The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1916-07-13
LESSON FOR JULY 1e
PAUL AT ATHENS.
I.rssoN TrxT-Acts 17.1G-2l

move and nave our being.-Acts HES.
Athens What name to conjure
with. Athens has always epitomized
the acme of intellectualism, culture,
art, and esthetic accomplishment.
Driven from Berea and alone, Paul fled
to the coast and taking ship crossed
over to the Thessalonian peninsula. |
Entering the city-he beholds its stat
uary, meets its philosophers and views |
its moral degradation and its myriad
manifestations of heathenism. Out |
wardly cultured, molding the thought |
of the world, yet 1t passed from its
pinnacle of power because II knew not
God. Paul saw the pantheism of the
cultured Stoics and the Epicureans,
who because of their distant and but
little concerned gods, enjoyed the
pleasure Of wealth and ease.
|. Paul Brought 70 Trial wv. 1920.
Such sights stirred the spirit Of Paul.
| The marvel is how Indifferent we may
become in the presence of the great
| spiritual poverty of our time. His
spirit stirred within him. when he saw
the city crowded with idols. AS Paul
followed his custom and began his
preaching in the synagogue he also
took advantage of the opportunity to
90 open.air work In the market place.
Here a small group and there another.
This he did daily until the teachers
". 1S) began to take knowledge OF
his presence in their city. Some in
contempt called him "babbler," while
others concluded that he represented
some new religion, though he set be
fore them the same message of saliva
tion in Jesus Christ which had caused
such remarkable results elsewhere
That they might hear him more fully
and without the interruption of the
mart Of trade. Paul is taken to the
4.reopagus, or Mars Hill where from
time immemorial the greatest Grim
inals had been sentenced and the most
solemn questions of religion set
tied.
u. The Unknown Made Known, (vv
22-29). Such idle speculation ". 2D
was OF no value to the Athenians. This
Paul knew, yet he began his address
In a most conciliatory manner w. %
R.V.). He would win their favorable
attention before he called them to re-
pentance. Keenly observant, Pau! had
seen among the many inscriptions one
to the unknown God," and this one
whom in Ignorance they worshiped. he
would set forth. Many today are In
blindness, seeking to know God when
he has already been made manifest Ito
be seem. John 1:lS; John 500; John
l4:9: II Cor. 4:6) It Is mans own
fault II he does not know God rom.
l:20.22, 2S; II Cor. 4:4), and no knowl'
edge is more important John l7:3.
Paul's opening words in verse "a were
but to seize a well-known object Of
their street decoration and discussions
and with II to lead on to the great
truth he yearned to have them compre-
hend. This caught the philosophers
as we'll as the idle curious. God is not
philosophic conception Of the mind.
He cannot be confined to temples
made with hands nor does he need the
services of our hands, seeing he ere
ated all things and giveth to all things
life. Paul's next point was that He
hath made of one every nation Of
men," AS yet how little men really
believe that truth-witness the Euro
pean conflict and the economic, racial
and social differences of this land.
Negro segregation and Asiatic exclu
sion are but illustrations of our sepa
ration from the teaching of the broth.
erhood of man. But this brotherhood
is not alone for altruistic service but
that they should seek God" This
was his great and glorious purpose in
creating the nations o. the earth. in
setting the seasons in motion, to min.
lister to their needs, and in appointing
the bounds of their habitations. yet
how far man has departed from that
ideal from. 1;2S). It is of the high
est Importance that men should seek
, God and he is not difficult to find for
those who SEX him (Jer. 29:13). The
souls of men are not satisfied without
him. Witness the mad rush after
pleasure and the restless desire to pos
sess the things of time and sense and
: which perish with the using. Pau
displays his university training by
: quoting and approving the Greek poel
Aratus ". 2S.) However. while al
men are the offspring of tcreated by
God, yet they are not all truly his chil
dren John S:44. AZ: John $40; Math
1885: Gal. 4:4-6; Heb. 1913; Eph
2:3). Only such are children as have
received Jesus Christ lJohn l:l2 r
W. All those who are led by his
Spirit are the sons of God" (Roil
S:14; Gal. 1926 R. W.
III. What the Athenlans laekes
(vv. 3O-S4). Thus far Paul's auditors
must have followed him keenly, ant
It was the goal toward which HI
had been driving so relentlessly Sucl
sublime conceptions. keen logic am
quotations from their writer's wol
I their attention. He then delivered
I keen thrust at this. the psychological
moment" by calling upon them to re
4 pent." The Athenians lacked realil
ing sense of the personality of God
] that man could have personal and IN
4 innate relations with God or that
I man could or had risen from th
dead.
| IAN men everywhere" are called I