Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-11-27

What nonsense you talk about when you
speak of resurrection and judgment. Now,
little old man, climb down the side OF Mars
Hill and get out of sight as soon as possible"
"Some Knocked" But that scene adjourned
to the day of which the sacred orator had
spoken-the day of resurrection and judg-
ment
is in Athens, that evening in 1889, we
climbed down the pile of slippery rocks,
where all this had occurred, on our way back
to our hotel, | stood half way between the
Acropolis and Mars Hill in the gathering
shadows of eventide, | seemed to hear those
two hills in sublime and awful converse. IL
am chiefly of the past" said the Acropolis.
II am chiefly Of the iuture;" replied Mars
Hill. The Acropohs said MY orators are
dead. My lawgivers are dead. Ny poets
are dead. My architects are dead. My
sculptors are dead. / am a monument of
the dead past. | shall never again hear
song sung. will never again see column
lifted. will never again behold goddess
crowned
Mars Hill responded: 81, too, have his
tory. ] had on my heights warriors who
will never again unsheath the sword, and
judges who will never again utter doom,
and orators who will never again make
plea. But my influence is to be more In the
future than it ever was in the past The
words that missionary Paul, uttered that
exciting day in the hearing of the wisest
men and the pOpuace on my rocky shoulders
have only begun their majestic role; the
brotherhood OF man, and the Christ Of God,
and the peroration of resurrection AMI last
judgment with which the Tarsian orator
closed his sermon that day amid the hooking
crowd shall yet revolutionize the planet. Oh,
Acropolisl | have stood here long enough
to witness that your gods are no
gods at ALL Your Boreas could not con-
troll the winds. Your Neptune could not
manage the sea. Your Apollo never evoked
a musical note. Your god Ceres never grew
a harvest. Your goddess Of wisdom, Min
erva. never knew the Creek alphabet Your
jupiter could not handle the lightnings.
But the God whom proclaimed on the day
when Paul preached before the astounded
assemblage on my rough heights is the Col
of music the God of wisdom, the God of
power the God of mercy, the God of love,
the God of storms, the God Of sunshine, the
God of the land and the God Of the sea, the
God over all, blessed forever
Then the Acropols spake and said as
though in self defense ''My Plato argued
for the immortality of the soul. and my
Socrates praisel virtue, and my Miltiades
at Marathon drove back the Persian OPP
pressors" Yes" said Mars Hill, your
Plato laboriously guessed at the Immortality
of the soul, but my Plato diyinely. in
spired, declared it as fact straight from
God. Your Socrates praised virtue, but ex-
pired as a suicide Your Miltiades was brave
against earthly foes, yet he died from a
wound ANONYMOUSLY gotten in after defeat
But my Paul challenged all earth and all hell
with this battle shout, 1--WE wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but againt principal
tiles against powers. against the rulers OF
the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places. and then on the
10Th of June, in the year 6j, on the road to
Ostia. after the sword Of the headsman had
given one keen stroke, took the crown of
martyrdom."
After moments silence by both hills
the Acropolis moaned out in the darkness,
"Alasl Alasm and Mars Hill responded,
"Hosannahl Hosannahw Then the voices
OF both hills became indistinct and as l
passed on ana away IN the twilight 1 seemed
to hear only two sounds-fragment OF
Pentelicon marble from the archltraye OF
the Acropolis dropping down on the ruins Oh
a shattered idol. and the other sound seemed
to come from the rock on Mars bill, from
which we had Just descended. But we were
nv this time 50 lar off that the fragments OF
sentences were smaller when dropping from
Mars Hills than were the fragments OF fallen
marble on the Acropolis, and | could only
hear parts of disconnected sentences watted
on the night air-"God who MADE tne
world"-''of one blood all nations'-a
pointed day in which He VIII Judge tue
world raised from the dead.
As that night in Athens | put my Urea
head on my pillow, and the exclting scehss
of the dav'passed throughimy mind, | Thought
on the same subject on which, as boy, l
made my commencement speech in Nl6los
Theatre on graduation day from the New
York University, viz, The moral effects OF
SCULPTURE aud architecture" but furtner
than | could have thought in boyhood,
thought in Athens that night that the moral
effects of architecture and sculpture depend
on what YOU do in great buildings after they
are nut ~. and upon the character OF the
men whose forms you cut in the marble.
Yea thought that night what struggles
the martyrs went through in order that IN
or time the Gospel might have full SWING
and thought that night what Dralny re-
hqion it must be that could ABSORB a nero
like him whom we have considered to-day
nm tba suparior Of the whole human race,
the infdels but pigmies or homunculi COM
uare1 with him and I thought what rap
turous consideration it is that through the
same grace tnaJ saNeu RAUL We Su'uI IL
front this great apostle, and shall nave the
opportunitv. amid the familiaritles OF the
skies. of asking HIM what was the greatest
occasion of all bis life.
He may say, The shipwreck of Melita;
He NAV say. 'The riot at Ephesus." he
may say, MY last walk out on the road to
Ostia.n But, think he will say, The day
stood on Mars Hill addressing the indignant
Areopagites. and looking off upon the tower
ing form OF the goddess Minerva, and the
majesty of the Parthenon and all the brill.
iantdivinities of the Acropolis. That account,
in the Bible was true. Ny spirit was stirred
within me when saw the city wholly gwen
up to idolatry!'