Connecticut western news., 1891-11-26
The Persians easily and terribly as

Here aSSelnDled the court to try crlml- nals. It 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 8 trial being one of emotion, it must have been one of cool justice; but there ble above all others
 A little man, physically weak, and his rhetoric described by himself as contelnptible, had by his sermons rocked Athens with comlnotion, and he was summoned either by writ of law or hearty invitation to come upon that pulpit of rock and give specimen of his theology. All the wiseacres of Ath- ems turned out and turned up to hear him. The more venerable of them sat in an amphitheater, the granite seats of which are still visible, but the other people swarmed on all sides of the hill and at the base of it to hear this man, whom some called fanatic and others called a madcap and others a blas- phemer and others styled contemptu ously, This fellow"
 Paul arrived in answer to the writ or invitation, and confronted them and gave them the biggest dose that nor tals ever took. He was so built that nothing could scare him, and as for Ju piter and Athenia, the god and the goddess whose images were in full sight on the adjoining hill, he had not so much regard for them as he had for the ant that was crawling in the sand un- der his feet. In that audience were the first orators of the world, and they had voices like flutes when they were pass i've and like trumpets when they were aroused, and 1 think they laughed in the sleeves of their gowns as this insig- hificant looking man rose to speak
 In that audience were Scholiasts, who knew everything, or thought they did, and from the end of the longest hair on the top of their craniums to the end of the nail on the longest toe they were stuffed with hypercriticism, and they leaned back with supercilious look to listen. As in 1889, I stood on that rock where Paul stood, and slab of which brought from Athens by con sent of the queen, through MT. Fri coupis, the prime minister, and had placed in wonder memorial wall, read the whole story, Bible in hand.
 GOD WHO MADE THE WORLD.
 What I have so far said in this dis course was necessary in order that you may understand the boldness, the de- fiance, the holy recklessness, the mag nificence of Paul's speech. The first thunderbolt he launched at the oppo- site hill-the Acropolis- 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 it, that it took all the gods of the Parthenon, yea, all the gods and goddesses of the Acropolis, to make it, and here stands man without any ecclesi- astical title, neither D. 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 wrathful. There had been several earthquakes in that region, but that was the severest shock these men had 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, .''have we been haul ing with many yokes of oxen for cen turies 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 nothing9'
 Oh, Paul, stop for a moment and give these startled and overwhelmed a 1ditors 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 a 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 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 honey2 No 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, ill the same breath he launches the third thunderbolt, which to- them is more fiery, more terrible, more demolishing 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 Solon and Lycurgus and