
Acropolis the center of Athens.
Earthquakes have shaken 1t; Verres
plundered it.
The Turks turned the building in 20
a powder magazine where the Nene-
tian guns dropped n fire that by explo.
sion sent the columns flying in the air
and falling cracked and splintered.
But after all that time and storm and
war and iconoclasm have effected, the
Acropolis is the monarch of all ruins,
and before it bow the learning, the
genius, the poetry, the art, the history
of the ages. ! saw 1t as it was thou
sands of years ago.
Nonder behold the pedestal of
Agrlppa, twenty feet high and
twelve feet square. But the over
shadowing wonder of all the hill is
the Parthenon. In days when money
was ten times more valuable than now,
1t cost 81, 100000 1t is n Duric grand
eur, having forty-seven columns, each
column thirty-fOur feet high and six
feet two inches in diameter. Wondrous
intercolumniations! Painted porticos.
srchitraves tinged with ochre, shields
of gold 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 Dionysus, Prone
theus, Hermes, Demcter. Ieus, Hera,
Posedon; in one frieze twelve divini-
ties; centaurs in battle: weaponry from
Marathon: chariot of night chariot of
the morning, horses of the sun, the
fates, the furies; statue of Jupiter hold
ing in his right hand the thunderbolt
silverfooted chair in which Nerxes
watched the battle of Salamis ONLY n
few miles away. Here is the colossal
STATUE of Minerva in full armor. ewes of
gray -colored stone figure of a Sphinx,
on her head, griitins by her side (which
are lions with eagles beak), spear il
one hand, statue of Liberty in the
other, a shield carved with bat
tie scenes, and even the slippers
sculptured, and tied on with
thongs of gold. Far out at sea the
sailors saw the statue of Minerva ris
ing high above all the temples glitter
ing in the sun. Here are statues of
equestrians, statue of a lioness, and
there are the Graces, and Wonder a
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 ex-
peller of lOcusts: statue of Anacreon
drunk and singing; statue of Olympic
dorus, Greek, memorable for
the fact that he was cheerful
when others were cast down. n
trait worthy of sculpture. But
walk on and around the AcropoIis 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
Pctronius said that it was easier to
find god than a man in Athens Oh,
the Acropolis, The most of It's temples
and statues made from the marble
quarries Of Mount Pestelicum, a little
way from the city. have here on
my table q block of the Parthenon
made out of this marble, and on it is
the sculpture of Phidias. / brought
it from the AcropoliS. THIS speci-
men has on it the duss of ages, and
the marks of explosion and battle, but
You can get from it some idea of
the delicate lustre of the Acropolis
when it was covered with a mountain
OF this marble cut into all the exquis-
lite shapes that genius could contrive
and striped with silver, and afiame
with gold. The Acropolis in the morn
ing light of those ancients must have
shown 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 of the
great ocean of time.
We next hasten down the Acropolis
to ascend the Are opagus, or Mars HILL,
as II is called. 1t took only about
three minutes 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 gentlemen on the
AcropOlis. This Mars Hill is rough
pile OF rock fifty feet high. 1t was
famous long before New Testame Mt
times The Persians easily ana terri
bly, assaulted the Acropolis from this
hill top. Here assem- blcd tine 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 a trial being
| one OF emotion, IL must have teen one
of cool justice. But there was one oc-
casion on this hill memorable above
all others A little man, physically
weak, and his rhertoric described by
himself as contemplate, had by b 9
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.vener-
able of them sat in an amphitheatre. the
| mt s.s L. 4.