firmed that "God hath made
_of one blood_ all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the
earth." [105:5] The Epicureans asserted that the gods did not interfere
in the concerns of the human family, and that they were destitute of
foreknowledge; but Paul here assured them that the great Creator "giveth
to all life and breath and all things," and "hath determined the times
before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation." [105:6] The
heathen imagined that the gods inhabited their images; but whilst Paul
was ready to acknowledge the excellence, as works of art, of the statues
which he saw all around him, he at the same time distinctly intimated
that these dead pieces of material mechanism could never even faintly
represent the glory of the invisible First Cause, and that they were
unworthy the homage of living and intellectual beings. "As we are the
offspring of God," said he, "we ought not to think that the Godhead is
like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device."
[106:1] After having thus borne testimony to the spirituality of the I
am that I am, and asserted His authority as the Maker and Preserver of
the world, Paul proceeded to point out his claims as its righteous
Governor. "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."
[106:2] The pleasure-loving Epicureans refused to believe in a future
state of rewards and punishments; and concurred with the Stoics in
denying the immortality of the soul. [106:3] Both these parties were, of
course, prepared to reject the doctrine of a general judgment. The idea
of the resurrection of the body was quite novel to almost all classes of
the Gentiles; and, when at first propounded to the Athenians, was
received, by many, with doubt, and by some, with ridicule. "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."
[106:4]

The frivolous spirit cherished by the citizens of the ancient capital of
Attica was exceedingly unfavourable to the progress of the earnest faith
of Christianity. "All the Athenians, and strangers which were there,
spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new
thing." [106:5] Though they had acquired a world-wide reputation for
literary culture, it is an instr