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.  For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the unknown god.  Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.  God that made the world and all things therein (seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth) dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshiped with men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from everyone of us:  for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.  Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.  And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent:  because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.  And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked:  and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.  So Paul departed from among them.  Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed; among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

—­Bible.

Notes.—­At the time this oration was delivered (50 A. D.), Athens still held the place she had occupied for centuries, as the center of the enlightened and refined world.

Mars Hill, or the Areopagus, was an eminence in the city made famous as the place where the court, also called Areopagus, held its sittings,

Dionysius, surnamed Areopageita, from being a member of this court, was an eminent Greek scholar, who, after his conversion to Christianity by St. Paul, was installed, by the latter, as the first bishop of Athens, He afterwards suffered martyrdom.

XXXVII.  GOD IS EVERYWHERE. (161)

   Oh! show me where is He,
   The high and holy One,
   To whom thou bend’st the knee,
   And prayest, “Thy will be done!”
   I hear thy song of praise,
   And lo! no form is near: 
   Thine eyes I see thee raise,
   But where doth God appear? 
Oh! teach me who is God, and where his glories shine,
That I may kneel and pray, and call thy Father mine.

   “Gaze on that arch above: 
   The glittering vault admire. 
   Who taught those orbs to move? 
   Who lit their ceaseless fire? 
   Who guides the moon to run
   In silence through the skies? 
   Who bids that dawning sun
   In strength and beauty rise? 
There view immensity! behold! my God is there: 
The sun, the moon, the stars, his majesty declare.