Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-08-30
THE STABILITY OF RELIGIOUS
TRUTH.

The above was the subject of ser
mon preached by Rev. Jos. B. West
d. D., of this city; at the Chestnut
Street Church, Louisville, on the 10tl
inst, and reported for the Courier,
Journal. By request Of many of oul
citizens, we give below
THE SERMON.
TExT--Acts IL, 2l-For all the Athenians
and strangers which Were there spent
their time in nothing else but either to
tell or to hear some new thing.
Athens was the capital of Greece.
1t was situated in the midst of an ex-
tensive plain, on gulf of the Egean
Sea. 1t was justly celebrated for its
wealth, learning and refinement. The
wisdom of the age had congregated
there, and royal students from distant
lands resOrted thither to be taught the
arts and sciences. 1t was the home of
poets, orators, heroes and philosophers
whose fame was in the ends of the
earth and whose glory has become the
heritage of posterity. She was proud
of her antiquity, of her acknowledged
greatness and of her influence over
surrounding nations. She planted
forty colonies, to which she had given
names and laws, and held dominion
over thousand cities. Itwas renown-
ed throughout the civilized world.
Thn A xuara m
ligious. The mind and heart of the
people were imbued with the spirit of
devotion. The city abounded with
monuments, which time has not utter
ly obliterated, in attestation of their
religious veneration and of their pious
zeal. They built costly temples for
their gods, and maintained an expen-
sive ceremonial service. Affairs of
sacrifice were everywhere erected,
adorned by art and loaded with the
offerings of wealth, around which the
deyout multitudes assembled to wOr-
ship. Every object of sense, and all
the images of thought were embodied
into some object of alteration, at whose
affairs the people offered up the devo-
ton of their lives. And lest they
should fail in their religious obliga-
tions and fall below their duty, they
multiplied indefinitely their deities.
At the time of st. Paufs memorable
visit to their city thirty thousand affairs
had been erected, each having a DIFF
ferent god, and separate class of
worshippers and for fear they should
fall short of the proper number, they
raised an altar to the unknown god,
and offered to such supposed deity
prayer and praise. st. Paul took ad-
vantage of the inscription on this altar,
and preached unto them the true God,
whom he declared they ignorantly
worshipped.
This strong religious sentiment of
the Athenians, fostered and matured
by multiplied objects of alteration,
led them into endless speculations on
questions of religion. With a devo-
ton that led to the grossest idolatry,
and ended in debasing superstitions,
they were involved in perpetual con-
troversies in regard to the respective
merits of their gods. They even had
a court of appeals-the Areopagus-
where these questions were gravely
argued before learned judges, whose
decisions were absolute and final. Alb
sorbed in these pursuits eager to OBJ
tain knowledge; but distracted by con-
flicting opinions, they we're carried
away beyond all bounds of right reas-
on. Engaged in these lofty themes,
but having no certain lights to guide
them, they became visionary in their
minds, and gave themselves up to i'm
practicable theories, and to the delu-
sive dreams ofa false philosophy With
prying curiosity, they pressed their
inquiries in all possible directions, till
the strong religious sentiments of their
nature degenerated into endless dispu-
tations about questions wholly without
significance. For the Athenians, and
the strangers which were there, spent
their time in nothing else, but either
to tell or to hear some new thing.
The Athenians present sad specta-
Gle to the eye of the philanthropist
and Christian. 1t is pitiful to see the
good in them so embarrassed by evil,
the struggling light so encompassed by
darkness. Here were the loftiest as
piratioDs of the soul, the noblest in-
stincts of humanity, gone astray from
truth, bewildered by strange fancies,
and lost in the mazes of vain specula-
tions. With aspirations high as
Heaven, and a devotion that involved
all of heart and life, but wholly per-
verted from the good, and under the
dominion of the falsest superstitions.
The mind anxiously seeking the truth,
and earnestly striving to realize the
good, yet utterly enslaved to error, and
the wretched victim of hopeless delu-
sions. To see the good in them thus
turned away from the true ends of life;
nay, converted to purposes of evil, and
made the means of their destruction,
fills the mind with the deepest sorrow
And we walk through their gorgeous
temples, look upon their smoking
affairs, and witness the devotion of the
multitudes with emotions of profound
commiseration. No wonder the heart
of Paul was stirred within him, when
he saw the city, with deep religious
feeling, with intensely active piety,
who'll " given up to idolatry. 1t gave
point and pathos to his memorial
sermon, preached in the presence Of
the collected wisdom of the age, and
against the prevailing superstitions of
the people. The time, the eircum-
stances. and the theme of the Apostle,
all conspired to distinguish the hour.
The occasion was grand, the preacher
was as grand as the occasion, and the
subject as sublime as ever engaged the
attention of men. st. Paul, though
imperilled by dangers, rose to the very
summit of his high commission, and
with dauntless courage, denounced the
gross superstitions of the age. In the
very place where heresies were tried,
and before the very judges that con-
demned heretics to death, he boldly
advanced new Divinity to their at
tention, and dared to maintain His
exclusive right to their worship. There
was true courage That was genuine
manhood
The Athenians represent a large
oIoSs Of man Of this and of every ace