Middletown transcript., 1916-07-15
LESSON FOR JULY is
PAUL AT ATHENS.
LEssoN TExT-Acts 17:1ss4.

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 fed
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 its myriad
manifestations of heathenism. Out
wardly cultured, molding the thought
of the world, yet it 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. 16-2D.
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
". 18) 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 ne 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
Areopagus, or Mars Hill, where from
time tmmemorial 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 ". 2D
was of no value to the Athenians. This
Paul knew, yet he began his address
in a most concilfatory 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
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 1:18; John 5:20; John
1879; II Cor. 4:6) It is mans own
fault if he does not know God (Rom.
1902, %; II Cor. 4:4), and no knowl-
edge is more important John 1873,
Pauls opening words in verse "a were
but to seize wellknown 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. PauPs 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
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, in
setting the seasons in motion, to min 4
lister to their needs, and in appointing
the bounds of their habitatiOns; yet
how far man has departed from that
ideal (Rom. 1929. 1t is of the high
est importance that men should seek
God and he is not difficult to find for
those who SEX him Ger. 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. Paul
displays his university training by
quoting and approving the Greek poet
Aratus ". 28.) However, while all
men are the offspring Of (created by)
God, yet they are not all truly his chill
dren John 8:44, At; John 3:10; Math.
1888; Gal. 4:4-6; Heb. 1878; 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" (Rora.
STA; Gal. 1926 R. W.
III. What the Athenians Lacked |
wv. SO-3D. Thus far Pauls auditors |
must have followed him keenly, and |
it 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
by calling upon them to re
pent" The Athenians lacked a 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
'fhe hath appointed a day in which
be will judge the inhabited earth"
The assurance that he will so judge
men of their sins by the man whom he
has elected is in that He hath raised
him frorn the daadn fr 21N