Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1891-12-04
REV. Or. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
SUBJECT: THE WONDERS OF ATH
EMS"


Wehad arrived after dark in Athens, Greece
and the night was sleepless with expecta
tioS, and my watch slowly announced TO M
one and two and three and four o'clock; an
at the first ray of dawn | called our party t,
look out of the window upon that city {,
which Paul said he was debtor. and 4
which the whole earth is debtor for Greel
architecture, Greek sculpture, Greek poetry
Greek eioquence, Greek proves and Greel
history.
That morning in Athens we sauntereC
forth armed with most generous and lovely
letters from the President OF the UuiteC
States and his Secretary OF State, and dur
ing all our stay in that city those letter,
caused every door and every gate and every
temple and every palace to swing open be
fore Us. The mightiest geographical name
on earth to-day is America. The signature
of an American President and Secretary OF
State will take man where an army could
not. Those names brought US into the
presence Of a most gracious and beautiful
sovereign, the Queen Of Greece, and heI
cordiality was more like that of a sister than
the occupant OF throne room. No forma
bow as when monarcns are approached, but
a cordial shake of the hand, and earnest
questions about our personal welfare
and our beloved country far away.
But this morning we pass through where
stood the Agora, the ancient market place
the locality where philosopt ers used to meet
their disciples, walking while they talked,
and where Paul, the Christian logiciau,
flung many proud stole and got the laugh
on many an impertinent Epicurean. The
market place was the center OF social and
political life, and it was the place where
people went to tell and hear the news
Booths AMI bazaars were set up for merchan.
disc OF all kinds except meat, but everything
must be sold for cash, and there must be nc
ly ing about the values of commodities, and
the Agoranomi who ruled the place could
intict severe punishment upon offenders.
The different schools of thinkers had dis
tinct places set apart for Convocation. The
Platnans must meet at the cheese market,
the Decelians at the barber shop, the sellers
OF perfumes at the frankincense head.
quarters.
The market place was a space three hun
drcd aud fifty yards long and two hundred
and fifty yards wide, aud it was given up 10
gossip AMI merchandise, and lounging and
philosophzing. All this you need to know
In order to understand the Bible when il
says OF Paul, Therefore disputed he in the
market daily with them that met him II
You see it was the best place to get an au.
dience, and If a man feels himself called 10
preach he wants people Ia preach to. But
before we make our chief visits of to-day VIC
must take a turn at the Stadium. 1t is a
little way out, but 90 we must The sta
dunn was the place where the foot races oc-
Cured.
Paul had been out there no doubt, for he
frequently uses the scenes Of that place us
figures when he tells us, Let us run the race
that is set before us" and again, They do
"a ~
incorruptible." The marble and the gliding
have tcen removed, but the high mounds
against which the seats were piled are still
there. The Stadium is six hundred and
eighty feet long one hundred and thirty feet
wide, and he'd forty thousand spectators.
There is to-day the very tunnel through
which the defeated racer departed from the
Stadium and from the Kisses of the people,
and there are tho stairs up which the victor
went to the topof the hill TO be crowned with
the laurel.
In this place contests with wild beasts
sometimes took place, and while Harlan, the
emperor sat on yOnder height one thousand
beasts were slain in one celebration. But il
was chiefly for foot racing. and SO lpropose1
to my friend that day while we were in the
Stadium that we try which OF us could run
the sooner from end to end OF this historical
lockers on we started side by side, but before
got through found out what Paul mean,
when he compares the spiritual race With the
race in this very Stadium. as he says Lay
aside every weight" My heavy overcoat
and my friends freedom from such incum
bTance showed the advantage i'll any kind oil
a race OF laying aside every weight"
We come now to the Acropolis. 1t is q
rock about two miles i'll circumference al
the base and a thousand feet in circumfer.
ence at the top and three hundred feet high
On it has been crowded more elaborate
architecture and sculpture than in any
other place under the whole heavens
Originally fortress, afterward congre-
CATION of temples and statues and pillars
their ruinsan enchantment from which no
observer ever breaks away. No wonder
that Aristides thought it the centre of al
things-Greoce, the centre Of the world
Attca, the centre of Greece; Athens, the
centre of Attica. and the Acropolis the cen
tre OF Athens. Earthquakes have shaken it,
NerrCs plundered it.
Lord Elgin, the English Embassador al
Constantiuople, got permission Of the Sui
tan to remove from the Acropolis faller
pieces OF the building but he took from thu
building to England the finest statues re
moving them at an expense Of eight hundreC
thousand dollars. A storm overthrow many
of the statues of the Acropolis. Morosini
the General, attempted to remove from
pedment the sculptured car and horses o
Victory, but the clumsy machinery dropped
it and oil was lost.
The Turks turned the building into {
powder magazine where the Venetian gun
dropped fire that by explosion sent th
columns flying in tho air and falling cracke,
nd ey,1fn Int Rtt aft n mi INN M
storm and war and iconoclasm have effected
the Acropolis is the monarch OF all ruins
and before it bow the learning, the genius
the poetry, the art, the history of the ages
| saw it as it was thousands Of years ago.
had read so much about it and dreamed s.
much about it that | needed no magician
wand TO restore it.
At one wave of my hand on that clea
morning in 1889 il rose before me in the glor,
1t had when Pericles ordered it aud Ictinu
planned 1t and Phidias chiseled it and Pro
togines painted 1t and Pausanias describes
it. Its gates. which were carefully guarde
by the ancients, open to let you in and 20,
ascend by sixty marble steps the propylp
which Epaminondas wanted to transfer I
Thebes, but permission, | am glad to say
could not DO granted for the removal OF thi
architectural miracle. In the days whe
the building cost two million three hundre
thousand dollars. Sec its five ornaments
gates, the keys intrusted TO an of
Ger for only one day, lest the tenn
tation to go in and misappropriate I'll
treasures bo too great for him; its ceiling
mingling OF blue and scarlet and green, an
the walls abloom with pictures utmost
thought and coloring. Yonder is q temp
to n goddess cellel "Victory Withor
Wings" SO many Of the triumphs OF Il
world had been followed by defeat that IL
Greeks wished in marble to indicate tbs
victory for Athens had come, never again
fly away, and hence this temple to "VictoI
Without Wings'-a temple of marble, sno
whito and glitlcring. Yonder behold Il
pedestal of Agrippa, twenty-seven feet hig
and twelve feet square.
But the overshadowing wonder OF all d
hill Is the Parthenop. in days when mont
was ten times more valuable than now it co
four million six hundred thousand dollar
1t is Doric grandeur, having fortys
columns, each column thirty-four feet hii
and six feet two inches in diameter. Wol
drous ter-columnistionsl Painted por