Ryle. THE CITY: OR,THE SIGHT WHICH STIRRED ST. RYLE(1. 81. 6- 1. DRUMMOND’S TRACT DEPOT, STIRLING. LONDON: S. 1. 6, 1. Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and. Perhaps you live in a town, or city, and see more of bricks. Perhaps you have some relative or friend living. In either case, the. Scripture which head this page demand your best attention. Give me. that attention for a few short minutes while I try to show you the lessons. There are pictures of him as a young man with his sight mounted on small arms.
You see face to face in the verses before you no common city. The city is the famous city Athens- Athens, renowned to this. Athens, the eye of ancient Greece, as ancient Greece was the eye of. The man is the great Apostle of the Gentiles, St. Paul, who by pen and tongue has left a deeper mark on mankind than. The fodder had a very good, mellow aroma. It was a pleasure to climb into. Divine Master. Athens and St. Paul- the great servant of Christ, and the. The. result is told us: the interview is carefully described. The subject, I venture. London, Liverpool, Manchester, and other. English towns in the present day. Without further preface I ask you to observe three things in. I. Paul SAW at Athens. II. Paul FELT at Athens. III. First, then, What did St. Paul SEE at Athens? The answer of the text is clear and unmistakable. He saw a. “city wholly given to idolatry.” Idols met his eyes in every street. The temples. of idol gods and goddesses occupied every prominent position. The magnificent. statue of Minerva, twenty- six cubits high, according to Pliny, towered above the. Acropolis, and caught the eye from every point. A vast system of idol- worship. The. ancient writer, Pausanias, expressly says, that “the Athenians surpassed all. In short. the city, as the marginal reading says, was “full of idols.”And yet this city, I would have you remember, was probably. St. But what was it in a religious point of view? The city of wise men. Socrates and Plato- the city of Solon, and Pericles, and Demosthenes,- the. If the eye of Greece was so spiritually dim, what must have been the. Babylon, Ephesus, Tyre, Alexandria, Corinth, and. Rome? If men were so far gone from the light in a green tree, what must. Reader, what shall we say to these things? What are the. conclusions to which they irresistibly draw us? Ought you not to learn, for one thing, the absolute need. Divine revelation, and of teaching from heaven? Leave man without a. Bible, and he will have a religion of some kind, for human nature, corrupt as it. God. But it will be a religion without light, or peace, or hope. Old Athens is a standing. It is vain to suppose that nature. God. Without a. Bible, the Athenian bowed down to stocks and stones, and worshipped the work of. Place a heathen philosopher,- a Stoic or an Epicurean,- by the side. Ought you not to learn, for another thing, that the. The students of Greek philosophy were not. They were well- versed in logic, ethics, rhetoric. But all this mental discipline did not prevent their city. And are we to be told in the nineteenth. Scriptures, are sufficient to. We have not so learned Christ. It may. please some men to idolize intellectual power, and to speak highly of the debt. Greek mind. One thing, at any rate, is abundantly. Without the knowledge which the Holy Ghost revealed to the Hebrew nation. Greece would have left the world buried in dark idolatry. A follower of. Socrates or Plato might have talked well and eloquently on many subjects, but he. What must I do to be saved?”. Acts xvi. 3. 0.) He could never have said in his last hour, “O death, where is. O grave, where is thy victory?”Ought you not to learn, for another thing, that the. The perfection of Athenian architecture and sculpture is a. Paul at Athens beheld many a “thing. And yet the men. who conceived and executed the splendid buildings of Athens were utterly. God. The world now- a- days is well- nigh drunk with. Men talk and. write of machinery and manufactures, as if nothing were impossible. But let it. never be forgotten that the highest art or mechanical skill is consistent with a. Athens, the city of Phidias, was a “city. An Athenian sculptor might have designed a matchless. These things ought not to be forgotten. They ought to be. They suit the times in which we live. We have fallen on a. We meet on every side with doubts and. Such are the. speculations which disquiet many unstable minds. One plain answer is an appeal to facts. The remains of. heathen Egypt, Greece, and Rome shall speak for us. They are preserved by God’s. The minds which designed the temples of Luxor and Carnac, or. Parthenon, or Coliseum were not the minds of fools. The builders who. The men who conceived the sculptured friezes, which we know. Elgin Marbles, were trained and intellectual to the highest degree. And. yet in religion these men were darkness itself. The sight which St. I ask you to notice, in the second place, what St. He saw a “city wholly given to idolatry.” How. What did he feel? It is instructive to observe how the same sight affects. Place two men on the same spot; let them stand side by side. The emotions called forth in. A statesman or. orator would have called up the memory of Pericles or Demosthenes. A literary. man would have thought of Thucydides and Sophocles and Plato. A merchant would. Pir. But an apostle of Christ had. One thing, above all others, swallowed up his attention. That one thing was the spiritual condition of the. Athenian people, the state of their souls. The great Apostle of the Gentiles was. Like his Divine Master, he was always thinking of. Father’s business.” (Luke ii. He stood at Athens, and thought of. Athenian souls. Like Moses, Phineas, and Elijah, “his spirit. Of all sights on earth, I know none so impressive, none so. Rightly or wrongly. It is the city “where Satan’s seat is.” (Rev. It is the city where evil of every kind is most rapidly conceived, sown. It is the city where the young man leaving. It is the city where sensuality. It is the city where ungodliness and irreligion. Sabbath breaker, or. It is the city which is the chosen home of every form of superstition. It is the city which is. Stoicism, Epicureanism. Agnosticism, Secularism, Scepticism, Positivism, Infidelity, and Atheism.- It is. It is the city where the daily newspapers. It is the city which is the centre of all national business: the banks. Stock- exchange, the Parliament or Assembly, are all bound up. It is the city which, by magnetic influence, draws together the. It is the city which practically controls the destiny of a nation. It is the towns which govern a land.- I pity the man who could stand on the. St. Paul’s Cathedral, and look down on London without some emotion, and. And shall I wonder for a moment that the sight of Athens. Apostle of the Gentiles? I. cannot wonder at all. It was just the sight which was likely to move the heart. Tarsus, the man who wrote the Epistle to the Romans, and. Jesus Christ face to face. He was stirred with holy compassion. It moved his. heart to see so many myriads perishing for lack of knowledge, without God. Christ, having no hope, travelling in the broad road which leadeth to. He was stirred with holy sorrow. It moved his heart to. Here were hands capable of excellent works, and. And yet the God who gave life and breath and. He was stirred with holy indignation against sin and. He saw the god of this world blinding the eyes of multitudes of his. He saw the natural corruption. He was stirred with holy zeal for his Master’s glory. He saw his Divine Master unknown and. His own creatures, and idols receiving the homage due to the. King of kings. Reader, these feelings which stirred the Apostle are a. Spirit. Do you know anything of. Where there is true grace there will always be tender concern for the. Where there is true sonship to God there will always be zeal. Father’s glory. It is written of the ungodly, that they not only commit. Romans i. 8.) Hear what is written of. David: “Rivers of water run down mine eyes, because they keep not Thy law.”. Psalm cxix. 1. 36.) Hear what is written of the godly in Ezekiel’s time: “They. Ezek. 4.) Hear what is written of our Lord and Saviour Himself: “He beheld. Luke xix. 4. 1.) Surely it may be laid down as one of. Scriptural religion, that he who can behold sin without. Spirit. This is one of those things. God are manifest, and are distinguished from the. I call your special attention to this point. The times demand. The feelings with which we regard sin. I ask you, first, to look outside our own country, and. At least six hundred millions of. They live and die without God, without Christ, and without hope. In. sickness and sorrow they have no comfort. In old age and death they have no life. Of the true way of peace through a Redeemer, of God’s love in. Christ, of free grace, of complete absolution from guilt, of a resurrection to. For long weary centuries they have been. Church of Christ, while Christians have. Is not this a sight which ought to. I ask you, next, to turn back to our own land, and consider. There are districts in our great metropolis, in. Liverpool, in Manchester, in Birmingham, in the Black Country, where. Christianity seems practically unknown. Examine the religious condition of East. London, or of Southwark, or Lambeth. Walk through the north end of Liverpool on. Saturday evening, or Sunday, or on a Bank Holiday, and see how Sabbath- breaking. And then remember that this state of things exists in a professedly. Christian country, in a land where there is an Established Church, and within a. Oxford and Cambridge! Once more I say, ought not these things to. Reader, it is a sorrowful fact that there is around us in the. They care nothing for. Christian Missions either at home or abroad. They see no necessity for them. They. treat all alike with undisguised contempt. They despise Exeter Hall. They never. give subscriptions. They never attend meetings. They never read a Missionary. Report. They seem to think that every man shall be saved by his own law or sect. They are fond of decrying and. Missionary operations. They are. constantly asserting that modern Missions at home or abroad do nothing, and that. Judging by their.
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