AN IDOLATROUS CITY.

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ions." Here Socrates was tried for theism, and Mars, according to fable, for a high crime.

We ascended, by steps cut in the solid ledge, to the place of the judicial proceedings. We lingered long; for we remembered that here it was that St. Paul, the bold and intrepid apostle, stood, and addressed the wondering multitudes. We repeated his eloquent words, and saw more clearly than ever before their aptitude and force. Since his arrival in Greece, "his path had been among the forms of great men and deified heroes, among the temples, the statues, the altars, of the gods of Greece. He had seen the creations of mythology represented to the eye, in every form of beauty and grandeur, by the sculptor and the architect." And the one overpowering result was this: "His spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry."

Now, while Paul waited in Athens for his colaborers, Silas and Timotheus, to come up, he held discussions with the Jews in the synagogue, and with devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met him there. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And some said, "What will this babbler say? He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods." And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our

ears: we would know therefore what these things mean." Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' Hill, and said, "Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To The Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation: for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring."

Corinth is situated forty-eight miles west of Athens, and is surrounded by a mountainous and barren country. The ancient city stood at the northern base of an isolated hill, nineteen hundred feet above the sea-level. A lofty wall, ten miles in length, inclosed this city. The present Corinth is merely a small town, whose inhabitants carry on a little trade in dried fruits, wheat, and oil. Corinth struck the last blow in defense of Greece, and then fell herself before the conquering legions of

Rome, in the year 146 B.C. The Roman consul, on entering the city as victor, put the men to death, and sold the women and children into slavery. He plundered the city of its precious treasures, and then consigned it to the flames.

From this time Corinth remained desolate for a century, when a colony of needy Greeks and Roman freedmen was planted there by Julius Cæsar, the great dictator. This soon became again a prosperous city, with a population of a hundred thousand. From its position it soon acquired a great trade with Ephesus, Thessalonica, and other eastern cities. For this reason it attracted the apostle to the Gentiles, who made more than one visit to it, and who remained here about two years at one time, preaching in the synagogue, and living in the family of his faithful co-laborers, Aquila and Priscilla. Here Paul, with these two friends, pursued his favorite occupation of tent-making. Here he founded that important church to which he afterwards addressed a first and second epistle, a church which claimed, for a long period, the deepest anxiety of its founder, and, after his death, that of Clement. Here also were written the two Epistles to the Thessalonians.

Diogenes the cynic, who in broad daylight, with lantern in hand, hunted the streets of Athens for honest men, lies buried here. In spite of his desire to be thrown to the beasts of the field, he received an honorable burial; and his dust lies

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AN EARTHQUAKE ENDS IT.

with that of his kindred. In 1858 Corinth, the fated city, was almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake.

REV. J. L. PECK.

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CHAPTER XXIV.

DEPARTURE FROM GREECE. SAILING THE SEAS. THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC.— BLACK GONDOLAS.― CANALS OF VENICE. THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS. SEPARATION. — VERONA AND MILAN. ITALIAN LAKES. THE ST. GOTHARD PASS. BEWILDERING CURVES. HAYING IN

THE RAVINES. SNOW ON THE MOUNTAINS. WILLIAM TELL. STATUE AT ALTDORF. LUCERNE CITY AND LAKE.

HAVING exchanged final greetings with our friends at the capital of Greece, we retraced our steps to Piræus, where we took passage on a steamer of the Florio-Italian Line for Venice. Among the passengers on board this boat, we at once discovered an American,- Rev. J. L. Peck of Hempstead, New York. He is of the Methodist denomination, and has been the presiding elder of his district. A gentleman of fine presence, of ability, and of genial manners, we felt that we were fortunate in having, for three days, his companionship on a monotonous voyage.

We sailed in a southerly direction till we turned Cape Capello, thence north-westerly, through the Ionian Sea and the Straits of Otranto, into the Adriatic. Sailing up this poetic sea, the Austrian Empire was on our right, and Italy was on our left. The shores of the latter, for miles back, presented an attractive appearance. The fruit