McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1916-07-14
LESSON FOR JULY is
PAUL AT ATHENS.

LESSON TExT-Acts 17:16-34
GOLDEN TEXT-In him we live. and
move and have our being.-Acts 1873.
Athens! What q name to conjure
with. Athens has always epitomized
the acme Of intellectualism, culture.
irt, and esthetic accomplishment
Driven from Berea and alone. Paul fed
to the coast and taking ship crossed
over to the Thessalonian peninsula.
Entering the city-he beholds It's 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 1t 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 to 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
| do open-air work In the market place.
Here 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 q "babbler," while
others concluded that he represented
| some new religion, though he set be-
fore them the same message of saliva
ton 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
Areopagus. 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, wv.
22-2s). Such idle speculation ". 2D
was Of no value to the Athenians. This
Paul knew, yet he began his address
In q most conciliatory manner ". %
R. W. He would win their favorable
attention before he called them to re-
pentance. Keenly observant. Paul had
seen among the many inscriptions one
Ito 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 1913; John $40; John
1879: II Cor. 4:6.) It Is mans own
fault II he does not know God (Rom.
1:20-22, 28; II Cor. 4:4), and no knowl.
edge is more important John 1879.
Paul's opening words In verse "a were
but to seize q well-known object Of
their street decoration and discussions
and with 1t to lead on to the great
truth he yearned to have them compre-
bend. This caught the philosophers
as well as the idle curious. God Is not
a 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 Gre
ated all things and giveth to all things
life. Paul's next point was that HE
/ ku ~ M 1T
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
IL not alone for altruistic service but
that they should seek God" This
was his great and glorious purpose In
creating the nations of the earth, In
setting the seasons In motion, to min
lister to their needs, and in appointing
the bounds of their habitations; yot
how far man has departed from that
ideal (Rom. 1921. 1t Is OF the high
est importance that men should seek
| God and he Is not difficult to find for
those who SEX him (Jer. 1918. 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. Paul
displays his university training by
quoting and approving the Greek poet
Aratus ". 2S.) However, while all
men are the offspring of (created by
God, yet they are not all truly his chill
dren John S:44, AZ; John $40; Math.
1898; Gal. 4:4-6; Heb. 1873; Eph.
2:3). Only such are children as have
received Jesus Christ John 1:12 r..
W. All those who are led by his
Spirit are the sons OF God" (RoI1.
S:14; Gal. 1928 R. W.
III. What the Athenians Lacked
| (vv. 30-34). Thus far Paul's auditors
must have followed him keenly. and
1t was the goal toward which he
had been driving so relentlessly. Such
sublime conceptions. keen logic and
quotations from their writer's won
their attention. He then delivered a
keen thrust at this. the psychological
| moment" by calling upon them to re
pent." The Athenians lacked realiz-
ing sense of the personality Of God
that man could have personal and In
innate relations with God or that q
man could or had risen from the
| dead.
"All men everywhere" are called to
repentance and the time is now"
The reason for this call is because
"he hath appointed day in which
he win Judge the inhabited earth"