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July 14, 1909. Sunday PAUL'S SECOND MIS Acti Lesson for GOLDEN TEXT.?"God is j him must worship him in spi DAILY HOW M.?Acts 17:16-34. W.?Isa. 40:18-31. F.?Psalm 50:1-16. * ! S.?2 C TOPICAL Paul's Failure at Athens? His sermon on Mars Hill, Attended with small SHORTER Q. 6.5?What is forbidden I A. The fifth commandment doing anything against the h to every one in their several ; LESSON < When Paul found it n for obvious reasons, he could determined to press farther by way of the Thermaic Gul and art and philosophy. A Athens had departed and it i there was still gathered hen the seat of philosophy. Coming to the Agora, he fo public life of the city, where poets and artists, to converse Following his usual custom own race and disputes in the are not told with what succec in Athens was so short that He did not confine himself in the market daily with t market was the Agora of ' market in our sense of the te of concourse. It was in this place that Pa he waited for his companions impressionable at this time, those whom he would. befri< from his fellow-laborers. H Now more than at any time when he saw the city wholly was in his heart that all the around him were used in the the honor of the Lord Jehova Speaking in a public pi encountered some of the Ej eureans were virtually athei system of materialism. If tt that they were separated fro them the universe was a grea governor, no retribution. Th< finer matter and nothing wi' soul and body were annihllat< drink and he merry, for to-mi end at life, and expediency i ' school the doctrine of the re was foolishness. The Stoics were Pantheisl death would be burnt or be i the resurrection was irratio: austere apathy and the repri passion. Stoicism was the sc sympathy with a Saviour wh i of our infirmities. I.\. Some of these, probably th will this babbler say"? Th' would give some attention t \ THE PRESBYTERIAN School SIONARY JOURNEY. s 17:22-34. July 25, 1909. a Spirit; and they that worship rit and in truth."?John 4:24. IE READINGS. r?Isa. 40:9-17. Th.?Jer. 10:1-16. S?John 4:19-29. * or. 5:1-11. . uu i Line, , vs. 22-31. results, vs. 32-34. CATECHISM. In the fifth commandment? forbiddeth the neglecting of, or ionor and duty which belongeth places and relations. COMMENTS. ecessary to leave Thessalonica, not go hack to Phillippi; so he west. Taking boat, he travels if to the very center of culture lthough much of the glory of was now a Roman province, yet e the best scholars, and it was und himself in the center of the met the orators and statesmen i or to transact their business. , he makeB himself known to his i synagogue with the Jews. We is he met, and probably his time no Church was established. ! to the Jews, but also disputed ihem that met with him. This which we have spoken; not a rm, but a public square, a place luI spent much of his time while . His mind and heart were very having been roughly treated by ;nd and having been separated e was alone in the great city, in his life his spirit was moved given to idolatry. A great pity beauty and learning which were service of the devil and against ,h. ice and of a new religion, he >icureans and Stoics. The Epists and their philosophy was a ley believed in the gods, it was m the affairs of the earth. To .t accident. There was no moral s soul, if there was one, was but thout the body. In death, both ed. Their moral creed was, Eat, orrow we ate. .Pleasure was the was the rule of life. To such a ssurrectlon which Paul preached ts. They said that the soul at reabsorbed into God. To them nal. Their rule of life was an ession of all human feeling and :hool of pride and could have no 10 was touched with the feeling e Epicureans, ask lightly, "What e more serious Stoics probably o the Apostle and would weigh OF THE SOUTH. his doctrine. Moved with various feelings, gus, saying, "May we know wh thou speakest 1c"? A multitude time in scholarly disputation at thing new followed. Paul, preaches them the most remarl The place was one which woul serious attention to what the Ai that the court of judicature n greatest criminals and to decide connected with religion. Paul, as he took his position i love for the souls of these mei false religion; but, with all his to denunciation nor was he t< words. His address is remarkal and was calculated to arrest the out inciting them to an attitud attacking their objects of dev< and would draw their minds worship to that unknown God v they knew him not. In the 22nd verse our Englist accuse these men as being supei is: "All things which I behold ness in religion;" or, "I perceiv religious worship." Paul evetywhere shows hims in his address, and nowhere is ness. He tells them that he h known God, erected perhaps t< ance that they could ascribe to had heard of the God of the Je any divinity, had erected this i his text and tells them that 1 whom they now dimly worshlpp This discourse was differen spoken in the synagogues, wher personal Jehovah. It was not of Jesus or the prophecies relat been meaningless to the Athe living God as opposed to the tprfnliam nf P.rooco X\7a /> ?, method was different from, thi nothing of speculation in it, but of the existeifee of the one G eternal and unchangeable in holiness, justice, goodness and 1 Surrounded as he was by i imagine the Apostle directing to each in turn and then leadin to a higher estimate of the ho could be had in brazen statu 4uuianuu 11 villi uue Ul meir ow to point his argument. This quotation from a heathen poe rightly used, than a quotatioi Athenians' had never heard. While he does not mention Athenians knew to whom he 1 the words of the 31st verse, preaching Jesus and the resuri preach the resurrection of the d a day and appointed a judge bel and be judged. This gained ad of the hearers from the place Mars' Hill was where the cour and no doubt the vision of the oi many o( tncse men. The effect of this sermon, wh as we might expect in an aud largely by curiosity. Some n "We will hear thee again of tl clave unto him and believed, a member of the court of Areoi Damarls, of whom we know not 15 they took him to the Areopaat this new doctrine whereof ; of the men who spent their id in telling or hearing someembracing the opportunity, table sermon of his ministry, d incline the hearers to give lostle had to say. It was here set to pass sentence on the i on the most solemn question innn 'tho Villi ?,AL -1 . UIU, nao UU lire Willi i, who were enslaved by this i earnestness, he was not led > be ensnared in any of his >le for Its tact and Its aptness, attention of his hearers withle of antagonism. Instead of >tion, he uses one as a text, from the emptiness of their rhom they worshiDned- thnneh i translation would have Paul rstitious. A better translation bear witness to your carefule that you are much given to elf to be a perfect gentleman guilty of rudeness or boorishad found an altar to the Un> commemorate some deliverno other God, or perhaps they >ws, and not wishing to slight altar. Paul uses the altar as le came to declare that God ea not, Knowing Him. t from those which he had e his listeners believed In the a sermon on the Messiahshlp ting to him. This would have snians. His subject was \he polytheism, atheism and manot fail to notice that his it of the schools* there was t it was a positive declaration lod, who is a Spirit, infinite, his being, wisdom, power, :ruth. statues and temples, we can the attention of the audience g them to higher thought and nor and majesty of God than es or pillared temples. The m poets, Aratus, he also used was one sermon in ? which a t would have more force, if i from Isaiah, of whom the Jpflna hv nnmo nr? HnnKf J UV uv/ui/b tuc iad reference when he spoke In the Agora he had been 'ection. Not only did he now ead, but that he had appointed 'ore whom they all must stand ditional force upon the minds where it was uttered. This t judged and passed sentence, last assize rose in the minds ich was interrupted, was such ience that had been gathered locked; others more serious, lis matter." But certain men mong whom was Dionysius, a >agus. Also a woman named hing further.W. D. Hedleston.