Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1916-07-14

Athens! What a 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 it's philosophers and views
its moral degradation and it's myriad
manifestations of heathenism. Out
wardly cultured, molding the thought
OF the world, yet it passed from its
pinnacle of power because it 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. 16-21).
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
plCoOhluS III Inc oyndSOSu6 nS dIOC
took advantage of the opportunity to
do 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
tAreopagus, or Mars Hill where from
time immemorial the greatest GRIM
inals had been sentenced and the most
solemn questions of religion set
tied
II. The Unknown Made Known, wv.
22-29). Such idle speculation (v. 2D
was of no value to the Athenians. This
Paul knew, yet he began his address
in 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 1:1S; John 520; John
1919; II Cor. 4:6) 1t is mans own
fault if he does not know God (Rom.
1:20-22, 2S; II Ger. ~, and no knowl-
edge is more important John 1879,
. Paul's opening words in verse "a were
but to seize a well-known object of
their street decoration and discussions
and with it to lead on to the great
truth he yearned to have them compre-
hend. 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. Pauls 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 OF the earth, il
setting the seasons in motion, to min
lister to their needs, and in appointing
the bounds of their habitations: yHl
how far man has departed from thai
ideal (Rom. 1:28). 1t is of the high
, est importance that men should seeF
} God and he is not difficult to find fol
; those who SEX him (Jer. 29:13). The
souls of men are not satisfied withOu
him. Witness the mad rush aftel
: pleasure and the restless desire to pos
sess the things of time and sense anC
which perish with the using. Pau
, displays his university training b!
quoting and approving the Greek poe
Aratus (v. 2S) However. while al
: men are the offspring of (created by
God, yet they are not all truly his Chill
dren John 8:44, At; John $40; Mat!l
1888; Gal. 4:4-6; Heb. 1913; Eph
2:3). Only such are children as hav,
received Jesus Christ John ZIP
W. All those who are led by hi
l Spirit are the sons of God" tRo' ]
S:14; Gal 1925 R. W.
wv. 30-34). Thus far Paul's auditor
must have followed him keenly. an,
it was the goal toward which h
t had been driving so relentlessly. Sue
sublime conceptions, keen logic an
r quotations from their writers wo
their attention. He then delivered
} keen thrust at this. the psychologist
moment" by calling upon them to re
J, pent." The Athenians lacked a reali,
b ing sense of the personality of God
that man could have personal and il
} innate relations with God or that
man could or had risen from th
dead.
"All men everywhere" are called t
repentance and the time is now.
or The reason for this call is becaus
d. "he hath appointed day in whic
q be will judge the inhabited earth
Vi The assurance that he will so judg
40 men of their sins by the man whom
" " has elected is in that "He hath raise
~ ~ him from the dead ". 81.
- Any candid seeker after truth WI
~ will examine the evidence will be CO
~ vinced of the truth that Jesus
no Nazareth, crucified upon Roma
~. cross, rose from the dead.
There is no event in history MOI
authentic.
These Athenians also lacked tt
Is. ability to accept this fact and to yiel
1e their lives in obedience to it, and s
some tried to sneer away the trutI
r. but that did not alter it.
uaro arnnSnd and S0ua au