The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-11-26

Z huI ndS sLldohcu biic acicpciio "A1H &
the national pride Of the |
Greeks, and what more can he sayl |
Those Grecian orators, standing on
that place, always closed their ad-
dresses with something sublime and eli
a peroration, and Paul is going
10 give them a peroration which will
eclipse In power and majesty all that
he has yet said. Heretofore he has
hurled one thunderbolt at a time; now
he win close by hurting two at once.
The little old man, under the power
Of his speech, has Strengthened him
self 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 de-
picts q 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 day in 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 linn from the
dead"
Remember those thoughts were TO
them novel and provocative; 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 elo-
cutionary power ever heard. The an
cestors of some of those Greeks had
heard Demoethenes in his Grafton on
the Crown, had heard Eschines in his
speeches against Timarchus and Ctesi
phon, had heard Plato in his great ar
gument for Immortality of the soul, had
heard Socrates on his deathbed, sui
cidal cup of hemlock in hand, leave
to bear; had in the theater of
Dionysius, at the foot of the Acropolis
Ghe ruins of its piled up ainphitheater
and the marble floor of it's orchestra
still there, seen enacted the tragedies
of Eschylus and Sophocles, but neither
had the ancestors of these Grecians on
Mars Hill, or themselves, ever heard or
witnessed such tornadoes of moral
power as that with which Paul now
whelmed his hearers. AT those two
thoughts of Resurrection and Judg-
ment, the audience 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 orator 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 rhetoric2 You ought to
hear our orators speak! You had bet
ter 60 back to your business of tent
making. Our Lycurgus knew more in
a minute than you will know in 6
month. Say, where did you get that
crooked back, and those weak eyes
from2 Ha Ha! You try to teach us Gre
clans! What nonsense you talk about
when you speak of Resurrection anG
Judgment. Now, little old man, climb
down the side of Mars Hill and get ou
of sight as soon as possible" ''Some
Knocked" But, that scene adjourned
to the day of which the sacred orato
had spoken-the day of Resurrection
and Judgment.
THE PAST AND THE FUTURE.
AS in Athens, that evening in 1889
we climbed down the pile of slipper,
rocks where all this had occurred, OIL
our way back to our hotel, stood hal
way between the Acropolis and Mar
Hill in the gathering shadows of even
tide 1 seemed to hear those two hills il
sublime and awful converse. II an
chiefly of the past" said the Acropolis
II am chiefly of the future" replies
Mars Hill. The Acropolis said: IN
orators are dead. My lawgivers ar
dead. My poets are dead. My archi
tects are eead. My sculptors are dead
; I am a mo ument of the dead past
shall neve again hear a song sung
, I shall never again see column lifted
, / shall never again behold a goodies
, crowned"
Mars Hill responded: 81, too, hav
had history. I had on my height
warriors who will never again unsheatl
the sword, and judges who-will neve
, again utter doom, and orators VIII
! will never again make plea But IN
influence is to be more in the futur
than it ever was in the past. TIL
3 words that missionary, Paul, uttere
s that exciting day in the hearing of tn
t wisest men and the populace on IN
. rocky shoulders, have only begun the
: majestic roll; the brotherhood of MAJ
: and the Christ of God, and the perori
t ton of Resurrection and Last Judgmer
: his sermon that day amid the mockin
] crowd, shall yet revolutionize the plane
= o Acropolis! 1 have stood here lor
9 enough to witness that your gods are L
], gods at ALL Your Boreas could n,
q control the winds. Your Neptur
o could not manage the sea- Your Apol
9 never evoked a musical note. You
v god Ceres never grew harvest. You
goddess of wisdom, Minerva, new
d knew the Greek alphabet. Your j
d piter could not handle the lightning
i But the God whom I proclaimed {
K the day when Paul preached befo
e the astounded assemblage on my roue
! heights is the God of music, the &c
r of wisdom, the God of power, the &c
It of mercy, the God Of love, the God
t storms, the God of sunshine, the &c
b of the land, and the God of the Sc
n the God over all, blessed forever
Then the Acropolis spake and said,
re though in self defense, "My Pla
u argued for the Immortality of the sou
IN and my Socrates praised virtue, and n
In Miltiades at Marathon drove back ii
ID Persian oppressors.
u YES" said Mars Hill, 'your Pla