Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-11-27

carefully guarded by the ancients, open
to let you in, and you ascend by sixty
marble stops the propylna, which Epa-
minodas wanted to transfer to Thebes,
but permission. l am glad to say, could
not be granted for the removal of this
architectural miracle.
In the days when ten cents would do
more than dollar now, the building cost
So, 100000. See its five ornamented
gates, the keys entrusted to an officer
for only one day lest tho temptation to
go in and inappropriate the treasures
be too great for him; its ceiling ming
ling of blue and scarlet and green, and
the walls ab]oom with pictures utmost
in thought and colorlng. Yonder is q
temple to q goddess called "Victory
Without Wings
But we cannot stop longer here, for
there is a hill near by of more interest,
though it has not one chip of marble to
suggest a statue or temple. We hasten
down the Acropolis to ascend the Arcop-
agus, or Mars Hill, as it is called. 1t
took only about three minutes to walk
the distance, and the two hill tops are so
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 Fill 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, so
that the faces of the judges could not be
seen, nor the faces of the lawyers who
made the plea, and so, instead of 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 connection, and he was
summoned either by writ of law or
hearty invitation to come upon that pull
pit Of rock and give specimen of his
theology.
Paul arrived in 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
rawling in the sand under his feet. In
chat 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 boldncss, the de-
fiance, the holy recklcssness, the mag
niticence of Paul's speech. The first
thunderbolt he launched at the opposite
hill-the Acropolis-that moment all
aglitter with idols and temples He cries
out, "God 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
desses of the Acropolis, to make it, aud
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 Parthcnon could hear
it, was a deceit, q 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 bombardcd the
AcropOliS from the heights of Mars Hill
but this Pauline bombardment was
greater and more terrific. "What,"
said his hearers, ''have we been hauling
with many yokes Of oxen for many
centuries 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
away at those wondorous 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 moth
ing?'
Oh, Paul, stop for moment and give
these startled and overwhelmed auditors
time to catch their breath! Make u rheto-
rical pause! Take 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.
''God dwelleth not in temples made with
hands"
Oh, Paul! Is not deity more in the
Parthenon, or more in the Thescum, 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 honey? mo 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
thunderbolts are enough. No, in the
same breath he launches the third
thunderbolt, which to them is more fiery,
moro terrible more demolishing than the
others as he cries out: "uath made of
one blood all nations" Oh, Paul. you
| forget you are speaking to the proudest