The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-11-23
REV. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
TIE ACRoPOLIS HIS SUBJECT AND
BIS TEXT FROM THE ACTS.

BaooKLYN, N. Y, Nov. 32-The congre-
CATION at the Tabernacle. led by cornet and
organ, sang this morning with great power
the hymn Of Isaac Watts beginning;
Our God. our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come.
The sermon, which was on the Aoropoli1.
is the sixth OF the series Dr.. Talmage is
preaching on the subjects suggested by his
tour In Bible lands. His text was taken
from Acts xviii, 10: "While Paul waited
for them at Athens his spirit was stirred in
him when he saw the city wholly given TO
idolatry."
1t seemed as If morning would never
come We had arrived after dark in
Athens. Greece, and the night was sleepless
with expectation, and my watch slowly an-
nounced 70 me one and two and three and
four o'clock, and at the first ray OF dawn 1
called our party to look out of the window
upon that city to which Paul said he was a
debtor, and TO which the whole earth is
debtor for Greek architecture, Greek sculbt-
ure, Greek poetry, Greek eloQueuce, Greek
prowess and Greek history. That morning
in Athens we sauntered forth armed with
most generous and lovely letters from
the President of the United States.
and his Secretary of State, and during
all our stay ia that city those let
ters caused every door and every gate
and every temple aud every palace to
swing open before us. The mightiest
geographical name on earth to-day is Amer
lea. The signature of an American PresI-
dent and Secretary OF s ate will take a man
where any army could not Tnose names
brought us into the presence OF q most
gracious and beautiful sovereign. the Queen
OF Greece and her cordially was mora like
that Of a sister than the occupant OF q
throne room. No formal bow as when
monarchs are approached, but a cordial
shake OF the hand, and earnest questions
about our personal welfare and our
beloved country far away. But this morn
ing we pass through where stood the
Agora, the ancient market-place, locality
where philosophers used to meet
their disciples, walking while they talked.
and where Paul, the Christian logician,
flung many proud Stoic and got the
laugh on many an iInpertinent Epicurean-
The market place was the center of social
and political life, and it was the place
where people went to tell and hear the
news. Booths and bazars were set up for
merchandise OF ell kinds, except meat, but
everything must be sold for cash. and there
must be no lying about the value of com-
modities, and the agoranomi who ruled the
place could inhict fovere punishment upon
offenders. The different schools of thinkers
had distinct places set apart for convoca-
| ton. The PlatHans must meet at the cheese
| market, the Decelians at the barber shop,
| the sellers Of perfumes at the frankin-
cense Headquarters, The market place was
space three hundred and fifty yards long
| and two hundred and fifty wide, and it was
| given up to gossip and merchandise, and
lounging, and philosophizinR. All this you
need TO know in order TO understand tho
Bible when 1t says OF Paul. Therefore dis
puted he in the market daily with them that
A -. a. - =
get an audience, and IL a man feels himself
called 70 preach he wants people to preach
to. But before we make our chief visits OF
to-day we must take a turn at the Stadium.
It Is a little way out, but go we must.
The Stadium was the place whore the foot
races occurred.
Paul had been out there no doubt, for he
frequently uses the scenes Of that place as
| figures when he tells us: LET us run tine
race that is set before US. and again, They
| do IL to obtain corruptible garland but
| we an incorruptible.n The marble aud the
| gliding have been removed, but the high
| mounds against which the seats were piled
are still there. The Stadium is six hum
| dred and eighty fest long, one hu idred and
thirty feet wide, and held forty thousand
| spectators. There is to-day the very tunnel
through which the defeated racer departed
| from the Stadium aud from the Kisses Of the
| people, and there are the stairs up whica
| the victor went to the top OF the hill to
| be crowned with the laurel. In this placs
| contests With wild beasts sometimes took
! place, and while Hadrian. the emperor, sat
| on yonder hight, one thousand beasts were
| slain in one celebration. But 1t was chiefly
! for fcot-racing, aud so l proposed to my
| friend that day while we were in the Sta
| dium that we try which o. us could run the
| sooner from end TO end Of this historical
| ground, and 80 at the word given by the
| vva az al ci Va w hpf
| fore got through found out what Paul
meant when he compares the spiritual race
| with the race in this very Stadium, as hs
| says: LAY aside every weight" Ny
heavy overcoat. and my friends freedom
from such incumbrance showed the ad.
| vantage in any kind OF race of 'laying
| aside every weight
| We come now to the Acropolis. 1t is
rock about two miles In circumference al
| the base and thousand feet in circumfer~
ence at the top, and three hundred feet
high. On it has been crowded more
elaborate architecture and sculpture than
in any other place under the whole heavens.
Originally fortress, afterward a congrega.
tion of temples and statutes and pillars,
their ruins an enchantment from which no
| observer ever breaks away. No wonder that
Aristides thought it the center Of all
| things-Greece, the center of the world,
| Attica, the center of Greece; Athens, the
| C9nbeT Oh AttlC6, anu Lu0 AcTOpOllS Tue C9n-
ter of Athens. Earthquakes have shaken
it,; Verres plundered Il. Lord Elgin, the
English ambassador at Constantinople,
got permission of the sultan to remove
from the Acropolis fallen pieces of the
building, but he took from the building to
| England the finest statues, removing them
| at an expense of eight hundred thousand
dollars A storm overthrow many of the
statues Of the Acropols. MorosIni, the gem
eral attempted to remove from q pediment
the soulptured car and horses of victory,
but the clumsy machinery dropped it and
all was lost. The Turks turned the building
into powder magazine where the Venetian
guns dropped fire that by explosion sent
the columns flying in the air and falling
cracked and splintered. But after all that
time aud war and iconoclasm have effected,
the Acropolis is the monarch of all ruins.
and before it bow the learning, the genius,
the poetry, the art, the history OF the ages
saw it as it was thousands OF
years ago. l had read so much about
it and dreamed 80 much about 1t, thatyl
needed no magician's wand to restore 1t.
At one wave Of my hand on that clear
| morning in 1889 1t rose before me IN the
| glory it had when Pericles ordered it, and
1 Ictnus planned it, and Phidias cniseied IL,
| and Protogines painted it, and Pausanias
| described it. It's gates, which were care
fully guarded by the anclents. open TO let
| you in, and you ascend by sixty marble
| steps the propylea, which Eraminondas
wanted to transfer to Thebes, but permis-