Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1893-07-15
PAUL AND TIE IDOLS.
THE GREAT WORK OF THE APOSTLE
AT ATHENS.

sunday school Lesson For July I6-Th,
Altar to the Unknown God-The Folly o
Idolatry.
Golden Text: God is a spirit, and theJ
that worship Him must worship Him il
spirit and in truth (John iy, 20
Lesson: Acts xviii 22-31.
After the conversion Of the Philippiau
jailer the apostle and his companions went
20 Thessalonica and Berea Spiteful Jews
rioted at Thessalonica and sent emissaries
to stir mp riot in Berea. Paul was sent on
to Athens. Here he staid several days.
The idols he saw everywhere stirred up his
soul. He spoke out his mind both to Jews
In their own meeting house and to Greek
in the Agora every day. Some of his hear
ers. curious to hear what be had to say,
took him away to. Mars hill, where they
might hear him quietly at full length
Here our lesson begins;
THE UNKNOWN GOD. Verses %, 23.)
/. The preacher. (a) Paul the Apostle
wai the preacher. Renan, who cherished
such spite against Paul that he could not
treat him with ordinary civility, is very
angry at the attitude of Paul in respect to
Greek art and worship. Around Paul on
every side were temples, affairs, statues
the masterpieces of Greek art, models for
all succeeding ages, the very fragments Of
which are deemed priceless and stored in
the worlds great museums as witnesses of
glory the like of which the earth will
never see again. Renan says Paul saw
all that, and his faith was not shaken. He
was not startled The prejudices of the
iconoclastic Jew-a man insensible to plas-
tic beauties-blinded him. He regarded
those incompatible images as idols His
spirit was stirred up within him when he
saw the city wholly given to idolatry.'
Ah, beautiful and chaste images, true gods
and true goddesses, tremble. Lol here is he
who will lift against you the hammer The
fatal word is pronounced-you are idols.
The error of this ugly little Jew will be
your sentence of death" Paul, however,
can stand this criticism. In the interests of
religion, purity of life and human eleva-
tion he is about to expose and denounce an
impure and cursed worship all the more
dangerous and destructive that it enlisted
the beautiful in its service and defense.
The first and second commandments were
Paul's rule of worship, not the breathing
forms of the chisel of Phidias or the grand
temple of Athena--the matchless Parthe-
non. (b) Around him gathered the cul
tured philosophers, men of letters,
versed in poetry, logic and the plastic arts
disciples of Zeno and of Epicurus, Plato
nists and Aristotelians, Greeks and Roman
youth attending the Athenian schools (c)
He had been speaking to the Jews in their
synagogue on their Sabbath day. Like
Socrates, he went to the agora-the great
place of public resort, the center of trade
law and fashion-on the week days. He
spoke of Jesus to those cultured heathens.
The death and resurrection of Jesus We're
always the dominant notes in all PauPs
preaching. To the Athenians, with his
Hebrew accent, his shabby garments, his
impetuous speech, he seemed but 'sper-
mologos," or chatterer, the word for rook
or crow, used by Aristophanes, being ap-
piled to smatterers and chatterers by those
witty Greeks. The philosophers that he
encountered were chiefly of the sects of the
Epicureans and Stoics. Epicurus was born
about 800 years before Paul came to Ath-
ems. The Epicureans were agnostics of
the Huxley type. No providence, no &C
countability on mans part, no rewards
or retributjon after death, no free
will, no life to come-such was their
dreary creed. Processing to believe in
gods that took no interest in human af
fairs, they were practically atheists. Mere
pleasure WAS IHe ulBueSL euu lOT mdh W
pursue and enjoy. Zeno was the founder Of
the Stocs. They got their name from
"stoa"-a porch-because they were wont
to meet there They were practically Pan
theists, teaching that God was all things
that fate ruled all, that right was to be
chosen and feeling suppressed. The later
Stoics borrowed a good deal from Chris
tianity. Let me translate Victor Cousins
admirable summary of Stoicism: 'Stoi
cism is essentially solitary. 1t is the exclu-
sive care of ones own soul without regard
to that of others, and as the only impor-
tant thing is purity of soul, when that
purity is in too much peril, when one de
spairs of being victorious in the struggle
one can end it as Cato did-by suicide.
Thus philosophy is only apprenticeship to
death and not to life. 1t tends to death by
its images. by its apathy and by it's repose,
and resolves itself into a sublime selfish
ness" Farrar says. I'm their worst degen-
eracies Stoicism became the apotheosis Of
suicide and Epicureanism Of lust" Re
member, it was principally in response to
the invitation Of such philosophers that ST.
Paul delivered his great discourse on Mars
hill
2. The address. (a) st. Paul begins like a
Greek orator: Men, Athenians'r - just as
Demosthepes would have done-a mark Of
the speakers acquaintance with Greek
literature and also of the reporters accu
racy. Only a skeleton of what he said Is
given, but that skeleton is correct as far as
it goes. (b) st. Paul is conciliatory. He
wishes TO get fair hearing. This is not
seen so well in our English version as in
the original Greek. TOO superstitious"
sounds like a reproOf The word means
fearing much the gods" OF being very
religious" The abuse of this feeling Of
reverential fear for the supernal powers Is
superstition" but when properly enlight-
ened il is the groundwork Of genuine
devotion. Paul gives them full credit for
this feeling The men OF Athens were
famed for their devotion 10 the gods. (c)
He states why he called them devout- He
had noted as he went through their city
the objects OF their worship-not acts Of de
votion paid, but the objects to which they
paid their devotions-images and altars,
temples and shrines. These be attentively
noticed, gave good heed TO, examined and
pOndered, as the Greek word implies.
8. The noteworthy altar (a) Whereas
most Of the altars were dedicated 70 well
known deities-ZeuR, Aphrodite, Athena.