about the future of Christianity. But here in the speech to the elders of Ephesus at Miletus Paul sees the cloud arising in Asia where Timothy was to labor and to grapple with the wolves whom Paul saw in the distance.

Paul felt confident that this group of ministers would see his face no more (20:25). This foreboding added greatly to the sorrow of the parting as they knelt down and prayed and wept sore and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him (20:36-38). It was a tender time as the preachers from Ephesus stood on the shore and saw the ship put out to sea with their great master on board. His words about himself and about them had been solemn enough, but his own courage put strength into their hearts as they turned their way back to Ephesus to tell the church the great message that they had received from Paul. It seems probable that Paul on his return from the first Roman imprisonment did come to Ephesus again (1 Tim. 1:3). Certainly he was at Miletus when he left Trophimus sick (2 Tim. 4:20). Even so it is doubtful if all the elders were alive, though Paul only gave his own apprehension about not seeing them again. It was a great experience, those three years at Ephesus, and the story of them will richly repay the study of any modern preacher.

Paul's last words in his address may serve as Paul's benediction on all preachers: "And now I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you the inheritance among all them which are sanctified" (20:32). Cer

tainly preachers most of all should be built up by the word of God's grace which they proclaim. If it is food for the saints, it should first feed the shepherd of the flock.

CHAPTER XII

PAUL IN THE CENTER OF GREEK CULTURE

The presence of Paul in Athens was due to accident according to the narrative in Acts 17:15. The Jewish rabbis who ran Paul and Silas out of Thessalonica followed them to Bercea. This time they sent forth Paul as far as the sea while Silas and Timothy remained still in Beroa. Evidently Paul was the chief object of Jewish jealousy and hatred. But Paul's companions went with him as far as Athens and took back "a commandment unto Silas and Timothy that they should come to him with all speed" (Acts 17:15). It seems that Timothy did come to Paul in Athens from Beroa, but was almost immediately sent by Paul to Thessalonica because of distressing news of misapprehension there. "Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left behind at Athens alone; and sent Timothy, our brother and God's minister in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith" (1 Thess. 3:1-2). Luke does not narrate this brief visit of Timothy to Athens, but states that, after Paul has gone on to Corinth, Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia (Acts 18:5). Evidently Timothy played a very small part in the work in Athens. It would seem from Acts 18:16 that Timothy did not

come till after the first events at Athens, "while Paul waited for them at Athens." He may not have come till shortly before Paul left Athens (Acts 18:1), but the point is immaterial. To all intents and purposes Paul was alone in Athens and apparently was planning to go on elsewhere, but could not resist the appeal of this center of intellectual life for the message of the Cross of Christ.

Athens was still the intellectual capital of the world. There were universities at Pergamus, Tarsus, and Alexandria, but Athens had the prestige of age and the éclat of great names in philosophy and letters. The names of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Thucydides, Lysias, Demosthenes, to go no further, still shed a halo around the temples, groves, and walks of Athens. There are those who think that Paul was not responsive to the intellectual and artistic atmosphere of Athens, that he was wholly out of touch with the Greek love of beauty and art for art's sake, that Greek literature and philosophy, like Greek mythology, repelled Paul, that he was distinctly out of his element in Athens and did not know how to present the gospel of Christ to the intellectuals of Athens, that Paul was un-Hellenic and not a university man. Others affirm that Paul was a university man, a product of the University of Tarsus as well as of the rabbinical school of Gamaliel in Jerusalem, that he had a wide acquaintance with literature and philosophy as is shown by the fine literary finish of the Greek style in the address in Athens (allowing for Luke's influence in the report) and by the literary allusions in the

address to Aratus, Cleanthes, and Epimenides. They even affirm that Paul made something of a compromise of the Christian message in the scholastic environment of Athens and went as far as he could, possibly too far, to reach the philosophic minds in his audience, an effort that resulted in failure, and that Paul vowed never to repeat this experiment (1 Cor. 2:1-5). There is an element of truth in both of these extreme views

as is shown in the narrative in Acts. Paul's "spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols" (Acts 17:16). This is the outstanding fact of Paul's reaction to the pagan splendor all around him. He was a man of genius and of intellectual training. He did have a point of contact with the cultural side of Athens. He knew some of the Greek poets whom he quotes in his address. He shows so much acquaintance with Stoicism in his Epistles that Lightfoot gravely discusses the question whether Paul knew the writings of Seneca. Sir W. M. Ramsay even calls Paul the greatest philosopher of the ages. He dares to present his philosophy of the universe in opposition to that of the Epicureans and of the Stoics in Athens. Clearly, then, Paul's conduct in Athens raises the whole question of Christianity and culture to-day. In a brilliant article on "Christianity and Learning" in the January, 1921, Biblical Review Dr. E. M. Poteat affirms that we have not yet brought learning in captivity to Christ, that a pagan atmosphere still rules in many of our schools of learning. In The Methodist Review (New York) for Jan.-Feb., 1921, Dr. H. P. Sloan seriously argues whether a "University Can Be Christian." Certainly some teachers in our