The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1877-08-23
The sunday school.
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P2al 90 kss journey ever tEo hahaFed
miles ssalhwAid from BeFeA. IN Mace
don. 70 Athens. Is AiticA lie sent b.
sbip across tbo GfeeiAh Archipelago.
The Place. Atheas divides with
Rome TIE honors q the ancient world
The apostle - now On classic ground,
every thing about which il familiar 10
The student TIE Oxford or Cambridge
stadoBi is said 70 know The topography
81 Athens better than that Of London
Of Ediubofo. Bishop Howsou remarks
Of Pauls approach to The Piraeus. The
port q Athens. IAN The land aud water
10 sight becomes eloquent the lights
u history aud poetry are on every
side every rock il q monument every
current Is animated by some memory
Of the past. Our interest 10 other
cities q Asia and Europe mentioned
IN The Acts, results chiefly from the
apostles mission and writings. The
ine and unequalled genius of the
Greeks has made the name Of Athens
familiar to those 10 whom Paul is
comparative stranger. She was The
eye Of Greece, the mother Of arts aud
eloqueuce Her patron goddess was
Minerva. but she bad gods many aud
Lords many Her affairs were erected
to fame. TO modesty, To energy, TO per
suasion. aod 10 pity. The platform Of
the Acropolts--just across a valley
called the Agora and opposite Mars
Hill or the Arepogus, was a museum
Of art, history and religion. Statues
so abounded ia the city that Pausanius,
Roman traveller. says. ironically, sit
was easier to find a god than man +"
The schools Of philosophy. Of which
Paul encountered only the Epicureans
and the Stoies, discussed religion.
The thew things" that the Athenians
were so fond Of, consisisted in part Of
new gods and new religions. The
people were too superstitious, too
much addicted TO their peculiar and
manifold religions ~ 22).
The man. Christianity has no rca-
son to be ashamed of her champion
thus brough. 10 direct contact with the
worlds ehiefest culture, whose fatal
defect was that il was heather. God
was indeed unknown, though the apos-
tie finds an altar and an inscription
which gives him text Paul was a
Jew. worshipping Jehovah from child.
hood. Paul was a Christian, seeing
God in Christ and trusting in him. To
the Greek he was barbarian. Chris.
tianity, new, obscure, without philo-
sophers, temples. statues, traditions,
history, or poetry; great only in its
ideas, its principles and its author,
confronts hcathenism, hoary with age,
embodied in art, embalmed in song,
intren ched in philosophy, represented
upon the acropolis by forms which
, only genius could have produced, rich
in great men, overlooking Athens in
the unrivalled Parthenon. and filling
the city with its affairs and temples
Paul stood for Christianity; every
body and everything around him fol-
heathemsu., He was more lonely in
Athens than Hindoo idolater would
be in New York. He was called a
"babbler" by the wise men, and taken
from the market-place to the court o.
the AreopsgItes. aud led to consplc.
uous place and invited by the Stoics
Cynics and Epicureans to speak fol
their amusement. and to crafty theil
curiosity for novel doctrines ". 2D,
When Paul spoke to a jew, he began
with the law of Moses When he ad
dressed Greek he began with an in
scription on an altar. He became al
things to all men that be might wiz
some. He declared Jehovah TO these
idolsters He il the Creator Of the
world, the ruler Of heaven and earth
He is not confined TO human temples
nor is he worshipped with offerings a,
il he needed anything. He is already
rich as be is generous. He giyeth tC
all things He made mankind ono
race. He has fixed the boundaries oil
countries aud the dnrational life. Mans
duty is 10 seek the Lord who is neal
him. Our very being is by his power
To him belongs the sentiment which
Grecian poets have uttered as to theil
god Jupiter. Eve are his offspring
i II then we are Gods children, how car
God be silver or gold, or stone graveT
by art Of man This ignorance may
have been excasable 10 the darker
ages. but God aop commanded every
man TO repent He hath appointed I
day OF judgment. He hath selected
a man for Judge. even one whom b,
raised from the dead.
When so incredible a thing as the
resurrection was named. some heareri
broke out into ironlcal laughter. Some
said, 1--WE will hear thee again
nniIin.r III The Ia ihnrr, frial dar LII.