all objects, and only pausing in its bold and rapid flight when it attempts to find out God.

They were surrounded by a thousand objects that were calculated to produce the loftiest emotions in their souls. The infinite depths of the blue, cloudless heavens, that overshadowed them; their own glorious land, in its mingled magnificence and beauty, that stretched around them, washed by the ever-embracing sea; a thousand spots baptised with some thrilling associations; not a stream that had not been immortalised in poetry, nor a grove whose name was not redolent with some enchanting remembrances; here a plain where liberty had successfully contended with despotism; there a hill, a rock, a mountain, supposed to be the chosen haunt of the gods, who were esteemed the friends and watchful guardians of Athens, or of Greece -all these breathed inspiration into the soul of the bard, the warrior, and the sage.

Yet here where mind had so wonderfully displayed its powers, and achieved such splendid triumphs; within sight of the Academia, where Plato taught his divine lore; and of the Agora, where Socrates had poured out the streams of wisdom to the listening and idolising youth of his beloved city; and of the Lyceum, where Aristotle lectured to admiring disciples; and the Bema, whence Demosthenes had harangued the multitude in burning words that quicken men's souls even at this far-distant time-an obscure stranger, whose name had never been heard in that polite and learned city, alone and unbefriended, boldly charges the descendants of these illustrious men with ignorance, the most profound and affecting, upon a subject of vital importance to an immortal creature. They knew not God, and without a knowledge of Him, however profound their wisdom, all was of little value. Learning without this divine lore may be beautiful as the moonlight radiance, but like that it is destitute of warmth and vitality. It may illuminate the intellect with a dazzling splendour, but it cannot act and react upon the priceless soul within.

Temples to the deities they delighted most to honour were found on all sides, the glittering marble columns of some rising in lofty magnificence upon and around the Acropolis, crowned as hill never before nor since has been crowned, with buildings, the very perfection of art and the admiration of all ages; and some gleaming within olive groves, that waved white in the sunbeams, and echoing the low music of the rippling waters of the Ilissus. Altars sprung up at almost every step, dedicated to some of their thirty thousand deities; while for the living and true God neither temple rose, nor altar flamed, nor priest appeared, to demand men's homage and solicit their love. Of Him they lived in profound ignorance. He was not in all their thoughts. "The world by wisdom knew not God." Though heaven and earth spake of Him, they understood not the language; the Divine voice was lost in the Babel sounds that were ever floating around them.

No wonder the heart of Paul beat with the tenderest compassion for those he met. Intellectual dignity was stamped upon their brow, they trod the earth with the step of men who understood liberty and knew its priceless worth; men who had a history of which they might be proud, who had done all that mortal, unassisted mind can do to free the soul from fetters, and teach it to use its godlike faculties aright and on fitting themes; and yet they were the bond-slaves of a degrading superstition; they were terribly, torturingly ignorant of the highest truth: they knew not God. Around them and above them were signs and wonders. Order, beauty, adaptation, and harmony were visible in the material universe. They gazed, awed, and delighted, but no voice told them of Him who formed and regulated all things for His own glory. The spell of ignorance was upon them, and as yet no one had appeared to dissolve it, and bless the struggling spirit with freedom. Life was a mystery; they were a mystery to themselves, and the key to both had not yet been discovered. They knew not whence they were, nor whither they were going. Dim, deepening shadows hung around the past, and a darker, deeper gloom covered the future.

With what a thrill of joy, therefore, must he have embraced the occasion presented to him by the invitation of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, for expounding the great yet simple truths of revealed religion. Now would a voice be heard that should rouse men from the slumber of ages; now declarations be made that should revolutionise their modes of thought; rays of light be flung upon the objects of external nature, which should invest them with additional interest and beauty; while the world within their hearts should be revealed in all its wondrous features, and heights and depths be unveiled, of the existence of which they had never before conceived; all tending to lead men from the deification of self to the lowest humility and self-abasement, and to turn them from "Gods many, and Lords many," to bow with the profoundest adoration before the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God."

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"Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him." The former were advocates of chance, and the deniers of the government of an Intelligent Being, believing that the world rushes on its way, like a child abandoned of all, without one thought of the mind of God being directed towards it. They denied the immortality of the soul, and maintained "that happiness consisted in pleasure. The Stoics were almost the opposite of these, asserting the universality of the Divine Being, the creation of the world by the Word, and the doctrine of Providence. Their views, with respect to happiness or good, were altogether extravagant. They taught that all external things are indifferent, and cannot affect the happiness of man; that pain, which does not belong to the mind,

is not evil, and that a wise man will be happy in the midst of torture, because virtue itself is happiness."

Most gracefully and skilfully does he bespeak their attention, and secure for himself a patient hearing. "Ye men of Athens, I perceive that ye are exceedingly addicted to the worship of invisible powers, for as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the Unknown God."* The fact of the existence of an altar with these words inscribed is corroborated by Lucian. "Him therefore," continued Paul, "whom ye ignorantly worship"-worship with an evident ignorance of His name even, as well as of His nature and character, and know not, therefore, how to approach Him aright-" Him declare I unto you."

He is "God that made the world and all things therein."

This was a truth that most admirably met the absurd notions of a part of his audience-the Epicureans, who taught that the world had been formed by the "fortuitous concourse of atoms," and thus denied the existence of a Creator. One sentence of Paul's sufficed to demolish this baseless speculation, and Pagan philosophers discovered a new and glorious truth: that they, and the earth they inhabited, with all its myriad productions, sprung from one and the same forming hand, are the offspring of one and the same designing mind.

From this fact he proceeds to argue, "Seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, He dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed any thing, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things." How beautifully does this passage exhibit the universality of the divine government, the spirituality of the divine nature, God's perfect independence of all created beings, and their dependence absolute and constant upon Him; while, by inference, it teaches the kind of worship He requires! The deities they honoured were supposed to inhabit the temples that were raised for their worship; and exquisite statues, wrought by the skilful hands of genius from the marble mass, arrested the eyes of adoring worshippers as soon as the sacred threshold was crossed. It was imagined, also, that only at these shrines could the homage be paid, the vow offered, or the prayer breathed, with acceptance. "God dwelleth not in such," cried the Apostle. If they arrest, they do not detain him. Though Jerusalem was pre-eminently the city of God, and in the temple the revelations of His glory were made, yet He is confined to no one locality, for He is in every place, and His presence makes it hallowed ground. Heaven and earth form one vast temple for all worshippers. In all

This is evidently a more correct translation than that of our common version, in which the Apostle is made to say not that which would placate, but offend his hearers. Paul understood oratory and human nature too well to do this at the very commencement of his address.

places of His dominion where grateful and loving hearts are found the incense of praise may arise; they are the consecrated altars; and the humble, lowly, and contrite spirit is the noblest and most holy shrine.—“ Travels in Holy Land," by Rev. T. W. Aveling.

PULL THE REINS.

A HORSE was tied under a shed. A watch-dog was in the sleigh. Soon the horse got loose. The dog began searching under the robe. The reins fell out just as the horse was starting off. Instantly the faithful dog jumped out, seized the reins, and pulled them till he stopped the horse. An observer came and took the reins from the dog, who yielded them up wagging his tail, when at other times he would allow no stranger to touch anything in the sleigh. Good for that noble dog. He knew enough to seize and pull the reins in the nick of time. If boys and girls, and those of older growth, would just do as the watch-dog did, how many a mishap would be nipped in the bud! To know when to seize and pull the reins, and promptly to do it in life, is a grand thing. It is well always to have the reins well in hand. At that sharp turn pull the reins. Stop before you enter that forbidden road. When angry, pull the reins on the tongue. Tempted to wrong courses by evil companions, pull the reins on appetite, on desire, on wanton pleasure. Pull the reins on every unholy thought, on every wrong impulse, on every dishonest motive. When temptation or danger is near, let all have the wisdom of the faithful watch-dog, and, with God's help, all will be well.

TOMBS IN THE ROCKS:

IN the interesting narrative of a Mission to the Jews we find the following description of such tombs :

"We passed across the face of the Mount of Olives, towards the northern summit of the hill, and then descending into the valley of Kedron, considerably to the north of the city, crossed over to the Tombs of the Kings. We first clambered down into a large area which has been cut out of the solid rock, and on the west side of which is a wide entrance with slopes down under the rock. The band of carved work over the entrance is very beautiful, representing a vine branch with a bunch of grapes. With lighted tapers we crept through the low aperture which leads from the portico into an inner apartment where are entrances to the chambers of the mighty dead. We examined with interest the remains of the stone doors described by many who have visited the place. One is pretty entire, but lying on the ground. The panels are carved in the rock, and also the tenons or hinges, which are suited to sockets cut in the rocky wall. It was to such abodes of the dead that Job referred

when he said, 'Now should I have lain still and been quiet; I should have slept; then had I been at rest with kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves,' Job iii., 13, 14. Isaiah also refers to them, where he says, 'All the kings of the nations, even all of them lie in glory, everyone in his own house.' And again, 'Go get thee unto this treasurer, even unto Thebna, which is over the house, and say, What hast thou here? and

whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewn out a sépulchre here, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth a habitation for himself in the rock?' Isa. xiv., 18; xxii., 15, 16. The sloping ground at the entrance reminded us of what is said of John at the sepulchre of Christ, 'He stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying,' John xx., 5.

"A great deal of obscurity hangs over the history of these