The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1891-12-10

70 let you In, and you ascend by sixty
marble steps the propyl@a, which Eps,
minodas wanted to transfer to Thebes,
but permission, 1 am glad to say, could
not be granted for the removal of this
ARCHITECTURAL miracle.
In the days when ten cents would dc
more than dollar now, the building cost
s., 300, OO0 See its five Ornamented
gates, the keys entrusted to an officer
for only one day lest the temptation to
60 in and misapprOpriate the treasures
be too great for him; its ceiling q ming
ling of blue and scarlet and green, and
the walls abloom with pictures utmost
In thought and colOring. YOnder is q
temple to a goddess called Victory
Without Wings"
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 temple. We hasten
down the AcrOpOlis to ascend the Areop.
agus, or Mars Hill, as it is called. II
took only about three minutes to walk
the distance, and the two hill tops are SC
near that what l said in religious dis
course on Mars Hill was heard distinctly
by some English gentlemen on the AcrOp.
oils. This Mars Hill is rough pile OF
rock fifty feet high. 1t was famous long
before New Testament times
The Persians easily and terribly as
saulted the Acropolis from this hilltop.
Here assembled the court to try crimi.
nails. 1t was held in the nighttime. Sc
that the faces of the judges could not be
seen, nor the faces of the lawyers who
made the plea, and so, instead of q trial
being one of emotion, it must have been
one of cool justice; but there was one &C.
casion ON this hill memorable above all
others.
A little man, physically weak, and his
rhetoric described by himself as con-
temptible, had by his sermons rocked
Athens with commotion. and he was
summoned either bv writ of law or
hearty invitation to come upon that pull
pit of rock and give specimen of his
theology.
Paul arrived i'm answer to the writ or
invitation, and confronted them and
gave them the biggest dose that mOrtals
ever took. He was so built that nothing
could scare him, and as for Jupiter and
Athena, the god and the goddess whose
images were in full sight on the adjoin-
ing hill, he had not so much regard for
them as he had for the ant that was
crawling 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 trum-
pets when they were aroused, and
think they laughed in the sleeves of their
gowns as this insignificant looking man
rose to speak.
What have so far said in this dis
course was necessary in order that you
may understand the holiness, the de-
fiance, the holy recklessness, the mag
nifcence of Paurs speech. The first
thunderbOlt he launched at the opposite
hill-the AcrOpolis-that moment all
aglitter with idols and temples. He cries
out, 'tGod who made the world" Why,
they thought that PrOmetheous made it,
that Mercury 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 god
desses of the Acropolis, to make it, aud
here stands a man without any ecclesi-
astical title, neither ID. D., nor even a
reverend. declaring that the world was
made by the Lord of Heaven and earth,
and hence the inference that all the
splendid covering of the Acropolis, so
near that the people standing on the
steps of the Parthenon could hear
it. was a deceit, falsehood, sham. a
blasphemy. Look at the faces of the
auditors; they are turning pale, and
then red, and then wrathtul. There had
beeen several earthquakes in that region,
but that was the SevereSt shock these
men ever felt.
The Persians had bOmbarded the
AcrOpolis from the heights of Mars Hill,
but this Pauline bombardment was
greater and more terrific. ''What,"
said his hearers, shave we been hauling
with many yOkes of oxen for many
these blocks from the quar-
ries of Mount Pentelicum, and have we
had our architects putting up these
structures of unparalleled splendor, and
have we had the greatest of all sculp-
tors, Phidias, with his men chiseling
cutting away at these friezes, and have
utmos now to be told that those statues
see nothing, hear nothing, know moth
ing?"
vi, IduI, StOp lOE ulOIuenC anu give
these startled and overwhelmed auditors
time to catch their breath! Make a. rheto-
rical pause! Take look around you at
the interesting landscape and give your
hearers time to recover! No, he does
not make even-a 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 with
hands"
Oh, Paul! Is not deity more in the
Parthenon. or more in the Theseum, or
more in the Erechtheium, 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 Mount Hymet-
tus out yonder, from which the bees get
their honey9 NO more!" responds Paul,
HE dwelleth not in temples made with
hands,"
But surely the preacher on the pulpit
Of rock on Mars Hill will stop now. His
audience can endure no more. Two
are enough. No. in the
same breath he launches the third
which to them is more fiery,
more terrible, more demolishing than the
others as he cries out: "Hath made of
one blood ali nations" Oh, Paul! you
forget Won are speaking to the prOudest