from time immemorial, had been noted for their intellectual elevation; and a brilliant array of poets, legislators, historians, philosophers, and orators, had crowned their community with immortal fame.  Every spot connected with their city was classic ground.  Here it was that Socrates had discoursed so sagely; and that Plato had illustrated, with so much felicity and genius, the precepts of his great master; and that Demosthenes, by addresses of unrivalled eloquence, had roused and agitated the assemblies of his countrymen.  As the stranger passed through Athens, artistic productions of superior excellence everywhere met his eye.  Its statues, its public monuments, and its temples, were models alike of tasteful design and of beautiful workmanship.  But there may be much intellectual culture where there is no spiritual enlightenment, and Athens, though so far advanced in civilisation and refinement, was one of the high places of pagan superstition.  Amidst the splendour of its architectural decorations, as well as surrounded with proofs of its scientific and literary eminence, the apostle mourned over its religious destitution, and “his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.” [102:1]

On this new scene Paul exhibited his usual activity and earnestness.  “He disputed in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.” [102:2] The Christian preacher, doubtless, soon became an object of no little curiosity.  He was of diminutive stature; [102:3] he seems to have laboured under the disadvantages of imperfect vision; [102:4] and his Palestinian Greek must have sounded harshly in the ears of those who were accustomed to speak their mother tongue in its Attic purity.  But, though his “bodily presence was weak,” [102:5] he speedily convinced those who came in contact with him, that the frail earthly tabernacle was the habitation of a master mind; and though mere connoisseurs in idioms and pronunciation might designate “his speech contemptible,” [102:6] he riveted the attention of his hearers by the force and impressiveness of his oratory.  The presence of this extraordinary stranger could not remain long unknown to the Athenian literati; but, when they entered into conversation with him, some of them were disposed to ridicule him as an idle talker, whilst others seemed inclined to denounce him as a dangerous innovator.  “Certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics 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.” [102:7] Upwards of four hundred years before, Socrates had been condemned to death by the Athenians as “a setter forth of strange gods,” [103:1] and it may be that some of these philosophers hoped to intimidate the apostle by hinting that he was now open to the same indictment.  But it is very improbable that they seriously contemplated