greatest width one hundred and fifty yards, but accurate measurements might show these figures to be considerably at fault.  I have spoken of the hill as a rock, and such it is—­a great mass of hard limestone, whose irregular surface, almost devoid of soil, still shows where patches of it were dressed down, perhaps for ancient altars or idols.  The Areopagus was a court, which in Paul’s time had jurisdiction in cases pertaining to religion.

A vision called Paul into Macedonia, where Lydia was converted and Paul and Silas were imprisoned.  In connection with their imprisonment, the conversion of the jailer of Philippi was brought about, after which the preachers went to Thessalonica, from whence Paul and Silas were sent to Berea.  Jews from Thessalonica came down to Berea and stirred up the people, and the brethren sent Paul away, but Silas and Timothy were left behind.  “They that conducted Paul, brought him as far as Athens,” and then went back to Berea with a message to Silas and Timothy to come to him “with all speed.”  “Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he beheld the city full of idols.”  Being thus vexed, and having the gospel of Christ to preach, he reasoned with the Jews and devout people in the synagogue and every day in the marketplace with those he met there.  He came in contact with philosophers of both the Epicurean and Stoic schools, and it was these philosophers who took him to the Areopagus, saying:  “May we know what this new teaching is which is spoken by thee?”

The Athenians of those days were a pleasure-loving set of idolaters who gave themselves up to telling and hearing new things.  Besides the many idols in the city, there were numerous temples and places of amusement.  Within a few minutes’ walk was the Stadium, capable of holding fifty thousand persons, and still nearer were the theater of Bacchus and the Odeon, capable of accommodating about thirty and six thousand people respectively.  On the Acropolis, probably within shouting distance, stood some heathen temples, one of them anciently containing a colossal statue of Athene Parthenos, said to have been not less than thirty-nine feet high and covered with ivory and gold.  In another direction and in plain sight stood, and still stands, the Theseum, a heathen temple at that time.  Take all this into consideration, with the fact that Paul had already been talking with the people on religious subjects, and his great speech on Mars’ Hill may be more impressive than ever before.

“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 I set 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