good earnest; for the things St. Paul had to tell them would certainly be altogether new to them.

M. New, most assuredly, to the poor idolatrous Athenians were those simple, but sublime truths which St. Paul brought with him; new the holy and animating doctrines which the Great Apostle taught. What a remarkable, what an interesting scene! A Jew, a barbarian as the Greeks and Romans called all but themselves, one of a nation whom they particularly despised, unlearned and uncivilized as they imagined, standing up in the midst of Athens, in their most public place of concourse, to encounter their philosophers, both of the Epicurean and of the Stoic school, on some of the most momentous questions that could possibly engage the human mind!

E. And pray, Mamma, who were the Epicureans and the Stoics?

M. Two celebrated sects of the Grecian Philosophers, as widely opposed to each other in their teaching as to the doctrines of St. Paul. The former or lighter sect might be called the Sadducees of Heathenism, whilst the more grave and respected Stoics might be regarded as the Pharisees of the Pagan world. But both agreed in looking upon St. Paul and his teaching with the most thorough contempt. Observe how they speak of him; "What will this babbler say?" An expression which, I understand, is in the original particularly contemptuous: a term indeed which was generally applied to some of the poorest and idlest of the lower classes; persons who, having no regular calling, or means of honourable support, used to saunter about the market place, and make a livelihood of picking up what might happen to

fall from the baskets of the market people. It also meant, as in our version, a babbler, one perhaps who entertained the market people with idle talk, either amusing them with tales or ballads, or by pretending to instruct them in matters of wisdom or science, of which he knew almost less than they. Such was the taunting and insulting epithet applied by these selfconceited Greeks to the minister and messenger of God, who had come to overthrow their idols, and to scatter to the winds their proud philosophy.

E. I should have expected, Mamma, that, in a place like Athens, such subjects, as those which St. Paul would put before them, would have been very interesting to great numbers of the people.

M. There were certainly some of a graver sort, who acted more in that spirit of inquiry which generally influenced the Athenians, and regarded the Apostle in a more serious light. But even these looked upon him merely "as a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection ;" and these apparently to gratify their curiosity, carried him away to Areopagus or Mars-hill. This was a place of public resort, the town-hall or guild-hall as it were of the city; here the magistrates met upon business, and the philosophers for discourse; and here was held that celebrated court of justice, called, from the spot where it stood," Areopagus." You have seen Diogenes, Protagoras, and even Socrates before it, Edward; and remember how they were condemned for undervaluing the gods.

E. I remember them all, Mamma; but especially Socrates, in whose case, I think, they were very unjust.

But was St. Paul brought to Mars-hill to be tried before the court?

M. That is rather a doubtful point, on which commentators differ much. Some think, that as in this court they not only took notice of murders, immoralities, impieties, and vices of all kinds, but punished even idleness, and were particularly severe upon all cases of blasphemy against the gods, and the performance of sacred mysteries, that this was exactly the tribunal before which to bring such a case as St. Paul's, who had been introducing, as they said, new objects of worship. These imagine that he was really brought before the Court of Areopagus, partly perhaps from motives of curiosity, but chiefly that he might be punished, if necessary, as an offender against the religion of the state. Other writers of great authority think that the Athenians did not wish to bring the Apostle before a judicial tribunal, but merely to gratify their desire of hearing something new, by bringing him to the spot which was a place of such great resort for the "gravest citizens and magistrates, as well as for the orators and philosophers of Athens1." But be this as it may, Edward, we have here the Apostle in a more striking position than before, not in the market place, where he might be exposed to thoughtless scorn, or unmeaning ridicule, but brought within the hearing of the most learned and thinking part of the community, perhaps with many members of the Areopagus itself for his attentive auditors. But St. Paul's address to the Athenians on this me

1 See Bp. of Chester's (now of London) Discourses on the Acts.

morable occasion is so important, that we cannot enter upon it this evening, but must leave it for a future conversation.

See Acts xvii. 1-21.

TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY EVENING.

SPEECH OF ST. PAUL ON MARS-HILL.

E. Mamma, I want to show you a print I have found in "the Family Bible" of " St. Paul preaching at Athens." Do you know from what picture it is taken ?

M. Like many of the others in this book, it is a copy of one of the celebrated pictures called the Cartoons. They were painted by Raphael, one of the most eminent of the ancient masters. But are you ready to accompany me once more to the scene it describes, and to hear the Gospel of Christ proclaimed to the Athenian philosophers?

E. Indeed I am, Mamma; but why does Raphael draw the Apostle as if he were standing outside the walls of the court?

M. In the first place, as we have seen, he might not have been before the tribunal of the Areopagus at all; but, even if he were, the trials carried on there were always conducted in the open air; because murderers were sometimes brought before it, and the murderer and his accuser were not permitted to be under the same roof. Here then on the Areopagus,

or Mars-hill, you are to suppose the Apostle standing alone against the chief champions of heathenism, to give an account of the religion which he professed, or rather to preach to the deluded philosophers of Greece the glorious truths of the Gospel of Christ. "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;" or, as some of the commentators render the passage, "I perceive that in all things ye are more than usually disposed to religious worship."

E. I do not quite understand that, Mamma. It would seem from this manner of speaking to them, as if St. Paul thought the Athenians religious people.

M. Wishing to obtain an hearing, it was not likely that St. Paul would begin at once with a condemnation of his audience, nor was it consistent with his practice ever to use insulting language. No: in this opening of his address, he shows at once both kindness and wisdom; the skill of the orator blended with the charity of the Christian, but without sacrificing in the least the fidelity of the Apostle. For observe his course of proceeding. No sooner had he seized upon the best point he could discover in Athens, namely, an appearance of religious feeling greater than he had elsewhere observed, than he begins at once to correct the gross ignorance with which this feeling was accompanied. And observe further, that he did not begin with noticing the worst parts of their errors :— that he did not exclaim at once, as he might have done, against the folly of worshipping the goddess Minerva, the divinity after whom their city was called, and with whom accordingly a rash enthusiast would