roof. It is that of Juno, burnt by Mardonius at the time of the Persian invasion, and standing in this state as a monument of the event. He enters the city gates: on either hand are painted porticos, with bronze statues of the most illustrious characters the city had produced. On the left is the Pnyx, a small but celebrated hill, where, standing on a block of bare stone, Demosthenes had in times of old sent forth the

thunders of his eloquence to the Athenians assembled in front. Advancing onward, the traveller beholds the statues of Conon, and his scarcely less celebrated son Timotheus; and then he reaches another painted portico on whose walls is portrayed the battle of Mantinæa, and in the foreground of it is seen the commanding figure of Epaminondas. His eye then rests on a statue whose kindling features and vehement action bespeak the whirlwind of thought within-this is Demosthenes. Here also are the statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton, of Miltiades and Themistocles. There is Philip of Macedon, and near him his mightier son, Alexander the Great. Beyond is the majestic figure of Solon, the Athenian legislator, erected in front of a portico, where in glowing colours is depicted on one

side the capture of Troy, and on the other the glorious struggle of the band of patriots against the countless hosts of Persia, on the field of Marathon. Paul would not enter the idol temples by which he was surrounded; but if he could have gone into that of Demus and the Graces hard by, he might have seen a statue in bronze, on which even an Israelite might have looked with some interest-being that of Hyrcanus, the Jewish pontiff-prince, voted by the Athenian people in acknowledgment of the courteous kindness he had often shown to their citizens.1 On the right the stranger passes the Areopagus or Mars' Hill, ascended by sixteen steps from the forum or market-place on the south-east; and on the platform at the top is the Court of Areopagus, the Senate of Athens-that august assembly which determined the weightiest matters of policy, and settled the religion of the state. It was at this bar Socrates was arraigned, and it was here Paul himself was soon to plead. In front of him rises the Acropolis, crowned with the marvel of every age, from Pericles to the present-the Parthenon, formed of white Pentelican marble, and adorned with the finest sculptures from the hand of Phidias. By its side, upon the height, stands the champion of the city, Pallas Promachos, wrought in bronze, and towering so high above the other buildings that the plume of her helmet and the point of her spear were visible on the sea between Sunium and Athens.

But to describe, or even to indicate, all the temples and 1 See a copy of the entire decree in JOSEPHUS, Antiq. xii. 8, 5.

statues of Athens, were an endless task. There was every conceivable variety of structure and sculpture. There were statues colossal, full-sized, and diminutive; some in bronze, some in marble, others in stone, others in wood, others in pottery; some plain, some painted, others overlaid with ivory, or silver, or gold; some isolated, others projecting in relief from the wall. Well, therefore, might the sacred historian say that Paul's spirit was stirred within him when he scanned a city so 'crowded with idols."1 So signally was this the fact, that it struck the attention of even heathen observers. One' describes it as full of temples; another3 tells us that there were more statues in this city than in all the rest of Greece; while the satirist declares that it was easier to find a god than a man in Athens.

It may be doubtful whether Paul had any intention of preaching the gospel in Athens when he arrived there. It is possible that he merely sought temporary shelter, beyond the bounds of the Macedonian jurisdiction, until he should be joined by Silas and Timothy, and be able to concert with them the course of operations for the prosecution of the evangelization of Macedonia, which had been interrupted at Thessalonica and Berea. We gather this from the first of the epistles which he wrote not long after to the Thessalonians (ii. 17), in which he states that, when he left their city in such haste, he had anticipated but a very brief absence-' for an hour's time.' He had expected that the storm would soon blow over, and that, after preaching the gospel for a time at Berea, he might return to Thessalonica. But new troubles had overtaken him at Berea, and he had fled for his life to a distant city. Yet at Athens he still cherished the hope that, by the time Silas and Timothy joined him, matters would have changed sufficiently for the better to permit their revisiting Thessalonica together.

But while thus awaiting their arrival, one of Paul's earnest and ardent temperament could ill brook to remain an idle specThis is his expression; or, as in the margin of the authorized version, 'full of idols' better than 'wholly given to idolatry.' 3 Pausanias.

2 Cicero.

4 Petronius.

Around

tator, with the grossest superstitions reigning around: 'His heart was hot within him, and while he was musing the fire burned; then spake he with his tongue.' He therefore entered with zeal upon his usual course of labour, varied in form by the peculiar conditions of the place. On the Sabbath-days he declared the gospel in the synagogues to the Jews and proselytes; and during the week he daily frequented the market-place at the foot of the Acropolis and the Areopagus, opening the truths of religion to the groups of loungers and the casual passers by. What a busy scene was here! were porticos fitted up as bazaars, for the sale of a thousand articles of commerce; here and there were circular sheds, one for the sale of slaves, another for the sale of provisions. In one place was the flesh-market, in another the horse-market: here the mart for books, there the stalls of fruits and flowers. Here the mind's eye beholds the apostle, in humble garb, encircled by dealers and chapmen, busybodies and idlers, listening with curiosity to the strange doctrine flowing from a tongue eloquent indeed, but which, to the quick Athenian ear, perhaps betrayed a provincial accent. The stranger was clearly no common man. He appeared to possess high gifts of nature and attainments of human learning; for he could return a quick and pertinent answer to the most astute cavillers; and those who listened caught felicitous allusions to, and quotations from, their own poets. He was sure to lack no audience here; for all the Athenians and the strangers that were there,' says Luke, 'spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.' This character of them is abundantly sustained by ancient writers. Demosthenes observes, in almost the same words, 'We Athenians stay at home doing nothing, always delaying, and making decrees, and asking in the market if there be anything new.' The love of gossiping and news among this mercurial people is shown by the fact, that there were at Athens regular gossiping houses, devoted to the accommodation of persons who met together to hear and tell news. These may have answered in some measure to our coffeerooms, and it is stated that there were three hundred and sixty

of them in Athens.

Others resorted for exchange of news to

the shops of the surgeons and the barbers.

In such a place, and among such a people, the zeal of the apostle could not fail, sooner or later, to bring him into collision with the prevailing system of idolatry. His strange doctrine, set forth with so much ability, learning, and eloquence, attracted public observation, and even the Epicureans and the Stoics, loitering about in learned leisure, did not deem it beneath their dignity to contend with such a disputant.

Fiftieth Week-Sixth Day.

PAUL ON MARS' HILL.-ACTS XVII. 22-34.

THE Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who encountered Paul in the market-place, seem to have been somewhat disappointed that they could not draw him into the sophistical subtleties of disputation; and that, however tempted into such perilous bye-paths, and tested in the wisdom of words, he adhered mainly to the enforcement and illustration of his great doctrine, that Jesus of Nazareth had come into the world to save sinners; and that his quality and mission had been shown by his resurrection from the dead, whereby He had become the first-fruits of them that slept.

The Epicureans treated this doctrine with scorn, saying to one another, 'What would the babbler say?' The Stoics, as if they had caught a glimpse of his meaning, observed to him, 'He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods!' This, the sacred historian informs us, was 'because he preached unto them Jesus and the Resurrection;' meaning, it would seem, that these two words, so frequent from his lips, were taken by them for names of the gods, male and female, Jesus and Anastasis (the resurrection), whose worship he proposed to their acceptance. Not that they were so stupid as to take Anastasis for the proper name of a person, but because the idea was familiar to their minds of erecting altars