The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1902-1905, 1903-01-30
COPYRIGHT, DAVIS W. CLARK.
PLEASANT FIELDS OF HOLY WRIT
Save for my daily range
Among the pleasant fields of Holy Writ,
l might despair. Tennyson.
The International Sunday School
Lesson.

LESSON.
First Quarter. Lesson v. Acts xvii,
22-34. February |, 1903.
PAUL AT ATHENS.
Paul was only a refugee in Athens.
He was waiting the coming of Silas
and Timothy before forging ahead to
some new mission field. The city
was palpably unripe for the gospel.
She Wanted herself, and was pulled
up with the consciousness of her su-
perioT intelligence. She had need of
nothing. There was none of the do
cility of the little child, which is
prerequisite to entrance to the king
dom of heaven. But Paul's spirit
was stirred, and he must nee Is speak
out whether the cultured Athenians
would hear or whether they would
| forbear.
What stirred his spirit was the
sight of the city literally crowded
with idol images. 1t is said that
there We're over thirty thousand of
them. 1t was proverb that it was
easier to find god in Athens than
to find a man. No doubt Paul saw
signs in Athens, as one may see
them in India and China to-day,
Gods mended here, and new ones
made to order.'' All the aesthetics
of Athens went for nothing. 1t was
an offense to Paul if its best product
was only an image craven by art
and mans device. And so he broke
| his silence, first in the synagogue,
then in the Agora.
There are those who believe that
Paul was actually arrested and cited
before the areOpagites, the charge
being a capital one, the introduction
of Deity before it's public recogni-
| ton by the State.
Others think he was taken to the
AreOpagus as Il part of solemn
burlesque; that the mob flung itself
into the seats of the judges, and that
someone acting as the cryer of tie
court, with mock solemnity used the
form of law: MAY we know, if it
suits your convenience, what the
new doctrin9 of which you prate-
may we know what it is? For you
bring certain strange things to our
ears. We would know, therefore,
what these things mean"
Luke gives us in parenthesis a
clew TO the cause of this sudden as
sembly on Mars Hill. 1t was a mere
Unsuitable, intellectual curiosity,
which characterized Athenian So
ciety. For the Athenians and
STRANGERS which were there, spent
their time in nothing else but either
to tell or to hear some new thing"
There were three hundred gossip
housesin Athens, open day and night
| e., /, ,,,% IF nF nnWC
No wonder that these carbon crows
flew down about Paul the moment
he opened his lips about Jesus anu
the resurrection.
Amid the gaping and insulting
throng Paul stood, the very embodl-
ment of Christian gentility. He saw
before him an opportunity of which
he made the utmost. He was abso-
lutely fearless, yet with consummate
skill he avoided arousing antagonism
unnecessarily. He even, in the
deftest manner possible, found q
common ground on which to stand
with his curious auditory.
Paul was an accomplished and an
observing traveller. Evidences of
the fact abound in his addresses and
epistles. Out of the multitude of
things observed, he screened with a
dextrous hand those he could use to
best effect.
In some walk he had taken
through the city he had noticed an
altar, the inscription of which fur
nishes him with a text-''TO the I'm
known God.n With admirable skill
Paul evades the charge of innovation
which was made against Socrates on
that very spot four centuries before.
He is not introducing unlawfully Il
new Deity-only making them ac-
uuainted with one whom they wor-
SHIPPED, though without adequately
knowing him.
THE TEACHERS LANTERN.
Great riches are here in little
room. A whole institute of theology
is packed in ten verses. Paul strikes
polytheism deadlevel blow when
in one word he declars the unity of
God. Next the triphammer of his
logic falls on the heather idea of the
eternity of matter, when he declares
that God created the world. Next
he affirms the spirituality of God
when he declares that whom the
heaven of heavens can not contain,
GILL llluCD l6sS D6 COhhli0u MlGiiih a.
temple made with hands, even
though it were as large and lovely
as yonder Parthenon.
The independence of Jehovah is
affirmed. He who is the Creator l ;
also the proprietor of all things. 1t
is impossible that you should serve
him with your hands. Again, you
are mistaken in supposing that the
various races haYe sprung from the
soil of their respective countries, so
that some are better and others
baser; not so, but God has made
them of one blood. So you ought
not to call foreigners barbarians, but
brothers. You point with pride to
| the towering statue of Minerva upon
the Acropolis, with her colossal
spear made of the weapons of your
enemies. gathered OH the field of
Marathon; and you think of her as
guarding the city which bears her
other name, Athene; but | would
tell you of experimenting Provi-
dence which distributes the races in
the various places of their habita-
tions, and which causes one nation
to rise and another to fall.
Next he affirms the omnipresence
of God. Our souls are as certainly
enshrined in the presence of God us
our bodies are in the atmosphere.
In him we live and move and have
our being. In fash he reveals the
folly of idol-worship. He says:
"Your own poets, Aratus- and
GIeanthes, say we are Gods OIL
spring." Can God himself be less
noble being than we who are his off
spring? "You ought not for mo-
ment to think that the Godhead is
like unto gold or silver or stone