Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1891-12-04


battle of Salamis only few miles away.
Here is the colossal statute of Minerva Il
full armor, eyes OF gray colored stone, figur
OF Sphinx on her head, griffins by her sid,
(which are lions with eagles beakl spear il
one hand, statue OF liberty in the other,
shield carved with the battle scenes, an,
even the slippers sculptured and tied on will
thongs OF gold. Far out at sea the sailor
saw this statue of Minerva rising high aboy,
all the temples glitterinS in the sun. Her,
are statutes Of equestrianS, statue OF lion
ness, and there are the Graces, and yonder q
horse III bronze.
There is a statue said in the time OF
Augustus to have of lbs own accord turned
around from east to west and spit blood
statues made out of shields conquered in
battle, statue OF Apollo, the expe!ler OF
iocust-; statue Of Anacreon, drunk and
singing statue of OlYmpodorus, a Greek,
memorable for the fact that he was cheerful
/ when Others were cast down. a trait worthy
OF sculpture. But walk on and around the
! Acropoiis and yonier you see a statue of
/ Hygeia, ami the statue of the Theseus tight
ing the Minotaur and the statue Of Hercules
staying scrPents. No wonder that Petronius
said it was easier to find gol than a man in
Athens. Oh, the AcropoliSl The most OF
its temples and statues made from the mar
bic quarrles Of Mount Pentelicum, q little
( way from the city.
have here on my table block of the
| Parthenon made out of this marble, and on
it is the sculpture of Phidias. | brought IL
! from the Acropolis. This specimen has on
! IL the dust of ages aud the marks OF explo-
/ sion and battle, but you can get from it
s)me idea OF the delicate luSter OF the Aero
polls when it was covered with mountain
! OF this marble cut into all the exquisite
shapes that genius could contrive and
striped with silver aud ailame with gold.
The Acropois in the morning light of those
ancients must have shoue MS though it were
an acrollte cast off from the MONDAY sun.
! The temples must have looked like pstrified
foam. The whole Acropolis must have
seemed like the white breakers OF the great
ocean of time
But we cannot stop longer here, for there
is hill near by of more interest though it
has not one chip OF marble to suggest
statue or q temple. We hasten down the
Acropolis to ascend the Areopagus or Mars
Hill, as it is called. 1t took only about three
minutes to walk the distance, and the two
hiltops are 50 near that what said in re-
hGious discourse on Mars Hill was heard dis
tuctly by some English gentlemen on the
Acropolis. This Mars Hill is rough pile of
rock fifty feet high. 1t was famous long be-
fore New Testament times.
The PerSians easily and terribly assaulted
the Acropolis from this hilltop Here as
seIubed the court to try criminals II was
held in the night time, s. that the faces Of the
judges could not be seen, nor the faces OF the
lawyers who made the plea, and SO, instead
of the trial being one Of emotion, it must
have been one of cool justice But there was
one occasion on this hill memorable above
all others.
( a little man. physically weaS, aud his
rhetoric described by himself as contempti-
ble, had by his sermons rocked Athens with
commotion, and he was summoned either by
writ OF law or hearty invitation to come
upon that pulpit OF rock and give u spec
linen of his theology. All the wiseacres of
Athens turned out and turned up to hear
him. The more venerable of them sat in an
amphtheater, the granite seats Of which
are stll visible, but the other people
swarmed Oh all sides OF the hill and at the
base of it 70 hear this man, whom some
called a fanatic, and others called mad
cap, and others a blasphemer, and others
stylel contemptuousy this fellow"
Paul arrived in answer to the writ or in
vitation, and confronted them and gave
them the biggest dose that mortals ever took.
He was so built that nothing could scare
him, aud as Tor Jupiter aud Athena the
god and the goddess, whose images were in
full sight on the adjoining hill, he had not SO
much regard for them rs he had for the ant
that was craving in the sand under his
feet. In that audience were the first orators
OF the world, and they had voices like flutes
when they were passive, and like trumpets
when they were aroused, and | think they
laughed in the sleeves OF their gowns as this
insignificant man rose TO speak
In that audience were ScholiaStS who
knew everything, or thought they did, and
from the end of the longest hair on the top
OF their craniums to the end of the nail on
: the longest toe, they were stuffed with
hypercriticism, and they leaned back with a
supercilious look to listen. As in 1889,
stood on that rock where Paul stood, and
slab of which l brought from Athens by
consent of the queen, through Mr.. Tricoupis,
the prime minister, and had placed in yon-
der Memorial Wall, | read the whole story,
Bible in hand.
What have so far said in this discourse
was necessary i'll order that you may uu-
derstand the bolduess, the defiance, the holy
recklessness, the magniticence OF PauPs
speech. Tho first thunderbolt rs launched
at the opposite hill-the Acropois-that
moment all nglitter with Idols and temples.
He cries out God vino made the world 4"
Why, they thought that Prometheus made it,
that Mercury made it, that Apollo made it,
that Poseidon made it, that Enos made 1t,
that Pandrocus made it. that Boreas
made it, that it took all the gods of
} tue yea, Ilis ROus ROu-
aesses of tho Acropois to make 1t, and
here stands man without any ecclesiastical
title, neither ID. D., nor even reverend,
declaring that the world was made by the
Lord of heaven and EARTH and hence the in.
ference that all the splendid covering OF the
Acropolis, 20 near that the people standing
on the steps of the Parthenon could hear ii,
was u deceit, falsehood, n sham, blasphe-
my. Look at the faces OF his auditors; they
are turning pale, and then red, and then
wrathful. There had been several earth
quaxes in that region, but that was the s.
verest shock these men had ever felt.
The Persians had bombarded the Acropo
lis from the heights of Mars Hill, but thi:
Pauline bombardment was greater and more
terrific. "WhaE" said his hearers, 'havt
we been hauling with many yokes of oxen fol
centuries these blocks from tho quarries ol
Mount Pentelicum, and have we had ouI
architects putting up these structures Of un
paralleled splendor and have We had the
greatest of all sculptors, Phidias, with his
men chiseling away at those wondrous peti
ments and cutting away at these friezes, anC
have we taxed the nations resources to thu
utmost, row to be told that those statues Sc
nothing, hear nothing, know nothingf
Oh, Paul, stop for a moment and Civ
these startled and overwhelmed auditor
time to catch their BREATH Make a rhetoric,
pausel Take look around you at the inter
csting landscape and give your hearers tim
TO recoverl No, he does not make even
. period, or so much as n colon or semcolor
but launches the second thunderbolt righ
! after the first, and in the same breath goe
on to say, God "dwelleth not in temple
made with hands" Oh, Paul! Is not deit
more in the Parthenon, or more In the The
t scum, OF more in the Erechtheum, or NOR
c in the temple of Zaus Olympus than In tn
e open air, more than on the hill where we al
sitting, more than on Mount Hymettus OF
0 wonder, from which the bees geS the
honeyP mo morep responds Paul, II
dwelIeth not in temples made with hands"
But surely the preacher on the pulpit I
. rock on Mars Hill will stop now. His a
dence can endure no more. Two thunde
{ bolts are enough. No, in the same breath
launches the third thunderbolt, which
= them is more fiery, more terrible, more d