Acts 17:15-34 And they that conducted Paul brought him to Athens: and receiving a commandment to Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed… The practical lessons which this scene teaches us are — I. THAT THE LOFTIEST EFFORTS OF UNAIDED MEN, CAN PRODUCE NO HIGHER RELIGION THAN A REFINED POLYTHEISM. This is confirmed by the records of all heathenism. Had man been left to himself, he never would have known the true God; and hence the privilege of living in a land where the Triune God is known and worshipped. II. THAT ART AND LITERATURE HAVE IN THEMSELVES NO CONSERVING MORAL FORCE. The citizens of Athens had a poetry, which maintains its precedence to this day; a literature, unsurpassed in eloquence and vigour; an art, developing itself in paintings, and statues, and architecture, which are even now the proudest monuments of human skill: yet just as in the age of Louis XIV in France, and in the Augustan age at Rome, art and literature were not only powerless to arrest immorality, they absolutely ministered to it. The mind is rightly cultivated only when educated in the principle of personal accountability to God. Hence the danger of a merely secular education. Hence the need of a Christian leaven in our secular schools. III. THAT PHILOSOPHY, ORIGINATING IN HUMAN MINDS, CAN CONSTRUCT NO TRUE SYSTEM OF BELIEF OR DUTY. Philosophy requires three constant factors to its full and true development, viz., a first Cause; a full knowledge of this first Cause; and a full knowledge of man himself. But no human mind can grasp these factors. We must look then above man to get this true philosophy; and we find it in the revelation of God. But "no man knoweth the Father, but the Son, and Hero whom the Son will reveal Him"; and Jesus only "needeth not that any should testify of man; for He knows what is in man." So then we reach the fact that in Jesus Christ are "hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." A philosophy which leaves out Christ is like a planetary system without a central sun, a mere series of vortices without a uniting and controlling centre. Philosophy has found out many truths, but not the great foundation truths of God's existence, and attributes, and grace; and man's fall, and helplessness, and need of a Saviour. How, then, should we thank God, that He has revealed all this to us. IV. THAT REPENTANCE IS A PERSONAL DUTY, EASED ON PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY TO GOD FOR PERSONAL SINS. Heathenism knew nothing of sin, as the alienation of the heart from God. Its very gods were but splendid embodiments of sin; and their influence was only to reproduce in daily life the crimes which filled Olympus. It is the religion of Christ only which measures moral character with the unerring lines and in the unerring balances of the Divine law. It is only as we act upon the truth that man is personally responsible to God, and will be judged, that we shall have true views of God, and understand our need of a Saviour. (Bp. Stevens.) Parallel Verses KJV: And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens: and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed. |
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