T HE K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S coming of Timothy and Silas a t Athens. An ancient proverb said it was easier to find a god th an a man in Athens. As P aul goes through the stre e ts he sees idols and shrines on every hand. He cares nothing for th e ir artistic beauty. He is filled w ith shame and sorrow over these false gods. He can not hold his peace and he begins to preach th e Gos pel in synagogue and market-place. He has come in contact w ith th e sp irit of heathenism before. He now meets its philosophy. The Gospel story has come in conflict w ith Greek learning. The sp irit of these philosophers is n either studious nor judicial. They prejudge P aul and call him light and flippant names. They arrange to give him a hearing not because they are anxious to learn bu t from an idle curiosity seek ing en tertainm en t and diversion. The Berean Bible searchers were more phil osophical th an the A thenian men of culture. TUESDAY, SEPT. 6. Col. 2 :1-10 . The World by Wisdom Knows Not God. Zeno the Stoic and Epicurus had died 300 years before. P aul must have, known th e ir teaching for his address directly refu tes it. Zeno anticipated modern pantheism . He held th a t m a tte r was eternal and th a t death ended all. The Epicureans were m aterialists and athe ists. They tau g h t th a t pleasure was th e only good and pain the only evil. All was eith er chance or fate. Both of these schools moved w ith th e popular cu rren t and were idolatrous. They had no moral earnestness and whatever was w orthy in the sp irit of th e founders had long since passed away from th e fol lowers. P aul met them faith fu lly and fearlessly. A lthough he made little or no impression upon them , his work was no t altogether w ithout results. The Gospel has nothing to fear and nothing to hope for from philosophy and sci ence. I t stands in th e power of God ra th e r th an in th e wisdom of men. P aul never visited A thens again. No Epistle to the A thenians was w ritten. .Paul may have had them in m ind when he w rote “Be not wise in your own con ceits.” R om .-12:16. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 7. Acts 17 :2 2 -3 1. ' Paul’s Sermon on Mars HUl. Paul begins his address in a conciliat ing m anner w ith an implied compli ment. He says, “ I perceive th a t you are more reverential to th e gods th an others.” He m et his audience on com-
925 mon ground. He does not try to prove God’s existence. The Bible always as sumes and asserts it. He begins by af firming th a t God created everything. Then he refutes a common erro r by showing th a t God is not confined to any kind of religious house. God is in dependent and beneficent. God has not only made men bu t made them of one stock. To prove th a t men are God’s offspring Paul quotes the heathen poets. In th e estim ation of his h earers the poets were also prophets. If rational and moral beings are th e creation of G 6 d, surely th e C reator is not a dumb, senseless idol. Then P au l passes to .the moral government of God and an nounces a day of judgm ent as a reason for repentance. His argum ent is un answerable. His audience can only meet it w ith mockery which is always a con fession of defeat. THURSDAY, SEPT. 8. 1 Cor. 9:16-23. An Adapted Message. P au l’s discourse ■on Mars Hill was exactly adapted to his audience. When he preached in a synagogue to a con gregation of Jews he spoke from the standpoint of the Old Testam ent Scrip tu res w ith which his hearers would be fam iliar. He was able to ad ap t himself to all conditions and to all classes of people. He was equally zealous to preach th e Gospel in cultured Athens and wild Galatia. He could speak ef fectively to the pagans of Asia Minor and th e philosophers of Greece. Je r usalem was the religious center of the ancient world. Rome was th e political center. A thens was the center ,of cul tu re. A rchitecture, art, literatu re and m u sic >flourished here as in no other place in the world. The world by wis dom knows no t God and so the preach ing of th e cross was foolishness to the Greek. Nevertheless P aul was not ashamed of th e Gospel of Christ for it was the power of God unto salvation even to th e cultured Greek. FRIDAY, SEPT. 9. Rom. 1 :1 - 1 7 . A Fruitful Message. God has said th a t His Word shall not re tu rn unto Him void and so P au l’s preaching', in A thens bore fru it in the salvation of souls. Suppose a Gospel preacher to be travelling from Maine to F lo rida and th a t he stopped over in W ashington to preach a single sermon. Suppose as a resu lt of th a t sermon a judge of th e Supreme Court should be converted, also a woman who was a social leader of th e “ four hundred,” and
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