ACTS 17 contains a brief account of Paul's work in three places - Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens. Between Philippi and Thessalonica, the distance is one hundred miles - "Philippi to Amphipolis, thirty-three miles; Amphipolis to Apollonia, thirty miles; Apollonia to Thessalonica, thirty-seven miles." Paul might, therefore, accomplish in three days the journey from Philippi, where he had been "shamefully entreated," but had been the means of saving two households, to Thessalonica, where he was to gather a church of converts as worthy as the worthy Philippians. "Before we follow Paul and Silas to Thessalonica, we may pause to take a general survey of the condition and extent of

in the sense in which the term was understood in the language of the day. It has been well said that the Acts of the Apostles have made Macedonia a kind of Holy Land; and it is satisfactory that the places there visited and revisited by Paul and his companions, are so well known that we have no difficulty in representing to the mind their position and their relation to the surrounding country. Macedonia, in its popular sense, may be described as a region bounded by a great semicircle of mountains, beyond which the streams flow westward to the Adriatic, or northward and eastward to the Danube and the Euxine." Under Roman rule "the whole of Macedonia, along with some adjacent territories, was made one province, and centralised under the jurisdiction of a proconsul, who resided at Thessalonica. This province included Thessaly, and extended over the mountain chain which had been the western boundary of ancient Macedonia, so as to embrace a sea-board of considerable length on the shore of the Adriatic.

divided the whole surface which extends from the basin of the Danube to Cape Matapan. All of them are familiar to us in the writings of Paul." These provinces are, Macedonia, Illyricum, and Achaia. "On the north-west, Macedonia was continguous to Illyricum, which was spread down the shore of the Adriatic nearly to the same point to which the Austrian territory now extends, fringing the Mahommedan empire with a Christian border. A hundred miles to the southward, at the Acroceraunian promontory, Macedonia touched Achaia, the boundary of which province ran thence in an irregular line to the Bay of Thermopylae and the north of Euba, including Epirus, and excluding Thessaly. Achaia and Macedonia were traversed many times by the apostle; and he could say, when he was hoping to travel to Rome, that he had preached the gospel 'round about unto Illyricum.'"

"Along the whole line" of the Roman road "from Dyrrhachium to the Hebrus, no city was so large and influential as

"The original name of this city was Therma; and that part of the Macedonian shore on which it was situated retained through the Roman period the designation of the Thermaic Gulf. Cassander, the son of Antipater, rebuilt and enlarged Therma, and named it after his wife Thessalonica, the sister of Alexander the Great. The name ever since, under various slight modifications, has been continuous, and the city itself has never ceased to be eminent. Saloniki is still the most important town of European Turkey, next after Constantinople." "Strabo, in the first century, speaks of Thessalonica as the most populous town in Macedonia. Lucian, in the second century, uses similar language. Before the founding of Constantinople, it was virtually the capital of Greece and Illyricum, as well as of Macedonia, and shared the trade of the Aegean with Ephesus and Corinth. Even after the Eastern Rome was built and reigned over the Levant, we find both Pagan and Christian writers speaking of Thessalonica as the metropolis of Macedonia, and a place of great magnitude. ... There probably never was a time, from the day when it first received its name, that this city has not had the aspect of a busy commercial town." Its geographical position accounts for its continuous pre-eminence. It was "situated on the inner bend of the Thermaic Gulf, - halfway between the Adriatic and the Hellespont, - on the sea-margin of a vast plain watered by several rivers." It "was the chief station on the great Roman Road, called the Via Ignatia, which connected Rome with the whole region to the north of the Aegean Sea;" and it was in connection with other Roman ways. This Via Ignatia extended 500 miles, and Thessalonica was midway. No place could be better situated for the accomplishment of what Paul said to the Thessalonians: "From you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad (1 Thess. 1:8).

who first heard Paul were mainly Jews. It was in the synagogue (of the district) that for three Sabbath days he reasoned. While "of the devout Greeks a great multitude" afterwards became disciples, the principal hearers in the first meetings were Jews.

But the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, written shortly after the formation of the church, implies the predominance of Gentiles. They are distinctly addressed as having turned from idolatry, and as having suffered from their "own countrymen," even as the Judean churches had suffered from the Jews (chap. 1:9; 2:14-16); and there is an absence of reference to the Old Testament, such as we find in the epistle to the Hebrews, such as would be natural in any epistle by a church composed chiefly of Jews, and such as is affirmed by Luke of Paul's speaking in Thessalonica when he says that he reasoned out of the Scriptures.

"Some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few." 'Some,' 'a great multitude,' and 'not a few,' disclose that Paul's reasoning had been finely effectual.

Summarising the brief intimations appertaining to the subject of conversion, we observe, first, the work of the speakers, and, second, the conduct of the converts.

1. Of the speakers we note

a) Their subject - Jesus, the suffering and risen Messiah.

b) The basis of their speaking - the Old Testament Scriptures.

c) Their manner of speaking - reasoning, arguing, and testifying. Their preaching and teaching were expository of God's Word, and a testifying to the facts in the life of Christ.

2. Of the converts only two things bearing on our theme are affirmed.

a) They believed, or were persuaded by what they heard.

b) They consorted with Paul and Silas. 'Consort' occurs nowhere else in the New Testament; but there is no difficulty as to the meaning. The persuaded hearers cast in their lot with the men who had brought the good news to them; they became the allies of the evangelists; they joined themselves to the men who showed that they had truth on their side.

In Thessalonica, however, as elsewhere, opposition developed with success. "The Jews, being moved with jealousy, took unto them certain vile fellows of the rabble, and gathering a crowd, set the city on an uproar; and assaulting the house of Jason, they sought to bring them forth to the people." The scum of the populace were fit agents for these zealous, jealous Jews. Uproar and assault tell their manner of meeting facts and argument.

The rioters were disappointed. Paul and Silas were in a safe retreat. Others must be made victims. "They drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city." Their complaint may be distributed into four statement. 1. Certain men had come among them who were turning the world upside down. 2. Jason had received these men. 3. The whole brotherhood, to which Jason and these men belonged, proclaimed Jesus as King. 4. Thereby Caesar's decrees were nullified.

There was sufficient truth in the indictment to make it plausible. The apostles were causing commotion wherever them went, Jason had received them, and the whole of the disciples avowed the kingship of Jesus; but the deduction therefrom, that Caesar's decrees were contradicted, is not evident. The people and the politarchs, as the rulers of the city were called, were troubled. Thessalonica had special privileges. Unfaithfulness to Rome would endanger these privileges. Security for the keeping of the peace was therefore taken from Jason and his company.

Paul and Silas were immediately sent away. It was unsafe to remain. The temper of the Jews and of the mob was such that at any moment there might have been a renewal of the disturbance. In haste and during night the brethren sent Paul and Silas off to

This city was some sixty miles south-west of Thessalonica. It was afterwards called Irenopolis, and is now known as Kara Feria or Verria, in Roumelia. It is a city of the second rank in European Turkey, containing from 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants. In going thither Paul and Silas were withdrawing from the Roman road and the most public highways.

As in other places, so in Berea, the Jews were first visited; coming thither Paul and Silas "went into the synagogue of the Jews." Constant persecution by their own countrymen deterred them not from speaking "to the Jew first."

In Berea the Jews were unusually noble. It was the nobility which springs from an open-minded, teachable disposition. They were willing to learn, and to study in order to learn. They readily accepted the apostolic exposition of the Jewish writings, daily testing that exposition by means of their writings.

Such an attitude was certain to result in faith; "many of them believed; also of honourable women who were Greeks, and of men, not a few." In Thessalonica only "some" Jews believed; in Berea there were "many."

We are not permitted a further acquaintance with these noble Bereans. Beyond their belief we know nothing of them. Their Christian experience and church history are unrecorded. There must have been more to tell of them, for while the brethren sent away Paul, "Silas and Timothy abode there still;" but the faith of the Bereans is the last note respecting them that has reached us.

The zeal and search of the Thessalonian Jews were in another direction. "When the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the Word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people." Paul had again to flee. "The brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea:" but they that conducted him brought him to

This was a great change from Berea. Athens had been "the eye of Greece." It was the seat of learning, philosophy, refinement, poetry, art, sculpture, and religion; but it was a hot-bed of infamy. There was then little of grandeur remaining except its sculpture. Even that had been marred. Athens was in old age decrepitude, made loathsome by its festering sores of unblushing immorality.

to Athens, deserves special remark. Translating Luke's word 'to conduct,' has the appearance of a toning down of what he has said. The word occurs twenty-two times in the New Testament. It is translated 'make' fourteen times; e.g., His Lord hath made him ruler; he shall make him ruler, etc. (Matt. 24:45,47; 25:21,23; Luke 12:14,42,44, etc.). It is 'appoint' in Acts 6:3, and 'ordain' in Tit. 1:5; Heb. 5:1; 8:3. The companions of Paul appointed, ordained, determined where he should go; they planned for him; they were responsible for his arrival in Athens. For some reason Paul was not leader. Was he prostrate under suffering, unable to arrange for himself? After his arrival in Athens, was he still in a state of helplessness, causing him to send word back to Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed?

1. His spirit was stirred. Whatever may have been the cause of his temporary subordination, it was uncongenial to Paul to be inactive, and so, previous to the arrival of his co-workers, his spirit was roused to do something. It was the prominence of the signs of idolatry which incited him to activity. Athens had the repute of containing more gods than men; it was said to be easier to find a god than a man there.

2. Paul commenced arguing. "therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with them." Jews, devout Gentiles, and visitors to the market were the three parties with whom Paul reasoned; and this he carried on daily.

The daily meeting with those who assembled in the market, was a new kind of work to Paul, at least so far as Luke's history goes. But we must remember that the details of many years of his Christian life are unknown to us. We know particulars of only a short period of the fourteen years of Galatians 2:1.

The agora or market-place, where loungers, idlers, and gossips assembled, was a likely place for objectors to Paul's doctrine. Opposing schools assailed him, while some sneeringly inquired, And what will this "seed-pecker" say? They treated him as a picker-up of sundry scraps. Others imagined him a proclaimer of two new gods, under the names of Jesus and the Resurrection.

3. Paul was taken to the Areopagus. Interest was so far aroused that they took him to a more convenient place for an assembly hearing what he had to say. This was the Areopagus or Mars' Hill. There, from a rocky platform, in front of three sides of a quadrangle of stony seats, hewn out of the rock, to hearers with stony hearts, and heads almost as impenetrable, Paul delivered his famous Athenian address.

4. What did Paul say? His subject was an unknown God, the Creator of all things. It was unreasonable to think of Him as confined to their little temples, nor was human worship to be thought of as conferring any favour upon Him. He is independent of His creatures, but they are all dependent on Him. The beginning of life, and its continuity, are from Him. Men's blessings are Heaven's gifts. All men have one common origin, and are therefore brethren. It was on purpose that man was so related, and that he was situated under limitations. The Creator planned that His creatures, by their surroundings, should be led to grope after Him. Not that the Creator is far removed from the creature; He is nigh at hand. Life, movement, and existence are derived from Him. Even Greek poets had spoken of man as owing his origin to God. If God is our Father, it is folly to think of the work of the sculptor as at all corresponding to Him; the creature cannot create his Creator. But God had been merciful. He had graciously and long passed by such gross conceptions and idolatrous customs. A new era, however, had dawned. Under the new state of things God expected more. He called upon all men to resolve to be His servants. The universal demand for repentance was preparatory to the universal judgment. The certainty of the coming judgment was assured by the resurrection of the appointed Judge. As sure as Christ had been raised from the dead, so surely would He judge all. Hence the imperative and reasonable need to prepare.

5. Paul's manner was considerate and conciliatory. His opening sentence would please his hearers and secure their attention. He acknowledged that he saw that they were very religious. "Too superstitious" is not an accurate translation. Paul's remark would be taken as a compliment by the Athenians. They were much addicted to the worship of the deities, and they prided themselves in being so.

The text from which Paul spoke was one of their own inscriptions. They had gods many, and altars many; and as if they were afraid that they might not have included all the gods by special name, they had erected an altar to an unknown God. That unknown God Paul was prepared to make known to them.

Remarking on their religiousness, and selecting one of their own inscriptions as a basis for his remarks, with consummate skill Paul spoke to them of the living God. Their temples and statues, what were they? Cold and lifeless, the workmanship of man. The God whom confessedly they did not know was what they needed to know. The confession of ignorance implied in the inscription, and the gaping to hear anything new which characterised the Athenians, were alike utilised by Paul to convey to them the knowledge of the true God.

6. But Paul found it impossible to make the Athenians serious. "When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked." Paul had been accustomed to terrible earnestness on the part of the Jews; in their opposing zeal they chased him from place to place. But these Athenians only laughed. The preaching of Christ was to the Greeks foolishness. The gravity of the subject, combined with the winsome manner of the speaker, only produced mirth and led to jesting. There was no affinity between them and such spiritual teaching. There was nothing in them upon which the truth could lay hold. Some were cruelly polite, making a promise that was probably never realised; they would hear him at another time.

Paul's effort in Athens would by most be reckoned a failure. "Certain men clave unto him, and believed," and two of the believers are named - Dionysius and Damaris; but Athens was not evangelised, the Athenians did not turn from their idolatry nor from their gossip. And yet it is a mistake to treat any such effort as a failure. The few are ample recompense for the labour, and the many have had an offer and an opportunity. The Christian is fulfilling his mission when he spreads the truth, even if it prove a testimony against those who do not receive it, as well as the power of God to all who believe.

The information in Acts xvii., respecting the converts, is in small compass. Of the Athenians it is said that they clave unto Paul and believed; of the Thessalonians, that they believed and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the Bereans, that they readily received the Word, searched the Scriptures daily, and, in consequence, believed.

is forcibly illustrated in this chapter of Acts. In Thessalonica and Berea he was dealing chiefly with Jews. With them he argued from the Jewish Scriptures. In Athens he had to do with men who knew little of these Scriptures, and cared less for them. He therefore made no allusion to them. He took a text and drew his arguments from sources acceptable to his audience. In each case he met his hearers on their own ground. The teacher as it were sat down beside his pupils. He began where they were. He took them by the hand at the outset and endeavoured to lead them forward a little. Many teachers fail because they say the same things in the same way to all people at all times. The teacher should be elastic, not in the things which he teaches, but in his manner of introducing them. Like Paul, we should be ready to commence our theme from idol altars or from the Living Oracles. Like a greater than Paul, we should seek to draw lessons from seedtime or harvest, from flower or thorn, from all of the visible and the known.

for the declaring and illustrating of the gospel of Christ may be presented as follows:-

1. The Gospels. In the recorded addresses of the apostles, the life of Christ occupied a prominent place. That life has been communicated to us by the four evangelists. Many teachers of Primitive Christianity begin and end their public teaching in the Acts of the Apostles. It would tend to enlivening variety if they would occasionally commence with incidents in the Gospel history. That would not prevent them, in dealing with inquirers, ending in the Acts of Apostles.

2. The Old Testament. Philip preached Jesus from Isaiah 53. Peter and Paul quoted and argued from the Jewish Scriptures. Why should not we use them with equal freedom? Since the Old Testament is, in some measure, fulfilled in the New, the bringing into juxtaposition of type and antitype, of prophecy and fulfilment, should always be refreshing, instructive, and strengthening to faith.

3. Nature is teeming with lessons and illustrations, simple and effective. During the last few months I have had frequent opportunities of listening to a public teacher of Christianity, who seldom takes a text in the ordinary way. He rarely selects a few words and speaks exclusively from them. But he frequently begins in nature and ends in revelation. At a time when all around is covered with snow, he may begin by calling attention to the beautiful snow, describing its formation, the variety of the flakes, its use, etc., and end by explaining to his audience how, though their sins are as scarlet, they may become white as snow. This style is a perfect treat as compared with the musty style of a theologian. From fruitful nature the Saviour was constantly teaching. Should not we?

4. All around may be brought under tribute. As Paul gave a lesson from Idolatrous altars, and the Saviour drew teaching from the custom of seeking the chief seats at feasts, so may we declare and illustrate truth from customs of others. Although we own no king but Jesus in things spiritual, and recognise no infallible teacher of Christianity save Christ and His apostles, we may nevertheless find illumination of the truth, or a background to a heavenly picture, in things which are of earthly mould.

Nor should the selection made be simply a matter of the speaker's own liking. The starting-point, illustrations, and manner, should be to suit the listeners - to arrest their attention or reach their understandings and hearts.