THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL












TRAVELING IN A TRACK BOAT.
FRONTISPIECE.
Footsteps St. Paul.                                      p. 369.




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THE
FOOTSTEPS OF ST. PAUL
BY THE AUTHOR OP'MORNING AND NIGHT WATCHES," "THE WORDS OF JESU.,
" THE MIND OF JESUS," "FAMILY PRAYERS," "THE GREAVL
JOURNEY," "WOODCUTTER OF LEBANON,"
ETO., ET.
NEW YORK:
ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS,
No. 630 BROADWAY.
IS66.




" Should any one ask me to name the man who, of all others,
has been the greatest benefactor of our race, I should say, without hesitation, the Apostle Paul. His name is the type of
human activity the most endless, and at the same time the
most useful that history has cared to preserve."-Monod.
" May we not believe, in a sense higher than Chrysostom ever
dreamt of, that the pulses of that mighty heart are still the
pulses of this world's life-still beat in these latter ages with
greater fhrce than ever."-Stanley's Essays on the Apostolical Age.




PREFACE.
IN venturing, in. the following pages, to occupy
ground which has been so often and so well traversed, it is perhaps superfluous to disclaim any
great attempt at originality.  The complaint of
Chrysostom is now no longer, or should no longer,
be true, that St Paul is not known by Christians as he ought to be. Much interesting light
has been recently thrown by a mass of able authors
on the history and character of the Great Apostle;
and good service it was thought might be done
by translating into a simpler form what had been
so admirably supplied for more advanced and
thoughtful minds. All the more valua' le Commentaries, as was to. be expected, are copiously
interspersed with learned and valuable disquisitions on questions of great moment, and important




Vi                PREFACE.
in themselves, but which are little fitted to interest
and instruct younger students. The writer has
endeavoured, therefore, in a course of reading on
the Life of St Paul, to cull from " treasures new
and old" what would be serviceable to the latter
class of readers.
He has to acknowledge his obligations to the
following among other works:- Howson and
Conybeare's "Life and Epistles of St Paul"
(London, 1852), especially in the opening chapters; the less known but able work of Mr Lewin,
"Life and Epistles of St Paul" (1851), frequent
references to which will attest the amount of obligation; Cave's "Lives of the Apostles" (1676);
Stanley's " Sermons and Essays on the Apostolical
Age" (1847); Neander's "Planting of the Christian Church;" Olshausen on the Acts of the
Apostles; Stackhouse's " History of the Bible"
(1764); Benson's "Planting of the Christian
Religion" (1750); Barnes on the Acts; Home's
" Introduction;" Blunt's " Sermons on St Paul; "
Suetonius' "Lives of the Caesars;" Josephus'
" Wars and Antiquities;" Kitto's " Bible Cyclopaedia." Besides these, many books of travel,




PREFACE.                vii
such as Kinneir's "Travels in Asia Minor" (1818),
Beaufort's "Karamania" (1817), Eustace's "Classical Tour in Italy" (Paris, 1837), &c. &c.
While following, however, in the wake of these
great explorers, and not ashamed to profit by the
lights they have hung out astern, it is hoped there
will be found sufficient, in what follows, of independent research and thought, to redeem it from
the unattractive character of a mere compilation.
Another reason may be mentioned for giving
these pages a permanent form. Amid the vast,
the perplexing multiplicity of " Religious books,"
and " Books for the Young," of all kinds, in the
present day, the writer has felt, by experience,
the want of a class of volumes suitable for youths
(say from ten to seventeen years of age), which
would tend, by combining historical and biographical interest with religious instruction, to attract
them to a more careful and devout study of the
Word of God.    What nobler model could be
selected in this respect for the youthful mindwhat history more replete with'stirring interest
and noble spiritual lessons, than the Life of " the
Scholar of Gamaliel?"   It has been truthfully




Viii              PREFACE.
said, that "no romance has ever been written so
interesting as the Acts of the Apostles." It is a
sort of inspired Picture Gallery of stirring scenes
and events. The centre portrait, on which the eye
rests, or rather the prominent figure reproduced in
all the others, is the Great Apostle of the Gentiles.
Since it is for youthful readers this volume is
mainly designed, the endeavour has been made to
sustain throughout, the pictorial and descriptive
character of the narrative, which forms not the least
charm in the pages of Messrs Howson and Conybeare. The writer will be happy should the perusal of what he has written, lead, at a more advanced
stage,.to the study of a work in which learning
and eloquence have been so successfully brought
to bear on the greatest of biographies.
One other sentence to a Preface which has
already outrun its due proportions. The author
made use of the substance of these notes at a
weekly meeting in a rural parish; and the interest
manifested in hearing them has formed an additional inducement to commit them in their present
shape to the press. The auxiliary of a large map
the reader cannot enjoy, in which he was able




PREFACE.                ix
to trace the " Footsteps of St Paul;" but it is
hoped that this want will be in no small measure
compensated by the series of wood engravings
illustrative of scenes and incidents in these  oft
journeyings."
December 1864.
%* When the whole of these pages were written, and one half were finally revised, the writer obtained the last volume of (alas! now) the late Dr
Kitto's " Scripture Readings "-the "Apostles and
Early Church"-in the preface to which, he finds
that esteemed and lamented author acknowledges
similar obligations to many of those English works
to which he has been so largely indebted.
Although the same ground has, in some respects,
been trodden, yet his object-to write a simple consecutive history of St Paul-has sufficiently prevented collision; and any similarities that may
occur, must only award to a less skilful hand the
credit of discrimination in what gleaning was best
from those ample storehouses to which both have
been led.








CONTENTS.
CHAP. I. THE YOUTH.. 
CHAP. II. THE SCHOLAR., ~       18
CHAP. III. THE PERSECUTOR  ~,   82
CHAP. IV. THE CONVERT.....        46
CHAP. V. THE FUGITIVE.....       68
CHAP. VI. THE MISSIONARY...   9
CHAP. VII. THE TRAVELLER...      114
CHAP. VIII. THE DELEGATE.....140
CHAP. IX. THE SECOND JOURNEY..  *154
CHAP. X. THE PRISON...176
CHAP. XI. lIESSALONICA AND BEREA.  o.196
CHAP. XII. PAUL AT ATHENS...210
CHAP. XIII. PAUL AT CORINTH....228
CHAP. XIV. PAUL AT EPHESUS.,.248
CHAP. XV. THE TUMULT.....262




Iii                  CONTENT.
fAGS
CHAP XVI. THE FAITHFUL PASTOR.    274
CHAP. XVII. TIE SEA-VOYAGE..               292
CHAP. XVIII. PAUL IN JERUSALEM..        306
CHAP. XIX. PAUL IN CESAREA.....    326
CHAP. XX. THE SHIPWRECK.                     342
CHAP. XXI. PAUL IN ROME...     66
CHAP. XXII. PRISON-LIFE. -..    884
CHAP. XXIII. THE CLOSING SCEN1.               896
















CHAPTER I
" Sweetly wild! sweetly wili
Were the scenes that charm'd me when a child.
Rocks-grey rocks, with their tracery dark,
Leaping rills, like the diamond spark,
Torrent voices thundering by, 
When the pride of the vernal floods swell'd high.
*      *      *      *      *
It was sweet to sit till the sun laid down
At the gate of the west his golden crown.
Sweetly wild! sweetly wild I
Were the scenes that charm'd me when a child."
MRa SIGOUuBm




IF   olu lool at the map of Asia,,yo011 will see, to the northwest
of Palestine, washed by the blue
waters of the Mediterranean, the country of Asia Minor.
In the south-east corner of it, running parallel with the
coast, are the Alps of that region-the high mountain
range of the Taurus. As the snow which covers their
summits is melted by the sun's heat, many rivulets
flow down to water and refresh the thirsty plains below. A stream, larger than the rest, is seen to dash
its way,, first through the rocks and valleys of the
upper regions, and then to wind its dark and sluggish*
* The name of the river now is "Kara Su," or "Black water," and it
must have greatly changed its course, as it is now more than a mile from the
modern Tarsoos.




4            THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
course through the rich level country bordering on the
sea.
The name of the river is the Cydnus, and of ch-'
province Cilicia. You may try to form a pictur6 co
yourselves of the animated scenes on its banks at the
time of which I am going to write. Women coming
down to fetch water, with veils over their faces,
and pitchers on their heads; shepherds playing on
their reeds, with their flocks of goats and sheep browsing around them. Now and then, bands or caravans
of merchants from distant parts, with camels bearing
spices and wools, are glad to pause at mid-day, under
the shade of the palm-trees which cast their beautiful
reflection in the stream, and there get refreshment ere
they pursue their journey.
Following this river in its course from the mountains, you come to the walls of the large town of TARsus, which, at the same period, formed the capital or
chief city of the country. It was beautifully situated
among luxuriant gardens; the houses were ranged in
the form of a half-circle on either side of the river,
giving it something of the shape of the wings of a bird.
If you had gone inside its walls, you would have seen
a great variety of faces and dress, and heard spoken
many different languages. Sometimes you would meet
with native Cilicians; at other times you could not
mistake the features of Jews, or Greek merchants, or
haughty Romans.   Like the greater portion of the
known world, Cilicia and Tarsus had fallen into the
hands of the Emperor Cesar. Roman soldiers would
be seen now and then pacing up and down its streets;
Roman ships were sailing up the Cydnus into its harbour, and with Roman names and signs painted on




THE YOUTH..
them, filling its docks. It enjoyed privileges, however, peculiar to several Roman towns. It was one
of those cities which was called Libera or fiee.  It was
ruled by its own magistrates, and had its own laws,
just as is the case with some modern cities on the continent of Europe, such as Frankfort-on-the-Maine,
Hamburg, Lubeck, Bremen, and others. These, for
special reasons, while remaining under the protection
of Prussia and Austria, have an independent government of their own, as Tarsus had under the broad
shadow of imperial Rome.
In other and more important respects, Tarsus was
"no mean city." One of the three great universities,
or seats of learning, in the world, at that time, was
within its gates; those of Athens and Alexandria being
the other two. Many of the young men trained at the
Tarsus schools were found afterwards at Rome, tutors
in the highest families of the state, and even in the
palace of the emperor on the Palatine. Indeed, at this
very time, a philosopher named Nestor, who had been
tutor to Marcellus, the nephew of Augustus, was ruler
of the city.
Along the banks of the Cydnus there was a lawn of
grass, with shady trees similar to our modern parks.
Aged philosophers and learned men, with their long
beards, might be seen walking up and down engaged
in deep thought or earnest discussion; while youths
of the university, at their holiday hours, were busy
practising those athletic games which were so famous
among the Greeks.    I daresay the young Tarsians
would have among themselves their own trials of
strength-running, leaping, wrestling, boxing. They
would have their own mimic crowns of olive or laurel




6            THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
to put on the brow of youthful victors; and. doubtless
would often talk about the day when they would be
able to go to Corinth, and take part in its well-known
contests.*
It was in a house in this Cilician city that "Saul o:
Tarsus" was born. People go to a great distance to
visit the birthplaces of famous men. There are spots
on the earth's surface which will be ever memorable as
being the scenes of the childhood of Caesar and Alexander, Luther and Melancthon, Howard and Wilberforce. We shall find afterwards, that the little reedthatched cottage, where Romulus the founder of Rome
was born, was preserved sacred and untouched among
the splendid palaces on the Palatine. What an interest must gather around the birthplace of one who, in
the highest spiritual sense, was hero, scholar, philanthropist, all in one,-the greatest of those " great men"
who have left their "footprints on the sands of time!"
I remember looking down several years ago in Swit.
zerland on the little rill flowing out of that vast wall
of ice, "the Rhone glacier." What interest was connected with it as the commencement of that giant
river which sweeps past the walls of Lyons and Avignon, and waters the most fertile provinces of France!
From Tarsus and its snow-capped Taurus, we watch
the first tiny rill of a more glorious river, " the streams
whereof," in every land and under every clime, have
"made glad the city of God."
I cannot tell you the exact year in which Saul's
birth took place. It was, however, at a mcst memorable era of the world's history.  When he was lying
* Sei Strabo, the geographer, who lived in the same age of which we
write. —Book xiv., M.. ii.




THE YOUiH.                  7
an infant in his cradle in Tarsus, there were other little
children training up by God in other places for great
duties and great ssrvices.*  On the banks of a solitary
lake in the land of Judea, there were a number of
youths about that same time going out day after day
with their fathers fishing in their boats, or helping
them to mend their nets on the beach. These were
afterwards to become the apostles of Christianity.
There was a little child who was recently born in the
old city of Hebron, a son of a priest, who was ere long
to appear as a great preacher to prepare the way of
the Lord, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand;" and more interesting and solemn still,
while Saul was an infant boy at Tarsus, there was a
wondrous Being in an infant's form growing up at
Nazareth,-it was the holy child Jesus, the promised
Messiah! Little did the proud world know the worth
that was contained in these two distant homes-two
helpless children unknown to one another; but the
one was the Son of the eternal God, the Redeemer of
mankind; the other, His greatest minister and apostle.
As regards even the political history of the world,
the period of Saul's birth was an eventful one. Augustus, the greatest of the Roman emperors, was on the
throne of the Caesars; his vast dominion extended
over a large portion of the human race; the wealth of
his capital was unbounded; its temples were filled with
the spoils of conquered nations; the ruins of vast
buildings, aqueducts, arches, bridges, and harbours,
remain to this day, to tell the grandeur of what was
called by the poets "the golden age."  Alas! it was
but a painted glory; like the whited sepulchres of the
* Howson and Conybeare, vol. i. p. 68.




8            THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAT'.
prophets, " within was full of corruption and wicked.
ness.'  God seemed to read mankind a lesson what a
poor world this would be, with all the power and
wealth of Rome, and all the learning and wisdom of
Greece, if it had not the gospel of Jesus to make men
holy and happy. " The world by wisdom," the boasted
wisdom of this its greatest and wisest epoch, "knew
not God;" the religion of Rome, such as it was, had
become a mere form; the palaces of the nobles were
filled with vice and crime; the simple morals of her
common people were gone; and thousands of slaves
from her conquered provinces were pining in the hardest drudgery. It was at this mournful period, when
the grossest spiritual gloom  had settled over the
nations, that the great Sun of Righteousness, and His
brightest attendant star, arose.
You would doubtless like to know all about Paul's
parents-what his father's trade was, and whether
he was a rich man or a poor man.      We are not
told.  Most probably he was neither the one nor
the other, but a respectable merchant or trader, engaged like other Jews in traffic with the cities on the
coast of the Mediterranean. We may conclude, however, that he could not have been in straitened circumstances, from his being able to bestow on his son
an education at Jerusalem.  In this respect, young
Saul was placed in a more favourable position than
other three apostolic men who lived 1500 years after
him, and who, both in their mission and character,
most nearly resembled him of any since his time. We
read that "the Reformer Zuingle issued from   the
cabin of a shepherd of the Alps; Melancthon, the
theologian of the Reformation, from the shop of an




THE YOUTH.                  9
armourer; and Luther from the hut of a poor miner."1
This last (the great German Reformer) is perhaps the
individual who, of all others, is most worthy to be
placed side by side with the Apostle of the Gentiles,
and we shall have more than once occasion to compare
them together.
With regard to Saul's father, we know, from
the letters his son afterwards wrote, that he was
very strict in his religion. Though he had changed
his native country, he had not changed his creed. He
still remained a strict Pharisee, and brought up his
little boy as such. You know that the Pharisees were
the most rigid of all the sects among the Jews. They
wore long dresses, and used long prayers; they
fasted, and made a great show about religion; they
loved to be seen of men, and to get the praise of men
more than the praise of God. Many of them, however,
I believe, were good people-tried to be good and to do
good, and brought up their children in the way of truth.
I would be inclined to think that Saul's father was of
this number. He tells us afterwards that "he served
God from his forefathers." This would seem to imply
that not only his father but his grandfather, and farther back still, were strict Pharisees, serving the God
of Israel in their synagogue, in the midst of that Gentile city. We are led to infer, too, that one of these
ancestors of his had been a brave man, and was rewarded for his courage; for they had received in some
way the honour of Roman citizens, which Paul himself
inherited, and which we shall afterwards find proved
on many occasions very serviceable to him.  It has
been a question with many how this citizenship was
* E'Aubigne's Reformation book ii. chap. i.




10           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
obtained. I have just told you that the great houses
and palaces at Rome were supplied with numerous
slaves, and these we know, moreover, were principally
obtained from the coasts of Asia Minor. It is possible
that Saul's father or grandfather may have been in this
way purchased, during their youth, by some Roman.
Their master may further have taken a fancy to them,
and as a reward, perhaps, of good conduct, have bestowed upon one or other their freedom. I by no
means venture to say that this is the accurate explanation. I merely state it as one of the more likely
of the suppositions which learned writers have made
regarding the possession of this family privilege.
We have spoken of Saul's father-who was his
mother?   Most children who, on growing up to manhood, have become good and great, have owed very
much to their mothers. And it would have been interesting to know who Saul's was. But there is nothing
in any place said about her. Perhaps she may have
been taken early away from him, and he left in his infancy a motherless little orphan; or, perhaps the tears
may have fallen fast from her eyes when she heard, in
future years, that her son had deserted his sect and his
creed, and become a disciple of Jesus; or who can tell
(may we not speak of the barely possible hope?) that,
before he became " Paul the aged," he was allowed to
sit by his mother's dying pillow, and point her sinking
eye to the "Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of
the worldl"
He had, at least, one sister.* We may picture to
ourselves in thought the two little ones in their early
years, seated on their father's, or, it may be, their.cts xxiii. 16.




THE YOUTH.                11
mother's —knee, hearing from their lips about all the
wondrous deeds of their ancestors. Sometimes their
young minds would be turned to the story of Moses in
the ark of bulrushes, and the awful plagues of Egypt;
at other times, to the passage through the Red Sea,
and how Pharaoh and his hosts were drowned in its
waves. At others, they would love to listen to the
tale of the wanderings of their fathers in the desertthe arrival in Canaan —nd the glories of David and
Solomon. We may imagine them hushed to sleep,
night after night, with some of the sweet songs of Zion
which the great Psalmist King had played upon his
harp, or the poor captives had sung by the rivers of
Babylon. The Jews were strictly enjoined by Moses,
in the 6th and 11th chapters of Deuteronomy, to teach
their children the law of God. Five was the age when
they generally began to read the law. We have every
reason to think that Saul's parents were not slow
either in obeying the divine command, or following
the usual practice of their countrymen, making their
little boy "from a child to know the Holy Scriptures,"
which were afterwards (in a way they never dreamt
of) to " make him wise unto salvation."
Our young readers, then, may imagine " little Saul"
in his Hebrew home. Many a league separated him
from the city of Jerusalem; but he was not the less
brought up "an Hebrew of the Hebrews."   As was
the custom with Jewish children, he had been "circumcised the eighth day" after his birth, and then
received the name of Saul. You will not wonder at
this being a favourite name in the tribe of Benjamin,
to which he belonged, when you remember that the
first king whom the Jewish people chose was "Saul




12           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
the Benjamite." Some indeed have thought he was
called " Saul," because the Hebrew word for Saul literally means " the desired," or "prayed for,' and that he
was named so from being the first-born child of his
parents, and given to them in answer to prayer.*  Be
this as it may, let us think of him in his infancy, a
little boy playing, perhaps, as Timothy did, around the
feet of another "grandmother Lois and mother Eunice,"
and they delighting to watch'the progress of his mind
as his infant lips began the first attempts at speech.
What did he speak? What was his language?   We
have reason to believe, from what is told us in the
Acts of the Apostles, that he was taught to speak both
in Greek and in Hebrew. The Greek was probably
the tongue he was most in the habit of using. It was
very much then what French is now, the language
known more than any other among the nations of
Europe.   It is worth observing, that when at any
time he refers in after life to the Old Testament, he
quotes the Septuagint,+ or Greek version of it, and not
the Hebrew. But at the same time, he was far from
ignorant of Hebrew-the language of his fathers.
Though Greek was chiefly spoken in Tarsus, the Jews
there never forgot to teach their children their native
tongue. They generally had many friends and kinsfolk in Palestine who came from time to time to visit
them (Paul, for instance, had himself a nephew at
Jerusalem ), and with these they could converse only
in Hebrew.
It was the practice always among the Jews to in* Neander's Planting of the Christian Church, p. 80.
t This is the oldest translaton of the Old Testament. It was so cailud
from its having been translated by 70 learned men.
t Acts xxiii. 16.




THE YOUTH.                 13
struct their sons in early youth in some trade. This
was not the case among the very poor only, but with
those of a better class. It was a common proverb
among them-" If a man does not teach his son a
trade, he teaches him to steal;" and we know that several
learned Rabbis, whose writings have come down to
us, were brought up with the knowledge of some common business. "We have an instance of a great and
eminent critic who was a carpenter, another an ironfounder, with many similar examples."`  The custom
was a wise and prudent one. It was to prevent them
ever falling into idleness, and to enable them, if they
ever were in straits, to have the means of earning
their bread. Saul's father chose forhim a very natural occupation. He taught him, or sent him to learn,
to make " tents."  This would seem to have been a
favourite trade in Cilicia; indeed the material of whici.
these tents were made was called Cilicium, from the
name of the province. The goat was an animal that
was common there, as in many other parts of the East,
and from its hair, which was long and beautiful, these
tents were constructed.  Occasionally it would seem
that they were made of the hides as well as the hair;
and hence an old father of the Churll, in speaking of
Saul's occupation, calls him sometimes a tent-stitcher,
dnd sometimes a worker in leather.t  We shall, by
and by, find how fortunate it was that the young Jew
of Tarsus had thus early learned this Aseful trade. It
relieved him, for many years of his after life, from a
state of poverty and dependence. Many a midnight
hour found hilml hard at work at his web of goats' hair,
for he " laboured night and day, that he might be
I 3!unt's Sermons on St Paul.  t See Olshausen on Acts.




14          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
chargeable to no man."* I may just add, that this
hair-cloth, which was a thick stuff like felt, seems to
have had the property, if not of keeping out wet, at
all events of not rotting soon under the influence of
damp or moisture. It served very much the purposes
which our modern gutta percha and oilcloth do.  It
was employed in making coats and coverings for those
who were much exposed to the variable weather in
these mountain districts.  Sailors used it, too, for
bad weather at sea, and when we come, long after
this, to describe Paul tossed for fourteen days and
nights, amid black skies and rain-torrents, we may
think of the sailors and crew around him, plying the
pumps and reefing the sails with their Cilician haircoats on.
Very possibly this manufacture formed the greater
part of the merchandise of his father in the market
towns around; and it is striking to hear from travellers
who have visited these countries in our own times, that
at present, during harvest, the rich corn fields may be
seen dotted with the very same goats'-hair tents, the
peasants and reapers living in them till the harvest
work is over.t
We may imagine, then, the young apostle, when he
was the age of many of my readers, spending his
happy boyhood in his Tarsus home. We are apt
always to think of Paul as the grown-up man-an
apostle-not perhaps advanced in life, but still with
the marks of hard toil, and'the care of all the
churches" on his furrowed brow; but we must remember he had once a boyhood like ourselves, his boyish
amusements, and occupations, and pleasures.
* 1 Thess. i. 9.  t Pcaufort's Karamania, p. 2S3.




THE YOUTH.                 15
The youth of the Reformer Luther, which we have
already spoken of in connexion with his, was formed
amid much less beautiful scenery. The banks of the
Wipper, and the plains of Mansfield in Saxony, were
poor and tame compared with the snowy cliffs of the
Taurus range, and the verdant banks of the Cydnus.
Still more cheerless, in other respects, was the infancy
of the young apostle of Germany. He tells us, that
often he had to follow his father and mother to the
forest to gather bundles of sticks, which they afterwards carried on their backs to the village and sold, to
relieve them from their extreme poverty. Even at
school he met with anything but kindness. His master beat him fifteen times successively in one day!
We are led to think of a sunnier morning of life in
connexion with Saul.   We love to follow him in
thought in his boyish rambles amid the beautiful
scenery in the midst of which his childhood was cast.
We can imagine him gazing often and again on the
noble hills which rose like wall above wall behind
the city, their white tops sparkling in the rays of the
sun. He and his sister would love to watch, from the
flat roof of their house, the deep shadows chasing one
another across the mountain sides, or, perhaps, on a
longer holiday, they would go and climb part of their
craggy slopes, and look down on the lovely plains
beneath. Often, I daresay, they would like to wander
up by the banks of the Cydnus, as you see them in
the picture at the beginning of Jhis chapter, to watch
the leap of the waterfall a mile north from the town,
which grew very large after the melting of the snows
in the mountains.*
* "The exteme coldness of this celebrated river is said to have occa



16            TREY FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
We may think at other times of the Jewish boy, in
company with his hardier playmates, going, on those
greater holidays when all work in the city and schools
was stopped, to the gymnasium to witness the runners
and wrestlers in the athletic games.  We cannot wonder if we should come afterwards, in reading some of
Paul's writings, to find these contests which his childhood had looked upon lingering in his memory.      Or,
to change the scene, we may imagine him, during the
day, in some Jewish school near the Sanhedrim; the
circle of black-eyed scholars, with their white cloaks,
seated on the ground (as was the custom) round about
their Jewish teacher, learning them to read and to
write, and getting by heart portions of their sacred
law.
We read of Martin Luther, when he was of a similar
age, probably a little younger, that a young man of
Mansfield, called Nicholas Emler, was in the habit of
taking him to the house of George Emilius, and returned to fetch him thence. It would, in all likelihood,
be the same with young Saul.       A slave or servant
would be employed to conduct him to school and wait
to bring him safe home again; according to his own
beautiful comparison, when he speaks, in one of his
epistles, of " the law" being like " the slave who takes us
to the school of Christ." * Once more, we may picture
him, at other times, perhaps at night, when the day's
duties were past, seated by a blazing fire at his father's
sioned the death of Frederick Barbarossa, and to have proved nearly fatal
-to Alexander. We found the water undoubtedly cold, but not more so
than that of the other rivers which carry down the melted snow of Mount
Taurus, and we bathed in it without feeling any pernicious efficts."Beaufort, p. 266.
* Gal. iii. 24. See Conybeare and Howson, vol. i. p. 54.




THE YOUTH.                17
feet, giving his help to complete some goats'-hair tents
they were wishful to have finished, either in good time
for harvest, or in order that they might be able to leave
as soon as possible, according to the universal custom,
for their abode in the mountains, to escape the burning heat of the summer plains.
There would probably be several other schools in
Tarsus, but they were Gentile ones.  Saul would be
brought up, not perhaps with a determined hatred to
the youth attending these, as many young Israelites
were, but at least with no friendly feeling. As it is with
the Jews to this day all over the world, the children
of Abraham would dwell in Tarsus " alone," and not be
" reckoned " among the rest of the citizens. The young
apostle would get what other religious knowledge he
possessed from the reading of the law, Sabbath after
Sabbath, in the synagogue; and with reference to his
expectations regarding the Saviour promised to his
fathers, he must have been taught, like others, to look
for some great temporal sovereign who would drive
the Romans out of Judea, and make it once more a
glorious kingdom, as in the days of David and Solomon.
Little did he think, at that very moment, the Messiah
was toiling unknown and unnoticed as a carpenter in a
workshop of Nazareth.




CHAPTER II.
tt 2ttolar.
lair boy! the wand'rings of thy way
It is not mine to trace,
Through buoyant youth's exulting cb
Or manhood's bolder race.
What discipline thy heart may need
What clouds may veil thy sun,
The eye of God alone can read,
And let His will be done.




~-~ i~t~-      historian of the Reformation, in speaking of the boyhood of Luther, tells us that
his father had, in a little time, saved as much money by
hard labour as enabled him to erect two furnaces at his
native Mansfield; and from the profits arising from his
new trade, he began to think of a better education for
his boy. " He wished to make his son a man of learning; the boy's remarkable aptness and persevering
industry inspired John (the honest miner) with lively
hopes. When Martin, therefore, in 1497, had attained
ttle age of fourteen, he resolved to part with him, and
send him to Magdeblurg to the school of fle Francis



20           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
cans. His mother was obliged to consent, and Martin
prepared to quit his father's house." 
Such a time had now arrived for young Saul of Tarsus. lie had got what education a Jewish school in
the city of his birth could afford. He might dou.;
less have carried on his studies much further in the
celebrated Tarsus university; but his father would
probably, for the reason given at the close of last c-apter, be averse to his boy mixing with Gentile youths.
He might b] afraid, lest in a heathen seminary any
influence might be used to abate his love and reverence for the faith of his ancestors; he therefore determined to send him away for some years to complete
his education, probably sharing in the ambition of the
humble miner of Germany to make him a distinguished
scholar; or rather, what to a Jew was the highest
of all honours, that he should become a scribe or doctor of the law.
I daresay some of my young readers may remember
with what sorrowful feelings they found themselves for
the first time going far away from the happy scenes of
their infancy to a strange place, and among strange
faces and friends. I doubt not Saul, who, when he
was an older man, chided those who would "make
him weep, and break his heart," had his own mingled
thoughts in going from that happy mountain home
where the morning of life had been spent. But there
were joyous feelings also at the prospect of this long
journey; he was going not so much away from home
as to home; for although he never had seen it, Jerusalem was always a happy " homeword" to every Jew.
From their earliest childhood they were taught to feel
* D'Aubigns's History, book ii.  t Acts xxi. 13.




THE SCHOLAR.                21
it as such  The gladdest day of their lives was that
on which taey were able to say, "Our feet shall stand
within thy gates, 0 Jerusalem!"    Every thought
about Palestine, its hills, valleys, cities, villages, were
holy thoughts. Often would the Jews of Asia Minor, as
they returned year after year from the feasts, pause at
Saul's father's dwelling, and lodge for the night, before
crossing the heights of Mount Taurus to their own
homes. While seated there, we may well believe the
young listener would often and again have heard them
speak of the glories of Zion and the temple. When
his school-days at Tarsus, therefore, were about to be
concluded, we may imagine, in such an ardent mind as
his, with what feelings he would hear his father telling
him-" I am going ere long to take you to see all the
glorious things spoken of the city of God!"
It must have been when he was between the age of
eleven and fourteen that Saul set out to his new abode.
We cannot suppose it likely that one so young would
be allowed to go alone. His father would himself most
probably be too glad to have the opportunity of visiting the city of his people, and would delight to be the
first to point out the wonders of the land of promise to
his dear boy.* Neither is it likely, when they were so
near the sea, that they would attempt the long journey
by land. If you look again to the map, you will see
how easily they could sail by vessel. We may imagine
the Hebrew youth bidding an affectionate farewell to
his old friends at Tarsus; his little sister, it may be,
accompanying him to the ship in the docks, and, with
a tear in her eye, following him, after the anchor was
weighed, till he was lost from her sight amid the other
* Howson and Conybeare, vol. i. p. 56.




22           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
vessels that crowded the harbour. We may imagine
him sailing slowly down the river, which, near the
town, was still and motionless; some hardy Phoenician captain at the helm, perhaps, struck with the
sharp and intelligent features of the Jewish boy, delighting to give him his first ideas of a seafaring life.
We may suppose him wandering on the deck until the
sun has set behind the mountains of his childhood.
They have 1inw reached the mouth of the Cydnus,
twelve miles below Tarsus. Here the river swells out,
before joining the sea, into a large basin or lake, which
by art had been made into docks, and was called the
port of Tarsus.* By and by, they have passed the promontory which encloses it, and the silvery moon has
risen on the great wilderness of waters all around.
Anothei day finds them gliding along' the waves of
the Mediterranean.  Its surface may i avs been the
calm, deep blue for which it is rema.k ible, with an
unclouded sky looking down into it. Or the young
voyager may have had the words of the Psalmist of
Israel often in his mind-" They that go down to the
sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these
see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep.
For He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind,
which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up
to the heaven, they go down again to the depths....
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man,
and are at their wit's end.... He maketh the storm
a calm, so that the waves thereof are still."+
"See!" we may imagine his father saying to him, as
he points his eye to something in the far east, " seest
thou yonder white mourntair. peaks like our owi
* S'rabo, quoted 1 r Lewin.  t Ps. cvii. 23-29.




THE SCHOLAR.                23
Taurus — these are the heights of Lebanon;" and the
boy's thoughts wander up and down the hazy steeps,
till he imagines he sees them clothed with dark
cedars, and then he remembers he is sailing on the
very waters by which Solomon got these giants of the
forest floated on rafts for the building of the temple.
No scene in the holy land can have undergone so little
change since the days of Saul as the appearance of
this " goodly mountain." The picture given, therefore,
by a recent writer, of the view of Lebanon from the
sea, describes with accuracy what the eye of the youth
of Tarsus then gazed on. "At sea the mountain rises
before the spectator as a whole, and the eye can pass
leisurely from its snowy peaks to the rich gardens at
its bottom. The spectator never wearies in gazing on
the goodly prospect before him. The undulating line of
its promontories and bays extends for many a mile along
the coast. On the mountain itself terrace rises above
terrace, displaying at once the industry of the inhabitants, and the fertility of the mountain. Villages, with
their flat-roofed houses, are seen sweetly placed amidst
groves of vines and mulberries, or plantations of sugarcane, oranges, and lemons."'
But they have passed Lebanon-its heights are receding in the distance, and by and by they come to a
bold mountain, with rocky front jutting out into the
sea. "This," his father would again say, "is Mount
Carmel, —yonder is where our father Elijah stood.
From this very sea he brought up his barrels of salt
water to pour into his dug trenches, and from yonder
top the smoke of his sacrifice ascended to heaven!"
Shepherds, who were attracted to Carmel by the e".
* Sec Wylie's Modern Judea. p. 70.




24           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
cellency" of its pastures, may have been looking down
at the moment from its heights of pine and olive on
the lonely vessel that was lnow sailing by its base.
Little did they know the value of the youngest member of that crew, or the influence that one life in its
manhood was yet to exercise on the world. As little did
the young voyager himself foresee with what different
feelings he would make the same voyage in after times!
He was now full of boyish glee-a bright world before
him! Forty years later, a care-worn missionary, his
back marked with scourging, and his hands hardened
with toil, would be seen, as he bounded over these
same waves, lifting up his dimmed eye, not to Carnel
nor to Lebanon, but to the " everlasting hills," from
whence alone came his aid.
A few hours more, and the sails are lowered. With
a joyous heart, Saul sees the land coming nearer and
nearer; they are within sound of Jewish voices on the
shore; and entering among many vessels into a spacious harbour, they find themselves safely moored, probably in the newly-built town of Cesarea, one of the
last and greatest of the works of Herod. The Hebrew
boy is treading the sacred soil bf Judea.*
Soon he commences the remaining land journey.
We need not pause to describe it, —the more so as the
last of its many interesting scenes casts all the others
into the shade. We may think of the two travellers
standing on the eastern slope of a gentle eminence,
where for the first time the glories of Jerusalem open
before them. -What three-topped hill is this, its
W* e peed not say that, in describing Saul's journey, only a proeba4
pceount of his route, and the incidents that took pla'e in it, can be gicen.
In this we have followed Howson and Conybeare in their interesting
lnrration-pp. 57, 58




THE SCHOLAR.                 Ad
sides au ially clothed with wood, rising immediacely
behind ths city I It is the green Mount of Olives-the
same mountain across which old King David went
weeping and bare-foot, and which was ere long to be
trodden (if it had not been trodden already) by Holierfootsteps. What stately roof is that, which seems like
a sheet of solid gold glittering in the sun, with pillars
and porticoes all round about it?  It is Solomon's
famous temple, with the holy of holies,-where the
God of Israel dwelt in visible glory! Perhaps at the
moment Saul saw it the smoke of the morning or
evening sacrifice was ascending. And what is that,
towering high on the right, nearer where they are
standing-a noble pile of building, with ranges of pillars, and surrounded with lovely gardens? It is the
royal palace-the same in which David and Solomon
once lived-where the latter erected his house of the
forest of Lebanon, and which King Herod had riow
rebuilt in more than its former splendour. Soon the
western gateway is passed, and the feet of the young
Cilician boy are standing within " the joy of the whole
earth"-" the city of the Great King."
Without pausing to describe more particularly the
sacred spot which Saul was now for several yers to
make his home, let us at once accompany him to
the place where most of his time was to be spent. It
was at a celebrated school in Jerusalem. There were
several of these within the city famous for their learning. But one of the chief (if not the very chief) was
that of Hillel, which dated its origin about sixty years
before the birth of Christ. Hillel, the founder, is supposed to be the father of old Simeon, who took the
child Jesus in his arms in the temple, and blessed him




26           THlIE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
The grandson. of Hillel, and probably the so:i of Simeon,
was a very learned and eminent Rabbi of the name of
Gamaliel. To shew in what esteem his learning was
held by the Jews, we are told that they designated
him " the beauty of the law." We know fron the
Acts of the Apostles that "he was had in reputation
of all the people."  We have reason to believe he
was a candid, upright, honourable man-amiable in
himself, and beloved by all who were acquainted with
him. There is a tradition which says that he was afterwards converted to Christianity by the preaching of
Peter and John; but this does not seem likely. Indeed,
it is to be feared he lived and died a zealous Pharisee.
Had it been otherwise, we could not well credit what
is said in the Targum, that another learned pupil,
named Onkelos, spent seventy pounds of incense at
his tomb, out of respect for his memory.
Such was Saul's teacher. We may follow the pupil
to the school, where, morning after morning, he was
found " at the feet of Gamaliel," along with a group of
other ardent students like himself. Among his other
school-fellows was very possibly Barnabas, who was, in
future years, his travelling companion and fellowlabourer; also, the sons of Gamaliel, Jesus and Simon
-the former of whom     became high priest.   The
learned teacher, with his quick eye and long flowing
beard, is seated in the centre. At one time he instructs them in Greek, at another in Hebrew; more
seldom, perhaps, in Latin. By far the greater portion
9f their tilre is devoted to the well-used scroll he has
by him, out of vhich he teaches the Jewish law. He
explains its precepts and promises, its ceremonies, pro* Acts v. 84.




THE SCHOLAR.               27
phecies, and types; although the Rabbi, wi.h all his
wisdom, had his own eyes blinded to the greatest of
the truths he was trying to unfold.
It was fortunate Saul had a liberal instructor like
Gamaliel, who did not object to impart to his scholars
a knowledge of the Greek language. Many others in
Jerusalem, at that time, would on no account have
done so. In the case of Saul, it formed a very important part of his training for the great work of his
future life, in preaching to the Gentiles. Greek, as
I have already said, was then understood and spoken
in many countries of the Roman empire; and we find
him afterwards, when, on different occasions, he addresses Athenians, Corinthians, and Cretans, making
quotations to them from their own poets, shewing that
he must have been familiar with their writings. We
can trace, also, in his future epistles and letters, the
peculiar way in which he had been trained by Gamaliel
to argue. When we think of such Jewish schools, we
must not imagine them similar to our own, or our own
colleges,' where the master or professor only is the
examinator.  The Jewish   doctor encouraged the
youths under him to question and cross-question one
another-he himself, too, being asked by them in
turn about anything they did not understand. It was
a school for debate, for, in this way, the Jews considered the minds of their youth to be best trained for
sharpness and acuteness.  A question was started,
objections were raised to it, and then these objections
were answered.  If you look to the Epistle to the
Romans, you will see more than one example of how
Paul used this form of debate or dialogue for the
defence and exnlanation of Christian doctrine. " What




28           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
advantage, then, hath the Jew, and what profit is there
of circumcision " *  " What shall we say, then? Shall
we continue in sin, that grace may abound?"+
We have good reason to imagine that the young
Tarsus stranger, as well as his companions in the
school of Hillel, loved their master, and listened with
attention and reverence to his instructions. The quick
mind of Saul grew more in love every day with the
law and the religion of his fathers. As he himself tells
us, "I made progress in the Jews' religion above many
my equals (those of the same age and standing with me)
in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of
the traditions of my fathers." - The thorough study of
the ancient Scriptures in such schools accounts for the
readiness he shews in his after life in quoting passages
from the Old Testament. Writers have noted no less
than eighty-eight quotations, one half of which seem to
have been from memory. I doubt not the eye of the
old Rabbi, as he surveyed the little countenances that
surrounded him, often fell with peculiar hope upon
that of the Cilician youth. Perhaps he erpected that,
when his own head was laid in the grave, the young
Tarsian would take his place as a great Jewish doctor.
But "God's thoughts are not as man's thoughts." That
studious boy was training for a nobler use!
The thought may occur-did Saul at this time,
when he was in Jerusalem, never meet any of those
with whom he was afterwards to be joined in such
sacred bonds? Did he never see any of the young
fishermen of Galilee, when they came with their fathers
and friends to attend the great annual feasts? Did be
* Romans iii. 1.
t Rom. vi. 1.  Se: -lso Rom  iii. 9, iv. 1, ix. 14; L vewLi, vol. i. p. 1Jt Gal. i. 14.




THE SCHOLAR.                29
never see the young Baptist, before his voice was heard
in the deserts of Jordan? or, more than all, did he
never see the blessed Saviour-" the holy child Jesus"
-as he came, year after year, with Joseph and iMary,
and mingled in the crowds at the temple?    Most
probably he did see one or all; but if so, they were
unknown to one another. It has been thought by
some, that Gamaliel was more than probably one of the
doctors in the temple whom   Jesus, when he was
twelve years of age, astonished by asking questions.
If this be the case, possibly Saul may have been there
in company with his teacher, and heard the tender
voice of one who was afterwards to claim  him as
his most "chosen vessel." *  But, be this as it may, the
occasion passed by; and we,shall end this chapter by
leaving our readers to imagine the future apostle,
seated, year after year, at the feet of his instructor,
having his head stored with learning, and his faculties
ripened and matured, for great duties and great services, which at the time he little dreamt of.
What a bright future must have seemed to his companions, and perhaps to himself, to be opening before
him!   God had given him, as his inheritance, the
greatest of all wealth-the wealth of intellect-the
riches of a cultivated mind. He was active, bold,
eloquent, virtuous, learned. He gives every promise
of future greatness. The army of Titus is, in a few
brief years, to be with their battering-rams at the
gates of Jerusalem; and if we were asked to point out
one in the whole nation of Israel, who gives best pro.
mise of acting the hero in that terrible conflict-head
ing the ranks of his desponding countrymen, and keec
* Acts ix. 15.




30           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
ing back, for a while at least, the Roman eagles from
their prey-we should, without doubt, point to that
quick-eyed youth who has battle-fields marked out for
him, nobler far than Roman valour ever contested. A
conquest is to be his, greater than the world's greatest
victors.  Meanwhile, he is learning lessons of bitterest
hatred to that truth which le was afterwards to proclaim with a giant's voice. He was now taught to
boast of nothing, save the traditions of his fathersthe pride of his birth-the distinction of his sect-the
glory of his nation. We know not if Gamaliel lived to
read in a letter, sent by this boy of Tarsus, in after
years, to some poor Christians, " God forbid that I should
glory, SAVE IN THE CROSS OF THE LORD JESUS CHNISTI"








uCHAPTER III
Qte V ertrttor.
" Foremost and nearest to His throne,
By perfect robes of triumph known,
And likest Him in look and toneThe holy Step)n  kneels."
Chriatic.na To.S




boyhood was over, and he was entering on manhood at the age of thirty or upwards. He had
probably, many years before this, left Gamaliel's school at
Jerusalem, and was once more at Tarsus, pursuing in private, or in the schools there, different branches of knowledge. We may take for granted, that, before leaving the
Holy City, he had received the lowest "degree" of learning, which was known among the Jews by the term "Rab;"
and perhaps, too, from being so distinguished among his
fellow-students, he may have received the next highest
title, viz., that of "Rabbi." There was only one higher
than these, which was reserved for seven individuals
who had attained to a great age, as well as to great
learning, such as Gamaliel; it was called "Rabbah" or
C




34           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL
"' Rabban." This, also, the young Tarsiatl scholar might,
with confidence, have looked forward to, had he not
learned, ere long, to " count all these titles of earthly
wisdom as loss," for the excellency of a higher " knowledge."
If we have dismissed in silence twenty years of his
life, it is not because these years have no interest
to us. They were, indeed, the most eventful time in
all the 6000 years of this world's history. The Saviour
of mankind had lived in them. He had lived his holy
life, and died, on Calvary's cross, his bitter death. A
new dispensation had been ushered in upon the earth
—'old things had passed away, and all things were
made new."
We may imagine the future apostle, then at the
age of thirty or upwards, once more at his native
Tarsus. He never makes mention, in ary of his writings, of the public ministry of Christ, oi f his miracles
and discourses. It is not probable, therefore, that he
had continued to reside at Jerusalem after finishing his
education. Had he done so, it is reasonable to think
he would often have spoken, like John, of what " he had
heard, and seen with his eyes, and looked upon"-the
mighty works and the holy words of Him who "spake
as never man spake."*  If wo are correct in supposing
that he had once more gone to his native city, many
changes, doubtless, had occurred since we last found him
there, while yet a boy, climbing the heights of Mount
Taurus, or watching the foam as it dashed over the
falls of the Cydnus.  His Fister had now grown to be a
* We follow in this the view adopted by most, alt hough there are
other opinions advanced by learned writers as to the reasor of Paul's silence
on this subject.




THE PERSECUTOR.              35
woman, and was probably married-the mother of. one
we shall find afterwards mentioned towards the close
of the apostle's life. The quiet of his home, too, must
have been disturbed, during his absence, by civil war.
A Roman historian tells us that Piso, a forrer governor of Syria, made an attempt to conquer the country
for himself-that, for this purpose, he gathered the
warlike chiefs of Mount Taurus together, and pitched
his hostile camp at the town of Celenderis, not far from
the mouth of the Cydnus.* We have reason to believe,
however, that, before the return of Gamaliel's pupil,
all was quiet again.
Let us leave him for a little under his father's
roof, busily carrying on his studies in Greek and
Hebrew-or, from time to time, making use of his
learning in the synagogue-while we glance at the
position and prospect of that Church called "Christian," of which he was ere long to be the great apostle.
The Lord Jesus Christ had risen from the grave,
and appeared again and again to his disciples. He
had taken them up, after forty days, to the top of the
Mount of Olives, and, while talking with them " concerning the kingdom," and pronouncing a parting blessing, "a cloud received him out of their sight."  The
sorrowing eleven were left alone, and returned with sad
hearts to Jerusalem. There was no time to be lost.
While it was their dear Lord and Master's last request
to preach his Gospel to "every creature," they were to
"begin at Jerusalem."  They assembled, first of all, in a
small upper room.   There were but 120 of them.
There they began with what all the great and impor.
tant duties of life should be begun and ended* Tacitus




36           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
prayer to God to help them in their great work, and
then they proceeded to proclaim the name and religion
of the risen Saviour. Their first sermon was a neverto-be-forgotten one.  Peter preached it, and 3000
Jews were converted to the new faith. Many of these
had come from far distant parts of the world, to attend
the great feast of Pentecost, and, when the festival
was finished, they returned back to their several
homes, and told all the wondrous things they had seen
and heard.
The different sects in Jerusalem were alarmed at the
progress the " Nazarenes" (as they called them  in
mockery) were making. They resolved, if they could,
to crush the infant Church. The Sadducees had now
the greatest influence. To their party the high priest
belonged. And as the apostles of Jesus dwelt, in their
discourses, more especially on His resurrection, this
sect were more violent in their opposition than any
others; for you are aware that the Sadducees denied
altogether th- doctrine of a resurrection. They saw
that, in young Saul of Tarsus, with his energy, and
zeal, and learning, they had one in every way qualified to carry out their purposes of vengeance against
the followers of Jesus.  He was willing enough to
listen to the call. His proud spirit could not for a
moment believe that that meek "Man of sorrows"whose only birthright seemed poverty-who had lately
expired, like a common felon, on the cross, could be the
Messiah whom   he and his fathers had looked for,
Would the great Shiloh, of whom the patriarch Jacob
spake-the " Prince of Peace," of whom Isaiah sunghaive none but twelve peasants of Galilee for his companions, and make these the teachers of the world?




THE PERSEC UTOR.              37
No, no; the manger of Bethlehem, the carpenter's
shop at Nazareth, the cross of Calvary, the fishermen
disciples-all shocked the pride of the young Pharisee.
The very thought of a Messiah so lowly seemed an insult to God and to the whole Jewish nation. He had
thought, at first, that the new religion of this " one
Jesus" would soon be forgotten-that, after this death
of shame and humiliation, all his other followers would,
like his apostles, have forsaken him and fled.  But
when he saw the sect growing daily in strength, he
resolved to do God service, by entering with his whole
soul on the work of persecution.
There was a holy man who rose into note at this
time among the disciples of Jesus; his name was Stephen, one of the seven deacons of the infant Church,
chosen to take charge of the money collected for the
relief of the poor. He is described by Jerome, and
some of the early fathers, as a person of great learning and eloquence. In Scripture he is spoken of as " a
man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost." He was
bold in the cause of his crucified but now exalted
Lord.  He went day after day into the synagogue,
disputing with the learned men and doctors, and trying to shew them, fiom their own Old Testament scriptures, that Jesus was the true Messiah. We are told
(in Acts vi. 9, 10) that among these synagogues into
which he entered was that of " the Cilicians;" and we
have reason to believe, that' among those whom this
"devout man" addressed, was one who had again left
his native Tarsus and come up to Jerusalem.
It is more than likely that the "young man Saul"*
(who is now again brought before our notice) often
* Acts vii. 58.




G3us      THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
and agait disputed with Stephen; that all the powers
of argument he had learned so well under Gamaliel's
teaching were put in force; but that he, like the other
Jews, " were not able to resist the wisdom and spirit"
with which the holy deacon spake."  Their malice was
excited, and they resolved to have him condemned.
How can they best succeed? False witnesses are hired
to convict him of speaking blasphemous words against
the law and the temple, "against Moses, and against
God."  No charge could more certainly rouse the passions of the Jews against the accused than this. "What!
this Nazarene to assert that all we love as most sacred
is to be destroyed!-thel/w, which our great father
Moses received from God himself on Sinai, to be abolished!-the great temple of S-lomon, the wonder and
glory of the world, whither for ages on ages' the tribes
have gone up, even the tribes of the Lord, unto the
testimony of Israel,' was all its magnificence now to
pass away!-were they to see no more their high
priests in their splendid robes! —the smoke of their
morning and evening sacrifices!-to hear no more the
music of the timbrel, and harp, and stringed instruments at their sacred feasts, or the silver trL mpet of
jubilee pealing over the land! It is the height of blasphemy! No sentence can be too severe, no death too
terrible forsuch a scoffer as this."  These, doubtless,
would be the feelings alike of Pharisees and Sadducees;
and we can readily calculate what the result will be
when Stephen is dragged before the Sanhedrim-the
great Jewish court of law-to answer to the bharges
thus preferred against him.
A great meeting is called of this tribunal.  The
* Acts vi. 10.




THE PERSECUTOR.              39
place in which they were wont to assemble was a hall
called " Gazith," or the "stone chamber," situated close
by the wall of the temple, with the rocky side of
Mount Moriall immediately beneath.    Before this
time, indeed, the Jews were forbidden to meet here.
They had religious scruples about Gentiles crossing the
sacred enclosures; and the Romans, not unreasonably,
dreaded lest the holding of assemblies, in a place they
were not permitted to enter, might become a dangerous privilege.* In the present instance, however, the
prohibition had been winked at, and the "stone chamber" was the place of meeting.
Our young readers may fancy to themselves the
scene. The president of the assembly, the high priest
(Theophilus the Sadducee, one of the sons of Annas)
occupies a raised seat at the upper end of the room;
other seventy-one members are.ranged in a half-circle
around him, consisting of the heads of the twenty-four
courses of priests, twenty-four elders, and twenty-four
scribes. Stephen stands in front of his judges; but
he is not afraid-his God and Saviour is with him.
Indeed, at that moment, while the eye of Saul, along
with the others, is fixed with rage on the prisoner, the
young Tarsian sees what he never afterwards could
forget-a bright heavenly light or glory resting on the
face of Stephen, as if the flame of truth in his inner
soul was seen reflected on his countenance.  Saul
looks on the faces of the judges; he sees them, as his
own was, flashing with fire and indignation; but the
eye of the first martyr is directed up to heaven; with
him, all is peace!
The great charge, as we have said, brought against
* Lewin.




40           THE FOuTSTEPS OF,,T PAUL.
him was, that he had foretold the destruction of the
temple, and "the change of the customs which Moses had
formerly delivered to them." *  The president hears
the false witnesses first; after they state their charges,
he turns towai ds Stephen and puts the usual question,
whether he pleads "guilty, or not guilty."  "Are these
things so?" The prisoner, unmoved, with a calm and
clear voice enters on his defence. He begins by minutely rehearsing the leading events in the history of
their nation, from the calling of Abraham and the Exodus
fron Egypt, to the building of the temple during the
reign of Solomon: he declares that he was no enemy
to the Old Testament rites-these he loved in common
with all Jews; but, at the same time, shewed that
Moses himself had spoken of a time when his law would
be displaced by a better dispensation, quoting the very
words of the great lawgiver-" A Prophet shall the
Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren
like unto me; Hin shall ye hear."+t  He charged his
hearers with trusting too much to outward privileges,
and sinfully resisting the grace and Holy Spirit of God,
as their fathers did. The whole assembly are roused
into fury! Like wild beasts springing upon their prey,
" they gnashed upon him with their teeth." +  As their
rage, however, increases, so also does his calm composure; a holier brightness gathers over his countenance.
We cannot wonder at it; for we are told that then
" he looked up into heaven, and saw the glory of God,
and Jesus standing at the right hand of God."~ He
looked far above the cruel assembly gathered in the
earthly Jerusalem.  He was gazing upon "the gene
* Acts vi. 14.   t Acts vii. 37., Acts vii. 54.  ~ Acts vii. 55.




THE PERSECUTOR.                41
ral assembly and church of the first-born in heaven."
The veil of the skies had been drawn aside. He saw
holy angels smiling upon him; and, better than all.
that blessed Saviour he had probably last seen expiring in agony on the cross, " standing on the right hand
of God."  As an early father says, "not'seated,' but'standing,' as if he rose from his glorious throne to
welcome his first apostle and martyr."
Beautifully does a Christian poet say" Well might you guess what vision bright
Was present to his raptured sight,
ERen as reflected streams of light
Their solar source betray;
" The glory which our God surrounds,
The Son of man-th' atoning woundsHe sees them all,-and earth's dull bounds
Are melting fast away."
But he can expect no mercy from the hands of men;
they saw no such bright heavenly vision! The seventytwo are all against him. "They cried with a loud
voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with
one accord." In that loud voice there mingled, doubtless, the shout of the young rabbi of Tarsus. If there
was one event in his life more than another Saul afterwards bitterly wept over, surely it was that mad rush
he made on an innocent and holy saint, and when he
helped to urge him, unresisting along, from the place of
trial to the place of death. It was contrary to the
Jewish law to commit murder inside the walls of the
city; they must therefore for some moments repress
their rage till they are outside the sacred enclosures.
They drag their victim through the gate, which still
bears his name, and by which, in ages long after, the
brave and victorious Godfrey of Bouillon conducted his
armies with loud acclamations in entering Jerusalem.




42           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
Soon they reach the scene of violence. It is supposed
to be a lonely spot, low down in the valley of Jehoshaphat, not far off from where Stephen's Saviour had suffered far more terrible agonies in the garden of Gethsemane.*   The brook Kedron is murmuring in his
ear.  He could not fail to remember that Jesus too
listened to its sound in that darkest night the world
ever saw.   What a "mixed multitude,"     we   may
imagine, are present! There are the idle mob from the
city, who are ever hanging on, ready to take part in
any tumult, and to be witnesses of savage deeds.
There are priests and scribes, by their words and
gestures stirring up the passions of the rabble, and
hurrying them  to execute with all speed the act of
cruelty. While, lurking in the crowd, afraid to utter
a word which might bring down on themselves similar
vengeance, are the trembling disciples of the same
Master whose cross Stephen so meekly bears. Who
is to begin the bloody work? A number of stones
lying in the channel of the Kedron, or that have fallen
from the rocky ridges of Jehoshaphat, are the weapons
of death. According to the Jewish law, it is the witnesses in the trial who must cast the first.  And these
seem resolved to effect their purpose thoroughly; for
their upper loose garments are cast aside, that their
arms may be able to dash the stones with sufficient
force. There is one close by, who is ready enough to
assist. They lay down their coats at his feet to take
charge of them. It is a young man, described by early
writers as being " short in stature, of a fair complexion,
and with expressive eyes."  His name is Saul! The
dreadful tragedy is soon over-stone after stone is
* See the picture at the beginning of the chapter.




THE PERSECUTOR.               43
hurled upon that bruised and tortured body. The
green turf is dyed with the first martyr's blood. But
he utters not one revengeful word-a new spirit has
been introduced into the world.  Like his Lord before
himr, he prays with his dying lips for his murderers,
and then "fails asleep."
" With such a Friend and Witness near,
No form of death could( make him fear;
Calm amid showers of stones he kneels,
And only for his murderers feels! " *
That prayer was heard for one at least of those who
were in that crowd.-There is a cave or grotto still
pointed out in the valley of Jehoshaphat, where it is
said the murderers dragged the mangled body of the
martyr when life was extinct.t
"The shades. evening closed around that guiltyr
city, which had that day added another sin to her catalogue of crimes, and maintained her ancient character
as'a murderer of God's messengers. The multitude had
dispersed to their homes. The priests were recounting
with joy the events of the day, and the disciples were
weeping in secret the loss of one so honoured and Ieloved.  But everywhere was heard the name of one
who had stood prominent in these fearful scenes.
Among the groups who lingered at the corners of the
streets, and talked over these trans.actions-at the fireside, where Jewish mothers heard with glistening eyes
of this new triumph of their faith-in that mourning
assembly, where the Nazarenes blended their tears and
pra:yers, the deeds of the youthful Saul were canvassed
with joy on the one hand, and terror on the other.  It
semue(l a sad day for the religion that had lost her
eloquent and earnest preacher, and not less bright and
* Jrh Newton.         t MaundrelL




14          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
promising for that ancient system which had called
forth a champion worthy of her happiest times. The
rich and poor, the Pharisee and Sadducee, were loud in
praise of the rising zealot, and everything seemed to
augur for him a career of high distinction. The path
was already open for Saul to the most exalted honours
which a Jew could receive from  the rulers of his
people." *
The Bible tells us nothing as to how Saul himself
must have really felt at Stephen's death. I doubt not,
though he concealed it, there were other feelings that
mingled with rage and bigotry, as the dead body lay
at his feet, and he heard the sound of the " sore lamentation" made by sorrowing friends over their " loved
and lost " one. He must have thought to himself-Can
all that peace, and calmness, and prayer, and forgiveness,
and love have been that of a hypocrite I Meanwhile,
however, we know that he did go away from the place
a furious zealot as before.  Perhaps he thought he
saw in that tranquil death only the power of the evil
one at work on a naturally pure and holy mind, tempting him to desert the faith of his fathers for a miserable heresy. This would only give him the greater
desire to extinguish it, and prevent others from falling
into the same snare. But there were thoughts and
impressions, notwithstanding, made on his heart, which
he never could forget, and which he never did forget,
when he came afterwards to follow in Stephen's steps,
and to pant for Stephen's crown.t
* The Apostle Paul: a Biography. 1854
t See Acts xxii. 1.








CHAPTER IV
R^t tftuet.
U See me, see me-once a rebel,
Vanquish'd at His cross I lie;
Cross! to tame.;arth's proudest able!
Who was e'er so proud as I 1
He convinced me; He subdued me;
He chastised me; He renew'd me.
The nails that nail'd-the spear that slew Him,
Transfix'd my heart, and bound it to Him.
See me, see me-once a rebel,
Vanquish'd at His cross I lie."
"Grace came, omnipotent grace, and the rampart of that great
soul fell like the walls of Jericho; the impregnable citadel was car.
red in an hour, and all its ample magazines were redeemed for the
tavice of the Lor i.




%   n ^B  HnE flaimnes of persecution  were now
fairly lighted. The Jewish Sanhedrim'~BS wixed fiercer than ever in their hatred
to the disciples of Jesus.  Soon, alas! did the Saviour's words come true, John xvi. 2 — "They shall
put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh,
that whosoever killeth you will think that hlie doeth
God service."  We are not, indeed, warranted.to suppose that the Sanhedrim were permitted to persecute
unto death. Stephen's martyrdom was doubtless an
act of treason against the government of thle land, and
at otler times, would have been dealt with as such.
But Pilate had lnbw been deposed, his successor was
not yet appointed, and the Jews felt themselves at
guilt v liberty to commit this cold-blooded murder,




48           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
Although it is not probable the repetition of such
a violation of law would be allowed, nc such interference was made in the case of lesser cruelties.
The "young man Saul," now advancing to manhood,. elected one of the council;.and he seems to exceed
a&J the others in the amount of his rage and fury,against the followers of Jesus. "He made havoc of
the Church," seizing not only on men, and making
them the objects of his cruelty, but women also were
bound in chains and put in prison. Sometimes he
was not even satisfied with this, but had individuals
ready to whip and scourge them. By making them
thus suffer torture, he tried to induce them te blaspheme the name of Jesus.
Think, in this happy and favoured age and countly
of ours, what all these poor Christians must have been
uaffering then in Jerusalem! The old and infirm-the
Simeons and Annas-who had had the evening of their
days gladdened by that bright Gospel Sun which others
had only seen afar off-think of their tottering frames
borne down with heavy irons, their hoary locks in vain
appealing for mercy! Think of the daughters of Jerusalem-the wives and mothers who once had wept for
the Lord they so loved, when they saw Him carrying
his cross-now called to weep and carry that cross for
themselves-their helpless children torn from  them
because they would not deny the name of Him who
was dearer than the dearest on earth! In connexion
with these dreadful doings, the cruelty of the Rabbi of
Tarsus was known hundreds of miles off. " How much
evil he had done to the saints of God at Jerusalem 1" *
Little was he aware, at the time, how literally true
* Acts ix. IS.




THE CONVERT.                49
the saying of his future Lord and Master would be in
his case-" With what measure ye mete, it shall be
measured to you again!"   He had taken part in
"stoning," "scourging," "imprisoning."  In all the
three, he himself was yet to " bear, in his own body,
the marks of the Lord Jesus!"
I do not think, however, that we can argue from
this, as many have done, that Saul was naturally of a
savage and cruel nature. He was a true and sincere
worshipper of God, and a person of correct life. He tells
us himself that " as touching the righteousness of the
law, he was blameless." It was a blind and erroneous
zeal, in what he supposed was the cause of truth, which
led him to such acts of oppression. He thought all the
time he was "doing God service," and that the more
he shewed his hatred to Jesus and his people, God
would love him the more. His own words are striking
-" I verily thought I ought"-(it was a false sense of
duty)-" to do many things contrary to the name of
Jesus of Nazareth."'  Besides, the principles of toleration prized and acted on in our happy country
were not known in his time, or at least never maiifested. We may be struck indeed at the amount
and bitterness of his persecuting zeal; we read that he
was "breathing out threatenings and slaughter" (with
all the ferocity of a wild beast, as the word means).
This may at first sight seem strange, if what we
have a little ago said be true, that he was impressed
with Stephen's holy death. But alas! this is often
one out of many ways that people take to resist conviction, anr- thereby to silence the voice of conscience.
Just as the sun, shining upon a stagnant pool, draws
* Acts xxvi. 9
D




60           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
forth fron it only noxious vapours, so the holy radiance on the countenance of the martyr seemed but to
extract stronger feelings of hatred from the proud heart
of the persecutor. As a writer has well said, "The
arrow of conviction, when it fails to bring the sinner
bleeding to Christ, saying,'What must I do to be
saved V' seldom fails to exasperate his natural enmity
so as to rouse his violent opposition to Christ and his
cause; insomuch that, when at any time we see a man
breathing out violence and threatenings against the
ministers or people of God, we are ready to think that
at one time that sinner must have had an arrow
sticking fast in his conscience, and that he is uneasy and restless and wretched within, in consequence of its rankling and festering sore."* These
dreadful scenes and cruelties in which Saul now engaged, were like scorpion-stings afterwards to his warm
and tender heart. They pained and lacerated him
more than the thongs of the gaoler, or the rough irons
that bound him-" I am the least of the apostles," he
says, "that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God."+  "Beyond
measure I persecuted the Church and wasted it."+
Till now the Gospel had been principally, if not altogether, preached in the city of Jerusalem; but these
mournful cruelties were beginning to scatter the disciples among the neighbouring provin es of Judea, and
even among the countries beyond. Philip, Stephen's
old companion and friend, was preaching and working
miracles in Samaria, and Peter and John shortly after
followed him there on the same errand.   Thus the
rage of the persecutors was overruled by Divine Pro* Buhana- 2n the Hoely Spirit, p. 291  t 1 Cor. xv. 9.  t Gal. i. 13




THE CONVERT.               51
vtflnce for the spread of the glad tidings of salvation
in other lands. The martyrdom of Stephen was like
the fall of the forest tree, which, as it comes with a
crash to the ground, scatters its seeds on every side.
These seeds, however, are not to be allowed long to
rest in peace. The Christians who had taken refuge in
other lands are to be hunted out by this fierce zealot as
well as when they were within the walls of Jerusalem.
Where is he to begin his new warfare 1 what spot does
he fix upon first, in order to spring upon his unoffending prey?
There was a city far north of Palestine, Damascus,
the capital of Syria, where many of the poor saints had
taken refuge, and where many more, by their preaching and influence, had become disciples of the Lord
Jesus. Saul could of himself exercise no authority at
a distance; but he received from Theophilus, the high
priest in Jerusalem, letters to the Jewish synagogues
in Damascus, in order that he might seize hold of ail
the converts he could find there-" any of this way"
(as he in words of bitter contempt expresses it), whether
they were men or women, and bring them bound to
the prisons in Jerusalem.
You have heard of the Crusaders of the middle
ages, who went to Palestine to fight for the Holy
Sepulchre, and how manfully they endured every kind
of hardship and suffering in what they thought was a
holy enterprise. You have heard of the poor wretched
Hindus in India travelling on their knees for hundreds
of miles, under a burning sun, to the temples of their
idol deities, thinking thus to obtain their favour.
Never, we believe, did Pilgrim, or Crusader, or Hindu,
set out with a more honest conviction that he was




62           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
"doing God service," than did Saul of Tarsus at this
time to the Syrian capital.
To explain this " authority from the high priest," it
must be borne in mind that the Roman emperors,
though ever jealous about giving their own power to
others, had (since the reign of Julius Caesar) invested
the Jewish high priest, as head of the Sanhedrim, with
full authority over all Israelites who might be living in
foreign cities,-at least to the extent of "excommunication, scourging, and imprisonment."  When they
wished to enforce any of these, "a mandate" was sent
by the hands of a special messenger (as was the case
now with Saul) to the synagogue of the city where the
Jews resided, whom they wished to punish.*
What a journey was this! how much hung upon i!
and yet the Bible throws no light upon the journey itself
-as to what route the future apostle took, or who were
with him. There were several ways by which he could
reach Damascus; but as it is more than likely that
by this time the Roman roads were made through
Judea,+ we may suppose that Saul, mounted on horseback and surrounded with his companions, proceeded
out of the north-western gate of Jerusalem, taking the
great paved road, whose remains are traced at the present day, similar to the paved highways we shall afterwards come to speak of in Italy, and other countries.:
It has been attempted to give a precise date to'his
memorable journey-about November A. D. 37, a few
months after Stephen's martyrdom. It may help to
* Lewin.
t For a description of the different routes from Jerusalem to Damav'cus,
see Conybeare and Howson. We have adopted the one selected by thaw
as most probable.
t Biblical Researches,  1. iii. p. 77.




THE CONVERT.                53
assist our impression of the incidents connected with
it, to assume the date to be the coirect one. The
usual time which modern companies take to travel
between Jerusalem and Damascus is a week-the distance being 136 miles. On the supposition that Saul
and his companions were a mounted band, they would
do it sooner; but it would seem, from his own description, that the party in this respect very nearly resembled caravans in the present day, some being mounted,
and some on foot.* Ascending the ridge, on the left
of which are the tombs of the Judges, they would wend
their way across a hill which was to become more memorable, some years later, as that where the Roman
standards were first planted by Titus when he came
against Jerusalem. The temple has now sunk from
the view of the travellers, and the road lies, with many
devious windings, through a mountainous district, till
they come to Ramah of Benjamin. Two cities of a
similar name open upon them right and left. The former, Gibeah of Saul, could not be without interest to
the young Pharisee, who proudly bore the name of
Israel's first king. Here was the monarch's birthplace.
They could follow in thought his brave son in his midnight exploit, with his armour-bearer, when he left his
father's tent under the pomegranate tree in Gibeah,
and by the morning the Philistines were fleeing in disorder over the plain.  The city, towards the right,
had recollections equally interesting. It was over the
walls of Gibeon that, at the command of Josh.ia, the
sun stood still in the heavens. Here, under David and
Solomon, the tabernacle had for many years been set
up, and the latter monarch, on ascending the throne,
* Lewin.




54           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
offered up his thousand-burnt-offerings.  They hasten
onwards through a rocky country, occasionally relieved
by gentle slopes or artificial terraces, where the melon
and cucumber are found cultivated along with patches
of grain. The eye of the inquisitor is doubtless intent
on the great object of his journey; he may have
little inclination to gaze on the vatious spots of renown
which are crossing his path; but surely he could not
pass Bethel without a solemn pause and many hallowed
remembrances.   Was this the spot he had so often
read of in his Tarsus home, where father Jacob had
taken the stones of the place for his pillow, and saw
the ladder stretching down from heaven to earth-the
angels of God travelling up and down upon it 1 The
impressive typical meaning of that vision was to young
Saul yet sealed. He had yet to know the glory of
that mediatorial work which connected earth with heaven-the sinner with God. Who can tell but these
same angels that hovered over the weary patriarch
1700 years before, had now "charge given them to
encamp" around another erring fugitive!   If there
be "joy in heaven among the angels of God over every
sinner that repenteth," what must that joy be when
they can bear tidings to the throne that there is one
weeping at the cross like Saul of Tarsus!
But they pursue their way. Shiloh was the last
place of note they passed before entering the hills of
Samaria.   Here they'could not fail to think of the
touching story of old Eli and the youthful Samuel;
but there was nothing in the town itself to attract attention. Ever since the " Ark of God" had been taken
from it by the Philistines, Shi.oh had sunk into insignificance. Perhaps, from sonm height here, the young




THE CONVERT.                55
Benjaimte nay have got a glimpse of the blue mountains bounding the horizon on the north; they are the
heights of Gilboa.  On yonder mountain side, the
stately king, whose birthplace he had recently passed,
fell, when " the archers hit him, and he was sore
wounded of the archers."  He might see, or fancy he
saw, the direction by which the messenger hurried
along to Ziklag with the crown and bracelet of the fallen monarch, carrying the heavy tidings to David that
"the beauty of Israel had been slain upon the high
places."
After crossing the hills of Ephraim, we may listen
in thought to their horses' hoofs sounding along the
winding valley between Ebal and Gerizim, close to
Sychar. They may have even possibly paused to refresh themselves at the very fountain-the well of
Jacob-where a Samaritan woman had the water of life
first pointed out to her.
If we have said in a former chapter that the glories
of Lebanon and Carmel must have been much the
same in the days of Saul as now, we may say the same
of this lovely valley; for while the features of nature
in her bold mountains and valleys never can be
changed, the old Shechem of Scripture still survives
when many other towns and villages of Palestine have
been swept away. As Saul rode through its groves
and orchards, scenes which have met the eye of recent
travellers were those most likely to meet his own. " A
beautiful stream would be running through the valley.
and a shepherd might be seen seated on its bank, playing a reed-pipe, with his flock feeding quietly around
him."  "Along the valley he might behold a company
Af Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, as in the days of




5I6          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
Reuben and Judah, with their camels'bearing spicery,
and balm, and myrrh,' who would gladly have purchased another Joseph of his brethren, and conveyed
him as a slave to some Potiphar in Egypt. Upon the
hills around, flocks and herds might be feeding as of
old; nor, in the simple garb of the shepherds of Samaria, would there be anything to contradict the notions
he might entertain of the appearance formerly exhibited by the sons of Jacob." *
Samaria is soon passed, and Galilee is entered. They
have reached a lofty ridge from which they look down
into the deep basin of the Sea of Tiberias-that spot
which had become sacred with the presence and deeds
of a Greater than the greatest of apostles. It.was
there that a mighty Voice had stilled a furious tempest, and rescued a sinking disciple; the same Voice
and the same Hand was ere long, by a mightier miracle,
to rescue him who now rode unconcerned along its white
pebbly beech! Crossing to its other side, they come
in view of Capernaum and Bethsaida. Boats might
be flitting, as they passed, to and fro in the calm surface of the lake, in which probably Peter, and James,
and Andrew, and John, once sat and toiled, and in
which Jesus had sat along with them.
After the hills which rose on the eastern side of the
lake have been climbed, the view becomes quite altered;
the land of mountains and valleys is about to be left
behind, and one vast plain, extending for miles on
miles, stretches before them. Towards the extreme
north, the brow of Hermon, white with snow as if
hoary with age, towered far up in the blue sky. It
formed the highebt point in the range of Mount Leba* Stephen's Travels, and Clarke's Travels, quoted by Wylie.




THE CONVERT.                57
non-the giant boundary-line of the north of Palestine,
and which now lay right between the persecutor and
his native Cilicia. The journey presently is over a
flat and even country, but wasted, dry, and sterile. A
hot burning sun pours its rays down upon their heads,
and many a league has to be trodden before their eyes
are gladdened with cooling streams or welcome shade.
At last, in the far distance, a dotted streak of sparkling
white greets their vision, and circling lines, glancing in
the sun, seem to mark the presence of a flowing river.
It is their longed-for city-the towers and pinnacles of
great Damascus.
"The mid-day sun, with fiercest glare,
Broods o'er the hazy twinkling air,
Along the level sand.
The palm-tree's shade unwavering lies,
Just as thy towers, Damascus, rise
To greet yon wearied band." *
Damascus, the "head" or capital of Syria, is one of
the oldest towns in the world. When the patriarch
Abraham lived, Damascus was built. His trusty and
faithful servant was "Eliezer of Damascus." In the
reign of David and Solomon, it carried on an extensive
trade with neighbouring and distant cities. The prophet Ezekiel speaks particularly of its commerce with
Tyre -" its wares, emeralds, purple and broidered
work, the wine of HeIbon, and white wool."  While
Nineveh can only be lug out of its grave, and the
ruins of Babylon can scarcely be found, Damascus
remains a great and beautiful city to this day, the
wonder of all travellers, with its busy throng of 120,000
inhabitants, its same bright white buildings, its long
streets, its busy bazaars, its sparkling fountains, its
* Wristian Year.




58           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
lovely palm-trees and delicious fruits.*  It is called by
eastern writers, "a pearl surrounded by emeralds."
Abana and Pharpar, the rivers which Naaman of old
liked "better than all the waters of Israel," and which
(united) the ancient geographers knew by the name of
"the Golden Stream," t still come tumbling down from
the heights of Lebanon, and wind in graceful curves
through the long flat plains, carrying beauty and freshness in their course, more especially around the rich
gardens and forests of olive-trees in which the city itself is embosomed.
It is said of an Arabian prince, that when he was on
his way to Damascus, and first beheld it, he stopped
his horse and refused to go any further, erecting on
the spot where its towers first burst upon his view, a
monument with the following inscription:-" I expect
to enter one Paradise, but if I enter this city, I shall
be so ravished with its beauties as to lose sight of the
Paradise which I hope to enter."
"We were looking down," says a recent traveller,
"from an elevation of 1000 feet, upon a vast plain
bordered in the distance by blue mountains, and occupied by a rich luxuriant forest of the walnut, the fig,
the pomegranate, the plum, the apricot, the citron, the
locust, the pear, and the apple, orming a waving grove
of more than fifty miles in circuit.... Then conceive
our sensations to see, grandly rising in the distance,...
the swelling leaden domes, the gilded crescents, and
the marble minarets of Damascus, while in the centre
of all, winding toward the city, ran the main stream of
the river Barrada."+
* Among these is the well-known Damson, or JDamascen4 ph-m.
f Bible Cycloj v~dia.    I Addison.




THE CONVERT.                59
Truly we need not be surprised at Naaman thinking
more of his own native rivers, the Scripture "streams
from Lebanon," than all the waters of Syria; foi' the
former, with their "golden streams," and never-failing
ones, too (as Amana or Abana literally means), make
Damascus, though on the borders of a desert, one of
the loveliest spots on earth; while the rivers of Judea
(the Jordan excepted), are small and scanty, and their
narrow rocky channels generally dry in the summer.*
It may be further interesting to mention, that Christian missionaries are at this day labouring among
the Jewish population of Damascus, which recently
amounted to the number of 5000.
But to return. We may imagine the band of horsemen, with the fiery Cilician at their head, nearing the
walls of this "eye of the east."  The sun of the last
day of their journey is brightly shining upon them.
They are hopeful that they will, ere long, either be
screened from the sultry heat in the house of one of
their brethren, or at all events attain the cooling shade
of one of the many avenues leading to the city. Soon
they are riding along among palm, orange, and citron
groves, getting, through some occasional openings, a
glimpse of Mount Hermon.    Natural and artificial
streams are murmuring at their feet. Birds with their
lovely plumage are hiding themselves among the
branches. Creeping flowers in endless variety and
beauty, and especially among these the Damascus (or
Damask) rose, are diffusing a grateful perfume all
around.  In the distance, they may see mules and
camels approaching the city from other quarters, laden
with goods and merchandise, just as at this day cara* Bible Cyclopeedia.




60           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
vans are still observed carrying Indian manufactures
in great quantities from Bagdad, or from Mecca and
Aleppo.  The words of'a modern writer* may, with
little alteration, have described what Saul and his followers beheld-" The rich turbans and flowing robes
of respectable merchants, are finely contrasted with the
rude sheep-skin covering of the mountaineer, and the
dark abba of the wandering Arab."
They are riding along with no thought but that
their errand will soon be done. They are thinking of
the number of their victims, and how they will best
be able to return with them through these burning
plains" The leader of that martial crew
Seems bent some mighty deed to do,
So steadily he speeds;
With lips firm closed and fixed eye,
Like warrior when the fight is nigh,
So steadily he speeds."
And now they have reached a spot half a mile from
Damascus, where, at the present day, there is a village
called El-Kochaba (caucabe), or " the star" (brightness),
from the marvellous occurrence we are now to relate.+
But what is this! In a moment they are stopped on the
way. One of them reels from his horse and falls senseless to the ground. It is mid-day-the sun is right
above their heads in the cloudless sky; but a light
brighter than even a bright Eastern sun dazzles their
eyes.  It is a "great light," and it shines "suddenly"
upon them.    They are all struck for the moment
speechless!
The others at least cannot tell why they should
tremble so, for they neither " hear any voice nor see
any vision." It was different with their chief. The
* See Biblical Keepsake.  t Bible Cyclopaedia.




THE CONVERT.                61
Jew of Tarsus is lying speechless on the earth; but in
his ear there sound some strange and thrilling words.
He lifts up his eye towards the awful brightness. It is
nothing else than the emblem of God's presence-the
"shekinah" or " glory," which he had often heard of as
dwelling in the tabernacle of old, and in the Holy of
holies in the temple. But it is no mere light-no
mere vision which he sees. There is a glorious Person
atso. It is Jesus of Nazareth whom  he persecuted.
He leaves us no doubt, in other places where he speaks
of this great event in his history, that it was actually
Jesus in his glorified person he beheld, —" Have I not
seen the Lord?"-and, "Last of all he was seen of me
also."  And Ananias we shall presently find saying to
him, " The Lord, even Jesus, who appeared to thee in
the way as thou camest."  Saul knows Him at once!
JEsus addresses him in the Hebrew tongue-the same
language in which He had conversed with his twelve
disciples. He names him! and in mingled tenderness
and rebuke thus speaks, "Saul! Saul! why persecutest
thou me?" as if He said, "It is not my poor innocent
people you are cruel to, but what you do to them I feel
as if you were doing to me,-in hurting them you are
hurting me."  What a gracious, tender word of this
gracious Saviour! What a laying bare of his loving
heart! What even was Stephen's dying love to this?
If we may suppose Saul venturing to reply, and saying,
" When persecuted I thee?  I took no part in the
awful scenes of Gethsemane and Calvary! I formed
not one of the assassin band. I gave thee no traitor's
kiss. I weaved for thee no crown of twisted thorns.
I plunged no rough iron into thy side. My tongue
was not raised to add to thy last agonies, mc-kery and




62           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
insult."  The reply was ready " Inasmuch as ye did it
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it
unto me."* The awe-struck horseman, scarce knowing what he says, replies, "Who art thou, Lord'"
The answer comes from the same glorified lips, "I am
TJesus of Nazareth whom thou persecutest." +  "I am
that very Jesus whom thou thoughtest to be a despised
and crucified malefactor; but I am the Lord of glory-'I am Jesus of Nazareth'-the name thou wert in the
habit of using in mockery, calling me and my people the
Nazarenes." The whole current of Saul's thoughts must
have been in a moment changed. What! Jesus of Nazareth, whom he had imagined was a mere pretender and
impostor-Jesus, whom he really supposed to have
been crucified as a wicked person, dying between
thieves, and laid dead in the grave! Could it be that
all this while he Lbrd been wrong in thinking him a deceiver-that he had been all this while guiltily " fighting
against God "  Yes-he looks up to that awful brightness, and a glance there tells him that he was wrongthat that glorious Being is "that same Jesus"-risen,
exalted, glorified! It was a silent sermon (but a far
more solemn and powerful one than Peter preached to
the thousands at Pentecost) on the text, "Him hath
God exalted to be a prince and a Saviour." It was the
whole Gospel Christ the Son of God is shining above his
head in glory brighter than the brightness of the sun!
No wonder the awe-struck persecutor lies powerless
on the ground, "trembling and astonished." "What!"
we may suppose hira saying to himself, "Jesus!
to whom all power is committed. May lie not have
come to seal my blaspheming lips for ever I There
* Uluut.           t Acts xxii. 8.




THE CONVERT.                63
Burely can be no hope for me. I have been rushing
with madness against the thick bosses of his buckler.
I have been hunting down the innocent sheep of this
gracious Shepherd, and in injuring them I have been
injuring Iim. I can surely listen for nothing from his
lips but words of sternest rebuke and vengeance!"  He
listens; but there is no terror or upbraiding in the
voice. Jesus proceeds to soothe with words and tones
of kindness his agitated spirit.
"It is hard," he says, " for thee to kick against the
pricks." Our Lord, when he was on earth, often employed terms taken from common customs to enforce
his sayings. He does so here in speaking from heaven.
It was the habit in Judea for the man who was at the
side of oxen, to have a goad or pointed steel to drive
them with. Often these animals would refuse to move;
they would kick and grow restive when their master
was goading them on. When they did so, he only
applied the pointed steel more severely, and they found
it was vain to resist. Jesus says the same to Saul,"It is hard for thee."  There was fresh discovery here,
too, of love. He does not say, "It is hard for me;"
but, " It is hard for thee;" as if he had said, " Poor man,
thou art wronging thyself, Saul. It is of no use thy
attempting to resist my grace; I have long had great
things in store for thee. Thou need'st try no longer to be
my enemy; 1 have marked thee out for a great apostle.
It is hard for thee to go any longer against my bidding.
I have struck thee down a persecutor; I will raise
thee up'a chosen vessel unto me.'" It was even so.
He can no longer " fight against God."  He sees-he
trembles-he believes —he rejoices! That look of
mingled reproof and love which smote Peter to the




64            THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
heart, melted a harder still.     As he    beholds:he
vision and listens to the wordsr of mercy, he can say,
" He loved me, and gave himself for me."  As Benjamin,
the youngest of the twelve sons of Jacob, was at last
brought to see Joseph in Egypt, so Saul, of Benjamin,
the youngest of the twelve aposles, " as one born out of
due time," has the true Joseph at last revealed to him.
He can say, " This is our brother, he talks kindly to
us."  The same adorable Lord and Saviour further proceeds to tell him, ere he vanishes from  his sight, that
He is to send him forth to be His minister "to the Gentiles, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto
God." He had just pleaded with him in tenderness
and love, now He speaks to him with the authority of
his risen and glorified Master-the Sovereign in whose
ranks he was now to fight-" Arise, and go into the
city." There he was to be told what in future he
was "to be, to do, and to suffer."
After a few brief moments of terror, the brightness
is past-the voice is hushed. He who fell a bigoted
Pharisee, is now an humble and humbled follower of
Jesus.  A glorious light is shining in his soul; but the
dazzling brightness had been too much for his bodily
eyes.  He rises stone-blind! What a different entrance
through the Damascus gate!*    The proud horseman is
led by the hand as a little child, along the street
called " Straight,"t to the house of one named Judas.
* "On the 25th day of January, annually, the Christians in Damascus
walk in procession to the scene of the conversion, and read the histcry of
it from the Acts of the Apostles, under the protection of a guard furnished
by the Pacha."-Biblical Keepsake.
t To the indifferent crowd that thronged the street, there would be Attle
worthy of attention in a blind Jew being conducted aloelg. Yet was there
more true intf-at. more real greatness, and more momentous results con




THE CONVERT.                       65
Interesting and strange spectacle!    "Whosoever," says
Christ, "shall not receive the kingdom     of God as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein." Such a little
child had the bold and proud Israelite of Tarsus become-" born again" by "the WORD of GOD which
liveth and abideth for ever." He is heard engaged ill
prayer-prayer, the "cry of the new         creature"-that
blessed means by which he and all who have trodden
his steps, "out of weakness have been made strong,
waxed valiant in fight, and turned to flight the armies
of the aliens." *
We have been already led more than once to
mark points of resemblance or comparison between
the early history of Luther and that of Saul.           We
cannot resist adverting, in passing, to a remarkable
similarity in this the great turning point of their two
lives. Luther, when in the prime of youthful manhood, was returning )ne day from his father's house
at Mansfield, to resume his labours at the university of
Erfurth. All at once a thunder-storm overtook him.
The lightning flashed fearfully and vividly around
him, and one bolt fell and burst at his side. That
road was to him     a Damascus highaway!      His troubled
conscience was roused      from  its depths.     He threw
nected with this event than with the most gorgeous of E Lstern processions
or the grandest of Reman triumphs. One cannot help thinking, in contrast with it, of another very different cavalcade which takes place in
Damascus year after year in honour of another'Apostle," whose inuf.lence
on the human race (though an influence of falsehood and delusion) is only
second to that of the Apostle Paul. " Every year the standard of the false
prophet (Mahomet) is displayed. It is of green silk, with passages from
the Koran embroidered in gold, and the camel which bears it is ever after
exempted from labour. The Koran itself is also carried by the pilgrims,
bound in silk, and borne by a camel richly caparisoned, around which
armed Mussulinen are stationed, playing on all kinds of instruments."
X Heb. xi. 34.




66            THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
himself, like Saul of Tarsus, on his knees. Death,
judgment, and eternity, were before him; and with all
the terrible thoughts of how unprepared he would be
to meet his Judge, he vowed that if it pleased God to
rescue him  from  these " terrors of death," he would
leave the world, and give himself entirely to religion.  From   that hour he was an altered man.    The
age of miracles and special visions had now indeed
gone by. No " Lord Jesus " did appear to him visibly
and personally "by the way," as he had done to his
other servant; but He whose " voice is the thunder"
hnad spoken to him in language he could never forget.
Humbled and trembling, he puts the very same question which the awe-struck persecutor put fifteen centuries before-" Lord, what wouldest thou have me to
do?"  A great work truly God had in reserve for both
these "sons of thunder."    Those two quiet spots in
Asia and Europe —he one on the way to Damascus,
the other on the road to Lrfurth, must be memorable
to all time.*   Meanwhile, we shall leave the elder
apostle in the lonely chamber of the "Straight street"
of Damascus.   The owner of the house, and perhaps
some of his companions, beheld with amazement the
blinded traveller on his knees, calling again and
again in some such words as these, he came afterwards
to write, " Jesus! Jesus! Thou Son of God, whose grace
I have so long despised! This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Thou didst come into the
world to save sinners, of WHOMt I AM THE CHIEF!"
* Rubianus, one of Luther's friends at the University of Erfurth, wrote
to him at a later period,-" Divine Providence looked to what thou wast
one day to become, when, on thy return from the house of thy parents, fire
from heaven made thee, like another Paul, fall to the gromud, near the city
of Erfarth, and snatching thee from our society, drove thee to enter the sect
of Augustine "-D'Aubigne's History of the Refosmation.








CHAPTER V.
1e $rttgite.
C And can I be the very same,
Who lately durst blaspheme Thy name,
And on Thy Gospel tread!
Surely each one who hears my cas,
Will praise Thee, and confess Thy grace
Invincible indeed!"
JOHN NEWTON.
" Truly these were three memoraDle days in the life of Paul; and,
if we except the three days spent in the new tomb in Joseph's garden, the most wonderful in the history of the Church and the world."




',Sf, | 1E| I 1'1t- I I B l  I1.i... i
L ONGc,  straight, bt very
a  bln ew    l.alrrow street, a mile in lenith,
A  t  leading from the gate to the palace
I   f tijll |of the Pacha, stretches at the pres enllt day from east to west, in the
etown of Damascus.    It forms the
chief thoroughfare of the city, and
is probably the very same through
which, eighteen hundred years ago,
a blind Jew was led along " trembling and astonished."
At the east end of it there was a gate, which now bears
the name of "Paul's gate;" as it is said that by this
he entered the ancient town.  Travellers who have
recently been in Damascus, describe this gateway as
having been at one period an imposing one, consisting
of a centre arch for carriages and waggons, and two
smaller side ones for foot passengers.  The central
opening, however, and the lesser one towards the
south, are now filled up with stones, fornning part of
the city wall. At a short distance, on the right, there




70           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
is still pointed out to the curious stranger, by the
monks of Damascus, the "House of Ananias;" and
farther on the left, forming a grotto or cellar below the
level of the street, is the reputed house of Judas.*
When Saul reached the dwelling vhich had been provided for him, he was in a state of great helplessness.
He could take no meat.  He ate nothing and drank
nothing, and for three days groped in darkness. We
cannot think he had any friends to be kind to him.
The Christians would be afraid to go near him, for
they had heard of his cruelties, and perhaps of the
object of his present journey.  " Saul of Tarsus is on
his way hither!"-we may well believe what terror and
agony such an announcement would produce in many
a bosoria and home among the refugee converts at
Damascus. They would suspect the vision and the
blindness were all a pretence, and that, if they went to
his lodging, his companions might be concealed somewhere near, ready to seize them and put them   in
chains. The Jews, on the other hand, would shun and
hate, with a bitter hatred, the man who was now
on his knees praying to Jesus, and calling him by the
title of God!
How many strange thoughts must have been passing, meanwhile, in Saul's own bosom!    He would
revert, perhaps, to his Tarsus home. What would his
loved father, and sister, and friends think of such a
change? and Gamaliel! how 6ould he meet him again
as a Christian? and, worse than all, he would think of
his former cruelties to the poor saints at Jerusalem.
He would remember, with bitter tears, the heavenly
look of the martyr Stephen-his unearthly forgiveness,'   wRe Wilson's Travc.l




THE FUGITIVE.               71
his holy resignation, his triumphant death-and how
he had helped in that scene of blood!    But one
thought, rising above all these sore reflections, would
comfort his spirit. When no earthly voice was near to
cheer him, he would remember those tender tones that
were still ringing in his ear, "Saul! Saul!" and the
last glorious sight his eyes had seen ere they were
smitten with blindness. God had seemed purposely to
exclude the outer world, that the eye of His dear servant might be taken away from all earthly things,
and fixed on his own heart, and on his adorable Redeemer.   " Behold! he prayeth!"   What! had he
never prayed before? Were not the Pharisees famed
for their many and their long prayers? Can we suppose the young disciple of Gamaliel, who, "after the
straitest manner of his religion, lived a Pharisee," was
a stranger to prayer? No, not to prayer in-its outward
form. He had repeated words often before; but he
had never really, till now, uttered the cry of faith.
The Jews of his own sect might often point to him as
a man of prayer; but God, the "searcher of hearts,"
says of him for the first time, when he sees him in that
vaulted chamber, " Behold! he prayeth!"
While wrapt in such mingled thoughts as we have
supposed, a humble Christian stranger knocked at his
chamber door.  Saul was prepared for his visit; for
God had told him by a dream or vision that one of the
name of Ananias would come and lay his hands on
him, and restore his sight. Who Ananias was, we are
not specially informed. Probably he was one of the
scattered sheep whom Saul, like a ravening wolf, had
set out from Jerusalem to destroy. He had known,
indeed, the object of the persecutor's visit to Damascu.




THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST' PAUL.
Very probably "the men" who had come along with
Saul, and whom we lose sight of after he was struck to
the earth, had not been a-vare of the wondrous change
that had taken place on their leader, and were making
publicly known in the city the cruel errand they had
come to discharge. But God appeared by a vision to
Ananias, and instructed him to go and lay his hands
on the blinded Pharisee. "And there was a certain
disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him
said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said,
Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said unto
him, Arise, and go into the street which is called
Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one
called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, and
hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might
receive his sight." *  We can hardly wonder at the
simple-minded disciple being astonished, and, at first,
even afraid to go on so strange a mission. "Then
Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of
this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints
at Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from the
chief priests to bind all that call on thy name." t
What! to go to the man who, above all others, was
signalized for his cruelties to the people of Christ!
But God's wish is enough. " He is not disobedient to
the heavenly vision;" and, although we had known
nothing else of this kind messenger, w-e know enough
from one word to see the strength of his faith in God's
command, and his love to one whose name he was wont
to think of only with terror-" BROTHER SAUL!"  He
is no longel afraid. God has told him that the lion
* Acts ix. 10-12,     Acts ix. 13. 4A




THE FUGITIVE.               73
has become a lamb-the fierce persecutor a true
believer. He goes at once and speaks to him as such.
Saul was a bold and courageous man. He was not in
the habit of shedding tears; but I think a tear must
have rolled down from his rayless eyes as he listened
to the first word that a CIristian friend ever spoke
to him. It was the kindest word that coild be used.
It must have put away all his fears if he had any.
" Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared
unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me
that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with
the Holy Ghost." *
Who can tell but this kindly little word may have
at the moment sunk firm and deep into the soul of
the great apostle, and taught him those large-hearted
views and feelings of Christian brotherhood which led
him afterwards so often in closing his letters thus to
write, "Grace be with all them that love the Lord
Jesus Christ in sincerity!" God had owned him as
a son, and whenever Ananias knows this, he hastens
to own him as a brother.  "The Lord, even JESUS."
It was the first time he had listened to that name
with feelings of unmingled joy. Christ, indeed, had
Himself spoken to him, saying, " I am Jesus."  But at
the moment that comforting word was mingled with
many self-accusations.  Now it came like a strain
of heavenly music. It was the name of one who was
henceforward to be better to him than the best of
of all earthly friends. " The Lord, even Jesus, hath
sent me," not to upbraid thee for thy great guilt, and
pierce thy heart afresh with new sorrows, but to tell
that he has selected thee as a chosen vessel, to bear to
* Acts ix. 17.




74          TILE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
distant nations "the unsearchable riches" of his Gos.
pel.*
What a specimen had Saul here of the love and
kindness both of Master and disciple! How specially
impressed must he have been with the interest manifested in him by the Lord Jesus! He had been breathing out slaughter against ONE whom he now sees could
have struck him dead in a moment, and made him a
monument of vengeance! But that One not only employs words of love and kindness towards him, but He
goes to the street of a city-He selects a particular
house in that street, where the new convert is to be
lodged-He goes to another disciple, and tells that
disciple to see to the safety of the blind Hebrew, and
" speak comfortably unto him."
While Saul was thus " called to be an apostle by
Jesus Christ," it is worthy of notice that he was baptized into the faith of Christ, not by any apostle, or
boasted "successor of the apostles," but by a humble,
lowly, unknown disciple. In these days, when so much
is said on the subject of what is called " apostolical
succession," and that baptism is no real baptism —no
real sacrament, unless administered by the hands of
priests who can trace their ordination, in an unbroken
line, from the apostles-what can be made of the case
of the greatest of all converts, the holiest of saints, the
chiefest of apostles? If there had been any such virtue
in the administration of the rite, surely the most
valued disciple that ever existed in the Christian
Church would not have been denied the benefit of it.
But just as if for the purpose of showing that there was
uo such imaginary charm in the dispensers and dispens* Blunt.




THE FUGITIVE.               75
ing of the ordinance, and that they who hold the view
I refer to, "teach for doctrines the commandments of
men," God himself specially appoints that his greatest
Disciple, Minister, and Missionary, be baptized, not by
the hands of Peter, or John, or James, but by
the hands of "one Ananias," a humble saint whose best
"apostolical succession" was his simple faith and
brotherly love. How inpressively does this tell us,
that "neither is he that planteth anything, nor he
that watereth, but God that giveth the increase!" As
there was nothing in the administrator, so there was no
virtue in the element. It is not the waters of the land
of his fathers-not Kedron, or Siloam, or Jordan, which
are used in the sacred rite, but one of those countless
streams of which we have spoken, that Naaman loved
so well. Previous to this, there " had fallen from his
eyes as it had been scales," and lie had his sight
restored to him. He was " a new creature."  Thicker
scales had fallen from his blinded soul. His whole
future history is now to be told in a short verse he
himself afterwards wrote,-" I have determined with
myself to know nothing else save JEsus CHRIST AND
HIM CRUCIFIED." *
He resolves immediately to shew that he is not
ashamed of the Gospel. He had come to Damascus
in order that he might go into the synagogue to bind
men and women, and drag them to suffer death at
Jerusalem. He now stands in these same synagogues
proclaiming Jesus the only Saviour of sinners! How
great must have been their astonishment! "But all
that heard him were amazed, and said, Is not this he
that destroyed them which called on this name in
*1 Cor. ii. 2.




76           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PA
Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he
might bring them bound unto the chief priests?"*
We can well imagine the result.   The Jews frown
upon him. They are enraged to think that the great
champion of their religion is now proclaiming the crucified Nazarene to be very God. "But Saul increased
the more in strength, and confounded the Jews
which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very
Christ." t
He was directed, at this time, to go for a little season
to Arabia. Writers are not agreed precisely as to what
is meant by this country-whether it refers to some
place not very far from Damascus, or whether it was
what we more commonly understand by the name
Arabia-the desert country near the Red Sea. Among
other conjectures, it is supposed Saul may have
gone to Aurana, now called Hauran, to the south-east
of Damascus.   This is a retired  and hilly region,
where the Arabians are of a peaceful and primitive
character, tending herds and flocks, and occupying
themselves in the manufacture of goats'-hair tents. If
so, we may think of him as possibly returning for a
season to his early calling, supporting himself by the
work of his hands, and exemplifying in that remote
place his own future saying-" Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord."
It has been thought, and perhaps correctly, that he
began now for the first time to suffer from that complaint in his eyes of which we shall speak more hereafter. It was a complaint common in the city and
neighbourhood of Damascus during the damps of summer and autumn, and, being generally followed by
* Acts ix. 21.      t Acts ix. 22.




THE FUGITIVE.              77
fever, compelled those who were subject to it to seek
a healthier climate in the uplands. It is not improbable, therefore, that the apostle, suffering in bodily
health, and after tie severe struggles his mind had
undergone, would be glad of a purer and more bracing
air than Damascus could afford.
Though this, however, may be so far true, it was by
no means the chief reason for his removal from the
Syrian city. These Arabian solitudes doubtless listened to many a fervent prayer from his lips. He had
received divine intimation of the great warfare in
which he was to engage; and not wishing to enter that
warfare on his own charges, may we not believe he
went thither mainly to receive strength to fit him for
his high calling? Although he had for many years
studied God's Word, yet how different would its types,
and promises, and prophecies appear nowl What a
new book to him in its Gospel meaning! We may think
of him, therefore, in his retirement, with the holy
Scriptures in his hands; the Holy Spirit opening his
eyes to behold "wondrous things contained in that
law" which he had never before dreamt of, and preparing him, by special gift.s and graces, for unfolding
it to others. Frequent revelations seem now to have
been made to him. God appears to have met him
again and again as He did Elijah of old in his lonely
cave in the wilderness of Horeb, and made him listen
to another " still small voice."  He alludes to this
on several occasions in the course of his epistles.
"But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which
was preached of me is not after man. For I neither
received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the
revelation of Jesus Christ." *  "For I have received oJ
* Gal. i. 11, 12.




78           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUI,
the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That
the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread." * " If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to youward: how that by revelation He made known unto
me the mystery." t  "But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb, and called me
by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might
preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: neither went I up to
Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but
I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus." 
Wherever, then, this "Arabia" was, to which he
refers, although we are told nothing but the fact of his
having gone thither,'it forms a very interesting period
in the life of the " called apostle;" like his blessed Lord
before him, retiring into a lonely solitude to prepare,
by fasting and prayer, for the great work that was
given him to do.
What a change on that fierce and energetic spirit!
far away from all the active work of an active life,
holding secret fellowship with God alone! He may
have felt that no small grace and strength were needed
in his new position.  He had given up wealth, fame,
friends, country, all, for a despised Saviour. It must
have required much prayer and divine fortitude for
Gamaliel's pupil to be willing to endure the loss of all
these things, and to get in exchange only poverty,
reviling, suffering, and at last death. After a little
while he returned to Damascus, and continued there
F 1 Cor. ix. 23   t Eph. iii. 2, 8.
Z Gal. i. 15-17. Lewin, vol. i. p. 62.




THE FUGITIVE.               79
for "three years," or perhaps less, preaching the faith
which he once wished to destroy.
What were the Jews about all this time? We cannot think their rage would be abated, or that they
would be more inclined to listen with patience to the
preaching of one they had learnt to hate as greatly as
they once loved him. They doubtless tried first to
meet him in argument; but " they could not resist the
power and spirit with which he spake." They formed a
cruel design " to kill Saul!"  Their purpose of murder
seemed successfully planned, and they had little doubt of
making sure of their prey. The walls around the city
were high and well guarded. The ruler, who was a
friend to the Jews, assented to the charge they brought
against him, and issued a warrant for his apprehension. He gave orders to his soldiers to keep a vigilant
guard in case the new Christian teacher would escape;
and the Israelites themselves, to make all sure, took
their turn of watching him day and night, lest he
might elude the vigilance of the soldiers.  But a
Greater than all was with the object of their rage. The
Lord himself is " keeping the city," and His servant
within it, and these watchmen " watch in vain."  Saul
could say, with his great ancestor-" Lord, how are
they increased that trouble me! many are they that
rise up against me.  Many there be which say of
my soul, There is no help for him in God. But thou,
O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the
lifter up of mine head.....  I will not be afraid
of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves
against me round about."* He finds his way probably
to one of the houses of his brother Christians, where
* Psalm iii. 1, 2, 3, 6.




80          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
doubtless he would be commended in prayer to Him
who "bringeth th6 counsel of the heathen to nought,
and maketh the devices of the people of none effect."
This house happened to be close by the city wall;
probably, like many dwellings in the East, it was built
to jut over it, forming what is called a kiosk, from
which a view is obtained of the open country. The
apostle is put into a basket; this is slung from a window by means of a rope, as you see represented in the
picture, and gradually lowered to the foot of the wall.
" As I stood with a friend," says a recent traveller,
who resided at Damascus, looking at the place referred to, " a couple of men came to the top of the wall
with a broad flat basket, full of rubbish, which they
emptied over the wall.'Such a basket,' said my
friend,'the people use here for almost every sort of
thing. If they are digging a well, and wish to send a
man down into it, they put him into such a basket;
and that those who aided Paul's escape should have
used a basket for the purpose, was entirely natural
according to the present customs of the country.
Judging from what is done now, it is the only sort of
vehicle of which men would be apt to think under
such circumstances.' Pilgrims are admitted into the
monastery at Mount Sinai in a similar manner. A
rope, with a basket attached to it, is let down from a
window or door about thirty feet above the ground.
Those who are to ascend, seat themselves one after
another in this basket, and are thus drawn up by
means of a pulley or windlass turned by those in the
convent." *
It may have been at a place which the Jews thought
* Professor Hackett. See 2 Cor. xi. 32, 33.








PAUL ON FOOT.
Footsteps St. Paul,                                    p. 81




THE FUGITIVE.              81
there was little need of guarding that Saul was let
down, or perhaps he was favoured by the darkness of
the night. We should rather say the same Saviour,
who had " appeared to him on the way," had given His
angels charge over him to encamp round about him.
He would hear a voice saying in that midnight hour,
" Fear not, for I am with thee." Assured of safety,
ere long he is beyond the reach of his enemies.
Was there anything cowardly in this midnight escape?
On the contrary, I think there was rather something
noble in it. Doubtless, if Saul had consulted his own
feelings, his natural fortitude and the remains of his
natural pride would have said to him, " No! brave it
out, and die like Stephen, the glorious death of a martyr!" But he acted in what he did more in accordance with the will of his Lord-that Lord who had left
as a special injunction to his disciples, "When they
persecute you in one city, flee ye to another." No
one who reads the Apostle's life will ever accuse him
of timidity. He who could afterwards hear unterrified the growl of Nero's lions, and say, in the prospect of a violent death, " None of these things move
me," would not have been afraid now to face "the
perils of false brethren;" but he felt that, "to abide
in the flesh" was as yet needful for the great work assigned to him. He burned with a holy desire, before
finishing his earthly course, to repair those breaches
which, while an enemy of the'ruth, he had made on
the walls of the infant Church.
What an eventful night that mutft have been to him!
The once proud horseman, so lately riding along these
plains, is now a hated and hunted fugitive! My young
readers may imagine him hurrying from his first expeF




82          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
rience of those "perils of the city" of whicl. he afterwards sc touchingly wrote. The night, as we have
supposed, may have been a dark one; or perhaps, ere
he had gone far, the moon had risen in all its clear
eastern splendour, lighting up the hoary summits of
the distant Lebanon, and making Abana and Pharpar
appear like threads of silver winding along the flat
plain. How many thoughts must have crowded upon
him, and more especially as the first hills of Palestine
reveal themselves in the morning light! He finds
himself (now a disciple of the Nazarene) looking across
in the direction of that village and name (Nazareth)
once despised, which he now so loved. Saul had from
his boyhood, like all Jews, learned to value and admire
the Psalms of David; and we know it was the custom
of the Israelites, in going up to Jerusalem to their
feasts, to cheer themselves on the way by chanting
them in company. Perchance, during this solitary pilgrimage, these formed his "songs in the night." If so,
with what new zest must he have sung them! with
what new meaning must they have been invested,
since he had first learned them at his Tarsus home!
The sweet Psalmist of Israel was once, like himself, a
lonely, friendless exile, hunted "like a partridge on the
mountains." Who can tell but the heavenly musings
of the fugitive king may have proved cheering solaces
to the spirit of the fugitive Christian? "Why art
thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in Gc I, for I shall
yet praise Him for the light of His countenance."
" My heart is fixed, O God! my heart is fixed; I will
sing and give praise."  "The stoLe which the builders
refused. is become the head-stone of the 3orner. This




THE FUGITIVE.               83
is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our
eyes."
We need not follow him further in his old and wellknown journey. He turned his steps in the direction
of Jerusalem, principally, as he tells us himself, "to see
Peter."  He wished to get acquainted with that great
apostle, the companion of his Lord, and the great instrument in the Pentecostal revival, in order to get from
him counsel and advice about his future work. It must
have been with a trembling step and faltering heart,
when the old towers of the holy city once more rose
before his view. The glittering pinnacles of the temple and the altar courts-what different feelings does
the first glimpse of them now convey, compared with
his first journey from Tarsus to Jerusalem! Now their
glory is all past. He may have seen at the moment
the smoke of the sacrifices ascending to heaven. But
these were only the shadows-the Substance had come,
and with His coming, all the types were done away.
These former glories had now in his eyes "no glory,
by reason of the glory that excelleth."  From the road
by which he entered the city, the tiny waters of the
Kedron, or at all events the green sward of the valley
through which it flowed, must have met his eye. The
voice, too, of a brother's blood must have there been
sounding mournfully in his ears. How cotld he meet
that dreadful band of murderers who were so lately his
bosom friends and companions i  What a look of scorn
and reproach he must expect to be cast upon him,
when he next sees the old master whose instructions
he still reveres! How will every Jew hate him! how
must every Christian, for a time at least, suspect nim!
He had left Jerusalem, honoured and caressed-the




84          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
prayers and blessings of many a father and mother in
Israel had followed him-priests and people had spoken
of him as a young hero. Now his name would be in
every lip as a vile apostate and castaway: All these
are very painful thoughts; but he goes manfully on,
feeling that "the Lord will stahd by him."  The words
of the Psalmist were, perhaps, often in his lips,-" In
God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what
man can do unto me. Thy vows are upon me, 0 God:
I will render praises unto Thee. For Thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not Thou deliver my
feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the
light of the living " *
Much of what he dreaded does take place. The
Jews hate —the Christians are suspicious. He had
come to Jerusalem probably supposing that the news
of his conversion would have reached long ago, and
been well known to them all. We must remember,
however, that communications between distant places
were neither so frequent, nor so much to be relied on
as now; and very possibly the Christian disciples may
have heard only floating rumours about the sudden
change, and treated it as a very unlikely story. We
cannot wonder, therefore, they give him at first a cold
reception. "And when Saul was come to Jerusalem,
he essayed to join himself to the disciples: but they
were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a
disciple."+  How cutting to the feelings of the future
apostle! How cheerless and chilling an introduction
to his future fellow-labourers and friends! One of
their number, of whom we shall hear more hereafter,
comes and speaks a kinder word for him. Barnabas,
* Psaims Ivi. 11-13.   t Acts ix. 26.




THE FUGITIVE.                5
who proved all that his name implies-" a son of consolation"-takes him by the hand, and told the others
"how the Lord had appeared to him by the way, and
spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at
Damascus in the name of Jesus." We ought not to
place much reliance on mere tradition; but there is a
story, beautiful in itself, and not improbable, that has
been handed down to us regarding Barnabas and Saul.
It is said that, having been schoolfellows and playmates
under Gamaliel, Barnabas, who had become a believer
at an early date, had often prayed for the conversion
of his friend, and pleaded with him personally to no
effect: that he met him on this occasion on the streets
of Jerusalem, not aware at the time of what had taken
place at Damascus. He once more began, as formerly,
to plead with him to renounce Judaism, and become a
Christian. Saul threw himself weeping at his feet, and
told him the joyful news.'  Be this as it may, Gospel
love cannot any longer be withheld-Peter and James,
who alone of the apostles were then present, gave him
the right hand of fellowship. From that moment they
were brothers.  We seem to hear them saying to him,
in his own beautiful language, " Brother! thou art
no more a stranger and a foreigner, but a fellow-citizen
with the saints, and of the household of God." It is
peculiarly beautiful to see Peter, and very characteristic
of him, so ready to welcome Saul, when many of the
other disciples were hanging cautiously back,  He,
doubtless, would remember his own case-how he,
too, had been a denier of his Lord-basely forsaking
Him whom once he had loved, and had been so tenderly
loved in return. He must have felt that in this respect
* Bible Cyclopadia.




86           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
his sin was greater far than that of the Cilician, who
"did it ignorantly in unbelief;" and how    much
more justly, therefore, the brethren might have refused to receive him back again as a disciple, and
especially as an apostle. But would he deny to Saul a
welcome, when his forgiving Lord had not denied one
to him? Saul had abundantly answered that great
question of Jesus, which Peter to his dying hour never
could forget-" Lovest thou me?" and, conscious of
the same love to the same gracious Shepherd from
whom they had both wandered, these stray sheep rejoice together in the same fold. Their common Lord
had represented Himself as greeting the returning
prodigal while he was yet " a great way off." It was
befitting, therefore, that when the two brothers met,
"they should make merry, and be glad " Saul's going
to Jerusalem at this time must, indeed, have required
more than ordinary fortitude. It is no easy matter
for those with a naturally lofty spirit like him to own
that they are wrong, and to find old friends turned
against them.   Great, too, must have been the
courage required to face them in public-to stand
in the midst of a synagogue where once he could
see nothing but smiling faces-now darkened with
anger! But he seems to have felt it his duty, in the
city where he had done so much harm, " to deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Jesus." His
yearning love to his Jewish brethren, of which he afterwards so touchingly speaks, and his earnest desire to
remove, if possible, the blindness from their eyes, seems
to have greatly prompted him to this early visit to
Jerusalem.  "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, (rmy
conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost),




THE FUGITIVE.               87
that I have great heaviness and continual sorrcw in
my heart for my brethren, my kinsmen according to
the flesl."*  Perhaps, in the first ardour of his new
spiritual life, so convinced had he been hiiself of his
own error in rejecting the Saviour, he may have supposed that he would have had little difficulty in winning over to the same belief those with whom he formerly
possessed much influence. Alas! he soon found that
it is nothing but the grace of God that can melt the
hard heart, and open the sealed eyes. Though his old
friends and kinsmen, however, thus disowned him,
many Christian hearts and homes were open to him.
It is not to be wondered at, after what I have said,
that the Apostle Peter's house became his dwelling at
this time. There he remained for fifteen days. There
is nothing told us regarding this fortnight's intercourse
between these two great apostles-the fisherman of
Galilee, and the pupil of the learned Gamaliel. We
can picture to ourselves what their fellowship would
be; their talk together, evening after evening, when
the day's work was over. Saul would doubtless love
to listen to Peter's account of the Saviour's blessed life
-the never-to-be-forgotten sayings and doings which
he was privileged to hear and to witness. How the
fervid soul of the narrator would kindle at the recollection of his Master's many acts of personal kindness
and love, and the gracious words which proceeded out
of his mouth! Peter, we know, was not afterwards
slow to confess and speak of his own failings; may we
not suppose he would even narrate with many tears
the story of his fall, that he might contrast with it the
* Romans ix. 1-3. See the rendering of these verses in Haldane On the
onmans.




88          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
tender love of Him who so graciously forgave him!
He would fondly recall the special message sent by the
angel, "Go and tell Peter;" and how, when he met face
to face tie Lord he had denied, he get no harsher
rebuke than the thrice-repeated question, " Simon, son
of Jonas, lovest thou me t" We may well believe these
two holy men, who had each received in different ways
such touching proofs of Jesus' love, would pray earnestly together on their bended knees that God would
enable them, by their future lives and ministry, to.
make good the words, " Lord, thou knowest all things;
thou knowest that we love Thee."  Sometimes their
conversation would turn on matters concerning the
welfare of the Church, or it may be, after the stormy
discussions in the synagogue, other kindred spirits
would be assembled along with them in this quiet
home, for mutual prayer and encouragement.
It has been reckoned to have been now about the
time of the Passover (April, 41). Jerusalem was
crowded with Jewish strangers from all parts of the
world. Saul himself being by birth one of these
Hellenists, or Jews of the dispersion, had probably
thought it would be a suitable commencement to his
ministerial work to "dispute against the Grecians,"
and proclaim to them the name of his crucified Master.
"tHe hoped, no doubt, that an enlarged measure of
success would attend his ministry in this city, where
his previous life, and habits, and education were so
universally known, and that the miracle of his conversion would here form an irresistible argument to the
truth of his doctrine. Very different, however, are the
intentions of God, respecting our future disposal, from
the intentions of ourselves and our friends.  Saul




THE FUGITIVE.               89
perhaps expected to spend many years at Jerusalem.
The Almighty had appointed that he should remain
there fifteen days!" *
The Lord Jesus had other work in reserve for him.
His special name from this time was to be " The Apostle
of the Gentiles."  He was to be the great Missionary of
the infant Church, as his Lord had declared to Ananias
in Damascus —" He is a chosen vessel unto me to bear
my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children
of Israel." His remaining any longer at Jerusalem at
present would be attended with great danger to himself; for, unknown to him, there was already a plot
laid for his destruction, and no human means could
have prevented the early loss of a life so precious.
The Jews at this time, as we learn from history, must
have had their fiercest passions roused into action, so
as to make them ready for any daring crime. This
was owing to a threatened violation of their national
and religious feelings by the wicked Roman emperor,
Caligula.'He had given orders to have his statue
erected in the Temple of Jerusalem,-a proposal so
abhorrent to the mind of every Israelite, that they resolved to shed the last drop of their blood in resisting
it. Fortunately, however, the news of his death by
the hand of an assassin reached the Jewish capital
during the very time that Saul was living there in
the house of Peter.t  Their fury, therefore, now finds
vent in another channel, against the devoted apostle,
and a Higher than any human friend warns him of his
danger. One day Saul went up to the temple, in
great sadness of spirit at all this violent opposition, to
seek comfort and support in prayer. When he was on
* Blunt's Lectures, vol. i. p 69.  t Josephus.




90           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
his knees, the Lord Jesus again appeared to him in a
trance or vision. This memorable occasion he speaks
of afterwards, as what he might well " glory in," were
he given to boasting. He was caught up into the
third heavens, and heard " unspeakable words, which
it is riot lawful (or possible) for a man to utter.  In
that vision Jesus told him expressly to leave Jerusalem,
as." they would not receive his testimony." It may be
well to quote his Ywn description. "And it came to
pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even
while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance; and
saw Him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee
quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive
thy testimony concerning me. And I said, Lord, they
know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue
them that believed on thee."  What, we may be led
to ask, is Saul's precise meaning in giving this answer?
It is as if he had said, "Lord, if there be any place
surely where I will have attentive listeners, it will be
in Jerusalem, where there are many who knew me well
as Saul the persecutor-the murderer of holy Stephen;
and when they think of me being at one time as fierce
and bitter against Thy name as themselves, and see
what Thy grace can do, they will not surely refuse my
testimony!"t
"Man proposeth, but God disposeth!"  Nay, "but
0 man! who art thou that repliest against God?" His
Divine Master, on that same occasion, answers,irm in
a single sentence, telling him what his future work and
calling is to be-" Depart, for I will send thee far
hence unto the Gentiles." At this vision his drooping
spirit revives.  Meanwhile the brethren become aoc
* Acts xxii 17-19.            t Blunt.




THE FUGITIVE.               91
quainted with the conspiracy against his life, and they
get him persuaded immediately to leave Jerusalem.
Could he leave it, do you think, without a pang?
As he passed through its gates, I doubt not he wept,
like his Lord, over its hardness and unbelief.  We
may imagine him pausing on the rising ground outside, and taking oie last look of the fated city, under
the feeling that he may never see it again; and that
when he is sleeping in his grave, " far hence among the
Gentiles," the proud towers and palaces and temple
which now meet his eye, may be blazing under the
torch of the conqueror.  Willingly would he have
lingered for a while in her streets, to try and convince
these hard hearts of their guilt, and bring them to repentance; but the voice of his God has called him elsewhere, and he feels he must obey. The disciples take
means to have him privately conveyed to Cesarea. He
probably takes a ship from thence to Cilicia, and after
an eventful absence, the Apostle finds himself once more
in the city and scenes of his infancy. There, it is probable, he was actively engaged in preaching the Gospel.
From all we can gather, this was his last visit to Tarsus.
We shall leave him seated in his old chamber, looking
out on the crags of Mount Taurus, and the shadows of
the Roman vessels reflected ir the waters of the
Cydnus,-talking, perhaps, to his sister about his own
great change, and of the Prophet of Nazareth, whom
once he scoffed at. now his chiefest boast,-kneeling, it
may be, in prayer with her, and asking Jesus to pour
his grace into her heart, as He had done into his. We
shall leave Saul in thought in this loved retreat, while
we trace what work was preparing for him in other
cities.




CHAPTER Tf.
8   te ~ilssiontrg.
"' Up to thy Master's work I for thou art call'd
To do His bidding, till the hand of death
Strike off thine armour. Noble field is thineThe soul thy province, that mysterious thing
Which hath no limit from the walls of sense.
Oh! live the life of prayer,
The life of tireless labour for His sake;
So may the Angel of the Covenant bring
Thee to thy home in bliss, with many a gem
T) glow for ever in thy Master's crown."
"Over tha vast extent of the Roman empire, Paul everywhere
projects his shadow. What are we; preachers or missionaries of a
day, before such a man I "-MolNlo




n-';^    F my readers will carry their eye along the
coast of Palestine, they will see the names of two cities
marked, at a considerable distance from each other.
The one was Joppa or Jaffa, strikingly situated on a
rocky ledge, jutting into the sea.  From  it, you
remember, Jonah fled when God wished him to go to
Nineveh. It was also famous as the old port of Jerusalem, to which Solomon floated his rafts of cedar-wood
from Lebanon for the building of the temple. The
other city was Cesarea, of which we have already
spoken. It was situated 35 miles north of Joppa,
built by Herod in honour of his royal master, and
alled after him. He constructed there, at enormous
and labour, a harbour. where ships might ride ii




94           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
safety from the fearful western storms that swept the
coast.  Also, a large Roman theatre, a remnant of
which, at the present day, survives among the other
ruins.
While Saul was at his Tarsus home, there dwelt two
celebrated  individuals in these  two towns.    The
Apostle Peter was living in Joppa, in the house of a
tanner.*  A Roman officer, of a great family, called
Cornelius, was stationed at Cesarea.  He was centurion (or captain over a hundred) of a troop of Italian
soldiers, which were there in garrison as a body-guard
to the Roman governor. Peter one day, as he was engaged in prayer on the roof of his house, " overlooking
the waves of the Western Sea-the sea cf Greece and
Rome-the sea of the isles of the Gentiles"+-fell into
a trance, which you will find particularly described in
Acts x. 3.   He heard a voice commanding him to
" slay and eat" some of the animals prohibited to be
eaten by the Levitical law. +  The day preceding this,
Cornelius had a vision also in his house at Cesarea,
telling him to send messengers to Joppa, to inquire
there for "one Simon, whose surname was I'eter."
The messengers just arrived when the latter was
returning from his devotions, and wondering what the
vision he had witnessed could mean. Their appearance furnished him at once with an explanation. It
was nothing less than this, that the Gentiles were now
to be admitted to share the privileges of the Jews; and
that the distinction between clean and unclean animals,
The trade of a tanner was generally despised by the Jews, as being
connected with dead animals, and many of these in themselves, according
to their law, unclean. It was generally carried on in the outskirts of
towns near the sea.
t Stanley's Senrons ae d Essays, p. 94.  L Lev. xL




THE MISSIONARY.              9
which was till this time the sign or badge of separation, was henceforth to be done away. Peter did not
hesitate to obey the heavenly voice.  Many years
before, his Lord had given him the " keys of the kingdom of heaven." He now understood the meaning of
the words. The gates of salvation, which had for ages
been locked against the Gentiles, were now to be
thrown open to "all people;" and he was to have the
privilege of first unbarring them.  We find him the
following day standing in the house or barrack-room
of the centurion, where the good Roman soldier had
also gathered his kinsmen and near friends. The Gospel of the grace of God is freely proclaimed to Gentile
hearers, and, henceforth, "in every nation he that
feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of
him." * The Holy Ghost descended. The officer of
Rome, his house, and believing friends, were all baptized. It was a most solemn and joyous moment for
the Church of Christ.
The Gospel ship is now fairly laanched in Gentile
waters. The Gospel seed has now fairly taken root in
Gentile soil. There is one spot-a noted city-upon
which, at this time, the mind rests with more than ordinary interest. If you again examine your mapt of
Asia, you will find, far north from Damascus, a little
way inland from the Mediterranean, and almost opposite the island of Cyprus, the city of Antioch. Antioch
wvas situated on the river Orontes, 20 miles from
the sea, and 300 miles from Jerusalem. It formed
the great mart of Eastern luxury, and, from its central
position, commanded the whole trade of the Mediterranean. It was the outlet for merchants and cara.
* Acts x 35.  * See the green line in the map.




96           TIlE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL,
vans who travelled from the banks of the Tigris and
Euphrates, and ranked third (after Rome and Alexandria) among the cities of the Roman empire. Some
Jewish converts-natives of Cyprus and Cyrene-had
already gone thither and proclaimed the Gospel. Its
Gentile inhabitants were beginning to be converted to
the faith of Jesus. Many Greeks there " believed and
turned to the Lord."   Barnabas, whose name has
already been favourably before us, crossed from his
native island of Cyprus, and preached to them. But
the numbers were growing, and he felt the urgency of
having an abler ninister to argue with Jewish prejudices, Greek learning, and false philosophy. He, as
"the son of consolation," was able enough to comfort
and direct young inquirers.  But he needed some
" son of thunder" to rouse the careless, and overturn
the wisdom of men by the wisdom of God.*   Where
can he look? Who can he think of as the fittest man
for such a work? I need scarcely name him! The
Cyprian apostle embarked in some trading vessel which
was bound for the Cydnus, and went, it is conjectured,
about the beginning of the year 43, "to Tarsus to seek
Saul."  We may picture their meeting.  The heart
especially clings to the friends who have been kind to
us in times of trial. With what joy must Saul have
seen the well-known face that had beamed with kindness and good-will upon him in Jerusalem, when the
other disciples were cold and suspicious! " The son of
consolation" has, indeed, " consoling" news to give his
old friend since they last met-that " God had granted
to the Gentiles repentance unto life!" He could tell
what he ha. seen with his own eyes in the city he had
+ Thie Apostle Paul: a Biography




THE MISSIONARY.              97
left. Saul does not hesitate to obey his wish. Ile
leaves, possibly for the last time, the home of his
youth; and the two holy men of God set out together
for the great work in store for them at Antioch.
We cannot omit just noting by the way the unselfish conduct of Barnabas. He had himself been doing
much good in this city-had gained many converts,
and formed many Christian friendships. By his labours, we read, "much people in Antioch had been
added to the Lord."  If he had been a jealous or
selfish man, he would not certainly have thought on
bringing another to supplant him or be his rival. But
how far removed he was from any such feeling! With
simple-hearted joy, we read that, "when he saw the
grace of God" displayed in the conversion of so many,
"he was glad!"  From that moment, he meekly takes
the second place in the sacred narrative, saying, in the
spirit of the Baptist, regarding a Greater than Saul,
"He must increase, but I must decrease." He had
but one thought, and that was, the promotion of his
Lord's cause and glory; for this he willingly sacrificed
self. His was the contented but beautiful feeling of
Jonathan of old, when he said to David, "Thou shalt
be king, and I shall be next to thee." 
We cannot tell whether this was Saul's first visit to
a city with which he was afterwards so well acquainted.
If it were so, his eye must have gazed with delight on
its vastness and magnificence-its towers and temples,
Roman villas and gardens, baths and theatres. You
will be able to form some idea of Antioch from the
picture at the beginning of this chapter. The town
itself was nearly five miles long, a ld lay on the north.
1 Sam. xxiii. 17.
fl




98          THE FOOT;TEPS OF ST PAUL.
ern slope of the rocky Mount Silphius. Walls of enor.
mous height and thickness (fifty feet high, and fifteen
wide) extended round about it-spanning, in many
places, the deep ravines of the mountain-and the
ruins of which remain to the present day miracles of
art and labour. A remarkable island was formed in
the centre of tle city, on which stood the palace of the
Seleucidee, with a bridge connecting it -with the northern portion. The crags of Mount Silphius were all of
them bold and rugged.. One remarkable column of
rock overhung the town, which the art of the Greeks
had formed into an immense head, with a crown upon
it, and which they called' the Head of Charon." If
Saul could not see, from the road he travelled, the
celebrated temple itself, he must have seen the vast
groves of laurels, myrtles, and cypresses, which begirt
for ten miles the great shrine at Daphne, erected in
honour of Apollo and Diana. In the midst of these
thickets, a thousand streams leapt from the neighbouring hills, and refreshed the sultry air. Antioch was
well entitled to the name which for a long period it bore
" the Queen of the East."
We may imagine the two brothers in the Lord now
entering the town. They have perhaps reached the
spacious colonnade in the long centre street, which was
erected, at enormous cost, by Herod the Great, and
where the citizens could assemble for business or pleasure, and be protected either from rain or heat. What
a strange and motley crowd would greet their view 
-Roman soldiers-servants from the prefect's palace —
gay and pleasure-seeking Greeks-the keen dark eye
of their brethren according to the flesh; the latter not
artrayed in the poor garb they were often found in, in




THE MISSIONARY.             99
other cities, but bearing the evidences of wealth and
prosperity, and worshipping the God of their fathers in
handsome synagogues.'* But there were other glories
which gladdened them more. The cause nearest and
dearest to their hearts was fast spreading in Antioch.
The sect of disciples now began to assume the form of
a Church, and, in the year 44, Jews and Gentiles who
believed in Jesus as the Son of God and Saviour of the
world, had a new title given to them, which they
retain to this day, from the Greek word Christos (" anointed," or " the Messiah"),-" the disciples were called
CHRISTIANS first at Antioch."
A writer of the sixth century-himself a native of
the city-mentions the very spot where the two
apostles first engaged in their work of preaching the
Gospel.  Its situation reminds us of St Paul, at a
future period of his ministry, when he stood on Mars
Hill, close to the Athenian temples. At Antioch they
also took their position near to the Pantheon, in a street
called "Singon," close to the busiest thoroughfare.t
Little did Saul think of the wonderful change which
the power of God would produce in a few years in that
Pagan city. Heathen temples were to give way to
Christian churches-hymns to the praise of Jesus were
to be heard in every street. In the age of Chrysostom,
we find the Christians numbering 100,000, and supporting no less than 3000 poor, besides relieving many
more! Antioch became, for many hundred years, the
capital of Christendom, and was called by the name of
Theopolis, a Greek word which means " the City of God."
These facts will explain to our readers why we have
* Lewin.
t Aalela, quoted by Lewin, p. 11.




100          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
dwelt more minutely than we should o herwise have
done, in giving an account of this interesting place. 
An event in the meantime occurred, which required
the two Christian ministers to leave Antioch for a
little.  Owing to a predicted failure in the harvest, in
all the surrounding countries, and especially in Judea,
thousands of the poor were about to endure famine.
The Christians in Jerusalem, from their poverty, were
likely to be among the greatest of the sufferers. Accordingly, they sent some " prophets," and among
them one Agabus, to Antioch, to acquaint their fellowChristians of their coming wants, and request from
them what relief they were able to afford. The Gentile
believers of the city met. They resolved to do what
they could to help their starving friends at a distance;
and, having collected some money, they appointed Saul
and Barnabas to go with it, and give it to the elders at
Jerusalem. God thus overruled this calamity in the
world of nature to bring out the spiritual graces of His
people, so that Jews and heathen might be brought to
say of the Nazarenes they hated, "See how these
Christians love one another!"
Josephus, in his history, confirms the account given
in the sacred narrative regarding the famine. Among
other things, he relates that Helena, the Queen of
Adiabene (a country not far from    Antioch), having
become a convert to the Jewish religio,, had'taken up
her abode in the city of Jerusalem, in order to be near
the temple.  When the famine broke out, she sent her
* Lewin Conybeare and Howson, Neander, Bible Cyclopacdia, &c.-Antioch is
now a small town. It has been six times the sceLe of fearful earthquakes.
Tnat of A.D. 526 is said to have destroyed 250, 0 individuals, I lving happened on occasion of a festival. In 1268 it was laid in ruins by a Sultan o!
Egypt. In 1822 another earthquake occurred, which destroyed 4000 or
5000.




THE MISSIONARY.             101
servants to Alexandria, in Egyp1, to Irocure a large
quantity of corn; others she sent to the island of
Cyprus for a store of dried figs,-distributing these
among the starving Jtws. Her son, the reigning King
of Adiabene, followed her charitable example: and forwarded large sums of money to Palestine.
When the two holy apostles, Saul and Barnabas,
arrived in Jerusalem, there were other events which had
made their poor Christian friends very sad an I sorrowful. Herod (the grandson of the king who had murdered the little children in Bethlehem at the time of
the Saviour's birth) was still reigning Sovereign of
Judea, under Claudius Caesar. Though he was a wicked
man, and indulged in many vices, he had always been
a strict observer of the Jewish law, and therefore very
much hated the new sect of Christians.  After eight
years' freedom from persecution, the dreaded flames once
more burst out. James, one of the disciples of Jesus,
he had " slain with the sword."  He had put Peter, at
the time of the Passover, in prison-set sixtee a soldiers
to guard him, and bound him with two chains-resolving, in a short time, to bring him forth, and have him
killed also. What human power can save him? This
apostle must have concluded that the hour of his
martyr-death, of which Jesus iad forewarned him, had
arrived, when he was to " stretch out his hands" like
his Lord upon the cross.*  But God has work for him
to do before he receives his crown. The infant Church
could yet ill spare him. No bolts or bars car stop the
power of prayer.  A prayer-meeting was held in a
lowly dwelling in Jerusalem. God heard thl voice of
his servants. He sent his angel to open the prison doors
* Johl xxi.-l&-22.




102         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
and let the apostle free; while the king who put him
there was brought to a sudden and fearful end. In the
same city where Cornelius the Christian Roman dwelt,
there was, as we have already told you, a large theatre,
erected by the elder Herod. One day about the beginning of the month of August, this building was crowded
with people. The cause of the immense assemblage is
to us an interesting one. The Emperor Claudius had
gone to join his armies in Great Britain, and remained
there for sixteen days. During this time, he obtained
several victories, and took, among others, the city of
Colchester, which was then, what London is now, the
capital of the empire. On returning to Rome, there
was universal rejoicing; he was called "Brittanicus,"
after our island; he had a naval crown put above his
palace; and an annual celebration of the event was
instituted at Rome, consisting of the usual barbarous
sport of fighting wild beasts, with war-dances and
chariot-racing. Herod Agrippa, who was both much
indebted to Claudius, and desirous of retaining his
favour, resolved to keep the festival also in imposing
splendour in the theatre at Cesarea. The stone seats,
which rose one above another, were a moving mass of
human beings. On the second morning all faces were
turned towards a private portico, through which in
great pomp Herod entered, clad in sparkling robes of
silver. He took his seat on a purple throne. When
the people saw him, they shouted and cried, " Behold
a god!" adding, according to Josephus, "Be thou
merciful unto us; for although we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a king, yet shall we henceforth
own thee as superior to mortals." The same writer,
in his account of it, also relates that at that moment




THE MISSIONARY.             103
the unhappy being they were thus foolishly worshipping looked up and saw an owl (a bird of "evil
omen," that is to say, supposed by the superstitious
heathen to bespeak calamity) perched on a rope above
his head.  He was immediately filled with dread.*
The great God of heaven, who will not give his glory to
another, made him to be "eaten of worms!" He was
carried away to his palace in the agonies of a dreadful
death. Josephus adds, that the assembled multitudes
fled from the theatre, and, as was the custom with the
Jews, rent their clothes and sat in ashes, making a
great lamentation-" And the king being laid in a high
chamber, and looking down on the people prostrate on
the ground, could not himself forbear weeping. And
having continued in agony for five days,.... he departed this life." Think of holy Stephen's end, with
angels his spectators! Think of this! What a comment on the words of the Psalmist!-" I have seen the
wicked great in power and spreading himself like a
green bay tree: yet he passed away, and lo! he was not;
yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. Mark the
perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of.that
man is peace."t
We cannot tell what time Saul and Barnabas waited
in Jerusalem; probably not long. They would give
the money they had collected for the impending
famine, and make the minds of the Christians there
glad and joyful, by telling them of all that the Lord
was doing at Antioch. When they prepared to return,
they did not go alone, but took with them the nephew
of Barnabas,
We have just spoken of a prayer-meeting of di&
Josephus, b. xix., chap. viii.  t Psalm xxxvii. 35-32




104.      THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
ciples, in a house at Jerusalem, for the deliverance of
Peter. It was the house of Mary, sister to Barnabas,
and mother of "John, whose surname was Mark." * It
is more than probable that one of those present at this
prayer-meeting, who had the joy of welcoming back
the imprisoned apostle, was Saul of Tarsus; that
there he may have formed his acquaintance with the
nephew of his companion, who was to be a future
son and fellow-labourer in the faith. We shall have
occasion more than once to mention the name of
Mark; and though at one time, as we shall find, there
was an unhappy difference between him and the great
apostle, it is interesting to read among the very last
sentences which Paul, when he became "the aged,"
wrote,-" Take Mark," said he to Timothy, " and bring
him with thee, for he is profitable to me in the ministry."t
After this short visit to Jerusalem, Saul's history
becomes more, than it has been yet, a history of
preaching among the Gentiles. We shall enter, at this
point, on the first of those great missionary tours,
with their labours and perils, their joys and sorrows,
which only closed when he could say, "I have fought
a good fight, I have finished my course."   That
noble missionary river, whose streams are now fertilising the world, had its little fountain-head in
Antioch.
One day, in some house or church in that great city,
all the Christians were assembled together. They had
met for fasting and prayer. The names of the different prophets and teachers are mentioned at the beginning of the 13th chapter of Acts. There was "Simeon, wl:O was also called Niger,"-a -word which means
* Acts xii. 12.      t 2 Tim. iv. 11.




THE MISSIONARY.             105
"black," and from which some have supposed that he
was a black African-a negro-the first of the " Ethiopians" who are yet to "stretch out their hands unto
God;" there was Manaen, the foster-brother of Herod
Antipas; and Lucius, probably the same as Luce the
Evangelist; "Saul and Barnabas."  One or all of these
had addressed the assembled disciples, discoursing to
them about Jesus and his great salvation. We may
imagine the assembled worshippers praising God for
all His mercies, or perhaps uniting in supplication,
making it the special object of their meeting to receive
direction as to their future labours, when suddenly an
answer is sent to their prayers. It is one which doubtless must in many ways have made them sorry; for it
calls on them to part with the two of their number
they had most reason to cleave to and love. But to
God's will they joyfully submit. His command was,
" Separate me now Barnabas and Saul for the work
whereunto I have called them." * That work was to
obey the parting commission of their great Lord"Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
Another solemn day was fixed to meet the two missionaries, before they set sail, to bid them farewell-to
hear once more the Gospel message from their lips, and
to implore anew God's blessing and guidance. Perhaps some of my readers have been at church when
a missionary was set apart, and ordained to go to some
far-off portion of the heathen world to preach "the unsearchable riches of Christ." It is a touching and impressive scene, which none can ever forget-a holy man
willing to leave home and friends, to "spend and bf
* Acts xiii. 2.




lob         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL,
spent for Jesus." Here was the first of thousands of
such scenes which have since taken place-the first
consecration of three Christian missionaries! "They
laid their hands on them, and sent them away."* We
may imagine the tears in many eyes which followed
them down to the harbour where the boat was in readiness to embark; we may almost hear the farewells
that are spoken as the vessel or skiff left the shore.
Little did the Syrian onlookers understand these tears,
or know all the importance attached to that departure.
We have supposed, what is most likely, that they
sailed by ship down the Orontes, with its vine-clad
banks, to the harbour of Seleucia. Possibly, however,
they saved time by avoiding the many windings in the
river, and took the ordinary road which led across the
bridge from the city on its north side. In this case,
they would enter the sea-town by what was called the
" Gate of Antioch"-a noble archway, on the south-east
side, supported by pillars and guarded with towers.
Seleucia was in those days a large port, with many gallant vessels from all parts of the Mediterranean riding
in its harbour. The harbour itself was a famous one.
It was built of vast stones fastened together with
cramps of iron to which the ships were moored, and
which, in the heavy storms and raging seas which
broke at times from the west, kept them from being
dashed to pieces. The scenery must have been striking to such a mind as that of Saul, standing, as we may
suppose him, with his two fellow-missionaries, either
on the heights of the fortress, or on the broad pier,
with a forest of masts and the din of commerce all
around   His eye would rest, towards i ae north, on a
* Acts xiii 8.




THE MISSIONARY.             If7
bold parapet of Mount Coryphocus, with its rocky sides
cut into numerous sepulchres similar to those in Petra
or the Valley of Jehoshaphat. In front he would gaze
upon miles on miles of blue sea, whose waters he was
afterwards to be familiar with in calm and in terrible
storm. In the far distance, the dim hazy tops of the
Cyprian mountains rose into view. Barnabas and his
relative Mark doubtless loved to look at these, for
Cyprus was their old home; and probably this was
one among other reasons which had determined them
to direct their pilgrim steps first to its shores. They
have now set sail; the mountains, which at first they
saw at a great distance, come nearer and nearer; their
vessel, under a fair gale, is skimming over the waves;
and when they are lowering its sails, they find themselves, 100 miles from Seleucia, entering the bay and
harbour of Salamis.
Cyprus, known to the Hebrews by the name Chetim
or Kittim (from Kittim, the son of Javan), is, next
to Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean. The
many crooked windings and turnings in its rugged
coast gave it the name of "the Horned;" but so
beautiful and fertile was it, that it was called also by
the name of "the Blest."  Its situation, and the number of these creeks and havens, made it a favourite
place of resort for merchants from Egypt, Phenicia,
and Asia Minor.   There were large plantations in
the interior whose timber was much valued in shipbuilding. In the cultivated plains, "corn, wine, and
o:!" were produced in abundance, and its mines and
rivers contained diamonds, emeralds, silver, lead, and
copper.  More valuable and "unsearchable riches"
than these ha already been brought to Cyprus by the




108          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
Christians who were scattered abroad on the death of
Stephen; but the efforts of these earlier missionaries
were confined to the Jews alone. A great number of
Israelites were always resident in the island, and this,
we may well believe, was another reason, in addition
to what has already been mentioned, for the apostles
turning their steps to its shores. Jesus had himself
spoken of the peculiar claims of "the lost sheep of the
house (f Israel;" and Saul and his two companions
would doubtless consider that they best fulfilled their
Lord's will by seeking first to bring them into the Gospel fold. They accordingly began their labours in the
Jewish synagogues.
After spending some little time in Salamis, they
resolve to cross to the other end of the island to a
town called Paphos, now " Baffa,"-a distance of nearly
100 miles. This must have been a place of importance, from being the residence of the Roman governor.
The heathen goddess, under whose protection the island
of Cyp::us was by its Pagan inhabitants supposed to
be, was Venus; hence she was called Cypria, and was
fabled to have sprung from   the foam  of the sea.
Her principal temple was situated close by Paphos, in
the midst of delightful groves and delicious fruittrees. On the streets of this island town these faithful missionaries stood and preached the glorious Gos.
pel of the grace of God.
Saul says, at a future time, in one of his letters,
"Not many noble are called."  Here, however, there
was one,-the first of the few "noble" and great of
this world who were, through his agency, to embrace
the religion of the despised Jesus. The Roman governor or deputy, Sergius Paulus, is described as " a pli



THE 31M&SIONARY.            109
dent man, who desired to hear the Word of God."  He
appears to have been a person of an inquiring spirit,
an "open-minded" man, as the word " prudent" means.
He could get no comfort in the heathen religion; he
found it could not meet the wants of his soul  Mere
curiosity prompted, at a future time, other kings and
governors to hear Saul; but we believe -it was from a
deeper feeling that Sergius desired to listen to the
Gospel tidings. He was brought to believe and love
the Saviour. Let us hear what were the means employed to humble' this exalted Roman, and bring him
to the foot of the cross. He had with him in his royal
dwelling a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, or, as he
was called also, Elymas, —an Arabian word which means
"the wise one" (just as our English word "wizard" is
derived from, or rather is a contraction of, " wise art").
But professing himself to be "wise," this man was a
"fool." He was one of those false deceivers or knaves,
who at that age of the world used to pretend to work
miracles, and prophesy, and perform magical arts in
connexion with Satan.* They were often found in the
houses of the great, and in the palaces of kings.
The East has at all times been famed as the region of
wild dreams and fairy tales, of magic and fortune-telling.
Many during the age of the Apostle, from whom we
might have looked for better things, were silly enough
to believe in the magical arts cf cunning impostors,
and to encourage them by gifts of money. It is sad
to think how even some among the Jewish nation lent
themselves to this wicked trade. These, certainly, were
of the "baser sort," unworthy to be called children of
Abraham. They pretended to be possessed of the spe
* See Home's Introduction, vol. ii. p. 366.




110          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
rit of their old prophets, and t. have the gift of secondsight, foretelling future events.  One of this number
was Bar-Jesus, who had now found his way to the
governor's dwelling at Paphos. Sergius Paulus had
been told of the newly-arrived strangers. He had probably heard not a little of the new sect called " Christians," which had grown up in Jerusalem, and whose
doctrines were spreading in the capital of Syria. On
resolving, therefore, to see and hear its three disciples,
Elymas did all he could to prevent their getting into
the governor's presence; for as light has no fellowship
with darkness, he knew that if his master came to
embrace their doctrines, his power and influence at
court would be at an end. All his arts, however, to
exclude the apostle-missionaries were Vusuccessful;
Saul and his two friends stood in the presence of the
high-born Roman.   They "preached to him Jesus,"told him of the only true rest for his troubled soul, and
that there was neither happiness nor salvation in any
other. Bar-Jesus evidently writhed under the apostles'
words. We are not told what he did, or what he said;
but we are left in little doubt, from Saul's strong language, that the impostor-Jew had been blaspheming
that holy Name which the apostle counted dearer than
life. The noble spirit of the latter is roused within
him, and by the power of God he prepares to silence
the wicked gainsayer by "terrible things in righteousness which he looked not for."  In the name of the
same Great Being who, on his way to Damascus,
had deprived him of sight, "he declared, with divine
confidence, that the Lord would punish Elymas with
the loss of these organs which he only abused by attempting, through his arts of deception, to stop the




raE MISSIONARY.                     111
progress of Divine truth."* Fixing upon him           a stern
look, he pronounces the awful sentence, and the miserable man is sent away groping in daikness.            Sergius
cannot resist the power of this miracle. He believes.;
and many in the town and throughout the island fol.
low  the example of their noble governor.           The missionaries doubtless raise their hearts in humble gratitude to God for these first-fruits of the great harvest.t
As this is the first miracle wrought by the apostle,
the question may occur to us, What were the extent
of Saul's miraculous gifts? Could he work a miracle at any time he pleased, or was it only the result
ef some special power given him at particular times 
Evidently it was the latter alone.        "He could strike
Elymas blind      because   he   was so   directed, but he
could not cure Tropilimus or Epaphroditus when they
were sick, or rid himself of the thorn in the flesh,
though it so sorely distressed him. So Paul had the
gift of tongues, yet his knowledge in this respect was
* Neander.
t What would the pilgrim-missionary have thought if he had read the
following account of his apostolic successor, given by an English traveller in Cyprus 1800 years after?-" I entered the city by the gate of Larnica, and was conducted to the Episcopal palace through a number of
narrow lanes, where rny horse was nearly buried in mud and filth. The
archbishop, dressed in a magnificent purple robe, with a long flowing
beard, and a silk cap on his head, received me in the vestibule, and ordered
an apartment to be prepared for me in the palace,-a large and straggling
building containing upwar(ds of a hundred chambers. These are all required for the accommodation of the bishops, priests, and their attendants; for the archbishop, both in power and affluence, is the second personage on the island.... At seven o'clock, supper being announced,
he took me by the hand and led me through a gallery into the refectory,
-a long and dirty hall, where about thirty priests and bishops sat down to
table. The wine and provisions were excellent and abundant, and the
bread, which was white as snow, and baked with milk instead of water,
was the best I remember to have tested."-Kinneir's Journey througjh Asw
Minor, p. 188.




112          THE FOOTSTEPS (F ST PAUL.
limited, as we shall see at Lystra, where the Lycaonian dialect was unintelligible to him. So Paul had
the spirit of prophecy as to Antichrist; and, when
tossed by the storm in Adria, could predict that not
a life would be lost, and that they should be cast
away on a certain island; but when he parted from
the Ephesian elders, on his third circuit, he could
not foresee that he should visit them again." *
It is worthy of note, that from this time forward
the great apostle always takes the namie of PAUL.
Saul is never used again, either in the Acts of the
Apostles, nor does he use it himself in the course of
his own epistles. What was the cause or meaning
of this change of name? There must have been some
reason for it.  We. know it was a common thing,
with many of God's favoured servants, to have an
alteration of name at some important periods of their
history.  Abram's name was changed to Abraham;
Simon was changed to Peter (the Rock). Some think
that Saul took the name of Paul in honour of Sergius
Paulus becoming a Christian-that just as Pagan
heroes derived their new titles from the cities or countries they conquered, so Saul adopted a new name from
the first conquest he had made by the "sword of the
Spirit" in this island. But it is more likely intended
to mark his calling as a missionary to the heathen aid
Gentiles. He dropped his name Saul, which was his
Jewish one; and he takes the title Paul, which was his
Roman one, as it was henceforth not among the Hebrews, but the Pagan Romans, that his greatest triumphs were to be won.t He adopted the change at
this particular time, as God had granted him such
* Lcwin, vol. i. p. 143.  t Origen. See Calmet's Commentary. 




THE MISSIONARY.             113
marked favour and success in Cyprus,-a place which
was always considered very wicked and sinful.
Be this, however, as it may, Paul "thanked Goa and
took courage."  He prepared to buckle on his armour
for new battles and new victories. He was now about,
like Abraham, when he received his change of name,
to become the spiritual "father of many nations."




CHAPTER VII.
"Hark the note 
The natural music of the mountain reedFor here the patriarchal days are not
A pastoral fable-pipes in the liberal air,
Mix'd with the sweet bells of the wandering herd.*
"Once was I stoned,...... in journeyings often, in perils of
waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen,
in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness"-2 Col. zi. 25, 2&




ETER this favoured visit to the lovely island
of Cyprus, we find Paul and his two companions once more on the Mediterranean, sailing northwards to the coast of Pamphylia, in Asia Minor. We
are not told whether God had given then    special
directions to direct their steps thither, or whether they
just took the first vessel they found -sailing for another
shore,-" the field" being " the world," and perisilng
heathen souls everywhere equally precious. Perhaps
the Great Apostle, now that he had preached in large
cities, might be desirous of carrying the glad tidings,
with the hopes, too, of greater success, into the less
frequented regions of Asia Minor,-upland districts
similar to many parts of North Wales, the Highlands
of Scotland, or the valleys of the Alps, where the inhabitants were more primitive in their manners, and
les. corrupted with fashionable vices and siLa.




116          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PA, L.
Be this as it may, however, we find the three travellers once more in a Cyprian vessel coming in view
of the coast of Pamphylia.   On entering, as is probable, the mouth'of the Cestrus, their eyes would rest
on a flat plain, on either side, running a long way into
the interior, till it was hemmed in by a rampart of
snowy mountains.     Paul's thorghcs were occupied
with nobler battles and victories than those of earth;
but it is not improbable that, as they were slowly
steering up the river, some of the crew may have
pointed out to him spots which had been rendered
famous by contending armies, narrating tales of valour
Tonnected with the names of Cimon, Antiochus, and
Hannibal. In entering the channel ofthle Cestrus, he
would observe the rugged cliffs which rose perpendicularly from the sea on the east and west.  If he had
been a few miles further in a westerly direction, he
would have seen the leap which the river Catarrhactes
(as its name imports) takes over the sea-cliffs into the
ocean beneath, and which must have been peculiarly
grand after the heavy rains, or tht sudden melting of
the mountain snows. *
Pamphylia itself occupied about eighty miles along
the coast, lying between Lycia on the west, and Cilicia
on the east; and as its name, "a land of all tribes,"
would lead us to infer, it was inhabited by different
races-those principally of Greek extraction.  At this
time, Pisidia and Lycia formed along with it one province, under a Roman governor, having Antioch in
Pisidia for its capital.+  They have sailed seven miles
*' The river Cataractes, which Strabo places between the cities cf Olbia
and Attalia, and which, he says, precipitates itself from a lofty rock witk
a tremendous din."-Beaufort's Karamania, p. 127.
t Lewin, vol. i. p. 145.




THE TRAVELLER.              117
up the river we have just spoken of, and which bears
the modern name of the Aksoo, when they reach the
town of Perga. This city was beautifully situated in
the valley through which, amid precipitous rocks,
the Cestrus winds its way.  It occupied chiefly the
left bank of the river; it had a wall surrounding it,
with the usual edifices of a Greek town-a theatre,
stadium, and temples. As at Antioch and Paphos,
the great attraction of the place was a temple built on
a lofty eminence to Diana, and a yearly festival held
in honour of this heathen goddess. Shepherds and
their flocks are now found encamping amid broken
shafts and columns,-all that is left to mark the spot
where Perga stood, and where Paul and his friends
lodged.
There was a trial waiting the great apostle here
which he little expected.  John  Mark, who had
till now accompanied them, got either timid or weary
in his work, and, leaving Paul and Barnabas, he took
the first ship that sailed to the land of Judea. We
have no means of knowing accurately what induced
the younger disciple to take this step, and desert his
fellow-travellers, just when they had most need of him.
Most probably he feared the "perils of floods (waters)
and perils of robbers,"-the dangers and fatigues that
were so well known in connexion with a journey across
the Pisidian "Alps." He could not make up his mind
to " endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."
It must, at all events, have been cause of deep sorrow
and regret to his older companions. May we not conclude this to have been the reason of their brief stay
in Perga   The good cause may there have suffered
from the unkind and unmanly conduct of Barnabas'




118         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
young relative. Mark would doubtless have h.s own
sad feelings, when, as he sailed all alone on the midnight sea, he thought of this desertion from his holy and
devoted friends. The words of his divine Lord and
Master must have been sounding loudly and reproachingly in his ears,-" No man having put his hand- to
the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of
God." Some have heen led in charity to plead, in
excuse for him, a commendable desire to be with his
aged and widowed mother in Jerusalem; but even
this, though it would tend to lessen his blameworthiness, would not be sufficient to justify him; for, after
having undertaken his missionary work, he ought to
have remembered the words of Him who said, " Whosoever loveth father and mother more than me, is not
worthy of me." We have abundant reason to conclude,
as we shall by and by find, that he bitterly repented
of the step, and did all in his power to atone for present ingratitude and timidity.
The two elder apostles prepare alone to resume their
journey. We have already seen them gathered with
their fellow-Christians in Antioch (in Syria); we are
now to accompany them many miles straight north
from Perga, to another Antioch (in Pisidia) in the
centre of Asia Minor. There are no gently-flowing
rivers, like the Orontes or Cydnus, by which they can
approach this remote spot. Desolate paths and rugged
cliffs must be climbed and crossed before they can
reach the distant capital.
It has bcen supposed, and perhaps correctly, that
the season of the year when the two pilgrims set out
from Perga, was about the end of spring or the beginning of summer, when the heat began to be so great in




THE TRAVELLtR.               119
and around Perga, that the inhabitants (as still is the
custom in many parts of India) left the intolerable
warmth of the lower plains, and went up in companies
or caravans to the cool breezes of the mountains.*' We
are all the more willing to fix this to be the time of
their journey, as these lonely passes were infested with
thieves, which rendered the route very dangerous to
single or unprotected travellers. Many a daring tale
of robber chiefs still lingers among these mountain
glens; desperate marauders or freebooters, similar to
those who kept, a century ago, the Scottish Highlands
in a state of lawlessness, frequently pillaged, by sudden
incursions, the plains, and then retreated amid their
inaccessible rocks and fastnesses.  If even Roman
armies and Roman valour had to quail before these
savage tribes, we need not wonder at Paul speaking
afterwards with such feeling (and evidently with reference to his present journey) of "perils of robbers."
It is more than probable that our two travellers
selected the period of the year for their journey
when they would have that protection on the road
which -was so much needed.    Add to this-it was
hardly possible to traverse these regions with comfort
or safety at any other season of the year,-there was
no travelling during the severe cold and drifting snows
of winter, and, in early spring, the defiles were either
choked with snow, or else the melting of it on the
mountains made what roads and bridges there were,
in many places, impassable.
We may imagine, then, the great apostle and his
* See the entire interesting chapter in Howson and Conybeare, where
the descriptions of modern travellers are made graphically to illusrtrat
this portion of Paul's life.-Authorities there quoted.




120          THE FOOTSTEPI' OFP T PAUL.
fellow-traveller, staff in hand, on their way from Peiga
to the mountains of Pisidia. Their eyes are no longer
gazing on the walls of a Jewish synagogue or a Roman
palace,-the apostle no longer sits wrapped in his
warm "cloak" as he floats over the "great sea," but
toiling along through difficult and slippery paths, with
huge precipices frowning in terror over his head. Now
and then some torrent, swollen by the sudden rains,
and occupying the. whole breadth of the defile, as it
rushes down, may remind us also of the "perils of
waters" (or " water-floods"), which he couples with the
more terrible one of the mountain-freebooters.  Those
of my readers who are familiar with the floodings of
the rivers and mountain-streams in Scotland, when,
after the sudden melting of the snows on the higher
Grampians, sheep, and trees, and corn-stacks, are often
swept along in the furious current, may form some
idea of the nature of these " perils" the apostle
speaks of.
The fierce heat of the sun is gradually exchanged
for the cooling breeze of the uplands; the vine, the
orange, the pomegranate, and, above all, the oleander,
with its bright crimson flower, at that season must
have been carpeting the rocks as they began their
ascent.*  As they approach the higher regions, these
gradually disappear, and the hardier plants and shrubs
of the mountain take their place; at last they come to
mark only a few flowers shivering in the snow, and
are glad to take refuge now and then in some shepherd's cave or grotto, or beneath the shade of pines,
to screen them fron, the cutting winds. Any travellers that might have accompanied them thus fiLr, are
* Spratt and Forbes' Lycia, as quoted by Howson




THE TRAVELLER.              121
now left behir.d, and they pursue their journey alone
across a flat table-land of dull and dead scenery. They
have bid, for the present, at least, farewell both to the
riches of the plain and the stern grandeur of the
mountains, and are traversing a vast fiat wilderness
full of lakes and morasses, where storks and wild
swans are raising their necks among the reeds and
rushes.*  Shepherds' huts and folds are studded here
and there, at which fires are kept blazing at night to
scare away the wild animals; and the apostle doubtless sees also occasionally encampments formed of the
well-known " goats'-hair tents," reminding him of his
Tarsus days and childhood happiness.t  In the far
distance a few scattered specks begin to appear; and,
after an hour or two of further journey, they are glad
to find their weary limbs reclining in some humble
dwelling in the capital of Pisidia.
The Pisidian Antioch, founded by Seleucus Nicanor, stood on an eminence which can still be distinguished as the site of the old city from the numerous
ruins which are strewn around.  Among these is a
magnificent aqueduct of twenty-one arches, and several churches and temples. +
One Sabbath day, somewhere between the year Jf
our Lord 45 and 50, we may fancy ourselves in the
inside of a strange, peculiar building in the city of
Antioch. It is built in a circular form; seats, rising
one above another, are filled with eager intelligent
countenances. In the centre is a raised desk or table
of wood, where an individual, with a flowing beard is
* Fellow's 4sia Minor, p. 155, quoted by Hav son. See the picture at
the beginniulg of the chapter.
t Fellow's Asia Minor, p. 155.
f ible Cyclopaedia, Arundell's Asia Minor. &c.




L22         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAULI
busy reading from some ancient scroll he holds in hia
hand; beside him is an interpreter, who translates
what the other has been reading in Hebrev into the
Greek language; close by is an ancient ark or chest,
where the roll we have mentioned, along with others,
were carefully kept; other bearded rulers sit in stone
seats in front, facing the people; and behind a screen
or lattice in the gallery, are a number of females-the
wives and daughters of those assembled worshippers.*
We must not omit to note two other figures in this assemblage-two men, strangers in dress, and yet wearing
the covering for the head which was the badge of every
Israelite, and, with features like others around them,
are seated by themselves, and attract the attention of
their fellow-worshippers.  I need not tell you what
scene this is, nor who these two strangers are-it is
the Jewish synagogue in the Pisidian capital. Paul
and Barnabas, as their custom was, resorted to the
Jews' place of worship to seek an opportunity of
preaching the Gospel of their Divine Master.
With what different feelings must they, and the
others in that synagogue, have listened to the following prayers which had just been read:-" Blessed
be thou, 0 Lord our God, the God of our fathers,...
who, in thy love, sendest a Redeemer to those who are
descended from them for Thy name's sake! 0 King,
our Lord and helper, our Saviour and our shield!
Blessed art thou, 0 Lord, who art the shield of Abraham!"
"Look, we beseech Thee, upon our afflictions,... and
make haste to redeem us with a perfect redemption for
Thy name's sake; for Thou art our God, our King, and
a strong Redeemer. Blessed art thou, 0 Lor.d, the Re.
* Philo, ii. 453.




THE TRAVELLER.              123
deemer of Israel!" " Make the offspring of David, Thy
servant, speedily to grow up and flourish, and let our
horn be exalted in Thy salvation; for we hope for Thy
salvation every day.  Blessed art thou, 0 Lord, who
makest the horn of our salvation t, flourish!"  What a
solemn "Amen" must the two Christian missionaries
have pronounced over these answered prayers!
The "President" has just finished reading, as was
the custom, the allotted portion of the Law and the
Prophets; he has carefully rolled back the parchment
or vellum scroll, and given it to the. officer to be replaced in the chest. He then sends a messenger to
the two strangers to ask them if they have any instructions to give the audience.
We may wonder at the notice thus taken of these
unknown travellers; but it seems to have been understood in Jewish synagogues, that whenever any
strangers took a seat, " sat down as Paul and Barnabas now did, it was an intimation that they were in
the habit of addressing their countrymen, and were
desirous of doing so."*
Paul was waiting ready to obey the invitation. We
are told that, upon being asked, " he rose and beckoned with his hand,"-his usual mode of imposing
silence when he was about to speak.
His sermon possesses a peculiar interest in being the
first and the only one that we have on record as preached
during this missionary journey. Though in itself only
an outline of what he delivered, we may feel assured it
contains a complete summary of his address, and much
of it in the very words he employed. He secures at its
commencement their attention by reminding them how
* Lightfoot




124         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
God had selected them to be His peculiar people —re
counting His manifold mercies to their nation; briefly
touching on various leading incidents in their miraculous history, till he comes to the promise of Messiah
given to His servant David, of whom, according to the
flesh, Jesus was to be born.  He then began to open
up the great subject of his teaching, viz., that that
Messiah promised to their royal ancestor had already
come, and that by faith in Him they were "justified
from all things from which they could not be justified
by the law of Moses." Neander observes, that the whole
discourse is a specimen of the peculiar wisdom and
skill of Paul in the management of men's dispositions.
We may well be pardoned for quoting this memorable
sermon in full.  Imagine, then, the great apostle
standing up in the synagogue of this distant city, and
thus " preaching to them' Jesus: "" Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.
The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and
exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the
land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them
out of it. And about the time of forty years suffered
he their manners in the wilderness. And when he had
destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he
divided their land to them by lot. And after that he
gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.  And
afterwards they desired a king; and God gave unto
them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Bcnja.
min, by the space of forty years.  And when he had
removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their
king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I
have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mrin




THE TRAVELLER.              125
own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.  Of this
man's seed hath God, according to his promise, raised
unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus: when John had first
preached before his coming the baptism of repentance
to all the people of Israel. And as John fulfilled his
course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am
not he: but, behold, there coumtth one after me, whose
shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose.  Men and
brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of
this salvation sent. For they that dwell at Jerusalem,
and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet
the voices of the prophets which are read every
sabbath-day, they have fulfilled them in condemning
him.   And though they found no cause of death in
him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain.
And when they had fulfilled all that was written of
him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him
in a sepulchre.  But God raised him from the dead:
and he was seen many days of them which came up
with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.  And we declare unto you
glad tidings, how that the promise which was made
unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us
their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again;
as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art nTy
Son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concernirg tiat he raised him up from the dead, now no more
to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give
you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore he saith
also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine
Holy One to see corruption. For David, after he had
served his own generation by the will of God, fell on




126           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: but he, whom God raised again, saw no corruptiot.  Be it known unto you therefore, men and
brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are
justified from all things, from which ye could not be
justified by the law of Moses.  Beware therefore, lest
that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish:
for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall
in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you." X
When Paul had finished, the Jews and Gentile proselytest came crowding around him. The minds of
the latter had been deeply impressed-they had been
conscience-stricken, and the good seed sown was ere
long to manifest its growth in a Christian church.
They were not content with what they had just heard
from his lips, they ask the apostle to return again on
the next sabbath, and repeat these wondrous glad-tidings of great joy. He gladly agrees to do so. Meanwhile, ere he leaves the synagogue, he entreats them,
with fatherly affection, " to abide in the grace of God."
We may imagine how the two Christian teachers
would be employed before the return of another sabbath; how busily they would be engaged in going
from house to house, explaining more fully the
great salvation.  The strange and startling sermon
which this Jew of Tarsus had preached would douutless be the topic of general conversation during the
week. Greek merchants would talk of it at their place
* Acts xiii. 16-41.
t Proselytes were those heathens or Gentiles who had been converted
to Judaism, and worshipped the only living and true God.




THE TRAVELLER.             127
of business-peasants, at the market-Jews, as they
met in groups on the streets. When the next sabbath
came round, the fame of the apostle had spread far
and wide, and at the hour of service a dense crowd of
Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, and Pisidians, was collected
both in and around the synagogue.   "Almost the
whole city came together to hear the word of God."*
The greater number of these worshippers were Gentiles.
Their presence excited the envy of the Jews, who
would not, as on the former sabbath, listen patiently
to what Paul had to say. Filled with spiritual pride,
they were offended at the thought of salvation coming
in any other way but through their law, and given to
any other but their nation. They drowned his voice,
therefore, with their clamour, and "interrupted him,
contradicting and blaspheming." Paul tried in vain to
quiet them.  He offered them anew "the grace of
God," but when he found all his pleadings were to no
purpose, he speaks as the apostle to the Gentiles, " magnifying his office." "It was necessary that the word of
God should first have been spoken to you; but seeing ye
put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo! we turn to the Gentiles."t There were,
however, manysincere converts made to the faith of Jesus
as the result of these sabbath-days' services; indeed,
we are told the word of God spread through the region
round about. His word never returns to Him void.
It is added at the close of the narrative in the Acts, that
" the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy
Ghost." +
But the apostle was not allowed to remain and watch
the bread he had thus cast upon the waters. Some
* Acts xiii. 44.  t Acts xiii. 46.  $ Acts xiii. 52




128          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
women of influence in the city prevailed on the chief
citizens to take part with the Jews against Paul. He
saw that it would be needful for him again, as at Damascus formerly, to obey his Lord's command, "When
they persecute you in one city, flee to another." They
left, therefore, the gates of the Pisidian capital, and
"shaking the dust from their feet," as a testimony
against its unbelieving citizens, made their way to
Iconium.
This town is situated at the foot of Mount Taurus,
sixty miles from Antioch, on the great highway connecting Ephesus with the Syrian Antioch. Under the
modern name of Konieh, or Cogni, a corruption of its
ancient one, it still exists a Turkish city, but has few
remains of its antiquity, saving some slabs, columns,
and pedestals, with Greek and Roman inscriptions.
Iconium rose many ages after Paul visited it to much
greater splendour and importance, under a bold race of
eastern princes or sultans.  Here they had their
palace, and adorned the town with many spacious buildings. To this day, although there are few ancient
remains, its walls are extensive, numbering many
towers and eighty gates. A traveller already mentioned was peculiarly struck with the imposing appearance of the mosques and colleges.  "Several of the
gates of these old colleges," he says, " are of singular
beauty. They are formed entirely of marble, adorned
with a profusion of fretwork, and a fine entablature in
the Moresco fashion, far excelling anything of the kind I
have seen."* However altered in many other respects,
the natural features of the city and neighbourhood must
have undergone little change since the days of Paul
* Kinneir, p. 219.




THE TRAVELLER.              129
The same gardens and pleasant meadows which the
modern traveller observed stretching along the base or
the hills-the same mountains, covered with snow on
all sides but one, must have been ~een by the apostle.
An extensive plain stretohes towards the east, the
largest in Asia Minor. The Saracens who conquered the
country are said to have been forcibly reminded by it
of their own eastern deserts; and modern tourists
speak of their camels stooping to crop the same tough
herbage these animals are so familiar with in the boundless and arid plains of Eastern Asia." It is not improbable that the great apostle may have had suggested
to his mind its resemblance to the plain of Damascus-standing as both cities did like green spots in
a waste wilderness; the heights of Taurus, with its
scantier streams, reminding him of Hermon and Lebanon, and the dry and dusty plain of Lycaonia recalling "the wilderness of Damascus."
Our two travellers seem to have remained at Iconium for some time, preaching in the synagogue and
in private dwellings. The same treatment, however,
awaited them   here as at Antioch.   The envious
Jews stirred up the people-who threatened to stone
them; but, on being informed of the plot against their
lives, they resolved yet again to renew their journey,
and preach the Gospel in " other cities."
The two places to which they next directed their
steps, seem to differ from any they had yet visited.
We have followed them hitherto chiefly intc the streets
of great capitals, full of wealth and learning. Now their
route lies through the desert and little-travelled region
of Lycaonia, to the cities of Derbe and Lystra.  Here
* Ainsworth, Col Leake, as quo'ed by Howson.
I




130         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
th3 inhabitants seem to have been a pastoral race,
rude, uncultivated, and plunged in gross paganism.
There seems, indeed, to have been neither Jew nor
synagogue in either city. The very name of the God
of Israel was unknown to them. As they approached
the gates of Lystra, they saw a large temple, with a
statue within it, or before it, of Jupiter, the king of the
pagan gods. This skewed at once what the religion of
this city of the desert was. Jupiter was patron or
presiding deity; the ignorant citizens imagined that
he watched over it, and protected it. Day after day
these pagans brought animals to the temple for their
priests to slay to him in sacrifice.
We have abundant evidence from pagan writers that
Lycaonia was a country wholly given to heathen idolatry. The very name (Lycaonia) had a strange fabulous meaning, which it may be interesting to note, as
it bears on the occurrences we shall have presently to
mention in connexion with the two apostles. The
word Lycaonia is said to be derived from the Greek
word XVKOS, a wolf, and the story, as related by the
Latin poet Ovid, is in outline as follows:There was a king of Arcadia, by name Lycaon, who
was directed by an oracle to found a city in that region. Jupiter, the king of the gods, descended one
night in bodily shape to the palace of Lycaon; and the
subjects of the king, recognising the deity, wished to
pay him adoration. Lcaon was angry; he resolved to
shew to his people that they were under a delusion in
supposing this inmate of his house was really Jupiter,
and he took the following method of proving their mistake. Some legates had been sent to treat with him
frol a neighbouring kingdom. He issued the cruel




THIE TRAVELLER.             131
order to kill one of these, and to serve up his flesh at
dinner to the reputed king of the gods. The horrible
order was obeyed; Jupiter, in dreadful wrath, overturned the table-caused flames to burst forth in the
palace, and laid it in ashes. Meanwhile, Lycaon fled
in terror-his speech forsook him-his human form was
gradually changed into that of a wolf, and he turned
growling with fury on the unprotected flocks browsing
on the fields around.*'
Such was the very foolish story and fable currently
believed by the blinded pagan citizens,' whose gates
Pail and   Barnabas were now    approaching.  No
sooner did the two apostles arrive in town than they
proceeded to sound the Gospel trumpet. It does not
seem that in doing so they went into any building or
house. Probably in the open streets or squares, in the
market place, or under some shady trees, they began
to preach the great salvation. We may imagine the
strange groups that were gathered around them,-men
of rude garb and rougher manners, whose city was
rarely visited by learned strangers; whose ears, though
doubtless they understood it, seldom listened to the
polished tones of the noble tongue in which Paul afterwards spoke to the philosophers of Athens, and in which
he addressed his hearers now. As the preacher, with
the stately figure of Barnabas at his side,+ waxed in
fervour and power, the thought may have occurred to
the Lystrian crowd, with the temple of their patron
god in view, What! can it be, that Jupiter can have
come from his.throne on Olympus, attended with Mercury, the god of eloquence? The idea, as we have
seen, was neither new nor unwelcome to superstitious
* Ovid, Met. lib. 1.  t Described so by Chrysostom and otbers.




132          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
minds, and an incident presently occurred, which either
led to their delusion or confirmed it.
As Paul was proceeding with his discourse, his eye was
attracted by a lame man who lay on the ground unable
to walk, but whose face was turned with ardent gaze
on the lips of the speaker. The same, we read, "heard
Paul speak." He was, doubtless, "hearing him speak" on
the great theme of salvation through a crucified but now
exalted Redeemer. We have every reason to conclude
that he had been brought to believe in that holy name,
by which the power of the servant of Christ was about
to perform on him a " notable miracle." There are few
towns, or even villages, which have not some such helpless object as now met the eye of Paul at Lystra.
They are generally well known from their infirmity;
and dependent, as they generally are, on public charity,
they take their station at any notable place of resort,
to be in the public eye.  Anything, therefore, performed on this poor Lystra cripple in the shape of a
cure, would be sure to attract attention. Paul saw
that "he had faith to be healed."  " Stand upright on
thy feet," exclaims the great apostle, in a strength
mightier than his own. In a moment the limping sufferer springs from the ground, and walks whole and
restored before the gazing crowd.
Soon the tidings of the wonderful miracle spread.
The town is in an uproar. The people rush away to
the temple we have spoken of; they get the priest to
adorn some oxen with flowers and garlands, and walking with these in procession, they advance towards the
residence of the apostles. What can be the meaning
of all this? These deluded heathens verily believe
that the story of Lycaon has again come true,-the




THE TRAVELLER.             133
king of gods and men is once more in their streets, with
his constant companion! They need not worship
Jupiter in his temple, for they have him in the person
of Barnabas, and Mercurius has come to them in the
person of Paul. The people, in the fever of their excitement, had made these remarks to one another in
the old Lycaonian dialect, so that the apostles were not
at first aware what they had been purposing, until, to
their amazement, they beheld the procession of garlandcrowned oxen close by their lodging. How it grieves
and saddens the heart of Paul to see such ignorance
and superstition! He and his companion rush to the
door of their dwelling-they rend their clothes-they
rebuke the folly of the citizens, assuring them that
they are "men of like passions with themselves," and
that it is by the power of Jesus alone they can perform
such mighty works as had just been witnessed in the
case of the lame man.
Ye men of Lystra, " why do ye these things? We
also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto
you, that ye should turn from these vanities unto the
living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the
sea, and all things that are therein: who in times past
suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he
did good, and gave us rain fr m heaven, and fruitful
seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness."*
The conduct of the Lystrians affectingly shews us " how
much more willingly the world is led by the power of
Satan than by the Spirit of God." The apostles had
wrought many miracles to prove the divinity of their
Lord and Master; few, comparatively, believed on Him
* Acts xiv. 15-17.




134         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
But here one single miracle is enough to bring these
blinded pagans to worship and serve the creature
rather than the Creator! They refuse to believe in the
divinity of Jesus; but they dishonour His holy nam6
by desiring to pay divine honours to two poor sinful
mortals He had redeemed with His blood.* I may
just add, if Paul and Barnabas had been impostors, de:
signing men, who wished tooget for themselves honour or wealth or dignity, how easily might they have
worked on the credulity and ignorance of the people
of Lystra! Gold and silver were generally stored in
abundance in pagan temples-how easily might these
two reputed "gods" have got access within the gate
of the temple of Jupiter, and demanded the offerings
treasured there! All their thoughts, however, were
bent on undeceiving the ignorant minds around them;
their only desire was, that they themselves be nothing,
and that their Great Lord might be "all in all."
But where do we find the apostle next? We should
surely at all events expect the Lystrians to shew him
every kindness and respect, to lodge him in a comfortable home, and listen with solemn earnestness to his
preaching. Alas, what a changeable thing the human
heart is! What an instance have we before us of the
vanity and emptiness of human applause! He whom
they would have worshipped one hour, is lying the next
apparently a lifeless man, covered with wounds and
bruises, outside their city wall! Some wicked Jews
had followed the apostles from Iconium. They had
made the citizens of Lystra believe that they wrought
these miracles by magic, or by the power of the Evil
One. The fate of the martyr Stephen very nearly
* Blunt, p. 178.








',,
(         -—. -
Footsteps St. Paul.                 pi  135,'/   i
V3~:.~I
-;i~
Footsteps  St.  Paul.                p, 135,




THE TRAVELLER.             135
becomes Paul's own. They stone him in the midst of
the street. He is dragged, cut and bleeding, outside
the ramparts of the town, and left to lie there. The
few disciples that loved him are gathered round the
dying man with tears. Doubtless many feared he was
breathing his last. Barnabas would have all the sad
thoughts of preparing a grave for his honoured friend
in this far off pagan city, and of a return back alone
to Jerusalem with the terrible tidings-" Paul is dead!"
But the Lord, in whose hand is the breath of every
living thing, had more work yet for his dear servant.
"Though cast down, he is not destroyed."   The
Church could not spare him, and these tears are soon
to be turned into joy. We know not the names of
those in that mourning crowd who were bathing his
throbbing temples, and staunching his wounds; but
we have good reason to think that there was a little
boy there, who never forgot that scene and the lessons
it conveyed. It was one whom Paul was afterwards
proud to call "his own son in the faith."  TIMOTHY
beheld in that meek but suffering countenance before
him, what the grace of God could do. We find the
great apostle, when far advanced in life, reminding
Timothy, in the second epistle he writes to him, of the
persecutions which "he had fully known" at Antioch,
Iconium, and Lystra.* The old saying was here again
made true, that "the blood of the martyrs was the
seed of the Church."  Timothy's young name was that
night added to " the glorious company of the apostles."
Paul, doubtless, when he thought of the ingratitude
and cruelty of the Lystrians, would go forth from them
"weeping," bearing elsewhere the precious seed they
* 2 Timothy iii. 10.




136            THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST?AUL.
had rejected; but at his second visit, two years afterwards, he came "with rejoicing" to bear away this
precious sheaf with him.
The apostle, so far recovered from his wounds, proceeds with his companion from Lystra to Derbe.       The
route between these towns, and indeed their position,
is only a matter of conjecture.    It has been supposed
that the distance between them was twenty miles.
They were separated from one another by a huge
mountain called Karadagh or the Black Mount, spoken
of by travellers as remarkable both for its sombre
colour and great height, rising like a giant in the midst
of the boundless plain    which, "level as the sea,"*
stretches from Iconium. It has its summit capped
with snow, and a thousand and one churches are said
to be built upon its sides. A recent explorer mentions having looked down from the top, and seen its
slopes covered with these edifices, or ruins of them.t
Like the Pisidian mountains, the neighbouring range
of the Taurus was infested with robbers.       The historian Strabo mentions Derbe as the stronghold of a
famous freebooter of the name of Antipater, who made
this a central point for his daring feats, and kept the
neighbouring country in terror.+ He was at last killed
by Amyntas, King of Galatia. ~     To the city of Derbe,
* Kinneir.     t See Hamilton's Asia Minor, Kinneir, &c.
Strabo, xii. 1. 6, as referred to by Lewin.
~ Modern travellers in the same spot have to record similar perils of
robbers with those Paul experienced. " I was desirous of visiting it" (a
place at the foot of the Black Mount), says Kinneir, in 1818, "but could
not prevail upon at y person to accompany me, or even to hire me horses,
as they said that the country, in addition to being covered with snow,
was now the resort of a band of Delhi Bashees, who gained a subsistence
by plundering travellers, and laying the adjacent countries under contrif
bution." —Kinneir's Travels in Karamania, p. 212,




THE TRAVELLER.               137
which we may note, in passing, was the native town of
Gaius, the future friend and companion of Paul, the
apostles now bent their steps. It was but a few hours'
journey from Lystra, and here they seem to have enjoyed a short season of quiet after the stirring scenes
through which they had passed. If Paul had been a
selfish man or a coward, or rather, if love to the Lord
Jesus had not burned in his bosom, he might have resolved from this place to go straight through the mountain passes to the south-east, and, like Mark, have
avoided further danger and peril by retiring to his old
home at Tarsus.*   But he was the servant of Him
who "pleased not himself;" and already "he counted
not his life dear unto him that he might finish his
course with joy, and the ministry he had received of
the Lord Jesus."
It has, indeed, been conjectured that the original
purpose of the travellers may have been to cross into
Cilicia, through the well-known pass called the " Cilician Gates," but that they were prevented by the swelling of the great lake which lay between them and the
mountains.   We think it, however, more probable
that the apostle, having already proclaimed the Gospel
in his native Cilicia, was desirous rather of returning
by Iconium and Antioch, to water the seed which had
been sown amid much discouragement and persecution,
and to strengthen and confirm the disciples there.
Whatever their motive was, we know that they returned by the same way they came, passing through
* "About twenty hours to the northward of Tarsus there is a remarkable defile through a great chain of mountains, which are everywhere else
inaccessible. This pass admits about eight horses abreast, and has been
cut through the rock to the depth of forty feet. The marks of the tools
are still visible in its sides."-Beaufort's Karamania, p. 264.




138         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch,-there making elders
in the Church, choosing among the disciples those they
thought best fitted for the ministry,-telling them all,
from their own experience, not to expect release from
trial, but rather "that through much tribulation they
must enter into the kingdom of heaven." Once more
they descended through the precipitous rocky paths
to Perga; and after pausing there for a brief time,
instead of sailing, as formerly, down the Cestrus, they
journeyed by land south-west to Attaleia,-a city
beautifully situated in the curve of a sheltered bay.
There they embarked for the Syrian Antioch, to tell
with joy that the name "Christian," first known within
its walls, was now gloried in within the palace of a Roman, and in sight of the temples of Diana and Jupiter I








CHAPTER V11L
" On! champions blest, in Jesus' name,
Short be your strife-your triumph full,
Till every heart have caught your flame,
And, lighten'd of the world's misrule,
Ye soar, those elder saints to meet,
Gather'd long since at Jesus' feet;
No world of passions to destroy,
Your prayers and struggles o'er, your task
All praise and joy."
" It surely is of no slight importance that the history of the first
age of Christianity should present us with one undoubted instance of
a character which unites all the freedom and vigour of a great reformer with all the humbleness, and holiness, and self-denial of a
great apostle "-STANLEY'S Esay3s on the Apostolic Age, p. 173.




Uh t,~o tralveluels, then. ale once more,
~i~~"vr[  alter a probable absence of a year and
a halt; approaching the shores of Syria, and looking
forward to a happy meeting with their loved disciples
and friends at Antioch. The above picture represents
them in their vessel, under a bright Eastern moonlight,
about to cast anchor at the port of Seleucia. We may
imagine with what fond haste they would complete the
rest of the land journey; and, when the "Christian
city" was at last reached, how many things they would
have to tell!-their mercies, their escapes, and, above
all, their missionary success. How they would long,
also, to hear how the Gospel had been flourishing since
they left! The writer of the " Acts " does not tell us
the particulars of the meeting. When a great earthly
hero returns from  great exploits, he has earthly
honours decreed to him. and receives the applause of




142         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
senates and kings. Paul and his brother hero r( turn
from the mightiest of victories, but their recept':n at
the Christian capital is thus briefly and simply recorded:-"And when they had come, and had gath;r-i
together the Church, thiey rehearsed all that God hscr
done with them, and how he had opened the door of
faith to the Gentiles."*
But Paul only comes back to fight a battle of a different kind. It is sad to think how, even at this early
period of the Church, divisions were beginning to arise,
not between Christian and heathen, but between Christian and Christian. Tares were beginning to be sown
among the wheat.   "An enemy hath done this!"
That great enemy has well known, in every age, that
to disunite believers is the surest way to cripple and
weaken the Church. Moreover, how often does he
seize upon the very time when a Church is prospering,
thus to destroy its peace and mar its usefulness! It
was so now with that at Antioch. When its outward
foes were silenced, he takes the opportunity of exciting
an unhappy discord among the members themselves.
I must explain to you shortly, in this chapter, what
these divisions arose from, and what the Apostle Paul
did to heal them.
I daresay you are aware that, at this moment, when
our missionaries go to India, one of the great difficulties they have to contend with is that of caste.
Some Hindus consider themselves of a higher rank
than others, and will hold no social intercourse with
those they imagine to be beneath them. They will
not eat with them, or admit them into their families.
Also, in slave states, it is well known that those who
* Ilowson, vol. i. p. 218; Acts xiv. 27.




THE DELEGATE.               143
are either slaves, or have any African blood in them,
are (sad to think) frequently not allowed to mingle in
company with the rest of the people, or to visit them;
not even to occupy the same cabin in a steamer, or the
same seat in a public conveyance.* They are looked
upon as a lower and inferior race, and cruelly treated
as such. It was with feelings very similar to this that
the Jew of old regarded the Gentile. The former was
proud of his birth and descent from Abraham, and,
when he went into foreign countries, he refused to
have any dealings in private life with the Gentiles
around him. They might meet in the same market
and transact business together, but their families had
no intercourse. They might live side by side in the
same street, but there was " a wall of partition between
them" in more ways than one. They had, indeed,
higher authority than their own for this rigid exclusion.  The law given by Moses, which commanded
them to abstain from different kinds of meat, forbade
them to eat with the Gentiles.  By doing so, they
might become unclean, as the latter were often in the
habit of taking various sorts of food which the Jew
was not allowed by the law to touch.
The question then was, Are'.s u who have become
CHRISTIANS, and GENTILES who have become CHRISTIANS,
to forget their differences, and to meet together? or must they
continue, as before, separate? Are those who are now
baptized into the same Christian name, still to live
apart, and eat apart, and keep up, as in former times,
the old.national distinctions? Paul found the whole
Church in a very unhappy and divided state about
this question.  Let us hear how he tries to settle it* So we were informed by a friend lately in the Slave States in Amorics




144          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
the prudent and discreet method he adopts to bring his
brethren to a right mind.
You will remember what I have already told you
about Peter's vision of the great white sheet, containing clean and unclean animals, which he was commanded to slay and eat,* and the great truth which
God had by this means taught him, viz., that " He was
no respecter of persons," but intended now that the
separating wall between Jew and Gentile was to be for
ever taken down. When the news of Peter's vision,
and his conduct afterwards in eating with uncircumcised Gentiles, reached Jerusalem, the Church there
was much displeased.  Peter was blamed and called
severely to account; but he brought along with him
the six brethren who had gone with him from Joppa
to Cesarea; these declared how they had, with their
own eyes, seen the -gift of the Holy Ghost poured out
on the Gentiles. Those who had at first expressed
themselves unfavourably to " the apostle of the uncircumcision," were obliged to own the Divine hand in
the matter, and, indeed, they even "gave thanks that
God had also granted to the Gentiles repentance unto
life." But, notwithstanding all this outward show of
satisfaction, many were still displeased; they;could not
bear the thought of losing their national distinction;
they remembered that Jesus himself, on one occasion,
had said, that He was "sent to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel."  They were slow to believe that,
as there was but "one Shepherd," so there was to
be but "one sheepfold."  Could they not be Christians, and yet still have a separate Jewish and Gentile
Church? Perhaps these feelings increased in strength
* Acts x.




THE DELEGATE.              f145
when the accounts reached them of how Paul and
Barnabas had been freely mixing with Gentile converts in Crete, Antioch, Lystra, and Derbe; and that
"He who had wrought effectually in Peter to the
apostleship of the circumcision, the same had been
mighty in Paul toward the Gentiles." At that time
some Christians, who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees, had gone down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and
did all they could to induce the Jewish Christians there
to refuse holding fellowship with Gentile converts.
They taught them the dangerous doctrine, that unless they observed the Jewish law, they could not be
saved; that Christian baptism would be of no avail,
unless accompanied with the old Jewish rite of circumcision. "Except ye be circumcised after the manner
of Moses, ye cannot be saved!" Paul was, like Moses, a
meek man of God, gentle and loving; but whenever he
saw the truth of his God assailed, like Moses, too, he
could be bold as a lion; and at present, when he observed the damage these false teachers were doing,
he tells us "he could not give place by subjection, no
not for an hour."  He discovered at once the great
danger that would arise to the souls of the disciples, if
this doctrine were tolerated; since whatever was thus
put upon an equality with the one great sacrifice of
our Lord, whether it were ceremonial or moral observances, would dim the glory of the Redeemer's work,
and render the cross of Christ of none effect.*  This
most unfortunate dissension continuing thus so sorely
to vex and disturb the minds of the Gentile converts,
Paul and Barnabas were requested to go up to Jerusalem, to lay the matter before the apostles and breBlunt, p. 188,
K




146         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
thren there, and get their advice. It is probable that
Paul gladly availed himself of the opportunity, that
he might give in to the mother Church the first great
missionary report. And tell h )w the Lord had prospered his work among the heathen. Moreover, he
had a higher inducement than his own wishes in taking
the journey-God himself had told him to go. Ho
mentions expressly, in his epistle to the Galatians, that
he went "by revelation."*
His two companions were well selected. Barnabas
was himself a Jew and a Levite. Titus, his other fellow-traveller, and of whom we shall hear more afterwards, was a young and uncircumcised Greek, and
therefore a good sample of a heathen convert. They
journeyed along the coast-road through Phenicia; thence
to Samaria. It would seem they were not travelling
among strangers to the gospel, for we are told that, as
they passed through, "declaring the conversion of the
Gentiles, they caused great joy to all the brethren."t
We have the old scholar of Gamaliel, then, once
more, after many eventful years, entering the scene of
his youth, and of his first persecuting fury. He would
likely pass by the well-remembered Damascus gate,
and skirt the ridges of the valley of Jehoshaphat.
Perhaps, since his last visit, some of those who had
" sat with him at Gamaliel's feet," had been brought
to sit at the feet of Jesus.  But if they had, he had
come upon the present occasion, it is to be feared, t4
dispute with many of th-m, and oppose them. For
while they sat at the feet of Christ, they wished to sit
at the feet of Moses too. Though they had taken the
name of Jesus, they were not willing to part with the
* Gaiatians ii. 2  t Acts xv. 3




THE DELEGATE.               147
name of Pharisee, and, like himself, to suffer the loss
of "all."
On reaching Jerusalem, the Great Apostle determined, before meeting the brethren in public, to see
Peter, James, and John in private. After holding a
meeting with these " pillars of the Church," the General Assembly, or, as it is called in Church history, the
First General Council, was convened. There seems to
have been at first much "disputing" on the question.
The Pharisees "who believed" strongly held to the
views already stated.  We have only, however, four
speeches mentioned-those of Peter, Paul, Barnabas,
and James.   They all took the same view. Peter,
who held the "keys of the kingdom of heaven" in the
sense I have explained, rose first to address. He was
heard with marked attention.    He declared again
what God had revealed to him by means of the
vision at Joppa-that there was now no longer " any
difference "-that "the same Lord over all was rich to
all that call upon Him." He reminded his hearers that
the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentile
converts, and that the yoke of the Jewish law was "a
burden which neither they nor their fathers were able
to bear." Peter's words made a deep impression on his
audience. After a few moments' silence, Paul and
Barnabas followed. We may readily imagine the interest which pervaded the assembly as the two " foreign
missionaries" rose to tell all that God had done in
their behalf. The last speaker was James " the Just"
-so called, the historian Eusebius mentions, on account of his eminent virtue. Hegesippus (a converted
Jew, who lived in the second century) tells us that he




148         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
led a life of great sanctity;* and other traditions fur.
ther picture him as an old and venerable man, with a
bald head and long unshorn beard, with his feet bare,
and wearing a linen ephod, yet so greatly esteemed
that the people vied with each other to touch even
the hem of his garment. ~ He was equally decided
with the others in his opinion that nothing should be
done to prevent the free admission of the Gentiles
into the Christian Church, or to stop a work which
God had so evidently favoured, by continuing to impose the old cerenmonial observances.  The glorious
truth was then finally proclaimed, that there was to
be "neither Jew nor Greek, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ
was all and in all."
The settlement of this question was in every way
important. For although Christians have never sought
since that time to unite the service of Christ with
obedience to the old ceremonial law, there has ever
been a tendency in the human heart to combine some
good works of our own with the one great work of Jesus.
Some would look to their virtues and moral duties,
and mix up these with the one only salvation; others
would look to church observances and church forms,
to sacraments and penances, and mix these up along
with the "one only way." To do so is sadly dishonouring to Him who will not give His glory to another.
The First Council in Jerusalem gave forth a decree to
the whole world, and to the Church in every age, as
to what forms a true Christian in the sight of God —
* Biblical Cyclopedia.
* See Stanley's Serwmor on the Apost "-I Age, p. 295.




THE DELEGATE.              149
"Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor undircumcision, but faith which worketh by love."  We may just
further note, with reference to this Church Assembly of
the brethren, that Paul was publicly acknowledged by
them as " the Apostle of the Gentiles."
One of the three "pillars of the Church" here mentioned was silent in the Council! It was " the Apostle of Love," John, who leaned on Jesus' bosom; " who,
beyond any other of the sons of men, had received the
impression of the Divine character;.... one simple,
unadorned spectacle of moral and spiritual excellence,
enshrined as if in its own heavenly light, irradiating
everything that fell within its sphere.... by the
crystal purity of a heart and mind penetrated through
and through with the indwelling spirit of Christ."* It
is the only time we ever read of Paul and he meeting
one another. They were very different in natural disposition; but they were one in intense affection for
their glorified Master. Though John made no speech,
so far as we know, in the Jerusalem Assembly, he gave
at the end of the discussion the right hand of fellowship
to his "brother Paul," and cordially joined in the decision which was given.t  A letter was drawn up in
the name of the Assembly, in order to be conveyed by
the hands of Paul to the Gentile brethren at Antioch.
It is short, but of much interest, as being the first
document of the kind we have given forth by a Church
court,
It was the custom, in these ages of the world, when
a letter of any importance was sent, to appoint some
uoted individuals to be the bearers. This was done
IJot only to prevent aly accident befalling such comn
* Stanley's Sermons, p. 256.  t See Icwson, vol. i. p. 235.




I50         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
munications, and to secure their safety, but that these
messengers might be able to enter into any explanations which might be required.  Judas and Silas
(Silvanus) were appointed to accompany Paul, Barnabas, and Mark for this purpose.
We may imagine the great interest excited in the
Church of Antioch, when the tidings spread, "The
brethren with envoys have arrived! and they have a
pastoral letter with them from the assembled apostles
at Jerusalem!" We may picture a crowded church in
the great Syrian city, where the following communication was read amid breathless silence:-" The apostles,
and elders, and brethren, send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch, and Syria,
and Cilicia: Forasmuch as we have heard that certain
which went out from us have troubled you with words,
subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised,
and keep the law; to whom we gave no such commandment: it seemed good unto us, being assembled
with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with
our beloved Barnabas and Paul; men that have
hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who
shall also tell you the same things by mouth. For it
seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon
you no greater burden than these necessary things;
that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from
blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do
well. Fare ye well."*  Judas and Silas still further
explained the scope and c ntents of the letter by word
of mouth. What was the result? It was a very
* Acts xv. 23-30.




THE DELEGATE.              151
happy one; the storm was immediately changed into
a calm, and the agitated minds of the Antioch disciples soothed.
Judas, after spending some further time in this city,
returned to Jerusalem. Silas, as we shall afterwards
find, remained, and became Paul's companion on his
second missionary journey, as Barnabas had been in
his first.
There was an occurrence which took place at Antioch, before setting out on this second missionary tour,
which greatly grieved and troubled Paul. The first
of those who had so decidedly spoken in the assembly
at Jerusalem, about the necessity of doing away with
all distinction between Jew and Gentile, was the Apostle
Peter; yet he was himself (on a visit he paid to Antioch) the first to act contrary to his public declaration.  On going there, he mingled freely with the
Gentile converts, dining with them at their meals, and
sharing with them their "Agape" or love-feasts. But,
soon after, when some of the Judaising party had come
down from Jerusalem (who he knew would be displeased at seeing him sitting at the same table with
his Gentile friends), the apostle began to waver; he
changed his manner altogether towards the converted
heathen; he no longer ate with them, nor would sit
at the same Lord's table with them; he raised, once
more, the old wall of separation! He performed, in
this, a double and sinful part. It was the same lamentable weakness which led him, three times before, to
deny his Lord and Master. Paul was roused to a holy
indignation against his erring brother, and " withstood
him to the face because he was to be blamed." It was
an unworthy fear of man which made the former desert




152          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
the path of duty, and his conduct was likely to product
much mischief, as "even Barnabas was carried away
with his dissimulation."  We cannot wonder, therefore, that Paul was obliged to do what must have
pained him  much-to "rebuke Peter before all."t
We believe that sharp as the rebuke was, it was given
and received in love. Peter's character was bold and
rash, and this was not the first time in which he had
been a traitor to truth, and a coward; but we have
reason to think also that he was kind and forgivingready to "weep bitterly" when he saw his faults. This
would seem to have been the case now; at all events,
he died twenty years after, loving Paul, and speaking
of him to all the Churches as a " beloved brother." 
We should have been sorry to have wanted this short
clause in the end of one of his letters-" Our beloved
brother Paul!" We might have been apt, otherwise,
to fear that Paul's rebuke had created a sore quarrel
between them, which they had carried to the grave;
but no such thing: grace brought about what nature
might not have done.
" It is pleasing," says an able writer, "to trace the
traditionary confirmations of their entire unity —the
unity which joins St Peter to St Paul, rather than to
his own early friend, St John-the legends which represent them as joint rulers of Antioch, Corinth, and
Rome-both confined in the Mamertine dungeonboth receiving the crown of martyrdom on the same
day-and, in all the early works of Christian art, both
ever exhibited side by side; the one with his inverted
cross-the other' with the executioner's sword.' "~
* Gal. ii. 13.  t Gal. ii. 11.  t 2 Pet. iii. 15, 16.
~ Stanley's Sermons anrd Jssays on the Apostolical Agr p. 101. Sec also
Howson, p. 243.




THE DELEGATE.              153
These, doubtless, are no more than vague legends
and traditions, and must be received with caution;
but they are sufficient to show what the impression of
the early ages of the Church was as to the sacred harmony existing between these two truly great menthat they died faithful to their blessed Master's last
bequest-" This is my commandment, that ye love one
another."




CHAPTER IX
Friend after friend departsWho hath not lost a friend?
There is no union here of hearts
That finds not here an end.
Were this frail world our final rest,
Living or dying none were blest."
" He exhibits to us, notwithstanding an infirm body and a feel 
speech, what a man can do, even one single man, when his will is m
harmoy with the will of God."




_  AUL continued for some time with
L    Barnabas at Antioch, preaching
^^*<i3^      to their converts, and "building
them up in their most holy faith."
He would not, however, allow himself
to forget his special work as a missionary. Jle thought, with fond affection, of the many believers he had left behind in Asia Minor, exposed to
dangers and trials; and of the multitudes elsewhere,
still strangers to a Saviour's name. He resolved, accordingly, along with his former companions, to visit
the churches which they had already planted. "f Let us
go again," he said to Barnabas, " and visit our brethren:n every city where we have preached the word of the




A56          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
Lord, and see how they do."*  They would doubtless
take along with them the important circular letter, or
decree," lately issued by the Council at Jerusalem, in
case the same question which had so disturbed the believers in Antioch might,be marring the peace of' converts elsewhere.  This visitation of these churches
gives us the first specimen of the tender and affectionate love which Paul bore to all he had been honoured
to call to the faith of Jesus. It is more like the love
of a father to his children, than that of a stranger to
strangers.
There is a painful commencement, however, to this
second missionary tour. We have spoken, at the close
of last chapter, of an unhappy cause of difference between Paul and Peter. A still sadder estrangement.
took place now between him and Barnabas, showing us
that the best of earthly friends, and the holiest of mere
human hearts, can never be depended on. Barnabas
was desirous that his nephew, Mark, should go along
with them. Paul objected to this. We can easily
understand the feelings in the latter apostle's mind
which constrained him to act contrary to the wishes of
his brother missionary. Mark, you will remember,
had already been tried as a companion.   He had
grown weary of the work, and, on reaching Perga, had
returned home. The Great Apostle might be afraid,
and justly so, lest the cause of his Master might suffer
by the employment again ot so heartless an agent.
Barnabas, on the other hand, was naturally fond of his
kinsman. He had doubtless received from him assurances of penitence and sorrow for his past conduct, and
a determination to act better for the future.  We can
Acts xv. 36.




THE SECOND JOURNEY.           157
therefore make allowance also for the feelings of the
good uncle, in whose character we have seen so much
to admire. We are not called upon to decide who was
right and who was wrong, in this painful quarrel.
They must both have felt the sad truth they told the
Lystrians, "We are men of like passions with you!"
As Mark did not disappoint the hopes of his uncle, we
may have reason to regret that Paul adhered so
strongly to his determination. On the other hand, as
a great writer remarks, " We see, on this occasion, the
severe earnestness of Paul's character, which gave up,
and wished others to give up, all personal considerations and feelings when the cause of God was concerned."   Another commentator gives the following as perhaps the truthful verdict on the case:"The attempt of many to justify both completely, or,
at least, Paul, I cannot approve. If both had been
perfect men, no quarrel would have arisen, for there
must always be two to a quarrel. Yea, there should
have been no contention, if even only ONE of them had
been perfect." t
God, however, overruled the infirmities of these two
apostles for the promotion of His cause.  "He can
make the wrath of man to praise Him." Meanwhile,
we find that the contention grew "so sharp" between
them, that they were forced to separate! It had evidently been their intention to have gone over the very
same ground which they had traversed in their first
journey- together to revisit and confirm the churches
they had already planted. They agree, on separating,
to begin at the two extreme pcints. Paul took the
northward direction, to the interior of Asia Mincr, talk
* Neander, p. 169.  t Olshausen-note hi W,)o.




A58          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
ing with him Silas (one of the brethren sent from
Jerusalem); while Barnabas, with Mark, took the
island part of the tour, sailing towards Cyprus, which,
you will remember, was Barnabas' native country. Of
the latter, we hear no more after this. We know not
whether he and Paul ever met again. It is supposed
by some, that reference is made to him by Paul in 2
Cor. viii. 18, as "the brother whose praise is in all the
churches;" but this is uncertain. Tradition gives us
an affecting account of his death. It is said that, when
he came with his nephew to Salamis, in Cyprus, he
entered into the Jewish synagogue, and made many
converts to the faith of Jesus-that some Jews had
followed from Syria, under the guidance of Bar-jesus,
and, rousing the people against him, had cruelly stoned
him to death; but his nephew rescued the body, and
his tomb was shown for centuries after at Salamis.
Paul and Mark did meet again. We have the same
assurance with regard to them, as in the case of Peter,
that they came to speak of one another as esteemed
fellow-soldiers, fighting under the same great banner.
Tradition also (although-we deem it necessary always
to add the caution-no safe guide in general) further
mentions what we would fondly believe was the casethat Barnabas' dying injunction to his nephew was to
go without delay and rejoin Paul. We love to think
of the good old disciple, who showed our Apostle so
much true kindness at the first, and especially on his
flight from Damascus, going down to his grave with
the name of one on his lips he had long loved so well!
Leaving the island-missionaries, Barnabas and Mark,
as they sailed down the Orontes, let us follow Patl
uad Silas as they crossed the bridge over the same




TIE SECOND JOURNEY.           159
river, and made for the passes of Mount Amanus.*
There were various narrow  and precipitous gorges
leading across this lofty range. The principal of these
was a singular defile, called the " Syrian Gates," and
which is known by the modern name of the "Beilan
Pass."+ On reaching the other side, they would doubtless visit several of the smaller towns of Cilicia, although
the names are not given us, and scatter among them
the precious seed. There was one which we have every
reason for supposing would not be omitted, and which
Paul would enter with very peculiar feelings.  It was
his own native Tarsus-the city and home of his childhood.  Though still heathen-the temples and statues
of false gods lining its streets-he must have had a
peculiar joy in knowing that many had, by means of
his preaching, " been turned from dumb idols to serve
the living God."  How it must have cheered his heart,
when " far hence among the Gentiles," to think that,
in his own birth-place, there were some who loved the
Saviour, and who prayed on his behalf, that the word
he preached might " have free course and be glorified!"
We must follow him and his companion as they continued their journey still further north, across Mount
Taurus. It was probably in the early part of the year
5l, when they were wending their way along the banks
of the Cydnus on this mountain journey.s+ It is with
probability supposed that they crossed through the
"Cili;ian Gates,"-a gorge much more remarkable than
the Syrian, and one, too, through which more than one
large army in ancient and modern times has with
* The reader will now follow the crimson line in the map.
t Reasons for supposing this to be the probable route of the apostle, 
Howson and Conybeare, vol. i. p. 276.
4 Ibid. p  278.




160         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
difficulty and danger passed.  Cliffs several nundred
feet high frown on either side above the head of the
traveller, the width in some places being only a few
yards. Small patches of vegetation are seen here and
there among their summits, while rushing torrents
come tumbling down, often covering or undermining
the road.  The old military highway may itself to
this day be traced from the many fragments and inscriptions which have been found by curious travellers.
They have now reached an elevation of 4000 feet above
the sea, and begin gradually to descend among the
wooded uplands of Lycaonia.  We may imagine here
also the joy of Paul in revisiting the old scenes of his
first missionary journey.  How his heart must have
beat as the well remembered form of the "Black
Mount," with its snowy summit, rose in the plain before him!   He was approaching at present in the
opposite direction, and therefore he comes to Derbe
first. Interested he must have been to see and hear all
about his beloved converts there. Ile would doubtless
not be without anxiety.  He knew well the deceitfulness of the human heart, and could not fail to dread
lest many of those who had promised well had " fallen
from grace."  There is no account given us of his reception at Derbe; we may easily imagine, however,
what it would be-the kind-hearted man of God,
coming once more into the midst of those for whom,
night and day, he had " prayed exceedingly," and they
with hearts overflowing with gratitude towards the
honoured minister who had been the means of rescuing them from a blind superstition.  Lystra was the
town next in order to which they came. You will not
have forgotten that it was here the citizens wished first




THE SECOND JOURNEY.           161
to worship the two apostles as gods; and then behaved
so shamefully-stoning Palll, and leaving him as dead.
Lystra was heathen still!  TLh large Pagan temple
rose as it had done the year before at the city gate,
and the priest (perhaps as Paul was passing) was offering animals in sacrifice to Jupiter.  There was one
face which, among others, he had not forgotten since
his last visit.  I daresay you remember the youth
who stood among the crowd when the. great apostle
lay bleeding from his wounds.  That young convert,
doubtless, never forgot that night;-the patience, and
resignation, and forgiveness of the cruelly-treated servant of Jesus. We believe that none of all the Christian converts in Lystra welcomed with greater joy the
return of the great missionary than this promising
young man, whose name was in future ages to be so
linked with that of his spiritual father. As I have
already said, he had been brought up under the tender religious training of his grandmother Lois, and his
mother Eunice.   Eunice was a Jewess, a Christian
convert, and her husband was a Greek. We can picture
to ourselves that holy Christian home of the infant
apostle. His pious mother, and aged grandmother, had,
from his earliest years, instructed him in the knowledge of the ancient Scriptures.  Like Simeon, Anna,
and others, they had been waiting in humble faith for
the " consolation of Israel"-not unprepared for the
glad tidings which Paul had proclaimed to them, that
the types and promises of the Jewish dispensation had
been fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, of whom s" all the
prophets bear witness."  Paul's letters to Timothy at
a later time tell how affectionately he loved him,
There doubtless m!ist have bee- something very winL




132          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
ning and engaging about this young stranger, that could
induce the apostle at once to fix upon him for so signal
an honour as to be the companion of his journeys.
Notwithstanding their great difference in age, notwithstanding Paul's great learning and accomplishments, he
seems to have esteemed Timothy as the most valued
of all his friends. " Son Timothy," "My beloved son,"
" My own son in the faith," " My work-fellow," " My
brother," are expressions which bespeak no common
affection. Well has it been said, " What mother ever
wrote to her son a letter more full of solicitude than
the Second Epistle to Timothy?" * Hear how he writes
of him when he is looking back on the manifold friendships of a whole life: " I have no man likeminded, who
will naturally care for your state... Ye know the
proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath
served with me in the gospel."+  He had been converted during Paul's former visit. The seed then sown
had ripened in his heart to good fruit; and now, when
the apostle returned a second time, he found him all
equipped and ready for that " good fight of faith,"
about which he afterwards discourses.  " Him would
Paul have to go forth with him." 4  He was circumcised
at Iconium, and there solemnly ordained and set apart
for his great work. It was a day never to be forgotten
by the young Lystrian.  Paul afterwards speaks of it
in one of his letters. "Thou hast professed a good
profession beLre many witnesses."~
From Iconium, they proceeded to the cities farther
north, leaving in each of these, where Christian converts were, a copy of the decree of the Jerusalem
Council.  Very considerable difficulty, however, has
* Monad.  t Phil. ii. 20, 22.  t Acts xvi. 8.  ~ 1 Tim. vi. 12.




THE SECOND JOUBNEY.           163
been felt by writers on the life of Paul as to the
direction of this journey. The high road he and Silas
had now been traversing the length of Antioch, led
on to Ephesus, a distance of 230 miles; and some
have supposed they went by it the length of Colosse,
a town situated half way. Other writers, of equal
authority, assign to him a route more directly north,
not supposing that he visited Colosse at all. If you
examine the map, you will see what his course would
be if he and his fellow-travellers followed the gr<at
highway of Asia Minor; they would come to the valley which is watered by the river Lycus, and on the
south bank of which stands the city of Colosse —a few
scattered ruins now only remaining to mark the spot.
Had they pursued the same great road twelve miles
further along the valley, they would have reached two
other famous cities fronting each other on either side
of the river. On the right, Hierapolis rose on a commanding situation; it crowned the summits of a bold
cliff, and had within its walls the temple of Pluto and
its famous cavern. Upon the opposite bank, on the
slope of Mount Cadmus, and a mile from the river,
stood Laodicea, whose vast ruins, at the presefit day,
attest its former extent and greatness.  We have
every reason to believe, however, that neither of these
cities were the apostle and his companions allowed at
present to enter; "they were forbidden of the Holy
Ghost to preach the word in Asia."
We can, with greater certainty, follow them as they
retrace their steps north-east to Galatia.  This province we knovw +hy now visited; t and from   the
epistle Paul wrote to the churches there, as well as
* Acts xvl. 6.  $ Acts xvi. at.




164         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
from the peculiar history of its people, it deserves
more from us than a passing notice. Much interesting light, moreover, has been thrown upon the subject
by recent writers.
The Galatians (or Gaulatians) were not the original
inhabitants of that country; they were a colony of
Gauls. Who were these Gauls?'Gaul, as you know,
was the ancient name of France. Greek historians, in
speaking of the inhabitants of France, call them " Galatiais."  The Gauls, however, seem not to have been
confined to this portion of Europe, but to have spread
themselves also over Spain, Great Britain, and Ireland.
They were a bold, warlike, and manly people; their
name and invasions indeed became so terrible, that
the countries they sought to people did what they
could to destroy and extirpate them. Those that
remained, had to take refuge in fastnesses and wild
uninhabited districts, where they could do comparatively little harm. In France, they were driven into
Brittany; in England, into Wales, which was called
from them Wallia, or Gallia, (and indeed Wales is
called by Frenchmen still, " the country of the
Gauls.")  In rugged Scotland, they, got a suitable
refuge among the wild Highland glens and passeshence the name of the Highlanders and their'country,
as the Gaels, the land of the Gael, or Gaul; and their
language, Gaelic, or Gaulic. The place, however, in
the west of Europe which they retained strongest hold
of was Ireland; they peopled the whole of it, with the
exception of a portion of the north-east.
But how came they, it may be asked, to find their
way to the province which the Apostle Paul was now
treading in the centre of Asia Minor?  After th



THE SECOND JOURNEY.           1 65
death of Alexander the Great, a swarming host of
300,000 Gauls, like the Huns and Vandals of the
middle ages, made an irruption over the plains of
eastern Europe, forcing a passage along the banks of
the Danube. We need not pause to describe their
march; suffice it to say, the greater number of them
met on the shores of Asia Minor.  Their wild warsongs were heard on the plains of ancient Troy, and
around the tomb of Achilles.   From  thence they
marched hither and thither on a mission of pillage and
plunder, leaving behind nothing but the ashes and
smoke of conquered countries.  A portion of them
(with which we are now principally concerned) had
withdrawn from the main body, and were still in
Europe; they were lured, however, at last across the
Hellespont by Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, who was
at that time engaged in war with his brother. By
their means he obtained a complete and decisive victory, and, as a reward for their assistance and valour,
granted them the north-east portion of Phrygia, which
ever afterwards bore the name of GALATIA, or Gallo
Grcecia. Not contented with this royal recompense,
they seem to have inspired great fear among the inhabitants of Mount Taurus by their warlike incursions,
and to have exacted tribute from all around. Their
numbers at their first settlement, according to a
Roman historian, did not exceed 20,000, and the half
of these were unarmed. This may give an idea of
their power, and of the influence their forociou3 name
and character exercised over the timid tribes among
whom they settled. We can imagine,' from what is
related of them, the terror these barbarians would inspire, especially in the hour ~' battle, with their wild




166         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
native war-whoops, clanging their long swords or claymores on their targets, and rushing madly against
their foes.
For many centuries this remarkable race retained
their language and native manners. Even when Paul
now visited them, though they could speak the Greek
of the country, they never had forgotten their own
tongue,-just as in Wales, or in the Scottish Highlands, that same tongue, with little variation, continues to be spoken. St Paul's epistle to them, however, was written in Greek; and any inscriptions of
the period, found on their sculptures, are in the same
language.  Their independence, as a people, was, at
the age of the apostle, like all the rest of the world,
laid low under the iron hand of imperial Rome. They
had been suffered, till the reign of Augustus, to. rtain
it nominally, and had at that time a king of their own,
called Amyntas; but a Roman pro-proctor was now at
the head of the province. What their precise religion
was when Paul first found them, we cannot say. More
than probably their ancestors would carry along with
them their Druidical superstitions; but we know also,
that Jupiter and Cybele, the deities of Greece and
Rome, were worshipped at two of their principal cities.
It is among this strange people, then-strange even in
their complexion and appearance, with their tall figures
and long flowing yellow hair *-that the Apostle of the
Gentiles is now about to sojourn.
We are not informed to what localities Paul went in
Galatia, or how long he remained there; this, however,
is certain, tha't he preached in many places, and that a
See the pictureo at t e beginning )f the chapter, of a "Galatliu
hero."




THE SECOND JOURNEY.          167
vast blessing attended his labours. Nay, more, that
warm-hearted people seem to have received the " stranger apostle" with great readiness and cordiality, and he
appears, ever after, to entertain towards them feelings
of deepest affection and love.
If we have spoken of France as the original country.
of the Gauls, and Ireland as the land in western Europe
where they chiefly abounded, we have, in the well-known
sprightliness and warm-heartedness of these two countries at this day, a living picture of the character the
Apostle Paul had to deal with in Galatia 1800 years
ago. In other respects, too, the likeness seems to hold
good-while warm and loving in their natures, they
were fickle, unsteady, excitable, "carried about with
every wind of doctrine."  May we not say, in no unkindly spirit, that the charge which he brings against
them might, in a modified shape, be made to apply not
inaccurately to others in later years, and nearer our
own shores?-" 0 foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched
you that ye should not obey the truth?" While at
one time "they received the apostle as if he had been
an angel," "they were soon removed from him that
called them to another gospel."*
On the occasion of this his first visit, Paul was overtaken with sickness. None but those who have experienced it, can know how painful it is to be laid, in the
heart of a foreign land, on a couch of illness; nor, on
the other hand, how gratefil, in such circumstances, is
the kindness of strangers. The apostle felt deeply the
warm and affectionate solicitude which the Galatians
manifested towards him at this trying hour. They
saw his body bowed with intense suffering; but when
* See Mr Lewin's interesting chapter on Galatia.




168          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
they beheld his noble mind rising superior to all, and
enabling him joyfully to bear all for the everlasting
good of others, they were struck with a heroism that
would have done honour to their own bravest and best.
We may well believe that Timothy would not be
behind in bestowing dutiful attention on one he so
loved, while it would doubtless tend to draw out more
than ever the heart of the apostle towards him whom
"he had begotten in the Gospel."
Connected with Paul's illness in Galatia, and with
many references in his epistle, this seems the proper
time to refer to the nature of that bodily infirmity or
ailment under which he so often laboured, and which
he calls "the thorn in the flesh." *  What could this
*have been? The answering of this question may help
us in forming our impressions of his personal appearance, and account for many allusions he makes in his
writings which could not otherwise be explained.
From this bodily malady, whatever it was, he evidently was suffering during this his first visit to Galatia; for, in his " Epistle to the Galatians," which
was written after his second visit, he says-" Ye know
how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the Gospel unto you at the first" (i. e., the former visit). " And
my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not,
nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God..
I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would
have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to
me."t  These striking words appear to afford a key to
the nature of the " thorn in the flesh," to which they,
in all probability, allude.
We have the strongest reason, then, to infer that i*'? Cor. xii. 7-1),  Gal. iv. 13-15.




THE SECOND JOURNEY.           169
was a disease in his eyes, which greatly injured his sight,
and at times his appearance.  It has been thought
that, ever since being struck blind at his conversion,
on the way to Damascus, his eyes and eyesight had
been much affected-just as if his Lord had wished him
to carry about this continual remembrance, at once of
his guilt, and of the grace which saved him. Writers
have specially noted besides (what was mentioned in a
former chapter), that the climate of Damascus is most
injurious to the vision; many in the neighbourhood of
that city to this day suffering severely from its pernicious effects. What can more naturally explain the
verse I have, a few sentences before, quoted from his
Galatian epistle, than this? He wishes to tell his converts there, how greatly he felt their attention and
affection; as if he had said —" So great was your kindness to me, a poor half-blind stranger, with my eyes
painful to look upon, that you would have willingly
plucked out your own, if it had been in your power, and
exchanged them for mine, if this could have cured me
of my sad malady."
There are other similar references made in the same
epistle: as when he says, at the close of it, "From
henceforth let no man trouble me: for I lear in my
body the marks of the Lord Jesus."  The word translated " marks," literally means " brands," and refers to
the old custom of branding the forehead or arm with
a hot iron, more particularly in the case of runaway
slaves. A name or device was thus impressed on the
skin as a punishment, as well as to prevent then in
future deserting their masters. " In this sense," says
Paul, " I, who was a fugitive slave rushing away from
my Master, was' arrested' by Him on the way to




170         THE FOOTSTEPS OF JT PAUL.
Damascus, when he cried after me,'Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou mel' and when He caught me, or'apprehended me,'* He put His own brand or mark
upon me; these eyes, which He struck tlind with the
blaze of His glory, I am to bear continually about with
me as the' marks of the Lord Jesus."'
There is one other verse in the epistle, to which I
shall refer, bearing upon the same; it is in the concluding words of it. He says, " Ye see how large a
letter I have written unto you with my own hand."t
From the weakness of his eyesight, Paul was always in
the habit of employing another to write for him. To
show his affection, however, for this warm-hearted
people, he says, " See, I have made an exception in your
case.  Suffering though I am from these eyes of mine,
I have sent you a letter in my own handwriting." It
has been rightly observed, that the expression, "See
how large a letter," does not refer to the length of the
epistle, but to the clumsy writing. He apologises to
them for this. "See," he says, "in what awkward
characters I have written unto you; but you cannot
expect otherwise from my eyesight. You will pardon
their inelegance, and understand what I mean by putting myself to this piece of unusual labour; it is to
give you a proof of my cordial love for you, and my
interest in your welfare."
We have strong reason to infer, then, on these and
other considerations, that Paul's "thorn in the flesh"
was no other than a disease in his eyes; so bad, too,
as to have made him occasionally, when it increased,
nearly blind, as we read, in an after-portion of his life,
that he was "conducted" by others to Athens.+  It
Puil. iii. 12.  t Ga[. vi. 1:  t Acts xvii. 15.




THE SECOND JOURNEY.          171
must indeed have been a severe trial to the great missionary apostle; not only from the ridicule which the
bodily defect might draw down at times upon him from
his enemies, but think of his constant exposure to the
open air, and the sudden changes from the burning
heat of the summer plains to the cutting breezes and
cold of the mountains. How acute often must have
been his sufferings in an organ so sensitive to pain as
we know the eye is! Three times, he tells us, did he
pray that his malady might be removed. The prayer
was granted; not, however, in the manner he wished
or expected, but in the way which God saw best. The
thorn still remained; but his Lord gave him, in answer
to his prayer, "more grace."  "My grace is sufficient
for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness."*  The great and holy man was satisfied; he
saw that all was for his good. He was led triumphantly to say, " I take pleasure in infirmities;" "Most
gladly will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the
power of Christ may rest upon me."f  "This giant
apostle-this spiritual conqueror of the half of Asia
and the whole of Europe, had a bodily weakness which
attracted the attention of all, which emboldened his
enemies, which troubled himself, and which seemed to
render him for ever disqualified for his work. Well!
God thus made him weak for the express purpose of
glorifying Himself in him."+
We cannot, immediately after this, very accurately
trace the course which the missionary band took. 1
* 2 Cor. xii. 9.
f See on this also the fall and satsfactory statement of Mr Lcwin, vol. L
p. 213.
I Monod's St Paul, p. 151.




1 72         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
have already noted that they were forbidden to go to
Asia or Bithynia.  " The Spirit suffered them  not."
Why they were not suffered, it is not for us to inquire.
It has been thought, from the dedication of Peter's
first epistle, that these regions, including Bithynia,
were specially allotted to him. "Peter, an apostle of
Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia."*
We need not, however, attempt to explain, where the
Word of God is silent. Bending their course directly
westward, they probably went to a sea-port town on
the JEgean, called Adramyttium; from thence along
the coast to Assos, where a beautiful road, of nineteen
miles, brought them  through the oak woods that
skirted Mount Ida to Troas. This was, and still is, a
spot of deep and sacred interest. It was the scene of
the oldest and greatest war of antiquity-the Trojan.
Greek and Latin poets have vied with one another to
celebrate its scenery. Mount Ida rose behind it with
its beautiful woods and sparkling streams-the island
of Tenedos lay on the bosom of the sea in front of its
harbour-while, far off in the blue distance, the nearest land of Europe was in sight —the lofty Grecian
Mount Athos.. Perhaps the time when Paul ap
proached it answered to the description of a modern
traveller, who thus speaks of the close of his first day's
visit to Troas:-" The beauty of the evening in this
country surpasses all description.  The sky glowed
with the rich tints of the setting sun, which now, skirting the western horizon, raised, as it were, up to our
view the distant summits of the European mountains.
We saw Mount Athos distinctly, of a conical form. and
* Chap. i. L




THE SECOND JOURNEY.          173
so lofty, that on the top, as the ancients relate, the sunrising was beheld four hours sooner than by the inhabitants of the coast; and, at the solstice, its shade
reached into the Agora or market-place of Myrina, a
town in Lemnos, which island was distant 87 miles
eastward." *
The town of Troas itself must have been a very considerable one. It stood on a height, sloping gently
down to the sea. A deep ravine separated it from
Mount Ida, and a large plain stretched on either side
by the sea-shore.+  Large masses of hewn stone, walls
that include a circuit of nine miles, and the ruins of
piers and arches, remain to this day to bespeak its
former greatness.  The situation was so striking in
itself, and so renowned in story, that Constantine, before
he fixed on Constantinople as the site of his new capital, is said to have wavered between it and Troas;+ indeed, at this day, it retains the name of Eski-Stamboul,
or Old Constantinople.
We have supposed the apostle and his friends approached this classic city by the winding road that
skirted the sea-beach, unless, from  the expression,
" they came down" to Troas, we are to infer that they
crossed one of the shoulders of Mount Olympus, and
looked from the summit on the celebrated "Trojan
plains."  If so, Paul, with his taste and scholarship,
could not surely feel unmoved and uninterested on a
spot which, while the world lasts, will be remembered
in connexion with Homer-its oldest and, in many
respects, greatest poet.  On those very sandy plains
and knolls along which they passed, the prancing war* Chandler's Travels in Asia Minor, p. 23.  i Ibid. p. 26.
S Gibbon's Dtcline awd fall, quoted by Howson.




174          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
steeds and chariots of the Trojans and Greeks had
rattled along.  "But who would recognise, in those
shallow reedy streams, the Simois and Scamander of
the poet's fancy? The storm of war had swept over
the spot, and now it was the path of the messengers of
peace.  Europe had poured forth her thousands to
desolate and destroy; and Asia, in return, sent her
three wayworn pilgrims-Paul, Silas, and Timothyto proclaim to Europe the glad tidings of the Gospel!
They passed on, and entered Troas."*
That night was one never to be forgotten. When
the great apostle lay himself down on his pillow, and
composed himself to sleep, a vision appeared at his
bed-side. A figure, like " a man of Macedonia," stood
over him, and beckoned to him, saying, " Come over
and help us I"  It was the voice of his God telling
him there were perishing millions in Europe, who were
waiting to receive the bread of life. He could not
resist the solemn pleadings of that nightly apparition.
The next day we may imagine the four strangers (for
Luke, "the beloved physician," who writes so faithfully
his history, had now joined them)-we may picture
them by.the harbour of Troas, entering some trading
vessel about to convey them  to Greece.  The ship
weighs anchor-the sails are spread; and, on the bosom
of the surging 2Egean, riches more precious than the
gold of Ophir are carried to the civilised countries of
Europe. Each of us were deeply interested in that
vessel as it flies before the south wind to Samothracia!
Ah! little did poor heathen Britain think at that
moment there was then advancing nearer her shores so
rich a prize for her children's children!
* Lewin, vol. i. p. 223.








CHAPTER X
6a When Persecution's torrent-blaze
Wraps the unshrinking martyr's head;
When fade all earthly flowers and bays,
When summer friends are gone and fled;
Is he alone in that dark hour
Who owns the Lord of love and power?
Or waves there not around his brow
A wand no human arm may yield,
Fraught with a spell no angels know,
His steps to guide, his soul to shield I"
"N me of these things move me, neither count I my life dear rmto
myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministly
I have received of the Lord Jesus."-AOTs XL 24.




-_  t    nHE Apostle, when he entered Troas the
day before, had probably very much
the feelings of his great ancestor Abraham, of whom
we read that "he went out, not knowing whither
he went."  It has been indeed supposed that Paul
had some serious thoughts at this time of going to
the city of Rome.   He wished to carry the gospel
of his Divine Master within hearing of the world's
capital, and the palace of the Cesars. God was at
a future time to fulfil his wish; but he graciously
" hindered" him now. It shows how far better the
Lord knows what is the right path for us than we
know ourselves.  If Paul had trusted to his own
wisdom and guidance, and eone direct at this period
M




178         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
to Italy, he would have shared in the violent expulsion which took place of all the Jews from Rome by
the edict of Claudius. The time would have been
wasted which he profitably employed elsewhere. He
could feelingly say of a kind Providence afterwards, regarding his intentions of visiting the city of the Tiber,
"Oft times I purposed to come unto you, but was let
(or hindered) hitherto." The striking vision mentioned
at the close of the last chapter " hindered" him at present, and determined his journey to the regions of
Macedonia.*
We have also just referred to a new name added to
their little band-that of Luke. As he is not only the
companion of the Great Apostle, but his biographer,
we may well pause, on this the first mention of him
in the narrative, to say a few words regarding his history. If you look at the chapter in the Acts describing their leaving Troas, you will see that the plural
pronoun "we" is used for the first time.  " After he
had seen the vision, immediately we" (indicating that
Luke was one of the number) "endeavoured to go
into Macedonia." t
Luke, or Lucius, was most probably, from his name,
not a Jew, but a Gentile by birth. The opinion, too,
has been hazarded, that he had been once a slave
at Rome-that he had there practised the art of medicine in his master's family-and that, after a certain
period, in reward for his services, freedom had been
conferred on him. He seems to have returned thence
to his native city of Antioch;+ and while there, carrying on his profession as a physician,~ he was brought
* Lewiu, vol. i. p. 224.  t Acts xvi. 10.
t Eusebius and Jerome.  ~ Col iv. 1.




THE PRISON.               179
under the power of the truth as it is in Jesus. Some
have thought that he acted as a ship surgeon, or what
is equally probable, he was what in modern days we
call (in connexion particularly with China) a " medical
missionary" —a physician inspired with love to the
"Great Physician of Souls," and who, while he exercised his healing art on the bodies of men, at the same
time tried to lead them to "the balm in Gilead, and
the Physician there." It is interesting thus to think
of this earnest man, sailing about from island to island
in the vast Archipelago with healing medicines alike
for soul and body. It is interesting to think of him,
also, as the attendant and friend of our apostle on this
and a future voyage. I have recently spoken of Paul's
dangerous illness in Galatia; it is not at all improbable
that he may have sent a message to the beloved physician to meet him at Troas, and give him the benefit of
his medical skill and Christian counsel. One of the
last short entries in the Great Apostle's life tells us at
once of the faithful and devoted friendship of this
Christian physician, and Paul's estimate of his services.
He is mentioning, with a sorrowing heart, how all had
forsaken him; but he adds, " only Luke is with me."*
The little band are now fairly on their way.  A
prosperous wind brings them in two days to the north
of Greece. They seem to have anchored for the first
night at the island. of Samothrace, where the mountains rise to a great height above the sea, forming a
landmark to the Grecian sailors for a long distance,
and regarded by these Pagan mariners of old with a
sacred reverence. Neptune, the god of the sea, in the
heathen mythology, was supposed to have his throne
* 2 Tim. iv. 11.




180         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
on the cliffs of Samothrace; from thence it was thought
he had looked down on the scene of the Trojan war, ani.
mating its heroes; and the caves which he made his
ordinary dwelling were imagined to be deep down in the
ocean, between Imbros and Tenedos.  Such were the
false but beautiful dreams of the heathen world, which
a feeble pilgrim, who had now moored his bark near
these fabled caverns, was to be instrumental more
than any other in dispelling for ever!  From thence
they sailed north-west to the harbour of Philippi; it
was called Neapolis, or "New City" (now Cavallo),
situated in a sheltered bay or haven. Here travellers
landed when they wished to pursue the Via Egnatia,
the great military road which led to Italy.  Between
Philippi and this port-town, a distance of ten miles.
was a craggy ridge, rising steep from the sea, by
which it was necessary for the apostles to cross.  We
may imagine them pausing when they reached the
summit, and seating themselves on one of the masses
of rock, which modern travellers speak of. looking down
on the prospect on either side.  Behind them their
eyes would rest upon a vast wilderness of blue waters,
with Mount Athos rising in the far distance; on tl e
inland side they would behold a spacious plain, watered
by many little streams, the richly wooded valley of
Seres running towards the west.   Situated in the
midst of these streams, on account of which it was
originally called Crenides, or Fountains, is the town of
Philippi. The city, I need not say, from its name, was
built by Philip of Macedon, fathel of Alexander the
Great.  In its immediate neighbourhood there was a
famous hill, called "L Bacchus-mount," rich in golden
treasure, from whose mines the king was said to have




THE PRISON.              181
gained annually one thousand talents. The town itself
was enclosed with a wall, which stretched down on
either side from the fortress. Two American missionaries, who some time ago travelled in that region, give
us some interesting details about the present appearance of Philippi. They observed the ruins of the castle
on the top of the hill, and traces of a forum, the seat
of justice-perhaps the very same within which we
shall presently find Paul and his companion standing,
and submitting to the rods of the lictors.  The ruins
of a palace, built of the finest white marble, is the
grandest of the old monuments still existing, although
it is fast disappearing under the hands of the Turks,
who are despoiling it to form  their gravestones.*
Those who have read Roman history know well how
famous Philippi and its neighbourhood was, from being
the scene of a great battle. Here Brutus and Cassius,
Octavius and Antony, pitched their camps.  The two
former were defeated; and, at their own request, slain
by the hands of their comrades, rather than fall into
those of the enemy. In honour of the victory, Augustus declared Philippi to be in future the capital of the
province, and seat of the government.  Paul is about
to make it renowned as the scene of a greater moral
victory, with weapons which are not "carnal, but
mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds."  Philippi itself was a sort of little Rome, it
was peopled by Romans, its citizens spoke the Roman
tongue, and prided themselves in Roman manners and
customs.  There were few Jews, indeed so few, that
there was not even a synagogue. Their only place of
worship was one of the Proseuchce,- slight and uncostly
* Dwight and Schauffler, as quoted by Dr Kitto.




182           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
buildings for prayer and religious service. Some of
these were open at the top, and exposed to the weather.
They were most generally situated in a grove, or under
a tree, either by the sea-side, or, more commonly still,
by the banks of a river, as many of the Jewish ceremonial observances required water for performing
ablutions.* The one at Philippi was outside the city,
by the banks of the river Gaggitas, or Zygactes,-a word
which means " pole-break," and which is said to have
been so called by the Greeks from another absurd
legend they had, that one of their false gods, Pluto, in
crossing it broke the pole of his chariot on the banks! 
A few women, "proselytes of the gate," as they were
called, believers in the God of Israel, Sabbath after
Sabbath had been accustomed to meet here for prayer,
both those who were by birth Jewesses, as well as
other residents in the town. Among these there was
one of the name of Lydia, a stranger from a province in
Asia, for it is expressly said she belonged to "the city
of Thyatira." This city had been long celebrated, and,
indeed, is to this very day celebrated, + for its purple
dye; and she was one of many who made her livelihood by selling it. It was among this handful of lowly
women that the glorious gospel of the blessed God was
first preached in Europe!  In no splendid temple, or
gorgeous cathedral, but at a simple prayer-meeting in
an oratory by a river side! The heart cf Lydia was
* Home's Introduction, Olshausen, Epiphanius, &c.
1 Appian iv. 105, as quoted by Lewin.
So far back as the time of ISomer we read of the Lydian put pie" And as by Lydian or by Carian maid,
The purple dye is on the ivory laid."-.Iiad.
T.r Kitto gives the following extract from Sir Emrersan Tennant's Ld.
tersfrom the iEgean-" Large quantities " (of scarlet or p irple cloths) "are
seit weekly to Smyrna for the purposes of commerce."




THE PRISON.               183
opened as Paul and Silas unfolded the great salvation. She was convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was
indeed the true Messiah, and Son of God, and in His
name she and her household were immediately baptized.  It is striking here to observe how God finds
out his people, and brings them under the power of the
truth. Lydia was an inhabitant of one of those very
cities in Asia where Paul had been "forbidden" to
preach. Probably she lived almost constantly at Thyatira; but her passing visit at Philippi was ordained
and overruled by a higher Hand to bestow a nobler
"citizenship" upon her! She was just following her
wonted trade as "a seller of purple," when the Lord
sent his servants to declare to her the way of life. It
is another of the many striking examples given us in
His Word, of how He delights to meet His people in
the ordinary business and employments of life. He called
Matthew when he was seated at his toll-bar-Peter and
Andrew at their nets, and here he meets Lydia when
in a strange city she has taken up her abode to prosecute her trade.  It teaches us the great lesson-that
we do not require to leave the duties of life in order
to be religious. With that Christian love and hospitality, so common in these primitive ages, this earliest
convert at Philippi took the apostles to her own house,
and made them take up their abode during their stay
at Philippi.  This was the first of many proofs of personal kindness Paul received at the hands of the Philippians  Four times we find during his life did they
liberally contribute to supply his wants; and we shall
afterwards see how his TRoman dungeon q as cheered
with the gifts of their bounty.
God seemed to smile upon these early labours of




184          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
his servants at Philippi. The church grew, men and
women were added to it, and for " many days" their
teaching was allowed to go on undisturbed. A terrible
furnace, however, was at hand-although grace was
to be given these faithful men to pass boldly throughI must proceed to tell you the cause of this " fiery
trial" which was about to "try them."  There were
some wicked heathen masters, whose female slave or
servant had " a spirit of divination," or "spirit of Python"-that is, the Prince of darkness had sent some
of his evil spirits or agents to take possession of her
mind; for at this time, when Jesus, the true light, had
come into the world, the powers of darkness seem to
have exercised an unusual influence over both the bodies
and souls of men. This female, by wild gestures and
words, and ravings, called "oracles," practised on the
weakness of the ignorant by pretending to foretell the
events of the future. The Greeks and Romans supposed
such unhappy persons to be possessed by the god Apollo,
and that through his agency they had this "spirit of
divination." Apollo was often called by the title of the
" Pythian Apollo,"-Python being a serpent which he
was said to have destroyed with arrows, so soon as he
was born. These masters thus made a gain of this poor
girl, getting money from those whose future history
or fortune she pretended to read.   Paul and Silas
seem, after the conversion of Lydia, to have been in
the habit of going for some time to the oratory at the
river's side. The number of hearers was daily increasing, and the devout women had probably brought with
them their relatives and friends, to listen to the wcrds
of eternal life. The " possessed " slave had followed the
apostles several times when they were on their way




THE PRISON.               185
thither, crying after them, " These men are the slaves
of the Most High God." She may possibly have been
herself a Jewess; she may have had some idea about
the coming of the Christ; and the preaching of Paul
may have produced some singular effect on her mind,*
for she added, " They show unto us the way of salvation."  Day after day she seems to have returned to
the same spot, repeating her wild ravings. Paul feared
lest such a testimony might bring discredit on their
cause, and wishing to show the superiority of the Christian religion to the powers of imposture, he turned
round on one of these occasions, and in the name of
his Divine Master rebuked the evil spirit.  It immediately came out of her, and the sufferer was restored
to her right mind.
You may imagine the rage and anger of her masters when they saw the demon expelled, and all hope
of further gain gone. They resolved to have a full revenge, and they knew the multitude would heartily
second them. Accordingly, they seized on the apostles,
and dragged them before the magistrates in the forum,
or market-place. They accused them of having thrown
the whole city into confusion, and of unlawfully trying
to introtuce a new religion among Roman citizens. I
have already mentioned that some offending Jews
had shortly before been driven from Rome; the Philippians doubtless thought they might well follow the
example. The violence of the mob was great, and the
magistrates gave orders to the lictors to strip the
two apostles and scourge them. What a sad and
sorrowful sight, these holy men dragged along to
receive this fearful punishment! Their garments are
* iwvin.




186           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
torn off their backs; * the lictors untie their " fasces,'
or bundle of rods, made of elmwood, and these descend
upon them in heavy blows. Paul may have all the
time been   calling out, with righteous indignation,
"Scourge me not! It is at your peril if you do, without even the form of a trial.  I am a Roman "t    But
if he did, they refused to hear. His voice was drowned
in the clamour. There is no doubt this was regarded
by the apostles not only as a severe, but as a degrading punishment.    It was much more cruel than the
Jewish manner of scourging, which Paul once endured. The latter was inflicted with leathern thongs.
Moreover, by the Jewish law, they were restricted to
forty stripes.  The apostle, in referring to the ills he
had endured at the hands of his countrymen, says,
" Five times I received forty stripes save one." Thirtynine seems to have been the usual number; but in the
case of the Roman rod-scourging, he speaks of suffering
stripes "above measure."   There was in it no limitation. +  We have already noted the occasion of the
reference in his letter to the Corinthians to the " perils
of waterfloods," and "perils of robbers."    Here we
have another, which he speaks of in the same passage,
"Thrice was I beaten with rods." ~
But the Prsetors in the present case were not contented with the scourging; they gave the jailer strict
orders to keep them   "safely."   It was a significant
* "The lictors being sent to inflict punishment, beat them with rods,
being naked "-Livy, ii. 5. "He commanded the men to be seized, and to
be stripped naked in the midst of the forum, and to be bound, and rods to
be brought."-Cicero, quoted by Barnes.
t Cicero, Verr. v. 57.
t Dr Kitto's Bible Illustra'ions.
~ 2 Cor. xi. 25.




THE PRISON.                187
hint to deal as harshly with them as he might.
Faint and bleeding, they are hurried away to a dark
prison; their limbs, still quivering under the scourge,
are thrust into the stocks, and so fastened that they
will be unable to move them.* No wonder Paul
should, in an after period, when he was writing to the
Thessalonians, speak of the way in which he was
" sha.lefully treated at Philippi."'~ It must be observed,
too, that it was the inner prison into which the apostles
were thrown,-doubtless one of those dark cells that had
such a terrible name in the Roman world, where the
heavily-bound captives were left to endure the tortures
of a living death!  "We must picture to ourselves
something very different from the austere comfort of
an English jail.... The inner prisons of which we
read in the ancient world, were like that'dungeon
in the court of the prison' into which Jeremiah was
let down with cords, and where'he sank in the mire.'
They were pestilential cells, damp and cold, from which
the light was excluded, and where the chains rusted on
the limbs of the prisoners."+ We can think of the
apostles, when, under the guidance of a rough jailer,
they passed from cell to cell, and heard the clanking
which told of miserable beings who were already their
inmates. They have reached the appointed dungeon,
and have bidden farewell to the cheering light of day;
but they are not downcast. Though they have nothing
to expect but a dreadful morrow, there is an inner sun* " vXov, nervus. A wooden block furnished with holes, into which
th~ feet were put, and, according to the severity of the torture, stretched
far from one another. Origen, il his extreme old age, was obliged to bear
this torture, and for several days to lie in such an instrument, with linllb
far spread out from one aun)thcr."-Olshlausen On Acts, p. 557.
t 1 Thass. ii. 2.
t Howsou; and Cos ybearc, vol. i. p. 26.




188         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
shine which is lighting up their souls, which the poor
jailer, as yet, knows nothing of. The magistrates who
so cruelly condemned them, are now perhaps sleeping
tranquilly on their pillows, but suffering seems to have
banished sleep from the eyes of the prisoners. We
may picture to ourselves the deep darkness that has
gathered around them; perhaps the tempest howling
piteously through their vaulted cell, and now and then,
when there was a pause in the storm, the heavymeasured tramp of the sentinel reminding them of
their terrible situation.  Or shall we imagine the
storm has spent itself' It is the stillness of the midnight hour! The other prisoners are startled from
their chains by a strange and unwonted sound; it is
the two Jews, brought, on the previous evening, who
are making their dungeon resound, not with piteous
groans and lamentations under the torture of their
torn backs and fettered limbs, but with songs of joy
and praise.  "Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises
to God!"  What these praises were, we are not told.
They probably were the songs of the sweet Psalmist of
Israel, many of which were so suitable to their case.
Their voices would join together in earnest entreaty,
that the same God, who had rescued Joseph of old
when " his feet were bound with fetters of iron," would
"hear the groaning of the prisoner, and free them that
were appointed to death." How strange the feelings
of those must have been who were listening to them!
-wretched outcasts, robbers, murderers, thieves, rebels,
traitors, profligates.* How strange for them to hear,
in such a place, sweet strains of gratitude and lovel
— no complaining under their torture, but, perhaps,
* Howson and Conybeare, vol. i. p 328.








Footsteps~ ~ ~ ~~?, St Paul     p.:189;i'. I~;i'!~''i',,/,               ~!i
~~ ~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PAUL AND  SILAS  IN PRISON,~~~~~~~~~~~i
Footstep St. PalC~.          p     I.U 189.




THE PRISON.               189
like Stephen, )r Stephen's Lord, praying for their very
enemies, and committing their cause to the God they
served.
At that very moment, when prayer and praise were
ascending together at midnight, an earthquake shook
the prison walls to their foundations. The bands of
all the prisoners are loosed-the doors are shattered
on their hinges, and fly open! It is God Himself, who
has "heard them while they are yet speaking"-come
to give them release. Do they immediately avail
themselves of the opened doors to make their escape?
We might have thought so; but no! Paul and his
companion had work to do in that prison; they had
troubled souls to comfort and save; and, forgetful of
themselves, they remain quietly in theircell. There is one
much agitated spirit, who, roused by the earthquake's
crash, comes rushing into them with a flaming torch
in his hand: it is the morose and hard-hearted jailer,
who feels that his honour and his life are at stake.
He knows the terrible vengeance that will wait him
on the morrow if one prisoner be missing. In a state
of hopeless despair, he draws his sword, and is about
to plunge it into his heart, in order to escape certain
infamy and disgrace. It was one of the false maxims of
ancient Paganism, that there was something meritorious in self-destruction. We have, a little ago, noted it
in the case of two Roman generals, Brutus and Cassius.
Cato was guilty of self-murder in Utica; and it was
doubtless the same mistaken idea which prompted, at
this moment, the jailer of Philippi to attempt suicide,
and rush unprepared into the presence of his God.
But Paul cries out, "Do thyself no harm, for we are
all here!" The keeper must have been struck with




190         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
the conduct of these noble-minded prisoners.  He had
just been listening, doubtless, to their prayers and
praises; he may have heard of the good news of salvation that had been for several days preached by them
in the city; he may have heard the ravings of the " possessed" Pythoness, proclaiming them to be messengers
from Heaven; the terrific earthquake shook the walls
of his seared and hardened conscience as well as of the
prison; he wondered at the conduct of these two suffering Jews; he had treated them with nothing but
harshness-they had returned nothing but kindness;
the door was open for their escape, but they remained
still, only to speak words of comfort to him. His heathen heart wondered, and trembled. Holding a blazing torch (Greek, "lights"), he rushed into their cell
with the anxious question, "What must I do to be
saved?"  It'was, doubtless, a far higher salvation the
poor man was in search of, than mere safety from the
vengeance of Roman preetors. His sins, more terrible
than a scourge of scorpions, rose up before him. The
answer was joyfully given-" Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou slhalt be saved, and thy house."
What a strange scene immediately followed: the
trembling jailer and his family were standing, in wonder and terror, in the apostles' inner cell-the glaring
torch-light flickering on the damp walls! Along with
them, we may l)elieve, other prisoners, loosed from
their fetters, crowded around, and listened to a strange
sermon from the lips of the scourged Christians, at
that strange hour, and in that strange place. We may
imagine what it would be.   Jesus!-His work-His
life-His agony —His death-would be fully unfolded.
The storm was changed into a calm. Like Elijah in




THE PRISON.               191
the wilderness, after the earthquake and the hurricane
came the "still small voice."  The jailer grasped that
golden assurance which Paul himself had seized at a
similar hour,-" This is a faithful saying, and worthy
of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners."
The first place Paul preached at in Europe was a
river-side; the second, in a dungeon at midnight!
Truly God is not confined to temples made with hands.
He could make a pillow of rude stones to Jacob, and a
Roman dungeon to "the chief of sinners," the gate of
heaven! Nor is He confined to any particular manner
of bringing His people under the power of the truth.
Generally He employs means. In the case of Lydia, the
means was aprayer-meeting.  Prayer ascended-prayer
was heard-her heart was opened. But He can work,
too, independently of instrumentality. He sometimes
shows how his grace can triumph over every obstacle,
-a rough heathen jailer, whose only prayers before
were probably his dreadful oaths, is brought in a
moment to the foot of the Saviour's cross!
We believe that more in that Roman prison than
the jailer had their hearts touched that night,-other
criminals there, were probably made the monuments of
the same wondrous grace. The simple history of Luke
completes the interesting account. He, who was so
lately a stern jailer, now becomes a Christian friend;
he feels that he owes his two prisoners a debt which
never could be repaid; he does his best to show them
how much he felt it; he takes them first of all to the
fountain or well in the prison-court,* and there washes
their wounds. In the water of the same cistern, he
* See the picture, beginning of the chapter,




192          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
and his household are at the same time also baptized.
He then conducts them to his own dwelling, and
sets food before them. They rejoice together in one
blessed Saviour, who, in a nobler sense, "proclaims
liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison
to them that are bound." Can we not picture that
strange family scene 1 While yet the town of Philippi
was hushed in sleep, all ignorant of what had taken
place that night in its gloomy prison,-the jailer seated
in his own house, with his relatives gathered around
him,-his eye every now and then filled with tears of
mingled sorrow and joy, as he casts them upon the two
holy strangers who had been the means of ushering
him into the glorious liberty of the children of God!
What takes place in the morning? The tidings of
the earthquake reach the ears of the Roman magistrates. In their fear and terror, they send orders by
their lictors, " Let these men go." We know the
superstitious ideas attached by Romans of old to an
earthquake; they invariably imagined it to indicate
the anger of their gods, and it would not be difficult,
in the present instance, to refer it to this cause. The
magistrates began to tremble when they reflected on
their own conduct. Such an outrage on law! Indeed, if
their doings had been reported to the Proconsul of
Macedonia, they might even have been called to answer at Rome in the presence of Caesar, and be deprived
of the powers of magistracy for life.* They were very
anxious, therefore, to hush the matter up; but Paul
was a lion-hearted man as well as a true Christian, and
he nobly and bravely sent word back that they would
not go in that underhand way until their judges came
* Biscoe On the J -t.: Livy, iv. 9; Cicero's Orations against Verres, &o




THE PRISON.               193
and made an apology; for they had violated the very
laws they were there set to uphold.  "They had
beaten them publicly and uncondemned, being Romans."  "Nay," says the apostle, "let them come
themselves, and fetch us out!" *  The prvetors saw at
once that they had exceeded their powers, and might
be severely punished for their illegal treatment of
" Roman citizens." So they had to go themselves to
the jail, and beseech the apostles to depart. What a
humiliating position for these proud Roman magistrates! See them now coming as suppliants to the
prison doors, as Paul had required, and courteously
leading out those whom, the day before, they had unmercifully scourged!
We must not suppose, from the apostles' resolute
conduct on this occasion, that there was anything like
revenge, or want of meekness and submission to injury.
If they had left the prison merely at the solicitation of
the rulers, without asking an apology, it would more
than probably have been said, that they had bribed
the jailer, whose fears they had worked upon, and
thus made their escape. This would inevitably have
damaged their own reputation and the success of the
gospel in the city and neighbourhood. On the other
hand, their bold and manly conduct, followed as it
was by the magistrates coming personally to request
them to leave their cells, must have told with powerful effect on the minds of the Romans, and prepared
the way for the fiture preaching of the truth in
Philippi. Had Paul, on his return in future years,
been only known there as a poor Jew, who had left the
publij jail covered with scourging and contempt, he
* Acts xvi. 37.
N




194         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
would have attracted little attention; but Paul, the
bold and manly Roman citizen, who had the fortitude to protest against an unjust and iniquitous act of
tyranny, had the way paved for that happy success
among rich and poor which attended his labours,
afterwards, ih the same town. If he had demanded
no such apology, he would have gone away with the
name of a " pestilent fellow " and a "c coward." As it
was, he departed an innocent and a brave man-a
holy, patient, and devoted Christian. As an excellent
writer observes on this subject-" St Paul, in this instance, affords us a remarkable example of the union of
the two Christian duties, firmness and forbearance. He
compels the magistrates to humble themselves, and to
reverse their unjust sentence, by going to the prison in
person and fetching him out; but he does not, as he
might have done, institute a rigorous prosecution
against them, and subject them to heavy penalties for
an obvious violation of the well-known Roman law." *
Unmoved by the past cruelties which had been inflicted on them, Paul and Silas repair to the house of
their first convert, Lydia.  There they meet other
Christian brethren, who have assembled to receive the
apostles' farewell -lessing. Timothy and Luke are left
behind to nourish the infant church planted in the
city of Philippi. Although Lydia and the jailer, with
their houses, are the only converts specially mentioned, we have reason to believe that many others,
during the weeks of that memorable visit, were added
to the church.  "Paul and his companion, full of
gratitude and courage, set out on another stage of
their great missionary journey."
Y Blunt's Lectures on St Paid.








CHAPTER XL
Tktssaloria ain        Name
" As scme tall (liff that lifts its awful form
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm,
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head."
" He might have filled hundreds of martyrologies with his suffer.
ings;...  all which he generously underwent with a soul as
calm and serene as the morning sun. No spite or rage, no fury or
storms, could riffle and discompose his spirit; nay, those sufferings,
which would have broken the back of an ordinary patience, did but
make him rise up with the greater eagerness and resolution for the
doing of his duty." —CAv's Life of St Paul, 1676.




.         r,2'  stree s and halls of the most polished and
learned city of the Old Woild; but before we follow
him thither, let us briefly track his steps from the
city of Philippi, where we last left him, weary and
faint with scourging, but his spirit full of joy at all
the great things which God had done for him.
Travelling still along the Via Egnatia by Amphipolis and Apollonia, he reached, in three days, the tity
of Thessalonica. Thessalonica was the largest town at
that time in Macedonia, and is one of considerable note
at the present day, under the slightly-changed narie
of Salonica. It reckons, indeed, third in importance
in the Ottoman empire in Europe. If you look?,t
your mnap, you will observe that it is situated at the
aorth of Greece, close by the shore near the head of
the Thermaic Gulf. It occupies, as you will also see




198          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
from the picture, the slope of a hill at the corner of
the bay. It was built by Cassander, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, who was struck with the
beauty of the site,* and compelled, at the same time,
the inhabitants round about to leave their own cities
and,illages, and take up their abode in the new seaport which he called, after his wife, Tliessalonica. At
the time of S; Paul's visit, it was the capital of the
province-a Roman proconsul, with his lictors and
officers, held his court there. It was what we may call
the Liverpool of northern Greece-a great place for
commerce-ships sailing from its harbour to all places
of the known world. It became very soon a great
Christian capital, and continued so for many hundred
years; so that the truth of Paul's words was not confined to his own age-" From you the Word of God
hath sounded forth; not only in Macedonia and
Achaia, but in every place."+  Dr Clark visited the
city in the year 1801, and describes many ruins of
ancient buildings with Roman inscriptions. Among
others, he mentions a Turkish mosque, containing an
old and singular marble pulpit, from which, tradition
says, Paul preached in a vault under ground.
On arriving at Thessalonica, we may follow in
thought the weary apostles as, after their long journey
of 90 or 100 miles, and still suffering under their recent tortures at Philippi, they approached the gates
of its terraced walls. We cannot tell whether it may
then have possessed the same striking appearance it
presents to modern travellers, with its white-painted
buildings, its walls glittering in the sun, and, in a calm
day, casting their pearly shadows in the beautiful bay,
* Strabo.        t 1 Thess. i. 8




THESSALONICA AND BEREA.         199:
which, whatever changes the city may have undergone,
remains the same now as when Paul and his friend
gazed on its sparkling waves.
On arriving in the city, they took up their abode
with Jason, a Jewish convert; by some supposed to
have been a relative of the apostle;* by others, one
of "the brethren" to whom the believers in Philippi
had given him "letters of commendation."  For three
successive Sabbaths (Jewish Sabbaths-our Saturday)
Paul spoke in the synagogue. It seems to have been
the place of worship to which the Jews all around
resorted; for, in speaking of it, he does not say, "where
there was a synagogue," but "THE synagogue."  The
Israelites, at the towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia,
seem to have been too few or too poor to have a synagogue, or even a proseucha of their own, and to have
attended, therefore, the one at Thessalonica.t  We
may picture to ourselves the Great Apostle, bearing in
his body some new and recent "marks of the Lord
Jesus," standing up in this Jewish church, on the first
Sabbath after his arrival, to speak to his "brethren
according to the flesh."
Thessalonica, I may add, is as celebrated at the present day, for its large Hebrew population, as it was
then; for, out of 70,000 inhabitants, more than one
half are Jews.+ Of these, many are engaged in the
manufacture of cloth for tents,-a circumstance which
is curious in connexion with the employment of the
apostle during his present residence, and to which we
shall immediately refer.
If you read the letters he wrote at an after period'o the Thessalonians, you must be struck with a sub.
* Rom. xvi. 21.  t Kuinoel.  I Dr Kitto.




200         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
ject which he dwells much upon in these, viz., "the
kingdom and second coming of the Lord Jesus." You
are aware that the Jews had long looked forward to
the Messiah as a great temporal deliverer.  Their
country was now under the Roman yoke; but they
clung to the fond hope that once more, under the promised " Prince of Peace," it would regain the independence and glory it possessed under the reign of David
and Solomon.  One great object of the apostle, both
now in his address in the synagogue and in his future
epistles to the Thessalonians, was to correct these mistaken ideas about the nature of Christ's kingdom. He
proved to them from their own prophecies that He was
to come, not as a triumphant, but as a lowly suffering
Messiah; and that though a King, His kingdom was
"not to be of this world:" it was to be a spiritual,
not a temporal one. " He reasoned with them out of
the Scriptures; opening and alleging that Christ must
needs have suffered and risen again from the dead -jand
that this Jesus, whom he preached unto them, was
Christ." *
As I have just hinted, he again found here the trade
he learned in his boyhood at Tarsus of use to him.
He did not wish to be "burdensome" to any, and
though the converts at Philippi sent him on two occasions gifts and presents, he preferred doing what he
could for his own support. It is interesting to think
of him, evening after evening, when the labour of teaching and preaching was over, seated with his bundle of
goats' hair at his side, busy at the manufacture of the
hair-cloth
It is, indeed, a striking picture to see the holy mana
* Acts xvii. 2. 8.




UIESSALONICA AND BEREA.          201
of God, the polished scholar, the great missioLary, not
considering himself demeaned in taking up this lowly
occupation; and, though still severely smarting under
the stripes he received at Philippi, bending with cheerfulness over his laborious task. It has been supposed,
however, that at this time the apostle must have been
in great bodily want. Historians of that period mention a famine which prevailed throughout Greece, and
which raised provisions to six times their usual pricea peck of wheat costing in their currency four shillings
and sixpence.:* But the many kind hearts Paul had
left behind him in Philippi, would not allow him at
present to fall into straits: and on two occasions afterwards, we shall find they sent some Christian messengers with a similar supply of money. " Now, ye Philipplans, know also, that in the beginning of the gospel,
when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me, as concerning giving and receiving, but
ye only. For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and
again unto my necessity." t
His success among his own Jewish countrymen does
not appear to have been great at Thessalonica. His
converts seem to have been principally heathens "who
turned from dumb idols to serve the living God."
"How new and how comforting to them must have
been the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead!
What a contrast must this revelation of life and immortality have been to the hopeless lamentations of
their own pagan funerals, and to the dismal teaching
which we can still read in tha sepulchral inscriptions
of heathen Thessalonica, such as told the bystander
that after death there is no revival, after the grave
* Eusebius.     4 Phil. iv. 15, 16.




202          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
no meeting of those who have loved each other on
earth!" *
It is more than probable that Paul, in commending
the new doctrine to these idolatrous pagans, made use
of miracle in proof of his Divine commission. In writing afterwards to them, he says, " Our gospel came to
you in power, and in the Holy Ghost."   That word
"epower" would seem to imply (as elsewhere) the use
of extraordinary and miraculous agency. We know
that he did not deceive them by any bright pictures of
earthly or carnal glory. He did not say that if they
left their dumb idols they would become great and
powerful and glorious in the world. It was quite the
reverse; for he writes thus afterwards, "Verily when
we were with you, we told you before that we should sffier
tribulation, even as it came to pass, and ye know."+
The envy of the Jews was stirred up against these
" preachers of strange doctrine."  The scum and refuse
of the city-" lewd fellows of the baser sort,"-that is,
a number of those dangerous idlers who were always
found in a place like Thessalonica, hanging about the
pier and the forum ready to join in any tumult,-were
easily prevailed on to take Dart in this assault on
the innocent apostles. The house of Jason was stormed,
but not finding their victims there (they having been
previously warned of the attack), Jason and other
Christians were seized by the mob, and dragged before
the magistrates. They were accused of sedition and
rebellion, of harbouring in their ouse those wLo were
preaching treason against Coesar —speaking of another
kingdom and another King, " one Jesus."  They thus
* Howson and Conybeare, vol. i. p. 355.
t 1 Thess. iii. 3, 4.  See Lewin, vol. i. p. 256.




THESSALONICA AND BEREA.        203
easily perverted Paul's words about the kingdom  of
Christ into a meaning to suit their own purposes.
The magistrates bound them over to keep the peace,
taking money from them as bail or security in the
meantime, that the quiet of the town should not again
be broken. Paul immediately saw with a sorrowful
heart that it would be needful to withdraw elsewhere.
The rage alike of the multitude and the Jews was
roused, and if they remained, and continued to preach
the gospel, their faithful friends, to whom they were
indebted for a home, would be sure to become the
victims of popular fury. He would, perhaps, leave
behind him with his inquiring pagan disciples, as the
only substitute for the preaching of the gospel, a copy
of the Old Testament Scriptures, and probably the
Gospel of St Matthew, the only one of the four inspired
histories which at that time was written. It is to this
gospel he is supposed to allude, when he says in his
future letter, " But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For
yourselves know perfectly, that the day of the Lord so
cometh as a thief in the night." *
We are not told to what extent Jason and his friends
afterwards suffered. Though the magistrates had accepted bail from them in the meantime, it is not probable they would be freed from a future trial, and the
result, most likely, on a charge of aiding those guilty
of treason, would be severe fining, or else the forfeiture
of their goods. Be this as it may, we know that the
danger of the apostles was so great that the very night
of the assault they were obliged, under covert of darkness, to leave the city.
1 Thess. v. 1, 2. Compare with this Matt. xxiv. 36-41




214         1'E FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
Timothy, probably, may now have rejoined PauL
If so, he would accompany him and Silas at their departure. Passing out by the arch at the western gate,
they proceeded fifty miles' distance to the lovely city
of Berea, situated, among its gardens, streams, and
groves of palm and plane trees, on the eastern slope of
the chain of mountains of which Olympus is the chief.
This town was founded by one Pheres, and called
Pherea; but from  a singular difficu ty the Macedonians had in pronouncing the Ph, it was corrupted by
them into Berea. The modern inhabitants, however,
who work in the red marble quarries in its neighbourhood, seein able to pronounce what their forefathers
could not, for it has resumed the name of P/heria.*
Berea, at the time the apostle fled to it, was a
secluded place. It was a considerable distance from
the great Roman road (the Via Egnatia), and probably
was selected by him and his companions on that account. Moreover, being in another district of Macedonia, he was safe from the power of the proconsul of
Thessalonica.
After the treatment he had received at the former
city from his Jewish brethren, we could not have wondered, on reaching this new abode, if he had resolved in
all time to come to preach only to the Gentiles. But
no; he was far too true a patriot, to allow ingratitude or opposition to damp or cool his love for his
countrymen; "apostle of the Gentiles" as he was, it
was still with him " to the Jew first." It is pleasing
to be able to add, that the encouragement he met with
among his countrymen at Berea was very different from
that which he received at Thessalonica. He found the
t See Wetstein in loo, &c., quoted by Lewin, vol. i. p. 265.




THESSALONICA AND BEREA.        205
Jews there "more noble" than those of the'ormer
city, because they did not, like the others, shut their
ears against the truth, but "searched the Scriptures"
every day, comparing the prophecies about the Messiah
with their alleged fulfilment in Jesus of Nazareth.
Let us picture to ourselves the scene in the Berean
synagogue. The Rabbis and ministers, attired in their
flowing robes, hold in their hands the well-thumbed
scrolls of parchment containing the writings of Moses
and the Prophets. The apostle directs them in these
to reference after reference, proving that Jesus was
indeed the Christ. May we not imagine him saying,
"Turn to your roll containing our old prophet Mlicah's
predictions-you will find there mentioned the birthplace of the Messiah." The presiding minister reads
aloud-" But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou
be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee
shall He come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in
Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from
everlasting."* "Jesus," Paul may be supposed to say,
" was born there."
" Turn again to your Pentateuch-scroll, and you will
find his predicted tribe,-' The sceptre shall not depart
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from  between his feet,
until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering
of the people be+'t Our Jesus," Paul might add,
"was born of the tribe of Judah.   Turn again,"
might he not say, "to our great prophet, and see what
Isaiah's roll says about his royal line,-'And there
shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a
Branch shall grow out of his roots:...... And in
that day there shall bo, a root of Jesse, which shall
* Micahv. 2.    t Gen. xlix. 10,




206          THE FOOTSTEP OF ST PAUL.
stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gen.
tiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.'* Jesus was
born of the Virgin Mary, the lineal descendant of
David! Turn again to the prophet of Babylon-unroll
the parchment of Daniel's prophecies-see what was
the time your Messiah was foretold to come,-' Seventy
weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy
holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an
end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity,
and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal
up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most
Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the
going forth of the commandment to restore and to
build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be
seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street
shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous
times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of
the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and
the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a
flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are
determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with
many for one week: and in the midst of the week he
shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and
for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it
desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.'t Above all,
turn again to lsaiah's prophetic roll, and read the very
histomj of this Jesus whom I have embraced as the true
Messiah,-' For he shall grow up before him as a
tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he
bath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see
* Isaiah xi. 1, 10.  t Daniel ix. 4-a27.




THESSALONICA AND BEREA.        207
him, there is no beauty that,e should desire him.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows,
and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our
faces from him: he was despised, and we esteemed
him not.' "*
Many were converted; and among these, Greeks and
heathens as well as Jews, and several females of higher
rank.
But the apostle was learning every day to "cease
from man whose breath is in his nostrils." He was
becoming more familiar with the "much tribulation"
through which every saint, and more especially every
faithful minister, must enter into glory. The "less
noble" Jews at a distance, stirred up with envy on
hearing of his success, compelled him to leave a city
which gave promise of much fruit. He saw that it
would be hopeless, from the furious hatred of his own
countrymen, to remain for the present longer in Macedonia. They were tracking, like bloodhounds, his footsteps from place to place; he would be sure, humanly
speaking, to fall a victim to their malice; he resolved,
therefore, to quit it altogether, and make for the nearest point at sea where he could take a vessel to some
other field of labour. It was judged advisable to leave
Timothy and Silas behind, to nurse the good seed which
had been scattered. But how could the persecuted
apostle-perhaps, too, at this time suffering from his
eyesight-start by night and travel through an unknown country all alone? He was wearied and pained
both in mind and body-his stripes, his blindness, his
mental sorrow at the sadder spiritual blindness of his
brethren,-all forbade a solitary journey. His friends
* Isaiah liii. 2, 8




208          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
at Berea, in these circumstances, undertook to convoy
him to the sea-shore. They conducted him, doubtless
by the nearest road, close by the woods and olivegroves of the great Olympus. Olympus was the spot
celebrated in all ancient song as the seat of the gods.
Jupiter, whose name is now familiar to us from his
temple at Lystra, was thought to have his throne
there, and other divinities haunted its groves and
temples. Thousands upon thousands of Pagans revered that spot as the most sacred on earth. Christians may look back with interest at this moment of
which I am now speaking, not to the snow-capped
mountain as the haunt of false deities, but to one who
was now passing in a little skiff under its shadow.
It was a Jew of Tarsus who, by the power of the great
God of heaven and earth, was to shatter in pieces
many a shrine and temple of Olympian Jupiter-" to
turn," in a sense the Thessalonian Jews never dreamt
of, "the world upside down," and to demonstrate that
there was "none other name given under heaven among
men by which the sinner could be saved, but the name
of Jesus." Paul's companions from Berea had now
returned to their own city, taking froni him a special
message to Silas and Timothy to lose no time in fbE
lowing him to the south.








CHAPTER XII.
Taut    at Ittts.
"Behold, the Apostle of the Cross sublimeThe warn'd of Heaven, the eloquent, the bold I
Who spake to Athens in her hour of prime,
Braving the thunders of Olympus old,
And spreading forth the Gospel's snowy fold
Where heathen altars pour'd a crimson tide,
And stern tribunals their decrees unroll'd,How does his zeal our ingrate coldness chide I"
"Who can calculate the mighty influence of his life upon maxima,
upon manners, upon literature, upon history,-in short, upon the
whole development of humanity I"




MTE have, in former chapters, followed
the "footsteps' of St. Paul into
regions where both nature and man were seen in their
savage state.  You remember the rugged mountainpasses of Pisidia, and the still more rugged hearts of
the Pagan Lystrians? We lately accompanied him, in
the quiet of a Sabbath morning, to a river-side, where
his listeners were a handful of devout females. We
found him, immediately afterwards, in a place more unpromising still, when an inner dungeon and a jailer's
iron soul were made as " the house of God and the gate
of heaven." We are to follow him now to a grander
arena,-amid the philosophers and wise men of the city
which then ruled the world of mind and thought, as
Rome ruled the outer world by force of arms.




212          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
We can easily imagine what his journey thithet
would be. How many spots of classic interest would
open before his eyes! After passing the long island of
Eubcea, on the eastern coast of Attica, we may think
of him standing on the prow of his vessel and gazing
on the splendid temple of Minerva, on the height of
the promontory of Sunium. The vessel has now entered the magnificent bay whose waters wash the southern shores of Attica. Soon a glittering object catches
his eye on a distant rock: it is the colossal statue of
Minmrva, on the Acropolis, with a helmet on her head
and a spear in her hand, made out of the brazen shields
and spears taken at the battle of Marathon.* Temples
and columns gradually unfold themselves. The Great
Apostle has got his first glimpse of the civilised capital
of the ancient world-the seat and centre of art, eloquence, philosophy, and science-Athens, "the eye of
Greece!"  And now they are nearing the shore:-to
the left, he sees the well-known island of _Egina; to
the right, that which has given its own name to one of
the greatest naval battles ever fought-the island of
Salamis. Behind it rises the hill of Hymettus, famed
for its honey; and right in front, as you see in the
foreground of our large picture, is the Piraeus, the port
of Athens, with its two high males on either side.
"The Piroeus," it is said, in a graphic description of it
as it appeared to Paul on his landing, "doubtless retained many of the outward features of its earlier
appearance,-the landing-places and covered porticos;
the warehouses where the corn from the Black Sea
used to be laid up; the stores of fish brought in daily
* Conybeare and Howson, vol. i. p. 371. The picture we give fs tlb
"Athena," from the Hope collection.




PAUL AT ATHENS.             213
from the Sarmnic Gulf and the AEgean; the gardens in
the watery ground at the edge of the plain; the
theatres into which the sailors used to flock to hear
the comedies of Menander."*  The city and port are
distant from one another about five miles. Houses had
at one time been built the whole way between, consisting of one narrow street, guarded by walls of sixty feet
in height, and with towers in various parts of them.
These, however, had at this time greatly fallen into
decay,t for we must remember, that by this time the
political greatness of Athens had ceased. The Roman
eagles had hither, as elsewhere, winged their flight, and
the seat of government had been changed to Corinth.'
And now we may imagine the Great Apostle entering
by the gate of the Piraeus. He finds himself in a city
of temples-a city literally " wholly given to idolatry."
Statues of Neptune, Jupiter, Ceres, Minerva, Apollo,
Mercury, and the Muses, meet his eye one after the
other; porticos, too, with battle-pieces painted on
their walls, and bronze figures of illustrious Athenians.
On the left is the Pynx, with its tribunal cut from the
solid rock, guarded by a statue of Jupiter and the
nymphs of the Demus, and which remains to this day
uninjured by the ravages of time. Passing further onwards, the statues of Conon, Epaminondas, and, most
illustrious of all,'Demosthenes, meet the eye of the
Christian pilgrim. The soul of the young Tarsian, in
bygone days when seated at Gamaliel's feet, had doubtless often kindled under the burning words of the Grecian orator,-now he was gazing on the statue reared
Howson and Conybeare, vol. i. p. 375.
t Ibid. See the entire account given by them of qucient Athens.
I Dr Kitto.




214             THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
on the very spot which had listened to his living
tones.
It would weary the reader to dwell on this colossal
statue-gallery through which St Paul now walked.
Warriors were there-the commanding forms of Philip
and Alexander of Macedon, Themistocles and Miltiades; lawgivers were there-such as Solon, standing in
front of a portico richly adorned with the recollections
of Troy and Marathon.     Well was it said of Athens by
Petronius, that it was then easier to find in it an idolgod than a man. How striking this idol-crowded capital of the world must have been to one who had been
so much in Jerusalem   as Paul, where not so much as
one image was to be found! 
The Apostle is all at once in a little world of busy
thought.    In passing along the great central street,
the citizens are listening, or gathering in groups "to
hear or tell something new." +   When he reaches the
end of this thoroughfare, with colonnades on either
side, we may suppose him turning to his right hand
into the Agora or market-place,-a square surrounded
with the same temple buildings and shady porticos;
bazaars filled with every article of luxury; circular
booths, some for the sale of slaves, others for provisions.
Flowers and fruits were ranged out on one side to tempt
the eye, and books and parchments on another, for
those who preferred food for the mind.:        Students
* See Mr Lewin, vol. i. p. 272, with authorities referred to.
t "Demosthenes represents the Athenians as inquiring in the place of
public resort,'If there were any news' Meursius has shown also that there
were more thlan three hundred public places in Athens of public resort,
where the principal youth and reputable citizens were accustomed to meet
for the purpose of conversati u and inouiry. —Barnes On the Acts, p 298.
t Lewin.




PAUL AT ATHEN.              216
fron all quarters of the world might be found there,
taking their hours of recreation, their masters standing
close by, discussing weighty points of religion and philosophy.  Right in front were the rocky crags of the
Acropolis, with the temples and statue of which we
have already spoken, and its beautiful Parthenon built
of white Pantelican marble, whose remains are to this
hour so much admired.   We may imagine what it
must have been then, when its magnificent friezes
were all. complete, and the statue of the goddess Minerva, from the hand of the great sculptor Phidias,
was inside, glittering with gold and ivory. We shall
find Paul immediately saying in his address, " The
Lord of heaven dwelleth not in temples made with
hands;" * as if he had said, " If any temple on earth
were befitting for Him to dwell in, it would surely be
such a masterpiece as this."
We must not forget to note two of the buildings in
the Agora.  They were the Schools of Epicurus and
Zeno, the founders of the two sects the Epicureans and
Stoics, to whose followers the Apostle was about to unfold the way of salvation.
I am sure our young readers will be wearying to
hear what Paul thought of this great city, with its
temples and schools, and sculptures, and other magnificent works of art. He had a mind that was well able
to enjoy these treasures of a great people; but the God
he served was so despised and neglected in the midst of
all this light of nature and philosophy, that we find
the only effect produced upon him was, "His spirit was
stirred within him, because it was a city wholly given
to idolatry!"  He himself touchingly says, regarding
* Acts x-rii t4.




216           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
this visit, "I was left in Athens alone."  Timothy and
Silas were still at Berea. We may well imagine the feelings of a lone Christian stranger, without one single
heart to share his sorrow, pacing the streets of that
mighty capital, and feeling, amid all the glory and
world-wide fame.of its people, that his God was-not in
all their thoughts. Somewhat of Jonah's experience in
going through the streets of Nineveh,'nine hundred
years before, must have been that of Paul of Tarsus now.
If anything could have added to his sorrow and grief,
it was that so much seemed to be done about religion,
while the unholy, profane, and vicious lives of the
Athenians showed that true piety had no place in their
hearts: Although they knew something about a deity,
"they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful,
but they became vain in their imaginations, and their
foolish hearts were darkened."
Anxious, however, as he was for the return of his two
fellow-labourers, Paul could not remain idle and silent
in the midst of the stirring scenes and throngs around
him. Though alone, he resolves to unfurl the Gospel
banner.
The Apostle first of all, as we have invariably found
him doing elsewhere, sought out his own "brethren
according to the flesh." He commences in the Jewish
synagogue. It was not, however, with them he came
hither to fight the battles of his Heavenly Master,
but with the teachers of those false systems of philosophy and pagan superstition, which had then in Athens
their principal seat, and which formed in many other
places the main hindrance to the spread of the Gospel.
We may follow him, therefore, once more into the hum
of the Agora or market-place, going from one group tp




PAUL AT ATHENS.             217
another of those who were standing or strolling under
the shady plane-trees or porticos, till he joined in the
conversation, and introduced the great subject of his
thoughts and labours-" Jesus and the Resurrection "
How was his preaching listened to? How did these
proud wise-men receive the great Christian ambassador? They loved oratory. Demosthenes and others,
by their marvellous eloquence,
"Wielded at will that fierce democ'acy."
How, then, will the Christian orator and philosopher
fare when he unfolds things in heaven and earth, that
were "never dreamt of in their philosophy?"  Socrates and Plato had long laboured in vain to discover,
by the light of nature, the great realities of the'future.
Paul is about to unlock the wondrous secret; to reveal
to them One, who is at once the " power of God and
the wisdom of God," the "Abolisher of death," the " Resurrection and the life!" How will they receive such
doctrine and testimony as this I How will proud reason be content to seat itself at the foot of the cross of
Jesus? Doubtless he would not find it difficult to draw
them into converse, as there was nothing these sharp
and keen intellects enjoyed more than a discussion
upon difficult points, and all the better if these were
connected with some new religious system. Moreover,
we must remember that Paul was not altogether unprepared to meet them, as Epicureans and Stoics were
found in abundance in his own native town of Tarsus,
where doubtless he had acquired a familiarity with
their doctrines. The leading doctrines of the Epicareans
were, that the world was made, not by an Almighty
Framer, but by an accidental or " fortuitous" concourse
of atoms; that pleasure was the highest humnu pursuit:




218          THE FOOToTEPS OF ST PAUL.
also, thai the soul was matter, and did not survive the
dissolution of the body, This sect were truly " without
God and without hope." The Stoics had a better creed:
they believed in a Supreme Being, the creator and sustainer of all things, and in the immortality of the soul;
but they had dim and imperfect notions about the
character of a future state.  They rejected the idea
of coming punishment, and opposed those fundamental
doctrines of Christianity which demanded true repentance, and set forth the nature and method of forgiveness of sin and justification by faith.*
It is evident that Paul was not long in gathering
around him an attentive knot of hearers.  They were
struck with the acuteness of the Jewish stranger. He
was mean in his bodily appearance, his face wan, and
his garb ragged; his speech lacked the rich, mellow,
musical tone they were wont to hear. But he was no
weakling in other things.  Jew as he was, he was a
scholar.  He could speak their pure Attic tongue-he
could quote their poets.  If his eyesight was at times
dim, he had an inner taste for the sublime and beautiful; for he conversed with them, as he did with the Lys.
trians years before, of " Him who had made the heavens
and the earth, and the sea; who had never left Himself without a witness, in that He was continually doing
them good, giving them rain from heaven, and fruitful
seasons, filling their hearts with food and with gladness." Though his doctrines were strange, he defended
them well. He was an acute reasoner. Indeed, they
had got so interested in his conversation, that they proposed he should go with them, for quiet and retirement,
if not for space, to the top of the Areo'agus, or Mars'
* See N lander, p. 188.




PAUL AT ATHENS.              219
Hill. This was another famous spot in the Athenian
capital. It was the place of sacred judgment; and as it
was especially intended as a place of arbitration on religious matters, it was all the more suitable for hearing
the new doctrines of this Christian missionary. We
may imagine to ourselves the spot where Paul now
stood and preached. It was where Pericles and many
other great men had raised their voices before him.
The stone seats of the judges hewn out in the rock
were in front, probably occupied now with Dionysius and
other Areopagites, who were the noblest of Athenian
citizens. In the same rock was the reputed sanctuary
of the Furies, which gave additional awe and solemnity
to the place; while the temple of Mars rose immediately
in view, crowning the rock to which it gave its name.
It was a most impressive moment in the history of
the Christian faith. The religion of the despised Jesus
of Nazareth, preached at first by a few humble fishermen of Galilee, now finding its way to the very fountain-head of the world's boasted wisdom.  Paul is
placed on the tribunal, and the question is courteously
put to him by this courteous people, " May we know
what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is?-for
thou bringest strange things to our ears.  We would
know, therefore, what these things mean." Christianity
had now a bold and fearless advocate. We may imagine
him standing up, his face and countenance worn and
sad with the traces of recent suffering and bonds, and
sadder still with the spectacle of godless splendour all
around, He does not at first openly attack their heathen divinities; had he done so, they would at once
have refused tc listen. He tells that it is his desire to
direct them to the Got whom all their religious edi.




220           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
fices showed they were " in ignorance " trying to " worship." He applauds the strength of the religious feeling among them-that they were " exceedingly devout"
(the word which is not so correctly rendered in our
translation by " too superstitious").  He makes some
of the temples and their inscriptions, which he had seen
passing along the street, the text of the following stirring address:"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; that
they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel
after him, and find him, though he be not far from
every one of us: 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.* Forasmuch then
* Paul's quotation occurs in no less than two Greek poets. They are both,
of course, celebrating the praise of Jupiter (or Jove), the king of their golds
I subjoin a translation of both, given by Mr Lewin, vol. i. p. 284:
"He animates the mart and crowded way,
The restless ocean and the sheltcr'd bay.
Doth care perplex? is lowering danger nigh?
lye are his offspring, and to Jove we fly."-Arata.
" Hail! unto thee nay mortals lift their voice,
For we thine offsprs-g are. All things that creep
Ara but the echo * the-Voice divine."-Hyvsn af Cleantw




PAUL AT ATHENS.             221
as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think
that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone,
graven by art and man's device. And the times of
this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth
all men everywhere to repent: because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in
righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained;
whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that
he hath raised him from the dead."*
This is doubtless only an outline of Paul's oration;
but what a scene! what an auditory! His pulpit, the
tribunal where Socrates had once spoken, at the age
of seventy, on the same charge of introducing strange
gods-his canopy, the intense blue of an Attic sky-the
craggy mountains all around-the blue waters he had
lately crossed-the crowded monuments of art before
and on every side! He looks above them all, and proclaims that his "God, who made the world, and all
things therein," owns, as the most hallowed of temples, the hearts of those who devoutly "seek" Him;
and that the noblest forms their marble and gold and
silver can assume, are poor mockeries of the majesty
of His glory.
It has been thought by somet-and the opinion
seems not unsupported-that the " unknown God" of
which he speaks, may have referred to none other than
Jehovah, the living and true God of the Jews. Moreover, that the fact of no statue being erected on that
altar, is sufficiently accounted for by the expressions
which Greek writers themselves use when speaking cl
* Acts xvii. 22-31.
t See Cave, p. 79, wioh references to Justin Martyr, Plutarch, Tacitus
&c.




222          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
the God of Israel (referring to his spirituality of
nature),-e. g., "not to be expressed;" " Him that may
not be named by you;" the "All-hidden."    If this
were the case, what an appropriate and significant text
was Paul thus furnished with! He found the empty
altar-he p1aces upon it the revelation of a hidden
God; and, better still, the all-glorious Sacrifice. Jesus
he first sets forth as the Saviour, and then as' the
Judge! The existence of such an altar, however, may
be traced to an altogether different cause. It may be
referred to the custom which, in the Athenian capital,
was not unfrequent, of erecting shrines to "unknown
deities."  "At Athens," says Pausanias, "there are
altars of gods which are called'the UNKNOWN ones."'
We have from one of their own writers a singular
account of how one of these was reared 600 years B.C.
Laertius informs us regarding Epimenides, that, " taking white and black sheep, he led them to the.Areopagus, and there allowed them to go where they would,
commanding those who followed them to sacrifice to
the god to whom these things pertained (without giving the name), and thus to allay the pestilence from
which it has arisen."  He adds, that "at this day,
through the villages of the Athenians, altars are found
without any name." *
But to return to St Paul. Regarding his whole ad.
dress, it has been well said by a writer from whom, in
this chapter, we have already largely drawn-" Simple
throughout as is the language of the preacher, yet, in
the compass of these few words, he tells them the
noblest truths.  That there was one God; that He
* Diog. Laer. b. i. ~ 10, quoted by Barnes On the Acts.




PAUL AT ATHENS.             223
dwelt not in temples; that the world was not only made
but sustained by Him; that all mankind were of one
blood; that they had fallen away from righteousness;
that God had sent His Son Jesus to redeem them; that
He had raised Hin from the dead as an earnest of future
life; that all men must be judged at the last day."*
Beautiful and comprehensive, however, as the address of the apostle was, one cannot help being struck
with its great simplicity. Although in the presence of
the world's sages, he just preaches to them as we heard
him preaching to the rude Lystrians or the fierce
ailer!  There is no display, no eloquence, no deep
and profound reasoning. ILT writing afterwards to his
Grecian converts, he explains the reason of thi" unadorned simplicity. "And I, brethren, when I came
to you, came not with excellency of speech, or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God: for I
determined not to know anything among you, save
Jesus Christ, and him crucified.... And my speech
and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of
power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom
of men, but in the power of God."+  The great Raphael, I doubt not, has both truthfully and strikingly
treated this eventful scene, in his famous cartoon of
"Paul preaching at Athens."  When you next see this
well-known picture, if you begin with the figures at the
extreme left, and go gradually round to those on the
extreme right, you will observe he represents, step by
step, from hardened unbelief to full and perfect faith.
The figures on the left are frowning with indignation
* Lewin, vol. i. p. 285.
t 1 Cor. ii. 1-5.-See Blunt's Lectures.




224           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
on the new preacher; those next in order are beginning
to reason with one another; the next are arrested, the
next convinced, till it ends with the hands stretched
out in " believing joy."
The Apostle was stopped in the midst of his discourse. Some (evidently the Epicureans) laughed and
ridiculed, saying, "What can this babbler mean?"
Others (the Stoics) said "they would hear him at some
other time." They affirmed him to be a " setter forth
of strange gods." The Greeks had gods and goddesses
personating every passion and affection of the soul, such
as Pleasure, Hope, Shame, Fear, Peace, Fame, &c. And
when Paul spoke of "Jesus and the Resurrection" (Anastasis), they imagined these two words indicated some
novel and strange deities they never heard of before.*
Lovers as they were of -" mythology," the punishment
of death was decreed in their laws against any person
who, without authority of the state, would presume to
introduce a new divinity. The court of the Areopagus,
before which Paul had just been standing, was that
which was empowered to pronounce what were lawful
objects of worship, and to punish those who ventured
to be "setters forth of strange gods."  By it Socrates
had the cup of hemlock put into his hands, which he
drank without a murmur.t    They seem, in the present
instance, not to have exercised any of the severities of
the law against the Apostle. The court adjourned, the
*Chrysostom, Pausanias, i. 17.
t If Socrates, "the apostle of natural reason," had bben one of Paul's
present hearers, who knows but his noble soul would have opened, like
the sunflower, to the light of life I Had they been spoken of the true God,
his own words at his trial were worthy of the Apostle Paul himself, " Ye
men of Athens! I am obliged to you and thank you, but I must obey God
rather than you."




PAUL AT ATHENS.             225
crowd dispersed, and, so far as we know, Paul never
again preached in this city. We read only of two converts which he made —" Dionysius the Areopagite, and
a woman named Damaris." But who can tell what
precious seed may have been sown that day among
those who hung on the lips of the apostle of Jesus?
Who can tell what thoughts they may have carried
away with them to their homes, as they remembered
the closing sentences of the solemn appeal, that " God
had appointed a day in which he would judge the world
in righteousness by that Man whom he had ordained"?
The expression used regarding his few Athenian converts is worthy of note: "Howbeit, certain men clave
unto him." It must have cost them a strong effort to
be wrenched away from an idolatry to which they were
so attached; but, having made the bold resolution to
forsake all and follow Jesus, their faith was strong, and
they were enabled "to cleave to the Lord with full
purpose of heart." It is of the nature of faith to grow
out of difficulties. We have reason to conclude that
the saints in Nero's palace, of whom we shall afterwards hear, were the most devoted converts in Rome;
they-had much, in their exalted station, to endure for
the sake of Jesus; and, unless their faith had been
strong and vigorous, they would not so readily have
suffered the loss of "all" for it. So also with the
converts at Athens. We may well believe that an
Areopagite, a member of that proud court of philosophers, would not, on slight grounds, have taken the
publican's place at the cross of a crucified Redeemer.
Regarding Dionysius, we have no further information.
If we can credit the traditions of historians respecting
him, he had been a witness, when in Heliopolis in
P




226          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
Egypt, of the supernatural darkness which attended the
Saviour's crucifixion, and, on beholding it, exclaimed,
" Either the God of nature suffers, or the frame of the
world will be dissolved." If aught of this tradition be
true, his mind had received a previous training for the
happy result which made an Athenian philosopher
become a lowly disciple of Jesus. He was said afterwards to have been appointed over the Church at
Athens, and to have crowned his labours with an
heroic martyrdom, being burnt alive in the same city,
in the year 93.*
When, however, we witness the effect of the Apostle's
labours and eloquence in a city of wise men, we see
how true is the Bible saying, that " the world by wisdom knew not God," and that "not many mighty,
not many noble, not many wise after the flesh, are
called." Paul's abode at Athens was only for a short
season. Originally he does not seem to have had any
intention to be there at all. He landed at Philippi,
with the purpose of carrying the Gospel to the cities
and villages of Macedonia; but, having been obliged
to flee by night from Berea, he had taken refuge at
Athens till he was rejoined there by Silas and Timothy.
At last Timothy arrives. It is, however, with no
cheering tidings.  The rage of the Jews at Thessalonica is still unabated, and Paul's fervent desire to
return could not be attempted without endangering his
life. What was to be done? The good Apostle could
not bear the thought of his dear Thessalonian converts
being left "as sheep without a shepherd;" and therefore, young though Timothy was, and ill as he could
spare his company, Paul resolved to remain " at Athens
* See Blunt's Lectures, p. 260, Cave, Calmet.




PAUL AT ATHENS.             227
thus alone,' sending him back to comfort them, and
bring him tidings of their welfare. Listen to his own
words in the letter he sends to them:-" We would
have come unto you (even I Paul) once and again..
Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear, we
thought it good to be left at Athens alone, and sent
Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our
fellow-labourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you,
and to comfort you conecrning your faith."*
After remaining some time in Achaia, preaching the
Gospel, the Apostles passed over to the adjoining city of
Corinth,
I Ther ii It; ti1,




CHAPTER XIII.
amut   at    riuntt.
" They have mocked
At Heaven's high messenger, and he departs
From the mad circle. Athens! is it so I
Thou who didst smile to find the admiring world
Crouch as a pupil to thee, wert thou blind?
Blinder than he, who, in his humble cot,
With harden'd hand, his daily labour done,
Turneth the page of Jesus and doth read?
Yet shall that poor wayfaring man lie down
With such a hope as thou couldst never teach
Thy king-like sages! "
"His letters (say they) are weighty and powerful."-2 CnR. 10.
"St Hierom cries him up as a great master of composition; that as
oft as he heard him, he seemed to hear, not words, but thunder."AVLE, 1678.




'i?,'   a bridge, connected the northern and
southern divisions of this ancient kingdom, was situated the city of Corinth, well called, by an old writer,
"the city of the two seas."  Again and again had
Corinth been strongly fortified by high walls to resist
invaders from either side. Nature, too, supplied her
with noble fortifications. There is one lofty rock especially, on the south, called Acro-corinthus, with the
temple of Venus on its summit, which still towers to
a height of two thousand feet above the level of the
sea, overlooking the city. From {ts ridge a magnificent view is obtained on every  i.  At a distance of
forty-five miles thb Athenian Acropolis might be distinctly seen,* and appeari:ng in that clear atmosphere
* Couybeare a(d Howvs r




230          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
nuot to be nearly so far off as it really was. There was
a spacious harbour on either side of the isthmus, in
which ships of commerce from every shore might be
seen. riding at anchor, Cenchrea in the east, anr Lechoeum in the west. LechEeum was nearest the city,
and was very much to Corinth what the Pireeus was to
Athens, a range of long walls connecting them together.
Corinth itself was more especially noted for its metals,
dyes, and porcelain;* while the far-famed Isthmian
Games attracted thousands upon thousands every year
from all parts of Greece, and gave a celebrity to the
spot, independent of every other claim.
The ancient city had been entirely destroyed before
Paul's time. The citadel on Acro-corinthus had been
burnt to ashes, and the numerous statues that studded
the rock being melted on that occasion by the heat,
formed in their fused state the well-known and highlyprized " Corinthian brass." The town lay thus in ruins
for one hundred years; but Julius Cmesar, seeing its maritime importance, built it afresh, and peopled it with a
Roman colony of freedmen, among whom doubtless
were many Jews.t  When Paul, therefore, now visited
it, it had been restored to its former splendour; not
only were its buildings gorgeous, and its wealth great,
but its population was vast and varied, consisting of
Jews, Greeks, and Romans.
We cannot imagine a greater contrast than existed,
at the period of which we write, between the cities of
Athens and Corinth.   The one was the renowned
centre of learning, venerable with age, art, and worldly
wisdom; the other was a magnificent mercantile capital, far exceeding the former in wealth and population,
* Conybeare and Howson.       t Strabo, viii. 6.




PAUL AT CORINTH.            231
but without any pretensions to learning or philosophy.
In its splendid harbours would be seen riding the ships
of all nations, and particularly Roman vessels,- the
town being included in the empire of the Caesars.
We may picture the Great Apostle approaching this
city after his residence at Athens. As he travels along
the isthmus, he must have witnessed, in passing, the
celebrated Stadium and Theatre where those famous
games were celebrated, to which he has such frequent
reference in the course of his writings. If his mind
had not been so familiarised with the splendid sculpture of Athens, he could not fail to be struck with the
long line of busts and statues erected along the road in
honour of the victors in these world-renowned meetings,
-the temple of Neptune, with its sacred grove, overlooking them all.* Avenues, or clumps of pine, shaded
or beautified the highway,-those very trees which
yielded the "corruptible" wreaths which, in an after
letter to Corinth, he so touchingly contrasts with the
better " crowns of glory," in the Christian race, which
" never fade away."+  Close to the gate was a monument to the memory of Diogenes the cynic. The
traveller entered the city, and the market-place opened
to his view. In the centre was a bronze Minerva, and
around were temples and statues, and a fountain gushing from " the mouth of a dolphin supporting the
figure of Neptune."'  Corinth, at that time, was one
of the most expensive places to reside at in the east of
Europe,-so much so, that it was a common proverb,
"Not every man can go to Corinth."  Alas! alas! if
Paul's spirit was stirred within him in Athens, because
it was wholly given to idolatry, much more must
* See the picture.  t 1 Cor. ix. 25.  t Lewin, vol. i. p. 292




232          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
he have mourned and grieved over a city wholly given
to vice in its most debasing form. If we have likened
Thlessalonica to our modern Liverpool, the comparison
made by a u riter, of Corinth to modern Paris (in its worst
aspect) is perhaps an equally truthful one. It was the
world's fashionable capital-full of show and glitterbut all this gilding covering corruption in its worst
form.
What perhaps at first attracted the Apostle the more
to it, was the number of Jews who, on account of a
severe edict of Claudius Caesar, had been recently
expelled from Rome, and had there taken up their
abode. The Hebrew population in Rome had for long
-as, we know, is still the case there-occupied a "Jewish Quarter," where they were allowed to have their
own "oratories," similar to what we found in the neighbourhood of Philippi.  The cause of their present expulsion we give in the remarkable words of the historian Suetonius:-"The Jews, who were constantly
exciting -tumults (Chrestus being the mover), he
banished from Rome."  The word "Chrestus" is more
than probably intended for Christus, or Christ.  The
Roman historian, who was not intimately acquainted
with the Jewish religion, might easily fall into the
mistake of speaking of a tumult occasioned under
Christ, when it was only about Christ.* There were
other causes, however, which operated in rousing the
jealousy of the emperor.  Judea itself had been in a
state of revolt from the Roman power at this very
time. Tacitus informs us, among other acts of violence, of a royal servant, named Stephen, being astaulted by a gang of Jewish thieves, the baggage
* Lactantius.




PAUL AT CORINTH             233
plundered, and the Roman soldiers killed who were
appointed to guard it.*  When so great an enmity
existed betwen the nations, the authorities deemed it
unsafe to permit so many of the Hebrew people to
remain with the walls of the capital;-hence the edict
for their expulsion, which had brought so many of
them at present to Corinth.  Among these banished
Jews were two natives of Pontus, Aquila and Priscilla. As we learn afterwards that they returned to
the city of the Tiber, we may gather that the latter formed their regular place of residence.  They
were by trade tent-makers, and probably had made
money by their profession. In consequence of their
expulsion, like others, they had been making their
way to their native place, Pontus, in Asia, by way of
the Corinthian isthmus, when all at once, for reasons
we are not told, they paused at the Grecian capital,
and hired a house and workshop. Perhaps the riches
and extent of Corinth gave promise of a flourishing
trade.
It is more than likely that it was their trade also
which induced Paul to take up his abode with them,
that he might the more easily obtain his own livelihood. As there were Jews from Pontus who heard
Peter preach his first sermon,t it is very possible
Aquila and Priscilla may have first heard of the Messiah from the lips of that apostle.  Be this as it may,
it does not seem that they were converted to the truth
when Paul first went to reside with them; but it was
while carrying on their joint labours at their tentlooms, that they were led cordially to embrace the salvation of the Gospel. It does indeed give us a beautiWhitby's Annotation.          t Acts ii. 9.




234          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
ful specimen of Gospel humility, as well as a pattern
for duty in every sphere of life, to see this great man,
who had so lately been keeping company with Athenian
philosophers, now plying his needle on the rough haircloth along with two refugee Jews; and, at the same
time, during these hours of hard and laborious toil,
unfolding the riches of the great salvation! If, as
some suppose, Aquila and Priscilla had a workshop at
Corinth, with A number of workmen employed, we may
well believe tiat Paul would form among them his
"church in the house,"-preaching, as he advised another, " in season and out of season,"-" becoming all
things to all men, if by any means he might gain
some." At all events, with Aquila and Priscilla he
now commenced a sacred friendship, which lasted till
the Apostle's death. This is not the last time we shall
find their names and Christian deeds mentioned together 
There was another new kind of ministerial labour
St Paul undertook in the midst of his handicraft.
His mind ofter wandered back in fond solicitude to
his beloved Thessalonian converts.  He is prevented
seeing them or visiting them; but he resolves to
write them a Letter; and this brings us to a most interesting period of the Apostle's history,-the composing
of the first of those inspired Epistles, which have so
cheered and comforted the Church in every age.
" You yourself," says an able living writer, who inherits much of the great Apostle's spirit, "have never
had any connexiof with St Paul but by his writings,
and yet you seem to know him personally.  So much
of life and heat palpitate in his words, that it only
seems necessary to touch the hand in order to feel the




PAUL AT CORINTH.             235
pulsations of that heart which has ceased to beat for
eighteen hundred years." *  What a blessed consolation every Christian feels it, at a time of bereavement
or sorrow, to receive a letter of sympathy and solace
from a loved friend! How interesting for us to read
the first of such letters ever written!  It is from the great
Apostle of the Gentiles to the Church at Thessalonica.
It would do well for my young readers to take up their
Bibles and peruse this Epistle for themselves. I shall
merely tell you the circumstances in which it was
composed:-Timothy and Silas, you will remember,
had been left in Macedonia; Paul-alone in Athenshad been wearying much for their return; and his
anxiety for their coming was increased, as lie dreaded
lest his converts in Thessalonica might be beginning to
fall away, and be forgetful of their " first'love."  He
tells us he was now among the Corinthians " in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling." He may
have felt the almost hopeless wickedness of this dissolute city, and despaired of making any progress in his
great work.  At last Timothy and his companion did
return The Apostle was indeed glad to see them. In
addition to his other trials, he must have been suffering much from the famine at that time prevalent in
Greece; and we know he refused to his dying day to
receive any pecuniary assistance from the Corinthian
Church, lest they might accuse him of unworthy
motives. These two faithful brethren brought him
relief from Macedonian Christians. We find him thus
referring afterwards to his circumstances, in a letter to
the Corinthians:-" And when I was present with
you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: fol
* A. Mouod's Discourses, p. 31.




236         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST iAUL.
that which was lacking to me the brethren which canae
from Macedonia supplied; and in all things I have
kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so
will I keep myself."* Timothy and Silas also brought
the Apostle cheering tidings about the spiritual condition of those he had so recently left. Paul, with a
joyful heart, employed what time could be spared from
his other labours in writing " ThIe First Epistle to the
Thessalonians."  In it he expresses his joy and affectionate regard for them; and sends some salutary warnings, urging them still to remain faithful in the midst
of all the persecutions which, for the sake of Christ,
they were called to endure.
He had commenced his labours in Corinth by preaching to the Jews; but here, far more than in any other
place, was their envy and hatred manifested against
him, and against that holy Name he loved to proclaim.
So much so, that at last, with a heavy heart, he was
obliged to leave their synagogue altogether, shaking
off the dust from his garment-the expressive testimony used in these times against the hardened and
reprobate. "And when they opposed themselves, and
blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them,
Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from
henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles." +
He and his two friends, who had now jo'ned him,
and were strengthening his hands, set themselves to
procure another place of meeting where they might
address the Gentiles, and such Jews as still chose to
attend their ministrations.  There was a house or
room, next door to the synagogue, which belonged to
a proselyte called Justus. This became hereafter the
* 2 Cor. xi. 9.               t Acts xviii. &




PAUL AT CORINTH.             237
place of the Apostle's preaching. He seemed still to
continue his residence with Aquila and Priscilla; but
their house had probably no space to contain the increasing worshippers. Among those who became converts, under his instructions, were Stephanas and his
family, who is called by him " the first-fruits of Achaia
unto Christ."  A more important and influential convert still, was Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue,
whose high character and office must have added great
weight and influence to his adoption of the religion of
Jesus. These, and other things, caused the rage of the
Corinthian Jews to increase. It bowed down Paul's
spirit with grief, to see that his worst foes were those
of his own brethren and household. It was at this
trying time he wrote his " Second Epistle to the Tlessalonians," in which he refers to (what he seldom cares
dwelling upon) his own vexations and sorrows on their
account, and requests an interest in the prayers of this
distant church.
There was ONE, at least, who was at this moment no
unconcerned witness of His servant's struggles and conflicts: God himself had seen how sorely and heavily
his spirit had been weighed down. He appeared to
him in the middle of the night in a vision, and spake
"comforting words"-telling him not to be afraid, nor
to hold his peace, for that He would uphold and
strengthen him in the midst of every difficulty; and
all the more so, "as He had much people in that
city." *
It may be well here to peruse the Second Epistle to
the Thessalonians. The messenger he had sent with
the First Epistle, had just returned with the singular
* Acts xviii. 10.




238          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAU-.2
tidings that the Thessalonians had taken up the strong
impression that the end of the world was at hand.
You will find that one of the main objects of this
second letter was to correct these erroneous views
which many of the converts had been entertaining
about the second coming of Christ; some of whom
were even giving up their daily trades, under the impression that the Lord was about to appear.  The
Apostle assures them how false this expectation was;
for that great advent could not take place until sundry
events had occurred, of which he had often before
spoken.
We need only further add, with reference to the
Apostle, that he seems to have continued his residence
in Corinth for the space of eighteen months; during
that time visiting various places in Achaia, and particularly Cenchrea, the busy seaport on the opposite
shore of the isthmus. It was an important and interesting period in his history, and an important spot in
the civilised world. It was either from Corinth, or to
Corinth, that his choicest epistles were written. The
numbers of his converts there seem to have been very
considerable. He speaks, in his Epistle to the Romans,
of the churches in Corinth; and there would appear to
have been a special church in Cenchrea, for Phoebe is
described as deaconess of it.*
-Itwas near the end of this year and a-half to which
we have referred, that Gallio was made governor (or
proconsul) of the province, by Claudius Caesar. He
was the adopted son of Junius Gallio. Who had been
in the office before him, we are not told; but whoever
he was, he must have been lenient towards the Chriw
* omn. xvi. 1.




PAUL AT CORINTH.            239
tians, else Paul could not have continued undisturbed
in his teaching and preaching for so long a period as
eighteen months. I need not say that the comfort and
well-being of the. inhabitants of a Roman province
greatly depended on their governor. The Corinthians
and Achaians had obtained in Gallio one who was remarkably distinguished for his kindness, integrity, and
honour. Roman writers tell us, just what we should
have expected from what we know of him in sacred
story, that he was a man of gentle and amiable disposition, besides being of superior abilities. Seneca, his
own brother, who had the responsible office of tutor to
the young Emperor Nero, speaks of him as " without
a fault, whom every one loved too little, even he who
loved him to the utmost.  In him there was such a
natural power of goodness, that there was no semblance
of art or dissimulation." * The Jews, whose envy we
have already found was stirred up against Paul, were
anxious to test what the feelings of the new proconsul
were to themselves and their religion; or knowing perhaps his easy and obliging temper, they thought they
might presume upon it for the overthrow of an adversary
they hated. They resolved, therefore, to accuse the Apostle at Gallio's judgment-seat. They were enabled with
greater plausibility to do so, as their religion was protected to them by Roman statute, and they could charge
him with doing violence to the laws of the state. " This
fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the
law." + It was wisely ordered that so kind and benignant a ruler had been sent to Corinth. Had Gallio been
stern and rigorous-had he been fired, as many others
were, with hatred to the Christian cause, the Apostle
* Lewin and Barnes.           t Acts xviii. 15




240          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST IAUL.
might have been expelled, or imprisoned, and the
flourishing little church left to droop in sadness. But
Gallio's verdict contributed greatly to the strengthen.
ing of the Gospel cause; for after Sosthenes (probably
the successor of Crispus in the Jewish synagogue) had
led the accusation, the governor, without even allowing
Paul to speak a word of defence, dismisses the case.
He tells the Jews that he was not sent there to act as
judge in their petty quarrels, and to be the settler of
religious disputes.  Had it been a question affecting
the peace of the province, his conduct would have been
different; but he would certainly not meddle with matters of mere party violence and feeling.  " And when
Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said
unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked
lewdness, 0 ye Jews, reason would that I should bear
with you: but if it be a question of words and names,
and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of
such matters."*   The Greeks were standing around
the tribunal, anxiously waiting the decision; they
heard it with gladness and satisfaction; they even laid
hands on Sosthenes and beat him.      It is evident,
moreover, that Gallio's feelings were by no means of a
friendly kind towards these accusing Jews; for we are
told that he "took no notice of any of these things."t
Paul, therefore, on account of this important decision,
was allowed to remain in safety in the Isthmian city.
The assurance he received in the night vision waa
* Acts xviii. 14, 15.
t This seems to be the true meaning of what is rendered in our version,
"And asllio cared for none of these things." "This has been usually
charged on Gallio as a matter of reproach, as if he were wholly indifferent
to religion. But the charge is unjustly made."-Barnes On Acts; note iw
plshalsen, &c.




PAUL AT CORINTH.            2'1
already fulfilled, that no man would be allowed to hurt
him, and that he might fearlessly proclaim the cause of
his Divine Master. A judgment-day only will reveal the
fruit of ttese many months' devoted labour. We know,
however, that he had in that city many souls for his
hire. Wicked Corinth, with all its dreadful sins, became. a striking comment on Paul's own words elsewhere, "Where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound."
It may just be worthy of notice here, that Sosthenes,
who appears at this trial a leader of the Jews, and the
bitter opponent of St Paul, himself became a convert
to the faith of Jesus.  He has his name joined with
that of the Great Apostle in the 1st verse of the First
Epistle to the Corinthians. Nay, as Paul was himself
unable to write his own letters, and always employed
a scribe, it is more than likely Sosthenes penned that
Christian epistle from Ephesus to his old fellow-citizens
of Corinth!
At the end, however, of " a year and six months,"
our Apostle was desirous of paying a visit to Jerusalem, and there keeping one of the great annual
feasts, most probably the Feast of Pentecost.  He
avails himself of the opportunity of his two friends,
Aquila and Priscilla, going to Ephesus. They embark
together in the same vessel, taking, doubtless, many
affectionate farewells, with the solemn feeling that they
might never again meet in the flesh.  Their road first
conducted them to the Eastern port of Cenchrea,
where an occurrence took place we must not pass by
with )ut notice. It was customary for the Jews, whenever they had experienced any great mercy or deliver
Q




242          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
ance at the hand of God,* to take the "vow of the
Nazarite," which you will find particularly described in
the 6th Chapter of the Book of Numbers. It consisted
in abstaining for thirty days from the use of wine, the
hair and beard being left to grow, and at the end of
this period the head was shaven.   There were also
several appointed sacrifices; but as they could only be
offered m Jerusalem, it was customary for those who
made the vow at a distance, to defer presenting them
till their next visit to the Holy City.  Paul, though
he looked in no degree to the law of Moses for salvation, still loved to retain any Jewish custom which
the higher claims of Christianity would admit of. It
has been supposed, indeed, that one great object he
had at present in making this vow was, to convince
the Jews that he was no enemy to their law, but that
he still looked with the veneration of a child of Israel
to the rites of the old dispensation; and feeling at this
time the great goodness of God in his merciful preservation from the hands of his accusers, he had made,
thirty days before arriving at Cenchrea, the vow which
I have referred to.  The period of keeping it had just
expired, and his head was shorn before taking ship
from the port of Corinth.  It may be worth while
further noticing, that Eastern travellers find similar
customs, regarding vows, prevalent to this day.  "An
usage, similar to the vow of the Nazariteship, exists
in Persia now. It frequently happens, after the birth
of a son, that if the parent be in distress, or the child
be sick, or any other cause of grief, the mother makes
a vow that no razor shall come upon the child's head
* Josephus, book i, 2. 15.




PAUL AT CORINTH.             243
fJr a certain portion of time, and sometimes for his
whole life, as Samuel was (1 Sam. i. 11). If the child
recovers, and the cause of grief be removed, then the
mother shaves his head at the end of the time prescribed-makes a small entertainment-collects money
and other things from her relations and friends, which
are sent as netzers or offerings to the mosque at Kerbelah, and are there consecrated." *
We may imagine St Paul, with his two Corinthian friends, also Silas, Timothy, and a third apostle,
Titus, here named for the first time, bidding adieu to
the coast of Achaia-obtaining now and then, as they
sail along, a glimpse of the Athenian Acropolis and the
glittering statue of Minerva.  Probably, instead of
continuing a direct easterly course, he would have preferred sailing northwards again, between the island
of Euboea and the mainland, and coming ashore at the
base of Olympus, to have visited his beloved church at
Thessalonica.  He tells us, indeed, how much he
wished to do so; but something in God's good providence " hindered him" for the present, and many
years were to elapse till they were to meet again face
to face. Soon the voyagers are threading their way
among the islands of the Archipelago,-the lovely
"isles of Greece,"- and reach in safety the city of
Ephesus, the great capital of Asia, as Corinth was of
Achaia. Here the Apostle paused only for a day or
two at this time; the ship in which they were sailing
being destined for the coast of Syria.  He had an
opportunity, however, to hold a discussion with the
Jews of Ephesus, in their synagogue, on Sabbath.  It
* Morier's,ecnd Jourwey, quoted by Horne in his lntroductiow, voL i
p. 329




244          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
was mure encouraging than any recent meetings with
his brethren; they even urged him to prolong his stay,
which, however, he declined, as either the vessel which
had brought him thither or another was about to sail,
and he had a divine call to attend the approaching festival at Jerusalem —" I must by all means keep this
feast;" * but he gave the promise of a speedy return,
if God's will so ordered it.  Again embarking, and
leaving Aquila and Priscilla at Ephesus, we may follow him and his three companions in thought past the
Island of Rhodes and Cyprus, till they land at the
military port of Cesarea, with which we are already
familiar.
The sacred oracles are silent about Paul's visit at
this time to Jerusalem. It has been supposed his purpose. of being present at the feast was by delay frustrated, as he merely speaks of s" saluting the church,"
and then departing. He would doubtless repair to the
temple, offering there the accustomed sacrifices in fulfilment of his vow, and anew tell with a joyous heart
to his fellow-Christians and brethren all that the Lord
had done in distant heathen lands.  He bends his
steps once more (probably along the coast road) to
the Syrian Antioch, to which town the present was in
all probability his last and closing visit.  You, doubtless, have not forgotten that this was the church which
first sent him out on his missionary work. He must
have had towards it the feeling of a child to a parent.
He had gone forth from them but a few years before,
"bearing precious seed," and he had now come again
" with rejoicing," bringing the tidings of sheaves with
him, reaped in the great mission Harvest.
* Acts xviii. 21.




PAUL AT CORINTH.            245
Is he here now to rest? is the "good soldier" to
repose on the laurels he has won, and, uugirding his
missionary armour, to spend the remainder of his days
in inglorious ease ai the banks of the Orontes?  Having done so much himself, may he not now leave the
work to others? He has borne " the burden and heat
of the day,"-who could wonder if lie wished to spend
the evening of his life in quiet and peace, and send out
younger and hardier warriors to fight the battles of
the faith? This great standard-bearer in " the glorious
company of apostles" had no such thought; he only
comes to Antiooh to gird on his armour lor fresh conquests. " Not as though I had alreadly attained," was
the motto of his public as well as his private life. He
prepares to set out from this city on his'Third Mlissionary Journey.:
He begins his new pilgrimage by fulfilling the promise we have just found him making to the church at
Ephesus, going direct thither across the interior of
Asia Minor. With the exception of Titus, we cannot
exactly say who were his travelling companions. Silas
he seems to have left behind him at Jerusalem; perhaps Erastus, Gaius, and Aristarchus, accompanied
him.t  We have every reason to believe Timothy still
continued at his side. Travelling through Cilicia, the
Great Apostle might possibly once more visit his native
Tarsus, and have the fond memories of his boyhood
again revived.  Similar, too, must have been the feelings of Timothy as he passed with his " father in tho
faith" through the place of his birth and childhood.
Paul must have, on this journey, also " saluted" his Ga.
latian churches. You cannot have forgotten the kind* See now the i'e.milion line on the map. -  t Acs xix. 29.




246          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL,
ness he received, on his first visit, from this singular
people. I fear, however, by this time, judging from
what he says afterwards in his " letter" to them, that
they had been corrupted from the purity of the Gospel, and that "strifes, seditions, heresies," had taken the
place of unity and brotherly love. One of the objects the
Apostle had in this new missionary tour, was to gather
collections in behalf of the poor saints and brethren in
Judea, and his old friends in Galatia were not behind
in their liberality. After visiting the churches in
Phrygia, and getting from them similar contributions,
he and his companions probably pursued the great highway in the direction of Colosse. Though we have no
means of determining the precise route they adopted,
we have little doubt that they travelled now the
region he was " forbidden- of the Holy Ghost" to visit
before, and that he passed through some of those seven
cities which were afterwards made famous as the sites
of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation.  We
shall not, however, pause to describe theirjourney, but
at once take our readers to the town of Ephesus; or
rather we shall leave for a little the newly-arrived
missionaries there, until we speak of a new character
who presents himself to our notice nu connexion with
the same place,








CHAPTER XIV.
tanl     at  d5  mesus.
s In the proud land of palaces wert thou
Alone and matchless, as thine own fair queen
Shines'midst the gems of night's star-crowned brmO
Veiling their dim rays with superior sheen.
Thy countless columns gleam'd in rich arrayThe gifts of monarchs, and the work of menWhose noker names, when regal thrones decay,
Shall boart the meed of Fame's recording pen."
"_reat is Diana of the Ephesians I"-Aore ix. s.




'stranger rose up  o address them.
They were at once struck with his fervour, learning, and
eloquence.  He wa       s deeply r ead in their Old Testament
Scriptures, and ably argued from them. WVho can this
be? It is a name that occurs now for the first time in
our narrative.
Apollos was a native of Egypt. HeI had recently
come to Ephesus, and, along with twelve others, was "a
disciple of John the Baptist." "IIe knew only of the
baptism of John,"-that is to say, all the knowledge
he had of the true Messiah was derived from     the
preaching of the Baptist on the banks of the Jordan.
He and his associates were ignorant of the fact, that
Jesus Christ had really come into the world-had




250          THE FOCTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
died, and risen again. Their minds, however, were in a
state of "preparation;" they knew that "the kingdom
of heaven was at hand," and now they were ready to
receive, from the lips of the Great Apostle; the joyful
intelligence that the Messiah had indeed suffered, and
had "entered into His glory." *
Apollos, born and educated at Alexandria, had his
mind stored with the learning of its celebrated university. To this he added a powerful eloquence. " He
was mighty in the Scriptures;" he had studied and
pondered with great care the Old Testament prophecies relating to the Messiah, and, being convinced him.
self, he zealously tried to convince others that the Saviour Liust soon come. With holy ardour, he seems to
have travelled about from place to place, and, in the
spirit of Elias, preached "the baptism of repentance,"
-calling on all to forsake their sins, and to prepare
their minds for the coming of the Lord.
Already in the Ephesian synagogue an interest had
been excited about the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul had
very lately been addressing his Jewish brethren there.
Aquila and Priscilla had done so since his departure,
doubtless instructing their fellow-countrymen in those
great truths which they themselves had heard often
and again from the lips of the Great Apostle of Tarsus
as he sat with them or the same floor at their tentmaking. Upon the day to which I have referred, after
Ljtening to the eloquence and earnestness of this Alexandrian Jew, Aquila and Priscilla, at the end of the
service, made themselves known to him. They invitel
him to their house, where they " taught him the way
of the Lord more perfectly," showing him that "the
* See Olshausen On Acts, in loc.




PAUL AT EPRESUS.             251
mystery of godliness " had already been revealed-that
God had been " manifest in the flesh."
The disciple of John, now a devoted servant of
John's Great Master, went forth to proclaim in Achaia
"the unsearchable riches" of a dying, and now everliving Saviour. Receiving " letters of commendation"
from the Christians at Ephesus, he took ship and sailed
direct to Corinth; there, with his wonted eloquence,
he argued with those Jews who had rejected Paul,
showing that Jesus was indeed the Christ. They were
totally unable to resist the force of his appeals.  Paul
himself alludes to this in one of his letters to them" I have planted; Apollos watered." *  His coming to
Corinth produced one unfortunate result, which he,
doubtless, greatly regretted.  The Christians there,
forgetful that both he and Paul were only lowly instruments in God's hand, separated themselves into two
parties,-thereby causing those earnest and devoted
brethren in a common Lord, to appear as if they were
rivals, and opposed to one another.  Some were " of
Paul," and others " of Apollos." Our Apostle was also
greatly grieved at this spirit.  In words of holy rebuke, he writes to them, " Who, then, is Paul, and
who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed "
" Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or
were ye baptized in the name of Paul " t
We shall leave Apollos in his devoted work at
Corinth, and once more return to Ephesus. Its importance in the life of Paul, and in the early Christian
Church, entitles it to special notice. If you look at the
picture we have given of it, it may help to give an
idea of the city as it was when he now entered its
*  Cor. iii. 6.             1 Cor.ii. 5; i.




252          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
gates, and was about to gather in some more "first.
fruits" of the great Gospel harvest.  The city itself
was at this time the largest and most renowned in
Asia Minor.   It was built near where the rivers
Hermus and Mveander empty their waters into the
/Egean Sea; and, from its situation, became the residence of many classes from all parts of the East.  It
was called by Pliny one of the " Eyes of Asia,"
Smyrna being the other.   A Roman proconsul governed it in great splendour.  He was clothed in purple, attended by twelve lictors with their fasces; and,
like our judges in England and Scotland, made his circuit once a year to all the smaller towns in Asia, and
held a court of justice.*  The original city was built
on the side of the hill Coressus, the base of which is
nearest you to the left of the picture, sloping gradually
into the plain.  Mount Pactyas (from which the view
is supposed to be taken) bounded it on the east, Mount
Gallesius on the north, with a lake at its base; while
the waters of the ocean were on the west (represented
in the distance of the picture).  All these hills were
precipitous, enclosing, like so many ramparts, the plain
on which Ephesus stood, except at the north-east,
where the river Cayster, which you will observe on
the right, wound its way through the plain to the sea.
The prominent hill rising in front of Mount Coressus,
is Mount Prion, famous for its quarries. In the valley
between these two hills, may still be traced the remains
of one of the celebrated " gymnasia."  Mount Prion
itself is overrun at this day with tangled thickets, but
we may imagine what it must have been in the days of
Paul, when covered with mason-work from   its cow
* Lewin.




PAUL AT EPHESUS.              253
quarries. Looking down from its summit, what is now
a swamp, was then a spacious harbour, or inland basin,
called Panormus, or "All-haven," where the ships of
the European seas rode at anchor. It was at this harbour that Aquila, Priscilla, and Paul must have landed.
From the same height might be seen the Stadium, of
place where those engaged in the games contended,
with its tiers of stone seats cut out of the natural rock
(see the nearest part of the picture on the left). Also,
midway between the Stadium and Mount Prion, the
enormous Theatre, of which we shall by and by speak,
where the Ephesian mob were addressed by the townclerk.*
But the crowning glory of Ephesus was its wonderful temple to the goddess.Diana, which I shall leave
my young readers to find out for themselves. This
was considered one of the wonders of the Old World;
and well it might be called so. It was said that the
sun, in all his course through the heavens, looked down
on nothing so glorious.t  It was composed of all that
was magnificent in Asiatic art. The states round about
had shared the cost of its erection. It was built of
marble, found in the quarries of Mount Prion, and was
said to be so pure and bright as to dazzle the eyes of
mariners at a distance.
The story is worth giving as to how these marble
quarries were discovered. A shepherd, named Pixodorus, was feeding his flock on the hill; two of his
Q Chandler mentions, that among the pile of ruins which the Theatre
has now become, he discovered an arch, next to the Stadium, on which
was an inscription inviting the reader, if he did not join in the sports and
festive scenes, at all events to be pleased with the architect's device. What
a lesson would be read t0 him if he gazed on the triumph of his genius
now 
t Chandler, p. 139.




254         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST. PAUL.
rams began to fight with one another; the one of
these, in making a rush at his enemy, missed his mark
and struck his horn through the turf, goring some
white substance with it. The shepherd dug up a specimen of the rock, and ran into the city with his prize.
It was just what the Ephesians were in search ofmarble for the building of their temple! The lucky
shepherd was amply rewarded, and even got divine
honours paid him at his death.*
The temple stood at the eastern end of the noble
harbour of which we have just spoken. You may
imagine what a pile it was when you hear that it was
220 years in building, 425 feet in length, by 220 in
breadth. The shrine of the goddess was surrounded
by a colonnade open to the sky, of 127 columns of
Parian marble, each weighing 150 tons, 60 feet high,
and each the gift of a king.  It was decorated and
beautified inside with cedar, cypress, gold, jewels, and
precious stones; the roof was supported with columns
of green jasper. Eight of these still remain entire in
the great mosque of St. Sophia, in Constantinople, to
which they were removed, along with other remains
of its glory, in the reign of Justinian. Art must have
attained great perfection in Ephesus.  Apelles and
Parrhasius, the two great st painters that ever lived,
were natives of the cite.  One picture of Apelles,
which represented Alexander the Great grasping a
thunderbolt, was hung in the temple of Diana, purchased at a cost of twenty talents of gold,-a sum which
Chandler estimates at ~38,750. t  The magnificent
altar was from the chisel of Praxiteles; the staircase
was made. of a single vine from the island of Cyprus;
* See Chandler, p. 126.  t See Mr. Lewin, p. 858.




PAUL AT EPHESUS.              255
the noblest pictures were hung on the walls; and,
among many other statues, one of pure gold was
erected to Antemidorus." Besides these, much of the
wealth of Asia was deposited for safety within this
sacred shrine.
You may easily suppose how imposing the temple
must have appeared, approaching from the sea-looking down on the ships which crowded the wharves of
Panormus, and how justly proud every Ephesian must
have been of this world-renowned edifice! It stood
untouched for many ages. At last, like many other
splendid relics of antiquity, it fell into the hands of
the invading Goths, in A.D. 260, and was pillaged by
them. Modern travellers have visited its remains, and,
by means of torches, have threaded their way under
the dark vaulted chambers on which it was built.
Bats of large size struck against them, roused from the
darkness and desolation which reigns within.+   All
combine in the testimony, that Ephesus is at this day
a total wreck. "Its streets," says Dr Chandler, whose
visit was in 1764, "are obscured and overgrown.  A
herd of goats was driven to it for shelter from the sun
at noon, and a noisy flight of crows, from the quarries,
seemed to insult its silence. We heard the partridge
call in the area of the Theatre and the Stadium."
"Nothing is seen, in its dripping marble quarries, but
the marks of the tools of former days."+   Alas for
Ephesus! it did not listen to the warning voice-" Re* This full description of Ephesus is given by the historians Strabo and
Pliny. See also Pocoke's Travels, Anacharsis' Travels, and the interesting
narrative of Dr Chandler, who was sent out by the Dilettanti Society for
the express purpose of exploring the remains of antiquity in Asia Minor,
pp. 109-137.
t Ibid.
t IHwson.




256          TIIE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
member, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and
repent, and do the first works; or else I will come into
thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of his
place, except thou repent." That light, which burned
for a while so brightly, is now quenched in total darkness-a "chaos of noble ruins!"  "Even the sea has
retired from the scene of desolation, and a pestilential
morass, covered with mud and rushes, has succeeded
to the waters which brought up the ships laden with
merchandise from every country."*
On arriving, eighteen hundred years ago, at this
city, the Apostle met those twelve disciples of John we
have already alluded to. Not only were they, as I
have told ytou, altogether ignorant of Christ; they
were also ignorant of the Holy Spirit, the third person
in the blessed Trinity, and of His outpouring on the
day of Pentecost.   "Have ye received," he asked
them, "the Holy Ghost since ye believed?"   They
answered, "We have not so much as heard whether
there be any Holy Ghost." t Paul expounded to them
the glorious " truth as it is in Jesus."  They received
his testimony; were baptized; and by the laying-on of
his hands, they prophesied and spake with various
tongues. The Apostle, we have every reason to think,
took up his abode again with Aquila and Priscilla.
With them, too, he probably resumed his work at the
tents; at all events, we know, from one of his own
letters,+ that, during the three years he lived at
Ephesus, he earned his bread by the " labour of his
own hands."  And he could at an after period extend
these hands, rough with daily labour, before the elders
* Arundell's Visit to the Seven Churches.
t Acts xix. 2.               t 1 Cor. vi. 11, 12.




PAUL AT EPHESUS.            257
of Ephesus, and make the appeal, "Ye yourselves
know that these have ministered to my necessities." *
"For three months" he continued to speak boldly in
their synagogue, till at last the old Jewish enmity
manifested itself. His brethren falsely accused and
derided him in the presence of the people.  This led
him openly to leave their synagogue; and for two
years he preached in a separate place of meeting, in the
" school" (or lecture-room) " of Tyrannus,"-probably
a teacher or doctor, who had been by his means converted to Christianity.  We have no certain information as to Paul's success during this long period of residence; but in the same address to the elders of Ephesus at Miletus, we see the more than tender affection
borne for those he was now teaching, and among whom
he had gone about from house to house, instructing and warning them " night and day with tears."
We know that, before he left, a large and flourishing
church was formed at Ephesus, not only in the city,
but numbering many converts throughout the province.
"The Word of God mightily grew and prevailed." +
As was to be expected, however, he encountered still
the envy of the Jews. This seems to have been great,
if we may judge from the manner he refers to "the
many tears and temptations which befell him by the
lying in wait of the Jews."  His preservation was
itself a miracle. It was only the good and gracious
hand of his God which could have protected him. His
own short history of himself and his perils at this time,
when he writes from Ephesus to the Corinthians, is
this-" I die daily.":  Death every day seemed to
staxe him in the face.
* Acts xx. 34  t Acts xix. 20.  1 Cor. xv. 31.
B




258           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
There is a striking occurrence at this time mentioned
in the Acts of the Apostles, which we cannot pass over
in silence. I have already told you that the patron
goddess of the city of Ephesus was Diana.* Her image
was supposed t, have fallen from the sky.     An unshapely block it was; not like the beautiful forms we
have been accustomed to think of among the statues
of Athens, but a figure more like what is seen at this
day in the pagodas of India.t To prevent its tottering,
a bar of metal-some say of gold, others of iron-was
placed under each hand. A veil, hanging from the
roof of the temple, concealed it, unless on the great
occasion of the festival, when it was exposed to public view. " Mutianus, a noble Roman, affirmed that the
figure was made of vine, and had many holes, filled
with nard, to nourish and moisten it, and to preserve
the cement." a   This hideous goddess was, however,
gorgeously apparelled. She had a crown on her head,
and a girdle round her waist; on the crown, girdle,
and feet, there were engraven sundry curious letters,
on which the Ephesians looked with superstitious awe.
Copied and written out on rolls of parchment, these
" letters" used to be carried about on the persons of
many of the people, who foolishly considered that they
would prove a sort of charm, protecting them from all
kinds of evil.  Many large books or scrolls were to be
had, describing these same " Ephesian Letters," pre.
tending to explain their secrets, and, as such, sold for
*It was a matter of policy often to keep up in the minds of the people
the idea of such Protectors over their city. The Trojans imagined their
city's safety depended on the Palladium, an image of Pallas-Minerva, also
believed to have fallen from heaven. The same with the Ancilia, or Sacred
Shields; Ceres, it Sicily, &c.-See Barnes, in loc.
f See pictuir, Chap. xv.         t Chandler, p. 134.




PAUL AT EPHESUS.              259
enormous prices. There is a story told of an Ephesian
and  Milesian wrestling with one another at the
Olympic games.    The Ephesian got the better of
his opponent, but the cause was soon discovered, the
former having some of these magic letters bound
round his heel! As soon as the other found out the
reason, he insisted on their removal, and he was said
to be instantly victorious! So says a grave old writer.*
Indeed, there was no city in all the East where sorcery
and magic were practised to such an extent as at Ephesus;
and those, too, who believed in these, were not among
the lowest of the people, but men and women of birth
and reputation. God seems to have given his apostolic
servant at this time a special power to work miracles,
and that in the way best calculated to confound the
arts of the sorcerers. For multitudes, we are told,
brought "handkerchiefs and aprons" with which to
touch the Apostle's person, and then they applied these
to the bodies of their sick or diseased friends, and they
were immediately healed.
Paul, like Aaron and Moses of old before the magicians of Egypt, met the magicians and sorcerers of
Ephesus face to face. Among them were some Jewish
exorcists, or pretended sorcerers, who professed to have
the power of casting out devils by the use of certain
words or incantations, many -of which were believed to
have been composed and used by King Solomon.
Josephus, the historian, seems himself to have been
carried away with these delusions. He gives a curious
account of one Eleazar, a Jew, in the presence of the
Emperor Vespasian and the officers of his army, curing
a demoniac by holding a ring under his nose, in which
* Eustathius.




260         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
was placed a small portion of a plant prescribed by
Solomon. At the smell of the plant, he solemnly tells
us the demon took to flight, and overturned a full cup
of water as he left the room where the feat was performed!* These Ephesian exorcists, when they saw
that Paul, by the name of " Jesus," performed many
miracles, impiously tried, by the use of the same holy
name, to perform arts and wonders themselves. There
were seven sons of a Jew named Sceva particularly
mentioned, who attempted, by pronouncing the name
of the Lord Jesus, to expel some demons from one who
was possessed, saying, "We adjure you by Jesus, whom
Paul preacheth." +  The evil spirit in a loud voice rebuked their presumption. "Jesus I know, and Paul I
know; but who are ye?"  The man, goaded on to
frenzy by the power of the demon within him, sprang
upon the profane sorcerers, and made them in terror
fly out of the house, "naked and wounded."  Soon
the tidings of what had taken place spread through
the city; the dark heathen art fell immediately into
discredit. Many of the sorcerers and magicians, trembling and astonished, came to the Apostle, mourning
over their delusions. They sought repentance, and
began to honour the name they and their fellows had
so daringly blasphemed.
Their conduct is worthy of all mention and praise;
not only did they give up and abandon their magical
arts, but fearful lest they might be tempted at some
future time to return to them, they resolved to put out
of their reach anything likely to become a temptation,
or to remind ther? of their former method of obtaining
unlawful gain.  What did they do? They brought
* Jos. Ant. viii. 2, quoted by Lewin.  t Acts xix. 13.




PAUL AT EPHESUS             261
together all their magical books and burnt them! We
know how valuable and expensive such written scrolls
were in those days; perhaps in destroying them many
parted with the most costly and valuable part of their
property.  Indeed, the estimated value was about
~-1800 or ~2000 of our money-some even say
~7000! But they had learned " to count all things,
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus;" and now they showed how willing they were to
"suffer the loss of all things, that they might win
Him."   Never would these strange "burnings" be
forgotten in Ephesus.  The Word of God quickly
spread. The name of Jesus was magnified. Paul thus
" out of weakness was made strong, waxed valiant in
fight," and not only " turned to flight," but by God's
grace turned to repentance and faith, and true converMion, " the army of the aliens"




CHAPTER XV.
l Oft with the Spirit's force
His arm hath qnell'd the foe,
And laid resistless in his coura
The alien armies low.
Bent on such glorious toils,
The world to him was loss;
Yet all his trophies-all his spoils,
He hung upon the Cross."
" Behold us at Ephesus in the year 65!... Twenty years lar,
and an event, both insignificant and mighty, takes place in this city.
A Christian Church has been born, separated from the boaom of
Paganism like an isle in the midst of the sea."-Mosiwu.




Epistles, tt                    l, som time during his'vLTHOUGU Luke makes no mention in the
Acts of the Apostles, we gather, from a
few expressions in the course sf the
Epistles, that Paul, some time during his
residence at Ephesus, paid a visit to the city
of Corinth. "Of all the churches which he
planted," it has been well said, "in none was
there so much evil mixed up with so much good; and
the training of so wayward a child, required the utmost care of the watchful parent."*
Apollos had now come back from that Greek city,
and doubtless would have much to tell the Apostle
about the state of his converts there-much that
would cause him joy; but, we fear, more that made
him sad and sorrowful. Corinth, we have found, was
a very wicked place; and even after many of its heathen citizens had been baptized into the Christian
name, they continued to live in the indulgence ot thei2'- Lewin, p. 378.




264          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
former awful sins. Paul, deeply grieved at the stain
their conduct affixed on the character of the religion
they professed, himself sailed across from Ephesus to
make personal inquiries on the matter.   Alas! he
found the report of Apollos too true! It was even
worse than he expected. It would not appear that
he tarried long among them on this occasion-perhaps
not more than a few days or weeks. He had hoped,
doubtless, by this visit, to check the growth of these
crimes for the future. Not long after his return to
Ephesus, however, he learnt that the offenders were
increasing in their daring guilt. He resolved to adopt
harsher measures, and wrote a severe letter of rebuke,
which is now lost.
Nor was it one description of sin alone of which the
Corinthians were guilty. Some members of a Corinthian family-" the house of Chloe"-had at this time
come to reside at Ephesus. They informed the Apostle
that a sad party-spirit was continuing among his converts in the capital of Achaia. Some Jewish Christians from Palestine, who bitterly disliked Paul, had
been successful in stirring up the church there against
him. They induced some to look up to Peter (Cephas) as their head; others, to St James; others, who
boasted of their learning and wisdom, to Apollos.
It hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren," he writes, "by them which are of the house of
Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now
this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul.
and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ."*
Add to this, instead of settling their disputes and
differences, as they ought to have done, with one an.
1 Cor. i. 11, 12.




THE TUMULT.               265
other, they had been going to the courts of law, and
that, too, publicly before the heathen citizens of Corinth. Even in their own meetings for religious worship, there had been much vanity and show; they
seemed to be loving and courting the praise of man
mlore than the praise of God. The very hour of communion was profaned with their sins. In that age, it
would seem that the celebration of the Lord's Supper
generally took place after the agape, or concluding
meal of the day. The Corinthians had impiously got
into the habit of partaking of it just as a common
feast,-the rich bringing their dainties, and the poor
often not having enough to eat.
In the mean time, Paul selected Timothy and Erastus to go to Corinth, and wait there iis own arrival,
-endeavouring, in the interval, to bring the church
to a sense of its many sins, and to heal its party-divisions.  Timothy you already well know.   Erastus
seems to have been a citizen of Corinth, converted to
the faith of Jesus, and one of some standing there.
We find him, the following year, chamberlain of the
city.  Though it was a circuitous way of reaching
Corinth, Paul asked these two faithful men to visit, in
going thither, the churches of Macedonia-to acquaint
them of his own intended coming, and to request them
to be ready with their money-collection for the poor
Christians in Judea. Other messengers from Corinth
-Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus-had by this
time arrived, bearing a reply to the Apostle's letter,
and also bringing from their church a number of questions on difficult points of conduct, duty, and doctrine,
upon which they wished his judgment. Paul set himse)f immediately to answer these. His answer consists




266         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
of what is known to us by the name of " The First
Epistle to the Corinthians." It was written, probably,
some time or other in March, or April, and during the
tlird year of his residence at Ephesus. This letter is
full of sharp rebukes for the many and grievous sins
which disgraced that much-loved church. It does not
seem to bear his wonted tender affection for them, but
threatens them with " the rod" if they still continue in
their guilt. He afterwards, however, lets us into the
true state of his feelings while writing it,-" Out of
much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you
with many tears."*  It contains much important and
precious truth. Its beautiful 15th chapter especially,
has afforded joy and consolation to millions-opening
up to them hopes which are "full of immortality."
We gather, from the close of the letter, that the Apostle
was planning the journey to which we have referred,
through the churches of Macedonia to Corinth, and
from thence he purposed to go to Jerusalem; indeed,
he even looked farther before him, intending to proceed, were it his Lord's will, to visit the world's distant capital itself-imperial Rome.
Meanwhile he sent Titus, and probably Trophimus,
with the answer to the Corinthian letter, requesting
the former to use all his influence in putting matters
to rights in that erring church. Titus was himself a
native of Corinth. He seemed to have shrunk from
this difficult mission, knowing too well the sad repute
of the city; but Paul encouraged him to go, and he
seems to have had no cause to regret having obeyed;
for we thus find the Great Apostle, in an after Corinthian epistle, referring to the way they had received
* 2 Cor. ii. 14




THE TUMULT.               267
Titus: —"Therefore we were comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the
joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you
all. For if I have boasted any thing to him of you, I
am not ashamed; but as we spake all things to you in
truth, even so our boasting, which I made before Titus,
is found a truth. And his inward affection is more
abundant toward you, whilst he remembereth the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him. I rejoice therefore that I have confidence
in you in all things." 
Meanwhile the Apostle himself lingered a little while
behind at Ephesus, hopeful that Timothy and Titus,
meeting together at Corinth, and using their joint
exertions, would prepare the minds of the professing
converts there for his coming to them " in peace."
Aquila and Priscilla, Apollos, Gaius, and Aristarchus,
remained with him at Ephesus, and perhaps also
Luke. The latter we have for some time lost sight of.
It has been thought that he had been busy meanwhile
in writing his Gospel, which he soon after published in
Macedonia.t
It was at this period that a new event took place in
the city of Ephesus, which at the moment threatened
to bring the Apostle into great danger, but which, in the
end, turned out "rather for the furtherance of the
Gospel."  A large and lucrative trade seems to have
been carried' on there in the manufacture of copies or
models of the shrine of the goddess Diana. At one
season of the year, in particular,-the month of May,multitudes from all parts of Asia, and even of Europe,
crowded to the great annual festival in honour of the
* 2 Cor. vii. 13-16.      t Lewin.




268         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
deity.  If you look at Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, of which I have just been speaking, you
will find one reason he gives for not leaving Ephesus
at present was, "that a great door and effectual was
opened unto him, and there were many enemies."*
Might he not-or rather, does he not-in this, allude to
the glorious opportunity afforded him of preaching the
Gospel when " all the world" were collected together
at these memorable games?-just as the honoured
Whitfield more than once erected his tent on the racecourse, to proclaim in the ears of those who were
" minding earthly things," the better and more enduring substance. A whole month, called " Artemisius," or
the "month of Diana," was allotted every year to this
great festival-gathering.  What a concourse it must
have been! You can look at the picture of the city,
and imagine the hundreds of vessels crowding the harbour-gaily-painted boats flitting up and down the
basin of Panormus-crowds of pilgrims looking from
the heights of Mount Prion-pleasure-hunters in all
directions-the Theatre, with its shows-the Hippodrome, with its horse-racing-the wrestling and beastfighting in the huge Stadium to the left-individuals
dressed up in fancy costume-mock gods and mock
goddesses-Jupiters, with their glittering crowns, bolts
of war, and white sandals-Apollo, with his wreath
of laurel and white robes-and Mercury, with dress
appropriate to the swift-footed messenger of the deities
of Olympus.t   To complete the picture, you may
imagine thousands of eyes, old and young, entranced
with wonder as they gazed on the Ionic columns of the
* I Cor. xvi. 9.
t Domninus. See the quotation in full by Mr Lewin, vol. L. 441.




THE TUMULT.               269
great temple, or as they followed thither the bleating sacrifices, crowned with garlands. Goats'-hair tents, too,
would be dotted over the plain outside the city walls
for the accommodation of the vast number of strangers.
Who can tell but some of these may have been the
handiwork of the Great Apostle, who was still night
and day " labouring that he might be chargeable to no
mall"?
You can imagine, too, how the shops and bazaars
would be filled with everything attractive for the visitors.
Parents, who had left their children behind, were in the
habit of buying for them little memorials of their visit.
Among these souvenirs there was one that commanded
a more especial sale-few pilgrims returned home without carrying along with them one of the copies or
models of the famous shrine. They were made either
of gold, silver, or wood, as the purchaser could afford,
and were called Aphidrumata.*  There was one maker
of these who had many workmen under him-his
name was Demetrius. He was beginning to find that
the influence and preaching of Paul in town and round
about was seriously interfering with the sale of his
images. The Apostle had been pointing the people,
not to Diana, but to Jesus Christ as their only Saviour;
doubtless telling them, as he had done the Athenians,
that " the Godhead was not like to wood or stone, or
brass, graven with man's device," and that there was
but "one name given under heaven among men by
which sinners could be saved." Demetrius resolved to
do what he could to crush those who were so ruining his
trade. The month of May had by this time returned.
The Ionians were already crowding again with their
* Dionysius ii. 22.




270          THE FOOTSTEPS OF 81 PAUL.
wives and children to the city to take ptrt in the
games and other festivities of the season.  Demetrius
called his own and other workmen together, and addressed them on the subject.  It was an easy matter
to get the crowd increased in such a place as Ephesus.
lie began by telling of the serious loss incurred in
their lawful trade; pointing, as we may suppose him,
with his finger, to the vast temple in their view,
he sought to rouse their vengeance against Paul,
whom he represented as "causing the great goddess
Diana to be despised, and her magnificence destroyed."
The speech had the desired effect; they were filled
with wrath, and one long and loud shout arose, " Great
is Diana of the Ephesians!" * The whole city was
filled with confusion; the crowd was still increasing, and
with one accord they cry out, " To the Theatre! to the
Theatre!" dragging along with them Paul's two companions, Gaius and Aristarchus. The theatre was the
place where great assemblages on political matters
generally convened.  It was surrounded. with stoneseats, rising one above the other all around. You may
imagine the rush which now took place to it, each
anxious to get the seat most advantageous for hearing.  But where was Paul all this time?  When he
heard of the commotion, how his Master's name was
assailed, and the truth he himself proclaimed, we need
not say he would be the first in desiring to answer
publicly the charges brought against him.  How joyfully would he have availed himself of the opportunity
of preaching the glorious Gospel before that vast concourse!  But his wiser Christian converts, and the
"chief of Asia" (or the Asiarchs, men of high rank and
* Acts xix. 27, 28




THE TUMULT.               271
standing in the kingdom),* prevented him exposing
himself to certain danger and death.  The mob had
rushed to the house of Aquila, expecting to find him
there, but they had secured his escape.  It is to be
feared his faithful friends Aquila and Priscilla must
have been rudely handled on this occasion. Paul tells
us that they had "for his life laid down their wn
necks."t He talked afterwards of having "fought with
wild beasts at Ephesus." If he had gone now to the
Theatre, he would have been obliged to encounter wild
beasts in a human form; his kind friends, however,
knowing better than he did the fury of an Ephesian
mob, would not allow him to hazard himself.  It has
been supposed, indeed, if he had ventured to the
Theatre, the base passions of some of the crowd, and
the love of cruel sport among others, would have urged
that the Apostle be given up to one of those terrible
conflicts with wild animals, with which many of the
early martyrs were so sadly familiar. Often, we know,
were the Christians in an after age accustomed to hear
the shout of the enraged populace, "Ad bestias! ad
leonem!"   May it not be to this Paul refers in the
verse I have just quoted: "After the manner of men,"
or rather, " according to the intention of men,"-the
intention of this Ephesus mob,-" I have fought with
wild beasts "-I had all the fearful prospect of such a
death! Fortunately for the Apostle, the " Asiarchs "
interfered for his safety.  With them  rested the
power of entertaining the people with such savage
sport. Old Polycarp was brought into the Theatre at
* " The Asiarchs had the oversight of the sacred places 3f the city, and
were required to manage the sacred games at their own expense." —019O
bausen, in loc.' lRom. xvi. 4.




272         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
Smyrna to be torn thus by lions; but the Asiarch, of
governor there (Philip), would not consent to let the
animals loose on the aged man.*  Be this as it may,
however, we may well imagine Paul's agony of mind
when he heard the distant tumult, and thought of his
two devoted friends, Gaius and Aristarchus, about
perhaps to be cruelly martyred, while he had escaped.
Indeed, we know, for many weeks he did not recover
the effects of this agitation.  For him, however, to
have ventured, would only have added fuel to the fire,
and been certain destruction to all. When the people
were assembled in their seats, the Jews, who wished
to show that they hated Paul as much as the heathen,
put forward one of their own number, Alexander the
coppersmith, a man of fluent speech, and bearing a
stern hatred to the Apostle. Whenever the mob saw
he was a Jew, his voice was drowned with their clamour.
They would not hear him speak, and for two hours the
air was rent with the cry, " Great is Diana of the Ephesians!"  When they could cry no longer, and their
spirits and voice began to flag, the town-clerk, or " recorder," next presented himself in the midst of the excited assembly. He was an individual of great oficial
influence, and had the charge of the vast sums of
money and other treasures which were kept in the
temple. In his speech, he shows great prudence and
tact in dealing with those he addressed. He began by
telling them of the greatness and glory of their temple
and goddess; that its fame filled the world, and that
one or two poor Jewish strangers would never for a
moment be able to inflict upon it any injury, moreover,
that Paul had not, as was alleged, sought in any way
* See Fleetwood's Lives qf the Apostles.




THE TUMULT.                27 t
to profane the shrine, or blaspheme the patron deity.
He closes his address by reminding them of the danger
of such tumultuary meetings as the present.    His
powerful words had the desired effect. The voices of
the dense cr wd were stilled. - The Theatre gradually
emptied, and they dispersed to their several homes.
We have no further notice after this of Paul's doings at Ephesus.   It continued for long an important city il infant Christendom.  The Apostle John
is believed here to have closed his mission of love in
peace, and his dust was said to repose, along with that
of Timothy,* among the thickets and ruins of Mount
Prion. To this day, a little mound nearly opposite
Mount Prion has a small village on its crest, bearing
the name of A iasalulc, a corruption of Agios Theologos
(the Holy Divine). t In Ephesus, probably, he wrote
his Gospel and Epistles. Here it was, looking down
)n the noblest temple ever made with human hands,
that he "remembered the words of the Lord Jesus,
how he said,"  God is a Spirit: and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Tradition adds, that Mary the mother of Jesus closed her
honoured life in the same city, the disciple of love being faithful to the last in the sacred trust committed
to him by his Lord on the cross:-" Son, behold thy
mother; and from that hour, that disciple took her
unto his own home."
* " The body of Timothy was afterwards translated to Constantinople
by the founder of that city, or his son Constantins, and placed with St
Luke and St Andrew in the Church of the Apostles." —So says Chandler
p. 126.
t Stanley's Sermons on the Apostolic Age.




CHAPTER XVI
s I'm not ashamed to own my Lord,
Or to defend His cause,
Maintain the glory of His cross:
And honour all His laws."
"' Benjamin shall raven as a wolf. In the morning he shaZ devou
the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.' This prophetical
character, Tertullian, and others after him, will have to be accomplished in our apostle. As a ravening wolf in the morning devouring the prey-that is, as a persecutor of the churches-in the first
part of his life destroying the flock of God. In the evening dividing
the spoil-that is, in his declining and reduced age, as doctor of the
nations, feeding and distributing to Christ's sheep."-Life of St Pazl,
by WILLIAM CAVE, D.D., Chaplain in Drdinary to his Majesty.
London, 1676.




wh en'  a you look at the twentieth chapter of the Acts
X<    of the Apostles, and first verse, you will find a
very short account, given by St Luke, of the
them much exhortation, he came into Greece, and
there abode three months."  Although the evangelist,
in his narrative, says little about this important period
of the Apostle's history, we may gather, from Paul's
own Epistles, much that is interesting regarding it.
From these, we find that he went from Ephesus to
Troas, piobably by sea,-his two Ephesian converts,
Tychicus and Trophimus, most likely accompanying




276          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
him. Aquila and Priscilla had meanwhile returned to
Rome,-the edict of Claudius, which banished them,
being now removed.
You may remember his former hurried visit to
Troas, when he was called so suddenly away elsewhere
by the vision of the man of Macedonia. Now he remained a longer time; not so long, however, as he had
intended, in consequence of Titus not making his appearance with tidings about the church at Corinth.
Titus was sent thither by Paul from Ephesus, not only
to make a collection for the poor Christians in Jerusalem, but also to discover what effect his own letter had
produced upon them.    The Apostle seems to have
waited, week after week, in great anxiety for the return of his younger brother.  Days passed heavily
away without any tidings of him. He was greatly
disquieted because of the delay. "My spirit," he says,
"had no rest because I found not Titus."*  During
his stay in Troas, he had much encouragement.  " A
door was opened to him of the Lord," and he very soon
after came back again to carry on the good work which
he had now commenced.
Meanwhile he set sail for Macedonia, expecting to
meet Titus the sooner, who was coming to Troas by
that route. Landing at Neapolis, he. went thence to
Philippi.  From his Philippian converts he had re
ceived more kindness, and less cause of distress, than
from any other church. He never uses towards them
a word of censure. They were a poor people. He
speaks of the "depths of their poverty;" and yet,
three several times, when he was at Thessalonica,
Corinth, and Rome, they forced him to take money
* 2 Cor. ii. 13.




THE FAI. HFUL PA''TOlt.       277
they had collected for his support. " The Philippians
are in the Epistles what that poor woman is in the Gospels, who placed two mites in the treasury. They gave
much, because they gave of their poverty; and wherever the Gospel is preached throughout the world,
there shall this liberality be told for a memorial of
them." *  Their example proves that it is not the
wealthiest church which is always the most liberal in
the cause of God; but that wherever there is a willing and bounteous heart, there will be a generous and
giving hand.
We may imagine Paul's feelings when once more
among his much-loved, I was going to say, his mostloved church. Six years had passed since he was last
there. The remembrance of the shameful treatment
he had then experienced-the lictors' rods-the cruel
stocks — the dark dungeon, - must all have come
vividly to his mind; but his sorrow was now turned
into joy, in finding himself among homes and hearts so
cherished. The load, however, was still on his spirit;
Titus. had not arrived, and he could not help feeling
great uneasiness about the state of the church at Corinth. He knew, indeed, at this time, that not the
Corinthian church alone, but all the others, were in no
small peril. This was principally on account of those
Jewish teachers who were jealous of their old national
privileges, and who wished Christianity not to be the
great religion of the world, but a mere branch and offshoot of Jt daism. We can understand, therefore, how
the "C cae of all the churches" was no slight matter to
a mind hko that of Paul; and with what anxiety he
wmited to hear how his remonstrances had been received
* See Conybeare and Howion, vol. ii. pp. 89, 124.




i7i8         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
by a body so influential as that of the believers at Cor.
inth.
At last, his time of painful suspense terminates,Titus arrives. "God, who comforteth them that are
cast down, comforted me by the coming of Titus."*
He brings much more joyful intelligence than the
Apostle expected. The far greater number of the Corinthians had submitted with meekness to his rebukes,
and had cast out from their communion the offender
who had been special cause of trouble. They longed
for the Apostle's presence among them again, and were
deeply affected at the thought of having cost him so
much pain.   Still there remained, however, a small
party of these Judaising Christians, who were doing
what they could to sow the seeds of dissension. They
had ranged themselves under some designing ringleader, who had probably been sent by the sect in
Jerusalem. He had come in as a wolf into the fold,
doing what he could to undermine the Apostle's authority, and even turn his outward appearance and impaired eyesight into ridicule.t  It is needful that we
keep in mind these two parties into which the church
at Corinth was now divided, in order to understand
aright the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, which
the Apostle now wrote. This was sent back to them
by the hands of Titus, accompanied by two other
deputies, who were proceeding, at any rate, to renew
the collection for the Jerusalem Christians.
You remember, I daresay, how unwilling Titus was,
on a former occasion, to go to so wicked a place as
Corinth; it is different, however, with him now. The
Apostle thus expresses his happiness at the change of
2 2 Cor. vii. 6.       t See 2 Cor. x. 1, 2 10, 11.




THE FAITHFUL PASTOR.          279
feeling in his young brother's mind,-" But thanks be
to God, which put the same earnest care into the heart
of Titus for you. For indeed he accepted the exhortation; but, being more forward, of his own accord he
went unto you."*   In reading the epistle for yourselves, you will find Paul addresses both parties. To
the one, in the first half of the letter, he speaks in language of kindness and consolation; to the other, in
words of stern remonstrance and rebuke.
After Titus left, the Apostle proceeded to visit
some of the churches in the northern part of Greece.
While making this circuit, he fulfilled his promise
to the poor saints at Jerusalem regarding the "collection." He seems, as you must have noted, to have
been very zealous in this matter.  He felt that, since
the apostles of Christianity were Jews, and had ministered to the Gentiles in spiritual things, they ought
to minister in return to them in "carnal things."t
The method he seems to have enforced on his converts
was to lay by a sum of money every Sabbath morning
(the first day of the week). - The Corinthians, who
were the most able to give of all the churches, had
been thus gathering their contributions for a whole
year, and their readiness was held up to the Macedonians for imitation-" For I know the forwardness
of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of
Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and
your zeal hath provoked very many." + The zeal of
the Macedonians, however, poorer though they were,
so exceeded that of the Achaians, that we find the
Apostle afterwards making the less opulent churches
read a lesson of liberality to the wealthy one:* 2 Cor. viii. 16, 17.  t tom. xv. 27.  X 2 Cor. ix  2.




280          1IE FOOTblEPS OF ST PAUL.
"Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of
God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; how
that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their
joy, and their deep poverty, abounded unto the riches
of their liberality. For to their power, (I bear record,)
yea, and beyond their power, they were willing of
themselves; praying us with much entreaty that we
would receive the gift, and tak3 upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And this they
did, not as we hoped; but first gave their own selves
to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.
Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and
utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in
your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace
also. I speak not by commandment, but by occasion
of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love." *  We find soon afterwards, when
the money was all collected, that Luke, and probably
Trophimus, were to be the bearers of it to Jerusalem. They are spoken of as "the messengers of the
churches." +
Paul seems at present to have travelled farther west
than on any of his former journeys.  It is possible he
may even have gone to the shores of the Adriatic Sea;
for we read "that he fully preached the Gospel of Christ'?und about unto Illyricum."+  What the particular
towns were he visited, we are not informed as Luke was
no longer with him as an eye-witness. Pursuing, in a
westerly direction, the Via Egnatia, from Berea (from
which town, you will remember, ht was formerly
obliged to take flight), he would probably come to
Pella, the birth-place of Alexander the Great, and Pela* 2 Cor niii. 1-8.  t 2 Cor. viii. 23.  t Rom. xv. 19.




THE FAITHFUL PASTOR.          281
gonia, the capital of that district of Macedonia. He
turned his steps, probably about the beginning of winter, towards Corinth. How he journeyed thither it is
also impossible tc determine; whether he would take
the high-road from Berea to the Isthmus, or, what is
perhaps more probable, return to Thessalonica, and
take vessel from that sea-port. On the Isthmian city
his fondest thoughts-his hopes and fears-had been
long, as you have seen, centred. We may imagine with
what emotions he now approached it, as its spacious harbour opened to his view, and the rocky citadel which rose
above it. His feelings, in many respects, must have been
of a saddening kind as he once more trod its busy streets;
and yet how much cause, too, for gratitude had he
since his first visit! Then he was all alone-solitary
and friendless. He had come from a disheartening
visit to Athens, where a mere handful and no more
had listened to his teaching.  Now, he was no longer
a stranger-he was on his way with some faithful
companions to a house which his former visit had
opened to him;,-that of Gaius,-a kind and good
Christian, whom, as you already know, the Apostle had
baptized with his own hand, and whose many charities
were known to all the churches.   Though greatly
grieved to think of the sins which had crept in among
his converts, and the violent. opposition raised by
others against himself, still Paul must have rejoiced
in knowing that within these walls were many warm
Christian hearts-many true sons of the faith. It is,
besides, a deeply-interesting circumstance, that so noble
a band of faithful ministers-standard-bearers of the
Cross'-were now assembled at Corinth, who had to.
*See Lewis  vol. ii. p. 530.




282          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
gether, there and elsewhere, proved mighty through
God to the pulling down of Satan's strongholds. There
was Luke, the polished physician; there was the gentle
and pious Timothy; there was Titus, the calm and
discreet adviser; there was Jason, who had risked his
life for the Apostle at Thessalonica; there was Tychicus, a faithful brother to the last, when others grew
faithless; there was Erastus and Sosthenes, miracles of
grace from Corinth itself; and not to make mention of
others, there was the Great Apostle, a befitting chief,
at the head of this noble army. How different when
he approached Damascus, many years before, at the
head of another band!-the haughty young Pharisee,
burning with false zeal-proud of his sect and of his
national descent. Now, he is poor, weary, weighed
down " with the care of all the churches," but "the
peace of God," which he himself speaks of as " passing
all understanding," is "garrisoning his heart;" though
he walks in the midst of trouble, "the Lord revives
him," and a bright crown of joy and rejoicing is waiting him on "that day!"
There were, however, tidings of sorrow of another
kind, waiting him on his arrival, which he did not expect. The Church of Galatia, which had promised so
well at first, was beginning to be sorely affected by the
doctrines and influences of these same Judaisers. They
were doing all in their power to weaken the hold which
Paul had over his affectionate "Gauls."  They had
tried to persuade them that he was not "an apostle,"
in the true sense of the word,-not one of the twelve
who were appointed by the Lord Jesus, but a mere
teacher, not worthy of the credit due to the others.
The influence of these "false brethren" was great;




THE FAITHFUL PASTOR.          283
they got many of the "fickle Galatians" to turn from
the "simplicity of the truth." Several underwent the
rite of circumcision, imagining that it was necessary to
their salvation. It was a proof of what we described
them to be-a strangely fitful people! A few years
before, they would gladly, if they could, have "torn
out their own eyes," and given them to Paul as a token
of their attachment, and worshipped him as an angel;
but now they had listened to artful seducers, who had
"troubled them and perverted the Gospel of Christ."
How different to the steady, fixed Christian principle
of the Great Apostle himself! They were like the
waves of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed,-he,
like the rock which nothing could shake. What is he
to do? will he take vessel, once more, and go personally to rebuke them l  The distance is, for the present,
too great; and, besides, he has other work in hand in
the disorders at Corinth; but the pen must do what
the human voice cannot. He writes, from Corinth, his
"Epistle to the Galatians."  In sharp and severe terms
he therein reproves his converts "for being removed
so far unto another gospel."  It must have been under
the influence of deep feeling he could pen such words
as these,-" 0 foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched
you, that ye should not obey the truth "   " But
though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other
gospel unto you than that which we have preached
unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so
say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel
unto you than that ye have received, let him  be
accursed." *
After the messengers were sent to Ephesus with this




284         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
letter cf reproof, Paul proceeded to expel from the
church at Corinth those individuals who had been
the cause of so much evil in it. The "signs of an
apostle" were wrought before them, in order to show
the Divine authority by which he taught.  He exhibited his Divine mission by the working of miracles;
and by this means many who had before questioned
his authority must have been silenced.  But he must
make an example of those who had not only so deeply
distressed himself, but who had wrought such mischief
in the Church of God. A solemn assembly is convened
-the wicked and unholy members are cast out, no
longer permitted to hold conmmunion with their brethren. Whether they ever sincerely repented, and were
again restored to the privilege of church-fellowship,
we cannot tell. There is no more mention made after
this of "the church at Corinth."  We have reason
to hope that Paul's present visit had been much blest
to many, and that the casting out of this "unholy
leaven" had not only saved, but purified the remaining lump. We have a letter remaining still, written
by the same Clement whom Paul calls his "fellowlabourer," in which he refers to the consistency, for
many years at least, of their walk and conduct. "Who
that visited you," says this good man, whose name
Paul tells us is in "the Book of Life," "did not admire your sober and gentle piety in Christ? For ye
did all things without respect of persons, and walked
in the laws of God, obeying those who were set over
yoii, and ye were all humble-minded, subjecting yourselves rather than sulbjecting others."
The Great Apostle seems in this closing visit to have
spent about three months in Corinth and Achaia,




THE FAITHFUL PASTOR.          28o
watering the churches," and collecting money for
that great object so near his heart, to which we have
so often referred.
There was one never-to-be- forgotten occupation
which at this time engaged his spare moments. A
wealthy lady of the neighbourhood, a widow, and deaconess of the church, whose house was at Cenchrea,
was about to go to Rome.   A rising and promising
church of Christians, chiefiy Gentiles, was already
formed in the world's great capital. Paul had long
meditated a visit thither, on his way to Spain, after
accomplishing his journey to Jerusalem; but being a
comparative stranger personally to the members of
the Roman church, he thought it would be well to
send them by her a letter beforehand, to assure them
of his affection, touching also on the points in which
he knew they needed most direction. It was dictated
to Tertius the scribe, with the exception of the closing
benediction, which, as usual, was written by Paul in his
own hand. We have had again and again occasion to
speak of the evil influence the Judaising teachers were
exercising in the different churches the Apostle had
founded.  He seemed anxious to have some written
treatise that would be serviceable in putting down
their false doctrines, and which would be regarded as
a rule of faith for all his churches. The Spirit of God
wisely guided him in composing that wondrous "body
of divinity," contained in the " Epistle to the Ronans,"
where the grand central doctrine of the Gospel, what
Luther called "the doctrine of a standing or a falling
Church," is brought so beautifully out-viz., Justification by Faith.  It forms, indeed, a noble manual on
the great peculiar truths of Christianity. Chrysostom




286         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
may well call it "the golden key of Scripture;" and
the )lder my readers become, the more they will value
and admire it.  It sometimes interests us to know
where a great General penned his despatches, or a great
poet his immortal strains; we read these with greater
zest by connecting them with the spots where they
were written. You may in future think of the Great
Apostle, during his present residence at Corinth, seated
in some quiet chamber in the house of Gaius; his window, it may be, looking out on. the heights of Acrocorinthus, or on the blue waves of the Ionian sea, and
with Tertius seated, pen in hand, at a table by his
side, dictating to him his most precious EPISTLE TO THE
ROMANS.   It is evident from the close of the epistle
that, although he himself had never been in Rome, he
was acquainted with several Christian families there.
The reason of this may probably be, that many, like
Aquila and Priscilla, who had been expelled by the
edict of Claudius, had met with the Apostle at Corinth,
Ephesus, and elsewhere, and contracted a valued friendship with him. You will observe, in the messages or
salutations in the concluding chapter, that he mentions
two whole families, and twenty-six individuals, with
some distinct allusion to their individual characters.*
Although, therefore, he had never "seen their face in
the flesh," he seems to have felt no common interest in
their welfare-" he made mention of them always in
his prayers."t
The time had now come when St Paul had to bid
farewell to the church and converts at Corinth.  His
first purpose seems to have been to take ship, like
Phoobe, and sail direct to Jerusalem; but his plans
* Lewin, vol. i. p. 536.      t Rom  i. 9



THE FAITHFUL PASTOR.           287
were changed on discovering a new plot for his destruction, secretly concocted by the Jews, who had been
greatly irritated against him ever since the decision of
Gallio. What the precise nature of the plot they had
laid was, we cannot tell: possibly they had hire 1 an
assassin to despatch him on the road to Cenchrea; or,
perhaps, they had contrived some plan to seize him
after he had embarked, and plundering him of his collection-money, to make the JEgean Sea his grave. To
escape from their fury, he resolved to go round for
safety by the north of Greece; this would enable him
also to visit all his churches by the way-Thessalonica,
Apollonia, and Amphipolis. He must have painfully
felt the continual peril to which he was exposed. He
could not look without fear to the future; for if the
enmity of distant Jews was so great, what might he expect on reaching Jerusalem itself? He thus refers to
his danger in his letter just written to Rome:-" Now
I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's
sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me; that
I may be delivered from them that do not believe in
Judea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem
may be accepted of the saints."*  The companions of
this journey, we are told (in the 20th chapter of Acts,
ver. 4), were Sopater, the Berean; Aristarchus and
Secundus, of Thessalonica; Gaius, of Derbe, and
Timotheus; also Tychicus and Trophimus, of the province of Asia.  These, however, the better to effect
the escape of St Paul, took ship direct to Troas, while
he and Luke proceeded in haste by land to the north
of Greece.  When they reached his favourite city and
* Rom. xv. 30, 31,




288          TIE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
church of Philippi, it was the time of the Jewish passover, which lasted eight days.  Here the Apostle and
his historian lingered, during the celebration of the old
Jewish rite, now fulfilled in the great Antitype, "Christ
our passover, sacrificed for us."  They then hasten to
follow the steps of their friends; this more especially as Paul was desirous of reaching Jerusalem before
the feast of Pentecost.  Coming down, therefore, to
Zeapolis, they embarked on board some ship bound
for Troas,-a voyage which, under favourable circumstances, ought not to have taken two days, but which,
in the present instance, either by reason of adverse
winds or a calm, was lengthened to five.* The Apostle's previous visit to Troas, you will remember, was a
hurried one; his anxious spirit could get no rest or
comfort from Titus not being there to meet him as he
expected. Now he hopes to be able to add to the
church, whose foundation he had formerly laid.  He
seems to have arrived at an early part of the week.
How he occupied it, we are not informed; we may
well believe he was actively engaged i1: proclaiming
his great message, and all the more so as his time was
precious.  In order to attend the feast at Jerusalem,
he required to be in Palestine by the 9th of May. He
evidently remained at Troas longer than he intended.'His detention probably was caused by being obliged to
wait the sailing of the ship, which might have taken
all that time to unload her cargo and get in a fresh
one; possibly he may have been retarded in sailing by
adverse winds. We have an interesting account, however, left us of his Sabbath duties in this old city. The
little church at Troas were convened together in a
* See Howson, vol. ii. p. 210.




THE FAITHFUL PASTOR.          289
small and confined upper chamber on the evening of
that day. The place was intensely hot, from the dense
crowd collected and the many lights burning in the
chamber. The Apostle, feeling that, as he was to leave
on the morrow, this might possibly be the last opportunity he would ever have of speaking to them about
their souls, continued his address until midnight. Midnight arrived; but still the earnest man of God, taking no note of time, proceeded to urge his high lessons
on a breathless audience. There was a young hearer
seated at one of the open windows or balconies, which
are common in the houses of the East, overhanging
the court below. He had ventured too near the ledge;
and being overcome, partly with the heat and partly
with sleep, he fell down to the pavement, and was
"taken up dead."  Paul immediately ceased speaking.
He descended to the anxious crowd, who were now
gathered round the youth; and in the spirit and power
of his Master, he brought him back to life. You may
imagine the joy, not only of the friends and relatives
of Eutychus, but of all the other converts; for, be
assured, if it had been known that a violent death had
taken place in this meeting of " the Christian sect," it
would have been too good an opportunity for the
enemies of the Cross to call in the authorities of the
place to put a stop to all such assemblages in future.
But the sorrow of the disciples was turned into joy. It
was a new testimony that God was with His servant
of a truth. They returned to their chamber; and after
the excitement was allayed, they partook together, as
was often the case with the early Christians before
they parted, of the Lord's Supper, or Eucharist, as ii
was called, —a word which means "joy," or " thanks.
T




290           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
giving;"-and their hearts at present were doubtless
full of gratitude and thankfulness for the miraculous
restoration of this life. All the scene in that Troas
chamber beautifully accords with the description given
us of the Sabbath meetings of the early Christians, in
a letter written by the younger Pliny to the Emperor
Trajan, from  a place not far from    Troas, a century
later.  He says-" The Christians were wont to meet
together on a stated day, before it was light, to sing
among themselves alternately a hymn to Christ and
God, and bind themselves by an oath not to be guilty
of the commission of any wickedness;.... and when
these things were ended, it was their custom to separate, and then to come together again to a meal, which
they ate in common without any disorder." *        The
other fiiends and companions of the Apostle early in
the morning went on board their vessel, sailing round
by Cape Lectum to Assos.     Paul, however, waited behind them, remaining as long as he could with his
converts, imparting to them instruction and comfort.
He then set out alone on the Roman road, which
skirted the base of Mount Ida on the one hand and
the sea-shore on the other, on his way to Assos.t    It
forms a striking and pleasing incident in the history of
the Great Apostle. We have him generally brought
before us amid the bustle of cities, or reasoning and
disputing in schools and synagogues; but here we
* See Pliny's Letters, where a remarkable account is given of the rapid
spread of Christianity in Asia Minor.
t If what we have elsewhere supposed about the Apostle's eyesight le
correct, we have here at least one instance in which he seems to have
been so far recovered as to allow of his travelling alone. We have no
grounds, ho ever, for supposing that the disorder in his eyes made him at
all times so helpless as to be unable to take such a journey as tl  Dreatmt
without the guidance. of others.




TBHE Fl-UTHFUL PASTOR.          291
have a glimpse of "Paul in solitude."   The scene
recalls the lines of a favourite poet"There was a dell,
Whose woven shades shut out the eye of day,
While, towering near, the rugged mountains made
Dark back-ground'gainst the sky.
Thither I went,
And bade my spirit taste that lonely fount,
For which it long had thirsted'mid the strife
And fever of the world."
We see a lone figure walking slowly along amid the
oak-copse of Ida.*  It is an early day in spring; the
groves are filled with singing-birds; the trees are
feathered with green leaves; the ocean is murmuring
at his right hand; the rocky heights of the sacred
mountain rise on his left, glittering with a hundred
joyous streams.  May we not imagine him, as the sun
had just risen, pausing at times at some opening by
the pebbly beach, and gazing across that great and
wide sea, whose waters were washing ten thousand unseen and unknown shores,-perhaps thinking of it as
an emblem of that glorious Gospel which, under the
rising of a " Better Sun," was yet to send its ripples
of love and peace on every spot where the trace of
human footstep could be found 1 He walked on, a distance of twenty miles. It was a season of quiet communion with his God in the temple of nature, which,
we may believe, he would often recall with pleasure.
These shady woods, on that spring afternoon, doubtless
listened to earnest prayers, which the last eighteen
hundred years have been answering.
* See the picture at the beginning of the Chapter. See also Fellow's
Asit Minor, and the description by Hlowson, p. 214.




CHAPTER XYIL
I The warring winds have died away,
And clouds, beneath the glancing ray,
Melt off, and leave the lands and sea
Sleeping in bright tranquillity.
Instead of one unchanging breeze,
There blow a thousand gentle airs,
And each a different perfume bearsAs if the loveliest plants and trees
Had vassal breezes of their own
To watch and wait on them alone,
And waft no other breath than theirs."
"Food and raiment was his bill of fare; and more than this hI
aever cared for, —accounting, that the less he was clogged with these
things, the lighter he should march to heaven-especially travelling
through a world overrun with troubles and persecutions." —CAvz',ife of St Paul, 1676




E may imagine our Great Apostle reaching
V   now the old arched gate at the northern
entrance of Assos, and hastening to the harbour to see
if the ship, which had his companions on board, had
arrived. He would have to descend through abrupt
and steep streets before reaching the sea-shore; so Drecipitous, indeed, was the way fiom the town to the
port, that it was a common proverb-" Go to Assos
and break your neck.""'  Probably he may have stood
for a while on the e shore watching the vessel gadually
approaching. If it had already reached, no time was
to be lost in getting on bo Pobl oard. Probably, towards the
evening of Monday, he once more found himself and
his companions surrounded with the voices of Grecian
sailors, spreading their sails to the breeze.
We may imagine the beauty of the scene as they
See Lewiun




294          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
retired from the harbour of Assts,-its own long line
of buildings; its striking citadel, perched on a rock;
and, higher still, melted among the tints of the evening sky, was beautiful Ida, with her crags, and groves,
and waterfalls. For some time the course of the vessel,vas not in the open sea; their voyage lay among
creeks and islands where the navigation was difficult,
and where safety required that they should cast anchor
for the night. Modern travellers unite in describing
the extreme beauty of the scenery through which, for
several successive days, St Paul must have passed.
The first place at which they paused was Mitylene,
the chief city of the beautiful island of Lesbos, the
largest in the iEgean Sea. The town was built on
a narrow neck of land, with a port on the east and
west.side of it, and still remains, under the modern
name of Castro.   Here they waited over night, as
there was at present no moonlight, and the intricate
passage between the island and the mainland rendered
it only safe to venture by day.
The next morning (Tuesday) they directed their
course to Chios, where the straits between the island
and the coast become narrower still.  On the left,
lofty precipices towered in terror over their heads-to
the right, the lovely gardens of the island were bright
with blossom.
Passing through similar scenery as they skirted the
eastern shores of Samos, they reached Trogyllium,
where they again cast anchor. On approaching the
latter, Paul could not fail to cast an affectionate
and longing look towards a spot much endeared to
him, and which could not have been above a few miles
distant. It was Ephesus, where, a brief year before,




THE SEA-VOYAGE.             295
ie had witnessed the terrors of a fanatical mob, and
yet experienced the faithfulness of Christian friendship.
His imminent danger had compelled him to hurry away
in haste, without a word of benediction or farewell, and
he could willingly now have landed, and gone direct to
its gates to " salute" his attached friends there. Doubtless he could discern its site, at least, from the prow of
his vessel; but it was either impossible for him to divert the ship from its course, or, what is equally probable, he was unwilling to allow anything to interfere
with his purpose of being in time for the feast of Pentecost at Jerusalem. He could not, however, pass this
much-loved place, where so many brethren and sisters
of the Lord were, without trying to hold some intercourse with them. He knew that his ship would be
detained for a day or two at the port-town of Miletus.
Could he not send a messenger to Ephesus (not more
than thirty miles) to tell the presbyters of the church
to come and see him? He would hear from their lips
about his dear converts, and both he and they would
have the privilege, at all events, of uniting in prayer,
and getting a mutual blessing.  He saw, moreover,
that dangers and trials, more especially from the wiles
of the Judaising Christians, were waiting them; and he
was anxious to take the only opportunity he was likely
ever to have on earth of uplifting his warning voice.
He lived to see how needful the warning was; for,
amorg the very last words he dictated, probably a few
days before his death, he tells us, what was not the
least of his closing trials,-" This thou knowest, that
all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of
whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes." 
x 2 Tim. i. 15.




296!IIE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
Meanwhile, however, we may imagine the joy of the
Christians at Ephesus when they were told-" Our beloved Paul is at Miletus, and is waiting for our coming!"  We may imagine their journey-their meeting! It is one of the most touching scenes in all the
Apostle's life, or indeed throughout the Bible itself.
They are gathered (probably from the time that had
elapsed since leaving Troas) on the Sabbath day. It
is in no house -no church; their place of assembling is on the solitary beach, within sound of the rippling sea. It was a little prayer-meeting like the one
by the river-side at Philippi, beneath the canopy of
nature; but never, we believe, did sermon tell with
more touching power, or were hearts united in more
fervent supplication. The sermon is still left to us.*
It is short; but it is one of those beautiful passages of
Scripture which no one, to this day, can read without
being touched by its beauty and tenderness. They
kneeled down at its close on the shore-tears fell fast
-old and young flung their arms around Paul's neck,
embracing and kissing him- "sorrowing most of all
for the words which he spake to them, that they would
see his face no more; and they accompanied him to
the ship." There is no time for delay; the Great
Apostle, with a bursting heart, is once more on the
blue deep-his eye wistfully following his downcast
friends, till distance has separated them for ever.
Before leaving the town of Miletus, we may just
remark, that, when Paul knelt by its sea-shore, he
must have gazed, close by, on a busy city-a forest of
masts crowding its four ports. Already was it beginning to interfere with the trade of Ephesus. If ha
* Acts xx. 18-36.




THE SEA-VOYAGE.             297
looked towards the sea, a cluster of islands would be
right in view, well-known haunts of smugglers and
pirates. Owing to the quantity of soil carried down
by the stream of the Meander, these islands are not
no longer washed by the ocean, but are little elevations rising in the midst of a fertile plain; and Miletus
itself has shared in the altered face of nature.*
Chandler visited it, among other places, in his tour
in Asia Minor, and was struck -with its desolation,
though still retaining, in its name (Palat, or Palatia,
the Palaces), the remembrance of its ancient greatness.
"Miletus," he says, "was once exceedingly powerful
and illustrious. Its early navigaltors extended its commerce to remote regions; the whole Euxine Sea, the
Propontis, Egypt, and other countries, were frequented
by its ships and settled by its colonies..... It afterwards fell so low as to furnish a proverbial saying-' The Milesians were once great.'.... The whole site
of the town, to a great extent, is spread with rubbish
and overrun with thickets. The vestiges of the heathen city are pieces of wall, broken arches, and a few
scattered pedestals and inscriptions, a square marble
urn, and many wells."+
The Greek sailors and their holy voyagers pursue
their course towards the island of Cos, which has been
called "the garden of the /Egean," celebrated for wine
and silkworms. Among the groups of smaller islands
which they passed, they may have got a glimpse of one
we have already alluded to, unknown then in sacred
story-the island of Patmos, from whose lonely rock
there sounded forth the last messages of Deity to our
world.
* Lewin, in loc.         t Chandler, pp. 148, 149.




29Y8      THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
Rhodes was the next place to which they sailed,
Doubling its northern promontory, they came in sight
of the beautiful town and harbour, rising in the midst
of gardens and hills.  It was celebrated for its roses,
which gave the name to the island-its Temple of the
Sun, and great Colossus. This last was said to stand
across the harbour, and was so high that vessels passed
under its legs. Every finger of the image was as big
as a man. It was reckoned the greatest of the seven
wonders of the world while it stood; but, in the time
of Paul, it was a huge ruin-nothing remaining but the
limbs; the vast monument of human labour, 105 feet
high, which attracted from afar the eye of the mariner,
had been overthrown by an earthquake. As the Apostle
passed into the port, the brazen monster was lying
prone on the beach, where it continued for ages, until
the Saracens took possession of the island, when the
brass of the Colossus was sold to a Jew, who carried it
away on the backs of 900 camels.*
It is not said whether the ship landed at Rhodes.
Most probably it only cast anchor for the night, and,
at early dawn, proceeded along the Lycian coast, with
a "knot of high and rugged mountains in view,"t
which the writer we quote calls Mount Cragus, the
hlaunt of the fabled Chimeera. A little way east of
this, they come in sight of Patara, the port of the river
Xanthus, ten miles from the city of the same name.
The vessel in vhich they were now sailing seems not
to have been bound for Syria; but, fortunately, on
reaching Patara, they found one just about to start for
Tyre. Without loss of time, the Apostie seized the
favourable opportunity, and once more, under a bright
* Cedronus.          t Beaufort's Karaanania.




THE SEA-VOYAGE.             299
full-moon and a favouring breeze, we nmay imagine him
out on the broad ocean-no longer now any creeks or
currents to render anchorage for the night necessary.
It is worse than vain and unprofitable, in Bible narrative, to imagine things that are not described; but
it may be pardonable for us to picture, in the present
voyage, the weather-beaten Apostle standing on the
deck of his vessel, " in the great and wide sea,"-the
clear moonbeams playing on its white sails, or on the
rippling foam of its wake. Every traveller who has
been on the Mediterranean by moonlight, has spoken
with rapture of the scene. Paul had left his warm
cloak behind him at Troas; and we shall afterwards
find him wishing much that he had it to protect his
shivering frame in the damps of a Roman dungeon.
But he can dispense with it now, in a summer night
in these genial climes, and under such a canopy.
Nature, we know, in her intense repose, has a wonderful power on the human spirit. Those glittering stars
above his head, looking down from their quiet heaven
like so many ministering angels, may have whispered
peace to his lonely spirit. If the rude heathen sailors
around were beguiling the hours by their wonted
songs, may not the Apostle-voyager and his companions
have had also their "songs in the night?"  One of
these, we know, was often on the lips of pilgrims like
himself going up to the Passover;-may it not now
have soothed his spirit in that moonlit sea, and led
him to cast his burden on a faithful God?  "The
Lord is thy keeper; the Lord is thy shade upon thy
right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor
the moon by night.   The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil; he shall preserve thy soul.  the Lord




300          THE FOOTSTEPS. OF ST PAUL.
shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in, from
this time forth, and.even for evermore." * Perhaps you
may remember the first time he sailed along this same
sea-it was while, a brave-hearted boy, he stood on
the deck of some Phoenician trader, with.his father or
some other friend at his side, pointing out, one by one,
the objects of interest in the land of promise. How
different tlis voyage! That father had, for aught we
know, long ere now sunk into his grave, reposing with
his dead in the Jewish sepulchre in Tarsus;-perhaps
gone down to the tomb in sadness because the child
of high promise had become an apostate and a Nazarene!  It may be so; but Paul felt that better than
father or friend was with him. If his "father and
mother had forsaken him," the Lord had "taken him
up." A mother's smile may possibly have never fallen upon her boy; but amid the stillness of that midnight hour, a voice would break upon the ear of the
orphaned Apostle, as he drew nigh, with a trembling
heart, to the city of God. "As one whom his mother
comforteth, so will I comfort you, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalemn I" A few days, as we shall see,
fulfilled the promise.
The distance from Patara to Tyre was a considerable
one,-about four hundred miles; but with a favouring
north-west wind, the voyage might easily be made in
forty-eight hours.t  The first land he would descry
would be the round-topped mountain of Cyprus, with
its summit of snow; and, not long after, he would
catch his first glimpse, in the hazy distance,-of the
peaks of Lebanon.
They have now reached Tyre, the once "great city,"
* Psalm cxxi 5-8.       t Howson, vol. i. p. 233.




THE SEA-VOYAGE.             301
all that remains of which, at the present day, is a
few rocks and miserable huts, on which the fishermen
spread their nets. When Paul visited it, it was far
past the height of its glory, though still large. It was
originally situated on the mainland, but the conquering army of Nebuchadnezzar drove the Tyrians to an
island close by. Here they fortified themselves, and
built a new city, jutting into the sea a mile long.
Alexander the Great was only able to take it by connecting, at great labour, the mainland with the islandtown. Its port, into which the Apostle entered, was
situated on the north of the peninsula.
Since the Phoenician territory, between the sea and
the mountain range of Lebanon, was small, Tyre was
still indebted to neighbouring countries for various
commodities which she received in exchange for her
manufactures; and it has been conjectured, with great
probability, that this vessel from Patara, in which
Paul now was, may have been laden with grain or
wine from the rich provinces of Asia Minor or the
islands of the LEgean.*  She was bound for Ptolemais,
but, before proceeding thither, had to unlade in the
Tyrian harbour.  This occupied several days; and as
the Apostle found he was in ample time for the Jerusalem festival, he willingly spent the leisure thus
afforded him with the "brethren at Tyre."  A church
seems to have already existed here, and among its
members at present were some "prophets," to whom
had been imparted a knowledge of coming events.
These used their influence with Paul to try and prevent him from going to Jerusalem, as they had a foresight given them of his coming trials.  Their efforts,
* See Howson, vol. i. p. 235.




302         TIlE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
however, were vain.  I need not say if there had
been any express divine command in the matter, Paul
was not one who would be found "to fight against
God."   But it was only a prophetic warning on the
part of these Christians, " that if he valued his own
liberty and safety, he ought not to venture, since it
would certainly expose him to very great hazard." *
He had, however, like his Lord before him, " set his
face steadfastly to go up to Jerusalem," and no danger
would divert him from what he considered his path of
duty, although he had frankly owned to the elders of
Ephesus that his spirit was clouded with the many
intimations he had received of coming "bonds and imprisonment."  After spending seven days at Tyre,
including a Sabbath, the master of the vessel availed
himself of the first fair wind to proceed to Ptolemais.
Paul was followed to the seaside, as at Miletus, by many
affectionate friends, their wives and children mingling
in the sorrowing group who had come to bid him farewell.  After uniting in prayer on the shore, the canvas is again spread to the breeze, and in a few hours
they are sailing up the spacious bay, at the bend of
which is situated the modern Acre, the ancient Ptolemais. We need not stop to describe this illustrious
town.  It was famous in the time of the Crusades,
when England's lion-hearted king fought under its
walls. It defied the power of Napoleon. In more
recent times, it was less successful in withstanding the
might of our own gallant fleet.  Mount Carmel casts
its shadow on the scath part of the bay, where the
principal anchorage was, and here, we may conclude,
St Paul ended his present sea-voyage.  At Ptolemais,
* Doddridge.




THE SEA-VOYAGE.            303
he cnly remainaed a single day, visiting the disciples
resident there, and then took the road which skirts
the base of Mount Carmel to Cesarea,-a distance
of thirty-five miles.  There were in this latter city
many endeared Christian disciples,-one especially,
under whose roof he had taken " sweet counsel" before
now. Philip the Evangelist and his four daughters
dwelt in the town of Herod. These four females seem
to have been devoted servants of Jesus, on whom also
the gift of prophecy had descended, as in the case of
Deborah and Miriam in Old Testament times, and
also in accordance with the prediction of Joel. Here
the same mournful intimations met the Apostle, of
approaching trials and persecution if he ventured to
go to Jerusalem. Agabus, a convert and a prophet,
the same who had years before predicted the famine
in Judea, hearing of Paul's arrival, had come down all
the way from the Holy City to lift his voice of prophetical warning. His former prediction relative to the
dearth had bon- so accurately fulfilled, that the disciples
would naturally listen with anxiety to what he would
say regarding the future destiny of their revered
father.  The prophets, in olden time, had a peculiar
way of foretelling coming events by acting these in
expressive signs or symbols before the eye. Thus Jeremiah foretold the:oming Jewish captivity by burying
his girdle on the banks of the Euphrates; and Isaiah
walked naked and barefoot to proclaim the humbling
bondage which awaited Egypt and Ethiopia by the
King of Assyria.  Agabus used the same striking
method now of making known his prediction.  He
took off Paul's girdle, binding his own hands and feet
with it, and saying, "Thus saith the Holy Ghost, Sc




304          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man to whom
this girdle belongs, and they shall deliver him into the
hands of the Gentiles."   Luke, Aristarchus, Trophimus, and his interested friends at Cesarea, implored the Great Apostle to listen to the voice of warning and abandon his purpose of proceeding to Jerusalem. But Paul's lofty spirit would allow no fears or
threats to terrify him; he was bold in his Master's
work. It pained him much to resist the advice of
affectionate brethren, but he had been forewarned by a
voice of love what " great things he must slffer for His
sake." Is he to shrink from the cross? No! he acts
up to his own advice to a younger believer-" Endure
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." He had
counted the cost, and found it worthy of martyrdom.
"What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart 1
for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at
Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." *  When
they saw they could not move him from his purpose,
they submitted; and with hearts filled with gloom at
all these manifold warnings, said, "The will of the Lord
be done." There was much, indeed, that might well
have filled the bold soul of our Apostle with dread; all
throughout this journey we cannot fail to mark a dejection that was not usual to him. The Holy Ghost had
witnessed in every city that bonds and afflictions were
in store for him. He knew he could expect little justice at the hands of the worthless Governor of Judea,
tht aban'.ned Felix; and there were low assassins at
this time in Jerusalem, who would be ready, for the
baseist bribe, to sacrifice the noblest life in the world.t
* Acts xxi. 13.     t Neander.




THE SEA-VOYAGE.             305
But the baggage is put in order; his resolution is
taken.
The distance to Jerusalem was seventy-five miles,a three days' journey. As many of his personal friends,
and Christians from Cesarea, were going up to the Pentecost feast, they must have formed together a goodly
company or caiavan.
We close this chapter by leaving the noble-minded
servant of God in the house of Mnason, an old disciple
of Cyprus, looking out on the same streets and scenes
with which his eye had been formerly familiar, when,
as the boy of Tarsus, he had day by day gone to sit at
the feet of the learned GamalieL




CHAPTER XVIIL
Vanl in in  trisatm.
" Jerusalem! Jerusalem!
Enthroned once on high,
Thou favour'd home of God on earthThou heaven below the sky!
*      *      *      *      *
Till to the Saviou of mankind
Thou humbly bow the knee,
Jerusalem! Jerusalem!
Our tears shall flow for thee."
"AlI now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not
knowing the things that shall befall me there: save that the Holy
Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide
me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear
unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the Gospel of
the grace of God."-AoTs xx. 22-24.




been on many T walips-   now  the lovely month Thyf
goodnesMay;         The Thills and valleys of old
Palestine were clothed in their summer beauty. The husbandman saw
the labours of early sprhing rewarded
~for  ~L~ _  with fields of plenty.   It was the time
of year when good King David's pastoral song must have
been on many lips-" Thou crownest the year with Thy
goodness; and Thy paths drop fatness....The
pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are
covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also
sing." * Thousands upon thousands from all parts of
Judea, and Israelites from distant lands, were assembling
at the feast.of Pentecost, to offer to Jehovah thanksgiving
for the bounties of harvest. Already, when the Apostle
P Psalm lxv. 11, 13.




308         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
arrived in Jerusalem, multitudes of stranger-Jews were
crowding the streets; and the slopes of Mount Olivet,
and the valley of the Kedron, as far as the eye could
reach, were dotted over with the well-known goats'.
hair tents. Many a young Hebrew youth, doubtless,
had come up, for the first time, from his distant home,
to see the city of the Great King-his heart bounding
with joy. Many, too, unknown to themselves, had
made their last pilgrimage to the place of ordinances.
Among the latter, was the sojourner in the house of
old Mnason, who was now, we have every reason co
believe, spending his last Pentecost in the earthly
Zion.
Let us think of him, then, once more in the " city of
God," within sight of the splendid temple and the
green Mount of Olives.  Many changes had taken
place since his last visit. Four years before, his old
teacher, Gamaliel, had gone the way of all the earth,
and been laid in the sepulchre of his fathers. His two
sons still survived, Simon and Jesus. With them Paul
doubtless had been acquainted in former years. They
had probably been his companions during his schooldays. Their path in life, however, from  that time
became very different. The sons of the Rabbi were
afterwards exalted respectively to the chair ot the Sanhedrim and the office of high priest, while their old
Cilician friend and playmate arrives in their city a careworn traveller, with no thought but that of bonds and
imprisonment. Theophilus (the same to whom "Saul
the persecutor" had applied for letters to seize the
Damascus Christians) was still alive. Felix was residing in his gorgeous palace at Cesarea; and the Roman
officer in command at Jerusalem, as we shall presently




PAUL IN JERUSALEM.            309
see, was Claudius Lysias.  It was often the case then,
as it is now when multitudes are gathered together in
one place, that breaches of the peace were committed.
Any such riots were best suppressed by the presence of
military; and for this purpose, Claudius, during the
feast of Pentecost, had, like his predecessors, soldiers
ready armed to march, in case of disturbance, from
the fort of Antonia.
The Apostle arrived (for even the date may with
probability be given) on the 8th day of May, A.D. 56.
He was kindly received, and seems to have spent the
evening in company with the disciples. The next day
was an anxious one to him; he was then to meet all
the presbyters, in order to deliver the contributions he
had brought for the relief of the poor Hebrews. He
well knew that there were among them many "Judaisers," who regarded him with bitter dislike, as one
who was doing all he could to destroy their national
glory, and abolish their legal rites and ceremonies.
One great purpose for which he came at present to
Jerusalem was, to try and soothe their bitterness, and
to convince them that he was but a single-minded disciple, who had no interest at heart but that of his dear
Lord. However much, therefore, he dreaded the coming storm, he was resolved boldly, in the strength of
his God, to meet it.
The venerable Apostle James at present presided
over the assembly of presbyters. These met the next
day, in order to receive Paul and the other brethren
from a distance. They greeted one another with "the
kiss of charity," common in these times as a symbol of
brotherly affection. The strangers first laid down the
money which had been collected in distant countries




310         THE FOOTSTEPd OF ST PAUL.
for the poor saints, and then Paul proceeded to address
the meeting. He rehearsed all that had been done by
himself and his companions, during the last four years,
among the Gentiles.  He would probably enlarge on
the many promising churches he had founded-the
perilous and trying scenes, more especially that at
Ephesus, through which he had passed. Moreover,
that he was not come now among them to seek an idle
repose; but that, though his face was beginning to be
deeply furrowed with wrinkles he was still resolved to
" spend and be spent" in the service of his Master.
"' How must his hearers have rejoiced to listen to
every detail of those wonderful achievements, far more
interesting than were ever told to admiring senates by
the conquerors of the earth, and of the power of Divine
grace, which, by the foolishness of preaching, had overcome the pride of the Areopagite, and subdued the
rugged nature of the barbarous jailer, with as much
facility as it had melted the heart of the tender Lydia!
Surely few eyes were dry in that assembly." *
His address, indeed, seems to have been listened to
with intense interest by the bulk of those present;
for we are told, that the first thing they did, after
hearing him speak, was to glorify God for the things
He had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.
There were many deep prejudices, however, in the
minds of "thousands of Jews which believed," which
would not be so easily allayed. Many of those, as you
remember in a former chapter, could not brook the
thought of a gospel proclaimed to the heathen. They
imagined that, as Israel had all along been the favoured
and peculiar people. of God, Christianity was only in.
* Blunt.




PAUL IN JERUSALEM,            31.S'^   b.-' tlem. This question had been finally disposed of and settled by the decree of the Jerusalem
Council-copies of which, you will recollect, were
carried by Paul, Barnabas, and Titus, to Antioch, and
distributed through the different cities in Asia Minor.
Another equally strong feeling, however, had now
taken hold of their minds,-viz., a dread that the
Jews, who had been converted to Christianity, might
be induced or compelled to give up the observance of
the Mosaic law. What were Paul's views on this subject   He distinctly held that the Jewish Christians
might still, if they chose, observe their ancient rites; but
these were in no respect to come in the place of the
great work of Christ, by which alone both Jew and
Gentile are "justified from all things, from which they
could not be justified by the law of Moses."  But the
Jewish believers had accused him of going much farther, and of absolutely prohibiting the Hebrew converts among the heathen from having their children
circumcised, and retaining any of the institutions of
Moses. " Thou seest, brother," said the elders at this
conference we refer to, "how many thousands of Jews
there are which believe, and they are all zealous of the
law; and they are informed of thee that thou teachest
all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake
Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their
children, neither to walk after their customs."
Paul's friends knew well that there would be many
Asiatic Jews present at the feast from a far distance,
whose feelings of national pride and glory would be
roused by treading once more the city of their fathers.
These friends of the Apostle considered it desirable if
he could in some way give public proof that he was




312          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
not the enemy of the Hebrew rites which he had been
represented to be. The following was the device they
fell upon. There were four Jewish Christians among
themselves who had taken the " Nazarite vow."  This,
I have already explained, consisted in not cutting or
shaving the hair or beard, nor taking wine for thirty
days. I told you that at the end of that period, those
who thus vowed were expected to repair to the temple,
where they had their hair cut off and burnt on the
altar. If they were poor, they generally got the assistance of some wealthy friend to pay the necessary
expense; and nothing so raised a man in the estimation of the Jews as this act of charity towards a poor
brother. Josephus tells us that King Agrippa, on returning to Jerusalem after having undergone many
dangers and escapes, gave orders that the expense of
shaving several Nazarites be paid out of his own private purse.*
These four Nazarites had fulfilled the " days of separation;" but they had not sufficient to pay the charge
of the wonted sacrifices. The proposal of the Apostle's
advisers was, that he should go in company with these
four men to the courts of the temple, and defray the
expense incurred according to the law. Being poor
himself, his friends would likely furnish him with
money sufficient for the purpose; and thus, in a way
most gratifying to Jewish feeling, he would show his
good-will to the Jewish Church.
Paul seems willingly to have complied with the suggestion. If he had thought it in any degree inconsistent
with right principle, and the duty he owed to his Lord,
we may be very sure he would never have agreed to ii
* Josephus, ant xix. 6, 1.




PAUL IN JERUSALEM.           313
He viewo 1 it, doubtless, as a mere outward compliance
with a custom unimportant in itself, but which would
tend to calm the feelings of those whom he was desirous of counting one with hir.- in Christ Jesus. He
ever sought, as he tells us elsewhere, to become " all
things to all men, if by any means he might gain
some."  Circumcision in itself was nothing to him,
neither was uncircumcision, "but faith, which worketh by love."
It is only fair, however, to mention, that many good
men have considered the Apostle was, in this instance,
guilty of an unwise compliance; and it is striking to
observe, which we shall immediately do, that instead of
soothing his enemies, his visit to the temple at this time
threatened him with serious consequences. " He was
brought," says John Knox, " into the most desperate
danger that he ever sustained-God designing to show
thereby that we must not do evil that good may come."
We may picture to ourselves the Great Apostle,, accompanied with his four friends, with their haggard
looks and unshaven beards, ascending to the temple,
entering by the Corinthian or Beautiful gate to the
place allotted to the Nazarites to undergo their seven
days' purification. It was customary, after each day's
purification had taken place, for the Nazarite to remain in the temple. Paul in this way must have been
daily in the court of the Gentiles, although he wisely
abstained from entering into religious discussion with
any of the worshippers. As I have said, multitudes of
Jews from all parts of Asia, (and among these from
Ephesus, to whom the Apostle's face was well known,)
were mingling in the crowd around him. They had
not forgotten his victory in their synagogue in the city




314         THE FOOTbTEPS OF ST PAUL.
of Diana, and they thought that now would be a befit.
ting opportunity to have their revenge. They at once
spread the intelligence that this false and traitor apostate was present, and had ventured to take Trophimus,
his companion, a Greek, within the holy place. Pro
bably they had seen Paul and Trophimus walking to
gether on the streets, and had inferred that he had
brought him also within the sacred courts. The ilitroduction of any Gentile there, I need not tell you, was
strictly forbidden. Josephus informs us that tablets
were hung out in sight of all, with words upon them
to caution those who might not be aware of the sacredness of the enclosure."' In a moment he is surrounded
with an infuriated mob and frantic cries. The whole
scene of Stephen's martyrdom must have flashed across
him. They are almost within sight of the spot. Could
a like terrible end be now in prospect for himself?
They have laid fast hold of him, and are shouting aloud,
" Men of Israel, help! this is the man that teacheth
all men everywhere against the people and the law and
this place."+ We can readily imagine their fury. Soon
their madness turns into blows. They drag him down
the steps from the court of the women. The Levites
within, afraid that murder might be committed, and
their sanctuary thereby profaned, closed the weighty
brazen gates, and left him to his fate. Fortunately the
little time that elapsed in taking him from one court to
the other saved his life. The Roman sentries, some of
whom were pacing the colonnade of the temple, and
others on the towers of Antonia, heard the noise of the
tumult, and rushed with their arms to quell it. They.aw it was no trifle, and therefore sent in haste to
* Ste OlshaLsen.              t Acts xxi 28.




PAUL IN JERUSALEM.            315
Claudius Lysias, the governor of the castle, to acquaint
him of the uproar. The Castle of Antonia was a strongly
fortified place at the north-western side of the temple.*
It contained large barracks for the Roman troops, in
which a thousand were generally stationed. Its form
was a vast square, described as having " the magnificence of a palace, and the conveniences of a city." A
wall 300 cubits high and several fortifications were
around it, and a tower at each corner to defend it. It
was a sort of citadel of the temple.t One of these lofty
turrets overlooked the temple courts, and Roman sentinels were always on watch to give intimation of any
disturbance that might occur within the sacred precincts.
Claudius Lysias lost no time, after he received the
message, in ordering out some officers and troops. He
rushed down himself sword in hand. The sight of the
Roman legion overawed the furious mob, and for the
time they "left off beating Paul." Their object, however, was so far gained, for Lysias gave orders that his
wrists be bound with two chains, these chains fastened
to a soldier on either side. Hurried along, with a
maddened crowd behind him, in the direction of the
castle, he is taken to the barracks within the fortress.
While led up the flight of stairs between the two places,
so great was the pressure, he was literally carried off
his feet, and borne upon the shoulders of the throng,
who were crying out, "Away with him."
Lysias, in the confusion, could get no account of
who his prisoner was. He imagined that he had cap* See the tower, in the picture of Jerusalem, at the farther extreaitv
of the temple.
f Callet.




316           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
tnred a different victim. A violent impostor and false
prophet-a native of Egypt-had, at the preceding
Passover, come to Jerusalem, pretending that he had
been sent by God to restore the kingdom to Israel.
Four thousand deluded people had at first followed
him; they had, ere long, increased to 30,000.  These
he led to the brow of Mount Olivet, and gave them to
believe that they would see the walls of Jerusalem falling to the ground, and a way miraculously made for a
triumphant entry into the city.  Felix resolved to
quell the tumult and disperse the fanatics. Putting
himself at the head of the Roman troops, the motley
crowd were scattered in every direction, and four hundred of them slain. The artful leader succeeded in
escaping; but, at the very time when Paul was now in
the temple, a rigid search was being made, and rewards
offered for his apprehension. This explains the conversation which was now held between Claudius Lysias
and his prisoner, as they were ascending, in the crush,
the stairs of the castle.*
Paul, in calm composure, requests a word of the
chief officer, " May I speak unto thee " Lysias allows
him. To the astonishment of the latter, he speaks
not in Hebrew, but in Greek. The Governor then
asked him if he was under a mistake in thinking him
that Egyptian impostor who had led out into the
wilderness a multitude of fanatics, to be slain by the
troops of Felix? Paul assured him he was no Egyptian,
but a citizen of Tarsus, and begged he might be perinitted to address the people.  We almost wonder that
Lysias so readily complied with his request: but he
* See Lewin anu Olshausen, with the references to the passage in Jow.
pbus.




PAUL IN JERUSALEM.           31"
seems to have been impressed by the whole bearing of
his prisoner. At once silence appears to have been
obtained  We have seen Paul unfolding his great
Gospel message to the cIowd of philosophers on Mar.
Hill in Athens; and we feel that the scene must have
been deeply impressive; but never, perhaps, did he
address so vast and strange an audience as at present
from the castle stairs at Fort Antonio-never was the
power of his words more deeply felt.  The storm was,
in a moment, changed into a deep calm. Every voice
was hushed into stillness as the gentle tones of the
greatest of then living men broke over the turrets of
the temple,-" Brethren and fathers, hear me!" What
helped still more to lull the tumult and secure attention was, that he no longer spoke in Greek, but in
their own much-loved Hebrew tongue. It was like oil
thrown on a fretful sea! He commenced by telling
them of his birth and education-his strong Jewish
feelings and partialitie - his wonderful conversion
while in the very act of persecuting. He then passed
to other events subsequent to that great turning-point
in his history. They listen to him with patience and in
silence, till he comes to speak of his special destination
as the Apostle of the Heathen; but whenever the words
were uttered which he tells them he had received as
a special command from God, "Depart: for I will
send thee far hence unto the Gentiles," there was no
controlling their rage: "Away," they cried, " with
such a fellow from the earth; for it is not fit that he
should live." * They dared not at present attempt
any violence, as the prisoner was in the hands of Roman
soldiers; an  the only way, therefore, of exhibiting
* Acts xxii 22.




318         MnE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
their wrath was by threats and menaces.  The Jews
had their own peculiar way of expressing passionate
anger or malice. You remember when King David
was going along by the side of Mount Olivet, weeping
and barefoot, and when Shimei came out to curse and
revile him, he further showed the vehemence of hil
hatred by casting stones and throwing dust.  The
enraged and agitated Hebrew mob now thronging
around the stairs of the castle do the same thing.
They tore off their upper garments and cast dust into
the air, as if really preparing for a repetition of the
murderous scene which Paul had, many years before,
"consented to" in the valley below.  Lysias, not
knowing, from the Hebrew language in which the
speech was given, what the cause was of the renewed
uproar, concluded that the speaker must have been
guilty of some great crime.  He commanded that he
should be taken back again to the castle, and examined
there by torture, so as to get a confession of his guilt.
The command of the Roman is speedily obeyed; he
is even stretched on the rack, ready to be scourged.
A wooden post, slightly inclined, is driven into the
ground, and the holy Apostle is bound tightly to it by
his hands and feet. A centurion stands by him to see
that the order is duly executed, when Paul, summoning
up his wonted fortitude, demanded, "Is it lawful for
you to scourge one who is a Roman uncondemned?"
The centurion immediately informed Lysias of the prisoner's question. The governor felt he had placed himself in imminent peril by the act. " He was afraid after
he knew that he was a Roman." We have found before
now that, by the Sempronian law, those were liable to
severe punishment who, however high their rank, pre.




PAUL IN JERUSALEM.            319
sumed to beat a Roman citizen.  He gave orders instantly that the cords which bound him be untied, but
that he be kept in safe custody within the fortress. He
was again secured by chains between two soldiers. His
conscience, however, was void of offence; he had the
fear of God, and no other fear; and he laid him down.
in that strange place "in peace and sleep," feeling
that God enabled him " to dwell in safety."
Next day a new persecution awaited him. Lysias
called together the Jewish Sanhedrim to try his case,
in the same hall, Gazith, where Paul himself in former
days had sat as one of the judges in condemning the
martyr Stephen.   There was only a short way between the steps that led down from the tower of
Antonio to those which conducted up to the Jewish
court.* Strange must have been the Apostle's feelings
in entering this place! and stranger still the feelings of
those who were now called together to sit in judgment
on him! Ananias, though he had been deposed from
the office of high priest by the Romans, presided on this
occasion, as his successor, Jonathan, had been lately
murdered by assassins.  Simeon and Jesus, Paul's old
schoolfellows, were also doubtless there, and Theophilus, the old high priest,-perhaps even some of
those who had journeyed along with him to Damascus!
What a change from that day!-the persecutor now
the persecuted!-twenty full years he had been boldly
"preaching that faith" which he had sought then "to
destroy!"
The innocent Apostle looked steadfastly upon those
seventy senators, in whose presence he now was, affirming with boldness that he had ever maintained "a
* lowr:on. vol. ii. p. 268.




320          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
good conscience before God." The rage of the preside
ing high priest vented itself in a base action.  He
commanded those that stood near Paul to smite him
on the mouth. The Apostle, naturally of a quick temper, was roused to indignation, and exclaimed, " God
shall smite thee, thou whited wall!"  The saying was,
ere long, fearfully fulfilled. At the commencement of
the siege of Jerusalem, in after years, Ananias and his
followers took refuge in the upper city from the fury
of the opposing faction. His palace being burnt, he
fled to the Pretorium, but it too had to yield to the
enemies' assault. The wretched fugitive was discovered hiding in an aqueduct in the gardens, and fell
by the daggers of the Sicarii. " Righteous art thou, O
Lord!"
Paul, on this occasion, remarkably followed the
injunction of his divine Master, " Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." He soon observed how
hopeless his cause would be, argued before so prejudiced an assembly. With his usual tact and prudence, he turns the discussion on another point. He
observed that the meeting around him was composed
partly of Pharisees and partly of Sadducees; and as he
knew there was a far more violent opposition existing
between these sects than between either of them and
the Christians, he started -the great topic of their
rivalry, declaring, " I am a Pharisee, and the son of a
Pharisee: for the hope of the resurrectionfrom the dead
I am called in question" *  The result proved as he
had expected.  He had cast a spark amid combustible
materials, which set the whole in a blaze.  The two
factions turned their weapons against one another;
* Acts xxiii. 8.




PAUL IN JERUSALEM.           321
and in the midst of the turmoil, Claudius Lysias, fear.
ing it might end seriously, sent down his troops from
the castle to bring back his prisoner in safety.
We may now think of the solitary Apostle, after the
agitation of the few last days, left all alone to his
solitary meditations in the cell of a Roman barrack.
The future must have appeared painfully dark to him.
The thought which had for long been near his heart,
to "see Rome," and preach the Gospel in the world's
capital, seemed now well-nigh hopeless.  Could it be
that his apostolic work was to be so soon terminated
by a martyr's death? But God, when his favoured
servants are in gloom and despondency, has always
visited them with some special encouragement and
comfort. He did so now. In the depth of midnight,
when the weary prisoner was stretched on his bed of
straw, the Lord appeared to him, and said, " Be of
good cheer, Paul; for as thou hast testified of me i.
Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome."' *
Great need, truly, was there for such a welcome
assurance, as fresh plots were concocted to effect his
destruction. At break of day, forty Jews made a vow
together, that "they would neither eat nor drink till
they had killed Paul." They made known their infamous design to the chief priests and elders. It gives us
an awful idea of the state of public morals, when these
leaders of the people could become a party to so horrible a crime. Their plan was to get Claudius Lysias
to request another meeting of the Sanhedrim, in order
that a fresh trial might take place, and then they
would murder him on his way from the castle of Antonio to the hall. The Apostle's life was in the great
* Acts xxiii. 11.




522         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
est danger; but God mercifully warded off the blow,
by means of a new personage, whose name is brought
before us here-the son of that sister cf Paul's whom
we have already spoken of at the commencement of
this volume, as sharing the pleasures of infancy with
him at Tarsus.   Lysias had, in kind consideration,
granted free admission to any of the prisoner's friends,
and this nephew (whose name is not given) hastened to
tell his uncle the fearful secret which had reached his
ears.  When Paul was seated in his lonely place of
concealment, a footstep is heard; the door opens; his
young nephew enters with an anxious look; when he
ascertains that they are all alone, he informs him of
the plot which had been devised against his life. What
is to be done? The Great Apostle does not hesitate;
he has confidence in the kindness and prudence of the
commander of the garrison, and instantly asks a centurion to take the young man to the presence of Lysias, as
he had something important to tell him. The meeting
was a kind one on the part of the Roman soldier. He
" took him by the hand," and leading him aside, asked
him in private what he had to say. No sooner did Lysias receive the dangerous intelligence, than he dismissed
the youth, with the injunction to tell no one of what
had passed between them. And then, calling several
of his officers, he told them to be ready at nine in the
evening with two hundred soldiers, seventy cavalry,
and two hundred lancers or spearmen, to take Paul
down to the town of Cesarea, where Felix, the governor, was then residing.  He further ordered them to
have more than one horse for the prisoner, probably
one for each of the soldiers who rode on either side of
him, and to whom he was to be chained.  Tie horsea




PAUL IN JERUSALEM.           323
and horsemen were ready at the hour appointed at the
gates of Fort Antonio. Bands of Jews may have been
still lingering on the streets, talking about the success of the plot against a life they all hated, when
the troops swept past them. They may have wondered
at so large a detachment of soldiery at that hour of the
night, but they would little dream that the central
horseman was the victim of their fury, thus " escaping
like a bird out of the snare of the fowler."  We may
imagine the journey of seventy-six miles.*  The foot
soldiers went no further than Antipatris, and then returned to Jerusalem.  The rest, after two hard days,
would be seen with tired and jaded horses entering the
gates of the seaport town of the Caesars.
The centurion in command took his prisoner at once
to the Pretorium, or Palace of Herod, where Felix
lived, and presented, along.with him, the letter from
Lysias. The letter was as follows:-" Claudius Lysias
unto the most excellent governor Felix, sendeth greeting.  This man was taken of the Jews, and should
have been killed of them: then came I with an army,
and rescued him, having understood that he was a
Roman.   And when I would have known the cause
wherefore they accused him, I brought him forth into
their council; whom I perceived to be accused of questions of their law, but to have nothing laid to his
charge worthy of death or bonds. And when it was
told me how that the Jews laid wait for the man, I
sent straightway to thee, and gave commandment to
his accusers also to say before thee what they had
against him. Farewell." t  It was a letter worthy of
the generous-hearted writer. If Lysias had been acti
* See the picture.  t Acts xxiii. 26-30.




324         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
ated by unworthy motives, if he had wished to please
the Jews, and increase his popularity with them, he
might have represented the prisoner as a "pestilent
fellow," and worthy only of death.  Had he done so,
moreover, we can have little doubt as to the result.
No mercy was to be expected from the hands of the
abandoned Felix; but the letter expressly nentions
that his crime was merely holding opinions contrary
to the Jewish law; nothing was laid to his charge demanding a severe sentence.  Felix having read it,
looked at the prisoner who had been the cause of the
disturbance, and put the question to him, " What
province art thou from i" Being told it was Cilicia,
he gave orders that he should be taken to Herod's
judgment-hall, and kept there until, in accordance with
law, his accusers made their appearanie.








CHAPTER XIX
aud in lt     ara.
" These are the tones to brace and cheer
The lonely watcher of the fold,
When nights are dark and foemen nearWhen visions fade, and hearts grow cold."
qf And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for M.yai.
for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak; for it shall
be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not
ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you."
-MATTHEW x. 18-20.
"' When I consider this Apostle as appearing either before the witty
Athenians, or before a Roman court of judicature, in the presence of
their great men and ladies, I see how handsomely he accommodateth
himself to the apprehension and temper of those politer people.'LoaD SHAFTESBURY'S Characteristics, vol. i. p. 30




have been struck with its greatness and grant;      deur. The first thing which caught the eye in
<c    sailing into its port, was the Temple of Sebas~5um. It was perched on a lofty rock in front of the
town, dedicated to Rome and her great emperor, and
mainly intended as a sea-mnark for mariners. The site
of the city had evidently been selected owing to the
spaciousness of the natural harbour. The coast was
terribly swept by westerly winds, and there being no
refuge for ships between Dora and Joppa, Herod the
Great, at enormous labour, turned the natural advantages, of what was originally a little fishing-town, into
a great capital. " He drew his model," says Josephus,
"and set people to work, and, in twelve years' tims




328          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
finished it. The buildings were all of marble, private
houses as well as palaces; but his master-piece was the
port, which he made as large as the Pirseus of Athens
— a safe station against all winds and weathers." 
Immense blocks of stone, fifty feet long, were sunk to
twenty fathoms, on the south and south-west, to form? breakwater, leaving a free passage only by the north.
Cesarea seems to have risen rapidly to importance,
and as rapidly to have dwindled into insignificance.
Not long. after the period of which we write, it began
to decline. It now lies, as you see in our picture,
a pile of ruins sunk in the sands. It is far distant
even from the common coast-road, and therefore comparatively little known or visited by travellers. At
the time of St Paul, many heathens and foreigners
mingled with the Jewish population.  In a Romannamed town. where the Roman procurator lived, it
was natural to suppose that there would be many
habits, tastes, and customs, introduced from the great
Roman capital.
In this city we left the Apostle, by the orders of
Felix, in confinement in Herod's judgment-hall (the
guard-room adjoining his magnificent palace),' till his
accusers arrived from Jerusalem.  He had not to wait
long. In five days, Ananias, his heart still burning
with revenge, and other members of the Sanhedrim,
made their appearance.  They were accompanied by
an advocate named Tertullus, or Tertius, whose name
tells us he was of Latin orig,. —one versed in the
usages of the Roman law, and also able to speak in the
Lat;n tongue, both of which were necessary qualifications in cases similar to the present. Paul was surn* Josephlus' Antuiqtitis, book xv. chap. 13.




PAUL IN CESAREA              329
moned forthwith to appear before his accusers in the
procurator's court, or place of judgment-the floor of
which, if it were like others in the empire, was beautified with a tesselated pavement-square pieces of marble, or stones of various colours, disposed with art and
elegance.*
Felix takes his place on his tribunal, and Tertullus
delivers a speech, which, even in the brief outline we
have of it, showed great power and dexterity. He
begins by words of flattery to the judge, complimenting
him on the only praiseworthy act of his governmentthe suppression of robbers and religious fanatics, who
had recently, as in the case of the Egyptian impostor, disturbed the peace of Palestine.+ Truly it required some
ingenuity to say anything praiseworthy of a man like
Felix, whom Josephus and Tacitus concur in denouncing as a monster of iniquity and injustice. "He exercised," says the latter, " the royal authority with the
spirit of a slave, and indulged himself in every species
of cruelty and lust." Tertullus then details in succession the charges brought against the Apostle. These
were threefold:-lst, That he had been the means of
creating disturbances among the Jews; 2d, That he
was the ringleader of a sect called Nazarenes; and, 3d,
That he was guilty of profaning the Jewish temple,
which Roman law was bound to protect from insult.
The object of his accusers evidently was, to get Felix to
consent to deliver him up to be tried by their own
Jewish courts-in which case they could, with the utmost ease, have effected his murder. The Jews pre*  Torne's Introduction, vol. ii. p. 131.
$ J sophus' Ar.tiquities, ook xx. chap..




330         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
sent applauded violently the speech of their hired advocate, declaring that all he said was just.
If Felix had possessed the honourable feelings which
we formerly found in Gallio, he would, on charges so
false and frivolous, have driven the Jews from the
judgment-seat, and dismissed the prisoner; but the
Roman purple did not always cover true greatness of
soul or rigid equity.
Paul was now called on to make his defence. He
did so, answering the accusations of Tertullus one by
one; and concluded by complaining, that the Asiatic
Jews, who had first accused him, and with whom the
uproar in the temple had begun, had not, according to
the usage of law, come forward as witnesses against
him. You may read for yourselves the brief account
which St Luke gives of the Apostle's reply. You will
find it in chapter xxiv. 10-22.
The speech of the Great Apostle seemed to make a
decided impression on the mind of the governor; but,
from'all we can gather of the character of Felix, we
need have no expectation on his part of leniency, or
even fair dealing, if this were to interfere with his own
private ends. As to the innocence of the Apostle, and
the unfounded nature of the accusations brought against
him, he could now, after having heard both sides, entertain little doubt; but Paul was a poor, persecuted,
hated man. Felix would be no sufferer by oppressing
him; but he might be so by offending the leaders of
the Jewish people. He declined, therefore, at present
giving any decision.  He told them he would defer
until "Lysias came down," who was shortly expected
from Jerusalem. Till that time he gave orders that




PAUL IN CESAREA.             331
his prisoner be confined, enjoining, at the same time,
that no severity, or harshness be shown towards him,
but that any of his friends might have free liberty to
go and visit him.
If Lysias came to Cesarea, we have no mention
made of it. But a few days after the public trial,
Felix and his wife Drusilla sent for Paul to come to
the audience-chamber (or a private apartment in the
palace), to have an interview with them. Drusilla was
the sister of King Agrippa-herself a Jewess. She is
spoken of as a young woman of great beauty, at this
time only eighteen years of age. She had married
Azizus, King of Enesa; but by the wicked influence
of Simon Magus, the friend of Felix, she deserted her
husband, and became the unlawful wife of the old profligate Felix. Paul's eloquence, power, and earnestness seem evidently to have arrested the attention of
the governor; and Drusilla being a Jewess, and from
her infancy having heard much of Paul, she was doubtless from curiosity aixious to see him. Behold, then,
the Great Apostle called again to speak the word of his
Master! Two wicked, hardened, selfish individuals
were seated before him, probably on benches of Tyrian
purple, and under a fretted ceiling. Remembering
the manifold vices which lurked under all that outward grandeur, he directed the arrow of conviction to
these seared consciences-reasoning of " righteousness,
temperance, and the judgment to come." It was a
bold thing for Paul to do; for the aged reprobate
before him had his life in his hands-" he had power
to crucify him, and power to release him," and to irritate his savage temper would be to bring down upon
himself certain vengeance; but he felt that if he




332          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
" pleased man, he was not the servant of Christ." It
was no time to preach smooth things, by "the teirors
of the Lord" he sought to persuade this ruler, revealing
to him all the dread realities of that day of wrath,
when small and great, mighty and mean, governor and
apostle, would stand before God. " To penitent hearts
he was in the habit of preaching the crucified Jesus as
the Mediator; but to these worldly ind;viduals, he
displayed him as the Judge."*
"No more he feels upon his high-raised arm
The ponderous chain, than does the playful child
The bracelet, form'd of many a flowery link.
Heedless of self, forgetful that his life
Is now to be defended by his words,
He only thinks of doing good to them
That seek his life." t
"Felix trembled!" conscience was aroused, and for
the moment shook the iron frame of the debased
Roman; but it was only for the moment. Conviction
was suffered to pass away,-" Go thy way," said the
procrastinator, " for this time, when I have a convenient
season I will call for thee." Alas! we fear that more
convenient season never came. Indeed, we find him,
immediately after, guilty of the meanest and most dishonourable conduct towards the Apostle-conduct unworthy of his name and his office.  He seems to have
held many conversations and private conferences with
Paul, to induce him to give a bribe in order to secure
his release. He had heard, probably, that his relations were independent or perhaps he remembered
that the prisoner in his defence had hinted at a collection he had brought from a distance to Jerusalem;
and from the known generosity of the Nazarene sect,
* Olshausen..  t Graham's Poems.   t Cave, p. 96



PAUL IN CESAREA.            333
he knew there might be little difficulty in getting them
to subscribe liberally to purchase the freedom of their
champion. But the high-minded Christian principle
of the Apostle scorned the base and impious attempt
thus to evade the law. He would rather wear his
chains than stoop to dishonour. The consequence, however, was a continuance of his imprisonment for two
long years in the town of Cesarea. How he occupied
himself during this lengthened interval in his life we
know not. It must have been a precious season for
turning his eye inwards on his own soul, and fostering the work of grace there. It was, as a writer has
called it, "the school for his own personal improvement"*-the Patmos of his active life, where in silence
and solitude he was permitted to hold communion with
his God. We may imagine him seated in his prison
or private house, chained by the right hand to the left
arm of a Roman soldier, who was held responsible for
the safety of his charge. Much of his time may probably have been spent in writing epistles to his various
churches, which are now lost to us,-and also in receiving visits from Christians in Cesarea and Judea,
who, as we have said, were allowed to come and cheer
the hours of his solitude.
Little did the believers at Cesarea, who, a little while
before, wept so touchingly at his going to Jerusalem,
think that that very journey was to lead to a personal
residence among them for two whole years. Among
the friends who thus visited him, probably Timothy
was, as formerly, a frequent and an always welcome
guest. We know that Philip and nis pious daughters
were citizens of Cesarea, and more than likely Cornelius
* Olshausen.




334           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL
the centurion was still stationed in the Roman bar.
racks, rendering still to " Caesar the things which were
Csesar's, and to God the things which were God's."
Luke, too, we may believe, was much with him. It has
even been supposed by many that the beloved physician occupied these years of leisure in writing his Gospel, with the inspired Apostle at his side, to guide him
in the momentous task.
During this same period, Felix was recalled by the
Emperor to Rome. His rapacity and violence had
made him universally hated; and a cruel massacre of
the Jews he had ordered in the streets of Cesarea, at
the very time Paul was confined in the Pretorium, had
added to the popular hatred which eight years of
cruelty and selfishness had fostered. Before leaving,
the selfishness of his character was still further displayed. He wished to appease and conciliate the Jews.
He succeeded in doing so by an act which cost him nothing,-" he left Paul boindl."  " We are rather tempted
to wonder, that to show them a still greater favour, he
did not order Paul for execution. But here the providence of God interfered: God had said to Felix, as he
said once before to Satan,'Behold, he is in thine
hand, but save his life.'  The lion can only go the
length of his chain; and thanks be to God, that chain
is held by One, who, although he is almighty to destroy, is yet'almightiest to redeem."'"  We know
little more of this " bold, bad man." A number of Jews
followed, at his departure, to accuse him before the
Emperor at Rome; but by the powerful mediation of
his brother Pallas, he escaped in this world the severe
punishment his many crimes deserved.
* Blunt, vol. ii. p. 181.




PAUL IN CESAREA.            335
Festus succeeded Felix in the Governor's house at
Cesarea.  He seems to have been a just and honourable man- -a favourable contrast to his predecessor. At
the outset of his official career, he was very properly
anxicus to get an insight into the character, customs,
tastes, and feelings of those he had come to govern.*
Accordingly, after he had been only three days in his
new residence, he set out for Jerusalem. This, moreover, may probably have been a customary mark of
respect on the part of a new imperial Prefect.
Ismael, the son of Fabei, had by this time been
appointed to the vacant office of high priest,+ inheriting all the bitter feelings of those who went before him
towards the Nazarenes.  No sooner did Festus arrive
in the Jewish capital, than the chief priests and the
leaders of the nation, along with many of the
people, renewed in his ears the accusation against
Paul. They were especially desirous that he would
grant liberty to have him brought up for trial again at
Jerusalem before the Sanhedrim-their real and covert
purpose being to have hired assassins ready to despatch
him on the road thither. Festus, however, in a spirit
worthy of a noble-minded Roman, refused to give up
his prisoner in this unlawful way; adding, if they had
anything of which to accuse him, they must come
down to Cesarea, and there meet him face to face. On
the return of Festus, in a few days, to the seat of his
government, the accusers of the Apostle followed him;
the day after his arrival, we find Paul once more
brought before the judgment-seat, and his relentless
foes preferring their old charges.  Festus, with a
number of assessors or jury at his side, heard the
* Howson, vq. i'. p. 297.  t Jos. book xx. chap. viii.




336          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
pleadings.  He at once saw that they had reference,
not to any political offences, but to differences in religious matters, which, he felt, lay beyond his province;
moreover, that in all their accusations there was nothing that made the prisoner worthy of death. However, with a desire probably to gratify the accusers,
and alleging the difficulty he had in settling the question, he proposed to Paul to go up under his protection to Jerusalem, and be tried there before the
Sanhedrim. He promised that he would himself
take part in the proceedings, and secure that these
should be impartial. The Apostle saw the certain
destruction awaiting him if this were determined upon.
There was only one way left by which he could save
himself from the "lion's mouth."  But his clear judgment does not permit him for a moment to hesitate.
He claims his privilege as a Roman citizen.  He pronounces one little sentence which changes his whole
history: he must have felt, while uttering it, that it
involved the issues of life or death:-" I APPEAL UNTO
C2ESAR."
These words, I repeat, not only changed in a moment
the whole case, but gave a new character to the
Apostle's future. It was not the first time we have
found him availing himself of his right of citizenship. It
was a privilege peculiarly valuable at the present crisis,
protecting him, as it did, from the abuse of authority.
His suit now must be tried before the Emperor himself,
and in the Roman capital. Festus was doubtless astonished at the new turn which events had taken; perhaps,
too, affronted at the great boldness of the prisoner. He
consulted those around him if the plea were a sound
one, and in every way admissible.  Discovering that




PAUL IN CESARFIA.                 337
he had no power to set it aside, he declared, as
the decision of the court, and as if he seemed right
glad  to get rid   of the entire matter, "Hast thou
appealed unto Caesar? unto Coesar shalt thou go." *
It only further remained for Festus to send to the
supreme tribunal in Rome the necessary official documents about the case that was thus appealed, and to
keep the person of the accused in safety before an
opportunity occurred to forward him for his final trial.
He was, however, in difficulty as to what charges he
could specify against Paul, and which he could send
along with him to the Emperor. In his perplexity, a
thought occurred to him: Agrippa II., King of Chalcis, with his sister Bernice (sister also to Drusilla), had
just come from   Cesarea Philippi to offer their respects
to Festus on his accession to the supreme power in
the other Cesarea. As Agrippa had, from his earliest years, been familiar with Jewish customs and
laws, Festus resolved to consult with him on this
matter     He mentioned     to  him   the opinions the
prisoner was charged with holding, and especially
" concerning one Jesus, who had died and was alive
again." t  Agrippa had often before heard of the fame
of St Paul; curiosity made him desirous of seeing him
personally, and next day Festus resolved to gratify his
* Among other testimonies, "a passage in Pliny's Epistle to Trajan
confirms this right and privilege which Romanfreemen enjoyed, of appealing from provincial courts to Rome. He thus writes:-' The method I
have observed towards those who have been brought before me as Christians is this: I interrogated them whether they were Christians. If they
confessed, I repeated the question twice again, adding threats at the same
time, when, if they still persevered, I ordered them to be immediately
punished. There were others also brought before me, possessed with the
same infatuation, but being citizens of Roerse, I directed theem to be carried
thither.' "-Horne's Introduction, vol. ii. p. 129.
t Acts xxv. 19.




338          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
wish. The Apostle, chained to the soldier who guarded
him, was ushered into the audience-chamber in the
Pretorium, where Agrippa, Bernice, and Festus were
waiting in pomp to receive him. Roman officers quartered in the barracks and some leading people of the
city were also invited to be present.  Paul must have
remembered the words of his Lord, which were now
strikingly fulfilled as he stood in bonds before this
royal audience-" Ye shall be brought before kings
and rulers for my name's sake." *  Festus began by
making a formal speech, stating the case of the prisoner, and his perplexity in knowing how to represent
it to the Emperor. Agrippa then asked Paul to speak
for himself. The Apostle willingly complied. He went
minutely over the circumstances of his own conversion, declaring that the faithful performance of his
Divine mission to preach to the Gentiles had drawn
down upon him the hatred and revenge of the Jews;
that all his teaching and preaching was not contrary
to, but in accordance with, Moses and the prophets,
who had testified "that Messiah should suffer, and
that He should be the first to rise from the dead, and
should show light to the house of Israel, and also to the
Gentiles." +
Festus had listened with silent attention. He could
not have failed to admire the simple but impressive
way in which the accused nad stated his case-the
grace of his manner, and the sincerity of his views.
But when he heard about the bright light on the road
to Damascus, the voice from heaven, and worse than
all, his reference to the resurrection, he at once put
the prisoner down for a fanatic or enthusiast, who had
* Matt. x. 18          + Acts xxvi. 1-22.




PAUL IN CESAREA.            339
overworked his brain with severe study; and, interrupting him, said, "Paul, thou art beside thyself; much
learning doth make thee mad."  He was evidently surprised that a man so well educated and talented, and
more than all, a Roman citizen, could give heed to such
"cunningly devised fables"-submitting to evil, poverty, scourging, imprisonment, and all without hope of
reward.  To a selfish man of the world, there was nothing but insanity in all this.  The Apostle calmly
replied, " I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak
forth the words of truth and soberness." Then turning
to Agrippa he made the appeal-" King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest;" I know that thou believest the testimony of
those holy men who have told that Christ must needs
suffer. The reply of Agrippa showed how deeply moved
he was-" Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." What a confession for a monarch to make to one
standing before him in chains! In answer, Paul held
up his hands, clanking with these fetters, and made
the noble and bold reply, " I would to God, that not
only thou, but also all that hear Ine this day, were both
almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds."
Never was there a finer protestation-never a more
glorious testimony to the happiness of the soul at peace
with God. With all his chains, and the dark prospect
of trial before him, the Apostle not only felt, but
boldly avowed in the presence of a king, that he was
the happier of the two!
But, alas! Agrippa was not "altogether persuaded."
The name of Jesus, which was the boast of Paul, was
Ihated by Agrippa's proud countrymen. He would not




340          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST P&UL.
make up his mind to part with a corruptible crown,
and thus, we fear, he lost the incorruptible.
The meeting thus ended. As the listeners talked
the case over, they came to the conclusion that the
accused had committed no crime worthy of death or
of imprisonment, -indeed, Agrippa gave it as his
opinion that he might have been released at once, if
he had not already appealed unto Coesar. That appeal,
however, having been made by law, it could not be
departed from; the first opportunity that occurs, the
prisoner must be sent to Rome.   His own ardent
wish was thus at last to be fulfilled-not that he had
ever doubted that, in some way or other, the hand of
God would bring it about; for in the Castle of Antonio,
you remember, two years before, his Saviour had appeared to him, and told him, that as he had witnessed
for him at Jerusalem, so also was he to witness in the
great city of the empire. In his voyage to the world's
mighty capital, therefore, we must trace in the next
chapter "the footsteps of St Paul.'








CHAPTER Xl
l Borne upon the Ocean's foam,
Far from native land and home,
Midnight's curtain, dense with wrath,
Brooding o'er oui venturous path,
While the mountain wave is rolling,
And the ship's bell faintly tollingSaviour! on the boisterous sea
Bid us rest secure in Thee.
Blast and surge conflicting hoarse,
Sweep us on with headlong force;
And the bark, which tempests urge,
Moans and trembles at their scourge:
Yet should wildest tempests swell,
Be Thou near, and all is wellSaviour! on the stormy sea
Let us find repose in Thee."
"If I take the wings of the morning, and d',:,!l in the nutermcos
parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy Light
hand shall hold me."-Ps. cxxxix. 9, 10.




T was probably about the end of summer
that Paul and his two companions, Luke
and Aristarchus of Macedonia, set sail for
Rome from the port of Cesarea. They embarked iVi a coasting vessel, bound for Adramyttium, a place in the north-west of the
province of Asia Minor. We have no means of ascertaining what the crew consisted of, whether many or few.
Julius, a centurion of the Augustan cohort, was the officer in charge of the prisoners; and he had a number of
soldiers under him to guard them. It is not improbable
there were several others on board, being conveyed, like
these Christian missionaries, for trial to the capital.
They coasted along the shores of Palestine and Phe-:i;cia till they arrived at Sidon. This was a distance of:ighty n-les, which, however, could be easily accomr




344          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
plished in twenty-four hours.  Here, while the vessel
was at anchor, Paul received permission to go on shore
and visit any Christian friends or brethren.  It is probable the officer had received orders, before leaving, to
trept the Apostle with respect and kindness; at all
events, we read " that he treated him courteously, and
gave him liberty to go to his friends and refresh himself." * It is more than probable, also, that Julius had
become intimately acquainted with Paul during his
two years' residence at Cesarea, and had then formed
that deep regard for his character which is manifested
throughout tne eventful voyage on which they have
just entered.t
No sooner had they set sail again from Sidon, than
the wind became unfavourable, blowing from the westward. Their direct route to Asia Minor was by the
southern side of Cyprus (keeping it on their right),
and taking a straight course, as had been done two
years be.bre by the Apostle; but, in consequence of
the wind being right against them, they had to coast
along the shore, taking a circuit by the north of the
Island. They must at many points have been within
sight of land. Paul, for the last time, may have
caught a glimpse of the lofty tops of Mount Taurus, as
he sailed along the bold headlands of his native Cilicia.
By the influence of some favouring breezes, which prevail at that season of the year, they made rapid progress along the Cilician and Pamphylian coasts. The
first place they anchored at was 2yra, a town in the
south of the province of Lycia. Its situation was a
* Acts xxvii. 3.
t The reader is now requested to follow the line marked in black on the
Map.




THE SHIPWRECK.              345
remarkable one-at the mouth of a narrow and precipitous valley which formed the outlet from a vast pile
of mountains beyond. The town was built on a height
about two and a half miles up the river, whose broad
channel was guarded by a heavy chain which stretched
across from -shore to shore.  Though now an utter
ruin, Myra seems to have been, in Paul's time, a wellknown and favourite port for merchant-vessels of the
Mediterranean. It is not at all to be wondered at,
that here our voyagers found a corn-ship of Alexandria on its way to Italy, as the Alexandrian vessels
often put into its port from stress of weather.
We may wonder how these ships would take such a
round-about way as this, in going to Italy.' Why not
skirt along the coast of Africa, and then direct northwards? The reason was, that at that season of the
year a strong north-west wind always blew along the
coast; and, therefore, although increasing the distance,
they generally preferred going first northwards to the
shores of Asia Minor, thence westwards among the.Egean islands. These islands, moreover, in the absence of the modern compass, served as landmarks to
enable them to shape their course.
It would seem that the original intention had been
to take the prisoners the whole way to Adramyttium,
then to conduct them by land through the Via Egnatia to the port of Dyrrachium, and thence across the
Adriatic to Rome. This was the route by which, in
after years, one who bore the martyr-spirit of the
Great Apostle, (Polycarp,) was taken from Antioch to
the city of the Tiber.* But the centurion now decided
on a different plan; he abandons all idea of the land* See Lewin, p. 713.




346          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
journey, and places his prisoners in the Alexandrian
corn-ship.
It is probable that this new vessel was considerably
larger than the one which brought them from Cesarea.
The Egyptian ships of commerce were the largest in
the Mediterranean.  We must not, therefore, think
of Paul in this voyage-as some of us, perhaps, have
been accustomed to think of him-sailing in a rude
bark, or small trading-vessel, with a handful of companions; he was within vast wooden walls, not unworthy of many of our own merchantmen.*
Lucian, who lived in the next century, gives an
amusing description of one of these Alexandrian cornships coming into the port of Athens.  It is lying at
the Pirzeus, and the Athenians, with their well-known
love of " seeing things new," come crowding down to
inspect the floating monster. They are described as
being greatly struck with its size-180 feet long, and
45 wide. Its masts, yards, cables, cabins, anchors, capstans, windlasses-all about it formed subject of comment and wonder; from the goddess on its prow, to
the golden goose on its stern; and the corn in its store,
which was enough to "keep all Attica for a year."t
They sail from the port of Myra, and they had good
reason to calculate on a favourable voyage; for this
being the beginning of September, the Etesian winds
might be expected to cease. These, however, had continued longer than usual. He who holdeth the elements in His hands, had some wise reason for detaining the south wind, which would have brought them
in due time to a quiet haven.
A distance of 130 miles, to Cnidus, is perfornod
* Howson.     t See the passage given in full by Mlr Lewiu




THE SHIPWRECK;             347
slowly-after "many days."  Tossed about with contrary weather, they resolve to run down to the southern shores of Crete, where they would be protected
from the fury of the north-west wind, and take refuge,
if needed, in some of its harbours. By tacking and
beating about, they accomplished.the voyage without
difficulty till they came to Cape Matala; but, whenever they doubled that promontory, the full force of
the westerly gale met them in the face, and no vessel
could ride out the blast. They gladly ran into a place
called Fair Havens, and anchored behind some bold
rocks. It now became a question whether it would be
advisable to winter there, or to proceed to another
harbour, and a more secure one-the port of Phoenix,
or Lutro, forty miles westward. A council seems to
have been held on board the ship. It shows the confi-dence reposed already in the good judgment of Paul,
that he was not only permitted to be present, but
allowed to give his opinion as to what was best to be
done in the present " perils of waters." He was clearly
of opinion they should not proceed, but avail themselves of the roadstead in "Fair Havens."  "Sirs,"
said he, "I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt
and much damage, not only of the lading and ship,
but also of our lives." * But the advice, which so soon
turned out a wise one, was not assented to. The centurion naturally thought the captain and pilot were
better judges, and he decided that they should proceed.
Towards the close of October, the wind all at once
suddenly changed; the sky cleared, the sails were
hoisted, and the crew, little aware of c )ming dangers,
* Acts xxvii. 10.




348          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
were proceeding round Cape Matala to this new anchorage. All at once, after rounding the Cape, another
violent wind came sweeping down from the mountains
of Crete. It was a peculiar hurricane, known to the
sailors by the name of Euroclydon. So furious was it,
that they were utterly unable either to retrace their
steps or proceed. They were at the mercy of the
storm. The helmsman lost all command over the vessel. They were involved in a sort of whirlwind, which
lashed the sea into fury, and drove them in the direction of Clauda, now Gozzo, a small island to the southwest of Crete. There being, however, no anchorage
there, there was nothing for it but to make every preparation for weathering the storm. Large ropes, which
they had on board just to meet such an emergency as
now occurred, were taken for " undergirding" the
ship; that is to say, they were tied round and round
the under-part of the vessel, meeting on the deck, the
design being to prevent the consequences of springing
a leak;* perhaps the storm   had raged so violently,
when her sails were up, as to have already strained her
and started her timbers.  They "lowered the gear,"
took down a number of sails, some of which were
doubtless already shivered to pieces, and others which,
by remaining up, added to their danger.
The vessel now drifted from Clauda west by north.
They must beware, however, of scudding before the
wind, else twenty-four hours will sweep them a wreck
on the great sandbank of Africa. These sandbanks
* An instance of the same kind is mentioned in Lord Anson's Voyage
Round the World. Speaking of a Spanish man-of-war in a storm, he says,'They were obliged to throw overboard all their upper-deck guns, and
take six turns of the cable round the ship to prevent her opening." —
Quoted by Barnes.




THE SHIPWRECK.              349
were constantly shifting their position by the action of
the sea, so that they could not be sure how near they
might be to danger. The storm rages fiercely as ever.
The second and third day pass, and no prospect of
abatement. The day after Clauda was left, they took
the precaution to lighten the ship by casting overboard
what was least valuable. More than probably she had
now " sprung a leak," water was fast getting in, and,
on the third day, all hands on deck were employed in
throwing whatever could be spared overboard. In this
was included the tackling of the ship; and when Luke
tells us, we cast it out with our own hands," we may
picture the Great Apostle and Evangelist lending their
assistance in these awful moments. The vast mainyard would require every effort to plunge it into the
roaring sea.
Days of suspense and hardship followed. The sky
yas quite dark; no observations could be made. M1
readers may picture the terrible scene. The creaking
of the timbers-the howling of the storm-the passengers, with exhausted bodies, plying the pumps night
and day, and all seemingly in vain.  "Neither stars
nor sun were seen for many days." Where they were,
they could not tell; for the valuable compass, as I
have a little ago said, was not discovered at that time,
and they were wholly dependent on the observation
of the heavenly bodies. The next moment they might
strike on some rock, or be driven on some unknown
shore. Add to all this, the provisions were so injured,
that they began to suffer from want of food; and so
fast was the water gaining gr und, that the crew seem
to have resigned themselves to hopeless despair,




350          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
Where was Paul all this while?  Doubtless he bore
his part nobly in all these sufferings and endurances;
but there was one duty which he specially engaged
in, in those hours cf terror.  As at Damascus, in the
quiet chamber of the street called "Straight," so here,
amid the moanings of the storm, "behold, he prayeth!"
"Behold the man of God!
His hallow'd voice of prayer
Rises above the stifled groan
Of that intense despair.
How precious are those tones
On that sad verge of life,
Amid the fierce and freezing storm,
And the mountain-billows' strife!"
His prayer is heard! He had been wrestling with that
God who commandeth the winds and the sea, and they
obey him. God, at midnight, gives his honoured servant another of those visions with which he had already
more than once favoured him in his hour of trial. An
angel wings his flight across these dark waters-visits
that. labouring vessel-and, amid the roar of the pitiless storm, whispers, "Fear not, Paul."  The Apostle,
at the dawn of the next day, calls the heathen passengers and crew around him; and, lifting up his own
voice amid the din of the waters, told the glad news:
"Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have
loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and
loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for
there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but
of the ship. For there stood by me this night the
angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying,
Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar:
and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with




THE SHIPWRECK.             351
thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer. for I believe
God, that it shall be even as it was told me. Howbeit
we must be cast upon a certain island." *
There is something very sublime in this. To see a
poor bound prisoner, on his way to the bar, a convict,
in a convict ship, slanding forth at this awful crisis,
alone able to comfort and sustain a sinking crew. He
had known in the past the faithfulness of God's word,
and he believes it now. He looked around him on the
mountain billows, but he rejoiced in the Psalmist's
assurance, "The Lord sitteth on the floods, yea, the
Lord sitteth King for ever."  "Though the waters
thereof roar and be troubled,-though the mountains
shake with the swelling thereof," —"the Lord on high
is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than
the mighty waves of the sea."  The night before, "all
hope that they should be saved was taken away." The
next day no ray of light fringed these dark clouds;
but, though the sea was still running mountains high,
he was not afraid, —" his heart was fixed, trusting in
the Lord."
His speech soothed the agitated spirits around. The
crew were nerved by his words of encouragement, and
set themselves with new. vigour to weather the tempest.
It was raging still with unabated violence. Fourteen
days in succession they drifted along the trough of the
ocean. At the close of the fourteenth day, about midnight, the well-known sound of "breakers" fell on the
ear of the trembling mariners, and warned them that
they must be drawing near to land. Through the hazy
darkness they descried to the left a fringe of white foam.
They let down the sounding-lead-the depth of the sea
* Acts xxvii. 21-2G.




352          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
was twenty fathoms; they sounded shortly after, t was
only fifteen! As they were so rapidly coming to shallow water, they saw that their only hope of safety was
to get the ship anchored till day-dawn, and then to
run in the best way they could to some creek or bay
in this strange coast. Orders were given to cast out
four anchors by the stern; but after this was done, as
they had good ground to fear she might break from
these and be driven on shore, every eye "looked
anxiously for the day."
And what land was this they were now approaching?
All the description we have of it in the Acts is, "a
certain island."  Able writers, who have turned their
attention to the subject, have, most satisfactorily proved
that this could be none other than the island of Malta,
which the youngest reader knows to be situated to the
south of Sicily. You may picture to yourselves these
terrible moments-land close at hand, but death and
destruction between! The sea rolling mountains high,
the vessel pitching all the more heavily by the strain
from her anchors. The breakers were roaring aheadthe leak was increasing-the rain or sleet poured down
from a black sky. The sailors, fearing that the ship
would go to pieces before daylight, were making an
unmanly attempt to save themselves and leave the
others to the mercy of the storm. They lowered the
small boat from the side of the vessel under a false pretence, saying that another anchor would require to be
let down to steady the pitching ship, but that it would
be needful, for this purpose, to convey it first of all in
the boat to a little distance. Paul detected their cow.
ardly purpose, and saw that, if they did not wait and
assist, they would all perish. "Except these abide in




THE SHIPWRECK.             353
the ship," said he, " ye cannot be saved."  The Apostle
directed his remonstrance, not to the sailors, but to the
soldiers and the centurion. It showed the influence
this great man had acquired. They instantly decided
the matter by cutting the ropes by which the small
boat was let down-it plunged into the sea, and was
left to drift away in the dark, and become the sport ot
the breakers.
The dawn of day broke wildly in the eastern horizon.
It was a gladsome sight, but only served to disclose to
theni more fearfully the reality of their peril. The
clouds of spray still screened from view the adjoining
shore. Of many shipwrecks, doubtless, we all have
read; but there is something of terrible interest surely
in the one before us. Imagine 276 individuals, wan with
terror, and faint from want of food and rest, clustered
together on the deck, which they expected to see every
moment shivered under their feet. As the gray dawn
of morning is lighting dimly up these countenances,
one figure stands conspicuous in the midst of them.
He began that voyage a prisoner-he is now their acknowledged director and counsellor; even the heathen
sailors and crew have seen that a nobler spirit than
that of earth animates him. He again raises his voice
in the storm-he reminds them that for fourteen days
they had gone without food; that it was a duty to suspend for a little their labour, and partake of the gifts
which God had given them-adding, moreover, as a
reason, that a hair of their head would no- perish. He
himself set the example, and in the dim light of that
eventful morning, in presence of the crew, he said
grace, asked the divine blessing on the food of which
z




554          THE FOOTSTEPS )F ST PAUL.
lie partook, and, in accordance with his advice and
example, they partook also.
Their next occupation was to unburden the vessel of
the cargo of wheat, which not only added to the difficulty of running safely ashore, but probably it had also
been so soaked with sea-water as to be rendered useless. This done, the lingering shades of night had all
dispersed, and the land appeared.
On looking towards the shore, they observed a small
creek, or bay, with a sandy beach; here they were
anxious, if possible, to effect a landing.  After making
necessary preparations for the hazardous attempt (setting up the foresail, taking up the anchors, and loosing
the rudder-bands), in a place where two seas meet,
they ran the ship aground.  A sand bank, a little in
front of the shore, had been concealed by the waves;
on this the forepart of the vessel stuck fist, but the
hinder part was driven to pieces by the violence of the
billows. It was quite evident now that nothing possibly could save the ship,- a few minutes more, and her
shivered planks would be strewed over the waters. In
this perilous moment the thought struck the soldiers,
what shall we do with our prisoners, Paul among the
number     If they escape from our hands, we shall be
responsible for their safety. Their first proposal, under
a stern sense of duty, was to kill them at once; and
there seems little doubt this would have been carried
into effect, had it not been for the influence the Apostle
had gained over the centurion. It would indeed have
been an unpardonable act to have dyed these raging
waters with the blood of those who had struggled so
bravely in behalf of the crew; and more especially




TUE SHIPWRECK.             355
to sacrifice the life of one whose presence and manly
bearing had so greatly contributed hitherto to their
safety.  The centurion, therefore, "willing to save
Paul," gave orders that all who could swim should
plunge into the water, and make the best of their way
to the shore. His advice was immediately obeyedsome swam, others on broken boards and pieces of the
vessel surmounted the angry breakers, and they got all
safe to land.*
" The name of the island was Melita."  Malta was
then a thinly-peopled place, and its inhabitants were
of Phoenician origin. The bay where they landed was
a few miles to the north of the present capital, Valetta,
and is screened on the north by the rocky island of
Salmonetta. It is remarkable that the soundings at
the eastern entrance of the bay at this day exactly correspond with those given in the Acts. A number of the
islanders, who had witnessed the labouring of the
Alexandrian corn ship, now crowded down to the creek
where the faint and weary crew were huddled together,
drawing breath, after so long a period of terrible torture. They are called " barbarians," but their natural
kindness got the better of any baser passions.  They
sympathised with the shivering sufferers; and in some
sheltered hollow they lighted a fire to restore warmth.
We may imagine how grateful this would be, when we
remember that most of them must have been soaked
and dripping with sea-water. Some had no clothes at
all; the rain was pelting from above; and all this
under the chill and wintry winds of November. The
Apostle himself had been assisting in collecting sticks
to kindle the blaze, and was casting these into the
* S.e the Dietura




356         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
flames, when a viper came "out of the heat," and
fastened on his hand. The natives, when they beheld
this, immediately drew the conclusion that Paul mast
be a murderer-that, though he had escaped the sea,
vengeance still pursued him, and would not suffer him
to live. How remarkable, that even among barbarians there is a conviction of the certainty of vengeance
overtaking the sinner,-nature confirming the Bible
truth, that, "though hand join in hand, the wicked
shall not escape unpunished!" The Apostle shook the
reptile into the flames. They expected every moment
to see his body swelling with the poisonous sting, and
falling lifeless to the ground; but when they saw that
he remained unharmed, they gazed with wonder, and
pronounced him to be a god. An objection has been
raised by some to the accuracy of the incident here
recorded, that no poisonous vipers or snakes are now
found in Malta. The answer, however, is quite satis.
factory. At the time of St Luke, Malta was an uncultivated, unpeopled island; whereas, now, it is, without exception, for its size, the most densely crowded
spotin Europe; and population and civilization always
tend to rid an insular country of dangerous tribes of
animals. We have seen the Highlanders on a Scottish
loch point with pride to the hill on which the last wolf
in Britain was killed. We cannot, at all events, receive the silly and superstitious explanation which tradition gives us, and which is believed in by some of
the islanders to this day. They think that the same
kind of vipers still exist, but that they ceased to be
poisonous reptiles ever since the Apostle flung the one
which fastened on him into the fire. They tell a story
of an islarder, from curiosity, carrying one of theas




THE SHIPWRECK.              357
vipers into Sicily, and that it immediately became
poisonous, but on coming back again to the charmed
land of Malta, its venom left it! 
But to return to the narrative. We are not told
what further effect this miracle had upon the minds of
the people. It was not the oiny exertion of miraculous
power on the part of the Apostle.  Near the spot
where the vessel was wrecked, Publius, the governor
of the island, had his residence and possessions. He
received kindly the shipwrecked crew, and entertained
them for three days.  His humanity and pity did not
go unrewarded. His aged father was, at the time,
lying dangerously ill of fever. St Paul went and laid
his hands on him, and prayed, and his recovery
ensued. Others who had diseases heard of the marvellous cure, and came themselves to be healed.  Before
the strangers departed, they were laden with proofs of
the gratitude of the islanders.
We cannot resist mentioning, in passing, that there
is a name we have often had occasion to refer to in the
notes at the foot of the page, which possesses some interest in connexion with Paul's voyage and shipwreck,
-it is that of the Jewish historian Josephus, whose writings tend to throw so much valuable light on that period.
There seems, at least, a probability that he formed one
of the crew in the Alexandrian corn-shi; and, if
so, that he met the Apostle, and was witneo of the prisoner's noble bearing throughout the storm. Without
offering any opinion on the subject, I rthall quote to
you the words of the young historian h'mself, who, at
the age of twenty-five, made a voyage to Rome, and
gives the following account of it:-"At the time when
* See note in Stackhonso  HiR'tory of the BiAle,  ol. vi. p. 421.




358         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
Felix was procurator of Judea, there were certain
priests of my acquaintance, good and worthy persons,
whom, on a small and trifling occasion, he had put into
bonds and sent to Rome to plead their cause before
Caesar. For these I was desirous to procure deliverance, and that especially because I was informed that
they were not unmindful of piety towards God even
under their affliction, but supported themselves with
figs and nuts.  Accordingly, I came to Rome, though
it was often through great hazards by sea; for our
ship being wrecked in the midst of the Adriatic Sea,
we that were in it swam for our lives all the night,
when, upon the first appearance of the day, a ship of
Cyrene appearing to us by the providence of God, I
and some others, eighty in all, going before the rest,
were taken up into the'ship.  And when I had thus
escaped and came to Puteoli, I became acquainted
with Aliturus, an actor of plays, a Jew by birth, and
much beloved by Nero, and, through his interest, became known to Poppsea, Coesar's wife, and took care,
as soon as possible, to entreat her to procure that the
priests might be set at liberty." We shall immediately find this was the same direction Paul and his
friends followed from Malta.
Three months had been spent on the hospitable
shores of that island home, the Apostle doubtless taking
every opportunity, in exchange for their temporal, to give
its people of "spiritual things."  It is unlikely that he
who would not pass a night in a dungeon without preaching the gospel, could now continue twelve weeks with
his lips silent regarding the truth. Tradition even says
that Publius himself not only became a Christian, but
died Bishop of Malta. We know that, ever since the




THE SHIPWRECK.              359
thlpwreck of Paul, the religion of Christ has had a
footing in that island.  My young readers may have
heard that, in 1838, our former good Queen Adelaide
visited Malta, and that, among the first objects which
meet the eye of the voyager in landing, is a Christian
church, a memorial of her piety and generosity.
The season of the year when our voyagers could, with
favourable winds, prosecute their route, had now set
in, and Julius was desirous, without delay, of reaching
the capital.  Here the Alexandrian ship, called the
" Castor and Pollux," had wintered at Malta, and was
again about to sail for Italy. Castor and Pollux, it is
scarcely necessary to add, were two fabled twin brothers
among the Itoman deities. They were supposed to be
sons of Jupiter, who, at their death, were translated
to heaven, and formed into a constellation under the
name of Gemini (or twins). Sailors were considered to
be specially under their protection; hence it was a
favourite name for Roman vessels, and their image
was often placed on the ship's prow, as was possibly
the case with the one in which the Apostle now
embarks.
The voyage was completed in safety without any
memorable occurrence. They put in f(r three days
into the famous harbour of Syracuse in Sicily, one
hundred miles distant from Malta. We are not told
whether Paul landed; but it is more than probable
that the permission granted him  by Julius before,
would not be refused him here,* and that he preached
in this sea-port of the West "the unsearchable riches
of Christ."
Syracuse was at that time, a great mercantile city,
* Howson. vol. ii. p. 358.




360          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
It was situated on a bold promontory, jutting out at
the east of the island; and the bay, in which hundreds
of ships rode at anchor, was screened on the south by
the island of Ortygia. The Apostle must, at all events,
have gazed on the beautiful buildings which lined the
shore, "the fair walls of white marble" which surrounded the town; also the temples of Jupiter, Diana,
and Minerva, —the latter towering high in the centre
of Ortygia,-these testifying too plainly to its Pagan
worship. It was, however, greatly shorn, by this time,
of its ancient extent and splendour, although the loveliness of the surrounding scenery, both by sea and
land, no changes could alter.
Again they set sail, and after beating about for
some time, they reached, under less favourable weather, the town of Rhegium, situated on the extreme
south of Italy, just before entering the Straits of Messina. After one day spent here, they availed themselves
of a fair wind from the south, passed through the
Straits, and the favourable breeze still continuing, they
were at anchor "next day" in the harbour of Puteoli.
Puteoli, now Pozzuoli, was situated at the northern
curve of that loveliest of all bays, the Bay of Naples,
which extends from twenty-five to thirty miles across:
the northern promontory being called the Promontory
of Misenum; the southern, that of Minerva. As Paul
and his fellow-passengers passed the latter, the rocky
island of Capreie, with its white cliffs and rugged outline, must have been close at their right. It seemed
to have been placed by nature as a barrier to check the
tempest, and protect the interior of the bay from its
fury.*  But it recalled sadder thoughts, as blackened
* KnstK-or




THE SHIPWRECK.              361
with the dreadful sins and crimes of the Emperor Tibe.
rius. He was one of those of whom the Apostle speaks
as " being past feeling, having given themselves over
to licentiousness to work all uncleanness with greediness." Paul must have gazed with horror on the precipice from which the monster used to hurl, after fearful torture, the victims of his cruelty, while hired
ruffians were waiting in boats at the foot of the rock to
despatch them with oars and bludgeons.*
They have entered the lovely Bay of Naples. No
wonder the Romans selected Venus, the fabled goddess
of love and beauty, to preside over the baths, fountains, and groves of this delicious shore. "A sky for
ever serene-seas never ruffled-perpetual spring and
eternal verdure, may be supposed to have allured the
goddess to her new abode." t The most prominent
object in the landscape was Vesuvius,-not, as now,
the angry guardian of the scene, but a soft and beautiful mountain with vine-clad sides.  Herculaneum
and Pompeii, now dug from their bed of lava and
ashes, were then sleeping in quiet grandeur at the
foot of the mountain. But a short time after Paul
gazed on them from the " Castor and Pollux," they
were entombed in their lava sepulchre; and the historian Josephus mentions that, among others who were
buried in this living grave were Drusilla and her
little one, before whom and her husband Felix the
Apostle had so recently reasoned of a still more terrible
"judgment to come." 
We may imagine the scene as the Egypt %n corn-vessel
I Suetonins's L/fe of Tiberius
t Eustace's Classical Tour, vol. i. p. 374.
t Howson and Conybeare, vol. ii. p 3fi0




362          THE FOOT'TEPS OF ST PAUL.
approached the harbour of Puteoli.  Crcwds of people
would be loitering about the docks, watching its approach.   This old seaport was situated on a smaller
but scarce less beautiful bay of blue water, running five
miles northward from the larger one, sheltered by the
promontory of Misenum from the south wind. While
Puteoli was built on the eastern side, the well-known
Maike (the great resort for people of fashion at particui:lr seasons from Rome) occupied the west.   Puteolilooked across to the elegant villas of this "Roman
Briighton,"-the marine palace of Nero rising conspicuously, among myrtle-trees and orange-groves, to the
left.
Paul must have gized      upon those   magnificent
buildings, the remains of which the modern traveller
sees in fine weather down in the clear water, which has
now encroached upon the old shore; or rather, they are
parts of those dwellings to which Horace humorously
refers, when he speaks of the Romans as not being
content with the space the land gives them, they must
needs encroach on the territory of the sea:"And though the waves indignant roar,
Forward you urge the Baian shore;
While earth's too narrow bounds in vain
Your guilty progress would restrain." *
From Puteoli, an artificial mole jutted out far into
the sea, worthy, from its dimensions, of belonging to
the port of the world's capital. Puteoli indeed was the
great "sea-gateway" to the imperial city.  The grainwaggons, that fed the many thousands within the walls
of Rome, passed through its streets; others were filled
with the finer sorts of wood, brought by vessels from
* See E'. ztace's Classical Tour, p. 373.




THE SHIPWRECK.              363
Africa to make furniture for the Roman houses; others
with blocks of marble and granite, from African and
Asiatic quarries, to be fashioned into baths or statuary
for the ador;nment of Roman palaces. There are still
seventeen piers of the ancient mole remaining, within
which the merchant-vessels rode at anchor, and on
which stood the lighthouse.
We are told by Seneca, that when an Alexandrian
corn-ship hove in sight, they were, unlike other vessels,
privileged to enter the bay in full sail; all others were
compelled to lower their topsail. When the " Castor
and Pollux," therefore, was seen entering with her sails
fully spread to the breeze, we may imagine the crowd
at the pier assembling to receive her, and see her cargo
and crew disembarked. We may picture to ourselves
the Great Apostle standing on the deck of the vessel, as
the shores of illustrious Italy first opened to him! In
entering the Pirseus at Athens, he had felt himself going
among the world's sages and philosophers; here, it was
amid the lavish opulence and splendour of the Mistress
of Kingdoms. The power and wealth of Rome glittered around that beautiful bay. The first object probably his eye rested on, after passing the promontory
of Misenum, was the Roman navy riding at anchor,next, the palace of Baulos, which we have just mentioned,-then villa on villa at Baize. If the day was
calm, hundreds of pleasure-boats and yachts would bt
studding the bay, with their white sails and'gailycoloured pennons.  At last, entering the harbour of
Puteoli, amid the clattering of ship-hammers and the
heavy roll of laden waggons. the busy hum of ten thousand voices in the Latin tongue intimated that'they
were nearing one of the two " Liverpools of Italy," of




364          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
which Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, was the other.
Of the two, however, Puteoli was the more important;
it admitted to its port vessels of dimensions of which
Ostia could not boast.*
Josephus informs us, that from the connexion of its
trade with Alexandria and the surrounding eastern
countries, there were many Jews residing at Puteoli.
The Great Apostle found also Christian disciples.
They had been long anxiously expecting to see his
face; now their fondest wishes were gratified. He
came, indeed, "bearing in his body the marks of the
Lord Jesus."  He was not then the bold and vigorous
Roman citizen who had stood, a few years before, on
Mars' Hill among Grecian sages; he was now a prisoner chained to a soldier's arm, wan and weary after
a voyage chequered with so many disasters; but he was
still "strong" as ever "in the Lord, and in the power
of His might;" and though moral storms, more fearful
far than what he had undergone in the Sea of Adria,
might be in reserve for him, he could look calm and
undismayed, amid them all, towards the better haven
above, and feel that that God, who had made good His
promise in the one, would be equally faithful regarding
the other.
It was indeed a memorable day, in the annals of the
infant Church, which brought its great amb issador to
the shores of imperial Italy-to the very bay, alsc,
which was fresh with the footprints of Augastus and
Cicero, Horace, Virgil, and MAecenas. The harbour of
Puteoli had, 250 years before the time of Paul, witnessed an imposing spectacle in the landing of the embassy from Carthage at the close of the second Punio
* See Howscn, Lewin, and Olfhausen.




THE SHIPWRECK.              366
war, to sue for peace at the- gates cf the capital; but
there was a truer moral grandeur in the arrival of this
poor Voyager, whose errand, from a mightier than
earthly court, was, not to sue for peace, but to proclaim, in the name of the King of kings, the only true
peace for men and -for nations — " eace through the
blood of the Crums."
No sooner did he arrive, than tidings were sent of.the event to the brethren in Rome.  The Puteoli
Christians requested that he might be allowed to remain a few days with them. Julius, who owed, in
common with all the crew, such a debt of gratitude to
the prisoner, consented.
We shall close this chapter, leaving the Apostle to
enjoy this short while of quiet in this bustling city,
before setting out on the last stage of his journey to
the v orld's great capital




CHAPTER XXL
~ran in Ant~e.
Jesus! avenger of our fall,
Thou faithful lover above all
The cross has ever borne!
O tell me-life is in Thy voiceHow much afflictions were Thy choice,
And sloth and ease Thy scorn?
Thy choice and mine shall be the same,
Inspirer of that holy flame,
Which must for ever blaze!
To take the cross and follow Thee,
Where love and duty lead, shall be
My portion and my praise."
COWPER.'" The Apostle prisoner; but, though a prisoner, an Apostle..  *
A spiritual Atlas-Paul carries the whole heathen world upon his
shoulders. That Roman empire, the most powerful on the face of the
earth, which required seven ages to be established, this man takes
only a quarter of an age to regenerate."-MoNOD.




,', -
WTHAT a change of scene now waited
the Apostle! All at once, from
the dreary experiences of his sea-voyage, he found himself travelling, under the escort of soldiers, along one of
the great public highways leading to the capital.
We have no means of knowing what particular road
was selected. There was one that led in a northern
direction by Capua; but it is more probable they
adopted the route along the coast, as the most direct,
by Vulturnum and Sinuessa to Minturnae. In either
case, however, the little band would be treading the
famous Appian Way, which still remains, like other
monuments of antiquity.  It is from  13 to 14 feet
broad, having a hewn foundation, with regularly-formed
stones above, smooth and square, fitting in to one another, and many of which, after 2000 years, are com



368          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
paratively little worn.*  As in our modern turnpikes,
milestones were set up on this great highway every
twenty miles, where were erected also inns or taverns
for the baiting of horses and mules, and the accommodation of travellers.'i Man[ny objects of interest must
have passed before the Apostle's eye.  The vine-clad
plains of fertile Campania; the villas and. terraces of
beautiful Fornmie. where the illustrious Cicero had
his; Ivourite retreat;, the walls, now seen scattered
over the fields, and half covered with.vines, olives, and
hedges, must then have been entire, and full, of the
memory of the great orator.   The road continued
thence through the. narrow: passes of the. Ccocuban
hills, touching once more the sea, where the splendid
villas and palaces of the ancient Auxur crowned the
cliffs which towered above. Paul must have observed,
conspicuous above the rest of the buildings, the Temple
of Jupiter, standing on the summit of the rock, and
looking over the vast country, on every side of which
he was regarded as the protector and guardian.
Crossing the mountains immediately above Auxur,
the travellers would find themselves again in an extensive level, stretching miles on miles in the far distance, with patches here and there of luxuriant pasture, grazed on by numerous herds of cattle and
horses.  Here were the celebated Pcmptine marshes,
through which, in the time of theApostle, a canal (still
remaining, and called Cavata) had been formed by
Augustus, mainly with the view of draining the morass.
At its commencement, a few paces from the road, there
was a fountain in the midst of a grove, with a temple,
sacred to Feronia, the goddess of freedom. One soli* Eustace's Classical Tour.  t See Lewin.




PAUL IN ROME.              369
tary ilex, hanging over the fountain, is all the modem
traveller can discover of the old thicket.  The temple
has sunk into the dust, and not even a stone remains.
Slaves who were about to obtain their freedom were
brought to this shrine; they were seated within on a
sacred chair, and on rising were declared free.  Such
was the'orm of religious rite in obtaining earthly freedom. Some may have been at the moment kneeling
or coming forth rejoicing in the assurance that they
were slaves no more, when the Apostle of a nobler slpiritual freedom was passing by. That chained prisoner
could have told them of a nobler and purer fountain,
washing in which they could be made " free indeed,"
rejoicing in "the glorious liberty of the sons of God."
We are not informed whether Julius and his band
continued their journey on the paved road, or in trackboats dragged by mules.  It is probable they would
use the latter, which were most commonly employed;
and if so, the time of travelling would be the same
as that spoken of by other wayfarers.  Horace, in
his Satires, gives a vivid description of a night journey
along the canal. He complains of the buzzing of gnats,
the croaking of frogs, and the still more vexatious tardiness of the muleteer, who took sixteen hours to a
distance of twenty-seven miles. Night was the time,
as Strabo relates, when passengers were in the habit of
commencing their journey, because the vapours, continually arising from the swamps, are less noxious then
than during the heat of the day.*  At the end of the
canal, eighteen miles from Terracina, and fifty- no
miles from Rome, was a place called Appii Forum, filled
with low taverns, where the mules were unyoked after
EBstace's Toer, p. 321.
2A




370           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
a long stage.  It was called, probably, after the.onsul Appius Claudius, who'had constructed this famous
Appian Way, and to whose memory a statue had been
erected in the busy town which bore his name.^      It
was a well-known place of refreshment for travellers
passing north or south, and enjoyed no very favourable
reputation. It was the noted resort, in that age, of what
we may call the "swell mob" of the Italian London,
Thieves, pickpockets, and pedlars had always a promising trade amid its bustle and confusion.t
In the dense and busy crowd of idlers and traffickers
there, we are led to wonder if Paul would meet one
friend to cheer his drooping spirit? Strange to say, in
that unlikeliest of places, Christian friends discover him,
and amid the rude voices and jostling of the multitude,
the disciples of a crucified Jesus embrace one another!
The Christians from Rome had heard from their brethren at Puteoli of the Apostle's arrival. They had come
down to this meeting-place, fifty-one miles from the
capital, to welcome him.   They might probably have
gone even further; but not knowing whether he would
travel by the road or the canal, they waited at the
common terminus of both, Appii Forum.
Ten miles farther on, at a place called " The Three
Taverns," + a second band?f Christian friends met him
-perhaps the older and more infirm, who had tarried
behind their more robust and younger brethren. The
spirit of the Aged Apostle revived. He had for long
* Ca]met.               t See Horace Sat., v. 3.
In the time of Constantine we find that the Three Taverns had become the seat of a bishop. That emperor appointed nineteen bishops
throughout his dominions, to settle the controversy between Donatus and
Cecilianus, and among these we find the name of Felix a Tribcs Tabcr"il
(Felix from "The Three Taverns").-Hammond's Annotations.




PAUL IN ROME.              371
been accustomed to nothing but a prison life; for two
years frowns more than smiles had been familiar to
him; but prisoner though still he was, he had much
of the aspect of a hero returning in triumph. Never
did a nobler champion tread the Appian Way, nor one
more truly entitled to the term of " Great." There is
a world of touching meaning in Luke's short statement,
"When Paul saw the brethren, he thanked God, and
took courage." His sensitive heart was deeply touched
by the kindness of those who, in a strange land, thus
welcomed him.  He was doubtless cheered also by seeing the liberty they appeared to enjoy. Seventeen
miles farther brought him to the base of the Alban hills.
These separated the plains we have just spoken of
from the Campagna of Rome. Here he would pass
through the lovely valley of Aricia, and see probably
the same dark background spoken of by modern travellers, "formed by the groves and evergreen forests
that clothe the higher regions of the mountains."*
Gay equipages would be increasing on his view, and
crowded villas and gardens studding the slopes of the
Alban mount. After two other gentle elevations, he
would get his first glimpse of the Great Capital of the
world, with its two millions of human beings! Perhaps
he saw it first at the hour the poet describes"'Tis sunset on the Palatine. A flood
Of living glory wraps the Sabine hills,
And o'er the rough and serrate Apennin^A
Floats like a burning mantle."
What his impressions were when its domes and
columns rose before him, w^e cannot say. His feelings
regarding it must, at least, have been very different
* Eustace.




372         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
from those recorded of the St Paul of the sixteenth
century, whom we have more than once already compared with our Apostle.  To the former, with all its
glory and grandeur, as mistress of the nations, Rome
was a heathen city in the saddest sense, full of dreadful
vice, her boasted virtues only what an old writer calls
"splendid sins."  When the Saxon monk, on the
other hand, first saw the city of the Tiber, the chains
of superstition were still binding him.  He was yet
a devoted son of the Papal Church, his eyes closed to
those enormous evils which he was yet to expose
before Christendom. Rome, therefore, was still to him
what Jerusalem was to the child of Abraham. It was
the mother of all Churches-the Zion of the gospel age
-the " city of God."  The historian of the German
Reformer thus describes Luther's first approach to it: —
"After a painful journey in the beginning of summer,
under. the burning sun of Italy, he approached the
seven-hilled city; his heart was stirred, his eyes sought
the Queen of the World and of the Church. As soon
as he'caught sight in the distance of the eternal city
-the city of St Peter and St Paul-the metropolis of
Catholicity-he prostrated himself on the ground, exclaiming,' Holy Rome, I salute thee!"' Paul's exclamation, if he had any, must have been very different.
We may well suppose it would rather have been this,
" Unhappy Rome! I pity thee! but, in the name of my
divine Lord and Master, I come proclaiming to thee
a freedom which all thy boasted glory knows nothing
of!"
Soon they were in the vast suburbs, among villas,
gardens, and tombs. The houses became denser, the
streets narrower.  At last they come to the Porta




PAUL IN ROME.              43
Capena, the great arch through which often and again
triumphant legions had marched. Continuing their way
through the streets, they reached the Forum, the great
centre of interest, where the golden milestone stood, at
which the various roads, leading to different parts
of Italy, met.*  Gigantic buildings rose all around
it-arches, colonnades, temples, and statues. Porticoes
lined either side; under one stood, in bronze, the Latin
and Roman kings, from zEneas down to Tarquinius
Superbus; on the other were ranged the Roman heroes,
all in triumphal robes.  In the centre rose a colossal
statue of Augustus.t hBow striking a contrast is the
description of the same scene by a traveller eighteen
hundred years later, who, in describing its "colonnades
encumbering the pavements buried under their ruins"
-" shattered porticoes, broken shafts, and vast fragments of marble capitals, and cornices heaped together,"
concludes by saying, " A herdsman seated on a pedestal, while his oxen were drinking at the fountain, and
a few passengers moving at a distance in different
directions, were the only living beings that disturbed
the silence and solitude which reigned around!"+ The
Capitoline hill terminated the other end of the Forum;
and if we are correct in describing the Apostle's route,
it must have now risen straight before him. It had on
its summit the parent temple of the imperial city. A
hundred steps led up to the shrine of Jupiter Tonans.
It is described as having been " adorned with all the
refinements of art, and blazing with the plunder of the
world. In the centre of the temple, with Juno on his
left, and Minerva on his right side, the Thunderer
* See F-stace's Tour, vol. ii. p. 83.  t Eust Ice, vol. ii. p. 88.
1 See our picture of the Forum as't now is, in ruins.




374          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
sat on a throne of gold, grasping the lightning in
one hand, and in the other wielding the sceptre of the
universe." On the Apostle's left rose the palace of the
Caesars on the Palatine; where was preserved, in the
midst of the gorgeous buildings, the lowly cottage
of Romulus thatched with reeds.  The dominion of
the founder of Rome extended no further than the
seven hills. But in the time of Paul, this Palatine hill
alone was found too small for the imperial palace; and
no wonder! when we read of its avenues, triple porticoes, and thousand columns, extending for a mile in
length.  A flight of steps led up from the Forum to
the royal residence.  Sentries paced in front of the
gates, and the palisades were crowned with laurel, in
token of victory.  A temple of Apollo stood within
the royal precincts, and spacious gardens stretched
down towards the circus behind.
It is more than probable that the place to which
Paul was conducted was the camp or barrack of the
Pretorians, —a large square with buildings all round,
erected during the reign c? i'iberius, outside the city
walls. The Pretorian troops were the picked favourites
in the Roman army. There were ten thousand of them
in all. They were in receipt of double pay, besides
other privileges not possessed by the rest of the soldiers.
We may imagine, then, the Great Apostle conducted
outside the gate of the city, and entering through strong
fortifications into these imperial barracks. He and his
guard would cross a deep ditch, or valium, which enclosed the camp, and then by a gateway they would
reach the interior of the barracks Hij eye would probably rest on a large field immediately in front for mi.
litary exercise and where, a few years before, the Bri.




PAUL IN ROME.             376
tisn king Caractacus had been led in trrtmph. Many
prisoners from distant parts of the empire were within
these same walls. He might hear the clank of the
chain by which they were fastened to the attendant
soldier, giving him intimation of what might be waiting himself! God, however, had in his mercy ordered
for his servant a kindlier treatment. Afranius Burrus
was at this time the Pretorian Prefect.*  He was a
hardy, but noble-minded Roman, whom Tacitus describes as having his one hand maimed with honourable
wounds. To him Paul was surrendered by Julius.
The latter, it is evident, had mentioned favourably to
the Roman Prefect the character and heroic spirit of
his prisoner, and peculiarly commended him to his clemency. Burrus was convinced that he had been guilty
of no crime worthy of bonds. But as it was needful
for him to undergo the form of a trial, the Prefect
could not with safety grant him his liberty. He so far
relaxed, however, the severity of imprisonment by allowing him to live in his own hired lodging in the city,
with the usual precaution of having a soldier by him,
to whom he was chained. These soldiers probably relieved one another. Who can tell but that under the
instructions of their prisoner, their hardened spirits may
have learned to " fight the good fight of faith, and to lay
hold of eternal life"? What sort of an apartment
Paul occupied, of course we can form no conjecture. As
silver and gold he had none, most probably the expense
of it was defrayed by the " devout brethren" who had
come to welcome him at Appii Forum. If so, they
would probably secure a room of sufficient dimensions
to form "a church in the house," where they might
* Tacit. Ann. xii. 42. 1.




376          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
meet often, and listen to his heart-stirring words
Here he was left in custody, to be tried in due
time before the emperor.
Nero was now sovereign of the Roman world. He
was still but a youth of twenty-one, but his life of guilt
and infamy had already begun. His beauty,-among
other things, had proved a snare to him. He delighted
to deck himself out in finery, and his light glossy
hair hung in ringlets, like a woman's, over his shoulders.
His whole education gives us a painful specimen of
the follies of what was thought a brilliant age. His
early guardians and.instructors were his aunt Lepida,
a dancing master, and a barber! and when, as a mere
youth, he was exalted to the throne of the world, the
frivolity of his early training showed itself in public
exhibitions in the theatre, where the emperor played
on the harp, sang, and recited verses of his own,
amid thunders of applause.  Upon one of these rehearsals, a solemn thanksgiving to the gods was decreed, and still further to flatter his vanity, it was
resolved to dedicate a part of the verses in letters of
gold to Jupiter Capitolinus;-a folly trifling in comparison with his own; on the day of the athletic games,
he shaved his beard, put the hair into a box of pure
gold, enchased with precious stones, and consecrated it
to the same " Father of gods and men! "  Miserable
as all this was, it would have been well for himself and
the world if his puerilities had never gone further.
There is scarce the crime, however, that can be named,
into which this wicked emperor did not plunge.  He
had murdered many courtiers in cold blood; and when
the Great Apostle arrived in Rome, Octavia, his beauti* Suctonius's Life of Nero, pp. 347, 349.




PAUL IN ROME.              37;
fil and noble-minded queen, was living in cruel exile.
The infamous Poppsea was residing with him as his
unlawful wife, in his splendid Palatine Palace.
Shortly after, he not only gave orders for Octavia's
murder, but had her head brought to Rome, savagely
to witness it!  A few weeks later, he committed the
most enormous of his many fearful crimes, in the
assassination of his own mother.  His first purpose was
to loosen the rafters of her bed-chamber, and to bury
her as she was asleep under the ruins of the ceiling.
This failing, he next arranged to drown her on her
way to her villa on the Lucrine Lake, when on board
an ornamental yacht, so contrived as, on a given
signal, to fall to pieces.  This also having failed, she
was despatched the same night with daggers! "The
freedman, Anicetus, undertook the mission; and on
entering the chamber where Agrippina reclined with
a single female slave, and solitary lamp, she said to
him,'If you bring a message from my son, to inquire after my health, tell him I am better; if
your purpose be murder, do it quickly;' then baring
her bosom, with a design of shortening her sufferings,
or reproaching the parricide, she exclaimed,' Strike
here,' and was despatched with repeated wounds." *
It gives a mournful picture of his hardened levity,
that a short time after, he was seen singing to the guitar,
and acting in presence of crowds of Romans, the nobler of
whom shed tears when they saw the imperial honour so
tarnished. When the tidings of revolt among his subjects on one occasion came so his ears, he threatened to
poison the whole senate, consume the city by fire, and let
loose wild beasts among the people in the streets. No
+ Lempriere's Dictionary.




378         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
wonder Paul afterwards speaks of him as a " Lo,t," and
thanks his God who had rescued him from his jaws.*
Perhaps never in the history of our race did there
live at one time two such opposite specimens of humanity as now in the city of Rome-Nero and Paul.
The one, the nominal master of the world, but an awful
mixture of the beast and the fiend; the other, a "persecuted tent-maker," but possessing a nature with all that
was lofty, pure, lovely, and of good report.
It was then under the reign of this " bold, bad man,"
and while some of the scenes we have described were
transacting in the palace, that our Great Apostle lived
for two years in the capital.t
There were many Jews resident in Rome then as
now. They were confined, however, as at this day, to
a "Jewish Quarter."  This was situated on the other
side of the Tiber. Here they were allowed to have
their own synagogues, and to collect their annual tribute of two drachmme on each head, for the support of
the temple treasury in Jerusalem. There were also,
as we have seen, at present in the imperial city not a
few Christians. Many of the latter, like Aquila and
Priscilla, had been driven from Rome to cities bordering on the Mediterranean, in consequence of the edict
of Claudius. While sojourning in these eastern countries, as I before observed, some of them had seen Paul
personally. Their faith and devotedness had been
deepened. They had returned to the great capital
with their minds much impressed by the holy teaching
they had received from his lips. The long list of
names in the closing chapter of his Roman epistle informs us how many devoted believers were in the city
2 Tim. iv. 17.  t Ltnepriere. See also Mr Lewin, vol. ii. p. 7~4




PAUL IN ROMB.              379
of the Tiber, waiting to welcome their spiritual father
and friend.
As was the Apostle's custom in other cities, he
preached in Rome to the "Jews first." After occupying for three days his solitary room, he sent for the principal people among the Israelites to have a conversation
with them. Probably he was anxious to explain his
conduct, and get their feelings enlisted on his side before they were prejudiced against him by communications from their brethren at a distance.  We perhaps
could not have wondered if they had been unprepared
to meet the Apostle in a kindly spirit.  The very fact
of his having come thither, appealing to the Roman
Emperor against their own Sanhedrim, was, in itself,
enough to rouse their suspicions and prejudices. When
"the heads of the nation"-the leading Jewish citizens
*therefore, arrived at his lodging, he endeavoured at
first to remove from their minds any unjust and unfounded impressions. He showed that it was they, his
own countrymen at Jerusalem, who had in the first
instance done him the cruel injustice of handing over
one of their own nation to the Roman power. Even
the Roman Governor had been ready to let him go,
but his Jewish enemies had refused. In these circumstances, he could do no otherwise than appeal unto
Coesar. He concludes by telling them that his only
crime had been preaching the great expectation given
to his fathers of a coming Messiah. "For the hope of
Israel, I am bound with this chain."
They assured him, in reply, that they had got no
tidings regarding him from their countrymen in the
East, nor had they ever heard any evil concerning him.
His vessel, wrecked as it was, had evidently brought




380         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
its crew more speedily to Rome than other ships which
had embarked at the same time from Syria, and which
had been kept back by stress of weather during that
stormy winter
Although, however, the Jewish brethren at Rome
had no charge of a personal kind to bring against Paul,
it was different about the cause he was pleading, as
they added, that the sect to which he belonged, called
"Christians," was " everywhere spoken against." *
There was nothing in their reply to discourage the
Apostle; if anything, he might conclude they were
disposed to hear him in a more candid spirit than he
could have expected.  A day, therefore, was fixed for
a meeting at his own lodging, where, to all willing to
come, he would unfold the great doctrines for which he
had been called in question.
A large body of Jews assembled at the time specified. From morning to evening the Apostle continued
his argument, trying to convince them from their own
Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. There was a
division among the hearers; some (the honest portion,
open to conviction) believed; but others, as is ever
the case, continued in their bigotry and prejudice, and
went away unbelieving as they came.  Paul could
not suffer them to depart without a word of awful
warning-the doom pronounced against obstinate andwilful unbelievers by the Prophet Isaiah. " Go unto
this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall
not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: for the heart of this people is waxed gross, and
their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they
closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hea!
* Acts xxviii. 22.




PAUL IN ROME.              381
with their ears, and understand with their heart, and
should be converted, and I should heal them.  Be it
known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is
sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it." *
As the Apostle now commenced unfolding that gospel to the Gentiles which his own countrymen in Rome
rejected, the unbelieving Jews began among themselves
an active opposition. He, however, remained for two
years in his own hired house, proclaiming faithfully
to all who would hear regarding the kingdom of his
Lord. The kindness of Burrus, which he experienced
when he first came, was still continued.  He was
spared the ignominy and discomfort of being shut up
with other prisoners in the Pretorian barracks, but
was allowed to remain in his own lodging, and to see
there what friends he chose. It was necessary, however.
that the Roman law should be enforced in his being
strictly guarded; day and night he was chained by
the arm to a Roman soldier, but this was his consolation and joy, that " the Word of God was not bound."
The effects of his preaching appear first among the
Pretorian guards;-probably the soldiers who had the
charge of him, carried back day after day to the camp
the tidings of the truth he proclaimed.  Though his
weapons were not like theirs, carnal, they proved to be
" mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." When he writes to his old Philippian friends,
he tells them, with a joyful heart, that his "bonds in
Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other
places." t
It is worthy of remark, in passing, that probably to
Paul's intercourse with Roman soldiers at this time,
* A(ts xxvii. 2V-28.      $ Phil. i. 13




382          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
we may trace the references in his letters written
from Rome, to armour, and battle, and military life.
Both the Epistle to the Ephesians and the Epistles to
Timothy were composed during his Roman captivity.
They are just what we might naturally expect from a
man living daily chained by the wrist to a soldier of
the Imperial Guard-listening to the clank of their
heavy armour, and hearing the sound of their bugles
in the Pretorian tent.  He tells Timothy to "act the
part of the good soldier of Jesus Christ;" and the Ephesians have every part of the Roman armour spiritualised:-the "breastplate "-the "helmet "-the "sandals "-the "shield "-the " sword"-that they might
be able "to stand in the evil day." *
But to return. The tidings of the gospel reached
not merely the military camp, but the imperial palace.
Though wicked Nero's heart remained untouched, Paul
sends Christian greetings from the " saints in Cmesar's
household." Even before the Apostle reached Rome,
some noble women among the higher ranks had taken
up the cross of Jesus, amid the frowns and ridicule of
the "great and mighty."  The wife of the conqueror
of Britain, Pomponia Greecina, was only one of several
who had embraced " the truth as it is in Jesus;" and
now that Paul had himself come among them, we need
not wonder that the good seed should spread. Among
other converts, the Roman martyrology mentions Torpes, an officer of note; and Chrysostom speaks of one of
Nero's cupbearers.t It is even said, although we have
only tradition for it, that the aged philosopher Seneca,
the tutor of Nero, in his old age, laid aside "philosopliy talsely so called," for the glorious simplicities of the
* Eph. vi. 11 to end.  t Cave, p. 102.




PAUL IN ROME.              383
faith ot Jesus  Seneca was the intimate friend of Burrus; and it is by no means improbable that he would
introduce him to one so like-minded, gifted, and learned
as Paul of Tarsus.*
"The sacred historian tells us, that the door of
Paul's lodging was open to every comer, and he tells
us no more; but curiosity would fain ask many an interesting question as to the personages then at Rome.
What was Gallio about, who had known Paul at Corinth 1... Under the auspices of his brother Seneca,
did he now investigate the truth?  How did Felix
demean himself? did he renew the intimacy he had
begun at Cesarea 1 or had he not the hardihood to look
in the face the man whom he knew to be innocent,
and ought to have acquitted, but had left bound to
serve his own selfish purposes? Where were Caractacus and his family-his wife, and daughter, and brothers, who had, a few years before, been prisoners in
the Pretorium? Were they still detained at Rome as
hostages? and if so, did a British king ever have an
interview with one of the apostles? Questions such
as these cannot be solved, and it is idle to pursue
them."t
At this period of Paul's life, as detailed in the Acts
of the Apostles, the curtain falls-the history of Luke
comes abruptly to a close. It is from the Apostle's
after-epistles that we are able to get some knowledge
of his future career, now that his ardent wish was at
last fulfilled-" to preach the gospel at Rome also.'
* Ele Lewin, p. 760.   t Ibid, vol ii p. 762.




CHAPTER XXII.
|rof&n-Wife.
" Look in and see Christ's chosen saint
In triumph wear his Christ-like chain 
Nor fear lest he should swerve or faint,-'His life is Christ-his death is gain."'
KEBLE.
"Lord Jesus, I am weary in Thy work, but not of Thy work.
Let me go and speak for Thee once more,.. seal Thy truth, and
then die."-WHITFIELD'S Life.




Paul now was, a long period often elapsed
before their cases were finally tried. It not
only was necessary that the accusers be
0^^   present, but time was given them to summon
their witnesses; and as these, in the case of
the Apostle, would require to be brought from such a
distance, it might easily be shown that his trial could
not well have been concluded before the end of two
years. This is the period mentioned by Luke during
which he remained a prisoner in his hired house. The
legal documents and papers, which were forwarded by
Festus from Cesarca, were probably destroyed at the
time of the shipwreck. Add to this, there were always
such numbers of cases of the same kind to be heard,
that the delay was often very long; the judges had
their frequent holidays; prisoners were left for weeks
in their chains, when the fagged and wearied lawyers
and prwetors were down refreshing themselves at the
2 B




386          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
baths a d sea-breezes of Baise. Moreover, Paul's accusers had no object in hastening the trial, as, from the
private judgment which Festus had already pronounced,
they could have little.expectation of success. If they
desired anything, therefore, it would be delay, in the
hope of being able' to work on the feelings or passions
of the empieror.!;,, 
The Apostle's own. imprisoiiment, is we have said,
was 1 t irksome or;severe, ancd, doubtless,:l the thllings
which happened I:to him, had illen out rather to tie
furherance _ithei: gospel."'Bis house was evidently
of considerable size,capable of c.notaining the multitudes which flocked to hear him.'The sympathies of
many must have been called forth as they saw the old
man, his face wrinkled with cares and sorrows, lifting
the hand that was chained to a rude soldier, and proclaiming those truths for which he suffered, and of
which, "nevertheless, he was not ashamed."*
But it was not his converts at Rome only to whom
he was now of service; he was the spiritual father of
many churches scattered in different parts of the empire; and the old and faithful friends who came to
visit him in his imprisonment, were sent with letters
of comfort to all round about. Luke, Timothy, Tychicus, Demas, and Mark, were the bearers, every now
and then, to churches and individuals, of messages
and epistles.  It is pleasing to hear of Mark, whose
unfaithfulness led to such unpleasant consequences in
separating Paul from  Barnabas, again the devoted
friend and attendant of his great spiritual father.
Many of the Roman converts, too, began to take an
active part in proclaiming the gospel. "Many of the
* See Howson and Conybeare, vol. ii. pp. 386, 387.




PRISON-..IFE.             387
brethren i the Lord," he writes to the Philippians,
" waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold
to speak the Word without fear."*
There was another of Paul's many converts in the
capital, whose history possesses peculiar interest, not
from his wearing the livery of Cwesar's dependants or
courtiers, but from his being one of those apparently
hopeless castaways in the lowest scale of life, who are
ever and anon made the monuments and miracles of
grace:-I refer to Onesimus. He was a runaway slave
from Asia; his master's name was Philemon, a rich
Gentile, a Christian, and member of the church of
Colosse.  Onesimus had plundered him, and taken
refuge at Rome. We can well imagine the debasing
companions among whom this man's lot must have
been cast in the lowest streets of the capital. " Profligate and unprincipled as we know even the highest
and most educated society to have then been, what
must have been its dregs and offal!"  But what cannot grace do?. He was brought, we know not how,
along with the crowd that went day after day to hear
the Great Apostle. He may not unlikely have seen
Paul previously, through whose ministry his master
Philemon had been converted; at all events, as he
listened now to the preaching of the Apostle, he was
led to feel his guilt, and to embrace Jesus as his only
Saviour. The rude and debased slave became possessor
of a liberty he in vain sought by deserting an indulgent master. He saw Paul alone, told him of his behaviour to Philemon, and besought his intercession for
pardon. The Apostle seems ardently to have loved
this penitent stranger; he saw that he was fitted for
* Phil. i. 14           f Howson.




388          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
nobler duties than to return again as a slave to Co.
losse, and was desirous therefore of retaining him in the
service of the gospel at Rome. He would not, however,
do his lawful master injustice by keeping him there,
without first of all receiving the sanction of the former;
he resolved to send Onesimus immediately to Philemon, with a letter and "promissory note" for the sum of
money of which he had been robbed by his slave. The
letter contained the intimation of his earnest wish, that
Onesimus might be allowed to leave his master's service for the good of the Church at large.  The "note"
referred to is in the concluding part of the letter (ver.
18), " If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought,
put that on my account.  I, Paul, have written it with
mine own hand, I will repay it." The whole epistle itself
is a beautiful one, and though well known to all our
readers, it may be well for them here to peruse it, before
proceeding further.  It has been universally admired
as a perfect specimen of kindness, courtesy, honourable
and delicate feeling, and Christian love.  "In it," says
an old writer, " are some of the finest strokes of true
rhetoric-it may be called the polite epistle. Such a genteel and admirable address appear in every sentence,
that it alone might be sufficient to convince us that
Paul was not that weak, visionary, enthusiastic man,
which the minute philosophers and little critics among
the Deists have sometimes represented him to be." *
We may imagine the mingled feelings with which Onesimus, when he arrived at Colosse, went to the house of
his cid master.  He might well have trembled if he
had been going back to any other than a Christian. It
is, indeed, a beautiful example of the confidence one
* Benson.




PRISON-LIFE.               389
believer may place in the forgiving spirit of another;
for' all masters were looked upon, not -nly by the
Roman laws, but by the laws of all nations, as having
an unlimited power over slaves; so that, without asking the magistrates' leave, or any public or formal trial,
they might adjudge them to any work or punishment,
even to the loss of life itself."*  What effect the
Apostle's letter produced we cannot tell; we may reasonably hope, however, that the good Colossian not
only pardoned his penitent slave, but granted him his
liberty, and that he returned to Paul, in order to labour with him as (shall we call it I) the first " city
missionary" among the degraded outcasts in Rome.
We read, fifty years afterwards, of one Onesimnus being
bishop of Ephesus.  It has been conjectured that the
pardoned and liberated slave of Colosse may thus have
become the head of the Christian church in the great
city of Diana!
But it was not a single letter to a solitary Christian of Asia that found its way, at this time, from
Paul's " hired house."  Learned writers, from different
references in these epistles themselves, have inferred
that two others, at least, were written by him at this
time.t Epaphras, the founder of the church of Colosse,
where Philemon was, had come all the way to Rome to
see Paul about the lamentable errors which were fast
creeping in among his converts. It would appear that
some Alexandrian Jew had taken up his abode among
the Colossians, and had contrived to draw them sadly
away from the simplicity of their first faith.  The
Apostle, on learning this, thought it right to address
them without delay, warning them of their.danger,
* Cave's Lives cf the Apostles.  t Neander, p. 318.




390            THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
entreating them to return to the purity of the true
gospel, and not to be led away with "enticing words
Of philosophy and vain deceit."
The other letter to which I refer is perhaps the
richest and tenderest of all his epistles: it is that
which is called in our Bibles the " Epistle to the Ephesians."  There seems strong reason to doubt whether
this epistle was written expressly for the church at
Ephesus.   There are many reasons which we shall
not now detail for concluding rather that it was intended for a number or cluster of churches, of which
that of Ephesus was one. Tychicus was about to visit
this district in Asia Minor; and in consequence of Epaphras haying been made prisoner at Rome, along with
Paul, he had been entrusted with the epistle to the
Colossians.  He and Onesimus more than probably
travelled together. It would naturally occur to the
Apostle that it might be subject of great joy and comfort to the many Christians in these regions, if he were
to send by him also a circular letter. It has been supposed that a copy was written out for each church,
and that each of these was subscribed in his own handwriting in the usual form, " The salutation of me Paul
by my own hand." *
It is supposed that these last three letters were
written by Paul after the first year of his imprisonment, or early the following spring.  Tychicus had
scarcely left, when the Philippian church sent a trusty
messenger to inquire for the welfare of the Apostle,
and present him with a gift of money. This, we have
* This Supposition, we believe, was first suggested by Archbishop Usher,
and has been very generally adopted. See the whole question discussed
in Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature, art. "Epistle to the Ephesians."




rtrISON-LIFR.             391
seen, was not the first occasion that devoted people
had shown their liberality. It must have been very
welcome, doubtless, to the Apostle at this time.. He
could not conveniently now, as formerly, labour with
his hands to minister to his wants. These hands were
chained; perhaps we may add, that, though as willing,
they were not so able for hard toil as when he held
them up before the elders of Ephesus, and told them
they were all he had or swished to trust to. Epaphroditus was the Philippian messenger's name.  On
reaching Rome, he was seized with a severe illness,
probably brought on by the length and fatigues of the
journey, or it may be from arriving at the sick and unhealthy season of the year, so well known to this day
by those who have visited the " Eternal City."  " He
was sick," Paul wrote immediately afterwards, "nigh
unto death; but God had mercy on him, and not on
him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow
upon sorrow."*
The devoted Apostle met daily fresh encouragement
in the great capital. Multitudes were added to the
Christian Church, and the once despised doctrines were
cordially embraced.  Strangest of all was it, as we
have seen, that the royal palace itself should have
become the dwelling-place of believers in Jesus-those
who were slaves of the most hideous vice having their
spiritual fetters broken, and exulting in the liberty
wherewith Christ made them free. We have also supposed as more than likely, that not a few of those rude
and barbarous soldiers, to whom Paul was chained,
were among the number of his spiritual children. If
their hearts were not as hard as the iron mail that
* Phil. ii. 27.




392          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
covered them, they could not help being struck with
the holy and peaceful calm which reigned in the house
and heart of the Jewish prisoner:-what a contrast to
the guilt and brutality which, in the prse' orian barrack,
must have constantly met their eye!
Our Apostle now lost one heathen friend, whose
clemency had made imprisonment easy-viz., Burrus.
His successor was a vicious, profligate courtier of
Nero's.  He does not seers, however, to have subjected Paul to any additional cruelties. The Apostleprisoner had more to dread from Nero and his wicked
wife Poppaea, who, being herself a proselyte to Judaism,
would doubtless have it in her power to crush, by a word,
the man who was so hated by the house of Israel.
When Epaphroditus had recovered, and was able to
return home again to Philippi, Paul entrusted him
with a letter to the church there-The Epistle to the
Philippians. Had the Apostle consulted his own feelings, he would doubtless have detained this good Philippian in Rome, to cheer his own hours of captivity;
but he saw not only that it would be desirable for
Epaphroditus to return to his post of duty, but that
his shattered frame required a change from the unhealthy damps of a Roman climate. "I have deemed
it necessary," he writes to them, "to send to you
Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labour,
and fellow-soldier, but your messenger, and he that
ministered to my wants." *  From the whole epistle
we obtain a very favourable idea of the character of
the Macedonian belLevers. They had, as yet, escaped
the errors that were creeping into other churches; and,
with the exception of a few words of reproof, to some
* Phil. ii. 25, 26.




PRISON-LIFE.              393
who were not cultivating humility and lowliness of
mind as they ought, the epistle is full of joyful commendation, and written in the strain of a father to his
affectionate children.  When Epaphroditus had returned to Philippi, Tychicus to Colosse, and Mark had
probably become the attendant of Peter in Asia Minor.
the Apostle's immediate personal friends were diminished.  He had probably still, however, Timothy his
"own son," Luke, and Aristarchus.  His own prospects seemed to look brighter-a gleam before the
gathering storm!  ie seems even to hint at what his
plans would, be when set at liberty. His eyes were
turned westwards to the original lands of the old " Galatians," but before accomplishing such a visit, he
appears to intimate a desire, if it were God's will, of
going first to Lesser Asia, and mentions to Philemon
his purpose of making his house his home. He would,
doubtless, often long for release.  He might perhaps
think with regret, " What two important years of my
life I have spent in this hired house!  Might I not
have been all this time preaching the gospel, or building up my churches."  Nay, in addition to the fruits
of his preaching, God had other work for him to do.
But for these two years of quiet and seclusion, when
his mind and Christian experience were most matured,
we should not now have been in the possession of those
precious epistles, which have been the treasure, not of
one age, but of the Church till the end of time. This
is the most likely period to fix the date of that valuable
and noble epistle, the Epistle to the Hebrews, which,
though considered by some writers iiot to have been
the work of Paul, has by far the greatest amount of
evidence in its favour, as proceeding from no hand but




394           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
his.*  As we read it, we may think of its author dictating its sublime words during the last of the quiet'
hours he passed in " the solitude of a great city." The
period of repose is soon to be over.    The crisis is
at hand.   Is it to issue in a new lease of life and call
of duty?  Is he yet, "as Paul the aged," to be again
summoned to bear the cross? or is he at once to get
his crown 
*   note to Stakhouse, voL vi p. 4








CHAPTER XXIIL
of Ctosing <antt
"Servant of God, well done!
Rest from thy loved employ;
The battle fought-the victory won,
Enter thy Master's joy."
" He stood upon the brink of the grave, calm and unmoved, like
the conqueror in the Capitol, waiting for the crown to be placed
upon his brow."-BLUNT'S Lectures on St Paul, vol. ii. p. 250.




a E have now come to the last chaitur
in the history of the Great Apostle.
/  4 C    We could have wished that more
particulars had been left to complete
the account of so eventful and interesting a life; but
these materials are very few.  As Irenseus says,
" Luke, at the close of his history, leaves us thirsting
for more." Indeed, we are left very much to fill up
in our own minds how he "finished his course with
joy."  Why his faithful friend and biographer records
so little regarding these concluding years, we cannot
say. We have no cause, however, to complain. We'have rather reason for gratitude, that the Holy Spirit
moved him to transcribe so fully and faithfully what
throws so much light on the infant Church, and the
doings of her brightest Luminary.




398           THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
TIlere is a question which has much divided learned
men, as to whether Paul was only once or twice imp)rioned in Rome.    Some think that his condemnati r, and death took place immediately after the events
recorded  in last chapter; others, we think      with'et.ter grounds, have supposed that he was acquitted
ti4 this his first trial; that, on being set at liberty, he
travelled to the extreme west of the Roman empire,
and preached the gospel in Spain; also that he visited
Asia Minor, and other churches in the East; and after
being imprisoned a second time in Rome, he was sentenced to death, probably in the last year of the reign
of Nero.*
We are left to imagine the scene of Paul's first trial
before the emperor. It has been supposed to have
taken place about March, 61,-the same year when the
Roman arms in Britain received a signal repulse under
the brave Queen Boadicea, and our own London was
burnt to ashes by the infuriated legions of Nero.A
Although such causes as that of the Apostle were
sometimes heard    by the consular-legate, most frequently the emperor himself was in the habit of presiding at them in his imperial palace on the Palatine
Hill. We may think, then, of Nero, the monarch of
the civilised world, himself a brutalised heathen, seated
at the end of a gorgeous hall, "lined with the precious
marbles of Egypt, and of Lybia,"++ in raiment of purple and gold, surrounded with his twelve lictors, courtiers, and assessors. His face at one time had been
* Much diversity of opinion exists about the probable direction of Paul'a
concluding journeyings, (and all must be conjecture where there is nothing
but brief hints in his epistles to guide us.) We have adhered to the order
adopted by Messrs Howson and Conybeare in their closing chapters.
t Lewin., Howson and Conybeare.




THE CLOSING SCENE.          399
handsome, but it now bore the marks of youthful profligacy. Suetonius adds, that the size of his body was
considerable, his neck thick, and his eyes grey and
dull. Before him stood, calm and unmoved, confident
in his own integrity, and in the grace and strength of
his God, the Jewish prisoner. He was loaded with
fetters; but, captive as he was, with the almost certainty of a cruel death before him, he would not for
worlds change places with the miserable being before
him, whose hands were already, at the age of twentyfive or thirty, so deeply stained with blood Paul might
well have trembled in his presence; but he knew that
there was One at his side " mightier than the mightiest;" and even should the ravenous "lion" be permitted
to tear him in pieces, it would only be the sooner to
receive his heavenly crown.
The witnesses would be called. Doubtless many had
by this time been gathered from all parts of the East
where Paul had sought to proclaim the gospel. The
Sanhedrim, also, would not be idle. It is remarkable
that Josephus, in his History, mentions that the high
priest at Jerusalem, Ishmael, and many of the leading
Jews, were at this time in Rome. He speaks of the
main object of their journey being with reference to
the building of a wall in the temple. May it not have
more likely been, that they had in view the ruin of St
Paul?*  These collected Jews would doubtless have
some chosen Roman orator hired to plead their cause;
nor would it have been difficult to make out a strong
case against the Apostle.  They might have urged before Nero, that the prisoner was not only a ringleader
of a new sect, but a subverter of his own power; and
* Leswi.  Josotpuhl' Antiq.. book xx. chap. 8.




o00          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
that this Jesus whom he preached, aspired to the ternporal sovereignty of Judea, and of the world.
We may imagine the Apostle rising calmly in the
midst of the court to make his reply. Many of his
judges would understand Greek, and in this language
probably he would address them. What he said, we
know not. There may have been solemn things spoken
home to their consciences. Like Felix, some may have
trembled; but we fear, at least, that the monarch, on
whom he kept his eye, only despised, and perished!
So far as we could judge, everything combined to make
Paul's a hopeless case. His enemies were many and
powerful, their pleas were strong in such an ear as
Nero's, and, above all, the influence exercised by his
base queen, over whom Ishmael had great power, must
have combined to seal the Apostle's fate. Moreover,
Nero did not require to abide, as in our courts of law,
by the opinion of the jury; he could pronounce what
sentence he chose. His partiality for cruelty was too
well known to give such a prisoner much hope of
mercy; more especially when we think how the holy
life and holy words of the Apostle must have rebuked
the crimes of the judge. But He who turns the hearts
of kings, and queens, and rulers, " even as he turns the
rivers of waters," did, by His overruling providence,
avert the threatened stroke. Paul once more is liberated-he is dismissed from the bar, and is free to preach
the gospel where he pleases!
New thoughts of missionary zeal begin to fill his
aged bosom. His first desire is to go to the East, and
revisit some of the churches there, which seemed to
stand in need of his presence and counsel.
There were many of these which he had never yet




THE CLOSING SCENE.           401
seen; and from the wish he expresses in his letter,
both to Philemon and the Philippians, we may well believe he would turn his steps immediately towards Macedonia and the churches in Asia Minor. How joyful
would be his meeting with his Philippian friends!
But it must only have been a passing "salutation," as
he was anxious to hasten to other places still farther
east. What he did visit, we know not. Possibly he
would direct his course for the first time to Colosse. We may picture his probable interview with
the wealthy but Christian-hearted Philemon. Who
can tell but Onesimus his old slave may have joined
them, and, under the same roof, three, so different
from one another, may have rejoiced now in being
all "one in Christ Jesus!"  From  Colosse, on his
way to Ephesus, it is more than likely he would pause
at Laodicea and Hierapolis.
The year following his acquittal at Rome, he made
out his long-thought-of journey to Spain.  Clemens,
his own contemporary and fellow-labourer, tells us
that " he went to the utmost bounds of the west." In
going thither, it is most probable he would avoid
the "perils of false brethren," by committing himself
again to the waters of the Mediterranean. The persecutions of Nero were at their height, and he would
feel that it were "better to fall into the hands of
God than into the hands of men."   Many vessels
were continually plying betwee:a the east and the modern Marseilles, and from thence he would easily find
his way by ship to Spain. How long he remained in
the Peninsula we cannot even guess; most probably
two years were spent there preaching the gospel of his
Lord.




102         THE FOOTSTEPS Oi ST PAUL.
Some, indeed, have thought that the Apostle wunt
further west still, and that the shores of our own
island, and even the streets of our own London, were
trodden by the "( footsteps of St Paul!" Early writers
in the fourth and fifth centuries speak of such a visit.
However pleasing it would be for us to think of this as
the case, of course it is a mere matter of conjecture.
Claudia, whose name is mentioned by the Apostle in
2 Tim. iv. 21, has been supposed by some to have been
the daughter of Caractacus, King of Britain, who was'brought prisoner to Rome in A. D. 51, and who, with
her grandfather Bran, was converted to Christianity.
We have already mentioned that Pomponia Grecilna,
the wife of Aulus Plautius, the first Roman governor
of Britain, was accused of having become a convert
to a " strange foreign superstition," in other words, of
being a Christian, and probably through her instrumentality the daughter of the British king and others
were led to receive the truth. It is also said that the
aged Briton Bran afterwards returned to his native
shores, along with other converts, and that by them
the religion of Jesus was taught to the Pagan savages. There is much, however, in this of tradition,
and which it becomes us to receive with caution.'*
If the dates we have already given be at all correct,
we may imagine it was in the year 66 that our Apostle
again returned from the west, and sailed back to Ephesus. It was a journey, or rather visit of sorrow. He
found (according to the fears he had many years before
expressed to the elders wilo met him at Miletus), that
wolves had entered among his sheep.  False teachers,
among whom were Hymeneus and Philetus, were
* See Cave; and Apostles (Tr-ct Society.




THE CLOSING SCENE.           403
scattcringl the seeds of deadly error, and multitudes of
his converts had thereby been led astray.
The epistles to Timothy and Titus were written
about this time. From them we gather that his present visit to the east was a short one. His spirit
seems to have been greatly bowed down by the errors
and heresies which had sprung up like noxious weeds in
a garden which once promised so well. We may believe
he had lost none of his ardour and zeal in his Heavenly Master's cause, but his strength was not so able,
at the age of nearly seventy, to cope with the hardships he once could encounter. We may feel assured,
had it been so, he would not have employed others to
grapple with these errors, but would have been on the
field himself with the same "sword of the Spirit" he
had so often wielded in the battles of the Lord.
There is something touching in the message which
he sends during these later years of his life to bring
back " the cloak that he had left behind him at Troas."'
It had been his companion, perhaps, amid the cutting
winds of the Pisidian mountains, and now, again, in
the prospect either of a new sea-voyage, or the sadder
one of a damp cell, he felt his aged frame could not
dispense so easily as once it might with these aids to
artificial warmth. IHe had left it in summer at Troas,
with the prospect of getting it again on a return, which
he never accomplished.  What the books and parchments were he speaks of along with the cloak, we are
not told; probably copies of the Law and the Prophets,
with, perhaps, the Gospels of Matthew and Luke,
which were the only two now written. The parchments may have been copies of his own epistles,
* 2 Tim. iv. 13.




404          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
with, perhaps, "the diploma of his Roman citizen,
ship." *
Leaving Timothy to contend with the errors of the
false teachers I have spoken of at Ephesus, Paul seems
to have gone first to Macedonia, and then to Crete. If
he returned to Ephesus, it was to leave it finally for
Rome, taking Corinth on his way. It was when at
Macedonia ha wrote his first Epistle to Timothy, in
which he gives him various directions about the
government of the church at Ephesus, deaounces and
opposes the heretical teachers and doctrines, and adds
many faithful counsels to his " own son" individually,
and to ministers of Christ in every age.
Soon after writing this epistle, we find the Apostle
in the island of Crete.    It is more than probable the gospel had been introduced there before
Paul's visit.  This we are given to infer from the
Epistle to Titus. Moreover, you will remember, at the
day of Pentecost, Cretans are spoken of among the
number of those who received the gift of tongues, and
heard Peter preach the gospel. It is not unlikely that
some of these may have carried the glad tidings from
Jerusalem to their own island.  The Apostle visited
them now along with Titus, probably remaining for
some months, and leaving this companion of his missionary tour behind him  on his departure.   Paul
wrote to him afterwards (as we have just found him
doing to Timothy) a letter of directions about the
government of the church in that island; also, in order
to silence some opposition which had arisen to his
teaching.  He seems to have sent it from Ephesus
just when about to leave that city for the west.  In
* Lewin.




THE CLOSING SCENE.           405
reading the epistle, you will see that Paul asks Titus
to come and join him at Nicopolis, where he was to
" spend the winter."  This town in Epirus, in Greece,
was built by Augulstus in memory of the famous battle
of Actium, which he gained over Mark Antony, on
2d September, B. o. 31. It was situated on a narrow
isthmus; a temple to Apollo marked the spot where the
tent of Augustus had been pitched, and every five years
famous games were celebrated close by. It is notable
to us, as the last scene of Paul's public labours before
his final trial.  It has been supposed, indeed, that it
was here he was arrested, and sent again to imprisonment at Rome-arriving there very possibly at the
beginning of the year.*
There is surely something touching about this journey!  The old man-with furrowed brow and feeble
steps-with few friends to cheer him, and some of those
few deserting him in the hour of danger:-Demas left
him; Crescens " departed to Galatia;" even Titus
went (though this may have been at Paul's request) to
Dalmatia.  One at least, however, we know remained
faithful to the last —Luke the evangelist, the writer
of his history, followed with trusty fidelity his aged
father in the faith, to comfort him in his coming
sorrows, and share his cross.  It was indeed an honorable office to accompany such a man, who had now for
a quarter of a century been the bold ambassador of
Christ.  During all that period he had never grown
weary in his Lord's service. What was said of John
Knox, might with truth have been said of him,' he
$ Neander and others have supposed that his visit to Spain was after his
eastern journey; that there he was seized and taken prisoner to Rome.Neander's Planting, \'45.




406         THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
never feared the face of man." The thongs and the
scourge, the stocks of the prison, the rude language
and buffetings of soldiers, the rage of mobs, tedious
journeys, four shipwrecks,-all he had endured with
heroical equanimity, and, if it pleased God, he was
willing to endure tenfold more.
He once more enters Rome! We shall presently
note how changed the outward aspect of the city was
since he last was there,-whole streets and buildings
had been swept away and restored, and new palaces
were looking down from the heights of the Palatine.
Among these new buildings, conspicuous must have
been the golden palace of Nero, with his statue in the
vestibule, 120 feet in height, the golden stalls for his
chariot horses, and the porticoes and columns extending a mile in length.  " It was richly overlaid," says
Suetonius, " with gold, and everywhere adorned with
the dazzling glitter of precious stones, and mother-ofpearl. In the vaulted roofs of his banqueting rooms
were several little tables of ivory, so contrived as to
turn round and scatter flowers, and hollow pipes to
shower down sweet-scented oils upon the guests. His
principal dining-room was round, and in perpetual
motion, day and night, like the celestial sphere. His
baths continually flowing, either with sea-water, or
else fed from the sulphureous springs of Tivoli." But
why, after all, linger in the description of these?
They were little to the man who, we are supposing,
was passing near them, and who had in his view " a
building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
Imagine Paul, then, amid what Horace calls "the
smoke, the riches, and the noise of Rome," passing




THE CLOSING SCENE.           407
on, as in former years, chained to a soldier by the
wrist, to the place of confinement. We found that,
during his previous imprisonment, he had received kind
and considerate treatment. He was allowed then to
live in his own hired lodging, and, though chained,
was permitted to see what friends he chose.  Now he
was confined to a dungeon, and treated as a malefactor.
The Mamertine prison is still pointed out as the
scene of his incarceration. Its position is not far from
the large pillars which occupy the foreground in our
picture of the "Roman Forum."  It is considered the
oldest relic and building in the city, deriving its name
from Ancus Martius, the fourth king of ancient Rome.
It is reached, in the present day, by a vault under the
Church of St Giuseppe, where the visitor finds himself
in two dismal cells; the lower is only six and a half
feet in height, and the stones of which it is built are
"strangely united by cramps of iron." *  There was
a circular opening or aperture above, through which
prisoners, on their condemnation, were lowered, either
to starve or be strangled to death. Jugurtha suffered
the former of these cruelties within these terrible walls.
No wonder Paul wrote, as we have seen, so anxiously
for his winter cloak to protect him from the pestilential damps and cold of such a place! Friends are
still allowed to see him, but his mouth is shut in
preaching the gospel; and those who do go, seem to
venture with fear and trembling, lest, by showing sympathy, they might be involved in the fate which
seemed so surely hanging over their reverend father.
But we must pause for a moment to inquire into
the cause of this renewed imprisonment.
On the night of the 19th of July, A. D. 64, a ter.
* Sir William Gell.




408.      THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
rible fire broke out in the Circus Maximus of Rome,
between the Palatine and Aventine Mount.  It raged
fiercely for six days and seven nights, spreading with
amazing rapidity,-the people being forced to seek for
shelter among the monuments and tombs of the dead.
No besieging army could have so effected the work of
destruction.  The citizens saw, with bitter sorrow,
their homes and noble buildings becoming a prey to
the furious element; and it must have added much
to their indignation to find (what it is to be feared
was too true) that the monster Nero was the cause of
this fearful calamity.  "He was offended," says Suetonius, "with the deformity of the ancient buildings
and the narrow passages and turnings of the streets..... Besides the vast number of ordinary houses,
the palaces of the great captains of former ages,
adorned with the spoils of foreign conquests-were all
consumed to ashes, together with the temples of the
gods, which the ancient kings of Rome had raised, and
had afterwards been consecrated to the memory of the
Roman victories." It is even said the unfeeling tyrant
gazed down with a smile on his face, playing on his
musical instrument, from the tower of Mtecenas, while
his capital was consuming, and the shrieks of his people
were borne to his ear!
He soon came to find that so wanton and cruel an
outrage had roused, as it might justly have done, the
anger of the Romans. What is he to do? The base
expedient occurs to him to fasten the guilt of the
burning on the innocent Christians, whose purity he
hated, because it condemned his own unblushing
vices. The plot answered too well. The tyrant sucrpeedd, by this malicious lie, in rousing the popular




THE CLOSING SCENE.           409
feeling against the followers of Jesus; saving himself
by involving the innocent. Cruelties beyond descrip.
tion followed. The suffering Christians were besmeared
with pitch, and then set fire to at night to lighten the
darkness. Others were sewed up in the skins of beasts,
hunted down by dogs, and torn to pieces. Nero exulted
also in this spectacle. He moved about, as Tacitus tells
us, in a circus erected in his own gardens, "in the dress
of a charioteer, sometimes on foot and sometimes viewing the spectacle from his car."
We may imagine what the feelings of the mob were
likely to be, towards the great "ringleader" of the
hated sect of Nazarenes. Indeed, this was probably the
main charge laid against Paul now, that before he last
left Rome he had put this foul deed of burning the city
into the minds of his converts. How the Apostle
would mourn over the loss of Burrus and Seneca! The
Prefect of the Pretorium was now a very different man.
Tigellinus, the sharer of Nero's crimes and cruelties,
we may feel assured would speak no kindly word for
the prisoner.
The storm is fast gathering over his devoted head.
It is likely that no time would elapse before his new
trial. In the former one, we have supposed that he
was summoned before the emperor. This, however, as
we saw, was often the cause of considerable delay. At
present he was brought probably before the "Prefect of
the city,"-an officer appointed by his imperial master
with supreme authority over criminal cases.  How
touching the position of the Apostle when standing in
this court! "At my first answer," says he to Timothy, "no man stood with me, but all men forsook me:
I pray God that it may not b1 laid to their charge,




410          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me!"*
EIe could get no advocate to plead his cause, and
challenge his accusers. The terrible flames in the gardens of the emperor had struck terror into many otherwise brave hearts. There was One, and only One, with
him; but that ONE was better than all! It was " the Captain of the Lord's host:" a" who could be against Him V"
It has been supposed that the place of his trial was
one of those spacious halls or basilicas (a king's bench)
in the Forum. They were of vast size, and admitted
great multitudes to see and hear. A row of columns
ran down each side of the interior, and they were so
well adapted for a large congregation, that when Pagan
Rome became Christian, and churches were needed,
these basilicas were used for this purpose, and became
patterns for others throughout Christendom.   The
presiding magistrate sat on his tribune (an elevated
chair of ivory at one end of the hall), surrounded with
*assessors or jurors to give him advice in questions of
law. Before him stood the prisoner, and the other
parts of the building would be crowded with eager
listeners, both below and in the galleries. The aged
Apostle, with sixty-eight years on his head,+ is now
brought up from the temporary cell under the basilica. When he appears, a hum goes through the
crowded court. Every breath is stilled, and none can
tell in the dense mass who are friends and who are foes.
The jurors one by one lay their hand on the adjoining
altar before the tribune, and in an audible voice swear
that they will pronounce a righteous decision.
Paul pled his own cause, and that of his injured
* 2 Tim. iv 16, 17.         t Chrysostom.




THE CLOSING SCENE.           411
Lord, before these malicious foes. He preached to
them (it was his last time) of JESUS! He defended
himself against the charge of being accessory to the
burning of the city, and thus escaped the lingering
agonies that might otherwise have been his.
He was sent back to prison to await a second stage
of his trial. We know well how he spent this time,
and what his feelings were. He knew what was in
prospect, but he was unmoved. He himself tells us
how his soul was nerved for the coming day of martyrdom. "The shades of evening are beginning to slope;
the gleam of a brighter sky is seen beyond; and with
the assured conviction that the object of his life
was fully accomplished," * he can say, "I am now
ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is
at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished
my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day;
and not to me only, but unto all them also that love
his appearing." +
Such were the triumphant feelings of the criminal
shivering in his dark dungeon! An inner light, however, was there, which turned the shadow of death into
the morning.  Can we pause, just for a moment, to
hear what the historian has to say of the mind of
Nero I How affecting the contrast! "Not all the
congratulations of the soldiers, the senate, and the
people, could release him from the horrors of a guilty
conscience, which, from that time forward (since the
burning of the city), never would permit him to rest,
either awake or sleeping.  Full often he confessed
that the furies lashed him with their whips, and some.' Stanley's Sermons and Essays.  t 2 Tim. iv. 6-A




412          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
times seared his skin with their burning torches."
His last hours are full of awful lessons. The senate,
wearied of his crimes, at length rose up against him.
They resolved to scourge him tj death and hurl him
over the Tarpeian rock. When the resolution came tohis ears, he rushed for his golden box of poisons to put
an end to himself, but his servants had hidden it. In
an agony of rage and terror, he found himself friendless. Barefoot, and covering his face with a napkin, he
flung himself at midnight on his horse, and galloped in
the dark from his capital with only four attendants, a
storm of thunder and lightning increasing his panic.
On passing the Pretorian camp we know so well, he
heard a noise among his soldiers cursing him. He
took refuge in a vault, four miles from the city, and,
on hearing the hoofs of his pursuers' horses, he plunged
a dagger, with the help of an attendant, into his
throat, and expired; ridding the world of the foulest
of her tyrants, at the early age of thirty-two!*
But to return from so sad a contemplation.  Few,
very few, of Paul's friends were still left to cheer
him.   The beloved Luke, we have already mentioned, was faithful to the last. Onesiphorus, too, had
come all the way from Asia-forgetful of danger-to
see his venerated father, and cheer the gloom of the
Mamertine prison.  "He sought him out diligently,
and found him." It was a dangerous mission of Christian friendship; for, if his creed had been known, he
would have shared the Apostle's coming fate. We
learn, also, from the greetings in the Second Epistle
to Timothy, that Linus, Pudens, the son of a senator
and his wife Claudia, whom we have already mentioned,
had come to visit him in his dungeon. One, however,
* See Suetonius' Life of Nero, pp. 374-395.




THE CLOSING SCENE.           413
more than all, he longed to see, to give him his parting
blessing, and receive, in return, his presence and support at the hour of death. This was Timothy, his own
dear son in the faith. They seem to have taken a
parting farewell before this, under an impression that
they would never meet again. The faithful " son" of
such an affectionate father had wept bitterly at the
thought of seeing his face no more. "I thank God,
whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of
thee in my prayers night and day; greatly desiring to
see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be
filled with joy."* But God had still spared him.
They may yet meet again. The spirit of the old man,
like another Jacob, revives at the thought! He was
far distant in Asia, but Paul earnestly urges that he
would come to him with all speed; and, fearing lest
even he might be deterred, from the many dangers
around, from giving his dying sympathy, he exhorts
him, in this most touching and beautiful letter, the
"Second Epistle to Timothy," to boldness in the cause
of Jesus. The words at the close-" Grace be with thee.
Amen "-were probably the last words the Great Apostle's trembling hand penned!
Whether Timothy was able to comply with this earnest wish, we cannot pronounce. We have reason to
suppose, however, that he did succeed in reaching his
aged father in his cell, and was with him in his closing
hours.
For the rest, we have only tradition ant common
history to trust to. We left the prisoner standing before the tribune in the crowded basilica; the jurors
were speaking together, advising wha, was to be the
* 2 Tim. i. 3, 4.




414          TIE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
sentence. Each writes his own verdict on a separate
tablet, either A (absolvo, not guilty), or the letter C
(condemno, or guilty). The Apostle can easily foresee
the result; the tablets are given into the hands of the
presiding judge, and the significant word, " CONDEMNO,"
rings through the pillared hall, and the breathless audience! He would be led back to his cell. His Roman
citizenship ought to have saved him from the cruel
custom of scourging the condemned before death, but
this seems doubtful on the present occasion.  " Baronius tells us, that in the church of St Mary, beyond
the bridge in Rome, the pillars are yet extant to which
Paul is said to have been bound and scourged."*
What time elapsed between the condemnation and the
last fatal blow, we can also only conjecture.  It was
the usual custom for ten days to intervene, in order
that the emperor, if he chose, might alter or reverse
the sentence. But it is equally well known that Nero
often hurried his victims from the bar to the place of
execution, within an hour after judgment was given.
It is probable, therefore, that but a short breathing
time would be permitted the Great Apostle, before he
finally passed to a more righteous judgment-seat, from
the trials and persecutions of a world he had so long
and so meekly borne. Tradition has fixed the 29th of
June, A. D. 66, as the memorable day when the Church
in heaven was to receive the greatest of her " cloud of
witnesses."  Paul's citizenship now, however, saved
him once more from the cruel and lingering death of
crucifixion he at one time expected. He was led outside the city walls, tied to a stake, and then beheaded.
It was at Aqnse Salvie, on the road to Ostia, the
port of Rome, that the blood of the Apostle was
* Ca\ve, p. IO0i.




THE CLOSING SCENE.           415
shed. If there be a hallcwed spot on earth, it is surely
here!
Let us imagine the scene! Crowds to and from Ostia
were hurrying along, little knowing all that was connected with that band of soldiers, who, under a burning
sun, were hurrying their unresisting prisoner to the
place of execution. Of those who attended him and
witnessed his last moments, we have no information.
Many converts, doubtless, who had heard him years
before in "his own hired house," and who had welcomed the shipwrecked prisoner at Appii Forum, were
now following the steps of their spiritual father
with weeping eyes, feeling that their next meeting
would be with tearless ones in heaven.  We may only
think of the possibility of Luke and Timothy lingering
in the crowd, and giving that sympathy by looks and
silent expression, which they dared not do by words.
We need not, however, dwell on the closing spectacle.
Soon all is over! He has willingly, like his Lord,
borne his cross " without the gate." One stroke of the
fatal weapon, and the soul of the glorious Hero is carried up by angels to Paradise!
The Church on earth never had such cause to weep
since her Lord himself had left. But tears are unavailing. They take up the dead body, and either bury it
on the spot, or, as tradition says, place it in the cata1ombs of the Roman city.
There was something befitting and appropriate in the
Great Apostle of the Gentiles thus dying in the Gentile
capital; nor can we regret the uncertainty that exists
in marking the place of his burial.  His true mausoleum is in the souls of the, millions on millions who
have read, and prayed, and rejoiced over his words,
In one of the nobl? t of human temples-one, too,




416          THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL.
which bears the name of the Apostle-martyr (our own
St Paul's in London)-few have failed to note the inscription on the monument to its illustrious architect,
placed immediately under the dome.   The spot where
the dust of PAUL reposes is under no temple made
with hands, but under the blue vault of an Italian
sky, in the centre of the civilised world;-that world
which, in one sense, he has made "consecrated ground;"
for its remotest shores have listened, or are listening,
to.the echoes of his undying voice, and receiving his
apostolic benediction.  The Church may well inscribe
on his Roman tomb, as she looks to the nations he has
thus Christianised-the wide realms which, under God,
he has made happier" SI MONUMENTUM REQUIRIS, CIROUMSPICE!"
His own humility was content with a lowlier motto-h
" To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain I"
"The pains of death are past;
Labour and sorrow cease;
And, life's long warfare closed at last,
His soul is found in peace I
"'Soldier of Christ, well done I
Praise be thy new employ;
And while eternal ages run,
Rest in thy Saviou's joy."
THE END