It was at Athens, “the school of the world,” that the first and only contact of Christianity with Gentile Philosophy, recorded in the New Testament, took place. In “the learned city” the mightiest efforts of the human mind had been made to grasp eternal truth. But the contradictions in the teachings of the master-minds of Greece and the consequent doubt and unbelief so prevalent, at the same time, with the most abject superstition, proved that the effort had been vain to arrive at a full comprehension of the Infinite from a consideration of the finite—to rise from man to GOD. In this same city, about half a century after the birth of the Redeemer, there was unveiled to human souls which had been longing for the knowledge of the unseen, “the mystery of Godliness,” that “GOD” had been “manifest in the flesh.” The eyes which had been long looking for the day might now behold the day-star from on high who had visited and blessed the world with light and salvation. Now there could be found repose of soul and certainty of belief, because the Truth had come down from heaven, from GOD to man, that He might raise man to GOD. Heavenly wisdom at length encountered human wisdom and pride of intellect in their stronghold. By this I do not mean that before St Paul came to Athens there had been no contest of the religion of Christ with mere human conceits. Philosophy is only the endeavor to reduce the thoughts of men to a system, to find a grammar for the language of the mind, or rather, perhaps, to find a language as well as a grammar. Wherever there is mind there will be thought, either with, or without a system. So that Christianity, in winning its way, had met with opposition of human thought before the great Apostle of Jesus reached the metropolis of thought. Indeed the very sects of philosophy, which sneered at the revelation of heavenly truth on its introduction into Athens, had their counterparts in Judæa, and especially at Jerusalem. We have the testimony of a Pharisee, that the “sect of the Pharisees bore a strong affinity to that called Stoic among the Greeks[2].” We are led to perceive, also, from the accounts we have of the free-living Sadducees, who claimed absolute freedom for the human will, that the Epicureans were represented in some degree by them. They were sceptics as to the providence of GOD, “believed in neither angel, nor spirit[3];” “they took away all fate, and would not allow it to be anything at all, nor to have any power over human affairs, but put all things entirely into the power of our own free will[4].” Both Pharisees and Sadducees, though disagreeing in other respects, yet were united in their efforts against the spread of the truth. From the earliest preaching of the doctrines of the Gospel, the same spirit of self-seeking and pride of human nature which animated the Epicureans and Stoics, showed themselves adverse to the humbling views which Jesus set forth. And we cannot forget that St