The Tupelo journal., 1903-01-30
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
Lesson In the international Series
for February 1, 1O03-Paul
at Athens.
THE LESSON TEXT.
(Acts 1T:22-34.1

THE LESSON TEXT.
(Acts 17:22-34)
q. Then Paul stood in the midst of Marss
hill, and said, Ye men of Athens. | perceive
that in all things We are too superstitious.
%. For as l passed by, and behela your de-
%votions, l found an altar with this inscrip-
ton, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom
therefore ye ignorantly worship. Him de-
clare l unto you.
"a. God that made the world and all
things therein, seeing that He is the LORD
of Heaven and earth, dwelleth not in tenn
pies made with hands;
Is. Neither is He worshiped with mems
hands, as though He needed any thing,
seeing lie glveth to all life, anGIbreath, and
all things:
a. And hath made of one blood all ma
tions of men for to dwell on all the face of
the earth, and hath determined the times
before appointed, and the bounds of their
habitation;
q, That they should, seek the Lord, If
haply they might feel after him, and find
Him, though He be not far from every one
Of US:
rs. For in Him We live, and move. and
nave our being; as certain also of yourown
poets have said, For we are also His off
spring.
20. Forasmuch then as we are the off,
81 4AS Vi 1Oot We 3 HUI III " lHdL
the Godhead is like unto gold. or silver, or
stone, craven by art and mans 9evice.
~. And the times of this ignorance God
winked at; but now commandeth all men
everywhere to repent:
81. Because He has appointed a day, in
the which He will judge the world in right
eousness by that man whom He hath or
dained; whereof He hath given assurance
from the dead.
80. And when they heard of the resurrec-
ton of the dead, some Knocked: and others
said, We will hear thee again Of this mat
ter.
SO. So Paul departed from among them.
"a. Howbei certain men clave unto him,
and believed: among the which was Do
nysius the Areopagite, and a woman named
Damaris, and others with them.
GOLDEN TEXT.-He preached unto
them Jesus, and the resurrection.-
Acts 1.:1S.
ANALYSIS OF SCRIPTURE SECTION.
Reasoning every day .........Acts T:16-21.
Telling of the true God........Act II :22-2S.
The need OF repentance........Acts II 1921.
Effect of the sermon ...........Acts 1924.
TIME.-A. d. 81.
PLACE.-Athens.
NOTES AND COMMENTS.
An Idolatrous City.-Athens was an
intellectual city, priding itself upon it's
culture and refinement. Here So
crates, and after him his pupils, Plato
and Aristotle, held their illustrious
schools. 1t was the home of art. In
its sculptures and paintings it stood
unrivaled. Especially it far surpassed
all other cities in its devotion to the
gods. Paul was now to ascertain what
reception the city would give to the
true and only God.
UNhA,,rl Dorl hoI mot % N 70 lopir
missionary work in Athens, the uni
versity city of the ancient world, he
could not keep still, and preached in
the synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath
and ~discoursed in the market place
every day.
This went on for some days or weeks,
we do not know how long-till it was
decided to have Paul before the Are
opagus court, and see what hat body
thought of his teaching, and whether
it was advisable to authorize him to
continue as one of the recognized lee
turers. Paul was not on trial before
the Areopagus, but only his teaching.
For the consideration of such cases as
this, the court did not meet at that
solemn and awful spot at the top of the
Hill of Mars (Areopagus), but in the
market place, the center of educa-
tional Athens.
Thus called upon by the learned
court, and surrounded by a great crowd
of the students and others who fire.
quented the market place-curious.
unsympathetic most of them, and ex-
pecting from the stranger little but
an hours diversion, and perhaps a bit
of fun-Paul seized the opportunity
to preach the Gospel of Jesus with con-
summate skill and power. VERY Re-
ligious": Paul was too much of a
gentleman to begin before that body
of learned men by saying, you are too
superstitious." "Obiects of your wor-
ship: Notice that there are two ele-
ments in the audience-the scholars,
and the crowd of common people who
had gathered around them in the
market place. The statues and affairs
were not objects of worship to the
scholars, one of whose prominent
teachings was that belief in the old
gods was pure superstition and only
for the ignoraBt. "To an Unknown
Cod: This altar was set up to make
sure that no god was omitted.
The Stoics were pantheists and did
not believe that there were any per-
sonal gods. The Epicureans held that
there were, but that they had nothing
to do with the world. AS you read
the speech, think how each sentence
would strike (1) a Stole, (2) an Epicur-
can, (3) one of the superstitious
crowd.
Paul's philosophy, unlike that of the
Athenians, ended in duty. He preached
repentance and judgment. That ex-
hortation was not welcome but when
he brought forward as proof that he
was right the fact that the Chosen of
God was a certain man who had died
and come to life again. the crowd
broke up with jeers and groans of de-
rision. The learned Athenians thought
that a man who would teach such fairy
stories of which the Greek mythology
was full, butwhich they had o%utgrown
long ago, need not be taken seriously.
The speech, and with it Paul's public
work in Athens, was over, but not until
some had believed, one of them a MEM
Der of the high court itself.