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Sketches from the Life of Paul
in loneliness and adversity, and the victory he gained for Christianity,
even in the very heart of paganism.
Inspiration has given us this glance at the life of the Athenians,
with all their knowledge, refinement, and art, yet sunken in vice, that
it might be seen how God, through his servant, rebuked idolatry, and
the sins of a proud, self-sufficient people. The words of Paul become
a memorial of the occasion, and give a treasure of knowledge to the
church. He was in a position where he might easily have spoken
that which would irritate his proud listeners, and bring himself into
difficulty. Had his oration been a direct attack upon their gods, and
the great men of the city who were before him, he would have been
in danger of meeting the fate of Socrates. But he carefully drew
their minds away from heathen deities, by revealing to them the true
God, whom they were endeavoring to worship, but who was to them
unknown, as they themselves confessed by a public inscription.
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