HERALDS OF GOD
It will not have escaped your notice, in this connection, how often our Lord Himself in His teaching found His point of departure in some incident, scene or inquiry uppermost in His hearers' minds at the moment. Instead of beginning with an exposition of the fundamental verities of religious faith. He would begin with the concrete stuff of life, the raw material of familiar experience; and thence would lead on and up to the eternal truth it was His mission to declare. Jesus got His texts, time and again, from the congregations gathered around Him. So, too, with St. Paul at Athens. "As I passed by, I found an altar 'To the Unknown God.'" That arrested attention immediately. That nailed down the issue, fastening it firmly to contemporary fact. Rightly and wisely, the apostle began just where his hearers were, hoping that as his argument marched to its climax he would be able to lead them through to an acceptance of the ultimate revelation in Christ. Let me add that the trouble about that Athenian sermon was, not that he began there, but that he stayed there too long. The blunder was and mark this well, for it is a common fault with preachers still that half his discourse that day was introduction. Indeed, it was only at the end that the trumpet-note of God's mighty act in Christ was heard. Perhaps Paul on Mars' Hill was conscious of a latent antagonism in his congregation. Perhaps his surprising adoption of alien methods rhetoric and philosophy, classical allusions and bits of poetry was a deliberate peace-offering intended to neutralize the
128
