The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-07-24
BY WILIIAM r EILIS.

Ii .1o-04
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
No phrase better describes the life
of the western world today than the
familiar sentence of DR.. Luke: Nov
all the Athenians and the strangers
sojOurning there spend their time IN
nothing else but either to tell or TO
hear some new thing" That is pres
ent-day society. That is our modern
city life. That is the genius of the VIII
lage woman's club. That is the TWEEN
deth century newspaper. Our tunes
are madly bent upon discovering the
latest sensation in earth or heaven or
on Mars, or in the mysterious ether
that enveIops US.
Let il be frankly confessed that a
large part of the world today is en-
gagged in a desperate endeavor to ward
off inevitable jadedness. Our search
for novelty is but an attempt TO escape
from ourselves. Dllettanteism is a
hallmark of our age. Enthusiasm is
accounted bad form. Conviction does
not comport with culture. A self-satis-
fled sitting apart and cynical sur
vey of the passing show is the favor
tie attitude of the modern man and
woman.
The Ancient Center of Culture.
All this was even more true of
Athens that it is of today, when PAU
found himself in this one of the three
great metropolises OF the world.
Athens had glory and pride 1t was
still a great city and had been a great
er. In its prime it sent forth more
great men in one hundred years than
in five hundred" There were Socra-
ties, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes,
AeschyIus, Sophocles, Aristides, The
mistocles, Phidias, Keno. Epicurus,
Cultured Paul, the university man,
must have felt his nerves tingle as he
moved amid the sculptures and archi-
lecture so closely associated with
His present problem was how to ar
rest and arouse this effervescing life of
Athens upon a greater theme than ever
before had come to its attention. He
saw this visit to Athens as one of the
great opportunities of his life. He
proved himself worthy to stand with
the best of Athens teachers by his elo-
quent speech. He was not merely a
missionary of the new faith; he was
a great cosmopolitan and philosopher.
His address was adroit, adaptable and
skillful-an application of his own
principle of "being all things to all
men that he might by all means save
soIne'' For to Paul there must have
come the vision of an Athens converted
to Christ, with all its art and skill suf-
fused by a new vitality and a new
purpose. He dreamed of the tremend-
Gus abilities of this queen city placed
at the service of his Master. Small
wonder that he converted this jewel
for his King.
u CEGcAl
A people that consistently gives itself
to MISUNDERSTANDING as it's chief aim is
bound to atrOphy its capacity for all
intense emotions. The pleaSure-seeker
gradually becomes able to look un-
moved upon the most terrible spec
tacles. Moral degeneration inevitably
follows in the wake of putting pleas
ure first
Into every such community a great
soul enters, as Paul entered Athens,
and finds himself stirred with indig-
nation. 1t is no credit to a Christian
that he cannot get angry. Christ was
tremendously moved by the 1nlqultous
spectacles which he beheld, and his
greatest apostle had a similar capacity
for adherence. He found Athens
beautiful, cultured, graceful. artistic
Athens-crowded full of idols. A Ro-
man poet had declared that 1t was
easter to find gods than men IN
Athens
ties which lined all the highways rep
resented not merely error. but what
was worse, they stood for Indifference. |
When a people have many gods they
cannot be loyal to any one God rms
1l77,Ititudc of dieties spoke elOquently |
of the light-mindedness of the Athen-
fans They, like some modern success
sors. we're not particular as to what
men believed. They could say, as is so |
often said today zone religion is as
good as another" Such statement
reveals vitiated power of thought. Ihe
so-called tolerance, which possesses
no convictions. is merely state OF
mental debilitation. Every great man
believes something tremendously. A |
fair indictment of much modern edu- |
cation is that 1t only goes far enough
to cut the nerve of conVlctlon.
In contrast with the Athenlan way, |
we can hear Paul as he preached in the |
synagogue How his eloquence must |
have blistered the Jews who had be- |
come Injured to the sights of Athens. |
With what terrific words did he recall |
them to the standards of Moses and |
their own pure faith. The very pres
ence of such an intense and vital char |
acter as Paul in a community is !
tonic.
A Street Preacher.
The man who believes something |
which he feels belongs to the whole |
world, and believes it with a deeper |
earnestness than his regard for the /
prophecies or for life itself, cannot be |
kept bottled UP within the forms of
procedure. No synagogue
could hold Paul in the presence of
Athenian conditions. He went morn
ing. noon and night to the public
square to debate upon profound truths
Of which he knew himself to be the
custodian Even the StOics and Epi-
curtains who resOrted thither were
stirred to some fresh interest at the
prospect of new doctrine. New
thought had never so attractive
sound to modern Athenian as did the
rumor of new teaching to these idlers
in Athens of old.
Paul became a fad, even as the tur-
baned Indian babu who visits Amer
lea becomes the fad with idle women.
They wanted to hear more of his doc
trine-not because they felt it to be
important, but simply because it was
new. Their interest was purely specu-
lative. They desired to titillate the
weary nerve of interest. They were
early members of the tribe of church
FOUNDERS who weary of the preaching
and worship and work of any single
and spend their time in
going from church to church to taste
the style Of different preachers.