Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1891-11-28

the defiance, the holy recklessness. the
magnificence OF Paul's speech. The
first thunderbolt he launched at the OPP
posite hill-the Acropolis-that mo-
ment all aglitter with idols and temples.
He cries out God who made the
world" Why, they thought that Pro
metheus made II, that Mercury made
It, that Appolo made It, that Poseidon
made II, that Eros male 1t, that Pan
drocus made It, that Boreas made 1t,
that II took all the gods Of the Parthe-
non, yea, all the gods and goddesses
of the Acropolis to make 1t, and
here stands q man without any
ecclesiastical title, neither q d. D.,
not even u reverend, declaring that the
world was made by the Lord OF heaven
and earth. and hence the inference that
oil the splendid covering OF tho Acrop-
oils, 80 near that the people standing on
the steps Of the Parthenon could hear
It, was a deceit, falsehood. q shame, q
blasphemy. Look at the faces OF his
auditors: they are 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. The Persians had
bombarded the Acropolis from the
heights OF Mars hill, but this Pauline
bombardmont was greater and more ter
rife. "What," said his hearers, "have
we been hauling for centuries these
blocks from the quarries OF Mount PEN
telicum, and have we hal architects
constructing these statues OF unparal-
leled splendor, and have We had the
greatest OF all sculptors, Phidias, with
his men, chiseling away at these won.
derful pediments, and have we taxed
the nations resources to the utmost,
now to he told that these statues see
nothing, hear nothing, know nothirg!''
Oh, Paul, stop for moment and give
these startled and overwhelmed audi
tors time 10 catch their breath. Make
rhetorical pause. Take q look around
you at the Interesting landscape, and
give your hearers time to recover. No,
he does not make even period, or so
much as q 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 by hands" Oh, Paul, is
not deity more In the Parthenon, more
in the Theseum. more in the Erecthe'
ium, more in the temple OF Zeus Olym'
Plus 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 honey. mo
morew responds Paul, HE dwelleth
not in temples made with hands,"
But surely the preacher on the pull.
pit OF rock on Mars hill will stop now.
His audience can endure no more. Two
thunderbolts are enough. No. in the
same breath he launches tho third
thunderbolt, which TO them, Is more
fiery, more terrible, moro demolishing
than the others, as he cries out: Hath
made OF one blood all nations" o.
Paul, you forget you are speaking to
the proudest and most exclusive audi.
euce in the world. Do not say ''of one
blood" You cannot mean that. Had
Socrates, and Pluto, and Demosthenes,
and Scion, and Lycurgus, and Draco,
Sophocles. and Euripedes, and 44Ischy.
lus, and Pericless, and Phidias, and
Miltiades blood just like the Persians,
like the Turks. like the Egyptians.
like the common heard OF humanity?
"Yes," says Paul. ''of one blood, ell M.
tons" Surely that must be the cos
ing paragraph OF the sermon. His aud
itors must be let up from the nervous
strain. Paul has smashed the Acropo-
lis and smashed the national pride oil
the Greeks, and what more can he cay?
Those Grecian orators, standing on
that place, always closed their addresses
with something sublime and climac-
teric, peroration, and Paul is going to
give them q peroration which will
eclipse in power and majesty all that he
has vet said. Heretofore he has hurled
one thunderbolt at time; now, he will
close by hurting two at once. Tho lit
tie. old man, under the power OF his
speech, has Strengthened himself up,
and tho stoop has zone out of his shout
ders. and he looks about three feet
taller than when he began, and his eyes,
which were quiet, became two flames OF
fire, and his face, which was calm in
the introduction, now depicts whirl-
wind OF emotion as he ties the two
thunderbolts together with cord OF in
consumable. courage and hurls them at
thelcrowd now standing or sitting ayhast
the two thunderbolts OF resurrection
and last judgment. His closing words
were:
Because He hath appointed day in
the which He will Judge the world in
Righteousness by that man whom He
hath ordained; whereof He hath given
assurance unto oil men in that He hath
raised him from the dead" Remember
those thoughts were to them novel and
provocative, that Christ, the despised
Nazarene. would come to be their judge
and that they would have to get up out
OF their cemeteries to stand before Him
and take their eternal doom. Mightiest
burst OF evolutionary power ever heard.
The ancestors OF some OF those Greeks
had heard Demosthenes in his grafton
on the crown, had heard Eschines in
his speeches against Timarchus and
Ctesiphon, had heard Plato in his great
argument for Immortality of the soul,
had heard Socrates on his deathbed.