Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-11-27
his shoulders. and he looks about three

feet taller than when he began, and his
ovcs. which were quiet, became two
flames of fire, and his face, which was
calm In tho introduction, now depicts
whirlwipd of emotion as he tics the two
thundcrbolts together with cord OF IN
consumable courage and hurls them at
the crowd now standing or sitting aghast
the two thunderbolts OF Resurrection
and Last Judgment. His closing words
were: s.Because Ho hath appointed
day which He will judge the world in
righteousness by that man whom lie
hath ordained, whereof He had given as
surance unto sll mon in that he hath
raised Him from the dead"
Remember those thoughts were to
them novel and provocative; that Christ,
the despised Nazarcne, would come to be
their Judge, and they should have to get
I'D out Of their cemeteries to stand be-
fore Him and take their eternal doom.
Mightiest burst of Evolutionary power
ever heard. The ancestors of some OF
those Greeks had heard Demos
themes in his Grafton on the Crown. had
heard Eschincs in his speeches against
Timarchus and Ctcsiphon, had heard
Plato in his great argument for immor-
tality of the soul, had heard Socrates on
his deathbed, suicidal cup OF hcmlock in
hand, leave his hearers in emotion too
great to bear; had in the theatcr 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
4Eschylus and Sophocles but neither
had the ancestors of these Grecians on
Mars Hill, or themselves, ever heard or
witnessed such tornadoes of moral pow
er as that with which Paul now whelmed
his hearers. At those two thoughts of
Resurrection and Judgment, the audi
ence 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 rorator to
pieces.
The record says, ''Some Knocked"
suppose it means that they mimicked the
solemnity of his voice, that they took off
his imprisoned gesticulation, and they
cried out: "Jew! jew! Where did you
study rhetoric? You ought to hear our
orators speak! You had better go back
to your business of tent-making. Our
Lycurgus knew more in minute than
you will know in a month. 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 Resurrec-
ton and Judgment. Now, little old
man, climb down the side of Mars Hill
and get out of sight as soon as possible"
"Somc Knocked" But that scene ad-
iourned to the day of which the sacred
orator had spoken-the day of Resurrec-
tion and Judgment.
AS in Athens, that evening in 1889, we
climbed down the pile of slippery rocks
where all this had occurred, on our way
back to our hotel, l stood half way be-
tween the Acropolis and Mars Hill in
the gathering shadows of eventide l
seemed to hear those two hills in SUBJ
lime and awful converse. 81 am chiefly
of the past" said the Acropolis. 81 am
chiefly of the FUTURE replied Mars Hill.
The Acropolis said: "Nly orators are
dead. My lawgivers are dead. My
poets are dead. My architects are dead.
My sculptors arc dead. / am monu-
ment of the dead past. l shall never
again see column lifted. / shall never
again behold a goddess crowned"
Mars Hill Responded: 81, too, have
had d history. l had on my heights
warriors who will never again unsheath
the sword, and judges who will never
again utter doom, and orators who will
never again make plea. But my in
tluence is to be more in the future than
it ever was in the past. The words that
missionary, Paul, uttered that exciting
day in the hearing of the wisest men and
the populace on my rocky shoulders have
only begun their majestic roll; the BROTH
crhood of man, and the Christ of God,
and the peroration of Resurrection and
Last Judgment with which the Tarsian
orator closed his sermon that day amid
the hooking crowd, shall yet revolution
ize tho planet 0 Acropolis! l have
stood here long enough to witness that
your gods are no gods at
all. Your Boreas could not control
the winds. Your Neptune could
not manage the sea. You'll Apollo
never evoked a musical note. Your god
Ceres never grew harvest. Your god
dess of wisdom, Minerva, never knew
the Greek alphabet Your Jupiter
could not handle the lightnings. But
God whom proclaimed on the day when
Paul preached before the astounded as.
sembIage on my rough heights is tho
God of music, the God of wisdom, the
God of power, the God of mercy, the God
Oh love, Ine UOd OF storms, the SiOQ OK
sunshine, the God of the land, and tho
God of the sea, the God over all, blessed
forever" Then the Acropolis spake and
said, as though in self defense, ssMy
Plato argued for the immortality of the
soul, and my Socrates praised virtue,
and my Mlliades at Marathon drove
back the Persian oppressors'
YES" said Mars Lill, ssyour PLATO
laborlously guessed at the Immortality
of the soul, but my Paul, divinely in.
spired, declared it as fact straight
from God. Your Socrates praised virtue,
but expired as suicide. Your MiltiadeS
was brave against earthly foes, yet died
from wound ANONYMOUSLY gotten II
after defeat. But my Paul challenged
all earth and all hell with his battle
shout, 'We wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against municipalities, against
powers, against the rulers OF the dark.
ness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places, and then Oh
the Goth of June, in the year &C, on the
! road to Ostia, after the sword of the
headsman had given one keen stroke,
took the crown of martyrdom.'"
AS that night in Athens put my tired
head on INV inflow T thopph+ w ho + CT rur