Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1891-11-28
rough pile Of rock fifty feet high. It
was famous long before New Tesla

rough pile Of rock fifty feet high. 1t
was famous long before New Tesla
ment times.
The Persians easily and terribly as,
saulted the Acropolis from this hilltop.
Here assembled the court to try crilni-
nails. 1t was held in the nighttime, 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
O. trial being one of emotion, it must
have been one of cool justice; but there
was one occasion on this hill inelnora-
! Bile above all others.
A little man, physically weak, and
his rhetoric described by himself as
contemplate, had by his sermons
rocked Athens with counotion, and lie
was summoned either by writ Of law or
! hearty invitation to come upon that
pulpit of rock and give q specimen of
Ills theology All the wiseacres of Ath-
ems turned out and turned up to hear
him. The more venerable of them sat
in an amphitleater, tile granite seats
| of which are still visible, but the other
people swarmede on all sides of the hill
land at the base of it to hear this man,
whom some called fanatic and others
called madcap and others bias
pliener and others styled contemptu
ously, ''Tllis fellow"
Paul arrived in answer to the writ or
invitation, and confronted them and
gave them the biggest dose that mor-
tails ever took. He was SO built that
nothing could scare him, and as for Ju-
piter and Athena, the god and tie
goddess whose images were in full sight
on the adjoining hill, he had not SO
much regard for them as he had for the
ant that was crawling in the sand I'M
der his feet. In that audience were tile
first orators of the world, and they had
voices like flutes when they were pass
i've and like trumpets when they were
aroused, and think they laughed in
the sleeves of their gowns as this insig-
nifcant looking man rose to speak.
In that audience were Scholiasts WHO
knew everything, or thought they did,
and from the end of tile longest hair on
the top of their craniums to the end Of
the nail'on the longest toe they were
stuffed with hypercriticisn,, and they
leaned back with supercilious look to
listen. AS in 1889, stood OH that
rock where Paul stood, and u slab Of
which brought from Athens by con-
sent of the queen, through Mr.. Tri-
coupis, the prime minister, and had
placed in yonder memorial wall read
the whole story, Bible in hand.
GOD WHO MADE THE WORLD.
What 1 have so far said in this dis
course was necessary in order that you
may understand the boldness, the de-
fance, the holy recklessness. the mag
nifcence of Paul's speech. The first
thunderbolt lie launched at the oppo-
site hill-the Acropolis-that moment
all aglitrer with idols and temples. He
cries out, God, who made the world. {"
Why, they thought that Prometheus
made it, that Mercury made it, that
Apollo made it, that Poseidon made
it, that Eros made it, that Pandrocus
made it, that Boreas made it, tia. it
took all the gods of the Parthenon,
yea, all the gods and goddesses
of the Acropolis, to make it, and
here stands man without any ecclesi-
astical title, neither d. D., nor even a
reverend, declaring that the world was
made by the Lord of heaven and earth,
and hence the inference that oil the
splendid covering of the Acropolis, so
near that the people standing on the
steps of the Parthenon could hear it,
was deceit, falseliood, sham,
blasphe,ny. Look at the faces of the
auditors; they are turning pale, and
then red, and then wrath[ul. There
had been several earthquakes in that
region, but that was the severest shock
these men had ever felt.
The Persians had bombarded the
Acropolis from the heights of Mars
Hill, but this Pauline bonbardlnent
was greater and more terrific. What,
raid his hearers, have we been haul
ing with many yoles of oxen for CEN
turtles these blocks from the quarries Of
Mount Pentelicum, and have we had
our architects putting up these struc-
lures of unparalleled splendor, and
have we had the greatest of all sculp-
tors, Phidias, with his men, chiseling
away Mt those wondrous pediments.
and cutting away at these friezes, and
have we taxed the nations resources to
the utmost, now to be told that those
statues see nothing, hear nothing, know
nothing?"
Oh, Paul, stop for a moment and
give these startled and overwhelmed
a ,ditors time to catch their breath!
Make rhetorical pausel Take look
around you at the interesting landscape
and give your hearers time to recover!
No, he does not make even 4 Perioo OF
so much as a colon or semicolon, but
launches the second thunderbolt right
after the first, and in the same breath
goes on to say, God "dwelleth not in
temples made with hands"
Oh, Paul Is not deity more in the
Parthenon, or more in the Theseum, OF
more in the Erechtheium, or more in
the temple of zeus Olympus than in
the open air, more than on the hill
where we are sitting, more than on
Mount Hymettus out yonder, from
which the bees get their honeya INC
more!" responds Paul, ''He dwelletb
not in temples made with hands"
Rut surely the preacher on the pul.