News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-11-26
cop WHO MADE THE WORLD

IluCOiICe OI L ttul > Spc6Cll. 1hC AhoO
thunderbolt he launched at the oppo-
site hiIl-the Acropolis-that moment
all aglitter with idols and temples. He
cries out, God, who made the world. :"
Why, they thought that Prometheus
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 il. that it
took all the gods of the Parthenon,
| yea, all the gods and 7desses
of the Acropolis, to make t, and
here stands a man without any ecclesi-
astical title, neither a d. D., nor even
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, a falsehood, a sham, a
blasphemy. Look at the faces of the
auditors; they are turning pale, and
then red, and then wrathful There
had been several earthquakes in that
region, but that was the severest shock
these men had ever felt.
The Persans had bombarded the
Acropolis from the heights of Mars
Hill, but this Pauline bombarGment
was greater and more terrific ''What,"
said his hearers, have we been haul
ing with many yOkes of oxen for cen
turtles these blocks from the quarries of
| Mount Pentelicum, and have we had
our architects putting up these struc-
lures of unparalleled splendor, and
have we had the greatest of all sculp-
tors, Phidias, with his men, chiseling
| away at those wondrous pediments,
and cutting away at these friezes, and
have we taxed the nations resources to
the utmost, now to be told that those
! statues see nothing, hear nothing, know
nothingp
Oh, Paul, stop for a moment and
give these startled and overwhelmed
auditors time to catch their breath!
Make rhetorical pause! Take a look
around you at the interesting landscape
and give your hearers time to recover!
No, he does not make even period or
so much as a colon or semicolon, but
launches the second thunderbolt right
after the first, and in the same breath
! goes on to say, Gou '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 Hymettus out yonder, from
which the bees get their honey3 mo
more!" responds Paul, HE dwelleth
not in temples made with hands"
But surely the preacher on the pull
pit of rock on Mars Hill will stop now.
| His audience can endure no more.
Two thunderbolts are enough. No, in
| the same breath he launches the third
! thunderbolt, which to them is more
| fiery, more terrible, more demOlshing
| than the others, as he cries out: Hath
made of one blood all nations" Oh,
Paul. you forget you are speaking to
the proudest and most exclusive au-
dience in the world Do not say ''of
one blood" You cannot mean that.
Had Socrates and Plato and Demos
themes and Scion and Lycurgus and
Draco and Sophocles and Euripides
and Eschylus and Pericles and Phidias
and Miltiades blood just like the Per
slams, like the Turks, like the Egyp-
tians, like the common herd of human
ity? Yes" says Paul, ''of one blood,
all nations"
RESURRECTION AND LAST JUDGMENT.
Surely that must be the closing para
graph of the sermon. His auditors
must be let up from the nervous strain.
Paul has smashed the Acropolis and
smashed the national pride of the
! Greeks, and what more can he say?
Those Grecian orators standing on
that place, always closed their adj
dresses with something sublime and eli
macteric, a peroration, and Paul going
to give them a peroration which will
eclipse in power and majesty all that
he has yet said. Heretofore he has
hurled one thunderbolt at 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 whirlwind of emotion as he ties
the two thunderbolts together with a
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 apJ pointed 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 him from the
cad"
Remember those thoughts were to
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 eIo-
cutionary power ever heard. The an.
cestoEs of some of those Greeks had
heard Demosthenes in his grafton on
the Crown, had heard Hschines in his
speeches against Fimarchus and Ctesi-
phon, had heard Plato in iais great ar.
gument for immortality of the soul, had
heard Socrates on his deathbed, sui
cidai cup of hemlock in hand, leave
his hearers in emotion too great
to bear; had in the theater of
Dionysius, at the foot of the Acropolis
(the ruins of its piled up ainphitheater
and the marble floor of its orchestra
still there, seen enacted the tragedies
of Eschylus and Sophocles, but neither
had the ancestors of these Grecians on
Mars Hill, or themselves, eyer 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" l
suppose it means that they mimicked
the solemnity of his voice, tbat they
took off his imprisoned gesticulatioE,
and they cried out Jew Jew Where
did you study rhetoric? You ought to
hear our orators speak You had bet
ter go back to your business of tent
making. Our Lycurgus knew more in !