THE PARTHENON, ONE OF THE TEMPLES ON THE ACROPOLIS AT ATHENS
From a photograph belonging to the Forbes Library, Northampton, Mass., and used by special permission
"Crowning the Acropolis was the Parthenon, the glorious temple which rose in the proudest period of Athenian history to the honor of Minerva, and which ages of war and decay have only partially defaced. The sculptures on one side of the pediments represented the birth of the goddess; those on the other depicted her contest with Neptune. Under the outer cornices were groups exhibiting the victories achieved by her champions. Round the inner frieze was the long series of the Panathenaic procession." The Acropolis, with its splendid temples, was on Paul's right and in full view as he preached on the Areopagus.
And they took hold of him, and brought him unto the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by thee? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean." (Now all the Athenians and the strangers sojourning there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.) And Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus, and said,--
"Ye men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription,
TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.
What therefore ye worship in ignorance, this set I forth unto you. The God that made the world and all things therein, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is he served by men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and he made of one people every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he is not far from each one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain even of your own poets have said,--