The Dickinson press., 1891-12-05

chariot OF the morning; horses OF the
sun, the fates, the furies; statue OF
Jupiter holding in his right hand the
thunderbolt; silver-tooted chair in
which Xerxes watched the battle of
Salamis only a few miles away.
What have so far said in this dis
course was necessary in order that
you may understand the boldness, the
defiance,
THE HOLY RECKLEsSNEss,
the magniticence of Paul's speech.
The first thunderbolt he launched at
the opposite hill-the Acropolis-that
moment all aglitter with idols and
temples. He cries out, "God who
made the world" Why, they thought
that Aromethius made it, that Mer-
curry made it, that Apollo made it,
that Poseidon made, it, that Eros
made it, that Pandrocus made it,
that Boreas made it, that it took all
the gods OF the Parthenon, yea, all
the gods and goldesses OF the Aero
polls to make it, and here stands a
man without any ecclesiastical title,
neither Il ID. d., nor even Il reverend,
declaring that the world was made
by the Lord of Heaven and earth, and
hence the inference that all the splen-
did covering OF the Acropolis, SO near
that the people standing on the steps
OF the Parthenon could hear it, was a
deceit, a faisehood, q sham, a BIAS
phemy. Look at the faces OF his au-
ditors; they are turning pale and then
red, and then wrathful. There had
been several earthquakes in that re-
gion, but that was the severest shock
these men had ever felt. The
Persians had bombarded the Ac-
ropolis from the heights OF
Mars Hill, but this Pauline lombard
ment was greater and more terrific.
Oh, Paul stopped for a moment and
give these startled and overwhelmed
auditors time to catch their breath!
Make rhetorical pause! Take look
around you at the interesting land
scape, and give your hearers time to
recover! No, he does not make even
q period, or so much as 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, or more in the Elech-
theium, 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 Mt. Hymettus
out yonder, from which the bees get
their honey. mo more!" 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 the
third thunderbolt, which, to them, is
more fiery, more terrible, more de-
molishing than the others, as he cries
ont "hath made OF ono blood all ma
tions." Oh, Paul! you forgot you are
speaking to the proudest and most
exclusive audience in the world. Do
not say "of one blood" You cannot
mean that. Had Socrates, and Plato,
and Demosthenes, and Solon and
Lycurgus, and Draco, and sophocles,
and uripedes, and Eschylus, and
Pericles, and Phidias, and Miltiades
blood Just like the Persians, like the
Turks, like the Egyptians, like the
common herd OF humanity" "Yes,"
says Paul, ''of one blood, ,allnations."
Surely that must be the closing
paragraph OF the sermon. His audi
tors must be let up from the nervous
strain. Paul has smashed the Aero
polls and smashed the national pride
of the Greeks, and what more can he
say? Those Grecian orators, stand
ing on that place, always closed their
addresses with something sublime and
climacteric, a peroration. and Paul is
going to give them q peroration which
will eclispe in power and majesty all
that he has y Heretofore he
has hurled one, erbolt at a time;
now, he will close by hurling two at
once. The little, old man, under the
power OF his speech, has straight.
ened himself up, and the stoop
has gone out OF his shoulders,
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
a whirlwind OF emotion as he ties the
two thunderbolts together with cord
of inconsumable courage and hurls
them at the crowd now standing or
sitting aghast-the two thunderbolts
of resurrection and last judgment.
His closing words were: because he
hath appointed aday, in the which he
will Judge the world in Righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained
whereof he hath given assurance unto
all men in that he hath raised him
from the dead" Remember those
thoughts were to them novel and pro
vocative. That Christ,
THE DESPISED NAZARENE,
would come to be their Judge, and they
should have to get up out of their
cemeteries to stand before him and
take their eternal doom. Mightiest
burst OF elocutionary power ever
heard. The ancestors OF some oI
those Greeks had heard Demosthenes
in his GRAFTON on the Crown, had heard
Eschines in his speeches against Tim
archus and Ctesiphon, had heard
Plato in his great argument for inn
mortality of the soul, had heard Soc
rates on his deathbed, suicidal cup O.
hemlock in nand, leave his hearers ir
emotion too great to bear, had in the
theater of Dionysius at the foot o
the Acropolis the ruins OF it's piled-uI
amphitheater and the marble floor o
it's orchestra still there seen enacted
the tragedies OF Echylus and Sophoc
les, but neither had the ancestors o
these Grecians on Mars Hill, or them
selves ever heard or witnessed sucf
tornadoes OF moral power as thai