^^ f^m ■r BS 2505 .A379 1865 i Alexander , William Lindsay, 1808-1884. St. Paul at Athens ST. PAUL AT ATHENS BY WILLIAM LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D. EDINBURGH ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1865 J'rinied by R. & R. Clakk, EdUiburgh. TO THE VEKY REVEREND E. B. RAMSAY, M.A., LL.D., F.E.S.E. DEAX OF THE DIOCESE OF EDINBURGH, ETC. ETC. ETC. Dear Mr. Dean, I gratify my own feelings of personal friendship in inscribing this little work to you. But I trust you will also accept it as a token of the respect with which your fellows-citizens of all religious denominations regard you, as one foremost in all works of Christian philanthropy, and who is an example to all of us how the most steadfast adherence to conviction may be combined wdth a generous appreciation of the character and motives of those who vi DEDICATION. ditfer from us — reminding us that "faith un- feigned^' has ever its fittest companion in that charity which " is kind," and " thinketh no e\TLl.'' With every sentiment of respect and esteem, I am, dear Mr. Dean, Most sincerely yours, W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER. PEEFACE. This volume contains the substance of a series of expository lectures, delivered by the author in the ordinary course of his ministry. The subjects handled by the apostle in his memorable address to the " Men of Athens," on Mars' Hill, are such as have engaged the attention of thoughtful men in all ages of the Church ; and in the present day some of them have acquired special interest from the controversies of which they have been the theme. In expounding the apostle's address, it seemed to the author that a fitting viii PREFACE. occasion was furnished when, without ming- ling formally in these controversies, he might bring forward what appeared to him fitted to help inquirers to a just decision on the points at issue. He has, therefore, entered more at large into some of these subjects than mere exposition of the text required, especially the deeply-important subject of the Fatherhood of God. In respect of this he has sought to show that the position which Scripture authorises and teaches is a medium position between the opinion of those who would restrict God's Fatherhood to his gracious special relation to redeemed men, and that of those who deny any such special relation, and maintain that God is not a Father to any in a sense in which He is not a Father to all. To facilitate the understanding of the topographical references in the earlier lee- PREFACE. tures, the following plan of ancient Athens may be found useful. A. Tlie Acropolis. H. Pnyx. B. Areopagus. I. Temple of Theseus. C. Museium. J. Gymnasium of Ptolemy. D. Hadrianopolis. K. Stoa of Hadrian. E. Temple of Jupiter Oljonpius. L. Gate of New Agora. F. Theatre of Bacchus. M. Tower of Andronicus. G. Odeium of Regilla. CONTENTS. — 000 — Page I. St. Paul in the Agora .... 3 II. St. Paul on Mars' Hill . . . .31 III. St. Paul's Discourse — God and the Universe 60 IV. St. Paul's Discourse — the Fatherhood of God 87 V. St. Paul's Discourse — Unity of the Human Race Ill VI. St. Paul's Discourse — Consequences Flowing • out of the Divine Fatherhood to the Race 144 VII. Erroneous Representations of the Fatherhood of God 170 VIII. St. Paul's Discourse — God a King and Judge as well as Father . . . .199 IX. St. Paul's Discourse. — God's Summons of all Men to Repent — the Final Judgment . 226 X. St. Paul's Discourse — Conclusion and Result 266 XI. St. Paul's Abiding Confidence in Christianity as the Power of God and the Wisdom of God 291 ST. PAUL AT ATHENS. — 000- AcTS x^ii. 16-34. Now, while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say ? other some. He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods : because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. And they took Ijim, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is ? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears : we would know therefore what these things mean. (For all the Athenians, and strangers which were there, spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new- thing.) Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your de- votions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the Unknown God. Wliom therefore ye ignorantly worship, 2 ST. PAUL AT ATHENS. Him declare I luito yon. God, that made the world, and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands ; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things ; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath deter- mined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation ; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though he be not far from every one of us : for in Him we live, and move, and have our being ; as certain also of your own poets have said. For ive are also His offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the ofifsprmg of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God A\-inked at ; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent : because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained ; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked : and others said. We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed fi-om among them. Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed : among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. St. Paul in the Agora. The visit of the Apostle Paul to Athens was made not lonsj after his first lanclino^ on the shores of Europe. Having preached the gospel with success at Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea, he was compelled to leave liis companions, Silas and Timothy, at the last of these places, and escape by sea from the persevering malice of the Jews, who had fol- lowed him from Thessalonica. Athens having been appointed as the place of reunion with his companions, the apostle abode there wait- ing their arrival ; and during this visit occurred the circumstances narrated in the passage which I propose to make the sub- ject of exposition and illustration. In what manner the apostle occupied his 4 ST. PAUL IN THE AGORA. time during the earlier period of his visit, we are not informed, but from what is stated, both by the historian and by himself, as to the extent of survey which he bestowed upon the ways of the inhabitants, we may presume that he spent some time in contemplating the objects of interest which the famous city to which he had been conducted supplied/ There was no city in the ancient world that had within its precincts so much to attract the attention and excite the admiration of the man of taste and culture, as Athens. Nobly situated, and filled with the most exquisite works in architecture and sculp- ture which the genius of the most aesthetic people in the world could supply ; sur- rounded by an atmosphere so transparent ' Luke uses tlie participle v/,hy^6[i,zvog in reference to the apostle's abode in Athens, and the verb Qzu^sTv to describe the careful and thorough inspection which he gave to its religious phenomena. Paul himself uses still stronger terms (ver. 23), diso^o/Mivog xai avahoooojv rci 6iiSd6[Marcc v/xcov. This implies that he went through the city, and minutely surveyed their religious things. (Compare Heb. xiii. 7, for the force of dvadsoooi?]/). ATHENS. 5 and genial that the most delicately -finished works of art could be placed without injury in the open air, and the inhabitants could live and worship, and legislate, and teach, and debate under the canopy of heaven;^ while over all looked in unclouded splen- dour the "unresting eye of day,"^ bathing in golden or purple light rock and stream, fluted column and massive temple ; Athens stood forth the glory of the "bright land ''^ of which it was the metropolis, the pride of Greece and the wonder of the world. To the attraction of such a scene we cannot suppose that the mind of the apostle was insensible ; perhaps there might be in it for him a deep charm to which it would be a joy for him to yield his soul. But he was not in circumstances to resign himself to such fascinations. There are higher objects of con- l dg/ ha. 'KcLij.'XDoraro'o (Saivovrsg a^oojg atfupog. Enrip. Med. 825. 2 ofi/j^a aWi^og dxdiJ.arov czKaynrai. — Aristoph Clouds^ 285. ^ Ai-TTa^dv •^&6va. — Ibid. 299. 6 ST. PAUL IN THE AGORA. templation tlian those which gratify the taste ; and the mind maybe so absorbed in great themes of intellectual or moral interest as to be well nigh insensible to all the charms of scenery, and all the attractions of art. When Howard went forth, on what a great orator has called his " circumnavigation of charity," he visited some of the noblest cities, and passed through some of the most attractive scenery of modern Europe ; but neither the splendour and wealth of the one, nor the attractions of the other, could engage his attention ; the dungeon and the hospital, where suffering humanity invited his aid, had an interest to his mind which drew him aside from everything else, and made him insensible " to the sumptousness of palaces and the stateliness of temples," to the curi- osity of art, and even to the sublimities and beauties of nature. Cicero tells us, that for him Athens had a higher charm than was derived from its magnificent buildings and exquisite works of art, — the charm that arose from the memory of its illustrious men, MORAL BEFORE AESTHETIC. 7 and which made him search out the abodes and favourite haunts of each, and look with intent gaze on their sepulchres.-^ In all large and earnest minds the moral will ever overtop and master the aesthetic ; and, save as the latter may in some way be made subservient to the former, such minds will be apt to overlook, if not entirely to under- estimate it. AYliat wonder, then, that Paul, bent on a mission of moral beneficence to which he had consecrated his life, and pene- trated with an all-absorlDing desire to accom- plish a result which he knew to be the noblest and worthiest and most enduring that could be proposed to human exertion, should have been content to bestow only a passing glance on the marble splendours of Athens, and should have been more deeply moved by the gloom which rested on the moral features of the scene, than by all the glory which lighted up its physical and material aspect ? As he moved through the city, he beheld how all this wealth of genius 1 De Legibus, ii. 1. 8 ST. PAUL IN THE AGORA. was prostituted to the service of a vain and misleading superstition; how all this sur- passing beauty which, as it was fabled, had made the city of the purple crown an object of contention even to immortals themselves/ had but served as a veil to hide from men's minds the knowledge of Him of whose glory it was the reflection and the witness ; and how men, surrounded by all that was fitted to refine and spiritualise and elevate the mind, were nevertheless grovelling under the degrading influence of a grossly sensu- ous and debasing idolatry. Paul was not the man to behold such a scene unmoved. Accustomed to look at things in their spiritual, rather than in their material as- pects, he took in the whole picture of moral defilement and misery which lay under this smiling and gorgeous exterior. At the sight his soul was stirred within him, and with fearless zeal, yet with a tact and sa- gacity which bespoke him no vain enthu- siast, he cast himself into the busy, noisy ^ Herod, viii. 55 : Pausan. i. 24, 5. A CITY FULL OF IDOLS. 9 stream of Athenian life, if liaply he might, in some measm^e at least, arrest its down- ward course, and turn it in the direction where alone light and blessedness could be found- St. Paul saw the city " wholly given to idolatry." The original rather means he saw the city full of idols ; ^ and this descrip- tion is one which is amply borne out by the statements of the classical wTiters, who speak of the Athenians as exceeding all others in zeal for sacred rites, and describe Athens as " containing altars and temples in every direction ; " as full of " statues of gods and men, of every kind and material, and in every variety of art ; " and as one vast altar, sacrifice and offerins;.^ Wandering^ amid such objects, beholding in every street and on every prominent point some symbol or instrument of idolatrous worship, unable to enjoy the beauty of God's earth, because 2 See the passages collected by Wetstein in Lis note on Acts xvii. 16, Nov. Test. Gr. ii. p. 562. lo ST. PAUL IN THE AGORA. everywhere Iris eye lighted on some elabor- ate work of man that was an insult to the majesty, and a virtual denial of the existence of the One Living and True God ; it is not wonderful that the apostle's righteous soul should have been vexed, and his spirit stirred within him. Not, however, with scorn or in- dignation was he chiefly moved. Such feel- ings the sight of a city full of objects of idolatrous worship might move in the bosom of an enlightened theist, for under certain of its aspects, idolatry is so contem|)tible, so foolish, so God-dishonouring and man-de- grading, that it is difficult to think of it without some emotions of contempt or wrath towards those who follow it. But in the mind of the apostle such feelings, we may be well assured, would be speedily absorbed in one deep and overwhelming emotion of pity for those who were suffering themselves to be ensnared, and fettered, and blinded to their eternal ruin, by such delusions. In every statue and temple and altar he would see but an additional instrument for the destruction ART HIDING CORRUPTION. ii of immortal souls. The very wealth of art, that poured itself out before him, would be to him but the measure of the spiritual poverty, humiliation, and wretchedness of the people. He knew that idolatry always brings moral degradation and misery in its train, even where intellectual culture and artistic skill may have thrown an air of glory over the worship, and an aspect of refinement over the surface of society. To his enlightened vision, the splendid and beautiful Athens was but like one of her own marble sepulchres — outwardly fair and attractive, but " within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness." And so a necessity came upon him to get to work and proclaim the gospel to these idolaters. Whether he had come to Athens with this intention we are not told ; though from his known zeal and activity, we can well believe that from the time of his ap- proach to the city this would be what he was anxious to do. But it is not surprising that before adventuring on so new and diffi- cult an enterprise, he should have desired the 12 ST. PAUL IN THE AGORA. presence a;icl support of his friends, whom he had left behind at Berea. In prospect of this, his first purpose had been to delay operations until their arrival. But the sight of this exuberant and rampant idolatry so wrought upon him, that it became impossible for him to carry out that intention. All con- siderations of personal comfort and advantage gave way before the stirrings of holy zeal and compassionate pity which the scene pro- voked. And so, unhesitatingly he threw him- self into the arena, and stood up to do battle, single-handed and alone, for God and for truth, against the wit, wisdom, science, and dialectic skill of the most refined, ingenious, and cultivated people of the world. True to his national predilections, which never suffered him to neglect his brethren according to the flesh, he addressed himself in the first instance to the Jews and prose- lytes^ whom he found in Athens, visiting for ^ " Devout persons " (ro7"^ ffs[3o/xBvoig), phraseology used to denote those who, born heathens, had been turned from idols to fear and worship the true God. TO JEW AND ALSO TO GREEK. 13 tliis purpose their synagogue, and holding conversations with them. ^ Thus far he acted as he had always done since he became an apostle of Christ ; but it was not long until he ventured upon a hitherto untried course. Near to the centre of the city was a large open space called the Agora, where were several of the public buildings of Athens, and which was full of monuments of reli- gious and patriotic interest to the Athenians. Here at all times were to be found multi- tudes of people drawn together by the calls of business, or by the Athenian love of talk ; and here any one who wished to inculcate any doctrines, speculative or practical, was sure to find, if not an attentive audience, at least abundance of acute and eager logicians, ready to discuss with him any subject, human or divine, on which he chose to 1 The word used, diOJysro, means literally that a dia- logue took place between him and them. The character of this would often doubtless be controversial ; but the word does not necessarily mean, as our version gives it. « disputed." 14 ST. PAUL IN THE AGORA. speak. Througli this place the apostle had doubtless occasion frequently to pass, and as he did so he took the opportunity of drawing some of the many idlers around him into conversation. This was a new sphere for the apostle, whose labours had hitherto been confined to synagogues and private com- panies; but being once embarked in it, he gave himself to it with all his native energy and heroism, so that it at length became his " daily " practice. His custom seems to have been to get into talk with any whom he chanced to meet. ^ He did not ostentatiously throw down the gauntlet to the chiefs of the great philosophic schools which then divided the allegiance of the speculatists of Greece but was content to speak with any one who was willing to hear what he had to say. It was not long, however, before he came in contact with the philosophers, abundance of whom mio;ht be at all times found in the Aofora. The historian mentions two sects, the dis- ciples of which he encountered in debate, — 1 Tapari/^^avovraj. STOICS AND EPICUREANS. 15 the Stoics and the Epicureans. Of all the sects of Grecian philosophy, these were the two most likely to come into collision with one eno-ao^ed in such a work as that to which St. Paul was devoted. Of the other sects, some had renounced the search after truth as hopeless, and had abandoned themselves to absolute scepticism ; while others indulged in etherial speculations belonging to a purely ideal region, and having little relation to actual life or the concrete interests of man- kind. For neither of these classes had the busy pragmatical Agora much attraction; and from such questions as Paul was likely to bring forward, — questions relating to man's duties, obligations, and prospects, and the solution of which was offered, not as the reward of philosophic inquiry, but through the medium of an objective revelation, — these sceptical or sublime speculatists were likely to turn aside at once with contempt or indifference. "With the Stoics and the Epicureans it was differ- ent. The aim of both was practical rather than speculative. They sought to settle the i6 ST. PAUL IN THE AGORA. foundations of virtue, and to give men di- rections how to conduct themselves, so as to make the best of lifers experiences. Accord- ing to the former, virtue consisted in living according to nature, and the wise man was he who regulated his daily life so as to keep himself in harmony with the great ends and purposes of his being, not allowing himself to be elated with prosperity, as if that were a good in itself, or to be overwhelmed with ad- versity, as if that were an evil in itself To this the doctrine of the Epicureans was to a great extent antithetical. They taught that the main end of man's life and being was happiness, and therefore they counselled men, on the one hand, to avoid all sources of discomfort or suffering, and, among the rest, foolish and wicked conduct, which was sure to bring suffering, if not directly, yet by a retributive remorse ; and on the other, to cultivate whatever has a tendency to soothe the soul, and make life flow on softly and sweetly. Both schools thus professed to tell men how to be good and blessed ; both, WHAT WOULD HE SAY 1 17 therefore, naturally sought disciples among the masses ; and both came thus, as well by the nature of their doctrines as by the area of their activity, into collision with the apostle as a teacher of Christianity. For he, too, came to tell men how they might be wise, and good, and blessed; and as he claimed for his doctrine a preference to all that philosophy had to teach on these points, it was inevitable that, as he taught in the Agora at Athens, he should have to abide the encounter of the adherents of these schools. The result of these discussions was re- markable. When one considers that Paul was a foreigner, who, even if he spoke Greek idiomatically, would speak it with an accent that could not but offend ears so delicate as those of the Athenians, among whom even the market women could not refrain from correcting the mispronunciation of their foreign customers ; and when, further, it is borne in mind that much of what he had to say would of necessity be new and strange to his auditors, it cannot appear surprising i8 ST. PAUL IN THE AGORA. that some should have turned scornfully aside with the question, " What will this babbler say ? " that is, What does he want to say ? What would he be at ? ^ and that others, attracted by the novelty of his doctrines — impressed perhaps by the manifest sincerity and earnestness of the man, yet utterly at sea as to the purport of his teaching — should have exclaimed, " He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods." This latter exclamation, Luke tells us, was provoked especially by Paul's preaching to them Jesus and the Eesurrection. From the use of the plural, "gods," some have been led to suppose that the Athenians took Jesus for one, and Anastasis, or the Kesur- ^ The original conveys tins : t\ av 6sXoi (rre^/xoXoyog Svrog Xsysiv ; what may he be wishing to say ? The epithet (T'lrso/j^oXoyog, grain-gatherer, was originally applied to the rook ; and as used of men, conveyed the notion sometimes of a person who picks np scraps of knowledge from others, sometimes of one loquacious, garrulous, and empty. " Babhler is the very best English word, as best signifying one who talks fluently to no purpose, and hinting also that his talk is not his ownV — Alford, on the passage. JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. 19 rection, for another of tlie deities, whose worship Paul was seeking to introduce into Athens, famed for its hospitality as well to foreign gods as men,^ But though it is probable that the doctrine of the Eesurrection was new and strange to these philosophers, we can hardly suppose that the apostle would have expressed himself so strangely as to lead them to imagine that, in speaking of it, he was speaking of a person, or would have them place it on a footing with Jesus. Doubtless what Paul preached on this oc- casion, was the divine claim of Jesus to be regarded as the Son of God and the Saviour of the world — a claim of which His resurrec- tion from the dead was the croAvnino; attes- tation and proof. On this great fact Paul was wont to lay peculiar stress in his preach- ing, partly because of the authority which it imparted to his doctrine, partly because it 1 " The Athenians are hospitable as in other respects, so also in respect of the gods. For they have received many foreign religions, for which they were ridiculed in the comedies." Strabo, Geogr. x. p. 471. 20 ST. PAUL IN THE AGORA. formed the security of that great privilege which he was commissioned to offer to men — the pardon of sin through the merit of the Saviour's intercession, and the prospect of eternal felicity with Him in a future state. Of such things philosophy had not dreamt, and therefore when Paul connected this in his preaching with the claims of Jesus, these acute Athenians saw at once that he asserted for Jesus divine honour, and so represented him as "a setter forth of strange gods." The use of the plural may be accounted for on grammatical grounds ; ^ or, perhaps, as Paul could hardly preach Jesus and the Kesurrection without a reference to God the Father, some confusion and misapprehension might lead these philosophers to suppose that he was advocating the claims of two new deities. What is thus ascribed to Paul formed one of the main charges brought against Socrates, and on which that most illustrious of the sons of Athens was condemned to 1 See Kuinoel on tlie passage. STRANGE GODS AT ATHENS. 21 death. ^ But whilst it might be criminal for a citizen to seem to despise his country's gods by introducing those of another people, it does not appear that it was so for a foreio:ner to set forth the claims of his own deities. In this respect a certain liberty seems to have been allowed at Athens, and a place was even conceded to foreign deities beside those that were indigenous. It was not, therefore, as charged with a crime that Paul was carried to the Areopagus, where the supreme court of Athens had its seat, but merely that a more commodious place might be obtained for him in which to expound his novel message. It was curiosity, not anger, which moved to this step. His hearers wished to know fully, and without the inter- ruptions which in the Agora were inevitable, what this doctrine of his was. The apostle on Mars' Hill we leave for subsequent contemplation. In the meantime there are one or two considerations of a 1 Xenophon, Memorabilia, I, 1., 1. 22 ST. PAUL IN THE AGORA. general kind, arising out of the verses we have been studying, to which it may be well briefly to advert. 1. We see here Christianity, in the per- son of one of its most eminent teachers, brought into contact with art in its higher forms. Now, it must certainly " be admitted," as has been remarked,^ " to be highly signi- ficant and important, that the first impres- sions which the master-pieces of man s taste for art left on the mind of St. Paul was a revolting one.'^ But whence did this revul- sion of feeling arise ? Not surely from any conviction in the mind of the apostle that art was in itself an unlawful pursuit, or that it might not be worthily connected with religion ; for, as a Jew, accustomed to the temple and its services at Jerusalem, no such conviction could have found place in his mind. Was there, then, anything in Chris- tianity, as a religious system, hostile to art, either in itself, or in its application to reli- "• Lecliler on tlie place in Lange's Bihelwerk, pt. 5. CHRISTIANITY AND ART 23 gious uses ? This can hardly be affirmed in the face of the fact, that Christianity has everywhere, not only shown an affinity with art, but has, more than any other influence, dignified and glorified it. No ; as the writer already cited justly adds : It was because " all this majesty and beauty had placed itself between man and his Creator, and bound him the faster to his gods, wdiich were not God," that painful feelings were roused in the bosom of the apostle. The emotions of delight, wdiich the art itself might have excited, were prevented by the feelings of mingled indignation and pity with which the sight of the grievous abuse of it, prosti- tuted as it was to the service of idolatry, filled his soul. Artistic power is as truly a divine gift as intellect and moral feeling, and in its own place has an important bearing on the cath- olic development of man's inner nature, and may be made, in a high degree, subservient to his religious culture. But, like all God's gifts to us, it may be abused ; and just be- 24 ST. PAUL IN THE AGORA. cause of its greater delicacy and finer temper the abuse of it may result in something viler and more degrading than it is possible for other parts of our nature to furnish. The abuses to which it is liable are especially two. The one is, when it becomes an all-absorbing passion, exercising an imperious tyranny over the soul, making all things bend to its gratification, measuring the good or evil of things simply by their power to minister to its cravings, and tempting him who is the subject of it to trifle with the most sacred obligations, and postpone the most important duties, in obedience to its demands. The other is, when it lends itself to unholy, profane, impure, or unworthy uses ; when it is employed to confirm man in his ungodli- ness ; when it becomes th^ minister of super- stition or sacerdotal craft ; or when it throws its enchantment around what is degrading, and paints a beautiful mask for the foul and ghastly face of vice. In all such cases, art assumes a position which compels the moralist and the man of spiritual religion to bear CHRISTIANITY AND PHIIOSOPHY. 25 towards it a hostile front, and denounce it as evil and dangerous. 2. Christianity appears here also, in the person of the apostle, for the first time in contact with human systems of philosophic speculation. And here the same is to be said, in substance, that has been already said in relation to art. To philosophy, as such, Christianity cannot be hostile. The great questions of which she offers the solution are precisely those with which philosophy, in its higher forms, is occupied ; and there is no better preparation for the lessons she has to teach, and no surer voucher for their suffi- ciency, in relation to the mind's wants and capacities, than philosophy, wisely and legi- timately exercised, is fitted to furnish. It is not surprising, therefore, that from the earliest ages Christianity has found in philosophy her readiest and deftest handmaid. But, from the earliest ages also, philosophy has been the antagonist and the perverter of Christianity. The writings of St. Paul indicate a mind na- turally inclined to philosophic research, and 26 ST. PAUL IN THE AGORA. disciplined by the metliods and lessons of phi- losophy ; but St. Paul had occasion to caution the Christians to whom he wrote against a " philosophy," which is only "an empty cheat," and " oppositions of science falsely so called."^ It is to the application of philosophic prin- ciples and methods, by such men as Augus- tine, Anselm, Aquinas, and Calvin, that the church is indebted for the full and scientific development of that doctrinal system, the elements of which are scattered through the pages of Holy Scripture ; but it is no less to the mingling of philosophic speculations with the teachings of Scripture, that the Church owes most of those heretical opinions by which her testimony has been corrupted and her peace disturbed, from the time of Simon Magus downwards. There is a ne- cessity, therefore, for caution and discrimina- tion on the partof the followers of Christ when they are brought into contact with the schools of human philosophy, that they may wisely choose the good and refuse the evil ^ Col. ii. 8 : 1 Tim. ^A. 20. HOW IS IT NO Wl 27 among the doctrines whicli tliese scliools profess. Holding fast "the truth as it is in Jesus/^ repudiating all attempts to modify or supplement the divine word by the con- elusions of human wisdom, and not shrink- ing from boldly encountering the disciples of any school of philosophy when they cross their path, let them at the same time wil- lingly accept whatever aids philosophy may be prepared to render as the handmaid of theology, either in illustration or in defence of the truths most surely believed amongst them. 3. As some of those philosophers whom Paul encountered in the Agora of Athens heard his doctrines only to turn from them and him with contempt, so there are still men who, professing to be students of philo- sophy and searchers after truth, think it not incompatible with these pretensions to treat Christianity with similar light-minded rejec- tion. Many, indeed, do this from mere in- difference to all religious interests ; but others, professing to recognise religion as the 28 ST. PAUL IN THE AGORA. supreme concern of man, hastily repudiate Christianity on the ground of some foregone conclusion at which they have arrived. To one man a revelation of religious truth from without appears unnecessary and incongru- ous, the spiritual nature of man being held by him to be sufficient for the evolution of a religion for itself; by another, a book-re- velation is regarded as ati absurdity, and the very idea of submission to it scouted as an insult to man's intellectual supremacy; while a third, having settled in his own mind that a miracle is impossible, regards the fact that Christianity is a miraculous religion as sufficient to justify him in passing it by with neglect. Such methods of dealing with such a subject are, to say the least, unphilo- sophical as well as unwise. The first lesson which true science teaches is, to regard all things possible which are not self-contra- dictory, and to reject, on purely a fviori grounds, nothing that claims to rest on a basis of fact. He who believes in God will not lightly pronounce it impossible or im- WHAT CHRISTIANITY CLAIMS. 29 probable that the Creator sliould communi- cate directly the knowledge of His will to His intelligent and accountable crea- tures ; and to every serious and earnest thinker it must ever appear that the mere possibility of a given book containing a mes- sage from God imposes on all to whom it comes an obligation to examine, with all candour and earnestness, the evidence on which it rests its claims. This much Chris- tianity, as a professed revelation from God, has a right to demand, and whilst every honest searcher after truth will concede this right, and submit to it, the risks of neglecting to do this are so tremendous that no wise man will lightly incur them. Christianity asks no one to listen to her teaching until he has satisfied himself of the truth of her claims ; but to refuse so much as to look at these claims on the ground of some fore- gone conclusion, her advocates cannot but denounce as alike arrogant and foolish. Strange that men who are forward to pro- claim that it is only by acting as "the 30 ST. PAUL IN THE AGORA. minister and interpreter of nature '' that any one can hope to arrive at natural truth, should imagine that divine truth may be reached by a simple process of a "priori de- duction and subjective preference ! 11. St. Paul on Mars' Hill. Athens embraced within its precints several natural elevations. One of these was the Areopagus or Mars' Hill ; so called, accord- ing to popular tradition, because Ares or Mars had been brought to trial there before the assembled gods for the murder of Halir- rhothius, the son of Poseidon. It is described as " a narrow, naked ridge of limestone rock, rising gradually from the northern end, and terminating abruptly on the south ; " reach- ing on this end a height of between fifty and sixty feet above the level of the valley at its base. It stands very near to the Agora, in which the apostle commenced his discussions with the Athenians; and the steps still remain, cut in the rock, by which it was ascended on that side. On the summit 32 ST. PAUL ON MARS' HILL. ' of the rock, just above the Agora, was the spot where the judges of the Upper Council sat and administered justice in the open air; their seat was a stone bench cut in the rock, which still remains. It was not (as already observed), however, as a criminal that St. Paul w^as conveyed to this spot, nor was the manner of the act indicative of any disrespect to him on the part of those who had surrounded him in the Agora. On the contrary, the ex- pression used by Luke, and rendered in our version, "they took him" (ver. 19), conveys in the original the idea of gentle and courte- ous handling;^ and the historian is careful to tell us that it was curiosity and not dis- pleasure which prompted the removal to the Areopagus. With the Athenians this was a motive which had all the power of a ruling passion. Luke says of them here, that " all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing" ^ s'TiXa^S/Mvoi, " manu leniter preliensum " Grotius, in loc. ATHENIAN LOVE OF NEWS. 33 (ver. 21). The statement here is somewhat stronger in the translation than in the ori- ginal, which simply indicates that they had leism^e for nothing else;^ that their whole spare time was spent in hearing and telling the latest news." But even thus modified, the statement is so sweeping that one might be tempted to set it down, in part at least, to the prejudice of a foreigner, accustomed to the stiller life and graver manners of the east, and to whom, therefore, the busy, bust- ling, inquisitive, talkative habits of the Athenians could not but be annoying, were it not that Athenian testimonies themselves amply establish the charge. Indeed, Demos- thenes, in one of his addresses to his country- men, reproaches them with this propensity in language almost identical with that of Luke,^ ^ sOxa/^s/i/, a later word not used by the best Greek writers, who employed GyjiKaX^ih in the same sense, that of being at leisure. 2 -/Mivorioov, literally a newer thing, i. e., something newer than what was last new, the latest news. " Philij). i. 5, Comp. Thucyd. iii. 38 ; Aelian, Hist. Var. V. 13 ; Seneca, Fj^. 94, etc. D 34 ST. FA UL ON MARS' HILL. and other witnesses abundantly attest the same thing. To such persons anything really new was a perfect treasure, which they could not too eagerly appropriate ; and therefore, recognising in what Paulsaid to them some- thing they had never heard before, they carried him to the Areopagus that they might have space and quiet to hear what he had to tell. But amidst this giddy crowd, who hastened up the steps of the Areopa- gus as they might have hurried to a comedy, may we not suppose there were some influ- enced by better feelings than those of mere curiosity — some who recognised in what St. Paul had already uttered, something more than mere novel talk — some who, really seeking for truth, had found a strange re- sponse in their inner nature to what had fallen from his lips — some who, in the foreio-n and strange doctrines which he an- o o nounced, saw, as by the glimmer of a dis- tant lamp, a possible pathway out of the maze of speculation in which they were lost; and who, therefore, spoke in honest earnest- NOVELTY OF HIS POSITION. 35 ness when tliey said, " We wish to know what these things mean/^ At any rate, their language to the apostle was perfectly courteous. What they asked, they asked as a favour : " May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest [this new teaching of which thou art the expounder] is?" To such a request the apostle could have no unwillingness to accede. Some little na- tural agitation and anxiety might probably, for the moment, take hold of him as he anti- cipated a scene so novel and so trying as that in which he was about to be the principal actor. But this would soon pass away, ab- sorbed in the nobler emotions which the pro- spect of proclaiming the truth, of which he was the herald, on so conspicuous a platform and to so interesting an audience, would awaken in his soul ; or if this could not wholly disperse these feelings, all tendency to shrink from the ordeal through which he had to pass would be rebuked as he remem- bered the assurance of his Divine Master, 36 ST. FA UL ON MARS' HILL. " When they shall lead you and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what you shall speak, neither premeditate ; but what- soever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye ; for it is not ye that speak but the Holy Ghost."^ And now the apostle has ascended the steps, and stands on the summit of the Are- opagus. What a scene presents itself to his view ! Close beside him is the crowd of citi- zens who have followed him from the Agora, and intermingled with them are not only the philosophers who have chiefly provoked this scene, but also some of the principal persons of the city, and one at least of the judges of the Areopagus. Before and around him lies the city in all its natural beauty, and in al] its wealth of art. A little to the east of where he stands rises the Acropolis, abrupt and vast, covered with the noblest monuments of Grecian art — temples, and theatres, and sta- tues, and sculptured groups — rising up in simple but majestic beauty from the stately ^ Matt. xiii. 11. SCENE BEFORE HIM. 37 Propylaeea to the sublime Partlienon, the masterpiece and the glory of ancient archi- tecture. On the other side, also close by the Agora, rises the Pnyx, the place of the as- semblies of the people, where stands the famous stone from which the orators ad- dressed the assembled multitude, and from which had often sounded the voice of him " whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democracy, Shook the arsenal, and fulmined over Greece To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne." In other directions, other spots famous in his- tory or sacred to literature and philosophy, as well as beautified by art, meet the eye, and solicit attention. But Paul is not there to feast his imagination, or sate his taste with this opulence of artistic splendour. He has come thither, filled with the inspira- tion of a message from God, to tell these polished idolaters of the perfections and the claims of that one only God, of whom they had well-nigh utterly lost sight amid the multitude and variety of their mythological 38 ■ ST. FA UL ON MARS' HILL. inventions ; and full of tliis, lie lias no eyes for either the charms of nature or the glories of art ; or if the scene before him for a mo- ment attracts his attention, the sight of so much genius prostituted to the worst of uses, only kindles his zeal to greater fervour, and gives him fresh courage to assail the adver- sary in this the very palace of his glory and citadel of his strength. And so the apostle stands up, undaunted though alone, in the midst of that polished auditory to lift up his testimony for God and for truth, in opposi- tion to their most cherished prejudices and their most favoured beliefs. With whatever other feelings the multi- tude around him might regard the apostle, it would be impossible for them not to respect and admire the courage of the man. Never did orator stand up to address an audience under greater disadvantages. Everything almost of an outward kind was against him. His being a foreigner was against him ; for the Athenians, who boasted that they had sprung from the soil of Attica, looked upon HIS DISAD VANTA GES. 39 all other nations with contempt, and spoke of them as barbarians. His speech was against him ; for, to the fine ears of the Athenians, accustomed to hear their exquisite language uttered with the nicest attention to pronunciation and accent, it must have been well-nigh intolerable to hear it spoken by one whose speech was, by his own confession, contemptible, even in the esteem of the less fastidious Corinthians/ His personal ap- pearance was against him ; for he was of diminutive stature, and his bodily presence was feeble, whilst around him were the grace- ful forms and noble countenances of the most perfectly-developed race that the world has ever seen. His subject was against him ; for he stood there to denounce the religious beliefs and usages of the Hellenic nations in the very centre of the Hellenic worship, and in the midst of a people enthusiastically devoted to their national superstitions ; to assail the time-honoured prejudices of the haughtiest and most self-confident of peoples; * 2 Cor. X. 1 0. 40 ST. FA UL ON MARS' HILL. and in a city full of idols, and swarming with philosophers, to prove idolatry a wicked ab- surdity, and philosophy, such as they had it, a delusion and a snare. It was, indeed, a bold thing for such a man to venture on such an attempt under such circumstances ; and one can fancy that, as the speaker raised his unimposing form, and stretched forth his feeble arm, when about to commence his ad- dress, any feelings of surprise or contempt which his appearance at first might excite, would speedily give place to those of respect and admiration, such as true bravery never fails to evoke. Trying as was the task to which he was summoned, the apostle was fully equal to it. And, in truth, amidst the outward disadvan tages to which I have alluded, he possessed qualities of another kind which more than turned the balance in his favour. For one thing, his mind as much overtopped the minds of the mass of his audience as their physical endowments excelled his. His was really the freest and kingliest spirit of the whole. HIS AD VANTA GES. 41 Not that in respect of mere original power of intellect he surpassed all who then sur- rounded him, for on this jDoint we have no means of forming an opinion ; but that there was no mind there that could so thoroughly grasp and comprehend him as his mind could grasp and com]3rehend them. Insignificant as he seemed in respect of outward appearance, he could take the measure and weight of the w^hole assembly as they could not do of him. None of them had so largely and so truly surveyed humanity in all its interests, rela- tions, and wants as he had ; nor could any so minister to the deepest necessities of the human heart as he could. Much as some of those beside him had speculated on things divine, he alone had seen God as He reveals Himself to His people ; and he alone could speak of divine things with the firmness and assurance of one who speaks because he be- lieves. In short, he had the power which truth and knowledge confer ; and he needed but this opportunity of free speech to vindi- cate for himself the influence and authority 42 ST. PA UL ON MARS' HILL. which the possessor of these always gains over those who are the slaves of error or of ignorance. The oration which the apostle delivered on this occasion has called forth the admira- tion of the most competent judges of all sub- sequent ages and countries. It is marked not only by a calm dignity and thorough mastery of the topics discussed, but by a wonderful adaptation to the peculiar con- dition and mental habits of those to whom he spoke, and by a constructive ability alto- gether marvellous in a discourse composed on the spur of the moment, and by one who had enjoyed no previous training or expe- rience in rhetoric. Viewed simply in itself, we may well call it a masterpiece of the highest style of oratory ; skilfully adapted to the audience, and yet severely faithful to truth; fitted to persuade, by convincing the judgment without alarming prejudice or offending taste ; calculated to stimulate and guide all the higher powers of man, so as to bring the hearer of his own accord, and with HIS POWER AND ITS SOURCE. 43 the full assent of his will, to the conclusion the speaker would enforce. Viewed in relation to himself, the whole address remarkably exhibits the tact and power of the man, and strikingly illustrates his own declaration that he became "all things to all men ;" that to the Jews he was as a Jew, and to the Greeks he was as a Greek, not for the sake of securing honour, favour, or applause, but in the sublime hoj^e of thereby saving some.-^ And herein, w^e may remark in passing, lay one great secret of his power. His soul was set on the great end of his mission ; in the pursuit of this all con- siderations of a minor kind were lost ; and he adjusted himself to the case he had in hand with the ease and naturalness of one who seeks not his own things, but the good of those whom he addresses. In this out- going of the individual upon his object lies the secret of all great success in public ad- dress. If a man is more concerned to do justice to himself or to his subject than to ' 1 Cor. ix. 20-22. 44 ST. FA UL ON MARS HILL. win those to whom he speaks ; or if he be more anxious to keep himself in accordance with the dogmas of some school, or the articles of some church, than to get into a living sympathy with the souls and hearts of those whom he addresses, he will certainly fail of being a great orator, whatever excel- lence in other respects he may attain. In the pulpit such an one may prove himself a luminous expositor, an acute polemic, an exact reasoner, a profound theologian, but he will never attain the reputation of an eloquent or greatly successful preacher. It was the apostle's peculiar gift that he could combine all these excellences, and whether as the expositor, the theologian, the polemic, or the preacher, assert for himself a foremost place, and subject other men to his imperial sway. Let us never forget that he owed this not to mere natural endowment, but to the presence and constant aid of the Spirit of his Master. This he would himself have been forward to proclaim, and it is for us who admire his gifts, and profit by what he " MEN OF A THENSr 45 accomplished tlirougii the use of them, humbly to acknowledge the grace of God in him, and to glorify God on his behalf. The apostle commences his speech to the Athenians exactly as one of their own ora- tors might have done ; indeed, he addresses them in the very words wdiich are so fami- liar to the readers of the classics, as those by wdiich Demosthenes always addressed his countrymen — words the very sound of wdiich sent a thrill through the heart of every Athenian.^ " Men of Athens " — men in the hiofher sense of the term, not mere human beings, but men worthy of the name — " Men of Athens," exclaims the apostle, " I perceive that in every w^ay ye are very religious," or, as the word should perhaps be rendered, strictly according to its form, " more reli- gious," that is than the rest of your country- men/' The translation in the Authorised Version " too superstitious " is an unhappy one, for it makes the apostle open his address 46 ST. FA UL ON MARS' HILL. with an assertion which could not but offend his hearers, and it moreover hides from the reader the fine and delicate tact of the speaker by which he at once parries the charge that had been brought against him of being a setter forth of strange gods, and, in doing so, introduces the great truth which he came to preach. The original word answers pretty nearly to our "God-fearing," and may be used either in a good or a bad sense ; either to describe the case of those who fear and worship God aright, and so are religious, or that of those who fear God ignorantly and worship Him with gloomy or unholy emotions, and so are superstitious. Perhaps the apostle was not sorry to use a somewhat ambiguous word here, but certainly he did not mean at the very outset of his discourse to make a charge which his hearers would have felt to be an affront.-^ His object was simply to ^ Alford renders the word " carrying your religious reverence very far," and remarks that " Llame is neither ex- pressed nor even implied ; but their exceeding veneration for religion laid hold of as a fact^ on which Paul with A THEN IAN RELIGIO USNESS. 47 lay hold of a fact which furnished him with a basis on which to erect the appeal he in- tended to make to them. That fact was one which none of them would call in question, and of which it would please rather than offend them to be reminded. Notoriously they were the most religious of all peoples, accordino^ to their own notions of relioion. This is amply attested by unimpeachable witnesses. A poet of their own says : " If there be any land which knows how to reve- rence and honour the gods, this surpasses in that."^ An impartial historian declares, " This is the chief encomium of the city of the Athenians that, in every affair and at all seasons, they follow the gods, and engage in nothing without resorting to prophecy and oracle."^ Another says of them that they abounded beyond all others in zeal for exquisite skill engrafts his proof that lie is introducing no new gods, but enlightening them with regard to an object of worship on which they were confessedly in the dark." Greek Test., ii. p. 178. ' Soph., Oed. Col 1007. ^Dionys. Halicar., Be Thucycl. Hist Jvdicium, Sec. 40. 48 ST. PA UL ON MARS' HILL. religious rites. ^ And Joseplms, the Jewish, historian, calls them, in words that furnish an admirable explanation of those of St. Paul, " the most religious of the Hellenes."^ In the position, then, with wdiich he starts, tiie apostle takes them on their own ground, and thus skilfully prepares the way for showing them how, in that very particular in which they thought themselves above all others, they Avere weak through ignorance and error. In support of his assertion St. Paul tells them that, in passing through their city, and examining their objects of religious interest — that is, their temples, altars, statues, and rites (not as in the Authorised Version their " devotions") — he came upon an altar on which was the inscription 'Kyv^t^r'jo @su>, " To an unknown God." Considerable difficulty has been found by some interpreters in re- conciling this statement with the absence of all mention of such an altar in Athens 1 Pausan., i. 24. 3. 2 Cont. A2non.n. 11 : s\j(rij3i(!TUT0-jc rou^/ EX}.rjvc-)v. ALTAR TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. 49 by any ancient writer. But is not the as- sertion of St. Paul, in an address to tlie Athenians themselves, amply sufficient to certify the fact without confirmation from any other source ? and would it not be pre- posterous to set aside or call in question the testimony of such a witness simply because no other witnesses can be called to attest the same ? But as it happens other witnesses can be adduced; for though no ancient writer makes specific mention of any one altar with this inscription, more than one attest that there were in Athens "altars'' to unknown gods.^ It is certain, then, that such altars existed in Athens, each of them probably bearing the inscription which Paul quotes, and as he had chanced particularly to notice one of them he is naturally led to confine his reference to it. What did the Athenians mean by such an altar and such an inscription ? To this various answers have been given. Some 1 Pausan. i. 1-3 ; Pliilostrat. Yit. Aiypolon. vi. 3, etc See Wetstein on the passage. E 50 ST. PA UL ON MARS' HILL. have ascribed their erecting it to a vague superstitious dread, which led them to guard against the possibility of provoking the wrath of some deity, of whom they had not heard, by omitting to assign him a place where he might receive honour and homage. But this seems a most improbable sugges- tion ; for had such an idea presented itself to the minds of the Athenians, it could hardly have failed to be followed by the thought that no deity would acknowledge an altar so inscribed, inasmuch as this would be a virtual admission of inferiority and im- potence. More probable is the suggestion of those who would attribute the erection of such altars to the consciousness of want and insufficiency which Polytheism leaves upon its votaries ; false and baseless, it cannot satisfy the soul of man, so that after he has fancied to himself " gods many and lords many," till he can fancy no more, he still feels an aching void, and gazes forth into the awful infinite, and cries after the unknown. This is true ; but is it all that an altar with JVHV so INSCRIBED. 51 such an inscription may have been meant to indicate ? May we not suppose that in the bosoms of those who erected it there was a deep consciousness that beyond and above all that eye could see, or reason discover, or fancy imagine, there must be a mighty Power on whose will the whole depends, and by whose influence all is pervaded ? and unable to form any conception of such a Being, yet having some vao-ue sense of awe and wor- ship, may they not have intended at once to profess their belief and to confess their igno- rance by erecting an altar and inscribing to ^' an unknown God ? " I cannot but think that the apostle himself regarded it in this light, else how shall he account for his admission that the God whom he had to declare to them was the very God whom, without knowing Him, they were worshipping ? Was not this a distinct acknowledgment that, dim and feeble as was the light that had reached them, it yet was a true ray from the Father of Lights ? And is not the whole discourse which the apostle founds on this 52 ST. PAUL ON MARS' HILL. an endeavour to conduct to a clear and de- finite consciousness tliis wliicli he recognised, though in the form but of a vague longing, as a true feeling after God ? It seems to me that only on this supposition could the apostle with full truth attach what he had to announce to this inscription ; and only thus that the full force of his following argu- mentation can be felt. This God whom, without knowing Him, they were worshipping, Paul offers to "de- clare" unto them. Observe his words. . He does not say that he had come to describe God to them, or to give them a just definition of God, or to help them to form an adequate conception of God. No; all that he offers to do is to declare, announce, proclaim to them the true God. And this is all that any of the sacred writers pretend to do ; nay, this is all that can be done. For what more can a creature know of God than simply the proclaimed fact of His being and His perfec- tions ? " Canst thou by searching find out God ? Canst thou find out the Almighty to GOD UNSEARCHABLE. 53 perfection T^ " Dwelling in light wliicli no man can approach unto, no man hath seen Him at any time, or can see Him."'-^ Of His essence and of what He is in Himself we can know nothino^. All om^ thou2:hts of Him must be relative and analogical — mere reflections and shadows of his unutterable majesty; and only as He reveals Himself to us can we know even this much. For us, therefore, God must ever remain in a most important sense unknown ; and as a great philosopher of our own age and country has said, " The last and highest consecration of all true religion must be an altar 'kym