S. D.A, GEN. CONF. LIBRARY
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LIBRARY of
ANDREWS UNIVERSITY
A Year with St. Paul;
OR
FIFTY-TWO LESSONS
FOR THR
SUNDAYS OF THE YEAR.
CHARLES 
E. 
KNOX.
GENERAL CONFERENCE \IBRARY
TAKQMA PARK. WASHINGTON, D. C.
 
N E W-YO R K :
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH, 770 BROADWAY,
Corner of Ninth Street.
1864.
JAMES WHITE LIBRARY
ANDREWS UNIVERSITY
BERRIEN SPRINGS, MICHIGAN
heritage room
Jnfobmta.
It is my desire and my hope to interest young people 
who are beginning to study the Scriptures by subjects 
rather than by the regular, measured lesson of verses. 
This “Year with St. Paul” is designed to give variety 
to the course of Biblical Instruction in the Church, the 
Family and the School; and especially to open, if pos­
sible, a new and attractive department of study to 
those just ready to advance from seven-verse lessons 
to something more general and more continuous, and 
who, in the transition from childhood to youth, are 
growing impatient of the ordinary unvarying recitation 
and questioning of verse by verse. The subjects have 
been stated with the hope of exciting and fixing the 
attention. The questions are intended to bring out 
both the text of the Scripture-lesson and the descrip­
tions which follow, and to be suggestive to those who 
find such questions a help in teaching.
The descriptions of the Apostle’s fife, as it is illus­
trated by civil history and geographical scenery, are 
taken substantially from “Conybeare and Howson’s 
Life and Epistles of St. Paul.” The attempt is simply 
to sketch the outline of that ‘living picture.’ Quota­
tions will be found frequent; and even where there are 
no quotations, the spirit of many a paragraph or sen­
tence is almost literally preserved. If the Scripture, 
thus illustrated by the life of the age in which it was 
written, shall produce in the minds of young people an 
impression, in some measure like that which was awa­
kened in the mind of the early oriental reader of the 
book of Acts, the object will be secured. It is believed
iv 
INTRODUCTION.
these external helps will aid the young to form a concep­
tion of the Apostle’s life, as it appeared to one who, at 
Jerusalem or at Rome, in the first century, read the last 
half of the Acts of the Apostles ; and therefore will aid 
to exalt in their minds the heroism, the courage, the 
zeal, the faith, which the religion of Jesus wrought in 
the fife of Paul.
These lessons have been confined within the limit of 
a year, in the conviction that young persons at the 
age alluded to generally tire of a study protracted be­
yond that length of time. Why should we do that in 
teaching the Bible, which we never do in our secular 
schools ? Why should we protract the one same study, 
year after year, till the mind is wearied with the same­
ness ? A series of yearly subjects, adapted and gradu­
ated to the advancement of the scholar, would widen 
the range of Biblical teaching, would, without harm, 
meet the fondness of all young people for marked points 
of progress, and give them a more general knowledge 
of the Bible. Such a system the author has had in 
mind in the preparation of the present work; and 
should these lessons on the Life of St. Paul be re­
ceived with favor, another volume may supply lessons 
for another year.
Cubic jof Contents.
FIRST SUNDAY.
The Infancy and Childhood of Paul.
SECOND SUNDAY.
Saul at School.
THIRD SUNDAY.
Saul and Stephen.
FOURTH SUNDAY.
Tiib Conversion.
FIFTH SUNDAY.
Damascus, Arabia, and Tarsus.
SIXTH SUNDAY.
Barnabas gobs for Saul.
SEVENTH SUNDAY.
The Beginning of the Journeys.
EIGHTH 
SUNDAY.
Thb Pro-Consul at Paphos.
NINTn SUNDAY.
‘ Perils of Robbers,’ and 1
 Perils of Rivers.
TENTH SUNDAY.
Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah.
ELEVENTH SUNDAY.
An Extraordinary Thing in a Synagogue.
TWELFTH SUNDAY.
Flights prom City to City.
CONTENTS.
THIRTEENTH SUNDAY.
Jupiter and Mercury.
FOURTEENTH SUNDAY.
The Journey Home.
FIFTEENTH SUNDAY.
A Difficult Question.
SIXTEENTH SUNDAY.
TnE Council.
SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY.
The Letter and the Letter-Bearers.
EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY.
Starting on the Second Journey.
NINETEENTH SUNDAY.
A New Companion and New Travels.
TWENTIETH SUNDAY.
From Asia to Europe.
TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY.
Roman Law.
TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY.
The Founding of the Thessalonian Church.
TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY.
The Mob of the Idlers.
TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY.
The Journey to Greece.
TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY.
The Grecian Capital.
TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY.
Mars’ IIill.
TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY.
‘The City of the two Seas.’
TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY
The First Epistle.
TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY.
A Persecutor Persecuted.
CONTENTS.
THIRTIETH SUNDAY.
The Second Return Home.
THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY.
The Third Journey — Apollos or Alexandria,
THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY.
Miracles and Magic-Workers.
THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY.
The Temple or Diana.
THIRTY-FOURTH SUNDAY.
The Town-Clerk or Ephesus.
THIRTY-FIFTII SUNDAY.
Titus, the Messenger.
THIRTY-SIXTH SUNDAY,
gn Months in Macedonia and Illyricum.
THIRTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY.
Phosbe Carries a Letter to Rome.
THIRTY-EIGIITII SUNDAY.
The Games at the Isthmus.
THIRTY-NINTH SUNDAY.
‘ The Coasts or Asia.’
FORTIETH SUNDAY.
The Elders or Ephesus.
FORTY-FIRST SUNDAY
Third Journey Home.
FORTY-SECOND SUNDAY
A Mob in Jerusalem.
FORTY-THIRD SUNDAY.
The Address erom the Stairs.
FORTY-FOURTH SUNDAY.
Paul a Prisoner before the Sanhedrim.
FORTY-FIFTH SUNDAY.
The Capital and the Governor or Judea,
FORTY-SIXTH SUNDAY.
The Appeal to the Emperor.
A YEAR WITH ST. PAUL.
first Sunday.
THE INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD OF PAUL.
LESSON.
Acts xxi. 89 ; xxii. 3; xxiii. 6, 8, 16; xxri. 5 ; Phil. iii. 5;
I. Sam. x. 21, 24; Acts xvi. 37, 38, and xxii. 26-28.
WE need some knowledge of the province and the 
city in which Paul passed his infancy and child­
hood, to have a correct idea of Paul’s life.
Cilicia was a province of the Roman Empire, and 
at the time when Paul lived was divided into two 
nearly equal portions. The western part was filled with 
bold, rough mountains from the great chain of Mount 
Taurus to the sea. On the Mediterranean they form 
the high, wild coast of broken cliffs, in the centre of the 
curve from the Bay of Issus to the Sea of Pamphylia. 
The whole region was therefore called Rough Cilicia. 
The people who lived in all this district were notorious 
robbers. They formed innumerable strongholds in the 
mountains. The name of Isauria, in the interior, re­
presented to the Romans all that was bold and cruel in 
robbery. The forests and many cliffs, the little bays 
and creeks on the sea, made an easy escape and refuge 
foi piiates. These Tsauricins were so resolute and in
CONTENTS.
FORTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY. 
The Royal Visitors.
FORTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY 
The Prisoner sent to Rome.
FORTY-NINTH SUNDAY. 
Storm and Shipwreck.
FIFTIETH SUNDAY. 
Sicily and Italy.
FIFTY-FIRST SUNDAY. 
Paul’s Residence in Rome.
FIFTY-SECOND SUNDAY. 
Ths Trial and the Exeobtioh.
INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD OF PAUL. 
3
the Great; thousands of piratic vessels were burnt on 
the coast of Cilicia, and the inhabitants dispersed; and 
the Mediterranean was made safe for the voyages of 
merchants and apostles. A city on the borders of the 
two divisions of Cilicia was named, in honor of the con­
queror of the pirates, Pompeiopolis,” (city of Pompey.)
The eastern part of Cilicia was called Flat Cilicia. 
It was a rich and extensive plain, and was esteemed 
valuable on account of its rich fertility, and because its 
fruitful valleys were so well protected. The long range 
of mountains on the north and west rose like a wall all 
the way from Pompeiopolis to the very centre of Asia 
Minor, and formed a safe defence for all travellers up 
the valleys, while there was another road of travel 
around the corner of the sea, and southwards through 
the mountains towards Antioch and Syria. Flat Cilicia 
was, therefore, the natural high-road for caravans and 
armies. It was the route of some of the greatest gen­
erals of antiquity. Cyrus led his army over this plain, 
on his way from the western part of Asia Minor to 
attack his brother, King of Persia. Alexander the 
Great and his army, on bis career of victory from Ma­
cedonia, was met here by the five hundred thousand 
men of Darius, and just above the gulf of Issus won 
the victory which made him master of the Persian em­
pire. The hosts of the Crusaders, too, passed along 
this plain. It was here, not more than half a century 
before Paul was born, that Cicero the orator was Gov­
ernor or Pro-Consul of Cilicia. While here, he wrote 
many letters to his friends, which give a good general 
.dea of the way in which the Roman Empire governed 
the province. He travelled over the same country, and 
through the same places, through which Paul travelled. 
He probably regarded the Jews with much contempt, 
and would be likely to treat them with great injustice.
turbed the whole commerce of the Mediterranean; 
“ their fleets seemed innumerable; they were connected 
with other desperate men, far beyond their own coasts; 
and they began to arouse attention at Rome. A vast 
expedition was fitted out under the command of Pompey
2 
(FIRST SUNDAY.)
dependent in their rough country, that the Romans, 
after many attempts, gave up subduing them on land. 
They then became more bold on the sea, until they dis-
Tarsus was the capital of the whole province of both 
Rough and Flat Cilicia. A clear and cold river flowed 
from the snows of the steep mountains of Taurus 
through the city, and spread out into a harbor below 
the town. Alexander the Great nearly lost his life in 
bathing in the cold and rapid waters of the Cydnus. 
Tarsus was an ancient and great city. About the time 
of Paul, it is said, that “ in all that relates to philoso­
phy and general education, it was even more illustrious 
than Athens or Alexandria.” It was therefore a learned 
city: there “the Greek language was spoken, and Greek 
literature studiously cultivated.” “The people of Tar­
sus were celebrated for their mental power, their readi­
ness in repartee, and their fondness for the study of 
philosophy.” In general, we may infer that, commer­
cially, Tarsus was the principal port in the eastern part 
of the Mediterranean, and that, in cultivation, it was 
“ a city where the language of refinement was spoken 
and written in the midst of a ruder population, who use 
a different language and possess no literature of their 
own.”
This was the city in which the parents of Paul lived, 
when Saul was born. We know that both father and 
mother were Hebrews, for Paul himself says that he is 
‘ a Hebrew of Hebrews,’ (or from Hebrews,) which 
means that he was a pure Hebrew, and that neither 
father nor mother was at first a proselyte from any 
other nation to the Jews. They spoke, no doubt, their 
native tongue, and yet Saul, in his early years in Tar­
sus, would as often hear the Greek. He must have 
learned both the Hebrew and the Greek almost as soon 
as he learned to talk. At home, however, the family 
were strictly Hebrews. His parents were Pharisees : 
they taught him the rigid observance of all the rites 
and traditions of his sect. They were of the tribe of
4 
(FIRST SUNDAY.)
Benjamin, and they gave their son the name of the first 
King of Israel taken from the same favored tribe. It 
may be that the great Apostle had both names, Saul 
and Paul, from his infancy. Although in the book of 
Acts he is called Paul only after the conversion of Sur- 
gius Paulus in Cyprus, as we shall hereafter see, yet 
“ it is most probable that he had both names in child­
hood 
that in his Hebrew home he was called by the 
ancient Hebrew name of Saul, and that the Gentiles' 
(the Romans especially) gave it the Roman form of 
Paulus. It may possibly be, too, that from motives of 
interest and policy, he was called sometimes, among 
his friends and by the family, the Roman name, Paul, as 
we know he mentions, in his epistle to the Romans, 
two “kinsmen,” Junia1 and Lucius1, whose names are 
Roman.
Saul’s father was also a Roman citizen. How did he 
gain this privilege? It was not because he was a 
native of the city. “ It had been given him, or had de­
scended to him, as his own right; he might have pur 
chased it for a large sum of money2, but it is more pro­
bable that some influential Roman had obtained it for 
him as a reward for services rendered during the civil 
wars.” And hence, as this citizenship, procured by 
money, or by valuable service, belonged to the family, 
Saul was ‘ free-born,’ and could afterwards rely upon 
his citizenship as a defence in the time of trouble.
"We cannot decide whether Saul’s parents were 
wealthy or poor. If his father purchased the Roman 
citizenship, it would have required large expense; but 
on the other hand, when it was bestowed by the gov­
ernment for services done to the army or to the state, it 
would have been given to the poor as well as to the
‘Romans xvi. 7, 21. 
5 See Acts xxii. 28.
INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD OF FA UL. 
5
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(FTRST SUNDAY.)
rich. Saul learned a tr-ade. He was a tent-maker, as 
we learn from his occupation when he came to Corinth,3 
but this does not prove that either he or his parents 
were reduced to necessary labor for a livelihood. “ It 
was the custom among the Jews that all hoys should 
learn a trade. Rabbi Judah saith, ‘ He that teacheth 
not his son a trade, does the same as if he taught him 
to be a thief,’ and Rabban Gamaliel saith: ‘ He that 
hath a trade in his hand, to what is he like ? he is like 
a vineyard that is fenced.’ ” Tent-making was a pro­
fitable occupation at Tarsus. The goats of his na­
tive province furnished hair, from which was woven 
hair-cloth, sold in the markets for the tent-covering. It 
is perhaps well to think that Saul’s father was in mod­
erate circumstances and position, occupied, like many 
of the Jews, in the traffic of the land-merchants, or of 
the sea-commerce, and that he gave his son a trade 
which would be of use to him wherever his lot might 
be cast, and however he might be reduced from a 
learned or a professional life to dependence on common 
labor for a living.
Did Saul have brothers and sisters ? We read of one 
sister at Jerusalem, whose son saved his life. Some of 
Saul’s kindred became Christians before Saul himself, 
as is clear from the Epistle to the Romans, where An 
dronicus and Junia are said to have been in Christ be 
fore himself.
Here Saul was born, in this flourishing city of Tar­
sus. Here, as a boy, he played perhaps by the side 
of the clear, cold river, building his little ships to sail 
upon the water, and sometimes losing them on ac­
count of the swiftness of the current which came rush­
ing down from the mountain-sides to the sea. He saw
8 xviii. 3.
INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD OF PAUL. 
1
the fertile plains, and the high mountains beyond. IIo 
saw the water-falls pouring over the rocks in full flood, 
when the snow melted. He saw in the streets, and on 
the wharves, men of various languages and costumes: 
the Cyprian from the island opposite; the Syrian from 
Antioch; the rough, wild, mountain-ranger from Rough 
Cilicia or from Isauria, half-suspected as a very robber; 
the hardy Cappadocian from the interior; the handsome 
Greek from the famous land beyond the Archipelago; 
the Roman trafficker and the Roman soldier from the 
seven-hilled city; and now and then the swarthy Egypt­
ian and the wandering Arab; while his own nation 
never lacked representatives. He saw the eastern cara­
van, with its long train, start off up the valley for the 
head-waters of the Euphrates, and the company of trad­
ers on the route around the Bay of Issus, composed of 
its smaller parties, on their way to Antioch, to Ciesarea, 
to Samaria, or even to Damascus or to Jerusalem. He 
saw ships from Cyprus and from Caesarea, from Alex­
andria and from the western seas, in the harbor ; and 
the toil-worn throng of men and animals which had 
just arrived through the wild Cilician gates, from the 
Ephesus and Smyrna road, bringing their strange stories 
from the ruder regions of the interior. Eager and 
quick to observe, Saul the boy was now making the 
acquaintance of these various nations and their people, 
whom afterwards he was so much to influence.
Jeneral
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QUESTIONS.
WHERE was Paul b:>rn ?
'' 
Where in the Scriptures do you find the place of Paul’s 
birth ?
Does more than one person speak of it ?
Who speaks the greater number of times of Paul’s early 
life?
Where was he when he spoke of it ?
In which place does he speak most of it ?
What was Cilicia ?
What was the name of the western part ?
What kind of people lived there ?
What famous robbers lived near ?
What drove the pirates from the sea ?
What has the driving of pirates from the sea to do with 
Paul’s life?
What was the name of the eastern part ?
How did it differ from the western part ?
What were the principal roads out of it ?
What travelled on these roads ?
What great generals have passed over these roads ? 
What great armies have marched here ?
What famous Roman was once Governor of this province ? 
Was it before or after Paul’s birth ?
Why doesn’t he notice the Jews in his letters to his 
friends ?
Was Tarsus a place of much consequence in the province ? 
In what respects was it ‘ no mean city ’ ?
With what cities did it rank in learning at that time ? 
What were the people especially celebrated for ?
What language was spoken there ?
Did all the people probably use one language ?
With what great cities did Tarsus probably have trade ? 
Of what nation was Paul ?
Were his father and mother loth of the same nation ? 
How do vou know ?
m
(FIRST SUNDAY.)
How many brothers and sisters had Paul ?
Did Paul have any relatives not Jews ?
What language was spoken in the house ?
Did Paul learn any other language?
What tribe did his parents belong to ?
Can you find more than one place where Paul speaks 
of his tribe ?
Whose name, in their tribe, did they give to their son ? 
How is it that we have two names ?
Would his own family be likely to call him by the Ro­
man name ?
Had he any relatives with Roman names ?
What sect of his nation did Saul’s parents belong to ?
When Saul grew up, did he prefer his father’s sect, or 
some other ?
In how many places does Paul speak of this sect? To 
whom ?
Was Saul’s father connected in any way with any other na­
tion?
In what two ways might he have become a Roman cit­
izen ?
Was this of any consequence to Saul?
What does he mean, when he says he is ‘ free-born’ ? 
Did he ever make use of this right of his birth ?
Can you tell whether Saul’s parents were wealthy or poor ? 
What does their sending Saul to Jerusalem to be edu­
cated seem to show ?
Were the other Apostles wealthy or poor ?
What trade did Saul learn when young ?
Does this show whether his parents were wealthy or 
poor ?
What two maxims of the Rabbis, in respect to trade,
are given ?
What were tents made from ?
What people did Saul the boy see in the streets of Tar­
sus ?
What difference did it make with Saul in after life ?
Was Saul taught to read the Scriptures and to pray ?
(2)
(FIRST SUNDAY.)
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SAUL 
AT 
SCHOOL.
- 
-- - 
—----- 
------------------
SAUL AT SCHOOL. 
9
“ from hearing the Scriptures read in the synagogue, 
from listening to the arguments and discussions of 
learned doctors, and from that habit of questioning and 
answering which was permitted even to children among 
the Jews.” It is not at all improbable that, when a 
boy, Saul, with his mind wide-awake to all the life of 
his busy city, and sharpened by what he heard and saw, 
carefully trained by his Pharisaic parents, quick to ask 
and to answer questions at the synagogue, was known 
as a child of more than usual promise, and as “ one 
likely to uphold,” when he should become a man, “ the 
honor of the Scriptures against the half-infidel teaching 
of the day.” His parents and friends would wish there­
fore that he should have a more careful training than he 
could obtain in a heathen city; and that at the capital 
city of Jerusalem itself, he should learn more perfectly 
the law of his fathers.
There are three opinions in respect to the time when 
he went to Jerusalem. The first opinion is, that he was 
sent by his parents, “ between the ages of ten and thir­
teen,” since if he went at a later age, “ he could not 
have said that he had been ‘ brought up in Jerusalem.’ 
It is thought, too, that as Paul before Agrippa said,
‘ My manner of life from my youth, which was at the 
first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the 
Jews, which knew me from the beginning,’ it implies 
that he came from Tarsus at an early age.” The second 
opinion is, that “ in his youth he was brought up in the 
schools of Tarsus, fully instructed in all the arts and 
sciences, before he went to study the law under Gama 
liel.” The third opinion is, that “ though as a Jew and 
a Pharisee, he would not be educated in the heathen 
schools of Tarsus, he did not go to Jerusalem to be 
trained under Gamaliel till about the age of thirty, and 
after the ascension of Christ.” It seems more correct
LESSON.
Acts xxii. 3; xxvi. 4, 5 ; xxiii. 6-8. 
Galatians i. 14.
rPARSUS was a place of learning, but the learning was 
under the control and teaching of the Greeks. The 
Hebrews looked at the Greeks as ‘strangers’ and 
‘ aliens;’ and the strict Pharisees no doubt held these 
schools in abhorrence. If there were Greek schools 
for children, it is not probable that Saul the boy would 
be permitted to attend them. ‘ He received his educa­
tion, therefore, at home rather than at school;’ or, if 
he went to a school, it was not to a Greek school, but 
rather to “some room connected with a synagogue, 
where a noisy class of Jewish children were seated on 
the ground with their teacher, after the manner of Mo­
hammedan children in the East, who may be seen at 
their lessons near the mosque.” At such a place, it may 
be, he learned to read and write, going to school and 
returning, as was the custom, with a servant. Perhaps 
he thought of his own boyish school-days, and of the 
servant who took him to school and brought him home, 
when he afterwards wrote to the Galatians that the 
Law is a servant who leads us to the school of Christ.1 
As he grew older, he gained his religious knowledge
‘Galatians iii. 24. 
The word translated ‘schoolmaster,’ in this 
passage, means literally, hoy-leader, the servant who led boys to school, 
not the master who taught them after they were there.
MOUNT CABMEL.
which his great namesake, King Saul, and his three sons 
and his armor-bearer died.3 As he came to the borders 
of his own tribe of Benjamin, he would look for the vil­
lage of Gibeah, Saul’s home, when Samuel anointed 
him to be king,4 and would know that on the further 
border was Jerusalem, with all its glory. Climbing 
over the range of hills, he saw the temple glittering 
with gold ; the pile of sacred buildings around the shin­
ing centre; he saw the whole ancient and honored and 
holy city surrounded by its wall, and beyond, the Mount 
of Olives ; and, when the caravan-train wound its way 
under the arch of the gates into the very streets, more 
than ever before would he thank God he was a Jew 
‘ of the tribe of Benjamin,’ and 4 a Hebrew of the He­
brews.’ Here he is to finish his education. Here he 
is to learn and to know more of the history and prophe­
cy and poetry of his honored nation. Here he will min-
31. Samuel xxxi. 1-6. 
41. Samuel x. 26 ; xv. 34.
10 
{SECOND SUNDAY.)
to suppose that Saul went to Jerusalem when he was 
young. Perhaps he went to live with that sister who 
seems to have lived afterwards in Jerusalem.3 And we 
may suppose he was taken first, as the Saviour himself 
was at about this very time and at twelve years of age, 
by his parents when they 4 went up ’ to attend one of 
the great festivals of the Hebrew nation. About the 
time of the Hebrew Thanksgiving, (Feast of Taber­
nacles,) or of the Feast of Passover, when all the men 
journeyed in companies to the great and holy city, the 
Jews of Cilicia and of the surrounding region would 
begin to gather in Tarsus, either to make up the cara­
van which would move around the corner of the sea to 
Antioch, and so down the sea-coast toward Palestine, 
or to go aboard the swifter ships, which would take 
them across to Caesarea, and then to make the shorter 
caravan-journey through Judea to the capital. Think 
of the wonder and delight with which the Hebrew boy 
would long for the day when he would sail out of the 
clear, cold river, out of the harbor, on the great Medi­
terranean, away and across toward the beautiful moun­
tains where Abraham and Jacob and Joshua once lived, 
among which David once led his flocks of sheep, to the 
city and to the very temple in which the holy child 
Samuel answered the voice of the Lord in the night. 
How many pleasant thoughts would crowd into his 
mind, all along the way.
As he sailed toward the high Mount Carmel, where 
Elijah sent his servant to look oft'upon the sea for clouds 
rising to give rain, as he rode high on the back of a 
camel through the ancient land of his forefathers, from 
the sea-coast up towards the interior, how quickly he 
would catch the conversation of his fellow-travellers,
2xxiii. 16.
SAUL AT SCHOOL. 
11
and remember all he had learned in the synagogue. As 
he left Caesarea, his father would point out to him, away 
off on one side, the distant hills of Mount Gilboa, near
12 
{SECOND SUNDAY.)
gle in the worship of the very temple. Here he will see 
and hear the greatest doctors of the world. 
Here, 
thinks the Hebrew hoy, will I study with zeal what I 
now more than ever love, and wrill prove that I am 
worthy of my tribe and family, and diligently will I 
serve my God!
Alas! in Jerusalem itself, Saul sees Roman soldiers, 
just as he has seen them in Tarsus and in all the places 
along the route, reminding him that his country, once 
free under God, is now ruled by foreign power. Indeed, 
when he first landed from the sea, he had paid his trav­
elling-fee in Roman coin, and on all the coin he had taken 
in Judea, he had seen the “ image and superscription ” 
of the Roman emperors; he had heard Roman words 
used in the common conversation of the Jews ; there 
were Roman buildings in the towns through which he 
passed; and did not the very first city in which he set 
foot in his native land, (Caesarea,) bear the name of a 
cruel tyrant of Rome ? How the patriotism of the He­
brew boy would rise, quick and warm within him, when 
he thought how shamefully his country was oppressed 
by the great empire which now stretched from the dis­
tant islands of Britain to the Euphrates! and especially 
as he thought how the governors appointed to rule over 
this ‘promised’ land had sometimes set up and put 
down the high-priests, just as they liked, and how per­
haps even the schools of the famous teachers, to which 
he had come, might be all interrupted and broken up 
if any successor of the impious perod should wish.
The great schools at Jerusalem were of course reli­
gious schools. Two among them were greatest of all, 
and were rivals, as they had been from the days of 
Hillel and Shammai, their founders. Both these schools 
taught the traditions as well as the law of Moses ; both 
, taught the doctrines of the Pharisees: but the school
SAUL AT SCHOOL. 
13
of Hillel said tradition was better than the law, and 
above it, while the school of Shammai said the law was 
the better and the greater. The disputes between these 
schools were so violent, that it grew into a proverb, 
“that even Elijah the Tishbite would not be able to re­
concile the disciples of Hillel and Shammai.”
Hillel was grandfather of Gamaliel. When, therefore, 
Saul entered GamalielPs school, and became an earnest 
student of tradition and of law, (putting tradition first, ac­
cording to the school of Hillel,) he soon learned to be “ex­
ceedingly zealous of the traditions of his fathers.” 6 Ex­
cept his teaching that tradition had more authority than 
the law of Moses, (which our Saviour so sharply rebuk­
ed,8) Gamaliel was perhaps the very best teacher Saul 
could have had, other than the Saviour himself, to fit him 
for his future life. “ His learning was so eminent and 
his character so revered, that he is one of the seven 
who alone among Jewish doctors have been honored 
with the title of ‘ Rabban.’ ” 7 He was not so bigoted 
as many of the Pharisees. Candid and wise as he shows 
himself to be when he afterwards gives advice to the 
high-priest and the Sadducees, when Peter and the other 
Apostles are brought before them for preaching,8 he is 
said to have been ‘ in reputation with all the people,’ 
and it is added that ‘to him they agreed.’ Unlike many 
of the Pharisees, he made no objection to studying the 
' learning of the Greeks.9 This shows no small degree
6 Galatians i. 14.
"Matt. xv. 1-6. 
Mark vii. 3-13.
7 Rab, master ; Rabbi, my master ; Rabban or Rabboni, (John xx. 
16,) my great master.
8 Acts v. 17, 29, 34-40.
“ And it may be thought, from the fact that Saul was p'aeed under 
Gamaliel, that his parents did not object to his attending the Greek 
schools of Tarsus.
14 
(SECOND SUNDAY.) 
.
of intelligent judgment and independence in Gamaliel,
for even the Greek language had at one time been tor- 
hidden to be taught to the Hebrew youth. How im­
portant it was that Saul should know both the Greek 
language and be familiar with the Greek writings, we 
now know, who have seen how he was able to preach 
at Athens and at Corinth, to dispute with Epicureans 
and Stoics,10 and to quote their own authors to the 
Greeks.11
We should think of Saul, now growing to be a young 
man, as one of the younger speakers in the assemblies 
of the Rabbis of Jerusalem, in the midst of whom was 
Gamaliel. All are seated, as was the custom, according 
to their rank and advancement and wisdom. The prin­
cipal subjects of discussion are the tradition, the law, the 
prophets and the psalms, the power to interpret which 
was “ the one thing most prized by his countrymen.” 
Some one, perhaps Gamaliel himself, reads a passage 
out of the Hebrew Bible, or gives out in Hebrew some 
topic of discussion, which is translated into the common 
language, then interpreted in various ways by various 
persons, illustrated by maxims and allegories, compared 
with the opinions of.ancient Rabbis, and last of all, per­
haps expounded by Gamaliel himself. The younger 
students were present to listen and to inquire, “ both 
‘ hearing them and asking them questions,’ as our Sav­
iour did;15 for it was a peculiarity of the Jewish schools 
that the pupil was encouraged to catechise the teacher, 
and contradictory opinions were expressed with the 
utmost freedom.” Among the many Hebrew youth 
gathered in Jerusalem from distant cities and foreign
10 xvii. 18.
11 xvii. 28. 
I. Corinth, xv. 33. 
“Evil communications,” etc., is a 
quotation from a Greek Comedy. 
Titus i. 12.
13 Luke ii. 46.
lands, young Saul was certainly one of the most active 
and most promising students; for he himself said after­
wards : “ More zealous of the traditions of my fathers,
I pushed forwards in the study of the Jews’ religion, 
above many of my schoolfellows of my nation.”13
Saul is now just coming to manhood, and we can 
think of the result of his education. That result, we 
suppose, was something like this : He was candid and 
honest in judgment; he was willing to study and to 
use the books and the language of the Greeks; he was 
intensely zealous for the traditions and for the law of 
Moses. He had learned to dispute keenly, clearly, and 
learnedly, and to quote the Scriptures quickly and aptly. 
He had filled his memory with the traditions, with the 
difficult points of Jewish controversy, and with the 
opinions of the great teachers. Born a Pharisee, edu­
cated at home a Pharisee, trained in Jerusalem by the 
very chief of the Pharisees, he was now, in his strong, 
matured judgment, heartily an advocate of the very 
strictest school of the Pharisees, which taught tradition 
to be superior to Moses’ commandments; and he was 
most rigid in his conscientious practice of washings 
and prayers and fastings, and all the other ceremonies.
13 Galatians i. 14. 
I profited (the Greek word means literally ‘ to 
drive forward,’ not unlike the English ‘ to push forward,’) in the 
Jews’ religion above many my equals (literally equals in age or fel­
low-equals) in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous, eta
SAUL AT SCHOOL. 
15
QUESTIONS.
"WHAT kind of learning was there in Tarsus?
* * 
How would the Jews think of it ?
Do you think Saul attended a Greek school ?
What kind of a school was his ?
What did he mean, afterwards, when he said, “ The law 
is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ” ? 
Where was he taught in religious things ? and how ?
Do you think Saul would be well known at the syna­
gogue ?
Why should he go to Jerusalem ?
What are the three opinions in respect to the time when he 
went to Jerusalem ?
What do ‘ brought up in this city,’ and ‘from my youth . . . 
at Jerusalem,’ seem to show ?
At what age do you think he went ?
What relative of his probably lived in Jerusalem after­
wards?
With whom would he go to Jerusalem?
What would he see and think of on the way ?
What would he think of, if he sailed past Mount Carmel? 
What hills would he see on the way from Cæsarea ? 
What village would he look for, as he came to the tribe 
of Benjamin?
What would Saul think of, as he entered Jerusalem ?
Is it a good thing to make high resolutions at such a 
time ?
What proofs of Roman authority did Saul see at Jeru­
salem, and on his way ?
What did the very name of Cæsarea show ?
How might the schools of Jerusalem be interrupted? 
What kind of schools were the great schools of Jerusalem ? 
What two were greatest of all ?
Did they both belong to one or to different sects ?
Did they belong to Pharisee or Sadducee?
{SECOND SUNDAY.)
What were the doctrines of the Pharisees ?
What the doctrines of the Sadducees ?
What was the one principal doctrine on which they dif­
fered ?
What was the difference between the two schools ? 
What was the proverb about their bitter disputing? 
When our Saviour rebuked traditions, which one of 
these schools did he especially rebuke ?
Who was Saul’s teacher?
What was the name of his grandfather ?
What was Saul taught ‘at the feet of Gamaliel ’ ?
Did Saul like traditions ?
What does ‘ zealous towards God ’ mean ?
Was Gamaliel a good teacher for Saul ?
What kind of a man was he ?
Where else is he mentioned in the Bible
What was his advice in respect to the Apostles at that 
time?
How did he differ from many Pharisees ?
Why was it important for Saul to know Greek ?
Can you mention any instances of his quoting from 
Greek authors ?
What was the manner of teaching ?
What was most prized?
Did the teacher question the scholar?
Was Saul equal to his school-fellows ?
How do you know ?
What does ‘ profited ’ mean in that passage ?
How many things can you mention as the result of Saul’s 
education? 
i3auis
Was he more or less a Pharisee than before ?
What kind of a life did Saul lead in Jerusalem ?
. Dl(i he Iike tradition more or less than before ?
Bible? riSht t0 PUt any thInS l6f°re the comman(tnients of the
commands ?thbk ^
 ^
 Whidl 
d° put before these
(4)
{SECOND SUNDAY.)
Third Sunday
SAUL AND 
STEPHEN.
lesson.
L Corinthians xv. 9; Acts xxii. 20; vii. 64-60; vm. 1-4.
A
 NUMBER of years must have passed, after Saul 
came up to Jerusalem, before the persecution of 
Stephen took place. If Saul came to Jerusalem at about 
twelve years of age, there must -have been nearly, if 
not quite, eighteen years before he makes his appear­
ance at the stoning of the first martyr; for soon after 
Stephen’s death he preached at Damascus, and it is not 
probable that he would commence public preaching be­
fore the usual priestly age of thirty. We may suppose 
that Saul visited his home frequently during these 
eighteen years. It may be that he spent much of his 
time at home, especially as he grew older, returning 
now to the schools of his native town to study the 
Greek language and literature, so that he might be 
fully prepared to meet the arguments of the heathen in­
fidels. During these years, other children were becom­
ing men. Years before, there had been a child born in 
the hill-country of Judah, not far away, who was now 
receiving his rough training in the wilderness and in 
the deserts, where he grew, ‘waxing strong in spirit, 
till the day of his showing unto Israel,’ when he 
preached ‘ the baptism of repentance.’ 
Along the 
shore of the Lake of Galilee were boys mending their 
fathers’ nets, who were growing hardy and strong for 
their future work, and who, even before they had grown
SAUL AND STEPHEN. 
17
to be men, were no doubt thinking of, and watchful for, 
the Messiah. The Great Teacher, born in Bethle­
hem, now nearly ready to fulfil the prophetic words of 
John the Baptist, was at Nazareth, waiting for the time 
when his great work should call him into public life. 
He, too, at twelve years of age, had heard and asked 
questions of the doctors in the temple. He would 
soon be as old as the priests, who at thirty entered 
on their office, when he would preach, and teach the 
whole world the most important of all doctrines. 
How is it that Saul never meets any of these persons ? 
How is it that, while he believed with his nation that it 
was the time for the Messiah to appear, and Jesus was 
claiming to be the Messiah, and all the wonderful works 
of the Saviour were occurring through all the country, 
and the condemnation and the crucifixion were taking 
place, he seems not to know of any of these events by 
personal presence and sight ? In none of his epistles 
or speeches, after his conversion, does he allude to the 
fact of having seen the Saviour, or of having known 
the disciples, though they all visited the temple, and 
were conspicuous to all men at the great festivals of the 
capital. We must think that Saul was at tins time ab­
sent from the city, and probably at Tarsus, just as after 
his conversion he returns again for a short time to Tar- 
sus.1 If he were absent only three years, it will be suf­
ficient to show why he did not'meet Jesus or any of his 
disciples. It is more creditable to Saul’s candor and 
"wisdom and conscientiousness to believe that he was 
busy with the Greek scholars of Tarsus, and heard of 
the great events occurring in Judea only from a dis­
tance : that he thought of the miracles of Jesus only 
as the work of some extraordinary and skilful magi-
1 Acts ix. 30,
18
(THIRD SUNDAY.)
cian, and of his disciples as a band of honest and credu* 
lous and deluded men. 
In all the confessions of his 
sins afterwards, he never speaks of the trial and cruci­
fixion of his Lord, as he would have done had he been 
one of the persecutors then. 
It was not till after the 
resurrection of Jesus that Saul came back to Jerusalem. 
He then found in Jerusalem quite a number of these 
men, who had been followers of Jesus the Nazarene, and 
who believed that he was the Messiah. He would at 
once think of them as a new sect, who were giving a 
Avrong meaning to the Scriptures, Avho Avere trying to 
make knoAvn their pernicious doctrines, and Avho ought, 
therefore, to be put down as soon as possible. When 
we read that ‘ certain men of Cilicia and of Asia5 
arose’ to dispute with Stephen, Ave may think that Saul, 
recently returned from Tarsus, Avas among them, eager 
to shoAV his zeal for the law of his forefathers, and his 
poAver of disputation against the teachers of this new 
doctrine. 
Saul no doubt prided himself on his oAvn 
upright life, his careful observance of all the duties laid 
down in the traditions and in the laAv, and that he was 
faultless in Avashings and prayers and fastings, in phy­
lacteries and fringes, in sacrifices and charities and good 
Avorks. 
He Avould be bitterly provoked that any fol­
lower of a teacher, (a magician, perhaps,) Avho had con­
demned so earnestly the keeping of the tradition, should 
be teaching in the temple, and that the disciples of 
Jesus were increasing in Jerusalem3; that great won­
ders and miracles were done among the people4; and 
that many even of the priests3 were turning to this pre­
tended Messiah. 
With all the earnestness of his nature
5 Acts vi. 9. 
Proselytes of Africa, (from Cyrenc and Alexandria,)
of Asia Minor, (from Cilicia and Asia,) of Rome, (Libertines, pro­
bably freed-men from Rome.)
3 vi. 7. 
4 vi. 8.
SAUL AND STEPHEN. 
19
and the power of his mind, he would join with the 
Pharisees in crushing out this new sect. 
Hence it is, 
we suppose, that we have Saul introduced to us in the 
Acts just at this point, when not only the miracles of 
the Pentecost had been ‘noised abroad;’3 when not 
only the healing of the lame man at the gate of the 
temple by Peter and John was well known; when not 
only the strange death of Ananias had caused excite­
ment among the people; Avhen the resolute Peter and 
John Avere braving the threats of the chief council, 
preaching, in spite of it, in the temple; but when, also, 
a new member of the sect, said to possess more than 
usual wisdom,* was attracting the attention of the 
learned men of the different synagogues. 
Stephen was 
‘ full of faith and power.’ 
He met the disputers from 
Africa and Asia Minor and Rome3 boldly, and ‘ they 
Avere not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by 
which he spake.’
The fact that they had been defeated in fair argu­
ment, stirred the fury of men bad at heart and deter­
mined to uphold their school and sect and law by what­
ever means. 
Murder was in their hearts, and it soon 
came out in words of falsehood and crime. 
When we 
read that they ‘ suborned men,’ (hired men to perjure 
themselves,) and hear also aftenvard from Paul’s own 
lips, ‘ I have lived in all good conscience before God 
unto this day,” we cannot suppose that Saul deliber­
ately helped to bribe a false witness to perjure himself 
for the purpose of taking life. 
It is by no means pro­
bable that all of the Jews consented to this most wicked 
act of perjury ; but Avhen the Avitnesses appeared, Saul 
no doubt took little pains to inquire into their character, 
and was glad of any pretext by which this pestilent
6 Chap, ii: 6. 6 vi. 10. 
7 xxiii 1.
20
(THIRD SUNDAY.)
Stephen could be got out of the way. In the midst of 
all this excitement, when ‘ they stirred up all the people 
and the elders and scribes,’ and caught Stephen, and 
brought him to the council, Saul must have watched 
every event with the most eager eye; and he must 
have hoped that Stephen would be brought to silence, 
if not to punishment and to death. It was in this very 
trial of Stephen, no doubt, that Saul’s bitterness be­
came more and more inflamed. He was one who looked 
on that face, like ‘the face of an angel,’ while the 
high-priest put the customary charge: ‘Are these things 
so ?’ And that pure and shining countenance did not 
win his heart, but rather fired his persecuting spirit. 
He heard Stephen’s speech before the council.8 At 
first he approved of it, and prided himself in his right­
eousness perhaps, while Stephen was giving the history 
of the race; but when the honest, faithful man called 
all the council stiff-necked, uncircumcised, resisters of 
God’s Spirit, persecutors, betrayers, murderers,9 all the 
haughty pride of his Pharisaic nature, and all the power 
of his education, rose in a moment, and fixed his pur­
pose to condemn him. ‘ Cut to the heart,’ ‘ gnashing 
on him with his teeth,’ he, like the rest, was only pro­
voked the more by the calm serenity of the culprit; 
and now, when their passion was overflowing, it needed 
but those other words of Stephen, ‘ I see the Son of 
Man at the right hand of God,’ to let loose all restraint. 
Blind and unreasoning, stirred to the depths of their 
sensitive pride, boiling with rage, all was over. Now 
there was only a violent, relentless, cruel mob. 
They 
cried out with a loud voice; they rent their clothes; 
they ran upon him with one accord ; they cast him out 
of their city. And now Saul, a maddened bigot against 
the truth, kept the garments which the witnesses had
* vii. 2-53. 
"vii. 51, 52.
SAUL AND STEPHEN.
21
laid off that they might stone him. While the angelic 
Stephen, with the light of heaven on his face, and the 
prayer of Jesus on his lips, received the blows of his 
brutal murderers, Saul kept their garments, that they 
might the more easily do their murderous deed. He 
consented, or approved of it, as the word means. We 
are therefore fully prepared for what follows. Once 
permitting his wicked passion and pride to master liim> 
thinking his rage and prejudice were religion, he en­
tered into the persecution with all his heart. While 
devout men carried Stephen to his burial, Saul ‘ made 
havoc of the church, entering into every house, and 
haling men and women, committed them to prison.’ 
How much he was doing for the very religion he aimed 
to destroy! He scattered the disciples of Jesus ; and 
filled with the Holy Ghost, they went everywhere 
preaching the word.
{THIRD SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
HOW many years were there between Saul’s coming to Jeru- 
11 salem and the stoning of Stephen ?
How do you know ?
Was Saul in Jerusalem all these years ?
What other persons were there in other parts of the 
land ?
How is it that Saul meets none of these persons ?
Why may we think Saul was not in Jerusalem during 
our Saviour’s public ministry ?
When-did he probably return to Jerusalem?
What did he now find ?
What would he think of these persons ?
Why may we suppose that Saul was one of those who 
disputed with Stephen ?
Repeat the verse.
How do you show that there were representatives from 
Europe, Asia and Africa ?
What would touch his pride, as belonging to that school 
which held the supremacy of tradition ?
What events had recently occurred in Jerusalem ?
• What new member of the new sect now appears ?
What kind of a man is he ?
Which is the better, faith or wisdom ? Why ?
Is a man who has faith ever entirely destitute of wis­
dom ?
Whom did he meet in dispute ?
Who had the better argument ?
What was the result ?
W hat is meant by ‘ suborn ’ ?
Ho you think Saul ‘ suborned ’ men ?
What did he have to do with the ‘ suborned men’ ? 
What would Saul hope ?
What effect did Stephen’s speech have on Saul’s mind ? 
What did he probably think when Stephen began ?
(5)
{THIRD SUNDAY.)
What especially cut him to the heart ?
What good thing will ‘ cut people to the heart ’ now ? 
What added most of all to Saul’s rage ?
What does ‘gnashed on him with their teeth ’ show ?
Do you think Stephen had a vision of heaven ?
Whom did Stephen see in heaven ?
Which person of the Trinity gave Stephen power to see 
Jesus ?
Who gives power to see spiritual things ?
If we ever see Jesus in heaven, whose guidance will lead 
us there?
Why did they stop their ears ?
Did Stephen have a regular trial ?
What did Saul have to do with the witnesses ?
Did Saul help stone Stephen ?
Whose dying prayer did Stephen use ?
To ‘fall asleep ’ like Stephen, at the last, what must we 
have ?
Did Saul like the death of Stephen ?
When he ‘ consented,’ did he only give permission ? 
What act shows that he publicly consented ?
What did Saul mistake for religion ?
Can you think of anything in men themselves which 
they sometimes mistake for religion ?
Do you suppose Saul forgot the death of Stephen ? 
What effect might Stephen’s prayer have had on him ? 
Who buried Stephen ?
Is it right to lament over friends ?
Is it right to grieve for friends who, we are satisfied, are 
in heaven ?
What was Saul now doing ?
Did he overthrow the new sect ?
What did he do ?
What is the better way to treat any despised cause, 
when it is first advocated ?
Who were left in Jerusalem?
What did Paul think of his own conduct afterwards ? 
Did he ever condemn his feelings against Stephen ?
(6)
LESSON.
Acts via. 3 ; ix. 1-18; xxii. 4-16 ; xxiii. 1; xxvi. 9-15.
44 npHERE are strong grounds for believing that if 
Saul was not a member of the Sanhedrim at the 
time of Stephen’s death, he was elected into that pow­
erful Senate soon after: possibly as a reward for his zeal 
against the heretic, for he himself says that when the 
Christians were put to death, ‘ I gave my vote against 
them.’ ”1 * If he were a member of this national council, 
he must have been married, for it is said one of the 
qualifications for the office was, that the person should 
be both husband and father. Whether he was or was 
not a member of the Sanhedrim, he was trusted by them 
as one who would execute their plans for rooting out 
the new sect. He was chief man in the persecution, 
and his persecution grew more and more bitter and vio­
lent. He made havoc of the Church; he went into 
every house; he haled men and women, (the old Eng­
lish word for haul, to drag ;a) he bound them; he shut 
them up in prison; in every synagogue he punished 
them; and though he had succeeded in driving the
1 xxvi. 10. 
The word voice means strictly a pebble used for voting,
and so a vote or voice.
s As in Spenser’s Fairy Queen:
‘Him sternly grypt and hailing to and fro,
To overthrow him strongly did assay.’
most of the disciples from the city, he was still breath­
ing in (as the word may he translated) threatening and 
slaughter. He dragged forth even the women, although, 
in the East, the women are kept so secluded. He shut 
them up in prison. He gave his voice against the dis­
ciples to the death; and, the worst of all, he tried to 
make them blaspheme the name of their Lord. His 
name as a persecutor had become notorious in the dis­
tant city of Damascus. Many had brought to Ananias1 * 3 
the report of his horrible injustice, and far and near, 
he was the terror of all believers. His own sorrow af­
terwards, shows how malignant was his spirit, for it was 
in his own speeches afterwards in Jerusalem,4 * and at 
Caesarea, that he confessed with shame these crimes ; 
and in his letters, too, he laments how he ‘ persecuted 
beyond measure the Church of God and laid it waste,’6 
how he was ‘a blasphemer and a persecutor, and inju­
rious’ ;7 how he felt that he was not fit to be ‘called 
an Apostle because he persecuted the Church of God.’6
It may be that Saul seized also Samaritans and Gen­
tiles. More cities than Damascus felt the power of his 
fierce hate. 
Perhaps the Samaritans, in whose city 
there had been great joy that Philip had preached to 
them as well as to Jews, and the many Samaritan vil 
lages* in which Peter and John preached, had proof 
of Saul’s double spite against them as Samaritans and 
Christians.
Mad with fury and blind bigotry, Saul tried to carry 
his persecutions to the beautiful city of Damascus. We 
do not suppose the chief priests had any civil authority 
over Damascus, but only an ecclesiastical authority, as 
the Pope of Rome claims ecclesiastical power over 
distant and foreign countries. What was the route ho
'ix. 13. 
‘xxii. 
6xxvi. 10,11. 
6 Galatians i. 13. 
71. Tim. i. 13.
81. Corinth, xv. 9. 
8 Acts viii. 5, 8, 25.
THE CONVERSION. 
23
Fourth Sunday.
THE 
CONVERSION.
went, all he found ‘ of that way.’ He might then follow 
the road up the Jordan, around the Sea of Galilee, and 
cross the river just below the little Lake Merom, or still 
following the small streams of the upper J ordan, strike 
the road from Tyre to Damascus somewhere near Caesa­
rea Philippi; but he would more probably take the 
most direct course, and cross the Jordan below the Sea 
of Galilee. As he rode along the tops of the hills in 
Samaria, he would get occasional glimpses of the Medi­
terranean. Further on he would look down on the blue 
waters of Gennesaret, now perhaps hateful in his glaring 
eye, as the place where the Nazarene wrought his magic 
wonders; and in the far distance he would see the 
glistening snow of Mount Hermon, near Damascus it­
self. After he had crossed the Jordan, he would take 
his tedious journey through one vast desert plain. “All 
around are stony hills, through which the withered 
stems of the scanty vegetation haj'dly penetrate. Over 
this desert, under the burning sky, full of fiery zeal, the 
impetuous Saul holds his course. When some eminence 
is gained, the vast horizon is seen stretching on all sides, 
except where the steep sides of Lebanon interrupt it, 
like the ocean without a boundary. 
Damascus, at 
length anxiously looked for, is seen from afar, resting 
in the green enclosure of its beautiful gardens, like an 
island of Paradise in the desert.” Wearied with his 
long journey, no sight can be more refreshing; for the 
view is one of the most celebrated, and the city is one 
of the most illustrious in the world. Damascus is one 
of the two oldest cities in the world. It was already 
built in the time of Abraham.10 David fortified it with
10 Genesis xiv. 15; xv. 2. 
‘Josephus makes it even older than 
Abraham.’ 
Hebron is mentioned first, but it may not have been 
older. 
Genesis xiii. 18.
THE CONVERSION. 
25
24
(.FOURTH SUNDAY.)
oCaxtr,
took we do not know. He would first go north, through 
that Samaria and that Galilee in which lay so many 
’cones of our Saviour’s life, persecuting, perhaps, as lie
a garrison, when it was a part of his kingdom.11 It 
made trouble to Solomon.12 Naaman, the Syrian Gen­
eral, proudly told Elisha that the sweet, fresh waters 
of Damascus were “ better than all the waters of Is­
rael.”13 Its merchants, and the merchants of Syria, 
over which it was capital, brought to the fairs of the 
rich city of Tyre, emeralds, purple embroidery, fine 
linen, coral, and agates. They expended a ‘ multitude 
of riches,’ and bore away from Tyre a ‘ multitude of 
wares.’14 To the time of Saul it continued to be a rich, 
a powerful, a beautiful emporium of trade, between the 
countries on the Mediterranean and the distant Persia 
and India, as to this very day the costly merchandise 
of the distant West and the distant East meet in its 
streets. About thirty or forty years before Saul’s birth, 
Pompey the Great “ received at Damascus ambassadors 
and presents from the neighboring kings, and the next 
year all Syria became a Roman province.”16 The life 
of Damascus is its rivers and fountains and lakes. The 
streams which rise in the mountains of Lebanon, become 
one ‘ deep, broad, rushing ’ river, as they flow eastward 
towards the city; and at length the river “ is drawn 
out again into watercourses and spread in all directions. 
For miles around, is a wilderness of gardens, with roses • 
in the tangled shrubbery, and with fruit on the branches 
overhead. Everywhere among the trees the murmur 
of unseen rivulets is heard. Every dwelling has its 
fountain; and at night, when the sun has set behind 
Mount Lebanon, the lights of the city are seen flashing 
on the waters.” “ Without the waters of this river,
11II. Sam. viii. 6. 
121. Kings xi. 24, 23. 
18II. Kings v. 12.
14 Ezekiel, xxvii. 16, 18.
15 While Saul was at Damascus, the city was under the temporary 
rule of Aretas, King of Arabia Petrsea, (II. Corinth, xi. 32, 33,) but 
it soon became subject again to the Romans.
26 
(.FOURTH SUNDAY.)
the splendid plain would be a desert; with them, it 
is an earthly paradise, luxuriating with fields of the 
heaviest grain, as also with groves and orchards of the 
finest fruit. Damascus is still a gem, ‘the eye of the 
whole East.’ ” “All travellers in all ages have paused 
to feast the eyes with this prospect, on which Saul 
looked; aud the prospect has always been the same.
On his wicked and awful errand, the bold man ap­
proaches this ancient and beautiful city. Here, under 
the glow and heat of an Eastern sun at mid-day, just as 
he expects to reach the city of rest and comfort, he is 
struck down, blinded and astonished by that E lashing 
Light, more brilliant than the noon-day brightness. 
All his attendants are terrified, bewildered, and dumb.16
And there appeared to Saul in the light, One whom 
he now saw was Jesus the Despised. From him came 
a voice of authority: ‘ Why persecutest thou me ? ’
It was then the awaked man saw what an awful crime 
he had been committing, and that Jesus of Nazareth 
was the Messiah. “ I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. ’
“ He does not say, ‘ I am the Son of God — the Eter­
nal Word—the Lord of men and of angels,’ but, ‘ I am 
Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, who was mocked and cruci­
fied, who was buried and who rose from the dead, and
15 In Acts ix. 1, it is said that Saul’s companions ‘ stood speechless,’ 
and in xxyi. 14, that all fell to the earth. 
There is no contradiction. 
In the xxyi. chapter, they fall before the voice speaks; in the ix., it 
is after the voice speaks, and Saul answers, the voice speaks again, 
and Saul answers again, and the voice speaks the third time, that the 
men with Saul stood. 
All but Saul had risen. There had been abun­
dant time, after the first awful surprise, for them to rise. 
In ix. 7, 
the men are said to stand, 1 hearing a voice; ’ in xxii. 9, it is said they 
1 heard not the voice.’ 
There is no contradiction, if we suppose that 
in one case it is meant that they heard the sound of the voice, as we 
say we hear the voice of thunder, and in the other that they heard not 
the words of the voice.
THE CONVERSION. 
27
QUESTIONS.
WIIAT reason is there to suppose that Saul was a member 
'' 
of the Sanhedrim ?
What does ‘ I gave my voice against them,’ mean ? 
Name as many distinct acts of his persecution in Jerusalem 
as you can.
What is the meaning of ‘ haling ’ ?
How may the words ‘ breathing out ’ be translated ? 
What was the worst act of all ?
Can you prove that Saul’s reputation as a persecutor 
had extended beyond Jerusalem ?
How do you certainly know that his spirit was malig­
nant?
Did Saul think in his heart that he was right ?
May a man be conscientiously cruel? conscientiously 
wicked ?
Did Saul ever regret his conscientious persecution after­
wards ?
Is it a duty to have a right conscience ?
While Saul is persecuting at Jerusalem, where are 
Philip and Peter and John ?
Did Saul go to more than one strange city ?
What authority -would a priest in Jerusalem have in 
Damascus ?
What parts of the land, in which our Saviour had espe 
daily been, would he pass through ?
What would he be likely to think of, when he saw Lake 
Gennesaret ?
Where do you think he crossed the Jordan ?
What kind of country is he in after crossing the Jordan ? 
What kind of a city is Damascus ?
What events in its history can you state ?
In what kind of scenery is the city ?
How many separate accounts are there of Saul’s conversion ? 
Where are they, and which is the most complete ?
cFOURTH SUNDAY.)
(V)
who now appears to thee that thou mayest know the 
truth of my resurrection, that I may convince thee of 
■ %
 sin aild call thee to be my Apostle.’ ” Submitting 
to that call, he is directed what to do ; and, arising and 
opening his eyes, dark and blind, he is led into Damas­
cus ; not now to persecute, hut, in the agony of his 
deep contrition and shame, to be separate from all men. 
There he is left alone. 
No disciple of Jesus "would 
come to him to give him sympathy, for they were all 
terrified at his coming to Damascus; and he would 
shrink with horror from the Jews who still reviled the 
true Messiah. He is alone; alone to think of his former 
life; alone to think of his raging wickedness, of his proud 
hatred and blind prejudice against Jesus the Son of Jo­
seph ; alone to think that same Jesus had proved, by the 
especial favor of a miracle, that He was the Messiah; 
alone to confess all his wickedness; alone, fasting and 
piaying and receiving pardon from Jesus his Lord and 
his Christ. And now he prayed as he had never prayed 
before. Now he saw that all his prayers which, as a 
Pharisee, he had repeated from a child, were idle and 
vam repetitions. Now, as he gave up all his ambitious 
plans for life, his thought of being a great scholar and 
Doctor among the Rabbis of Jerusalem; now, as ho 
made that other greater sacrifice of his opinion and his 
will, he humbly prayed to Jesus, his former enemy, his 
glorious Lord, for pardon and for some place in his ser­
vice. The same Jesus sent his messenger to open his 
eyes by a miracle, and to teach him that he must him­
self suffer and be persecuted, and preach the name of 
the Sou of Joseph ‘ to Gentiles and to kings and to the 
children of Israel.’
28 
(.FOURTH SUNDAY.)
(.FOURTH SUNDAY.)
Does the same person give them all ?
At what time of day did the miracle take place ?
What do you think of Saul’s being deceived at such a 
time and in such a place ?
Could this he lightning ?
What was the effect on the men with him ?
How do you reconcile ‘ stood speechless,’ (ix. 7,) and 
‘all fallen to the earth’ (xxvi. 14)?
How do you reconcile ‘hearing a voice' (ix. 7,) and 
‘ heard not a voice ’ (xxii. 9) ?
How was Saul persecuting Jesus himself?
What is it to ‘ kick against the pricks ’ ?
What meaning is there in the answer, ‘ I am Jesus of 
Nazareth ’ ?
Why did he now tremble ?
Why should a clear and powerful conception of God or 
of the Saviour make men tremble ?
Did Saul see Jesus at the time of the miracle ?
Was the conversion now, or when he is said to pray at Da­
mascus ?
What does his question show in respect to the surren­
der of himself?
How long a time is necessary to be converted ?
Why was Saul now alone in Damascus ?
How did Ananias feel about going to him ?
What kind of a man was Ananias ?
What reason is given why he should go ?
What Christian virtues did it require in Ananias to go 
to him ?
What was Saul doing and thinking before Ananias came ? 
Had Saul been accustomed to pray before ?
Was it easy for Saul to become a Christian ?
What two great sacrifices did it cost Saul ?
How does it cost every one the same two things now, 
to be a Christian ?
(8)
Fifth 
Sunday
DAMASCUS, ARABIA, AND TARSUS.
LESSON.
Acts ix. 19-30 ; xxii. 15-21; xxvi. 16-20; Galatians i. 15-23;
II. Corinthians xi. 32, 33.
T
HE work of Saul’s future life was at once revealed to 
him at the time of his conversion.1 
Least of all had 
that proud Pharisee thought that he would ever preach 
to Gentiles. 
But so complete was his surrender of him­
self to the first command of his Messiah, that, with all 
the ardor of his strong nature, he accepted the service 
assigned him. 
‘A minister and a witness of the things 
lie had seen,’ and of those things he was yet to see, 
lie now was to go especially to the Gentiles. 
And 
yet he was to preach to the Jews wherever he had op­
portunity.
No sooner, therefore, had he recovered strength from 
the exhaustion to which the shock to his physical system 
and his anguish and fasting had reduced him, than lie 
boldly preached Christ in the synagogues. 
The disci­
ples of Jesus had now gathered around him. 
And now 
it was that all his previous training came to the assist­
ance of the cause he had once despised. 
He knew the 
Scriptures ; he knew the teaching of the Rabbis, et en 
those of Jerusalem; he knew the traditions. 
All his 
accurate learning in their minute investigations was not
11. Corinth, ix. 1; xv. 8; Acts ix. 17, 27; xxji. 14; xxvi. 16.
* See too I. Timothy ii. 7.
enraged now to listen to him candidly. He did not 
need the instruction of the other apostles at Jerusalem. 
He knew the Scriptures perhaps better than they; the 
Divine Spirit had wrought in him the great change, and 
Jesus himself had instructed him. He was no doubt 
divinely guided to retire into seclusion. He did not, 
therefore, go “to Jerusalem to those who were apostles 
before him, but he went into Arabia, and returned 
again to Damascus.”5
There is so much difference of meaning in the word 
‘Arabia,’ as it is used by different geographers, that it 
cannot be determined with any certainty W'here Saul
DAMASCUS, ARABIA, .4JVD TARSUS. 
31
' Galatians i. 17, 18.
ARABIA
lost, for he knew every form and phase of the argument 
which any Jew could advance. Out of their own Scrip­
tures, and with unusual power, he could prove that 
Jesus the Nazarene was the Son of God. The Jews 
‘ that heard him were amazed.’ They knew his reputa­
tion at Jerusalem: they knew with what fiery Pharisaic 
zeal and with what authority, he had come to Damas­
cus : they knew what he meant to do when he reached 
Damascus. And now, instead of ‘ arresting’ and ‘haling’ 
and ‘ imprisoning’ and accusing to the death men and 
women too, and sending them off under safe escort to 
Jerusalem, he was advocating with all his eminent 
ability the Nazarene cause, and giving it his warmest 
sympathy and love.
Saul s preaching was directed to the two points: First, 
The Messiah, the Christ, is the Son of God f he unfolded 
from the Scriptures the true nature of the Messiah’s 
spiritual kingdom; and, secondly, This Jesus is that 
very Messiah * and has already established his spiritual 
kingdom in the heart of his disciples. The more he 
reflected, the more he saw how all the works of Jesus 
fulfilled the Scriptures. Increasing more in strength 
therefore, ‘he confounded the Jews which dwelt in 
Damascus.’
Saul was not probably long at Damascus immediately 
after his conversion. When it is said, ‘ after many days 
were fulfilled,’ his life in Arabia, and his dwelling in 
Damascus the second time, are doubtless included.
The fury of the Jews must have been excited to the 
utmost pitch.” He must, therefore, leave Damascus. 
But it would not do to go back at once to Jerusalem.
6 ewis^ fui7 would be doubled against him there.
is ife iv ould not be worth a tithe of annis there; and 
even if he should escape, the people would be too much
20. 
* 22d verse.
30 
yiflFTH SUNDAY.)
82
{FIFTH SUNDAY.)
■went. The whole northern portion of Arabia is so com­
posed of endless desert plains stretching to the north 
and east towards Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Baby­
lonia, that its boundary has never been exactly fixed. 
Even the three great divisions of Arabia have their 
boundaries but loosely drawn. Along down the coast 
of the Red Sea, and in the south-west corner of the great 
Arabian peninsula, was Happy Arabia, fruitful and rich, 
(Arabia Felix.) The great central and northern deserts, 
stretching across the wilderness and plains towards the 
Euphrates and Damascus and the Jordan, was Desert 
Arabia, (Arabia Deserta.) The Great Rocky Wilder­
ness, from the south of Palestine down into the small 
peninsula between the two heads of the Red Sea, was 
Rocky Arabia, (Arabia Petrsea,) with Petra its capital. 
It is more probable that Saul retired either into the 
borders of Desert Arabia, and did not go far from Da­
mascus, or that he went into Rocky Arabia, and it may 
be trod the hallowed ground of Horeb and of Sinai. 
It may be that he preached the Gospel in rock-hewn 
Petra; it may be that he spoke of Jesus to the Arabian 
Christians who were at Jerusalem during the Pentecost 
Festivalit may be that to wise men of the East he 
described the great mission of the Babe of Bethlehem; 
it may be that for communion with God alone, and for 
repentance, he sought the solitudes of that wild and 
silent region, and like Moses, like Elijah, even like 
Christ himself, was strengthened ‘in the wilderness’ for 
his great work by especial divine influences.
Precisely how long he was in Arabia we do not know- 
But when he left Damascus the second time for Jerusa­
lem, it was at least ‘three years after’ his conversion- 
This may mean indeed only parts of three years, as the 
‘ three days’ between the crucifixion and resurrection)
8 Acts ii. 11.
DAMASCUS, ARABIA, AND TARSUS. 
33
according to the Jewish mode of reckoning, means 
parts of three days, (a part of the first day, the whole 
of the second, and a part of the third.) He must have 
been in Arabia more than one year.
Once more he stepped from the borders of the desert 
into the gardens of Damascus, prepared now henceforth 
to meet persecution at every step of his eventful life. 
Even now his life was in double peril, for not only the 
Jews, but the governor of the city tried to seize him. 
The king’s garrison,7 as well as those furious men who 
were unable to meet him in argument from the Scripture, 
‘ watched the gates day and night to kill him.’ In the 
darkness of the night, at an unguarded part of the 
city, through the window of a house built in the outer- 
wall, the great and good and hated Apostle, like the 
spies from Jericho," and like David escaping from King 
Saul,9 was forced to escape, let down in a basket. At 
mid-night perhaps, instead of mid-day, he passed the 
place on the road to Jerusalem, where the light flashed 
about him from heaven. What thoughts were now in 
his mind, as he journeyed towards the holy city: the 
temple; the sacrifices; the Messiah really come; the pro­
phecies fulfilled; his own wicked, blind persecution; the 
change in himself; Gamaliel and the Rabbis; the waters 
of Galilee, now sacred to him as he passed them, because 
Jesus had been there ; the yearning of his soul with af­
fection for every true disciple, as he trod again the hills 
of Samaria; the thought of friends in Tarsus, and their 
mistaken knowledge of Jesus, as he caught sight of the 
Mediterranean from the hill-top—as he came near the 
walls of J erusalem, Calvary and the crucifixion, Stephen 
and his murder and his vision of Jesus, so unlike his 
own; his familiar places of resort, where he learned 
the traditions and the law, and disputed in the syna-
See note 15, on page 26. 
8 Joshua ii. 15. 
91. Sam. xix. 12.
34
{FIFTH SUNDAY.)
gogues. 
How gladly he would bring the good news he 
had learned to his old friends and fellow-students, to the 
teachers and to Gamaliel! 
Surely some of them will 
believe on Jesus. 
How eagerly he will join himself to 
the disciples of the despised Messiah !
But in the city he soon found that “as the Jews 
hated him, so the Christians suspected him. They could 
not believe he was a disciple.” The long distance to Da­
mascus, the uncertain roads, the frequent interruption 
and robberies, the infrequent return of Christians to 
Jerusalem, the seat of persecution, all might have pre­
vented the disciples from getting knowledge of his con­
version, or might have led them to distrust such a 
strange conversion till it had been tested. 
‘ Barnabas 
took him and brought him to the apostles.’ 
Why Bar­
nabas ? Barnabas was from Cyprus.10 Cyprus was not 
far from Tarsus. 
Barnabas may have been at school at 
Tarsus. 
He and Saul may have been acquainted be­
fore. 
There is an ancient tradition that they studied 
together in the school of Gamaliel. 
If not acquainted, 
Barnabas would feel especial interest in a native of a 
city which was within a few hours’ sail of his early 
home, and in which, no doubt, he had often been. Bar­
nabas was a kind-hearted and generous man, too; for 
he had sold his land, and had brought the money for 
the disciples to use.11
Barnabas brought Saul to Peter and James, the only 
two apostles whom Saul at this time saw; and he was 
with them only fifteen days. 
How many things were 
said by these good men, in these few days, of Jesus and 
his life and work, and of their work! ‘And now boldly 
'in the temple he disputed with the Grecians,’12 and a3
10 Acts iv. 36. 
11 iv. 3b
w This word does not mean native Greeks, but foreign Jews who 
tspoke Greek.
DAMASCUS, ARABIA, AND TARSUS.
35
his Rabbinical knowledge served him in Damascus, so 
did his knowledge of Greek probably serve him here. 
But as he did to Stephen, so did they to him. 
‘ They 
went about to kill him.’ 
He must ‘ make haste to get 
out of the city.’ 
‘ They will not receive thy testimony 
concerning me,’ were the words of his Divine Lord to 
him, in a trance, while at prayer in the temple. 
And 
although Saul seems to have clung fondly to his desire 
to try to convert his friends and acquaintances, the com­
mand is plain and emphatic: ‘ Depart, for I will send 
taee far hence to the Gentiles.’ So the brethren brought 
him down to Caesarea, probably where he first landed 
years ago, and sent him home to Tarsus. Whether the 
family at Tarsus mourned over their apostate son, and 
shut him out of their home, or themselves found the 
Messiah and Saviour in the Nazarene, we do not know. 
“We may well imagine that some of his Christian kins­
men,13 whose names are handed down to us—possibly 
his sister, the playmate of his childhood, and his sister’s 
son,14 who afterwards saved his life—were gathered at 
that time by his exertions into the fold of Christ.” 
Doubtless, too, he disputed in the synagogues of Tar- 
sns, and perhaps in the public schools of the learned 
Greeks, well furnished now against the heathen philo­
sophers of the place. 
He would now win them to the 
Messiah of Gentile as well as of Jew. 
Ho doubt he 
preached in other towns and villages of Cilicia. 
Cer- 
tamly there were churches in Cilicia afterwards ;15 and 
We l°ve to think that some of its early members were 
converted by Saul’s labors, and that, although the breth- 
mn m Judea did not know him by face, they were thank- 
frl to God for what he was doing, when they heard, 
That he which persecuted us in times past, now 
preaches the faith he once destroyed.’
3 Gomans xvi. 11, 21. 
14 Acts xxiii. 16. 
1S xv. 23, 41.
{FIFTH SUNDAY.)
QTTESTIONS.
WHAT was to be Saul’s great work now ?
” 
At what two places was his life-work given him ?
By what two persons ?
What shows the thoroughness of Saul’s conversion ? 
Should people expect to be converted by strange appear­
ances now ?
How long was Saul in Damascus now ?
What did he do there ?
To whom did he preach ?
How was he fitted to argue with them ?
In what thing did he not speak like a Pharisee ?
What were the two subjects of his preaching ?
What did the people who heard him think ?
How much time is included in the ‘ many days ’ that 
‘ were fulfilled’?
Were the Jews of Damascus converted when they heard of 
Saul’s conversion ?
What one of two effects may be expected -in one who 
knows his friend or companion is converted ? 
Where did Saul go from Damascus ?
Why not go to Jerusalem ?
Did he need instruction in order to become an Apostle ? 
Into what part of Arabia do you think he went ?
What did he go there for ?
How long was he there ?
‘After three years I went up to Jerusalem:’ three years 
after what ?
When Saul came back to Damascus, what put his life in 
double peril ?
Who was King over Damascus now ?
Was it the King, or who was it who tried to arrest Saul ? 
How did he escape ?
What other persons in Scripture escaped in the samo 
manner ?
0>)
{FIFTH SUNDAY.)
What would Saul think of on the way to Jerusalem ?
For what especial purpose did he now go to Jerusalem? 
How did the disciples at Jerusalem treat him at first? 
Why ?
What motive might they think Saul had ?
Why is it that Barnabas brings him to the disciples ? 
What kind of a man was Barnabas ?
What reason did he give why they should receive Saul? 
How many of the Apostles did he see ?
How long was he in Jerusalem?
What did he do in Jerusalem ?
Who were the ‘ Grecians ’ ?
Did he, or did he not, wish to stay ? Why ?
What confession does Saul make at this timd ?
Was it in Jerusalem, or wdiere was it, that his life-work 
was to be ?
Where did he now go ?
How would his own family think of him ?
Were any of his kinsmen converted?
What would he do in Tarsus ?
Can a person be a Christian and never speak of it ?
Do you think Saul went to any other cities of Cilicia ?
How do you know there were churches in Cilicia afterwards ? 
Did the disciples in Judea know Saul personally at that 
time?
What did they say of him at this time ?
Did Saul’s conversion do good where he had never been ?
Did his persecution do harm where he had never been ? 
Is it possible for a man to confine his Christian or un­
christian influence to the place where he is ?
If it is not Christian, what must it be ?
(10)
Sixth Sunday.
BARNABAS GOES FOR SAUL.
LESSON.
Acts ix. 30-35 ; xi. 19-30; xii. 24, 25.
A ND now, while Saul is at Tarsus, and the Church 
from Judea to Galilee had rest, believers are multi­
plied. Peter preaches at Lydda, and heals a palsied 
man; at Joppa, and raises Dorcas to life ; at Cassarea, 
and Cornelius and his kinsmen and friends believe. 
Others, scattered by the persecution of Stephen, little 
thinking that the ‘young man Saul’ was now too a be­
liever, travelled to Phenice, (Phenicia,) and to Cyprus 
and to Antioch. Some of these men from Cyprus and 
from Cyrene,1 who could therefore speak Greek, and 
who knew the manners and the character of the Greeks 
better than the others, preached to the Greeks3 at An­
tioch ; .and a great number of the Greeks believed. The 
story now gathers around the two places, Caesarea and 
Antioch, in which the Gospel is preached to the Gen­
tiles, and where are now gathered into the Church rep­
resentatives of the two great nations of Greece and 
Rome.
And now, no doubt Saul, under the direction of the 
Holy Spirit, was waiting for the door to the Gentiles 
to be fully opened before he should enter directly on his
Cyiene is directly south of Greece, ia Africa, six hundred miles 
.aither west than the map extends. 
See Map in frontispiece.
Possibly these may have been Greek-speaking Jews, but more 
likely Greers,
great life-work. Here he had been two or three years, 
and was now ready for further direction, when he was 
sent for by his Christian brethren. It is Barnabas who 
conies to introduce him to his w irk. 
It was natu-
BARNABA8 GOES FOR SAUL. 
37
38
(SIXTH SUNDAY.)
ral, when the disciples of Jerusalem heard Avhat was 
being done in Antioch, that they should send down 
Barnabas to Antioch, for with that city he was no 
doubt as familiar as-with Tarsus, from his early home in 
Cyprus. 
And now that the Greeks and Romans, at 
Antioch and at Caesarea, are receiving the Gospel; now 
that, after Peter had told his story of the conversion of 
the Roman centurion Cornelius, the Apostles at Jeru- 
salem had boldly said, in opposition to all the Jewish 
prejudice, ‘ Then hath God given repentance unto life 
to the Gentiles also; ’ now that the Apostles had sent 
him down to Antioch; now that he saw the Spirit of 
God was working mightily in'Antioch; and now that 
he knew Saul was to be the Apostle to the Gentiles,
‘ full of the Holy Ghost and of faith,’ Barnabas set oif 
to Tarsus to seek Saul. 
To Antioch Saul returns, and 
here with Barnabas labors a wrhole year.
Let us think now what kind of a place this is in which 
these tAvo eminent Christian teachers pass a year of 
their lives, and with such success that the disciples first 
receive the name of ‘ Christians.’
Antioch was one of the ancient cities of the Syrian 
coast. 
From the river Orontes, and from the harbor 
of the city on the sea, its ships sailed to all parts of the 
Mediterranean, while along the valley of the Orontes to 
the south-east, it communicated with the great caravan- 
trade of Damascus and the East, of Jerusalem and the 
South. 
From this time, and two centuries onward, it 
was the great sea-port of the whole rich inland territo­
ry, even of Mesopotamia and parts of Arabia. 
It was 
the third city of the Roman Empire, ranking next aftei 
Rome and Alexandria. 
It Avas adorned hy the emper­
ors as the capital of the Syrian provinces. A long, level 
and broal street, four miles in length, passed through 
the city. On each side of it were colonnades, so that the
BARNABAS GOES FOR SAUL.
39
throngs of people could walk under the covered ways 
of the beautiful avenue from one end of the city to the 
other. 
A palace for the Syrian king or Roman govern­
or, an ornamental arch, a temple of Jupiter on one sum­
mit of the neighboring mountain, and a citadel on another, 
were the other chief attractions. 
The Avhole Avas sur­
rounded by a wall. “ Luxurious Romans were attracted 
by its beautiful climate. 
New wants continually mul­
tiplied the business of its commerce. 
Its gardens and 
houses grew and extended on the north side of the 
river. Many are the allusions to the history of Antioch 
in the history of those times, as a place of singular 
pleasure and enjoyment. 
Here and there, an elevating 
thought is associated with the name. Poets have spent 
their young days at Antioch, great generals have died 
here, emperors have visited and admired it. 
But for 
the most part, its population was a worthless rabble cf 
Greeks and Orientals. 
The frivolous amusements of 
the theatre were the occupation of their life. They had 
a passion for races and for party quarrels. The Oriental 
superstition and imposture was in full life here. 
The 
Clialdean astrologers found their most credulous disci­
ples in Antioch. Jewish impostors, sufficiently common 
throughout the East, found their best opportunities 
here. It is probable that no populations have ever been 
more abandoned than those of Oriental Greek cities un­
der the Roman Empire; and of these cities, Antioch Avas 
the greatest and the Avorst.” 
The Olympic games Avere 
celebrated at Daphne, a beautiful, most vicious village, 
five miles from the city; and thither, to see the games, 
and to worship Apollo, in the magnificent temple, 
thousands of pilgrims went every year.
It was in such a rich, prosperous, thronged, and 
wicked city, that the Spirit of God was now manifest. 
Romans, Greeks, and Jews, would all oppose the sim
40 
(SIXTH SUNDAY.)
pie, humiliating, and purifying doctrines of Jesus. Yet 
many were believing. Barnabas would need aid. To 
this place, therefore, he brought Saul to assist in the 
good work. We cannot tell all which they accom­
plished during the year. No doubt they preached in 
the public places; no doubt they tried to lead the pil­
grims of a false faith to the true God and to the Mes­
siah ; and perhaps they preached the Gospel in the very 
village of Daphne, endeavoring to turn the worshippers 
‘ from these vanities to serve the living God.’ They 
had, however, attracted the attention of the people so 
much that they gave them a new name. The people 
saw, sti angely enough, Jews and Gentiles were united in 
this new sect. They heard them speak much of ‘the 
Christ, of him who had been crucified at Jerusalem, 
who, they claimed, had risen from the dead and was 
‘the Messiah’ whom the Jews had been expecting to 
appeal, or the Christ,’ in the Greek language; the 
preachers preached the doctrine that this ‘ Christ ’ was 
God; whenever any one prayed, he prayed in the name 
of ‘ Christ; ’ whatever they all did, they pretended to 
do for the sake of ‘ Christ; ’ and therefore the Antioch- 
ians called preachers and pray-ers together, in ridicule 
or in contempt, ‘ Christ-ians.’
The Jews called the disciples ‘ Nazarenes,’ or ‘ Gali­
leans,’ and they would not call those who believed in a 
false Christ, ‘Christians.’ The disciples called them­
selves ‘ brethren ’ and disciples; and they would not 
probably take upon themselves a name which meant 
simply‘believers in the Messiah,’ for all the Jews be­
lieved in a Messiah. The idle and witty people of An­
tioch, who ‘ were famous for their invention of nick­
names,’ were quick to see that these men were dif­
ferent from other J ews and from other Gentiles, and 
that they had in a year organized a church of their
BARNABAS GOES FOR SAUL. 
41
own. It was no doubt the witty Greeks and Romans 
and Syrians, who fastened on the disciples the contemp­
tuous name of ‘ Christians.’
There had been, within a few years, earthquakes and 
famines in various parts of the Roman Empire; and 
Judea had not escaped. “ The reign of Claudius Caesar, 
from bad harvests and other causes, was a period of 
general distress and scarcity ‘ over the whole world.’ 
In the fourth year of his reign, we are told by Josephus 
that the famine was so severe that the price ol food be­
came enormous, and great numbers perished.” One 
noble woman, the mother of an eastern king in the 
neighborhood of ancient Nineveh, who had come to Je- 
rusalem to worship, was so touched with pity at the 
misery she saw among the poor, that she sent to Alex­
andria to buy corn, and to Cyprus to buy figs for them; 
and her son, the king himself, sent large sums of money 
to Jerusalem. It may have been this same famine, or 
‘great dearth,’ which Agabus the prophet foretold. 
The Christian converts were not slow to show their 
Jove for their brethren, and their gratitude for the new 
religion which they had been taught. ‘According to 
their ability,’ they sent relief to the brethren in J udea, 
appointing Barnabas and Saul to carry their contribu­
tion to the elders in Jerusalem.
When Barnabas and Saul reached Jerusalem, they 
probably found what was worse than famine. James, 
the brother of John, had been murdered by Herod. 
Peter was in prison, and was soon to be executed. By 
a miracle Peter was delivered, and by a miracle Herod, 
the murderer, the proud, selfish man, displaying him­
self in magnificent robes which shone with silver, to the 
great multitude in the royal theatre of Caesarea, was 
smitten with death. In the very city in which Corne­
lius had been so lately converted, and which probably
42
{SIXTH SUNDAY.)
Saul now passed through on his return from Jerusalem 
to Antioch, the impious King, wrapped in his royal ap­
parel, but eaten with horrible disease, was carried out 
of the theatre built by his grandfather (who murdered 
the innocents of Bethlehem) to die. 
Barnabas and Saul 
had fulfilled their mission. They had relieved the breth­
ren of Judea; and with John Mark, (nephew or cousin 
to Barnabas,3) they were on their way back to Antioch, 
still to labor there for their common Lord.
3CoIossians iv. 10. 
The word translated ‘sister's son’ may mean 
cousin as well as nephew.
{SIXTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
W
HILE Saul was at Tarsus, what had occurred in Palestine? 
Where had Peter been, and what had he done ?
Where had other disciples been ?
Where were these places ?
To whom had they preached in Antioch ?
Why was it that the men of Cyprus and Cyrene preach- 
ed to ‘ the Grecians ’ ?
What was the result of their preaching ?
About what two places do the Acts of the Apostles now 
gather ?
What two great nations are now represented in the new 
converts ?
What may we suppose Saul was waiting for in Tarsus ?
How long had he been in Tarsus ?
What did the disciples in Jerusalem hear about An­
tioch ?
Why do they send Barnabas to Antioch ?
Will a Christian do anything more than ‘ be glad,’ when 
he sees ‘ the work of God ’ ?
What two things must a man be 1 full of,’ to be in the 
highest sense ‘ a good man ’ ?
Can a man be good at all, without these things ?
What was the result of Barnabas’s coming ?
What is meant by ‘ added ’ ?
Why was it that Barnabas went for Saul f 
What did Barnabas wrant Saul for ?
How long were they in Antioch ?
What country was Antioch capital of ?
In what direction and by what means did it have trade? 
Which were the first three cities of the Roman empire ? 
How was the city adorned ? and by whom ?
Who came to Antioch ? and why ?
Poets? generals? emperors?
What kind of population was that of Antioch ?
(11)
How did Antioch compare with other Oriental Greek 
cities ?
What famous village near Antioch ?
What celebration was held there ?
Who would oppose the Gospel in Antioch ?
How do you know the Apostles attracted attention in An­
tioch ?
Why do you think they were called Christians ?
Why would not the disciples or the Jews give the name ? 
Must a person be willing to be singular to be a Christ­
ian?
Who came down from Jerusalem ‘in these days’ ?
What did one of them do ?
Is this man mentioned elsewhere in the Scriptures ? 
What had happened in parts of the Roman empire ? 
What is said of the reign of Claudius Caesar ?
What is meant by ‘throughout all the world ’ ?
Did any besides the disciples send ‘ relief ’ to Jerusalem ? 
Who went from Antioch to Jerusalem ?
Does piety make men more or less generous ? why ? 
What had happened when Barnabas and Saul reached Jeru­
salem ?
What became of both King and prisoner ?
Who built the theatre in which the King was smitten ? 
Had Saul ever been in Caesarea ?
Would you rather belong to such a set of Kings or such 
a set of Apostles ?
Must you belong to one class or the other?
What effect did Herod’s persecution have on the preach­
ing of the word ?
What is meant by ‘ fulfilling their ministry ’ ?
What especial reason is there why John Mark went back 
with Barnabas and Saul ?
LESSON.
Acts xiii. 1-5.
rpHE ‘ church’ of Antioch was an assembly of Christ* 
-L ians, which probably met at the different houses of 
the Christians for prayer, for study of the Scriptures, 
for worship and for the celebration of the Lord’s 
Supper. 
And now there were among them, at the 
close of the year, or rather at the return of Barnabas 
and Saul from Jerusalem, ‘ certain prophets and teach­
ers.’ 
These were not prophets like those of the Old 
Testament. 
In those days a ‘ prophet’need not have 
any knowledge of things to come, or speak of what 
would happen in the future. 
He was more than a sim­
ple teacher, and less than an apostle.1 He was a teacher, 
it is supposed, who at times, if not always, taught by 
the unusual power of a direct inspiration. 
Three of 
these prophets and teachers are mentioned, besides Bar­
nabas and S.aul. Who are these three ? Simeon Niger, 
Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, Herod’s foster-brother.5 We 
have only one item of information in respect to each of 
the three. 
Simeon is a Hebrew name, and Niger is a 
Homan name; so that probably Simeon Niger was a 
Jew who, like Saul, had lived among the Romans when 
he was young, or had afterwards gained the Roman 
name from some acquaintance or connection with them.
11. Corinth, xii. 28.
1 See the margin in the reference Bible.
The Latin word ‘niger’ means ‘black, dark, dusky,’ 
and it is easy to think the name might have been given 
at first contemptuously, on account of his complexion, 
and retained here to distinguish him from the other 
Simeons and Simons mentioned in the New Testa­
ment.3 As the word means also ‘ sad, mournful,’ and 
then ‘ ill-omened, unlucky,’ and then still ‘ bad, wicked,’ 
the name might have been given for his natural appear­
ance, or for his ill-fortune in life, or he may have been 
noted for his wickedness before his conversion. It has 
been supposed that Lucius is the same person as Luke, 
the writer of the Book of Acts, who went with the 
Apostle from Troas on his journeys ;4 but it is not pro­
bable that Luke would have mentioned himself as one 
of the most honored teachers of the church; “ and be­
sides, the Latin form of the name, Lucas, does not come 
from Lucius, but from Lucanus.” Lucius is from Cy- 
rene, “ that African city which abounded in Jews, and 
which sent to Jerusalem our Saviour’s cross-bearer.”6 
When Paul wrote afterwards from Corinth his letter to 
the Romans,6 there was a Lucius with him, perhaps 
this same one. Who was Manaen ? Herod the Te­
trarch’ was Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee, whose
8 They are the same name: Simeon, the Hebrew form; Simon, 
the Greek form; and there are eleven in all, besides Simeon Ni"er. 
Simon Peter, Simon the zealot or Canaanite, (Matt. x. 2, 4; Luke 
vi. 15,) Simon the Pharisee, (Luke vii. 40,) Simon the leper, (Matt 
xxvi. 6,) Simon the Cyrenean, (Mark xv. 21,) Simon the sorcerer, 
(Acts viii. 9,) Simon the tanner, (Acts ix. 43,) Simon the brother of 
Jesus, (Matt. xiii. 55,) Simon the father of Judas Iscariot, (John vi. 
11,) Simeon of the Temple, (Luke ii. 25,) and Simeon, Jesus’ ances­
tor, (Luke iii. 30.)
41 We,’ he says, Acts xvi. 10. 
6 Mark xy. 21. 
6 Romans xvi. 21.
’ Tetrarch is a Greek word, from tetros, a fourth, and archon, 
ruler, and at the first meant the ruler of a fourth part of a country. 
It afterwards meant a ruler of any part, the same as cthnarch, (ethnos, 
country, and archon, ruler.)
44 
{seventh: Sunday.)
brother, Herod Archelaus, was Tetrarcb of Judea, and 
whose brother Herod Philip, was Tetrarch of part of 
the rough region between Lake Tiberias and Damas­
cus. All three were sons of Herod the Great, the mur­
derer of the innocents at Bethlehem. The two former 
sons were educated together at Rome, and in childhood 
were no doubt ‘brought up’ together; and so the 
Christian teacher Manaen, their foster-brother, “ spent 
his early childhood with these two princes,” and had no 
doubt some personal acquaintance with Herod the 
Great. While Manaen was teacher of the Christian 
church at Antioch, these two cruel sons were both ex­
iles in Gaul, by the decree of the Roman Emperor; the 
very one here mentioned, (Antipas,) on the accusation 
of his own nephew, that other miserable Herod who 
was smitten by a death-angel at Csesarea. How much 
more honorable is the single mention of Manaen’s 
name here in the Scriptures, though so little is known 
of him, than all the glory of the Herodian line!
“The Christian community at Antioch were engaged 
in one united act of prayer and humiliation. That this 
solemnity would be accompanied by words of exhorta­
tion, and that it would be crowned and completed by 
the holy communion, is more than probable; that it was 
accompanied with fasting, we are expressly told. These 
religious services might have had a special leference to 
the means which were to be adopted for the spread of 
the Gospel, which was now to be given to all men; 
and the words, ‘Separate me Barnabas and Saul foi the 
work whereunto I have called them,’ may have been an 
answer to their specific prayers.” How the hearts of 
all must have been filled with sacred wonder and awe 
at this change from the old Jewish custom, this sending 
out of preachers among the Gentiles, far away, to teach 
them also the words of the Messiah already come, and
THE BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEYS. 
45
with a deep sense of the work they were beginning 
And so they came together again at the time of depart- 
ure no doubt, to fast and to pray, and to consecrate 
tiiese two brethren to their great and holy work. “A 
fast is appointed; prayers are offered up ; the two are 
ordained by that most simple act of the ‘ laying on of
^ 
n(nv 
tile Apostles go to Cyprus first ? No 
ooubt they were divinely guided, but still guided 
through human motives. Four reasons may be given, 
which may have induced them to go there. First. Cy- 
pius is not faV distant from the mainland of Syria; its 
high mountains are easily seen, in clear weather, from 
the coast near the mouth of the Orontes, and in the 
summer season there must have been many vessels pass­
ing and repassing between Salamis and Seleucia. Se­
condly 
«It Was the native place of Barnabas. It 
would be natural to suppose that the truth would be 
welcomed in Cyprus, when it was brought by Barna­
bas and his kinsman,» Mark, to their own connection or 
friends.’’ Thirdly. There were many Jews in Salamis.
y sailing to that city, they were following the track 
of the synagogues. Their mission, it is true, was chiefly 
to the Gentiles, but their surest way of reaching them 
was through the Jewish proselytes and the Jews who 
spoke Greek.” Fourthly. «Some of the inhabitants 
of Cyprus were already Christians. There was no 
pmce out of Palestine, except Antioch, where the Gos­
pel had been better received.”10 John Mark is with 
US uncI° and Saul, as an assistant or attendant.11
» Coloss.'iv.’io! lim'1V' 11 ’ V' 22 ’ IL Tim- 1 6 5 Heb- w 2.
» f f8 xl 19> 20 ; xxi- 16; iv. 36.
" Ud thCy had also Jolm as attendant or assistant.’ 
Th?
46 
{SEVENTH SUNDAY.)
THE BEGINNING OF THE ,TOURNEYS. 
47
Seleucia was the port and harbor of Antioch. It 
was not at the mouth of the river Orontes, but six or 
eight miles above it. Here the disciples must come to 
take ship on the great sea. “If Barnabas and Saul 
came down by water from Antioch, they sailed on the 
deep and rapid, but not clear river, winding around the 
bases of high cliffs or by richly cultivated banks, where 
the vine and the fig-tree, the myrtle and the bay, are 
mingled with dwarf-oak and sycamore,” and then turn­
ing short to the right, they crept along the coast into 
the harbor, protected by lofty hills. If, instead of tak­
ing this winding course of forty miles, they took the 
road for sixteen miles straight across, “ they crossed 
the river on the north side of Antioch, and came along 
the base of the Pierian hills by a route which is now 
roughly covered with fragrant and picturesque shrubs, 
but which then doubtless was a track well worn by 
travellers.” Here, in a sea-port, which was at the same
Greek word means literally an under-rower, a common sailor, who 
worked at the oar under the regular shipmen or seamen. 
And so it 
came to mean an attendant in the synagogue, who handed the volume 
or the rolls to the reader, and returned them to their place. 
Hence, 
any attendant or associate-assistant.
48 
{SEVENTH .SUNDAY.)
time a fortress and a harbor, from the piers whose 
“ large stones, fastened by their iron cramps, protected 
the vessels -in the harbor from the swell of the western 
sea, with high and craggy summits on the north-east 
looking down upon them,” in the midst of unsympa­
thizing sailors, the two missionaries, with their younger 
companion, stepped on board the vessel which was to 
take them from the sacred shores of Palestine, as they 
bore their blessed message to the whole wide world of 
heathen. “As they cleared the port, the whole sweep 
of the bay of Antioch opened on their left; the low 
ground by the mouth of the Orontes; the wild and 
woody country beyond it; and then the peak of Mount 
Casius, rising symmetrically from the very edge of the 
sea to a height of five thousand feet. On the right, in 
the south-west horizon, if the day was clear, they saw 
the island of Cyprus from the first. With a fair wind, 
they would run down from Seleucia to Salamis in a few 
hours; and the land would rapidly rise in forms well 
known and familiar to Barnabas.” Pointing the ship 
to the very centre of the east end of the island, and 
leaving behind and far away on either side the two 
promontories and their mountain-headlands, the captain 
would steer direct for Salamis. “ The ground lies low 
in the neighborhood of the city, and this low land is the 
largest plain in Cyprus. It stretches inwards between 
the two mountain-ranges to the very heart of the 
country. A large city on the sea-shore, a wide-spread 
plain with fields of grain and orchards, and the blue 
mountains beyond, composed the view on which the 
eyes of Barnabas and Saul and Mark rested when they 
came to anchor in the bay of Salamis.”
Here we find many Jews, “for we learn that this 
city had several synagogues, while other cities had only
THE BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEYS. 
49
one.”13 The unparalleled productiveness of Cyprus, 
and its trade in fruit, wine, flax, and honey, would nat­
urally attract them to the commercial port. When 
Herod wrought the copper-mines for the Emperor Au­
gustus Caesar, many Jews at that time came to Cyprus. 
Barnabas and Saul preached here in the synagogues. 
“We do not know how long they staid, or what was 
their success. Some stress seems to be laid on the fact 
that John Mark was their minister. Perhaps we are 
to infer from this that his hands baptized the Jews and 
proselytes, who were convinced by the preaching of 
the Apostles.”13
12 Compare verses 14, 15; see ix. 20, and contrast xvii. 1 and 
xviii. 4.
13 See I. Corinth, i. 14, 16, 11.
{SEVENTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
WHAT was the church of Antioch ?
'' 
What do you mean by ‘ a church ’ now ?
Where did they meet for worship ?
Who were in the church at the end of the year ?
How did these ‘ prophets ’ differ from those of the Old 
Testament ?
What was the difference between ‘ prophet ’ 
and 
‘ teacher ’ ?
What was the difference between ‘ prophet ’ and 
‘apostle’ ?
Where in the Scriptures do you find this difference ? 
How many of these prophets and teachers are men­
tioned ?
Whose names are the first and the last ?
Was Barnabas an Apostle ?
What is the meaning of Apostle?
Of what nation was Simeon Niger ?
Why.called Niger ?
How many other Simeons are there in the New Testa­
ment ?
Ts Lucius the same as Luke ?
0 Where is Cyrene, and who else was from there ?
Is Lucius mentioned anywhere else in the Scriptures ? 
Who was Manaen ?
Whose son was Herod the Tetrarch ?
What does Tetrarch mean ?
What notorious thing did his father do ?
What notorious thing did this Herod the Tetrarch do ? 
What became of him and his brother ?
How was Manaen connected with them ?
Whom do you most honor, Herod or Manaen ? 
Why ? 
What other disciple from Jerusalem was in Antioch ?
In the meetings of the church at Antioch, what would be one 
subject they would all think of ?
(13)
(SEVENTH SUNDAY.)
Do you suppose they thought themselves of sending men 
abroad to preach ?
What was the Jewish custom ?
What command did they receive ?
Who is the source of authority ?
What is meant by 4 laid hands on them ’ ?
Do you think it was at the same service in which they 
received the command, or at another, that they 
4 laid hands on them ’ ?
How many missionary journeys did Saul make ?
Did his brethren send him, or who ?
Where did he first go ?
Do you suppose the place to which they were to go was 
revealed ?
What four reasons may be given why he went to Cyprus 
first ?
What does the Greek word here translated 4 minister ’ 
mean?
Where and what was Seleucia ?
How would the three go from Antioch to Seleucia ?
Where was Salamis ?
How long would it take to go to Salamis ?
Was there more than one synagogue in Salamis ?
What does this show ?
What would bring the Jews there ?
What did John Mark do ?
Is there any way for us to preach the Gospel besides 
preaching from the pulpit ?
Who are the best4 under-rowers ’ to pastors now ?
(14)
LESSON.
Acts xiii. 6-12. 
*
B
ETWEEN Salamis, the commercial port at the east 
end of Cyprus, and Paphos at the west end, there 
must have been a well-travelled and frequented road. 
The missionaries must have had several halting-places 
in a journey of a hundred miles. As the history of the 
Acts gives us only the important events of the journeys, 
there is nothing to forbid us thinking that they preached 
at settlements along the way. They travelled, no doubt, 
the shortest way from one principal city to another, 
between the range of mountains and the sea.
Paphos was the capital of the island. The Roman 
Governor lived here. The people were mostly Greeks, 
and there was a garrison of Roman troops to hold and 
defend the place. While the languages of the two 
nations equally mingled, the Greek religion prevailed 
over the Roman, for Paphos had been for ages a place 
famous for its mythological history. The temple of 
Paphos, it was said, “was built on the spot where 
Venus was gently wafted to the shore from her native 
waves ” Homer sung of Paphos: Virgil, of the temple 
of Venus there, “where a hundred altars burn with 
Arabian frankincense:” Horace, of the “queen of 
Cnidus and of Paphos.” A few years after Saul’s visit, 
“ curiosity led Titus ” (afterward Emperor of Rome, 
and then on his way to conquer Judea and to destroy
THE FRO-CONSUL AT PAPHOS. 
51
Jerusalem) “ to visit the temple of Venus, famous for 
the worship of the inhabitants and the concourse of 
strangers who resorted hither from all parts.”
Who now was ‘the Deputy5 ? To answer this ques­
tion, we must know what the government of the Roman 
Empire was over Cyprus, and what office Sergius Paulus 
held under the government. Some years after the Em­
pire was established on the ruins of the Republic, the 
Consul at Rome, who had been President of the Roman 
Republic, ceased to be elected by the people. The two 
Consuls had been for centuries chief officers of honor 
and of authority in the nation, (like our own President, 
only elected every year,) but now that the Emperor 
was supreme, the Consul was in a lower degree of honor 
and authority, and was elected from the Senate. And 
now that the Roman Empire had extended over so 
many small countries, officers were sent out to govern 
the provinces; and these officers were generally men 
who had been Consuls. These men were called Pro- 
Consuls, For Consuls, As if Consuls, because in the 
provinces they had about the same authority which the 
Consul had at Rome. As therefore Cicero, before the 
time of Saul, was Pro-Consul of the province of Cilicia, 
in its chief city, Tarsus; as Gallio was Pro-Consul of 
the province of Achaia, at its chief city, Corinth,1 so was 
Sergiug Paulus Pro-Consul of the province of Cyprus, at 
its chief city, Paphos. The word ‘ Deputy ’ stands here 
for Pro-Consul.3 Sergius Paulus might have been for­
merly Senator at Rome. At any rate, he had in some 
way gained the election of the Senate, and now for a 
year or longer is Pro-Consul, or Governor, or ‘Deputy’ 
of Cyprus. 
He had under him military officers, cen-
1 Acts xviii. 12-16.
The Greek word is the same word commonly used to translate tho
atin pro-consul into Greek.
Eighth Sunday
THE PRO-CONSUL AT PAPHOS.
52 
(EIGHTH SUNDAY.)
turions, captains, etc., and civil officers, assessors, judges, 
etc.; and he himself, as a Judge, held his own court, 
just as Gallio, the Pro-Consul at Corinth, held his court 
when the people attempted to accuse Paul before him. 
The Pro-Consul was perhaps not unlike the Governor 
whom our own Congress sends out to administer the 
laws of the United States in a territory before it be­
comes a State.
Sergius Paulus, the Pro-Consul at Paphos, was a 
‘ prudent ’ man : he had a candid and inquiring mind: 
he admitted the sorcerer to his presence, and sent for 
Barnabas and Saul. And now, before him as a Judge, 
Truth and Falsehood come in conflict in the Apostle 
and the Magician.
It is not strange that we find this magic-worker with 
this dignified and sober official, and indeed spending 
some time with him, as it would seem. “For many 
years before this time, and many years after, impostors 
from the East, pretending to magical powers, had great 
influence over the Roman mind.” Even educated Ro­
mans had become superstitious. There were at Rome 
soothsayers from Asia Minor: there was magic medi­
cine from Syria: there were magic tables of calculations 
from Babylon: there were even Jewish fortune-tellers, 
the gipsies of that day. Even the great generals, like 
Pompey and Julius Caesar, consulted these soothsayers 
and astrologers as oracles. And it was not without 
some shade of truth that the great Latin satirist, Juve­
nal, describes the Emperor Tiberius Caesar, ‘sitting 
on the rock of Capri, with his flock of Chaldean astrol­
ogers round him.’ 
These magic-workers, so numer­
ous throughout the Empire, would of course gather 
around such places of resort as Paphos; and it is not 
strange, therefore, that the Pro-Consul, like more illus­
trious men, should have with him this ‘ false prophet,
THE PRO-CONSUL AT PAPHOS. 
53
who, though a Jew, had given himself the Arabic name 
of Elymas, or, The Wise. But it shows the impartial 
candor of his mind that he sent for Barnabas and Saul 
also, and wished to hear from them “ the word of God.” 
Perhaps he expected to hear the declaration of an oracle 
or to see some wonder wrought. Perhaps Elymas was 
ready to answer wonder with wonder, as the Egyptian 
magicians answered Moses3 in the presence of Pharaoh.
But when Saul did nothing more than to preach the 
simple faith in Jesus as the Messiah, Elymas sought to 
turn away the Governor’s mind. Truth was on one 
side: falsehood on the other. There was a plain con­
flict. It was of the highest importance that the Gos­
pel should not be overthrown by false and hypocrit­
ical arts. And when Elymas attempted to prejudice 
and pervert the Pro-Consul’s mind unfairly against the 
faith, he was suddenly silenced in an awful manner. 
Filled with that same Holy Spirit which gave Peter 
power to see and to denounce the lies and hypocrisy of 
Ananias and Sapphira, Saul was able to see the wicked 
malice of this man, and to denounce his imposture. 
Conscious of his apostolical authority, derived from 
God, as was Peter when he solemnly told Simon, the 
magician of Samaria, “ Thy heart is not right in the 
sight of GodSaul boldly and solemnly exposed the 
wicked deception of Elymas and his hatred of righteous­
ness. He called down a miracle upon him, as an awful 
warning to all such impostors, and a rebuke to all -who 
trusted them, as well as a proof that what he said was 
the word of God. The Roman Governor, not like many 
proud men in Judea, who, when they wTere ‘aston­
ished,’ ‘marvelled’ and still disbelieved, and then re­
viled, took the proof of Saul’s doctrine with an honest 
heart, and believed in Jesus of Nazareth.
5 Exodus vii. 11, 22 ; viii. 7. 
4 Acts viii. 21.
54 
(.EIGHTH SUNDAY.)
The conversion of such a prominent man could hard­
ly fail to excite much attention in Cyprus; and we 
may believe that through his influence other Gentiles, 
even in dissolute Paphos, and in various parts of the 
island, received the simple doctrines of salvation which 
he had learned in his own soul.
Such is Saul’s first recorded triumph among the Gen­
tiles : the conversion of a man of authority, in one of 
the vilest cities of the heathen; an official under the 
great nation which oppressed the Jews, higher in office 
than the centurion Cornelius at Caesarea; an honored, 
powerful governor of a province, yielding his heart to 
the simple “ truth as it is in Jesus.”
“ And now, from this point in the Apostolical history, 
Paul appears as the great figure in every picture. Bar­
nabas, henceforward, is always in the background. The 
great Apostle now enters on his work as Preacher to 
the Gentiles, and at the moment of his active occupa­
tion of the field in which he is called to labor, his name 
is suddenly changed. 
As Abram was changed into 
Abraham, when God promised that he should he the 
‘ father of many nationsas Simon was changed into 
Peter when it was said, ‘ On this rock I will build my 
Church,’ so Saul is changed into Paul at the moment of 
his first great victory among the Heathen.” Before 
this, he has always been called Saul. At this point, he 
is “ Saul who also is called Paul.” After this he is 
always called Paul. In all his epistles written after­
ward, he calls himself Paul,6 and never Saul. And 
Peter, in one of his epistles, calls him “ our beloved 
brother Paul.”6 Why is it that his name is changed, 
and changed just at this time ?
Three principal reasons have been given for the change.
6 
See the first verse of all Paul’s Epistles, except Hebrews.
* II. Peter iii. 15.
TEE PRO-CONSUL AT PAPHOS. 
55
The first reason is, “ that he adopted it himself, after 
his conversion, as expressing his own feelings.” The 
Roman name Paulus means little. As Saul, before his 
conversion, was like “ the unbridled King Saul,” the 
proud, self-confident persecutor of David, so Paul the 
convert, lowly and penitent, wished to indicate by his 
very name that he was “ the least of the Apostles,” and 
“ less than the least of all saints.”
The second reason is, that Sergius Paulus gave him 
his own name as a grateful memorial of his own conver­
sion ; “ that, as Scipio was called Africanus from the 
conquest of Africa, and Metellus was called Creticus 
from the conquest of Crete, so Saul carried away his 
new name as a trophy of his victory over the heathen­
ism of the Pro-Con ;ul Paulus.”
The third reason is, “ that Paul used the Gentile 
form of his Hebrew name from this time, to show that 
he was a friend and teacher of the Gentiles.” Gentile 
names were often adopted in Jewish families, as the 
Greek names Philip7 and Alexander,7 as the Roman 
names, Crispus, Justus, and Niger,8 as in our own time 
the scattered Jews take names from the countries in 
which they are. Sometimes, too, there were double 
names, one national and the other foreign, as Belteshaz- 
zar-Daniel, Esther-Hadassa,9 Herod-Agrippa, Simon- 
Peter, and so Saul-Paulus. 
'Whichever opinion we 
adopt, it is natural that the name of the Roman Pro- 
Consul should bring the name of Paul here to the 
mind of the inspired writer. It is natural, too, that 
uenceforth among the Gentiles he should use the Ro­
man name; and then, having used it on his travels, and
7 Matt. x. 3 ; Acts xix. 33, 34 ; vi. 5 ; xxi. 8.
8 Acts xviii. 8 ; i. 23 ; xiii. 1.
* Daniel x. 1; Esther ii. 7.
(.EIGHTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
INHERE was Paphos ?
’' 
Do you think the Apostles preached at any places be­
tween Salamis and Paphos ?
What was Paphos ?
What people lived there ?
What religion prevailed ? and why ?
What famous general afterward visited this city ?
What celebrated poets wrote of this city ?
Was the religion of Paphos moral ?
What is the morality of heathen religions now ?
What did Saul bring to Paphos ?
What was ‘the Deputy’ ?
What was a Roman Consul ?
What was a Roman Pro-Consul ?
What famous orator had been Pro-Consul of Cilicia ? 
What other Pro-Consul is mentioned in ‘ the Acts’ ? 
What is the name of this ‘ Deputy’ ?
How had he been elected to this office ?
What office may he have held at Rome ?
What officers were under him ?
What officer in our own government was the Pro-Consul 
somewhat like ?
Whom did the Apostles find with the Pro-Consul ?
What other men like him are mentioned in the Scriptures ? 
Is it necessary to think he tried as a prophet, to foretell 
future events ?1
What did educated Romans think of such men ?
Will education keep a man from absurd and wicked 
things in religion ?
Was the Pro-Consul doing a strange thing in having this 
magician with him ?
What is the meaning of Bar-jesus ?2
1 See page 43.
2 Compare Matt. xvi. 17 with John i. 42, and xxi. 15.
(15)
50 
(EIGHTH SUNDAY.) 
■
during the more important part of his life, he should 
write to the Gentile churches, “ I, Paul the Apostle.” 
Paulus was the name of a well-known family among 
the Romans, one of the most distinguished members of 
which, Emilius Paulus, fell fighting against Hannibal at 
Cannae. It is possible that when Paul’s father, or the 
family, obtained the Roman citizenship, there was some 
connection or attachment of the family to the Roman 
Paulus family, and so the parents could gratify their 
Hebrew and their Roman attachments, by naming their 
son Saul and Paulus.
[EIGHTH SUNDAY.)
What language is ‘Elymas,’ and what does it mean ?
Whom does the Pro-Consul send for ?
Do you think he wished to know the truth ?
What kind of a man was he ?
What do you think he expected from the Apostles ?
Between what two things was tho-conilict ?
What did Elymas try to do ?
What right had Saul to call down blindness on this man ?
What other instances in the Scriptures of such power ex­
ercised, and by whom ?
What was the miracle for ?
How did Saul publicly condemn Elymas’ secret motives ?
Have we a right, as Saul did, to condemn the motives of 
another ?
How did the Pro-Consul differ from the proud Jews who 
saw our Saviour’s miracles ?
What influence would the Pro-Consul’s conversion be 
likely to have through the island ?
What must we have, which Saul had, to lead men to 
Jesus ?
What change is made in the Apostle’s name here ?
What other similar changes of name in the Scriptures ?
What is he called before and after this time, in the 
Scriptures ?
Did the Apostle afterward call himself Saul or Paul ?
What did Peter call him ?
What three ways are there of accounting for the change ?
Were Gentile names ever adopted in Jewish families ?
What examples have you of double names in the Scrip­
tures ?
Who is now first in the rest of the Book of Acts, Paul 
or Barnabas ?
When you think of the King of Israel, is Saul a good 
or a bad name ?
When you think of the Apostle to the Gentiles, is Saul 
a good or a bad name ?
How can you make your name for ever a good or a bad 
name ?
(16)
‘PERILS OF ROBBERS’ AND ‘PERILS OF RIVERS.’
LESSON.
Acts xiii. 13, 14; xv. 36-39. 
II. Corinthians xi. 26, 27.
PROM Paphos, ships would be much more frequent 
to the coast of Pamphylia than to Alexandria or 
Cyrene, on the Egyptian coast of the Mediterranean, 
or than to any of the flourishing cities around the Arch­
ipelago to which Paul did afterwards go. It is very 
probable that when the Apostles were ready to depart, 
a ship was just about to sail to Attalia or to Perga, 
and that they took advantage of the opportunity to go 
thither. A second reason why they went to Pamphylia 
next, may have been, that Paul might like to go now 
among those provinces near Cilicia. Pamphylia was 
next his native province, and the people were in some 
lespects like the Cilicians. A third reason may have 
been, that the people of Pamphylia were more rough 
and less educated, and probably more simple-hearted 
than the inhabitants of those provinces which were 
more completely penetrated with the corrupt civilisa­
tion of Greece and Rome;” and Paul might have 
thought, therefore, that they would be more likely to 
leceive the simple truth. A fourth reason, we may 
suppose, was that Paul thought of the many families 
in the great towns beyond the mountains of Tarsus, 
such as Antioch inJPisidia, and Iconium in Lycaonia,” 
and he hoped through them to reach the Gentiles, “who 
flocked there, as everywhere, to the worship of the syn-
Ninth Sunday
58 
{NINTH SUNDAY.)
agogue.” We can hardly think that Paul had a direct 
vision at this time, like the trance in the temple,1 or like 
the vision at Troas,2 for these visions seem to be record­
ed, not as frequent hut as extraordinary events. What­
ever was the inducement to visit these regions rather 
than others, Paul and Barnabas and Mark sailed out of
Paphos, around past the promontories at the west end 
of the island. Not many hours after the promontories 
of Cyprus, on the east, had receded in the horizon, 
would be seen before them, far in the north-west, the 
hills of Lycia, and far in the north-east, the high cliffs 
of Paul’s native province, between which they sailed 
straight “ to the innermost bend of the bay of Attalia.”
’Acta xxii. 17—21. 
5 xvi. 9.
PERILS OF ‘ROBBERS' AND ‘RIVERS. 
59
As they sailed over this bay, they would see a line of 
lagged mountain-summits,” stretching along in a 
cuive, like the curve of the coast, back through the in­
terior, and enclosing a wide plain, itself like a bay 
hemmed in by the mountains. Back from the shore, 
like Tarsus, and like Tarsus, on a river, was Perga, in 
this large plain, with hills on the sides, a valley in front, 
with the river Oestrus connecting it with the sea and 
with the mountains behind.” We know almost noth- 
ing of this city, except that near it, on a height, was a 
temple of Diana, and that an annual festival was held 
in honor of the goddess. J ust near this temple we may 
suppose the vessel, sailing up the river, bringing the 
great Apostle, came to its moorings.
The Apostles did not stay long in Perga. There is 
no notice of their preaching here on their outward jour­
ney, as there is on their return.3 If they did preach at 
this time, the preaching does not seem attended with 
'ery marked results. Mark left them. It is clearly 
against their wishes; for afterwards Paul condemned 
Hark for “ going not with them to the work.” Possi­
bly, too, it was the cause of ill-feeling between Paul and 
Barnabas, as “ afterwards it was the cause of quarrel 
and separation.”4 Mark probably found a ship in the 
nver about to sail to Palestine. He saw now the peril 
°f the journey up through the rough country and the 
mountains. He thought of his pleasant early home in 
Jerusalem. He shrunk from the work, and wished to 
be with his friends ; and, as there was opportunity to 
reach home by a ship direct to Caesarea, or to some 
other point of Palestine, he “ departed from them from 
amphylia.” We are not to think that Mark forfeited 
is Christian character. Dwelling always before in Je-
* Acts xiv. 25. 
4 Acts xv. 37—39.
MEDITERRANEAN
GO 
(NINTH SUNDAY.)
rusalem probably, and unacquainted, like Paul and 
Barnabas, with these' rougher provinces, he may have 
• had a wicked timidity; and he wmakly allowed his 
natural longing for home to over-balance the interests 
of the great cause. He was the child of a Christian 
mother; he knew the sincerity and devotion of the dis­
ciples who met to pray in his mother’s house; he had 
felt and seen the power of their religion in persecution; 
he had heard the prayers for Peter in prison ; he had 
been in Antioch when the Spirit of God abounded unto 
the salvation of many; he had seen Paul s preaching 
confirmed by a miracle at Paphos; he knew Barnabas 
and Paul were on a most important mission, sent by 
the Holy Ghost to carry the Gospel to unknown parts 
of the earth; and yet now, just when his assistance and 
company would be needed, if ever,6 he falters and 
shrinks from the work. Afterwards, however, he was 
willing to go with the same Apostles on a second mis­
sionary journey,4 and though Paul at that time would 
not take him, he did go with Barnabas to Cyprus.4 But 
in later years Paul was reconciled and, indeed, attached 
to him; for, when he writes to his brethren in Colosse, 
he commends Mark as a fellow-worker unto the king­
dom of God, and ‘ a comfort ’ to himself;7 and he writes 
Timothy to bring Mark to him, for “ he is profitable to 
me for the ministry.”8
After Mark had left them, Paul and Barnabas took 
their perilous way a hundred miles directly into the in­
terior. 
Their journey lay up through the circle ot 
mountains, whose “ragged summits” they had seen 
from the sea. From the broad plain beyond Perga,
6xii. 12.
* The region of the mountain-robbers was now before them.
7 Colossians iv. 10, 11.
* II. Timothy iv 11.
PERILS OF 1 ROBBERS’ AND 1RIVERS: 
61
they toiled upwards to the high table-land on the other 
side of the principal mountain-range. “ In all parts of 
ancient history, the lawless and marauding habits of the 
people of these mountains were notorious.” Although 
the Apostles passed a little to the one side of the dis­
trict of Isauria, the name which is more than any other 
in Asia Minor connected 'with daring robbery, yet the 
people of that region carried their dashing and plunder­
ing excursions into all the surrounding country. The 
Pisidians also wrere robbers, like their neighbors on the 
east, and even the Pamphylians nearest the mountains 
“ had not quite given up their robber habits, and did 
not always allow their neighbors to live in peace.” 
Even Alexander the Great, who once marched from Per­
ga through this same country towards Phrygia, “ found 
some of the worst difficulties of his whole campaign in 
penetrating through this district.” One of the roughest 
campaigns in the wars of Antiochus the Great, King 
°f Syria, was among the hill-forts near the upper Waters 
of the Oestrus and Eurymedon. And many years after 
this time, not very far from the very route which the 
Apostles must have taken, at Cremna, a robber-chief 
defied the Romans, and died a desperate death in these 
mountains. “No people through the midst of whom 
Paul ever travelled, abounded more in those ‘ perils of 
robbers ’ of which he himself speaks, than the wild and 
lawless classes of the Pisidian highlanders;” and it is 
110 doubt to the perils of this journey in part that he 
alludes when, writing to the Christians of Corinth, he 
sams up the sufferings of his life. Here certainly he 
Was ‘ in weariness and painfulness,’ and ‘ in watchings 
often,’ and ‘ in perils by the heathen,’ if not ‘ m perils 
°f robbers.’
There were other perils, too, from the very nature of 
flic country and its climate. There were ‘ perils of riv
62 
(NINTH SUNDAY)
crs.’ • We perhaps do not fully appreciate the dangei 
in which an Eastern traveller is, from the crossing of 
streams, or even from travelling by their side, ^as when 
Paul followed the valley of the Cestrus. The dry 
water-courses then are often flooded with wonderful 
suddenness. High and steep mountains and violent 
rains, suddenly swell the streams until they are tor­
rents. “All the rivers in the East are liable to these 
violent and sudden changes. And no district of Asia 
Minor has more of these ‘ water-floods ’ than the moun­
tainous tract of Pisidia, where rivers burst out at the 
bases of high cliffs, or dash wildly down through nar 
row ravines.” Probably there were bridges, but these 
might be swept away by the impetuous and swollen 
floods, tossing and tumbling on their way from the 
heights and precipices of Pisidia to the Pamphylian 
Sea. “ The Apostle’s course was probably never far from 
the channels of the Cestrus and the Eurymedon; and 
it is interesting to know that just in this vicinity, tc 
this day, in the village of Paoli, (St. Paul,) his name is 
still retained.” It is the custom of the people of Perga, 
at the beginning of the hot season, to move up from the 
plains to the cool, basin-like hollows on the mountains. 
The people may be seen climbing to the upper grounds, 
men, women, and children, flocks and herds, camels and 
asses, like the patriarchs of old. If, then, St. Paul w as 
at Perga in May, as very likely he may have been, if he 
left Antioch when the sea was first ‘ open ’ in the spring, 
he would find the inhabitants going directly on the 
route of his own journey. He would not wish to stay 
in Perga. We may think of him as joining some cara-
®In II. Corinthians xi. 26, it is ‘perils of waters.' 
The word 
strictly means rivers, or swollen rivers, torrents, floods, as in 
vii. 27, “ the rains descended and the rivers came,” the swollen, rapi> 
torrent, like our freshet.
PERILS OF ‘ROBBERS' AND ‘RIVERS. 
63
van of families up to the heights, as journeying along a 
road with frowning cliffs on either side, with fountains 
bursting out among the flowers, with dashing and dan­
gerous floods across the path, as climbing up even in a 
few hours into a colder climate, into a wilder and more 
barren region, with valleys of sand between the rocky 
hills, until at length he and Barnabas came out on the 
central table-land of Asia Minor, and, passing the shore 
of a beautiful lake, came to Antioch of Pisidia.
(NINTH SUNDAY
QUESTIONS.
W
HERE do the missionaries .go next ?
Who composed ‘ his company ’ ?
Do you suppose them directed by the especial revelation 
of the Spirit ?
What four reasons may he given why they go there ? 
How many of these reasons are like those which led 
them from Antioch to Cyprus ?
Do you suppose Paul had a vision ?
Where was Perga ?
How did its situation resemble that of Tarsus ?
What do we know of Perga ?
How long did they stay here ?
Do you think they preached ? 
Why ?
What town on the coast had they passed when they 
reached Perga ?
Where is it mentioned afterwards ?
What painful event took place at Perga ?
How do you know this return was against Paul’s wishes ? 
What do you think led Mark to leave them ?
Was he right, or wrong, do you think ?
Do you think Mark forfeited his claim to he thought a 
Christian ?
What had been Mark’s home-influences in religious 
things ?
What was there to make him timid ?
Is there any time when it is wrong for every one to be 
timid ?
How can a man gain courage in doing right?
Who and what will help him ?
Did Mark ever return to his work ?
Where is Mark next mentioned ?
On what occasion ?
What did Barnabas wish ?
What did Paul say, when Mark wished to go ?
(17)
Did they ever work together again ?
Can you prove Paul became attached again to Mark ?
Where did Paul and Barnabas now go ?
What made their work now toilsome ?
What famous robber-region were they near ?
What was the character of many Pisidians and Pamphy- 
lians ?
What famous generals had much trouble here ?
What, in one of his letters afterwards, describes Paul’s 
toil and peril ?
What other peril from the nature of the country ?
How may ‘ perils of waters ’ be translated ?
What was true of Pisidia in comparison with the rest of 
Asia Minor ?
How many of these perils can you suppose Paul was in 
on this journey ?
What other of his sufferings may have happened at this 
time ?
What time of the year do you suppose it was ?
What time of the year did the people of Perga leave 
their city ? and for what ?
What new reason is there, then, for not staying longer 
now in Perga ?
What changes in country and climate, in going up from 
Perga to Antioch in Pisidia,?
The course of what stream did they follow ?
Where was Antioch in Pisidia ?
Why called Antioch in Pisidia ?
(18)
(NINTH SUNDAY.)
Tenth Sunday
JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE MESSIAH.
LESSON.
Acts xiii. 15-41.
O
F Antioch in Pisidia we know but little, but it was 
a town of sufficient consequence to be a Roman 
colony.1 Romans and Roman soldiers and Roman mil­
itary standards and Roman magistrates were seen here. 
The great road from Smyrna and Epbesus to tbe Gi 1- 
cian Gates,” near Tarsus, led through this town; and 
Antioch was about half-way between the Archipelago 
and the ‘ Gates.’ Here, among Romans, Greeks, Pisi- 
dians, were Jews in larger or smaller numbers; for 
here is a synagogue in which Jews and Gentile prose­
lytes met to worship. If you had gone into this syna­
gogue, you would probably have seen the women sepa­
rated from the men, either in a separate gallery, or 
behind a lattice-work partition: the men all with 
hats on: the desk in the centre, where the reader 
‘ opened the book in sight of all the people“ the 
carefully closed ark on the side of the building nearest 
to Jerusalem,” where the rolls or manuscripts of the 
law were kept: “ the seats* all round the building, from
1 The meaning of Roman colony, in connection with a town, will 
be seen when we come to the description of the colony of Philippi, 
in Twentieth Sunday. 
Antioch in Pisidia was a colony, like Philippi- 
1 See the map of Cilicia, in First Sunday.
3 In the East, probably there would not be raised seats, as in the 
drawing, but rather matting without benches.
JESUS OF NAZARETH,\ THE MESSIAH. 
65
which ‘ the eyes of all those in the synagogue were fast­
ened ’ on the one who speaks: the chief seats nearest 
the ark, and the platform for the ‘ ruler ’ or ‘ rulers ’ of 
die synagogue.” After the opening prayer, “the sacred 
roll of manuscript was handed from the ark to the 
reader by the attendant or ‘ minister,’4 and parts, first
A SYNAGOGUE.
A—Sacred recess of the Ark, with doors or curtains in front. 
B—Platform for 
chief speakers. 
C—Reader’s desk. 
D—Seats, with women’s gallery above them. 
E—Hall or court. 
F—Stairs to women’s gallery.
of the law and then of the prophecies, were read in 
the regular order of the Sabbath-lessons. The reader 
stood in the desk and all the congregation sat around. 
The manuscript was rolled up and handed back to the 
‘ minister ’ and returned to the ark. Then followed a 
pause, during which strangers or learned men who had 
any word of consolation’ or of exhortation rose and 
addressed the congregation. And then, after rehears­
ing the story of the suffering of the chosen people, or 
the allegorical interpretation of some dark passage of
4 Luke iv. 17, 20; see also note 11, page 46.
JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE MESSIAH. 
07
the native Jews and the Gentile proselytes, mingled iii 
the synagogue, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Mes­
siah predicted in the Hebrew Scriptures.
To prove this, he does not state his proposition at the 
beginning of his address, and at once proceed to prove 
it from the Scriptures, as perhaps we would do ; hut he 
takes the more usual form of exhortation in the syna­
gogue.
I. The National History. (Introductory: 16th to 
22d verse.) As it was customary to rehearse some part 
of the nation’s history, he gives a partial account of 
God’s dealings with the Hebrew people. Paul does 
here just as Peter did at the first assembly after our 
■Lord’s ascension6 and at the Pentecost,7 and as Stephen 
did before the national council,8 when they wished to 
win the fixed attention of the people. He makes the 
history, the promises, the prophecies, to which all would 
be eagerly attentive, the introduction to his argument. 
He therefore first sketches the history of the nation from 
the bondage of Egypt to King David. The congrega­
tion sees, too, that Paul firmly believes their Scriptures.
II. The Promise. (23d verse.) He next says that 
that great promise made to David,5 (which all Jews 
were expecting to be fulfilled,) that some one of David’s 
posterity should reign on his throne, as Lord and De­
liverer, is fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, a ‘ Saviour 
unto Israel,’ the long-expected Messiah. This is the 
phiin statement or proposition which he then goes on 
to prove.
Hi. Proof that Jesus of Nazareth was meant in 
THE Promise. (24th to 37th verse.) Next comes the 
aigument to prove, from their own Scriptures, that
6 Acts i. 1G. 
7 ii. 16. 
6 vii. 2.
h Chronicles xvii. 11-14; II. Samuel vii. 12, 13, 16; Psalm
txxxix. 3, 4.
GENERAL CONFERENCE LIBRARY
TAKOMA PARK, WASHINGTON, D, C,
gg 
(TENTH SUNDAY.)
Hely Writ, the worship was closed with a benediction 
and a solemn Amen,” uttered perhaps by the congrega-
tl°On the Sabbath after Paul and Barnabas reached 
Antioch, the congregation came together as usual m 
the synagogue. There were Gentiles as well as Jews 
in the seats along the sides—converted proselytes from 
the city and the country around. In the gallery, or be­
hind a lattice, were the Jewesses, and among them 
‘ honorable women.’ The two strangers came m; they 
were offered the TalUth, the loose, fringed, white, tour- 
cornered scarf worn on the shoulders or head—the re­
galia of an Israelite in the synagogue—and receiving it, 
they sat down on the seats with the others. Prayer 
was offered. The ‘ minister ’ handed ‘ the book from 
the ark to the reader at the desk. Portions of the law 
and the prophets were read. The book was handed 
back, and placed again in the ark. And then the rulers 
of the synagogue’ “sent to the new comers, on whom 
many eyes had already been fixed, and invited them to 
address the assembly, if they had words of comfort or 
of instruction to speak to their fellow-Israelites. 
e 
can almost see Paul, as he rises to speak. With a lace 
full of earnestness, and an attitude at once animated 
and emphatic, he stretches out his hand and commences 
Ills address.
We may not have recorded all that Paul said, but w e 
certainly have the substance of what lie said, and that 
substance in his very words:
ADDRESS IN THE SYNAGOGUE.
Notice iioav the object of this address, and its piia
cipal parts. 
.
The Object. The one great object was to prove
6 Nehemiah viii. 6.
68 
(TENTH SUNDAY.)
Jesus is the one person of David’s posterity whom God 
meant in this promise : that is, to prove that the ancient 
Hebrew Scriptures were fulfilled in this Jesus. Three 
proofs are given.
First Proof. (24th and 25th verses.) Jesus of Na­
zareth appeared after his extraordinary forerunner had 
announced his coming, just as the prophets declared the 
Messiah would come.10 All the people acknowledged 
John the Baptist a wonderful prophet, sent of God.11 
He could not and he would not lie, and yet he always 
said, while fulfilling his mission, ‘ I am not the Messiah, 
but one among you, who cometh after me, is the Mes­
siah. I am the forerunner,12 as Isaiah says.10 He is 
the Oxe coining after the forerunner.’
Second Proof (26th to 29th verse.) Jesus of Naza­
reth was in innocence and in ignominy slain, as the 
Scriptures declared the Messiah would be : the rulers 
did not understand that the Scriptures declare that the 
innocent Messiah should be condemned and slain, as 
they plainly do. And so they, in ‘ condemning ’ J esus, 
in finding ‘no cause of death’ in him, in asking Pilate 
to slay him, fulfilled these very prophecies13 which they 
did not understand. The death of Jesus on the cross,’4 
and his burial in the sepulchre,18 therefore, particularly 
fulfilled the Scripture. The Apostle, while making this 
second proof that Jesus is Messiah, appeals also to the 
Jews (children of the stock of Abraham) and prose­
lytes (whoever feareth God) to receive the ‘ word of 
salvation ’ sent, because the rulers have rejected it.
10 Isaiah xl. 3 ; Malachi iv. 5, 6. 
11 Matthew xiv. 5 ; xxi. 26.
12 John i. 23.
13 Such prophecies especially as Isaiah liii. 3, 5-9, etc., and Daniel 
is. 26, etc. 
The Jews understood these and others to refer to the 
coming of Messiah.
14 
Isaiah liii. 12. 
16 Ini. 9.
JESUS OF NAZARETH.\ THE MESSIAH. 
69
Third Proof (Verses 30 to 37.) Jesus of Nazareth 
rose from the dead. We know surely God raised him 
from the dead; for those who knew him best, who 
came up from Galilee to Jerusalem with him, many 
persons, bear testimony that they saw him, not once, 
but 'many days.’ This fact is therefore well estab­
lished, and it is in direct fulfilment of God’s promise to 
our ancestors. For Just as God foretold to David that 
the Messiah should be of his seed, when he said, ‘Thou 
art my son, this day have I begotten thee,’ which we 
have always understood as referring to the Messiah, 
and just as he said that his mercies and promises should 
be surely received by David and by us his posterity, so 
did he foretell to David that the Holt Oxe, the Mes­
siah, ‘ should not see corruption,’ that is, his body 
should not be corrupted in the grave, but should be 
preserved from decay and death. This promise made 
to David, ‘ Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to’see 
corruption,’ cannot mean that David was the Holy 
lie, for David’s body saw corruption in the grave, but 
it meant that the Messiah, the Holy Oxe, should not 
see corruption; and that Messiah is Jesus of Nazareth 
therefore, for God raised Him up again, and He saw no 
corruption.
These, then, are the three arguments: The Scriptures 
say that the Messiah will have a forerunner: Jesus of 
azareth had a forerunner. The Scriptures say that 
e Messiah will be unjustly condemned and slain: 
Jesus of Nazareth was-unjustly condemned and slain 
by our very rulers, who were blindly fulfilling the 
Scriptures. The Scriptures say that the Messiah shall 
rise from the dead: Jesus of Nazareth has risen from 
the dead. Therefore,
Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah.
IV. Practical Applicatiox. 
(Verses 38, 39.)
Take this Jesus, then, the Fulfilment of the Ancient 
Scriptures, as your Messiah. Your sins may he for­
given, if you believe in Him; and though you cannot 
be made just by that law of Moses which has this day 
been read in the desk of the synagogue, because you 
have all broken it, yet all of you, who believe in Jesus 
as Messiah, may become pardoned, and so justified, by 
Him.
V. The Warning. (Verses 40, 41.) And beware 
lest the dreadful prediction of the prophets to all who 
simply wonder at the works of God, and despise them, 
come upon you.
70 
(TENTH SUNDAY.)
[TENTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
YVIIAT do we know of Antioch in Pisidia ?
'' 
Describe a synagogue.
"What were the three principal parts of the worship ? 
On what day of the week did the missionaries go to the syn­
agogue ?
How were they taken notice of ? By whom ?
What was the custom with Israelite strangers ?
What was the one great object of Paul’s speech ?
Does Paul state this object at first ?
I. What is the first division of the speech ?
What common custom does Paul follow ?
What other speeches in the New Testament follow this 
custom ?
What period of Jewish history does he describe ?
How would the Jews like this story ?
What would be the effect on their minds in reference to 
the rest of the speech ?
Who were there in the synagogue that ‘feared God’ 
(16th verse) besides men of Israel ?
What is meant (17th verse) by ‘ exalted the people’ ? 
What is meant by ‘ suffered their manners ’ ?
When God ‘ suffers’ sin, does he cause it ?
Did David ever commit sin ?
What is meant, then, by ‘a man after mine own heart’ ?
II. What is the second division of the speech ?
What promise is this ?
Where do you find it recorded ?
What is meant by David’s seed reigning forever ?
III. What is the third division of the speech ?
What does Paul take his proofs from ?
Why was it important to prove this ?
1. What is the first proof that Jesus is Messiah ?
Why did the Jews think the Messiah would have a re­
markable forerunner ?
(TENTH SUNDAY.)
What did the Jewish people think of John the Baptist? 
Why ought they to receive John’s word as true ?
What did John say of himself ?
Whose words did he quote ?
2. What is the second proof that Jesus is Messiah ?
’ In what respect did the ‘ rulers’ misinterpret their own 
Scriptures ?
How did they fulfil the Scriptures they misunderstood ? 
Why did they misunderstand them ?
To whom, then, did the promise of the prophets come ? 
(26th verse.)
What two classes are addressed in the twenty-sixth 
verse ?
3. What is the third proof that Jesus is Messiah ?
How do we know God raised him from the dead ?
How many persons saw him alive after his resurrection ? 
What persons were they ?
Did they see him more than once ?
What passage did Paul quote to prove again that Jesus 
is David’s son ?
How did the Jews commonly understand this passage ? 
What passage did he quote to prove whatever is promised 
to David’s son is sure?
What passage to prove the Messiah would rise from the 
dead?
Why couldn’t this passage mean David ?
Whom did it mean ? 
Why ?
State now Paul’s three proofs that Jesus is Messiah.
Which is the strongest of the three proofs ?
IV. What is the fourth division of the speech ?
What is the object of preaching? (38th verse.) Through 
whom?
What advantage is it to believe Jesus is Messiah more 
than to live by the law of Moses ?
Whom does that law condemn ?
Are we, or are we not, under Moses’ law ?
Whom does Messiah save ?
V. What is the fifth division of the speech ?
To whom does this warning now come ?
(20)
AN EXTRAORDINARY THING IN A SYNAGOGUE.
Eleventh Sunday
LESSON.
Acts xiii. 42-50.
THINK now of Paul’s new position, as he stands in 
A the synagogue of Pisidian Antioch, at the close of 
his address. 
He has been saying the same things which 
he had listened to with so much bitterness when Stephen 
made his speech before the Sanhedrim. 
How strange 
it seems, when we think of the two attitudes: Saul, 
with the garments of the witnesses at Jerusalem, and 
consenting to the death of Stephen ; Paul, in the syna­
gogue at Antioch of Pisidia, repeating the story, the 
prophecies which Stephen repeated, and finishing thè 
argument which Stephen would no doubt have finished, 
had he been permitted. 
Here is a change which only 
the Spirit of God can make.
“ This address made a. deep and thrilling impression 
on the audience. 
While the congregation were pouring 
out of the synagogue, many of them crowded around 
the speaker, begging that ‘ these words,’ which had 
moved their deepest feelings, might be repeated to 
them on their next occasion of assembling together.”1 
And when most of the people had gone, many of the 
ews and Gentiles, who had been powerfully moved by
The words ‘ the next Sabbath,’ are translated in the margin, ‘ in 
e week between,’ and it is not quite certain whether they mean the 
next Saturday or some other day. 
The Jews were accustomed to 
meet in their synagogue on Monday and Thursday, as well as Saturday.
12
(ELEVENTH SUNDAY.)
the proof that Jesus was the Messiah, still clung to 
Paul and Barnabas, and followed them. 
The Apostles 
urged them to hold fast their present convictions, and 
knowing the opposition and the persecution which this 
belief in Jesus everywhere excited, to ask God s giace, 
to keep and to help them.
It is not probable that these two good men were idle 
through the week. 
They attended, no doubt, the meet­
ings at the synagogue, if there were any. 
They found 
opportunity for conversation with many persons : they 
were invited to the homes of the people : they taught 
and argued the Messiahship of Jesus, proving it by 
quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures which they had 
not cited on the Sabbath. 
They and their doctrine 
were soon known through all the town by both Jews 
and Gentiles. 
All this seems evident, for the next Sab­
bath, ‘ the whole city ’ flocked in a great multitude to 
hear the word of God. 
The crowding of the people to 
hear this new doctrine, especially the number of the 
Gentiles not proselytes, the common, profane, uncircum­
cised, unholy throng, touched at once the bigoted pride 
and envy of the Jews. 
They could not endure that all 
these were to be their equals in religious things, that 
‘ the favored people’ were to be degraded to this low 
level. 
Instead of hoping and believing that many of 
the multitude would become proselytes to their own 
faith, they selfishly feared that their own importance 
and dignity would be lessened, if the blessings God had 
given them should be shared by the multitude. 
Stub-, 
bom and wilful in their exclusiveness, “ they who on 
one Sabbath had listened with breathless interest to the 
teachers who spoke to them of the promised Messiah, 
were on the next Sabbath filled with the most excited 
indignation when they found that this Messiah was 
;1 
light to lighten the Gentiles,’ as well as ‘ the glory of
his people Israel.’ ” 
An uproar was made; and when 
Paul, who is evidently the chief speaker, again addressed 
them, they reviled and contradicted.
And now, right here in this synagogue of Pisidia, 
occurs the great change in the Apostle’s whole life- 
course of preaching —indeed, in the whole apostolic 
method of preaching. 
He boldly turns away from the 
Jews to the Gentiles. 
We do not know that this had 
at any time been done before. Paul indeed understood 
fully that whenever the time should come when the 
Gentiles would hear his message and the Jews would 
not, he was not to hesitate to turn to ‘ the uncircum­
cised,’ ‘the unclean,’ ‘the dogs,’ ‘the offscouring.’ 
He 
knew such a thing would violate the Jewish custom, 
and would meet with scorn and contempt and spiteful 
persecution ; but the words of the vision on the road to 
Damascus, the command repeated at Damascus, and the 
words of the vision at Jerusalem, were all plain and 
positive. 
He was to offer his message always to the 
Jew first, and then to the Gentile.8 
Right here was 
the turning-point and test of his Apostleship to the Gen­
tiles. 
Never before had there been a time when, in a 
^ixed mass of circumcised and uncircumcised crowded 
together in a synagogue, the faith of the Hebrew Scrip­
tures had been offered openly to Gentiles who were not 
Proselytes, and offered to them because the Jews reject- 
ed it. Jesus had indeed praised the faith of individual 
Gentiles, like the Roman centurion at Capernaum,3 and 
the Syrophenician woman.4 
Peter had preached to the 
household of Cornelius, the Roman officer, but it was 
distinctly separate from all Jews. 
So Sergius Paulas, 
the Roman Governor of Cyprus, had believed, but it is 
n°t said that there were synagogues in Paphos, nor does
Romans i. 16. 
3 Luke vii. 9. 
4 Matt. xv. 28, and Mark vii. 26.
STRANGE THING IN A SYNAGOGUE. 
13
it appear that there were Jews, other than the ‘ false 
prophet,’ present. But here were both Jews and Gen­
tiles together in great numbers. In the hearing of both, 
the word of life had been spoken; the Jews had rejected 
it; and therefore Paul, boldly breaking through all 
bigotry, narrow pride, and exclusiveness, turned direct­
ly away f rom the Jews to the unproselyted Gentiles. 
Here, then, he stood forth fully revealed, the Apostle to 
the Gentilesh We, in our day, can hardly feel how 
much strength of character it needed to take this bold 
position, nor how much especial heavenly grace and 
strength even an inspired Apostle required for this most 
extraordinary and most difficult duty.
The Apostles take pains to make the impression, that 
this extraordinary conduct by them in the synagogue, 
is not the result simply of their own judgment and wish. 
They quote immediately from the Hebrew Scriptures to 
show they are right in turning from Jews who reject 
the Gospel, to Gentiles who receive the Gospel. From 
their own sacred writings, they quoted a prophecy 
which predicts the preaching of the word of God to 
people outside the Hebrew nation, and they claimed 
that the time of the fulfilment of the prophecy had 
come. 441 have set thee to be a light to the Gentiles, 
that thou shouldest he for salvation to the ends of the 
earth.” They still more boldly claimed, also, that they 
were acting by the direct command of God; that in 
this prophecy, God directed them to perform this most 
unusual duty: ‘For so hath the Lord commanded us? 
a duty which was no longer to be unusual with them. 
Wherever, afterwards, the Jews rejected their message, 
they turned to the Gentiles.
Two effects were immediately produced by these bold 1
74 
(ELEVENTH SUNDAY.)
1 Romans xi. 13.
words of the Apostles. The Gentiles gladly hailed this 
most extraordinary message to them: the Jews burned 
with more bitter opposition, until at length they set 
into motion an angry persecution.
The Apostles’ hearts were filled with joy, for they 
had great success in preaching to the Gentiles. For 
all the perils of robbers and of rivers, for all his weari­
ness and watchings on the road, Paul had now an 
abundant reward. The good news spread through the 
country. Through a large region of even wild Pisidia, 
and perhaps of Phrygia, 8 the good news of salvation 
through Jesus Christ was ‘published.’
The Jews probably shut the Apostles out of the syn­
agogue at once, but they were not satisfied with that. 
They determined to drive them out of the city; and 
they succeeded, by trick and by intrigue. They excited 
4 the devout and honorable women, and the chief men 
of the city.’ There were many women, who were pros­
elytes to the Jewish religion, in the towns out of Pal­
estine ; and they had no small influence. Most of the 
women in Damascus, it is said, were proselytes. Here 
in Antioch of Pisidia, there seem to have been not only 
J ewish women, but other women, who attended the 
synagogue. As the women whom the Jews excited 
were called 4 devout,’ they held probably the Jewish 
faith: as they are called ‘honorable’ in this Gentile 
city, they were probably at first Gentiles. It is not 
likely that the Jews would go directly to Gentile women 
who did not accept the Jewish faith. It is not likely 
that strict Jewesses could have had large influence in
8 “Antioch in (or near) Pisidia, being a border city, iras considered 
at different times as belonging to different provinces. Ptolemy places 
it in Pamphylia, and Strabo in Phrygia.” 
This is accounted for by 
supposing that Pisidia was formerly part of Phrygia, but in Paul’s 
time, a part of Pamphylia. 
See the map in Ninth Sunday.
STRANGE THING IN A SYNAGOGUE. 
75
{ELEVENTE SUNDAY.)
H
this Roman town. We suppose, therefore, that these 
women were proselytes rather than native Jews or 
open Gentiles. Exciting these women of position and 
of recognised piety against the Apostles, and eithei by 
the influence of the women or in addition to them, ex­
citing the chief men of the city, the Jews organized a 
systematic persecution. “ Whether the supreme mag­
istrates of the colony were induced by this unfair agi­
tation to pass a sentence of formal banishment, we are 
not informed,” but the Apostles were expelled out of 
the limits of the colony.
{ELEVENTH SUNDAY)
QUESTIONS.
WHOSE speech is Paul’s speech in Antioch like ?
What resemblance can you trace ?
What change had taken place in Paul ?
Can you account for this great cnange in Paul in more 
than one way ?
What kind of an impression did Paul’s speech make ? 
What did the Gentiles in the synagogue wish from Paul ? " 
Do you think these ‘ Gentiles ’ were proselytes, or not ? 
What is meant by ‘ the next Sabbath ’ ?
When was the next time of assembling ?
Was there a ‘congregation’ left in the synagogue after 
‘ the Jews were gone out ’ ?
What is a proselyte ?
What advice did Paul and Barnabas give to those who 
followed them ? Why ?
What is meant by ‘ the grace of God ’ ?
What did the Apostles probably do during the week ? 
What proves that they were not idle ?
Did the multitude who came together ‘ to hear the word 
of God,’ come intending to obey it ?
Is it right to induce people to come to church from other 
motives than to obey the word of God ?
What made the Jews envious ?
Why is the word 1 multitudes,’ and not multitude, used ? 
Why should the Jews have been glad to see ‘ almost the 
whole city ’ there ?
What might they have expected or hoped ?
What did they ? why ?
What is the extraordinary thing in this synagogue ?
Had this ever been done before ?
What led Paul to think that such a time would come ? 
How did this offer differ from former offers to Gentiles ? 
Did our Saviour ever preach to Gentiles ?
Was this different from Peter’s preaching to Cornelius ?
(21)
How did it differ from Paul’s preaching to Sergius Paulus ? 
Do you think the Gentiles to whom this offer was made 
were proselytes, or not ?
Can you prove that Paul was the Apostle to the Gen­
tiles ?
What sort of boldness did it need for the Apostle to 
take such a position ?
Does the courage now needed to be a Christian differ 
from it ?
How does Paul show he is right in turning to the Gen­
tiles ?
Who is ‘ thee,’ in the forty-seventh verse ?
What does 1 ends of the earth ’ mean ?
From what prophet is this quotation made ?
What other bold claim did the Apostles make ?
Did this conduct in the synagogue continue to be an ex­
traordinary thing with the Apostles ?
What two effects were produced by this conduct ?
What is meant by ‘ glorified the word of the Lord ’ ? 
What is meant by ‘ ordained to eternal life ’ ?
How far was the Gospel preached ?
What did the Jews first against the Apostles ?
What more did they determine to do ?
How did they now attempt to do it ?
Through what two classes of persons ?
What was often true of women in Gentile towns ?
What three classes were there, to one of which it is sup­
posed these women belonged ?
Which one of the three did they belong to ?
What does ‘ devout ’ show ?
What does * honorable ’ show ?
What was the result of the persecution ?
Do you think there was a formal sentence of the magis­
trates ?
What is meant by ‘ coasts’ ?
(22)
[ELEVENTH SUNDAY.)
Twelfth Sunday
FLIGHTS FROM CITY TO CITY.
LESSON.
Acts xiii. 51, 52; xiv. 1-7.
THIS was the first persecution of Paul and Barnabas 
since they began their missionary journey. And 
now, thrust out of Antioch and out of Pisidia, they 
did not forget the words of their divine Master to the 
Twelve.1 As a testimony against the wicked persecut­
ors of Antioch, they shook oif the very dust from their 
feet as they took their way along the dry, barren road 
to the east. “ It was taught by the Scribes that the 
dust of a heathen land defiled by the touch. Hence, 
the shaking of the dust off the feet implied the city was 
profane.” And one of greater authority than the Scribes 
had taught that that city was profane, and exposed to 
condemnation in the day of judgment, which persecuted 
his servants and disciples.
But as the banished missionaries trod the ‘ sunburnt 
road ’ up the mountain-side, they left behind them, in the 
city, a company of men filled with the purest joy. The 
Gentiles who had sincerely believed were rejoicing in 
their new-found faith: they were full of that highest 
joy which the human heart is capable of receiving—the 
joy of the Holy Ghost. They had lost their teachers; 
they were in the midst of trial and persecution: but 
the words and the grace of Jesus had entered their 
tiusting hearts, and they could only rejoice.
1 Matt. x. 14, 15.
of its population would be as follows: a large number 
of trifling and frivolous Greeks, whose principal places 
of resort would be the theatre and the market-place; 
some remains of a still older population, coming in oc­
casionally from the country, or residing in a separate 
quarter of the town; some few Roman officials, civil or 
military, holding themselves proudly aloof from the 
inhabitants of a subjugated province; and an old set­
tlement of Jews, who exercised their trade during the 
week, and met on the Sabbath to read the law in the 
synagogue.”
Into the synagogue went the two strangers, as they 
did at Antioch: who, though persecuted and forced to 
leave their work in Pisidia, did not leave their success 
behind them. There also a great multitude of Jews 
and Greeks (‘proselytes or heathen, or both’) believed 
the Gospel. And although the bitter and proud Jews 
did not permit the believers of Iconium to have peace, 
any more than they did their ‘brethren’ of Antioch,5 
they did not succeed in driving the Apostles away at 
once. Although they ‘stirred up’ the Gentiles, ‘the 
heathen,’ to prejudice and ill-feeling, yet the people be­
lieved the doctrine, and the Apostles abode there ‘long 
time.’ Here, sixty or eighty miles from their late en­
emies, at Antioch, they reasoned with the Jews out of 
their Scriptures. They gave another and more striking 
proof of their authority to explain the word of God. 
-They did miracles. Who could now fail of being con­
vinced of the right and truth of their words ?
We suppose Paul and Barnabas were in Iconium 
some months. The time must have been much longer 
than two weeks, for they were in Antioch of Pisidia as 
°ng as that ;4 and their stay in Iconium is evidently
4 As they went into the synagogue at Antioch on the Sabbath-day 
p aturday,) they must have reached the city on Friday at least; and
FLIGHTS FROM CITY TO CITY.
After the Apostles had climbed the mountain-range 
east of Antioch,3 they looked down on a large plain— 
the largest, it is said, in Asia Minor. As they de­
scended the other slope of the mountains, on the west 
or north-west from Iconium, they could see, in the far 
distance, across the elevated table-land of the plain, two 
bold, high mountains—Mount Argseus,3 a hundred and 
fifty miles away, almost in the east, stretching itself 
far above the line of the horizon, and Black Mountain, 
a strange-looking mass of rock and earth, rising from 
the plain ‘ like a lofty island from the surface of the 
ocean,’ a hundred or more miles distant in the south­
east, in the very direction of Tarsus. Coming down 
the heights, they could probably see the city of Ico­
nium for some time before they reached it, situated as 
it is, far out in the plain. If they struck across to the 
road from Philomelium, they could see the city for 
twelve or fourteen miles of their journey.
We know more of Iconium since the time of Paul 
than during his life. It has become a famous place, as 
the city in which the great Turkish Empire had its first 
beginnings. The town still remains, with its walls 
built of broken columns, capitals, pedestals, and other 
pieces of sculpture, its eighty gates, its towers with 
Arabic inscriptions : with its great mosque, ‘ the mina­
ret reaching to the stars ;’ with its colleges, churches, 
public baths, its fortified palace, its carpet and colored- 
leather manufactories: with its massive Arabic archi­
tecture and famous Mohammedan tomb. Hoav it looked 
in the time of Paul we do not know. We can think of 
the town as in the plain, surrounded almost on every 
side by mountains covered with snow. “ The elements
2 They may have crossed the range sooner than is indicated by the 
line on the map.
3 See map of Cilicia, First Sunday.
78 
(TWELFTH SUNDAY.)
80
(:TWELFTH SUNDAY.)
compared with their stay in preceding places. 
'■Long 
time abode they,’ it is said, just after the description 
of their stay in Antioch. 
The time must have been 
shorter than a year / for the same narrative which de­
clares that they spent ‘ a whole year ’ in Antioch in 
Syria,6 and that Paul spent 4 a year and six months ’ in 
Corinth,8 and 4 dwelt two whole years in his own hired 
house ’ in Rome,7 would not have failed to note here a 
time so long. 
44 There is a tradition of certain events 
said to have occurred while the Apostles were in Ico- 
nium; and we may safely adopt so much of the story 
as to imagine Paul preaching long and late to crowded 
congregations, as he did afterwards at Troas ;8 his en­
emies bringing him before the civil authorities, with 
the cry that he was disturbing their households by his 
sorcery, or with complaints that he was 4 exceedingly 
troubling the city.’ ” 
No doubt, also, the Apostles 
preached the word from house to house, 4 opening and 
alleging that this is the very Christ.’ 
And notwith­
standing all the opposition, they had their good reward 
for 4 'weariness’ and 4 perils’ in the ‘great multitude ’ of 
converts.
During these months the whole city became divided 
into Wo great parties, (“ a common occurrence on far 
less important occasions, in these cities of Oriental 
Greeks:”) one party holding that they were good and 
true menvpreaching with sincerity and by God’s com­
mand : the other, that their preaching and doctrine 
were pretension and falsehood, and perhaps also that 
their miracles were mere magic or deception, like the
they did not leave the city till after the 1 next Sabbath-day ’—not at 
least till Sunday or Monday. 
This would make from nine to eleven 
days. 
There was probably considerably more time consumed after 
the second Sabbath in ‘ stirring up ’ the women and chief men.
6 Acts xi. 26. 
0 xviii. 11.. 
7 xxviii. 30. 
6 xx. '7-11.
FLIGHTS FROM CITY TO CITY.
81
works of all sorcerers. 
44 But here, as at Antioch, the 
influential classes were on the side of the Jews. 
A 
determined attempt,” which had no doubt been gather­
ing force from month to month, 44 was at last made to 
crush the Apostles, by loading them with insult, and 
actually stoning them to death.” 
When the actual as­
sault was about to be made, the disciples in some way 
discovered it in time to flee to some of the smaller 
towns or villages.
We must not think that because it is said Lystra and 
Derbe were 4 cities of Lycaonia,’ it is meant that the 
Apostles passed now out of one province into another. 
Iconium was the capital of Lycaonia. 
The great plain 
on which the Apostles looked down from the moun­
tains comprised a large part of the province of Ly­
caonia. 
44 It was a bare and dreary region, unwatered 
by streams, though in parts liable to occasional floods.” 
Lystra and Derbe were small and retired places, little 
known. 
The writer, in calling them 4 cities of Ly­
caonia,’ only intends to fix their situation. 
They were 
perhaps small towns, 44 with a rude dialect and simple 
superstition,” off on the boundaries of the province, 
where the customs of the people did not change, as in 
the great cities, and 44 where Greek, though certainly 
understood, was not commonly spoken.” 
The exact 
sites of these cities are not known, hut it is supposed 
they were at the foot of Black Mountain. 
The flight 
from Iconium was therefore towards the south-east, to­
wards the huge, dark pile which, standing out in the 
plain, looks so much like a high 4 island in the midst 
of the sea.’ Perhaps, however, they did not go directly 
to Lystra, for they preached also in the 4 region round 
about.’ 
This must have occurred before the events at 
I-ystra took place; for when they left Lystra, they 
went directly to Derbe; and when they left Derbe,
82
(:TWELFTH SUNDAY.)
they returned at once, it would seem, to Lystra and to 
Iconium. It may have been that the peril was so great 
that they did not venture to preach at once in these 
cities, hut were for a while in some of the still more 
obscure settlements under the shadow of the great 
mountain. Whether they first preached in “ the region 
round about,” or went out from Lystra into the sur­
rounding country, a most important event occurred in 
Lystra. It is to be noticed that there is no mention of 
any synagogue in this city. Nothing is said of any 
Jews, except those who capie from Iconium. We 
shall see afterwards that there were in the town at 
least two or three Jews.
“We are now instantly brought into contact with 
Heathen superstition and mythology ; yet not the su­
perstition of an educated mind, as that of Sergius 
Paulus, nor the mythology of the refined and cultivated 
Athenians, but the mythology of a rude and illiterate 
people. Thus does the Gospel, in the person of Paul, 
clash with opposing powers,” one after the other : with 
the crafty sorcerer, the Roman official, the bitter Jew, 
the cruel magistrate, and now with false divinities.
{TWELFTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
WHAT does shaking the dust off the feet signify ?
What difference was there in the teaching of the Saviour 
and of the Scribes in respect to this ?
Does ‘the disciples’ mean Paul and Barnabas ?
What can give the highest joy in the bitterest perscu- 
tion?
Are sacred and holy things gloomy or joyful ?
Does the Holy Spirit design to make men sad or gloomy ? 
Is it religion or the want of it which makes many pro­
fessing Christians gloomy and doleful ?
What kind of a country did the Apostles now enter ?
How was Iconium situated ?
How has the city since become famous ?
What was the mixture of population in Paul’s time ? 
Where did the Apostles go in this town?
What success did their preaching have here ?
When it is said they ‘ so spake,’ etc., do you think any­
thing peculiar in their preaching in this town is 
meant ?
Were these Greeks ‘ proselytes ’ ?
What was the result of the persecution at first ?
How far were they from Antioch in Pisidia ?
What did they besides argue from the Scriptures ?
How long were they in Iconium ? How do you prove it ?
How long do you think they were in Antioch of Pisidia ? 
What tradition.is there in respect to Paul in Iconium ?' 
What does 1 word of his grace ’ mean ?
What else did they ?
What did this ‘ testimony ’ prove ?
Were all who heard and saw convinced ?
What happened during this time ?
What did the two parties probably claim in respect to 
him?
What was true of such divisions in Oriental cities *
(23)
(:TWELFTH SUNDAY.)
"Were all who took Paul’s side Christians ?
What is meant by the Gospel ?
What did the persecutors determine to do ?
What two parties united in this persecution ?
Whose rulers are ‘ their rulers ’ ?
Was stoning a Jewish or a Gentile punishment ?
To what kind of a place did they flee ?
In what direction ?
Did they pass out of the province in which Iconium was ? 
What was Iconium in respect to the province ?
Why are these called ‘ cities of Lycaonia ’ ?
What kind of country was Lycaonia ?
Where were Lystra and Derbe ?
Did they preach the Gospel anywhere else than in these 
places ?
Was this preaching before or after they entered Lystra ? 
In what kind of places was this preaching ?
Can you think of any other religion than one, -which 
teaches us to go as willingly to the obscure and 
the poor as to the influential and the rich ?
How does true piety in the heart make men feel in re­
spect to poor and rich ?
What sort of people were the Lystrians ?
Were there Jews among them ?
How did the superstition of the Lystrians differ from 
that of others ?
What kinds of people had the Gospel now come in con­
flict with ?
What opposite effects had been produced ?
Does the Gospel always produce some effect when it is 
faithfully preached ?
(24)
Thirteenth Sunday
JUPITER 
AND 
MERCURY.
LESSON.
Acts xiv. 8-20.
44 TT was a common belief among the ancients that 
J- the gods visited the earth in the form of men. 
Such a belief with regard to Jupiter, ‘the father of 
gods and men,’ would be natural in any rural district, 
and nowhere more than in Lystra; for Lystra, as ap­
pears from the description given,1 was under the espe­
cial protection of Jupiter, and the divinities were im­
agined to haunt the cities under their protection. 
The 
temple or the statue of Jupiter was a conspicuous ob­
ject in front of the city gates: what wonder was it, 
therefore, if the citizens of Lystra should be prone to 
believe that their ‘Jupiter which was before the city’ 
would willingly visit his favorite people ?” 
Mercury 
was the messenger and herald of the gods, especially 
of Jupiter, and hence was naturally thought to attend 
Jupiter on his expeditions. 
The Lycaonians, especially 
in the region of Lystra, would quickly believe any story 
of these tvro divinities appearing together, if a miracle 
had been wrought, such as this which Luke records.
“We suppose that Paul gathered groups of Lystrians 
about him, and addressed them” in the open squares of 
the city, or other places of public resort, as a modern
( 1 ‘ Which,’ in the thirteenth verse, relates to 1 Jupiter,’ and not to 
Priest,’ as the Greek clearly shows. 
It was Jupiter whose image or 
temple was before the city, and so was its protection.
“And now arose a great tumult of voices from the 
crowd. 
Such a cure of such a disease, so sudden and 
complete, would have confounded the most skilful phy­
sicians.” 
The people, filled with astonishment, at once 
concluded that the divinities were come. 
They cried 
out in their mother-tongue that Jupiter and Mercury, 
in the form of men, were again in Lycaonia. 
Paul was 
the ‘ chief speaker.’ 
They took him, therefore, for Mer­
cury, the god of eloquence. 
Barnabas must be Jupi­
ter, because Jupiter and Mercury always were com­
panions in their earthly appearances, “ though we may 
well believe that there was something majestically be­
nignant in the appearance of Barnabas, while the per 
sonal aspect of Paul was the rather insignificant. 
It 
is also possible that Barnabas was older, and there­
fore more venerable in appearance than Paul.”
The news of a miracle, and that the gods had done 
it, spread quickly through the small town. 
The gods 
had come again! 
They had cured the cripple, lame 
from birth! All the people were excited and in tumult. 
How should they honor the heavenly visitors! 
The 
priest of Jupiter’s temple at the city gates was called 
to sacrifice to his god. 
The priest and his attendants, 
wearing garlands of leaves and flowers on their heads, 
and bearing them in their hands, brought oxen to make 
sacrifice ; and a “ procession moved amidst crowds of 
people to the house in which the Apostles were.” 
By 
some persons, ‘gates ’ has been supposed to mean ‘ the 
gates of the city which the excited people hung with 
garlands in idolatrous honor of Paul and Barnabas 
withinby others, the gates or doors of the house, 
opening from the street into the hall which led to the 
inner court, the reception-room or sitting-room of the 
house.
The Apostles were horror-stricken, when theyknew
JUPITER AND MERCURY. 
85
missionary might address the natives of a Hindoo vil­
lage. 
Although the ‘ speech of Lycaonia ’ was a rough, 
rude dialect of Greek, like some broken accent 01 
‘brogue’ in respect to our own English, or the obscuie 
remnant of some older language, yet the people would 
understand Paul when he spoke to them in Greek.
As Paul was preaching one day, he saw seated on the 
ground a helpless cripple, weak in his feet, who had 
never wTalked, earnestly listening to his words. 
Paul 
saw at once more than his deformity and helplessness. 
He ‘ steadfastly beheld' him. (and these words in the 
Greek are peculiarly forcible: they mean, he looked 
with a sharp, piercing gaze, as the gaze of one stretch­
ing forward to look intently.) 
By the power of the 
Holy Spirit, he was able to penetrate the very secrets 
of the cripple’s soul: he saw that ‘ he had faith to be 
saved52 from the disease of his body, if not from tbe 
spiritual disease of his soul. 
As Peter, ‘fastening his 
eyes upon’ that other cripple at the Beautiful gate of the 
Temple,3 said to him, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ of 
Nazareth, rise up and walk,’ so Paul to this heathen 
cripple in his idolatrous audience at Lystra: ‘Stand 
upright on thy feet.’ 
God’s power instantly met human 
faith, and wrought a mighty change. 
“ The lame man 
sprang up in the joyful consciousness of a power he 
had never felt before, and walked like one who had 
never been infirm.” 
Notice the combination of results 
in the miracle : strength in place of weakness ; sound 
ness and straightness instead of disease and deformity j 
the art of walking, of balancing and moving at the 
same time, by one who had never learned.
‘ Faith to be healed.’ 
The Greek word is, ‘ to be saved.' 
It may 
be in the sense of * to be saved ’ from disease, that is, to be healed, 
or it may be to be saved from sin.
3 Acts iii. 1-4, etc.
84 
(THIRTEENTH SUNDAY.)
86 
(THIRTEENTH SUNDAY.)
what the people were doing. 
Rending their clothes 
and rushing out among the people, they opposed the 
people, and expressed their abhorrence of what they 
were going to do. 
It may be that Luke has pieseived 
only the short outline of Paul’s speech.
Notice the argument:
I. We are not gods, but men with feelings like yours.
II. Worship of such gods is wrong, as we have 
preached to you: these.gods are mere vanities, mere 
nothings: we declare to you one Living God.
III. This one God, and not your ‘vanities,’ made all 
things: the heavens above, the earth beneath, all things
IV. In ancient times some excuse might possibly 
have been offered; for having no such light as the 
Jews, the Gentiles everywhere walked in their own 
ways.
Y. But there is no excuse now, as there was really 
no excuse then; for rain from heaven, and the seasons 
which bring us fruit, and all the wonderful manner in 
which the earth and the heavens are made, show one 
God Alone, whom alone we ought to worship.
How coldly this address of Paul fell on that ignorant, 
superstitious people, eager to offer oxen and garlands in 
sacrifice to men like themselves. 
The natural religion 
of poetry and of imagination they liked, but the wor­
ship of One Jehovah only, they did not like. The crowd 
were ‘ scarce restrained’ from worshipping mortals like 
themselves. 
They slowly led away the victims.
But instead of gratitude that the lame man had been 
healed in their city, we now find a very great and sur­
prising change of feeling. 
Excited in one direction, 
they were soon excited in another, as were the Jews at 
Jerusalem, when one day they cried, ‘Hosanna,’ and 
the next day, ‘ Crucify him.’ 
“ The Lycaonians were
JUPITER AND MERCURY. 
87
proverbially fickle and faithless.” 
Some of the hostile 
Jews from Iconium had come to Lystra on some er­
rand ; perhaps on purpose to persecute the Apostles. 
“ When they heard of the miracles worked on the lame 
man, and found how great an effect it had produced on 
the people of Lystra, they would be ready with a new 
interpretation of the occurrence.” 
And just as at 
Jerusalem the Jews said that Jesus ‘cast out devils 
by Beelzebub, the prince of devils,’ so might they say 
that this miracle was “ not by Divine agency, but by 
some diabolical magic. 
This is probably the true in­
terpretation of that sudden change of feeling among 
the Lystrians, which at first sight seems very surpris­
ing.” 
They first declared these miracle-workers gods : 
the miracle-workc; s themselves denied that they were 
gods: the Jews said that it was sorcery, magic, the 
Work of devils and of Beelzebub : excited and ignorant 
and easily duped, they not only believed it, but suffered 
themselves to be led on to persecution and to murder. 
In the very streets the mob stoned Paul, then bar­
barously dragged him out of the gate, and cast him out 
as dead. 
Their superstitious change was as sudden as 
that of the ‘barbarous people’ afterwards at Malta, 
who first thought Paul a murderer, and then a god.4 
The Apostle mentions this stoning in his catalogue of 
his sufferings.6 
Both at Lystra and when he wrote to 
the Corinthians he must have thought of the stoning of 
Stephen. 
And as Stephen’s death only increased the 
number of disciples, so does the stoning of Paul only 
bring into sight others who believed on Jesus, and one 
who was afterwards fellow-apostle and fellow-mission- 
ai7 with Paul. 
‘Disciples stood round about him,’ 
when he lay as dead, wThen he recovered from the swoon 
and rose up.
4 Acts xxviii. 4-6. 
• II, Coriuth. xi. 25.
88
(:THIRTEENTH SUNDAY)
Among these disciples of Lystra, we have reason to 
believe, was Timothy. 
His mother was a Jewess his 
father a Greek; and about two years later, when 1 an 
came to Lystra again, he found Timothy already a 
Christian, and ‘ well reported of by the brethren.’ ^ 
n 
one of his letters afterwards to Timothy, Paul reminds 
Timothy of his knowledge of his own persecution ‘ at 
Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra.” 
“ We have thus the 
strongest reasons for believing that Timothy was wit­
ness of Paul’s injurious treatment, and this too at a 
time of life when the mind receives its deepest impres­
sions from the spectacle of innocent suffering and un­
daunted courage. 
And it is far from impossible that 
the generous and warm-hearted youth was standing m 
that group of disciples, who surrounded the apparently 
lifeless body of the Apostle, outside the walls of Lys­
tra.” 
His mother Eunice, and his grandmother Lois, 
probably dwelt there,9 so that there were in Lystra at 
least three Jews when Paul came. 
Educated in the 
study of the sacred Scriptures by his mother and grand­
mother,19 he was ready to receive the Gospel when it 
came to him. 
It was not without a divine purpose, 
therefore, that Paul was permitted to be persecuted at 
Iconium, and that he fled to Lystra to suffer anew; for 
here it is that he finds a convert who is to be another
faithful preacher of the Gospel.
“ Derbe is somewhere not far from the Black Moan 
tain.” 
In a few hours he would come to that place. 
He probably had no persecution in this town; for when 
he writes to Timothy that he was witness of his suffe' 
ing ‘ at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra,’ he does not 
mention Derbe. 
“ It may have been a quiet resting- *
* Acts xvi. 1. 
7II- Tim. iii. 10, 11.
* II. Tim. i. 5. 
9 Acts xvi. 1-3. 
10II. Tim. iii. 15.
JUPITER AND MERCURY.
89
place after a long journey full of toil and danger.” 
aere Paul recovered his strength after the stoning; 
here he gained new vigor after his weariness; but here 
also he was still preaching the Gospel, for here he 
made many disciples.11
11 
Margin of 21st verse.
(;THIRTEENTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
W
HAT especial reason is there why the Lystnans would ex­
pect the gods to visit them ? 
,,
What is meant by 1 Jupiter which was before the city 
Who was Jupiter ? 
Who was Mercury ?
Where did Paul speak in Lystra ?
What language did he speak ?
What was the ‘ speech of Lycaonia’ ? 
.
What hearer was there in one of Paul’s audiences ?
What does ‘ impotent ’ mean ?
How long had he been a cripple ?
What does ‘steadfastly beholding’ mean ?
What, besides his lameness, did Paul see ?
How could Paul ‘perceive’ faith?
What other miracle does this miracle resemble ?
How many points of resemblance can you trace ?
What two things united to make this ihighty change ? 
Are there any other than these two things necessary in 
the conversion of a soul ?
Are they exercised differently from what they were in 
this cripple’s case ?
How many results of this miracle can you mention ? 
What did the cripple’s leaping show ?
What effect did this miracle have on the assembly ?
Why did they call Paul, Mercury ?
Why Barnabas, Jupiter? 
What suppositions can you
make ?
What was now proposed ?
Whom did they call for ?
What does ‘ gates ’ mean ? 
_ 
.
Why had not the Apostles prevented this procession before 
Why did they rend their clothes ?
How do you know that Paul, and not Barnabas, spoke? 
What was the first point in the argument ?
What does ‘ of like passions' mean ?
(25)
What was the second point ? 
■
What does ‘vanities’ mean?
What was the third point ?
What was the fourth point ?
Do you suppose ‘all nations’ includes the Jews ?
Does God ever excuse sin ?
What is the fifth point in the address ?
What is meant by * left not himself without witness ’.? 
Does God wish to have us ‘filled with gladness’ ?
What is there especially in rain and fruit and the seasons 
which shows this ?
What is the whole argument designed to prove?
What was the effect of Paul’s speech on the people ?
W hat was this sacrifice intended to express ?
Was it in any way a sacrifice for sin ?
Do men naturally like natural religion ? 
Why ?
Do men naturally like to practise the Christian religion ?
Why? 
6
What other interpretation might have been given of the 
miracle ?
Do you think it was given by these Jews ?
Had the Jews in Palestine ever so explained miracles ? 
What were the Lycaonians proverbial for ?
Did they actually stone Paul to death t 
Why didn’t they stone Barnabas ?
What change as sudden as this in the minds of two dif­
ferent peoples at two different times ?
When Paul ‘ rose up,’ was there a miracle ?
Who were these ‘ disciples ’ ? 
Lystrians or others ? 
What fellow-laborer afterwards joined Paul at Lystra ? 
What reason have we to believe that he was among 
these ‘ disciples ’ ?
Do you think the evidence sufficient ?
What do you know of Derbe ?
What did Paul there ?
What was the result ?
{THIRTEENTH SUNDAY.)
(26)
Fourteenth Sunday
THE JOURNEY HOME.
LESSON.
Acts xiv. 21-27.
D
ERBE is the end of Paul’s first missionary journey.
He was now not very far from his own home at 
Tarsus. Derbe could not have been further from the 
celebrated pass through the mountains1 down to Tar­
sus, than from Iconium. 
He was at the one foot of that 
mountain-range, at the other foot of which lay liis na­
tive province. 
The journey of a day or two would have 
probably taken him into Cilicia. 
“ But his thoughts 
did not centre in his earthly home.” 
He thought of 
his converts in the different places through which he 
had come: how exposed they were to persecution and 
to doubts of the truth, and to trouble from the argu­
ments of the Jews; how much they needed strengthen­
ing in the faith, the comfort of his presence, and his 
words; and especially how they needed to be formed 
into organized and fixed churches for their mutual 
strength and protection. And so, after staying in Dei be 
long enough perhaps to recover Paul’s strength, and for 
the persecuting spirit in Bystra to subside, I aul and 
Barnabas turned their steps back upon the road which 
they came. 
At Lystra, Timothy may have been one 
who helped make up the church; for there, as well as
1 The famous ‘ Ciliciau Gates,’ a narrow mountain-pass, through 
which many an ancient army marched on the route from west to east, 
and from cast to west. 
See the map of Cilicia, First Sunday.
THE JO URNEY HOME. 
91
in Antioch and Iconium, it would seem that a church 
was formed. 
Undaunted by danger, by their own bold 
example they encouraged the disciples, even when they 
told them that they could only be disciples of Jesus by 
passing through great suffering and affliction. 
What 
undoubting confidence must these good men have had 
in their religion, when they “ ventured to address to 
their earliest converts such words of encouragement as 
these: ‘We can only enter the kingdom of God by 
passing through much tribulation.’ ” 
In ordaining 
\elders in every church,’ they followed the example of 
the churches in Judea, which had their elders distinct 
from the Jewish elders.2 
Jewish elders had existed 
since the time of Moses.3 
This is the second time when 
the elders of the Christian Church are spoken of, the 
first being when the elders of Jerusalem are mentioned. 
They are frequently mentioned afterwards.4 
Paul him­
self writes to Titus to ordain elders.6
The Apostles must have remained in each place a day 
01 more, and very likely several days ; for there must 
have been in each place a time appointed for fasting, 
and time for its observance. 
On their journey home, 
probably they did not preach publicly in the towns, for 
that would only have kindled at once the fury of perse­
cutors, and put the brethren in greater peril. 
The 
brethren themselves would now preach in their own 
cities; and besides, it would be natural for Paul to 
think, even as soon as this, of making a second journey 
to these churches, as he afterwards did. 
The stay of
5 xi. 30.
Numbers xi. 16, 17.' Deuteronomy xix. 12; xxi. 2-6; xxxi. 9.
J Sam. xxx. 26. 
I. Chronicles xxi. 16. 
Ezra v. 5; vi. 14. 
Matt, 
Xv- 2 ; xxviii. 12. 
Acts iv. 5 ; ,vi. 12.
4 xv. 4, 6, 23 ; xvi. 4 ; xx. 17.
6 Titus i. 6.
92
(.FOURTEENTH SUNDAY.)
the Apostles in these cities was therefore quite different 
from what it was on their way out. 
Then it was most 
public, the whole city of Antioch flocking to the syna­
gogue, the whole city of Iconium divided into parties 
in respect to them, the whole city of Lystra hailing 
them first as gods, and then mobbing them. 
Now the 
visit must have been quite private: they gathered 
around them a few disciples in some private house, and 
with devout and solemn rites, organized the church of 
God in the place.
How differently, too, would the Apostles approach 
the various places from what they did befoie. As they 
came across the great plain from the south towaids 
Iconium, they would look on the city beiore them, and 
think sorrowfully of the wickedness and cruelty which 
they had seen and felt both there and in Lystra; and 
joyfully and thankfully would they think of what they 
had been permitted to accomplish. 
As they climbed 
again the mountains towards Pisidia, they would rejoice 
that now in Iconium and Lystra, churches were founded 
in spite of persecution. 
As they saw again in the dis­
tance Antioch, what pure pleasure filled their hearts in 
anticipation of meeting the converts whom, months be­
fore, they left, ‘filled with joy and v ith the Holy Ghost.’ 
Welcomed again by these dear converts, they soon 
learned their state and the attitude of the Jews at the 
synagogue. 
Giving them instruction in respect to any 
difficult questions which might have arisen, ‘ confirming 
their souls,’ ‘ exhorting them to continue in the faith,
‘ ordaining them elders,’ and rejoicing again and again 
that they had offered the Gospel to the Gentiles in the 
synagogue, they took their perilous way again down 
through the mountains, past lake and torrent and river 
and robber-haunts, to the plain of Pamphylia. 
“ It our 
conjecture is correct, that they went up from Perga in 
the spring, and returned at the close of autumn, and
THE JOURNEY HOME.
93
spent all the hotter months of the year in the elevated 
districts, they would again pass in a few days through 
a gieat change of seasons, and almost from summer to 
winter. ^ The people of Pamphylia would have returned 
from their cold residences, to the warm shelter of the 
plain by the sea-side; and Perga would be full of in­
habitants.” 
This may be the reason why Paul and 
• Barnabas now stopped to preach in Perga. “ We read 
neither of conversions nor of persecutions here. 
The 
Jews, if any Jews resided here, were less inquisitive 
and less tyrannical than those at Antioch and Iconium; 
and the votaries of ‘ Diana before the city ’ at Perga,8 
were less excitable than those who worshipped ‘ Jupi­
ter before the city ’ at Lystra. 
And when the time 
came for returning to Syria, they did not sail down the 
Cestrus, but travelled across the plain to Attalia, on 
the edge of the Pamphylian gulf.” 
This was the city, 
at the innermost point of the bay, towards which they 
sailed on their way from Cyprus to Perga, a city which, 
from that time to this, has existed and flourished, and 
retained its name.7 
From this city, centuries after, the 
two great armies of the Crusaders, having come down 
to the coast, through parts of the same districts over 
which Paul and Barnabas travelled, embarked, like 
them, for Antioch in Syria. 
“ Behind the town is the 
plain through which the waters of the Catarrhactes 
flow, perpetually constructing and destroying and re­
constructing their fantastic channels. 
In front of it, 
and along the shore, are long lines of cliffs, over which 
the river finds its way in -waterfalls to the sea, and 
which conceal the plain from those who look towards 
the land from the inner waters of the bay, and even en­
croach on the prospect of the mountains themselves.”
0 See page 59.
' On our modern maps, in the Turkish province of Anad ilia, you 
■nay still gee the name of Adalia.
94
{FOURTEENTH SUNDAY.)
The Apostles stepped into the little ship which was 
to bear them back to Palestine, and which was to mark 
the track the Crusaders followed. 
Passing the high 
cliffs of Rough Cilicia, the long coast of Cyprus, and 
the familiar scenery about Tarsus, they passed on to the 
place ‘ whence they had been recommended to the giace 
of God, for the work which they fulfilled.’ 
Unlike the 
Crusaders, whose arrival was anxiously waited lor by 
• the ‘ Prince of Antioch,’ and by a great gathering of 
his nobles and chief men, and who were “brought into 
Antioch with much pomp and circumstance, in the 
midst of a great assemblage of the clergy and people, 
the Apostles, unattended, stepped on shore at Seleucia, 
or on the bank of the Orontes at Antioch, and found 
their brethren. 
Quickly the assembly of the church 
was gathered. 
Gladly, eagerly they heard the story 
' of the strange and perilous journey. 
Sorrowfully they 
grieved over the wickedness of the persecutors ; thank­
fully, joyfully they praised God that the great mission, 
undertaken with trembling and with solemn awe m 
their hearts, had been fully accomplished, and that ‘ He 
had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.
The Apostles had been gone probably the greater 
portion of a year. 
We have supposed them starting, at 
the opening of navigation, from Seleucia, remaining in 
Cyprus two or three weeks, consuming a week more on 
the way to Pisidia in the spring, remaining two weeks 
or more in Pisidian Antioch, three or foui months in 
Iconium, two weeks in Lystra and the region round 
about, three or four weeks in Derbe, and consuming 
two months or more on the returning journey in the 
latter part of autumn.
So ended the first missionary journey, the work of so 
much labor, of so much faith, of so much lofty Christian 
courage; a journey so successful and of such inestima­
ble consequences to us Gentiles.
{FOURTEENTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
WHAT success had the Apostles’ preaching in Derbe?
What other meaning is therefor the words, ‘hadtaught 
many ’ ?
How far was Derbe from Tarsus ?
What were the * Cilician Gates ’ ?
Do you suppose Paul failed to think of Tarsus now ? 
What else did he think of ?
Who may have helped make up the church at Lystra ?
What strange kind of encouragement did the Apostles 
give to their new converts ?
What especial reason was there why Paul should say 
this at Lystra ?
What does this show in respect to their religion ?
When religion promises happiness here, does it promise 
freedom from trials ?
Does religion itself bring trouble?
What does ‘ confirming the souls ’ mean ?
What does * the faith ’ mean ?
Had ‘ elders ’ been ordained at any other place ?
How long had the office of ‘elders ’ existed?
What was the difference between a Jewish and a Christ­
ian elder ?
At what places are other ‘elders’ mentioned in the 
New Testament?
What is meant by ‘ordained ’ ?
How long did the Apostles remain in each place ?
Do you suppose there was a separate meeting for prayer 
and fasting?
Did they preach publicly ? 
Why ?
What is meant by ‘ commended ’ them ?
Who is meant by ‘ the Lord' on whom they believed? 
In what particulars were their visits different now from their 
visits on the way out ?
What would they think of, as they approached the dif­
ferent towns ?
(27)
{FOURTEENTH SUNDAY.)
Do you think they felt any especial interest in Antioch 
in Pisidia ?
Do you think they preached elsewhere in Pisidia than 
in Antioch ?
Is there anything which may mean that they did ?
What reason might there have been for stopping to preach 
now in Perga ?
What difference in the route down from Perga to the 
sea, from that on the way up ?
Where was Attalia ?
Who else embarked here for Antioch ?
What is meant by ‘ recommended to the grace of God’ ?
What is it to ‘ fulfil a work ’ ?
How does the Apostles’ disembarking at Antioch com­
pare with that of the Crusaders ?
How were they welcomed ? 
By whom ?
What was the one great thought in the minds of all af­
ter the Apostles had told their story ?
State the outline of the journey, giving an event in each 
place.
How long had the Apostles been gone ?
Can you distribute the time ?
What were the chief Christian characteristics necessary 
to prosecute successfully such a journey?
Why is this journey so important to us ?
What is the ‘ door of faith.’
How had it been opened to Gentiles ?
What one thing only, did all the journeying, all the 
teaching, all the persecution mean ?
(28)
A 
DIFFICULT 
QUESTION.
Fifteenth Sunday
LESSON.
Acts xiv. 28 ; xv. 1, 2.
H
OW long Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, 
we cannot determine accurately. It is supposed 
they were there five or six years. We may be sure, 
however, that they were not idle. Indeed, a new ques­
tion was now arising, which would require no small 
thought and attention. After a time, there came down 
from Judea ‘ certain men ’1 who introduced a subject 
into the assembly which at once aroused all the feelings 
both of Jews and Gentiles. This subject was the occa­
sion of a long and troubled controversy; it was the 
means of sending Paul again to Jerusalem; and it in­
volved the most momentous consequences to all future 
ages of the Church and the world. It was debated with 
the most eager earnestness on each side, by the evil- 
minded and the true-hearted; and afterwards, at An­
tioch and at Jerusalem, by two parties, both of whom 
were no doubt sincere and honest. The question to be 
decided was this:
Whether converts from the Gentiles ought to obey the 
law of Moses.
The disturbers at Antioch said at first, that Gentile 
converts ought to be circumcised, but this really meant 
the same thing as when they said afterwards, at Jeru-
1 Notice that they are not called ‘ brethren.'
06 
(.FIFTEENTH SUNDAY.)
salem, that they ought to he circumcised and to keep 
the law of Moses. For to demand that they should he 
circumcised, was to demand that they should submit to 
the initiatory rite of Moses’ law in becoming a Jew, and 
was therefore only a test of submission to all the cere­
monies and rites of the whole Mosaic law—that is, to 
all the rules about eating clean and unclean meats, about 
washings, sacrifices, etc. The real question, then, was:
Whether converts from the Gentiles ought to obey the 
law of Moses.
To understand the real perplexity and difficulty which 
this question would excite among the disciples at An­
tioch and at Jerusalem, we must think of the broad, 
distinct line which, in the mind of a Jew, wms always 
drawn between a Jew and a Gentile. If we notice three 
things, they will help us to understand the difficulties 
of the question.
I. 
The separation between Jews and Gentiles was 
first religious. The Jews were scattered everywhere 
among the Gentiles, “ over every part of the Roman em­
pire. In every important city of the east and the west, 
were some members of that mysterious people, who had 
a written law, which they read and re-read, week by 
week and year by year, in the midst of those who siu-- 
rounded them—who were bound everywhere by a secret 
link of affection to one city in the world, where alone 
their religious sacrifices could be offered—wThose whole 
life was utterly abhorrent from the temples and images 
which crowded the neighborhood of the synagogues, 
and from the gay and impure festivities of the Greek 
and Roman worship. Hence the Jews in foreign na­
tions were surrounded by an idolatry which shocked all 
their feelings, and a shameless profligacy which was
3 See, also, in the Lettev in reply, verse 24.
A DIFFICULT QUESTION. 
97
even associated with what the Gentiles called religion.” 
Even the Gentile proselytes who wrent over to the Jew­
ish faith, “ were looked on with some suspicion by the 
Jews themselves, and thoroughly hated and despised 
by the Gentiles.” With intensest hatred and contempt, 
the Jews hated the idolatry of the Gentiles, their many 
gods, their unclean and abominable sacrifices, their 
many temples, instead of one, their horrible and shame­
less impurity even in honor of their gods. The religious 
separation was therefore a very wide one.
II. The separation was intellectual. Side by side 
with the synagogues in strange cities, and “ with the 
doctrines of Judaism, the speculations of Greek philoso­
phers were taught and discussed in schoolsso that 
“ it might be said that Plato and Aristotle, Zeno and 
Epicurus, as well as Moses, ‘ had in every city those 
that preached them.’ ”3 The Jews naturally suspected 
and hated all the philosophy and science which had 
formed the mythology and theology of the Gentiles. 
Indeed, as wre have seen, many of her teachers would 
not allow their pupils to study the Greek language and 
literature. An intellectual separation was therefore 
added to a religious one.
III. More than this, the separation was social. Then, 
as now, the Jews mingled freely with Gentiles in all 
places of ‘ buying and selling, conversing and disput­
ing,’ but in their families they were entirely separate. 
It was ‘ unlawful,’ in their domestic relations, ‘ for a 
man that was a Jew to keep company with one of an­
other nation.’ * The charge made against Peter by his 
fellow-Christians, was: ‘ Thou wentest in to men uncir­
cumcised, and didst eat with them.’5 This matter of 
eating or of not eating with Gentiles, had great influ-
5 XV. 21. 
* x. 28. 
6 xi. 3.
meats; in short, unless he would consent to- circumci­
sion, to all the washings and sacrifices and tithes, which 
the law of Moses commanded.
We must remember that one previous point had been 
settled, that the Gentiles might receive the Gospel and 
might be converted. The conversion of Cornelius under 
Peter’s preaching had settled that.8 The precise point 
now to be settled was, whether Gentiles already con­
verted ought to obey all the particulars of Moses1 law.
Notice now how the recent missionary journey would 
bring up this question for decision. “ Paul and Barna­
bas had no doubt freely joined in social intercourse with 
the Gentile Christians at Antioch in Pisidia, at Iconium, 
Lystra, and Derbe. At Antioch in Syria, too, they had 
lived with much ‘freedom’ with the Gentile brethren.” 
The Jewish Christians, especially those who had not 
been out of Judea and Jerusalem—some of them, at 
least thought this all wrong. 
They could not endure 
the thought of receiving directly into the church these 
multitudes of converts from the Gentiles without their 
agreement to obey the regular Jewish laws. Some of 
these Jewish Christians were no doubt most sincere in 
opposition to receiving the Gentile Christians, without 
coming under Moses’ law. “We can well believe that 
the minds of many may have been perplexed by the 
'vords and conduct of our Lord himself; for he had 
aot been sent ‘ save to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel; and he said that ‘ it was not meet to take the 
children’s bread and give it to dogs.’ To them this 
c lange ‘ was a rebellion against all that they had been 
taught to hold inviolably sacred.” The Jews, ‘ the 
holy people,’ would soon be swallowed up, they would 
think, in this "universal and indiscriminating religion"
6 Acts xi. 18.
A DIFFICULT QUESTION. 
99
ence over the Jews’ life. 
The table and the daily meal, 
is one place where acquaintance ripens into friendly 
feeling, and friendly feeling ripens into attachment.
“ With the man with whom I can neither eat nor drink, 
let our business intercourse be what it may, I shall sel­
dom become as familiar as with him whose gi :est I am, 
and he mine. If we have, besides, an abhorrence of the 
food which each other eats, this forms a new obstacle 
to closer intimacy. Nothing better than this could 
possibly be devised to keep one people distinct from 
another. It causes the difference between them to be 
ever present to the mind, touching as it does upon so 
many points of social and every-day contact.” It keeps 
people separate better “ than any difference of doctrine 
or worship.”
“ I will buy with you, sell with you, walk with you, talk with you, 
and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor 
pray with you,”
says Shylock the Jew in the Merchant of Venice.
The social separation therefore every day and every 
hour strengthened the religious and intellectual separa­
tion of Jews from Gentiles.
This wide separation was most rigidly maintained, 
like the separation of caste among the Hindoos. “A 
Hindoo cannot eat with a Parsee or a Mohammedan; 
and among the Hindoos themselves, the meals of a 
Brahmin are polluted by the presence of a Pariah, 
though they meet and have free intercourse in the or­
dinary transactions of business.”
Now, how was it possible for a Jew, educated accord­
ing to the law of Moses, even though he believed on 
Jesus as the Messiah, to receive a Gentile religiously, 
intellectually, socially, unless he would not only forsake 
idolatry and the heathen wTay of thinking of Christian 
things, but would also consent to eat only the clean
98 
- 
[FIFTEENTH SUNDAY.)
100
FIFTEENTH SUNDAY.)
of Christianity, if this were the way in which it was 
to he administered. 
And Saul of Tarsus, the young 
Pharisee, who, years before, sat ‘ at the feet of Gama­
liel,’ was the principal person who was now trying to 
make this change. 
Very likely, therefore, it was ‘ cei- 
tain’ ‘ of the sect of the Pharisees” who went down to 
Antioch to attend to this matter.
See now the precise form the discussion took. These 
men did not say, that it would be well to be^ circum­
cised ; it would avoid difficulty in the church, it would 
better satisfy the minds of the Christian brethren at 
Jerusalem, if they would be circumcised and keep 
Moses’ law:but very falsely they said: ‘ Except ye be 
circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be 
saved.’ 
Such a doctrine must have been instantly op­
posed by Paul with his intensest energy. 
The very 
foundations of Christianity were in danger of being un­
dermined. 
“ He did not yield, ‘ no, not for an hour.’ ” 
For some time the discussion was continued in An 
tioch ; perhaps for months, or even for a year. 
Iheie 
was anxiety and perplexity among the Syrian Christ­
ians. 
The "minds of Gentile converts were troubled 
and unsettled. 
The Gospel of Christ was perverted. 
Great harm was being done. And so it was determined 
that Paul and Barnabas and others should go up to Jei u 
salem, and there, in an assembly of apostles and elders, 
have this difficult question settled. 
At Jerusalem were 
the principal Apostles, James and Peter and John. 
From Judea, the party who raised the vexed question 
came, and would exist at Jerusalem in its greatest 
strength. 
At Jerusalem, the other question about 
Peter’s preaching to the Gentiles had been decided. 
Jerusalem was the place where all religious questions
7 xv. 5.
A DIFFICULT QUESTION.
101
had been decided for centuries. 
Jerusalem was there­
fore the place where, once for all, this question ought 
to be decided; and Paul and Barnabas were the per­
sons ivho ought to go and represent the side of truth 
and of right there.
(FIFTEENTH SUNDAY.)
questions.
H
OW long were Paul and Barnabas in Antioch ?
Who at length came to Antioch ?
What did they teach ?
When they required men to be circumcised, what test 
was it ?
What were some of the other observances required? 
What then was the difficult question ?
What is the general reason why it was difficult ?
What was the first characteristic of this separation ?
How did the scattered Jews appear to Romans and 
Greeks in foreign cities ?
What did the Jews see connected with the Gentile re­
ligions ?
How would a proselyte be thought of both by Jews and 
Gentiles ?
What was the distinction between the Jews and Gen­
tiles in respect to the doctrine of God ?
What in respect to sacrifices ?
What in respect to temples ?
What in respect to moral purity ?
What was the second characteristic of the separation ?
What doctrines were taught in these foreign cities ? 
What was the Greek and Roman mythology ?
What would the Jews think of Greek and Roman phi­
losophy ?
What did some Jewish teachers think of the Greek lan­
guage ?
What was the third characteristic of the separation ?
In what respect did the Jews mingle freely with Gen­
tiles ?
In what respects did they keep themselves separate ? 
What was thought unlawful ?
Where do you find this rule referred to ?
How was it that the rule about eating kept them sepa­
rate?
(29)
(FIFTEENTH SUNDAY.)
What separation in a modern heathen nation is some­
thing like this ?
State now the difficulties in receiving a Gentile or a Jew into 
the church.
What previous point had been settled ?
When had that been settled ?
What did the Apostles say at that time ?
What was the precise point now ?
How did Paul’s recent journey bring up this question ? 
Do you think the Jewish Christians sincere in opposing 
Paul?'
What had our Saviour said which they might quote on 
their side ?
Of what sect were the men who came to Antioch from 
Judea?
In respect to th&form of their demand, what did not these 
men say ? 
What did they say ?
What did Paul think of such a doctrine ?
Why was the doctrine dangerous ?
What shows that the discussion continued some time ? 
What is the difference between ‘ dissension ’ and ‘ dis­
putation’ ?
What would naturally be the result among the Syrian Christ­
ians ?
Could they honestly be in trouble about it?
How could the question be decided ?
What was determined at last ?
Why was it proper that it should be decided at Jerusa­
lem?
(30)
THE COUNCIL.
LESSON.
Galatians ii. 1-10; Acts xv. 3-22.
T
HIS third journey of the Apostle to Jerusalem after 
his conversion, is supposed to he the one which 
Paul speaks of in the second chapter of his Letter to the 
Galatians.1 
There seems to he little doubt that these 
are the men whom Paul there calls ‘ .false brethien, 
who were ‘ brought in unawares,’ and ‘ who came to 
spy out his liberty,’ that is, to see whether he was living 
freely with Gentiles in Antioch, and ‘to whom he did 
not give place, no, not for an hour.’
We are there told that Paul did not go up to Jeru­
salem simply by the direction of the Antioch Christians, 
but also ‘ by revelation,’ by the direction of a vision, 
like the vision in the Temple years before, or at Troas 
afterwards.* 
We are told, also, that Titus was one of 
the ‘other disciples’ who went with him; for Titus 
was a Greek, and ‘ uncircumcised:’ he was a specimen 
of the Gentile converts, that the Apostles and elders 
and disciples at Jerusalem might see what kind of per­
sons they were who were now made the occasion of 
this controversy. 
It is evident that through all the dis-
1 There have been various opinions in respect to which of Paul’s 
five journeys to Jerusalem is meant by the passage in Galatians, in 
which he speaks of going up ‘ fourteen years after. 
“ The view w e 
have adopted is that of the be3t critics and commentators. 
a Acts xvi. 9.
Sixteenth Sunday
putation ’ at Antioch, most if not all of the Christians 
held to the side of Paul, for it is said they were ‘ brought 
on their way by the Church.’ If the greater part of the 
Church had condemned Paul’s course, it is not likely 
that we would have had this notice of their sympathy 
and attachment. 
“The course of the Apostles was 
along the great Roman road which followed the Phoe­
nician coast-line, and traces of which are still seen in 
the cliffs overhanging the sea, and thence through the 
middle of Samaria and Judea.” 
Along the way, they 
saw believers already converted, some of whom, in 
Phenice, had been converted under the preaching of 
‘ those scattered abroad ’ after the persecution of Ste­
phen.3 
The number had probably increased since that 
time. 
In Samaria, Philip the Evangelist, and Peter and 
John, had preached years before, and the Gospel had 
been received with ‘ great joy,’ at least in one city.4 To 
Whatever churches they found on the way, they told 
over again the story of their journey among the Gen­
tiles, and how ‘a door of faith’ had been ‘opened te 
the Gentiles.’ 
In all these places, there was great re­
joicing among the assembled believers. To the church 
at Jerusalem, too, they at length told the same story.
With what strange feelings must Paul have entered 
Jerusalem now! 
Twice before, since his conversion, 
had he been in the holy city.5 This third time, he came 
on a far more important errand, and probably was in 
the city much longer than at either of the other times." 
During the fourteen years since his conversion,7 there 
had been many changes. 
Death had taken away many
s xi. 19.
4 Viii. 8, 14, 25 ; ix. 32.
6 Acts xxii. 17; Galatians i. 18 ; and Acts xi. 30.
6 Galatians i. 18; Acts xii. 25.
7 ‘ Fourteen years after' is supposed to mean 1 after ’ his conver­
sion.
THE COUNCIL. 
103
104 
{SIXTEENTH SUNDAY.)
of his early companions, “ but some must have been 
there who had studied with him ‘ at the feet of Gama­
liel.’ ” 
Herod Agrippa, who killed James and would 
have killed Peter, had met his awful death. 
The Jews 
had far less power than then to persecute and tyiannize 
over the Church. Some of the Pharisees—perhaps some 
of Gamaliel’s school—like Paul, had believed that Jesus 
was the Christ. 
But though they had believed, they 
had not, like Paul, altogether relinquished their rigid 
and intense zeal for the law; and it was with them Paul 
was now to discuss this most difficult question.
Think for a moment how much was involved in the 
settlement of that question : Whether Gentile converts 
ought to obey the law of Moses. 
The question was 
then to be decided for all countries outside of the land 
of Judea; for in all countries, Gentile converts would 
surely be made. 
It was to be decided for all ages till 
the end of the world. 
It was to be decided there m 
Jerusalem, whether we Gentiles of America, in these 
distant days, shall be required, when we believe in Jesus 
the Saviour, to submit to the ‘ washings,’ and ‘ fasts,’ 
and ‘sacrifices,’ to observe the Passover and other 
feasts, and the whole ceremonial of the Mosaic law.
When Paul and Barnabas, then, bringing Titus am 
others with them, told to the assembled church the 
story of their wonderful success in preaching the Gos­
pel among the Gentiles of Cyprus and Asia Minor, the 
Pharisee-members of the church said at once that these 
Gentile converts must certainly be circumcised and 
commanded ‘to keep the'law of Moses.’ 
This was an 
attack on the whole course of Paul, who had admitted 
Gentiles to the Church, and who had not left them, so 
far as we know, any direction in respect to the ceremo­
nial law. 
It was casting a suspicion and a reproach on 
Barnabas. 
It was saying, too, that Titus, whom they
THE COUNCIL. 
105
had brought with them as a Christian brother, with 
whom they had eaten and kept company, must be cir­
cumcised or he could not be saved.
The whole subject was now opened. 
There was 
earnest conversation about it, in the homes of the disci­
ples, wherever the brethren met, and at the meetings 
of the church, for some days. 
We know that Paul, be­
fore the great public meeting took place, at which the 
final decision was to be made, consulted privately the 
Apostles,8 and told over his journey, his labor, and 
the result of it all; and that James, Peter, and John,
‘ pillars ’ of the Church, agreed with and sympathized 
with Paul.9
At length the great meeting was appointed, that 
which is now called in Church history,
THK FIRST COUNCIL OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
This council may have been in session more than one 
day. 
To understand fully the deliberations of this im­
portant body, let us divide its proceedings into the dif­
ferent parts:
First, there was much earnest debate, (verse 7,) and 
perhaps, among eager-minded Jews and strong Phari­
sees, even violent controversy. 
How long this ‘dis­
puting ’ lasted, we do not knoAV. 
The Spirit of Inspi­
ration did not dictate that this discussion should be 
preserved, but only the words which divinely moved 
Apostles spake. 
It- consumed, however, doubtless, no 
small part of the whole council.
Secondly, Peter, on the part of the Apostles, was the 
first who gave his opinion, (verses 7 to 11.) 
It was 
proper that he should speak first, because he first of all 
preached the Gospel to the Gentiles. 
He spoke, 1. 
(verse 7) of his oivn preaching to the Gentiles a long
8 Galatians ii. 2. 
9 Galatians ii. 9.
106
(SIXTEENTH SUNDAY.)
time before, at Caesarea; of the Gentiles belief in the 
word of God, and of God’s directing him to go to 
them:10 2. (verses 8, 9) of the decisive fact that the 
Holy Spirit had been sent to these Gentiles as He had 
been to the Jewish believers,11 and that was God s tes­
timony that both Gentile and Jew were alike to him:
3 (verse 10) of the yoke of the Jewish law, which 
bowed down their neck beneath its pressure-com 
posed, as it was, of so many sacrifices, fasts, types, 
carefulness in respect to eating with Gentiles and with 
defiled persons; of how no one had ever been able to 
bear up under all the ceremonies it commanded, so 
weighty were they; of how the Pharisees themselves 
could bear testimony to the carefulness and exactness 
and the labor of keeping that law; and of how they 
ouo-ht not to put this yoke on Gentiles, to whom Go 
had, without it, given the Holy Spirit: 4. (verse 
) 
of the grace of Jesus, the Messiah, and not the law of 
Moses, as the way of being saved for us who are Jews,
as well as for these Gentiles. 
,
Peter gave his decision, therefore, in favor of Paul,
and against the sect of the Pharisees.
Thirdly, Barnabas and Paul next spoke, one follow­
ing the other, (verse 12.) 
Probably Barnabas spok 
first 
He had been known longer among the brethiei 
ot Judea than Paul. “ There was a great s.lence through 
all the multitude, and every eye was turned on the raw 
sionaries while they gave the narrative of then j 
_ 
nevs ” 
They said that God, hy miracles and wonder . 
had shown that the Gentles were to he the same as tfe 
Jews in the Church. 
At Paphos, a wilful and wicke 
magic-worter had been struck blind ; at Ieonium 
. 
tog a long residence, ‘signs and wonders 
had bee
' Acte x. H, 15, 19, 20, 28. 
“ *• «, 45i 
16’ 11
THE COUNCIL.
107
done. 
These wonderful works showed that God had 
been with them, and that it was He who had helped 
them plant so many churches in the midst of perils, and 
robbers, and rivers, and mountains, and persecuting 
Jews, and wicked, cruel, superstitious Gentiles. 
They 
said, too, that on their return, they found these Gen­
tiles faithful, and rejoicing in God in the midst of their 
trials. The Holy Spirit had given testimony to Peter’s 
preaching to the Gentiles at Csesarea, but both the 
Holy Spirit and miracles had testified to their preach­
ing in Cyprus and Asia Minor. 
This we suppose is the 
substance of what Barnabas and Paul said, one speak­
ing of some things and the other of others.
Fourthly, James the Apostle now spoke, (verses 13 
to 21.) There were two Apostles of the name of James.13 
James, the brother of John, was killed by Herod.13 This 
James is supposed to be he who was also called 4 James 
the Just.' 
"No judgment could have more weight 
with the Pharisees than his.” After the long narratives 
of Barnabas and Paul, the multitude would look with 
solemn silence for his opinion. 
James spoke, 1. (verses 
13, 14) of Peter’s preaching to the Gentiles, and of 
their conversion by the Spirit; and then, 2. (verses 15 
to 18) proved, by quoting a passage from the Hebrew 
Scriptures, that the conversion of the Gentiles had 
always been God’s purpose. Peter was right in preach- 
ing to the Gentiles, said the Apostle James; for in 
Amos, the prophet, it is written that God will build 
again the Jewish nation,14 after its downfall, in order
14 ” Matthew x. 2, 3; Acts i. 13. 
» Acts xil 2.
The tabernacle is the tent, or the house of David; and the royal 
house is used here as a figure of the nation. 
It is as if it were said 
'I will build again the Royal Throne of the Hebrew Nation.’ 
The
Royal Throne of England is used as a figure for the government or
the nation of England.
108
(SIXTEENTH SUNDAY.)
that the rest of mankind and all the Gentiles might seek 
after God. 
It is evident, therefore, that from the be- 
oinning God meant that the Gentiles should be con­
verted and brought into the Church, for God knows 
all his works from the beginning. Wherefore, 8. (verse 
19) he judged that Gentiles who turn to God should 
not be troubled with rites and ceremonies : but yet, 4. 
(verses 20, 21) they ought to be taught to avoid cer­
tain things which might be the occasion of trouble and 
offence to their Jewish brethren; four things, especially 
forbidden by that law read every Sabbath m the syna­
gogues, four things they should be instructed to avoid- 
meat offered to idols,15 sensual lusts, things strangled, 
and blood. 
If the Gentiles and the Jews were now to 
eat together, they must both agree to give up those 
thino-s which were offensive to each other. 
The Gen­
tiles”ought to give up meat polluted by idols, and meat 
from animals strangled,15 and meat with blood in it, 
since the very sight of these things on the table would
at once arouse the horror of a Jew.17 
_
Fifthly, this advice of James seemed right and gooc, 
and the council solemnly adopted it, (verses 22 and 29.) 
It was neither at one extreme nor at the other. 
It re­
leased the Gentile converts from obeying the whole 
Mosaic law. 
They need not be circumcised, nor oiiei 
sacrifice, nor observe the feasts, the fasts, the washings,
» ‘Pollutions of idols,’ that is, “the flesh of animals offered to 
idols, which remained over and was eaten by the worshippers, or was 
sometimes sold in the markets.” This flesh, according to Moses law,
™
 ^strangled animal would of course retain the blood in the flesh, 
while the Levitical law was that the blood should be poured out when 
the animal was killed, (Leviticus xvii. 13.) 
‘ Strangled animals, th . 
is, “those animals which, like fowls, were caught in snares, 
whose blood was not let.”
17 Leviticus xvii. 10-14. ■
THE COUNCIL.
109
etc. 
At the same time, it commanded them to observe 
certain parts of the law, the violation of which would 
prevent the hearty agreement of Jews with Gentiles.
T tie church 
‘ the elders and the brethren 
agreed 
upon this Wise and just arrangement : the Apostles, in 
their honored and dignified character, recommended 
and approved it : the Holy Ghost confirmed it.18 
This 
most difficult question was therefore answered bv a 
clear and satisfactory decision.
18 verse 28.
(SIXTEENTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
WHAT other account of this journey to Jerusalem have we 
'' besides that in the Acts ?
By whose direction then did Paul go ?
Who was one of the ‘ certain other’ ? (xv. 2.) Why ? 
What does ‘being brought on their way by the church’
mean? 
.
What are the ‘ certain men’ in Acts called in Galatians .
What does ‘ spy out our liberty ’ mean ?
When had the Gospel been preached in Phenice and Sa­
maria ? By whom ?
Do you think these churches had not heard this news 
before ?
How many times before, since his conversion, had Paul been 
in Jerusalem ?
On what occasions ?
‘ Fourteen years after ’ what ?
What changes had taken place ?
What was involved in the question ?
Who now started the question again ?
What was it saying in respect to Paul and Barnabas and 
Titus ?
Whom did Paul consult privately ?
What is this great meeting called in church-history ?
How long did it continue ?
What was the first part of the council ?
Who took part in it ?
How much time did it consume ?
What was the second part ?
Why should he speak first ?
What was the first point in his speech ?
Where do you find the account of this ?
What was the second point ?
What is the reason here why Jews and Gentiles are 
alike V
(31)
How does faith purify the heart ?
What was the third point in his speech ?
Explain the meaning of this verse.
What is the fourth point ?
What is meant by ‘ the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ’ ? 
How can we be saved now ?
What was Peter’s decision, therefore ?
What was the third part of the council ?
What addition did they make to Peter's argument ?
At what places had miracles been wrought ?
What was the fourth part of the council ?
How do you distinguish from each other the two Apos­
tles of this name ?
What was this one also called ?
What were the first and second points in his speech ? 
What prophet does he quote ?
What is the meaning of ‘ the tabernacle of David’? 
What is the meaning then of the sixteenth verse ?
How does he prove that God from the beginning intend­
ed to convert the Gentiles ?
What were the third and fourth points in his speech ?
If the Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians were to 
eat together, what must the Gentiles give up ? 
What is meant by ‘ pollutions of idols ’ ?
Why were strangled animals and ‘blood’ named?
How were these four things forbidden every Sabbath ? 
What was the fifth part of the council ?
Who confirmed the decision ?
(32)
(SIXTEENTH SUNDAY.)
Seventeenth Sunday.
THE LETTER AND THE LETTER-BEARERS.
LESSON.
Acts xt. 22-35 ; Galatians ii. 9-14.
O
NE thing only now remained; to send the decision 
of the church to the Gentile converts so anxiously 
waiting for it. 
That there might be no charge of mis­
representation against Paul and Barnabas, or other ob­
jection by the ‘false brethren’ at Antioch, Judas-Bar- 
sabas and Silas were appointed to go with the Apostles. 
They were to carry a letter from the church, contain­
ing the decision of the council, and were to explain 
‘ by word ’ what was written within.
And so the little company take the road back to An­
tioch—a larger company than when they came—Judas, 
Silas, Paul, Barnabas, Mark,1 Titus, and ‘ others.’ While 
they are on their way with the letter, let us think of two 
or three things which had been decided by the council at 
Jerusalem, from which they were now returning.
I. Paul had been publicly recognised by the church, 
and by the inspired Apostles, as Apostle to the Gen­
tiles. 
His first missionary journey had been approve 
by the council. 'And besides this, James, Peter, and 
John2 saw that Paul was called of God to a specia
i Mark, you remember, came back from Pamphylia to Jerusalem. 
We find him very soon again at Antioch. 
It is probable that he w 
in this company with his kinsman, Barnabas. 
■
3 This is the only time Paul and John met, so far as we 
John here disappears from the Scriptures till we see him again m 
isle of Patmos.
THE LETTER AND LETTER-BEARERS. 
Ill
work among Gentiles.3 
They therefore gave him and 
Barnabas their ‘ right hand of fellowship,’ appointing 
them to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, and them­
selves to preach to Jews.3 
Paul’s apostleship to the 
Gentiles had been therefore publicly established.
The three Apostles at Jerusalem had directed 
Paul and Barnabas especially ‘ to remember the poor.’4 
“ The Jewish Christians in Jerusalem were exposed to 
peculiar suffering from poverty, and we have seen Paul 
and Barnabas once before the bearers of a contribution 
from a foreign city to their relief.” 
That Paul was 
‘ forward to do ’ this we know from his epistles after­
wards,6 in which we see that he kept in mind the poor 
‘brethren’ of Jerusalem in his journeys.
III. 
Titus, the Greek, who came up with them to 
Jerusalem, had not been circumcised;6 and so a Gentile, 
without yielding to the law of Moses, had been pub­
licly recognised as a believer. 
The case of Titus would 
be used as an example with other Jews and Gentiles, 
as Paul himself mentions the fact when he writes to the 
Gentile Galatians.8
The company of travellers were joyfully received at 
Antioch, especially the two missionaries and the two 
letter-bearers from Jerusalem. 
“ The whole body of 
the church was summoned together to hear the reading 
of the letter; and we can well imagine the eagerness 
with which they crowded to listen to such an import­
ant communication.” 
When it was opened they read,
8 Galatians ii. 9. 
4 Galatians ii. 10.
A collection at Corinth for the saints at Jerusalem is recom­
mended in I. Corinthians xvi. 1-3 ; and the same passage shows that 
Paul recommended the same thing to the Galatians. 
The Mace­
donians and the Achaians made collections for poor saints at Jerusa­
lem. 
Romans xv. 26.
* Galatians ii. 3.
112
(SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY.)
that in four things only they would he required to obey 
the Mosaic law. 
They were not obliged to be circum­
cised, nor to offer the many sacrifices at the temple, nor 
to practise the Jewish purifications, nor to make the 
Jewish difference between clean and unclean meats, ex­
cept in respect to meat offered to idols, strangulated 
meat, and meat with blood in it. 
In a word, excep 
these four things, which every one ought willingly to 
observe, the whole exact and burdensome routine oi 
Moses’ law was not binding on them. 
What rejoicing 
this glad news made among them we can best appre­
ciate by thinking how it would be in our day 
Suppose 
the demand was made to-day that the Genti e 
ians of America must keep the law of Moses, must offei 
Bacrifices at Jerusalem, must eat none but clean meats, 
must purify ourselves at every defilement according to 
the slow and exact processes of the Levitical law, an 
in all other things be governed by the ceremonial law 
of Moses: suppose that we had sent good men to J e- 
rusalem, to have the decision made by authorities m the 
church there under the direction of the Holy Ghost: 
suppose we should receive on their return such a letter 
as this which was read in Antioch. 
We can imagine 
the pleasure and the pious thanksgiving of the Antiocn 
Christians, on their release from the yoke of the bon
age of the law. 
f
How -much, too, the words and the sympathy oi 
Judas and of Silas added to their rejoicing 
‘ Being 
prophets,’ by the especial teaching of the Holy Spi 
they exhorted and confirmed the brethren. 
And aite 
some short stay, the church permitted them to depax • 
Silas, however, had a new and a greater work to a, 
although perhaps he did not know it. 
He  as o
7 Sec page 43
come the fellow-missionary of Paul. 
Guided by the 
Divine Spirit, and thinking he could do good in An­
tioch, he remained with the two missionaries and with 
many others who were there, ‘ teaching and preaching 
the word of the Lord.’
There is one other event which occurred at Antioch 
in connection with this subject of the council and the 
letter. 
It is supposed that while Paul and Barnabas 
were remaining in Antioch, that visit of Peter to An­
tioch took place during which Paul found it necessary 
to reprove Peter.8 
For some reason, which we do not 
know, Peter came from Jerusalem to Antioch, and 
while there, at first lived freely, eating freely with the 
Gentiles. 
This was in accordance with the decision of 
the council. 
But when other Jewish brethren came 
down from Jerusalem from James, who seem to have 
retained their old Jewish prejudices against eating with 
Gentiles, Peter ‘withdrew and separated ’ himself from 
the Gentiles, living with the Jews only. 
This was not 
in violation of the letter of the decree of the council, 
fox that said nothing about compelling the Jewish 
Christians to eat with the Gentile Christians; but it 
was plainly opposed to its spirit, since the decree was 
meant to promote the social fellowship of Jewish and 
Gentile Christians. 
Other Jewish Christians followed 
the example of Peter, and even Barnabas was led to do 
the same thing.
This inconsistent conduct of Petei*, which was likely 
to make anxiety and perhaps controversy again in the 
church, Paul resisted with all his might. 
We find here 
a little of Peter’s old fickle impulsiveness, but it is his 
only departure from his unfaltering steadfastness that 
we find anywhere after his bitter repentance for denial.
THE LETTER AND LETTER-BEARERS. 
113
Galatians ii. 11.
114
(SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY.)
Paul did not spare him the rebuke he thought he de­
served. 
‘ Before all,’3 he ‘ withstood him to the face,’9 
and emphatically'reminded him that he was in effect 
going hack to the old and false principle, that a man 
was justified by keeping the law of Moses, and not, as 
all Christians now believed, by believing in Jesus the 
Christ. 
The whole occurrence was no doubt some 
months, perhaps a year, after the council.
“ This scene, though merely mentioned, is one of the 
most remarkable in sacred history; and the mind tries 
to picture to itself the appearance of the two men. 
It 
is therefore at least allowable to mention here that 
general notion of the forms and features^ of the two 
Apostles, which has been handed down in tradition, 
and was represented by the early artists. 
St. Paul is 
set before us as having the strongly marked and promi­
nent features of a Jew, yet not without some of the 
finer lines of Greek thought. 
His stature was diminu­
tive and his body disfigured by some lameness or dis­
tortion, which may have provoked the contemptuous 
expressions of his enemies.”10 
His face is repiesented 
as long and oval, his nose eagle-shaped, his eyes spark­
ling and gray, under thick, overhanging eyebrows united 
at the centre, his complexion transparent, his forehead 
high and bald, his hair brown, and his beard long, 
flowing, and pointed. « St. Peter is represented to us as 
a man of larger and stronger form,” ‘ with a broad fore­
head, rather coarse features, an open, undaunted conn 
tenance,’ a quick, dark eye, a pale, sallow complexion, 
“ and the short hair which is described as entirely gray 
at the time of his death, curled black and thick roun 
his temples and chin, when the two Apostles stood to 
gether at Antioch, twenty years before their martyr-
014 th verse.
10 See II. Corinthians x. 1, 10.
THE LETTER AND LETTER-BEARERS. 
115
dom.” 
These traditions and pictures may have at least 
a partial foundation in truth.
Though the strongest indignation is expressed in 
Paul’s rebuke, we have no reason to suppose that any 
actual quarrel took place between the two Apostles. 
Peter most likely saw at once his fault, and melted into 
penitence. 
“ His mind was easily moved to quick and 
sudden changes ; his disposition was loving and gener­
ous ; and we should expect his sorrow to be at Antioch 
what it was at the high-priest’s house in Jerusalem.” 
How delightful it is, too, to turn, to the closing words 
of his own second letter to Christian believers, in 
which, while he is thinking and writing of the pure 
and peaceful happiness of the future world, he touch­
ingly alludes to ‘ our beloved brother Paul.m 
The very 
fidelity of his brother-Apostle at Antioch, made deeper 
and broader in the great heart of the noble Peter his 
love and esteem for Paul to the end of his days.
II. Peter iii. 15, 16.
(,SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
W
HAT one thing remained to be done ?
What was the object of sending persons with Paul and 
Barnabas ?
How many made up the party who returned to Antioch ? 
Why do we think that Mark was in the company ?
What had the council decided in respect to Paul ?
What was decided in respect to his journey ?
What did James, Peter and John ?
What is meant by 4 right hand of fellowship ’ ? ^
What is meant by ‘the heathen’ and ‘the circumci­
sion ’ ?
Did Paul see John at any other time ?
What direction did the three Apostles give to Paul?
What shows that Paul did this ?
Where does he say that he did ?
What had been decided in respect to Titus ?
Why was this important ?
How would the party be received at Antioch ?
To whom was this letter addressed ?
Was it directed to all Christians in these places ?
What does ‘ troubled you with words ’ refer to ?
What does ‘ subverting your souls ’ mean ?
Who claim authority in the expression ‘ to whom we 
gave’?
Who had hazarded their lives ? Where ?
Who is the highest authority in respect to the necessary 
things ?
Why are these things called ‘ necessary ’ ?
Who are ‘ they,’ in the thirtieth verse ?
What does the word ‘ multitude’ show in respect to the 
size of the Ajntioch church ?
What other office than letter-bearers did Judas and Silas 
hold?
What was a prophet ?
What is meant by ‘ confirmed them ’ ?
(33)
What providential purpose was there in Silas’s remain- 
ing?
How much of Silas’s life did this stay at Antioch change ? 
Why is it especially important to seek divine guidance 
when we make changes in our homes or our busi­
ness?
What other event is supposed to have taken place at this 
time at Antioch ?
How did Peter live at the first ?
What did he afterwards ? after what ?
Withdrew and separated himself’ from whom ?
What is meant by ‘ fearing the circumcision ’ ?
Did Peter violate the decree of the council ?
Who followed his example ?
Can a man confine his wrong acts to himself?
What trait of Peter’s character is shown here ?
What did Paul say and do ?
How long a time after the council might this have been ? 
Was there any open quarrel between the two Apostles ? 
What might be expected naturally from Peter ?
How did Peter afterwards speak of Paul ?
Where does he say this ?
What had he just been writing about ?
What was the effect therefore of Paul’s reproof?
What will be the effect of every just and kind reproof 
in the heart of a good man ?
(34)
{SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY.)
Eighteenth Sunday
STARTING ON THE SECOND JOURNEY.
LESSON.
Acts xv. 35-41; xvi. 1.
F
OR many days, for some weeks or months, Paul and 
Barnabas continued to preach and teach in Antioch. 
The church of ‘ Christians ’ must have increased largely 
by this time. 
There must have been many in^ the city 
to listen to the doctrines of Jesus, for it was ‘ with many 
others also ’ that they taught. 
Simeon Niger and Lu­
cius of Cyrene and Menaen were perhaps there still. 
Mark and Silas and Titus were there. 
Many strangers, 
among those who flocked to this city and its famous 
oracle* as well as the people of the city, must have list­
ened to these numerous preachers. 
It was not neces­
sary that all these ‘ prophets ’ should remain there, even 
after Judas and Peter had departed. 
Other churches, 
feeble and struggling, needed the aid and sympathy of 
strong instruction and Christian visitation. 
Paul could 
but think again and again of the pro-consul at Paphos, 
of the brethren and elders at the other Antioch and at 
Iconium and Lystra and Derbe ; and he longed to see 
them and help them and do them good. 
At^ length 
Paul proposes to Barnabas a visit to all those cities of 
their former journey. 
The full purpose of the a bit 
must have been to see what was the condition of the 
churches, to strengthen them in the faith, and to cai 1 y 
them the decision of the council at Jerusalem.
Barnabas is ready to go, but he wishes to take John
Mark with them. 
Paul had tried Mark once. 
Once 
before from this very city, from the very port of Seleu- 
cia, he had started with Mark; and when they came to 
the real hardship of the journey, Mark withdrew and 
came home. 
He remembered the painful separation at 
Perga; and he could not consent to risk such a failure 
the second time. 
Paul could not take Mark again.
The Scriptures are honest in their narrative. 
They 
tell us plainly that Paul and Barnabas, though mission­
aries and holy men, had a ‘ sharp contention’ about this 
matter. 
It was a personal opinion and not a doctrine 
about which they contended. 
It was not some very 
grave question about Jews or Gentiles, but simply the 
fitness or unfitness of a person for a work. There were 
severe words no doubt between Paul and Barnabas. 
Placing ourselves on one side and on the other, we can 
see reasons why each one might think himself right in 
adhering to his own opinion. 
We can think how Paul 
would prize a steadfast will and undaunted courage in 
a work of constant danger: how he would think the 
whole work put in peril or disgraced by withdrawal 
from it: what an embarrassment and hindrance a timid 
or half-hearted companion would be to him: how Mark’s 
first failure in such an important work made Mark un­
trustworthy in Paul’s esteem for a journey through 
wild mountain-passes and rough enemies. 
We can 
think how Barnabas loved his kinsman: how he thought 
of the pleasure of taking him again to his native island: 
how Mark had cost him many prayers and much anx­
iety : how ‘ his dearest wish was to see him a mission­
ary of Christ:’ how Mark had repented of the wrong 
he had done in withdrawing from. Perga: how, now 
Won back to obedience, he had come from his home in 
Jerusalem, and was ready now to face all the difficulties 
and dangers of the enterprise : how, to reject him now,
STARTING ON THE SECOND JOURNEY. 
117
118
(.EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY.)
was to treat harshly his sincere and tender repentance, 
and to diminish his influence as a preacher and seint 
of Jesus. 
“Paul’s natural disposition was impetuous 
and impatient and easily kindled to indignation. 
B.u- 
nabas was once foremost among the ‘ prophets of An­
tioch, when Paul was last, and now Paul only was chief 
of all. 
Barnabas might possibly have thought, too, that 
as he had first introduced Paul to the Apostles at Jeru­
salem, as he had first brought him to Antioch, it was 
but right that Paul should listen to him in his love for 
his relative. Each clung to his own opinion. No doubt 
both were to be blamed, as other good and great and 
inspired men are blamed for their sins.
As they could not agree, they must separate; but 
we cannot suppose they parted in anger, like enemies.”
“ Divine Providence overruled their quarrel to a good 
result.” 
They divided the whole journey between 
them. 
Perhaps the agreement was made that Paul 
should go to the cities on the main land, and Barnabas 
should again go over the island. 
It may be that Bar- 
' nabas went from Cyprus to Perga too/ 
As Perga was 
the place to which Mark went before, it would be nat­
ural for Barnabas and Mark to go as far as that again. So 
Barnabas and Mark sailed again no doubt from Seleucia 
to Salamis, leaving Paul in Antioch to do upon the land 
his part of the visitation of the churches.
Paul now went through Syria and Cilicia. Of course 
he did not go by sea. 
Taking Silas, he went therefore 
first to those churches in the region of Antioch and in 
his native province in which he had before labored.* 
Churches already existed in Cilicia. 
The letter of the
1 If Barnabas went through Cyprus and then up to Perga, and Paul 
to Antioch in Pisidia, then both of them went to all the cities of their 
previous journey.
2 Galatians i. 21.
STARTING ON THE SECOND JOURNEY. 
119
council had been addressed to the Gentile brethren in 
Cilicia as well as in Syria and in Antioch. It was a good 
thing, too, that Silas, who was recommended in the let­
ter of the council, was with Paul, on his visit to the
Compare this map with the map of Cilicia in the First Sunday. It 
*nll be well to compare any of the maps with the general map in the 
•frontispiece.
churches of Syria and Cilicia. 
We cannot tell the ex­
act cities in which these churches were. 
Possibly Paul 
niay have struck off first into the country east of An­
tioch, or into the valley of the Orontes, and may havo 
visited some of the cities there; but more likely he and
120
(EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY.)
Silas crossed tlie bridge over the Orontes at Antioch, 
and took the road towards the north. 
They crossed the 
mountain-range, the boundary between Syi ia and Cili­
cia, through the gorge called ‘ the Syrian Gates.’ Among 
the cities on the road around the corner of the great 
sea were Alexandria, named after Alexander the Great, 
and Issus, at the very corner, where the same great 
general won a great victory. 
“ If there were churches 
anywhere in Cilicia, there must have been one in Tar­
sus. 
Paul had lived there perhaps some years since his 
conversion.” 
If then they took the direct Roman road 
from Issus to Tarsus, they now came to the plain of 
Flat Cilicia, with which Paul had been familiar from 
a child, and passed through two conspicuous cities3 
which Paul knew. 
When he entered his native city, 
how Paul’s heart must have swelled with thankfulness 
that he had been rescued from the self-righteous deeds 
of a Pharisaic life: how he burned to rescue his beloved 
city from the vain idols and dumb statues of heathen 
religion he saw in the streets. 
Even here in Tarsus a 
change had begun. 
We may hope it penetrated the 
Apostle’s own family, and that some of his early ac­
quaintances and friends had been brought to Christ.
But the missionaries did not make long stay here. 
Other cities of the first journey lay beyond the moun­
tains. 
Across ‘ the sunny plains of Cilicia,’ beyond that 
great mountain-wall, whose lofty towers stretched far 
away to the east and to the west, lay the high table­
land of Lycaonia. 
On the first journey, Paul had 
climbed through this range of Taurus, between Perga 
and Pisidia: now he struck straight across to Derbe 
first. 
“ There is no sufficient reason to think that he 
went by any other than the ordinary road. 
Thei e w as
2 Mopsuestia and Adana.
STARTING ON THE SECOND JOURNEY. 
121
one opening in that great mountain-chain.. This pass, 
made as if the mountains had been rudely rent apart, 
was the door through which peaceful travel and warring 
armies, from ancient times, had passed between the 
high central lands within and the lower sea-plains with­
out. 
This was the ancient Cilician Gates. 
Through
©
this gorge had marched the grand army of Cyrus on 
his way towards Babylon. 
Alexander the Great, with 
his army, came down through these gates to the plains 
of Cilicia. 
Cicero once rode through this craggy de­
file, and wrote back to his friend a description of his 
journey. 
Many an army had its fate decided in this 
wild mountain-gap. 
Towards these Gates of Cilicia, 
which admitted them to the interior of Asia Minor, the 
travellers now took their way. 
They followed first, no 
doubt, the valley of the river by the side of which Paul 
played in boyhood. 
Perhaps more than once Paul had 
ridden along this very track, in boyhood and youth, or 
even when preaching in Cilicia after his conversion. 
As you approach the mountain, “the hills suddenly 
draw together and form a narrow pass guarded by pre­
cipitous cliffs. 
In some places the ravine contracts to 
the width of ten or twelve paces, leaving room for only 
a chariot to pass. 
It is an anxious place to any one in 
command of a military expedition. 
The scene around 
is striking and impressive. 
A canopy of fir-trees is 
high overhead. 
Hundreds of feet high, on either side, 
rise the bare limestone cliffs.” 
Up, and still upwards, 
climb the travellers, over rocks and over hills, over the 
confined streams which sweep the narrow road, through 
forest and shade, till the last height is reached, and they 
come out on the open country, four thousand feet above 
the sea. 
Turning to the left and the west, they take 
the road towards Iconium. 
“As Paul left the moun­
tain-passes, and came along down the lower heights,
his heart, full of affection and anxiety all through the 
journey, would heat more quickly at the sight of the 
well-known objects before him.” 
The thought of his 
disciples, the recollection of his friends in these remote 
places, would come with new force upon his mind, for 
now the tender-hearted Apostle was approaching the 
home of his own converts of Lycaonia. 
In the distance 
was the same well-shaped form of the Black Mountain 
rising out of the same wide-spreading plain near which 
lay Derbe and Lystria, and away beyond was the more 
important city of Iconium. 
Two or three days must 
have been consumed already since they left Tarsus.
Derbe, the last place of the former journey, is now 
before them. 
We can imagine the joy of the converts 
on meeting Paul ; the inquiries for Barnabas ; the wel­
come to Silas 5 the questions about the biethren of 
Cilicia and Antioch and Jerusalem ; the reading of the 
letter of the council ; the ‘ teaching and preaching,’ the 
encouragement and solemn warning of Paul. 
This is 
all we know of Derbe. 
No wonderful or striking event 
occurred which seemed good to the spirit of inspiration 
to record, although there may have been a quiet and 
extensive Christian influence working in many hearts. 
The work of God is noiseless and without observation 
often where it is most powerful and lasting.
122 
{EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY.)
{EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
JJOW long must Paul and Barnabas have been in Antioch ? 
What difference was there between ‘teaching’ and 
‘ preaching ’ religious doctrines ?
What shows that the church was large ?
Do you think there was more than one congregation in 
Antioch ?
Who were the teachers in Antioch ?
Who had now departed ?
Why might some of these teachers be spared from An­
tioch ?
What would Paul naturally think of?
What did he propose to Barnabas ?
What was the design of the visit ?
Did he mean to go over the whole of the former journey ? 
What does Barnabas answer to Paul’s proposal ?
Did Paul agree with Barnabas ? Why ?
Was there anything more than calm disagreement be­
tween them ?
If they sharply disputed with each other, does it show 
that they were not good men ?
What four reasons can you give why Paul should not take 
Mark ?
What seven reasons can you give why Barnabas should wish 
to take Mark ?
What reasons were there also from the position of the 
men?
Which one should have yielded ?
How was their dissension overruled ?
What similar blessing comes from the division of the 
church into denominations ?
Do you suppose the two Apostles parted in anger ?
If Christian denominations differ, how should it be? 
What is there to show that the Antioch Christians took 
Paul’s side ?
How did they divide the former journey between them?
(35)
A NEW COMPANION AND NEW TRAVELS.
Nineteenth Sunday
Where did Barnabas and Mark go ?
How can you arrange the whole of their former journey 
between them ?
Who went with Paul?
Where did they go first ?
What additional evidence have we now that there were 
churches in Cilicia ?
Why was it a good thing for Paul to have Silas with 
him ?
What valley may they have first visited ?
What is more likely ?
What gorge would they pass through ?
Through what cities near the corner of the sea ?
What plain did they strike into after leaving Issus ?
Is it probable that they went to Tarsus ?
What was the direct road to Derbe ?
Where did Paul cross this mountain range before ?
For what mountain-pass did they strike ?
What generals had led their armies through this pass ? 
What orator had described it ?
What was the narrowest width of the pass ?
What would be their first thoughts on reaching the high 
land?
What is said of Derbe ?
How does the kingdom of God often make progress ?
Is religion any the less strong when it is silent ?
Does it speak the less forcibly to you, when it speaks 
silently ?
(36)
{EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY.)
LESSON.
Acts xvi. 1-8.
\T OW we follow the missionaries to Lystra. 
Perhaps 
-L' others went with them from Derbe. 
No miracle is 
now performed. 
hi o excited multitude rush together 
to hail men like themselves as gods: no fickle, deluded 
crowd, with the fury of a mob, now stone the man 
w horn they had honored as a god. 
Quietly and peace­
fully the missionaries did their work here, as they did 
at Derbe. 
Here, however, they found one who was to 
go with them in their work and who was to become of 
great service to the Church.1 Timothy had been gradu­
ally prepared for the work he was now to do. 
His 
mother had instructed him in the holy Scriptures from 
childhood f and his grandmother was a woman of faith 
and prayer. 
He had grown to be a young man, and 
had listened to the preaching of the stranger, who 
healed a cripple lame from his mother’s womb. 
He 
was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. 
He no 
doubt saw Paul stoned by the brutal mob. 
He became 
a faithful and earnest disciple of Jesus the Messiah. 
He was well known to all the brethren of the place and 
°f Iconium; and by them all he was well spoken of, as
1 Some persons have supposed that Timothy was from Derbe, but 
it seems more probable that he was from Lystra.
2 II. Timothy L 5; iii. 15.
124
(NINETEENTH SUNDAY.)
devoted and true. 
Paul saw that he was just the per­
son, in his natural ability, and in his earnest, affection­
ate consecration to the Master, to be of great service 
in preaching. 
He found Timothy ready to go with 
them, and he determined to take him. 
Perhaps Paul 
thought, too, that Timothy was fitted to teach and to 
attract both Jews and Gentiles, since he was the son of
a Greek and a Jewess.
But Timothy himself was not legally a Jew, and 
therefore he might be suspected everywhere in the 
synagogues, and might create excitement, trouble, per­
secution. 
To prevent any difficulty of this kind, Paul 
* took and circumcised him,’ so that, although the son 
of a Jewess, he might now be a Jew according to the 
rite of the law.
But was not Paul violating the decree of the coun­
cil ? the very letter which he had brought with him to 
the church of Lystra? 
Ho, not at all. 
That decree 
said that the Apostles laid upon the brethren no other 
burden than four necessary things. 
Ho one need be 
circumcised, if he did not wish to be. 
If any one 
wished to be, there was nothing to prevent. 
If it 
should be thought best to gain influence with the Jews, 
so that they would more readily listen to the Gospel of 
Jesus, it was perfectly proper. 
At Jerusalem Paul re­
fused to circumcise Titus, because some persons had 
said that circumcision was necessary, if a man would be 
saved—that no one could be saved without it. 
That he 
denied. 
Timothy was already known and well spoken 
of, as a Christian. Paul circumcised him, not that he 
might be saved, but that he might more directly and 
more effectively influence the Jews.
It is not improbable that Timothy was now ordained 
as a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus, at Lystra, or mote 
likely at Ieonium, since before that solemn ceremony
took place, Paul seems to have learned from the breth­
ren of Ieonium their opinion of Timothy.' In his let­
ters to Timothy afterwards, the Apostle alludes to the 
time when he was consecrated to the work of the min­
istry ‘ by the laying on of hands.’3 
The ordination of 
a Christian young man to the ministry would add great 
interest to the visit of the Apostle to Ieonium; and as 
it might have been in a private manner, it could have 
been done without exciting another such contention be- 
tween two factions in the city as took place on the 
former visit.
We have no distinct account of a visit to Antioch in 
Pisidia. 
Y et we can hardly suppose that Paul did not 
in some way communicate "with the church there; for 
1 aul staited with the intention of visiting 1 every city 
where they had preached the word of the Lord.’4 
If 
1 aul and Silas and Timothy remained some weeks at 
Ieonium, there would have been abundant time to visit 
Pisidia, or to see, more than once, the elders and prin­
cipal persons of the Antioch church. 
It is very likely 
that they finished the circle of the churches, which they 
meant at the first to visit. 
Possibly that was all they 
designed to do, at starting on the journey; but now 
they resolved tcv carry the good news of the Gospel 
still further. 
The decree of the council, which they had 
delivered to all the churches, would be glad news every­
where to Gentiles who might wish to obey the words 
of life.
We know very little of the Apostle’s visit through 
Phrygia and Galatia. 
Ho cities are mentioned. 
Per­
haps he visited Colosse,6 which is supposed to have been 
in Phrygia, and to the people of which city Paul with 
Timothy afterwards wrote a letter.6
* I. Timothy iv. 14 ; IT. Timothy i. 6.
4 xv. 36. 
6 Colossians i. 1, 2.
NEW COMPANION AND NEW TRAVELS. 
125
Now Paul strikes into a new kind of life: now ho 
comes into the old classic region. Along these west- 
ern shores of Asia Minor, many of the earliest events 
of Grecian history took place, and there, sprang up the 
races which had so much to do with forming the na­
tional character of Greece. The Roman legions too 
shook these same shores with the tramp of war, and 
these petty kingdoms of antiquity were forced to bend 
before the iron sceptre of Caesar. As he came in sight
Galatia, Phrygia, Mysia, Bithynia, Asia, in the time of Paul. 
‘ These 
boundaries were continually changing, and these names implied a 
arger or smaller territory at one time than another.’ 
The province
*; „1 (not the continent) probably included at least Mysia Lvdk 
ana Caria. 
’ 
■' 
b
WESTEBN ASIA MINOB.
The letter of Paul to the Galatians tells us some­
thing of his visit to their province. 
It was certainly ‘ in 
infirmity of the flesh ’ that he preached the Gospel to 
them 4 at the first 
and it has been thought that Paul
was sick among this people, and that this accounts foi 
his speaking of their great kindness to them; 
He says 
that they received him 4 as an angel ’ or messenger 4 of 
God,’ and if it had been possible they would have 
4 plucked out their own eyes ’ for him.7 Whatever was 
the infirmity of the flesh among the Galatians, he 4 set 
forth ’ to them ‘Jesus Christ, the crucified one.’8 
Some 
at least were converted ;9 and 4 some churches of Gala­
tia’10 were added to the other established churches of 
Cilicia and Lycaonia and Phrygia, before the little band 
of earnest missionaries left the province.
As they journeyed westward, they were forbidden 
by the Holy Spirit to preach in Asia, but not to enter 
the province. 
Then they turned to the north towards 
Bithynia, but the Holy Spirit forbade them to enter 
' 
that province. 
It is very likely that Paul’s design was 
to reach some of the great cities on the coast of the 
Archipelago, the emporium of trade at or near the ends 
of the roads through central Asia Minor. 
These great 
cities of pro-consular Asia, which afterwards were to 
contain churches, were not yet to have the Gospel 
preached in them. 
Ephesus, Smyrna, Philadelphia, 
Sardis, Pergamos, Thyatira, Laodicea, those seven cities 
to which John wrote his wonderful letters,11 were not 
yet to spring into existence. 
Leaving Bithynia on the 
right hand, they entered Asia, and passed along the 
borders of Mysia, without preaching, to Troas, one of 
the chief cities of Mysia.12
e Galatians iv. 13. 
7 iv. 14, 15. 
0 iii. 1. 
9 iii- 27.
10 i. 2. 
11 Revelation i. 11.
12 It is very difficult to fix tbe exact geographical boundaries of
126 
(NINETEENTH SUNDAY.)
NEW COMPANION AND NEW TRAVELS. 
127
128
{NINETEENTH SUNDAY.)
of the waters of the Archipelago, he looked out on 
the sea on which have transpired so many wonderful 
events of history and poetry and song. He was near 
the old hattle-ground of the Trojan war. 
As he 
came near to Troas, he struck the well-built national 
road which would have led him to the very gates oi 
Rome. Xerxes had stood on this ground with his great 
army, on his way to be conquered by the brave Greeks. 
Julius Caesar had been here with all his pomp of wai. 
Alexander the Great, too, gathered here new strength 
for his conquest. And all around him was the scene of 
Homer’s great poem, Mount Ida, the Simois, and Sca- 
mander. Paul was a scholar; and he could not be 
without some knowledge of all these things as he en­
tered Troas.
{NINETEENTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
YUIIAT is the next place to which the Apostles go ?
' 
Whom did they find there ?
IIow had he been gradually prepared for his work t 
Was he well known at any other place ?
What did the ‘ brethren ’ say of him ?
What did Paul see in him ?
Who was Timothy’s father ?
How would this help Timothy in his work?
Why was not Timothy legally a Jew ?
Why did Paul circumcise him ?
Was not Paul violating the decree of the council?
Why did Paul refuse to circumcise Titus at Jerusalem ? 
Was there any similar reason now for refusing to cir­
cumcise Timothy?
If Timothy’s mother had been a Greek, would Paul 
have circumcised him ?
If he had not circumcised Timothy, what would have 
been the elfect on the Jews ?
Do you suppose Timothy was now ordained ?
Can you prove that Paul helped ordain Timothy ?
What is meant by ‘ the laying on of my hands ’ ?
What cities do you think are referred to, in the fourth verse ? 
What ‘ decrees ’ were delivered ?
Why may you suppose they had some communication 
with Antioch in Pisidia ?
Would Gentile Christians be glad to hear the decree of 
the council ?
How would this fact have helped to increase the numbers 
daily ?
Was Phrygia nearer Antioch in Pisidia or Iconium ?
Where was Galatia?
What does Paul say of his preaching to the Galatians
at first?
What has this been thought to mean ?
(37)
Twentieth Sunday
How do you know churches of Galatia must have been 
formed ?
What especial expressions of the Galatians’ attachment 
to Paul are given ?
In what direction did they go next ?
Why did they not preach in Asia ?
Why did they turn back from Mysia ?
Why did they not go into Bithynia ?
Where was Bithynia ?
What was Asia ?
What did it probably include at this time?
What was probably Paul’s object, if he wished to preach 
in Asia ?
. 
What churches were afterwards founded in Asia ?
How could they pass by Mysia, and yet come to Troas ? 
In entering Mysia, were they not violating the command 
not to preach in Asia ?
Is the Holy Spirit as really present to guide believers 
now, as he was to show Paul his course ?
To what place did the Apostles come ? 
Why ‘ came 
down’?
What region was Paul now entering ?
For what events are these shores famous ?
What road did they strike near this place ?
What old battle-ground was supposed to be near ?
What great generals had been here ?
The scene of what famous poem was here ?
Do you suppose Paul knew anything of these things ? 
What greater purpose had he than any who had pre­
ceded him there ?
(38)
{NINETEENTH SUNDAY.)
FROM 
ASIA 
TO 
EUROPE.
LESSON.
Acts xvi. 9-15.
A T Troas, Paul looked out over the island-sea. He 
saw the high lands which rose from the islands of 
Tenedos and Imbros, in the north-west. Possibly, when 
the sun went down behind the distant line of the sea, 
broken here and there by an island, he could see, over 
Tenedos and Imbros, the higher hills of Samothrace, 
and further to the west, the lofty Mount Athos, on the 
very coast of Europe, the long promontory on which it 
is stretching miles out into the sea towards Asia.
What must have been the thought of the earnest 
Apostle, filled with zeal for his Master, as he looked 
over the waters towards another great continent! 
Would the Gospel be preached in that distant country? 
How he would long to preach it there himself. He 
had been forbidden to preach in ‘Asia.’ Perhaps there 
was a work for him to do, in the distant and ‘ miserable 
heathenism ’ of Europe. 
Thoughts like these would 
be natural to Paul. And in the night, there was a vis­
ion of a man from the distant Macedonia, urging the 
spiritual wants of his country. It was a vision sent of 
God to show him his work. The breaking morning af­
ter that eventful night, found the Apostle ready to take 
the suggestions of the Spirit as his rule of life. Per-
haps in the east the sun rose, as in the description of 
Virgil:
“And now the day-star was rising from the summit of lofty Ida, 
And was leading on the day.” 1
130 
(TWENTIETH SUNDAY.)
The islands of the sea were illumined, and the waters 
sparkled in the light. Four travellers might have been 
seen at the shipping of the harbor, seeking passage to
‘.dSneid ii. 801.
FROM ASIA TO EUROPE.
131
Europo. The ship on which they embarked, ‘ loosed ’ 
from port and ‘ sailed before the wind ’2 to Samothrace. 
When God gives direction, all things are propitious. 
Once out of the harbor, Tenedos, with its fables of 
refuge for the Grecian fleet and of the wooden horse, 
in the story of the Trojan war, was on the left: the 
coast of Mysia on the right. On they glide, past the 
Hellespont, the scene of so many real and fancied ex- 
ploits, while deep under the water on the opposite side, 
between Tenedos and Imbros, was said to be the cave 
of the great Sea-God, and on the high summit of the 
island to which they go, is Neptune’s throne, overlook­
ing all the sea. Perhaps the sailors told over these 
fables, as they guided the ship. To Paul they were 
‘ vanities,’ and only showed him the foolishness of the 
wisdom of man — the wild vagaries of mind to which 
Greeks and Romans bqwed down to worship.
Samothrace has a high shore, and under it the ship 
anchored for the night. It is not probable that the 
Apostles went on shore here. Their work lay further 
on. It is well, however, to notice that this island took 
its name from the country near which it lay. It was 
Samos of Thrace, (Samo-Thrace,) to distinguish it from 
another Samos, famous in history, off the coast of Ephe­
sus. The next day, a few hours brought the little com­
pany of missionaries into the channel between the island 
of Thasos and the shore, and then to Neapolis. The 
shore, unlike that of Samothrace, is low. The Apostle 
does not seem to stop at Neapolis. The town was the 
sea-port of Philippi. As, therefore, in Syria, he preached 
at Antioch, and not at Seleucia, so he goes directly to 
‘the chief city’ of the region.3 The distance from
2 To sail in ‘ a straight course ’ must have been, of course, to sail 
with the wind; and the wind must have been in the south-east.
3 Philippi was not the chief city. 
The margin has it, more correct-
132
(5TWENTIETH SUNDAY.)
Neapolis to Philippi is about ten miles, and the road 
across a range of high hills. 
When we reach the high 
ground, “an extensive and magnificent sea-view is 
opened towards the south.” 
We see Neptune’s throne 
on Samothrace, in the south-east: we see the broader 
island of Thasos just in front, while far to the south, 
highest of all, towers Mount Athos, on its long penin­
sula. 
Turning our backs on this delightful view, we 
begin the descent on the other side of the ridge ] and 
now we see a “ plain, level as an inland sea, and which, 
if the eye could reach it all, would be seen winding far 
within its mountain-enclosure, to the west and north.” 
It is either “ exuberantly green,” from its famous fruit­
fulness of soil, if it is summer, or “ cold and dreary ” if 
winter. This is the memorable plain of Philippi. “ The 
whole region around is eloquent of the history of the 
last battle of the Roman republic. 
On some part of 
this very ridge, were the camps of Brutus and Cassius. 
The stream before us, is the river which passed in front 
of them. 
Below us is the marsh by which Antony 
crossed, as he approached his antagonist. 
Directly op­
posite is the hill of Philippi, where Cassius died. 
Be­
hind us is the sea, across which Brutus sent the body 
of Cassius to the island of Thasos, lest his death should 
dishearten the army before the final struggle. The city 
of Philippi was itself a monument of the end of that 
struggle. 
And now a Jewish Apostle had come to the 
same place, to win a greater victory than that of Philip­
pi, and to found a more durable empire than that of 
Augustus.”
Philippi was ‘a colony.’ 
What is meant by this 
expression? 
A Roman colony was a very different 
thing from what we think of as an English colony in
ly, the first city, that is, the first city to which they came. Tbessa- 
lonica was the chief city, the greatest of all in Macedonia.
FROM ASIA TO EUROPE.
133
out time: a company gathered in almost any loose 
manner, and going out to Australia, to Hudson’s Bay, 
or to India, to settle the country; or like the colonies 
of Virginia or Carolina, two centuries ago. 
The Ro­
mans divided the world into two classes of people, 
Romans and Not-Romans, or more proudly, into ‘citi­
zens 
and ‘strangers.’ 
When a colony was to be 
formed, a certain number of citizens went from Rome, 
in stately form, like an army, and either took possession 
of a tow n already built, or laid out a town for them- 
sel\ es. 
This town they fortified, and they themselves 
were the garrison. 
In all the pride of Roman citizens, 
in the midst of a population of ‘ strangers,’ they estab­
lished the laws and customs of Rome. 
They aimed to 
make the city ‘ a miniature resemblance of Rome.’ The 
banners and the ensigns of Rome were hung out; the 
fasces and the toga, the magistrates and °the lictors 
were seen.. “ Every traveller who passed through a 
colony, saw the insignia of the Imperial city. He heard 
the Latin language and was responsible strictly to the 
Roman law.” 
The coin had Latin inscriptions, even if 
the city were in a Hebrew or a Greek or an Egyptian 
province. 
This was the ‘ colony.’ 
It was designed to 
be a strong military outpost to establish and to secure 
the authority of the great empire. 
After a time, some 
of the native inhabitants of the conquered town would 
gradually be united with the Romans, and they then 
formed part of the colony.
Every native ‘ citizen,’ and every adopted ‘ citizen,’ 
had certain rights, among which three were esteemed 
perhaps the greatest of all his privileges. He was never 
to be scourged: he was not to be arrested, except in ex­
treme cases: he had the right to appeal, when he thought 
he was unjustly treated in the courts, from the magis­
trate to the Emperor. 
‘ Strangers ’ possessed none of
134
(!TWENTIETH SUNDAY.)
these rights; and it was not an easy thing to become a 
* citizen.’ We shall soon see how Paul claimed for him­
self two of these rights, what advantage they were to 
him, and what rebuke they were to his persecutors; 
and hereafter, we shall see how he claimed the thiid 
right.
Romans and Greeks mingled in the colony of Philip­
pi ; but there were few Jews in the city. 
The Jews 
are a trafficking people ; and this was a military, and not 
a mercantile city. 
We find no synagogue in Philippi, 
hut only a place of prayer by the river-side. The Jews 
in strange cities, when they could have no synagogue, 
were accustomed to build a ‘ house of prayer, “a slight 
and temporary structure, often open to the sky.” ^ Prob­
ably for the sake of the ablutions connected with the 
worship, these houses were by the sea or near a river. 
In Philippi, the ‘ house of prayer ’ was outside the gate, 
and by the river-side. 
It may be that the assembly 
was composed only of women. 
Women only are men­
tioned, and these are not all native Jews. 
Lydia, at 
least, is a proselyte. 
She is from Thyatira, a city of the 
province of Asia. 
She is a seller of purple; that is, her 
business is connected with the art of dyeing that par­
ticular color, which Homer mentions as produced in the 
region of Thyatira, and which is known to have ren­
dered that city famous. 
“ In this unpretending place, 
and to this congregation of pious women, the Gospel 
was first preached in Europe. 
The missionary party 
came up from Neapolis in the early part of the week, 
for it would seem that there were * certain days ’ before 
‘the Sabbath.’ 
On that day the strangers went and 
joined the little company of worshippers at their prayer 
by the river-side. 
They 1 sat down and spoke, thus 
assuming the attitude of teachers.”
The simple-hearted Lydia believed that Jesus is Mes­
FROH ASIA TO EUROPE.
135
siah and Saviour, and was baptized. 
‘ Her household ’ 
also are baptized. 
Family religion quickly follows 
faith in Jesus, in the simple and sincere heart. Another 
effect, too, follows from genuine piety : genuine hospi­
tality. 
The house, as well as the heart of Lydia, was 
opened. 
With a generous and loving care for her re­
ligious benefactors, and with gratitude to the Great Mas­
ter who sent them, she constrained the little band of 
good men to make her house their home. What a peace­
ful and beautiful picture is this, of Lydia and her house­
hold, in their simplicity and purity and artless faith ! 
How the soft and holy influence of Christian woman­
hood sanctifies, how the sacred instruction of these 
great and good men exalts, how the very atmosphere 
of peace and quietness pervades the united family of 
friends and guests. 
We can hardly help thinking of 
the peace and the hospitality and the instruction of the 
Palace Beautiful, in the path of Bunyan’s pilgrim. 
How wide the contrast between this picture and that 
picture of religion which the Roman poet, Horace, 
sketches for us, in this very same region, by the side of 
a neighboring river : “ The Edonian matrons, in frantic 
excitement, wandering, under the name of religion, 
with dishevelled hair and violent cries, on the banks of 
the Strymon.”
It may have been Lydia, so quick to show her faith 
by her works, who, afterwards returning to her native 
place, aided in the establishment of that church to which 
the Apostle John wrote in the Revelation, and which 
he commended for “works, and charity, and service, 
and faith, and patience.” *
* Revelation ii. 18, 19.
(:TWENTIETH SUNDAY.)
aiJESTIONS.
W
HAT could Paul see from Troas ?
What would he think of and desire ?
Was he intending to preach in Troas?
What occurred in the night ?
Where was Macedonia ?
How did Paul regard this vision ?
What does ‘assuredly gathering’ mean?
What poet has given a description of sun-rise here ? 
Who were the four travellers ?
How do you know there were four?
Could they sail exactly in a straight course to Samo- 
thrace ?
What does the expression mean ?
What story was connected with Tenedos ?
What with the sea between Tenedos and Imbros? 
Whose throne was fabled to be on Samothraee f 
Why do you think that the vessel anchored at Samothraee 
for the night ?
What does the name of this island mean ?
Where did they land the next day ?
What was Neapolis ?
Why didn’t they stop here to preach?
What does the ‘chief city’ mean?
What was the chief city?
What is the plain of Philippi memorable for ?
What was Philippi ?
How did the Romans divide the world?
How did the Greeks divide it ?
What was the Jewish division ?
How was a Roman colony formed ?
What did the ‘ citizens ’ aim to make the city ?
What signs of Roman power were seen ?
What was the design of forming a colony ?
Could foreigners become Roman citizens ? 
How ?1
1 
See page 5.
(39)
What were three great rights of a Roman citizen ?
Were there many Jews in Philippi ?
What shows it ?
What was the ‘ house of prayer ’ ?
Why was it built by the river-side ?
Who composed this assembly ?
What would have been thought by the people of a 
preacher who would seek such an audience ?
Who was Lydia ?
For what was her native city famous ?
At what time in the week did the Apostles reach Phi­
lippi ?
What does 1 sat down and spake’ show?
If Lydia ‘worshipped God’ before Paul came, was she 
not God’s child ?
Who only can ‘open the heart,’ to make a person God’s 
child?
When a person really begins to ‘ attend unto religious 
things,’ what does it show?
What is meant by ‘ household ’ ?
What is the natural result of conversion in a father or 
mother ?
What is another natural effect?
What characteristics can you mention of Lydia’s char­
acter ?
What characteristics of the family and guests at this 
time?
What two other pictures by what two other authors ?
Where was the river Strymon ?
Is Thyatira mentioned elsewhere in the Scripture ?
What may Lydia have done ?
In the Apostle John’s praise of the church there, can 
you see anything of Lydia’s character ?
(TWENTIETH SUNDAY.)
(40)
Twenty-first Sunday
ROMAN 
LAW.
lesson.
Act3 xvi. 16-39.
T
HE quiet of the little company in the house of Lydia 
was not to continue. The Apostle was soon to 
come into direct conflict with the power of Roman law 
in the ‘ colonyand that strong law was soon to estab­
lish his independent rights.
It is to be carefully noticed now, that the first perse­
cution in Europe is very different from those which 
Paul had endured in Asia Minor. At Antioch in Pisidia, 
at Iconium, at Lystra, it was the Jews who persecuted 
Paul; but there were no Jews in the persecution at 
Philippi. On the other hand, the Philippians persecuted 
the Apostles, in part because they were Jews. Before, 
the conflict had been between Christianity and Jewish 
prejudice; now, it was between Christianity and pure 
paganism—a paganism established and secured^ by all 
the cultivation and power of two great and wise na­
tions. To understand how this conflict was brought 
about, we must know something of one form of pagan 
superstition.
“ In the lively imagination of the Greeks, the whole 
visible and invisible world was peopled with spiritual 
powers.” These were called demons. The Greeks 
thought them good as well as evil. Some have believed 
“that a wicked spiritual agency was really exerted in
ROMAN LAW.
137
their prophetic sanctuaries and their prophets.” The 
Greeks and Romans declared that the strange motions 
made by these prophets, and the words of their oracles, 
and the other indications of spiritual power, were the' 
work of Apollo, or of Python, as he was sometimes 
called. There was a great variety of these manifesta­
tions, and they were often seen. These diviners or 
soothsayers or ventriloquists, therefore, were said to 
be possessed of the spirit of Python. “ Sometimes 
those supposed to be possessed of this spirit were of 
the highest rank of society; sometimes they went about 
the streets like insane impostors of the lowest rank.” 
As the people valued their ravings and wild mutterings 
enough to pay money for them, these miserable persons 
were sometimes used for gain. Very often they were 
slaves. Such a slave might be of high value to a man 
who cared nothing for religion nor for wicked decep­
tion nor for the misery of the poor wretches who were 
either lunatic or really possessed by the evil spirit. 
The value of such a demoniac slave was so great at 
times, that two or more persons were partners in own­
ing the property. This was the case of the ‘female 
slave ’ possessed with a spirit of Python1 at Philippi. 
She was owned by two masters or more, who from her 
ravings made ‘ much profit.’ “ We all know the kind 
of sacredness with which the ravings of common insan­
ity are apt to be regarded by the ignorant; and we can 
easily understand the notoriety which the gestures and 
words of this demoniac would obtain in Philippi. It 
was far from- a matter of indifference, when she met the 
members of the Christian congregation on the road to 
the house of prayer, and began to follow Paul and to 
cry: (either because some words she had overheard 
mingled with her diseased imagination, or because the 
1 See the margin in the reference Bible.
evil spirit in her was compelled to speak the truth:)
‘ These men are the servants (bondmen) of the Most 
High God, who are come to announce to you the way 
of salvation.’ ” “ The whole city must soon have been 
familiar with her new cry,” for she continued it several 
days. Paul knew this, and he could not endure that 
the pure religion of Jesus should be contaminated by 
such unholy assistance. Their preaching, and the wor­
ship by the river-side were better without such testi­
mony. While he pitied the poor demoniac, he remem­
bered the words of the Master, ‘ In my name they shall 
cast out devils,’ {demons) When “ he could bear the 
Satanic interruption no longer,” grieved at heart, and 
in the name of Jesus the Messiah, he commanded the 
evil spirit to come out of her.
With the healing of the mind and of the spirit of this 
poor slave, the wicked masters lost their gain. En­
raged, they dragged Paul and Silas into the forum— 
the open court or market-place, like the open squares 
used in some of our cities for market-places. Timothy 
and Luke were not taken. Paul was the man that 
wrought the cure. Silas was Paul’s intimate compan­
ion. Perhaps Timothy and Luke were not with Paul 
and Silas on that day. Paul and Silas were quickly 
dragged (as Paul himself hauled men and women to 
prisons) “ before the Proctors,” or magistrates.
“ The excited complainants must have felt some diffi­
culty in stating their complaint. The slave that had 
lately been such a lucrative possession had suddenly 
become valueless, but the law had no remedy for de­
stroying the value of property by the casting out of 
spirits. The true state of the case was therefore con­
cealed, and an accusation laid before the Praetors in the 
following form‘ These men are throwing the wholo
2 See note 2, page 22.
138 
{TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY.)
city into confusion; moreover, they are Jews; and 
they are attempting to introduce new religious observ­
ances, which we, being Roman citizens, cannot receive 
and adopt.’ ” Dividing the accusation into the three 
parts, we can easily see what was true and what was 
false. “ It was quite false that Paul and Silas were 
disturbing the city, for nothing could have been more 
calm and orderly than their worship and teaching at 
the house of Lydia, or at the place of prayer by the 
water-side.” It was true that they were Jews. There 
was cunning and spite in accusing them of this; for 
“ the Jews were generally hated, suspected, and de­
spised, and had lately been driven out of Rome in con­
sequence of an uproar.” The citizens of the colony, 
too, would think it their duty “ to copy the indignation 
of the mother city.” It was true, too, that Paul and 
Silas were indirectly violating the law. “ The Roman 
law condemned the introduction of foreign religions, 
especially such changes in worship as were likely to un­
settle the minds of the citizens, or to produce any tu­
multuous uproar. 
Paul and Silas had undoubtedly 
been doing what in some degree exposed them to legal 
penalties, and were beginning a change which tended 
to bring down, and which at length did bring down 
the whole weight of the Roman Law on the Christian 
martyrs.” "We can see, then, why ‘the multitude rose 
up.’ A wonderful slave had lost her spirit of prophecy : 
the cause of wonder and excitement and curiosity had 
been taken away: the hated Jews had done it: they 
were breaking the law of ‘ the colony.’ The excited 
crowd rose into a mob. The Praetors, if they would 
be popular, must not hesitate. It was no time to think 
of further proof. The rough form of the Roman sen­
tence was pronounced: ‘ Go, lictors: strip off their gar-
ROMAN LAW. 
139
The Lord preserveth the strangers,
But the way of the wicked, he turneth upside down.”4 *
“ Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee: 
According to the greatness of thy power,
Preserve thou those appointed to die.” 3
“Attend unto my cry,
For I am brought very low 
Deliver me from my persecutors,
For they are stronger than I.
Bring my soul out of prison,
That I may praise thy name.”6
“ Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help.
Whose hope is in the Lord his God.” 7
The other prisoners heard them. Slaves, debtors, 
robbers, murderers perhaps listened to the cheerful 
songs of the new prisoners. These were strange crimi­
nals : these were new sounds echoing out on the night- 
air from the inner prison. These must be good men, 
too, who, bleeding from the scourge and at midnight, 
sing praises to God. The very songs of Paul and Silas 
preached their religion to their fellow-prisoners. Who 
can say that some of these very prisoners did not after­
wards believe in the Saviour, because new hopes and 
new desires were awakened by what they that night 
heard and saw ? It may be that the earthquake oc­
curred just as the Apostles were finishing8 those other 
words of the Psalmist:
“ He brought them out of darkness 
And the shadow of death,
And brake their bonds in sunder.
4 Psalm cxlvi. 7-9. 
3 lxxix. 11. 
8 cxlii. 6, 7.
7 cxlvi. 5. 
The whole cxlvi. would have been most appropriate 
and comforting.
” The tense of the Greek verb signifies that they continued to sing, 
and the prisoners continued to listen. 
“ The Apostles were singing 
and the prisoners were listening, when the earthquake came.”
ROMAN LAW. 
141
merits:3 let them be scourged.’ “The order was
promptly obeyed, and the heavy blows descended. 
The Roman scourging was much more severe than the 
Jewish, and the Apostles received ‘many stripes.’
“ Bleeding and faint from the rod,” the jailer was told 
‘ to keep them safely.’ “ Rot content with placing the 
Apostles among other common offenders in the jail, he 
thrust them ‘into the inner prison,’ and then forced 
their limbs, lacerated as they were and bleeding from 
the scourge, into a painful and constrained posture by 
means of an instrument used to confine and torture the 
bodies of the worst malefactors. We must picture to 
ourselves something very different from the rough com­
fort of an American jail. The inner prisons of the an­
cients were rather pestilential cells, damp and cold, 
from which the light was excluded, and where the 
chains rusted on the limbs of the prisoners.”
But cruel as was the scourging, cold and hard as 
were the prison-walls, the spirit of joyfulness was in 
the hearts of these good men. Sleepless because of 
their pain and fatigue, with heart and voice, they sung 
praises to God. What they sung, we do not know, 
but it would be strange if, at such a time, the Psalms 
of David did not rise to the lips of a Jew. How com­
forting and how hopeful would have been such words 
as these, chanted in the Hebrew manner:
“ The Lord looseth the prisoners:
The Lord raiseth them that are bowed down:
The Lord lovetli the righteous:
3 “ It is quite a mistake to suppose that the magistrates rent their
own garments, like the high-priest at Jerusalem.” That was a Jewish,
not a Roman custom. “ Some commentators think the magistrates
tore off the garments of Paul and Silas with their own hands, but
that is not necessary.” It is more piobable that they gave the cus­
tomary order to the hetors, their attendants.
140 
(TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY.)
142
(TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY.)
Oh! that men would praise the Lord
For his goodness and for his wonderful works
To the children of men;
For he hath broken the gates of brass 
And cut the bars of iron in sunder.” 8
The iron bars and the gates were broken asunder by 
that God to whom they sung and prayed. And t icy
were free to go. 
,,
But there was something more dreadful than earth­
quake to the prison-keeper. “ By the Roman law, t e 
jailer was to undergo the same punishment which the 
malefactors who escaped were to have suffere • 
was his consternation when, awakened out of his sleep, 
he saw the doors open. He at once supposed the pris­
oners had fled. Inevitable death must be his fate ¡su­
icide was better than such disgrace. “Philippi is fa­
mous in the annals of suicide.” The jailer would have 
added his name to the list of Cassius, Brutus, Titimus, 
and many others who rashly died by their own hand 
after the great battle of Philippi, had not Paul’s loud 
voice reached him. Instead of death, he found spiritual 
life. Startled, trembling, remembering his crimes, his 
eagerness to cast the persecuted men into the inner 
prison, the near approach of death and his unfitness to 
die, and recalling, too, perhaps, that the very cause of 
all the persecution of these good men, was that the de­
moniac had said they taught a way of salvation, he 
sprang in with a light and fell down before his prison- 
ers, to ask that all-important question: What must I 
do to be saved ? ’ Believe on Jesus as your Lord an 
as the Messiah, was the faithful answer. Like Lydia, 
his heart was opened to hear and to believe Like 
Lvdia, he and his house were baptized. Family re 
gion again followed piety in the head of the household.
9 Psalm cvii. 14-16.
ROMAN LA W
143
Christian hospitality followed next. ‘ He washed the 
stripes ’ of the wounded and bruised men. He brought 
them out of the wretched cell into his house; he gave 
them food; and there was great rejoicing that night. 
The Gospel had a second home in Europe.
On reflection, the magistrates became convinced of 
the lashness and irregularity of their proceedings ; or 
perhaps they heard that the Jews cast out the spirit 
because the slave cried after them; or the earthquake 
may have alarmed them. At any rate, in the morning, 
they sent a new order by the lictors10 to the jailer. 
Evidently they feared lest some authority from Rome 
might inquire into the accusations against the prisoners, 
and the regularity of yesterday’s trial. ‘Let those men 
go,’11 is the contemptuous expression. The jailer was 
full of joy.
_ But n°w it was Paul’s turn. Now he claims his 
rights as a Roman citizen. If he had violated Roman 
law in one thing, the magistrates had violated it in two 
other far more important points. They had arrested 
two Homan citizens on the mere outcry of the peo­
ple, and, with hardly the forms of a trial, had hastily 
passed sentence on them. They had scourged two Ro­
man citizens. The reply of Paul is therefore the noble 
assertion of his just rights. The magistrates had done 
a great wrong: Let them come and make it right. It 
was the time for the magistrates to tremble. Should 
their crime become known at Rome, as Paul himself 
wight make it known, they would certainly lose their 
power, if they would not be most severely punished;
The word ‘sergeant,’ means here ‘rod-holders,’ lictors, the at­
tendant officers of the magistrate.
It might be translated, Let those fellows go.
144
(TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY.)
for their rashness had put the whole majesty of the law 
in peril. With servile humiliation, quite the contrast 
of their yesterday’s presumption, they came privately 
and besought their abused prisoners to go quietly from 
the city.
(TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
WHAT is this lesson the account of ?
What difference is there between the Philippian persecu­
tion and those in Asia Minor ?
What two things had been in conflict before ? 
What 
two now ?
What was a demon ?
What is meant by ‘the spirit of Python’ ?
Why were demoniac slaves thought valuable property ? 
What shows that this ‘ damsel ’ was held as very val­
uable ?
What is meant in the margin by ‘ of divination ’ ?
What harm did her outcries do ?
How do you explain the way in which she had learned 
what she said ?
Was this new cry known in the city ?
Whose words and what words did Paul remember ?
If this miracle was done publicly, what depended on 
the success of Paul’s command ?
What was the effect of the cure on her masters ?
Who escaped ?
What is meant by ‘ market-place ’ ?
Who were these rulers ?
Was the accusation made in a regular form ? Why ? 
What are the three parts of the charge which they made ? 
Was the first part true or false ?
Was the second part true or false ?
What wicked cunning was there in this part ?
What was true in reference to the third part ?
Explain the cause of excitement.
Was the command of the magistrates the regular deci- 
■ 
sion of a court ?
Whose clothes did the magistrates rend off?
Did the magistrates themselves rend off the clothes ? 
What does ‘ many stripes ’ show ?
(41)
(TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY.)
Did the jailer do more than he was commanded ?
Where are ‘ the stocks ’ ?
What caused their joyfulness ?
What would they he likely to sing ?
How did they preach their religion without knowing it ? 
What happened while they were singing ?
What was the first alarm of the jailer ?
What did he intend to do ?
What was true of Philippi in respect to suicides ?
Who prevented the jailer?
Would a guilty prisoner use such words as Paul’s ? 
What made the jailer ask such a question of his pri­
soner ?
If there was an earthquake now, would you be led to 
ask this question ?
Why isn’t it better to seek 1 to be saved ’ now ?
What did Paul tell the jailer was the way to be saved ?
Has there been any change since that time ?
What is it to believe on the Saviour ?
What two results followed the jailer’s conversion ?
Why did the magistrates send new orders ?
What does the word '■sergeants' mean?
, 
Was the order of the magistrates respectful ?
Who had broken the law more, the magistrates or Paul ? 
How did Paul assert his rights ?
Who held the power now ?
Who must now seek favor ?
(42)
Twenty-second Sunday.
THE FOUNDING OF THE THESSALONIAN CHURCE
LESSON.
Acts xvi. 40; 
xvii. 1-4.
T
HE Apostles yielded to the request of the magis­
trates, but they did not go in hasty flight. With 
the dignity and self-possession of innocent men, they 
went first to the house of Lydia, where they met the 
brethren and gave their farewell words of comfort; and 
then they left the city. Luke probably remained be­
hind.1 Perhaps Timothy did. Paul and Silas only are 
mentioned at Thessalonica.2 The new church of the 
Philippians, in which the families of Lydia and of the 
jailer held a prominent place, may have needed the in­
struction and care of Luke and Timothy. Timothy, it 
will be remembered, was the son of a Greek, and it is 
supposed that Luke too was a Greek. They could 
mingle with the Greeks and Romans of Philippi with­
out creating suspicion or excitement.
If we stop for a moment and fix in the mind the out­
line of three great provinces, it will help us much to 
gain a clear idea of the Apostle’s journeys now and 
hereafter in all this region. In Paul’s time, the coun­
try from the great Hsemus mountain-range (which runs
1 
Luke was with the Apostle at Philippi, as the seventeenth verse 
shows, ‘ followed Paul and us,' but the account of Paul’s journey is 
continued from this point to the twentieth chapter in the third per­
son. 
See seventeenth chapter, ‘ Now when they, etc.
2 
xvii, 10.
146
(!TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
almost parallel with the Danube) to the southernmost 
cape of Greece was divided into Illyricum, Macedonia
and Achaia. If Paul did not preach in Ulyricum, he 
went to the very borders of the province. He after­
wards wrote from Corinth to Rome, ‘from Jerusalem 
round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the 
Gospel of Christ.’3 4 Paul travelled over Macedonia and 
Achaia several times. In his letters written later in 
life, we find many allusions to Achaia* We now see 
him taking the first of his journeys into Macedonia. 
From Philippi, his course struck off towards the centre 
and the capital of that great province.
3 Romans xv. 19.
4 Rom. xv. 26 ; II. Corinth, ix. 2 ; xi. 10 ; I. Thess. i. *7, 8
THE THESSALONIAN CHURCH.
147
At Philippi, if not before, Paul had entered the great 
Roman military road. It was the great state road 
which led from the west to the east. It was built at 
enormous expense, and reached from, Dyrraehium on 
the Illyrican coast (opposite Brundusium, from which 
point the road continued to Rome) to Cypsela6 in 
Thrace, and perhaps farther. Possibly Paul trod this 
identical road at Troas. Philippi was the first im­
portant city in Macedonia on this state-road; and Thes- 
salonica was about half-way between Dyrraehium and 
Cypsela. Along the stone pavement of this Roman 
road, Paul and Silas, two Roman citizens, travel, still 
sore from their scourging; not now fleeing for life nor 
by night, but holding the fate of the Philippian rulers 
in their own hands. As they passed the mile-stones, care­
fully put up all along the way, they would be reminded 
that every foot-pace was taking them towards the seven- 
hilled Monarch of the World. In later years, on the 
other side of the Adriatic, Paul trod the same pavement 
at Appii Forum and Three Taverns.8 Amphipolis and 
Apollonia divided the distance between Philippi and 
Thessalonica into three nearly equal parts. We may 
think of Paul and Silas as lodging over-night in each of 
these places, since the journey from one place to an­
other was about one day’s travel. The road to Am­
phipolis lay across the plain north of the mountains of 
Pangaeus6 celebrated for their gold and silver-mines and 
for their beautiful roses. “The ancient name of Am­
phipolis was ‘Nine-Ways,’ from the great number of 
roads from Thrace and Macedonia which met at this 
point.” It was afterwards called Amphipolis,7 because 
the river flowed almost around it. Xerxes crossed this
6 See map in Twentieth Sunday. 
6 Acts xxviii. 15,
7 Amphi, about, polis, the city.
148
{TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
river here, and offered to it a sacrifice of white horses. 
The river spread out into a lake above the town. The 
city is just in a pass of the mountains, and commands 
the best road from the sea up to the Macedonian plains. 
It was a place of consequence therefore. Demosthenes 
spoke of it in his famous orations to the Athenians.
Paul and Silas 'had come thirty-three miles. The next 
part of the journey was thirty miles to Apollonia. The 
Roman road is “ along the edge of the Strymonic gulf, 
first between cliffs and the sea and then across a well- 
wooded sea-plain, where the peak of Mount Athos is 
seen far across the bay to the left. As we leave the 
sea, we have before us on the coast Stagirus, the birth­
place of Aristotle the philosopher, and just where the 
mountains close on the roads is the tomb of Euripides, 
the tragic poet.” Apollonia was - somewhere on the 
road across the neck of the three-pronged peninsula, 
and about thirty-seven miles from Thessalonica. The 
country is varied and picturesque. There is a long 
valley in which are two lakes. Then the sea appears 
again. Then there is another valley, the long and fruit­
ful valley of the river Axius, and right before us on its 
bank is Thessalonica, the largest and most important 
city on the great road. It was named for Thessalonica, 
a sister of Alexander the Great.® It was the capital of 
Macedonia. When Cicero was exiled from Rome, he 
lived here. The great Roman generals, Antony and 
Octavius, were here after the celebrated battle of 
Philippi. And from that day to this it has been one 
of the chief cities on the European side of the Archi­
pelago. Before Constantinople was built, it was the 
capital of all that region around the head of the Aegean. 
It was at the head of the busy Aegean Sea and at the
8 
Its former name was Therma. 
It was re-named when re-built and 
adorned by Thessalonica’s husband, Cassander.
THE THESSALONIAN CHURCH.
149
outlet of the trade of thrifty and fertile Macedonia; 
and “ there probably never was a time, from the day 
when it first received its name, that the city was not a 
busy commercial town. It ranks in, our own day, in 
European Turkey, next to Constantinople.9 We see 
how appropriate a place it was for one of the starting- 
points of the Gospel in Europe; and we can appreciate 
the force of the expression used by Paul a few months 
after leaving the Thessalonians, when he writes to 
them: ‘ From you sounded out the word of the Lord, 
not only in Macedonia, but in every place.’10
Thessalonica became in this part of Europe, like An­
tioch in Syria, a city where Christians were known and 
where their influence was felt.
In Thessalonica there was a synagogue; for in this 
busy, trafficking town were many Jews. Perhaps the 
reason why Paul and Silas did not stop in Amphipolis 
and Apollonia was that there was no synagogue.
As Paul and Silas now enter the Thessalonian syna­
gogue, we may recall the entrance of the two strangers 
into the synagogue of Pisidian Antioch, and Paul’s ad­
dress in reply to the invitation of the chief men. Al­
though the city was Greek, and his work was mainly 
among Gentiles, Paul came first, as his manner was, to 
the Jews; and at first all the Jews listened with patience 
and with curiosity. For three Sabbath-days and at any 
intervening meetings and in conversation from day to 
day, he reasoned with them. His address to the Thes­
salonian congregation was on the same great subject 
as that to the Pisidian Jews and Gentiles; but only the 
three chief points of his discourse are given: (1.) That 
the Messiah of the Scriptures must be a suffering Mes-
9 The name of Thessalonica is not yet entirely lost. 
It is now Sa­
lónica. One of the modern missionary stations has been in Salónica.
10 I. Thessalonians i. 8.
and * if any man would not work, neither let him eat,’18 
and of warning men not to he ‘ busy-bodies,’19 but to 
do their own work.18
The converts left at Philippi did not forget Paul’s 
sufferings. ‘ Once and again ’ the Philippian believers, 
Lydia and the jailer foremost among them no doubt, 
sent gifts to him while at Thessalonica.20 Perhaps the 
jailer himself came over the road through Amphipolis 
and Apollonia to bring the money and the gifts con­
tributed.
God abundantly blessed the Apostles’ faithful labors 
in Thessalonica. A large church was gathered. Al­
though the persecution seems to have commenced after 
Paul and Silas had been there only three weeks, very 
likely they remained there a somewhat longer time. 
After the Jews began to persecute, he no doubt turned 
to the Gentiles. The Thessalonian church, we have 
reason to believe, was made up in good part of Gen­
tiles ; for in the letters to these converts, “the Jewish 
Scriptures are not once quoted,” and he addressed those 
who had turned from idols?1
To the pious Greek converts, what a new and blessed 
comfort was there in the doctrine of the resurrection 
of the dead. We can still read on the sepulchres of 
heathen Thessalonica ancient inscriptions which say 
that after death there is no resurrection, and after the 
grave no meeting of loved ones. How different from 
this thick darkness was the light and hope of Paul’s 
doctrine, not to sorrow for those who sleep in Jesus as 
those others who have no hope.22
18 Notice' the words, I. Thessalonians iv. 11, ‘as we commanded 
you.’ II. Thessalonians iii. 10.
19II. Thessalonians iii. 11.
50 Philippians iv. 1G, 15.
511. Thessalonians i. 9.
92 iv. 13, 14.
THE THESSALONIAN CHURCH. 
151
siah; (2.) That the Messiah, after death, must rise 
again; (3.) That Jesus of Nazareth suffered, died, and 
rose again, and therefore was the Messiah foretold.
Here, as at Antioch, were Jews and proselytes (‘ de­
vout Greeks') in the synagogue. Here, as there, some 
Jews at once believed, and a multitude of Gentile- 
Greeks,and of the ‘ chief women’ also ‘not a few.’
From the letter, which Paul soon afterwards wrote 
back to the Thessalonian believers, we gain a glimpse 
of his conduct and of his way of preaching in Thes- 
salonica. 
We see him preaching with unflinching 
courage11 and without flattery.12 We see him encour­
aging and correcting his converts as carefully and kindly 
as a father his own children,13 loving and cherishing 
them as tenderly and gently as a nurse her own off­
spring,u watching over ‘ each one,’33 and like a faithful 
shepherd and friend, ready to give his own life for his 
loved flock.15 Well might the Apostle write them: “ Ye 
are witnesses, how holily and justly and unblamably we 
behaved ourselves among you.”16 At Thessalonica, too, 
Paul labored to support himself while he preached— 
very likely at the trade of tent-maker, which he learned 
when a boy. Late at night, no doubt, the Apostle 
might have been seen by lamp-light working at the 
rough tent-cloth, so as to be chargeable to nobody.17 It 
was the Apostle’s way of teaching what he preached, 
and of enforcing what he commanded in his letters: 
‘ Study to be quiet and to work with your own hands,’
11 “After that we had suffered and were shamefully treated at Phi­
lippi, as ye know, we were bold to speak to you.” 
I. Thess. ii. 2.
13 “Neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know” 
Terse 5.
13Yerse’ll. 
14 Verse 7.
15 Verse 8. “Affectionately desirous,” etc.
10 Verse 10. 
17 Verse 9.
150 
. 
(TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
{TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
T\ID the Apostles go directly from the prison out of the city ? 
^ 
Who were ‘ the brethren ’ ?
Who went with Paul from the city ?
Who remained ? 
How do you know ?
Into what three provinces was the whole great peninsula 
then divided ?
Where in the Scriptures is Illyricum mentioned ?
Did Paul preach in Illyricum ?
Did Paul travel into Achaia more than once ?
What province was he now in ?
On what road did Paul now travel ?
At what point on the road was Thessalonica ?
How far did this road reach ?
Where did Paul travel on this same road afterwards ? 
Where do you find the notice of it ?
What parts did Amphipolis and Apollonia divide the 
journey into ?
What was the ancient name of Amphipolis ? 
Why ? 
Why was it called Amphipolis ?
What made it a place of consequence ?
What did Xerxes here ?
Between Amphipolis and Apollonia what birth place ? 
what tomb ?
Near what river was Thessalonica ?
For whom was Thessalonica named ?
What exile had lived here ?
What has Thessalonica been since that time ?
What before Constantinople was built ?
Why was its position good ?
How does it rank now ?
What is its name now ?
What has been there in modern times ?
What sentence of the Apostle illustrates its influence 
. 
then ?
What resemblance between Thessalonica and Antioch ?
(43)
(TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
Why did the Apostles pass through Amphipolis and Apollo- 
nia without preaching ?
Why was there a synagogue in Thessalonica ?
How long did Paul reason ? 
Where ? 
With whom ? 
What resemblance can you draw between his visit here 
and at Antioch in Pisidia ?
What does ‘ opening and alleging ’ mean ?
What were the three points of his discourse ?
What does ‘ consorted ’ mean ?
What proselytes are mentioned ?
How do we know what Paul’s conduct and preaching were in 
Thessalonica ?
Why did it require courage ?
How was he like a father to his converts ?
How like a nurse ?
What other verso shows his fond affection ?
How did he support himself ?
What commands did he enforce in this manner ?
What was the result of Paul’s labors in the city ?
Were the members of the Thessalonian church Jews 
or Gentiles ?
What shows it ?
What comfort was there to them in the doctrine of re­
surrection ?
(44)
Twenty-third Sunday
THE 
MOB 
OF 
THE 
IDLERS.
judgment against them. 
Paul and Silas were absent; 
and so the mob dragged Jason, and some other Christ­
ians whom they found, to the city magistrates.
It is to be noticed now that this is not. Roman au­
thority. Thessalonica was called ‘ a free city.’ It was in 
a Roman province, but Avas allowed to govern itself; 
that is, the citizens elected their OAvn magistrates, and 
were not ruled by a Roman Pro-consul and a Roman 
garrison.4 
This was a privilege and a compliment to 
the city, in return for its help in the Avars; and the 
Greeks Avould be most careful to preserve it. The magis­
trates, therefore, to whom the crowd carried Jason, 
Avere not the Pro-consul of Macedonia and his attend­
ants, like the Pro-consul of Cyprus at Paphos, but the 
Greek city magistrates. 
Like the people, they would 
be very jealous of the rights of their free city, and par­
ticularly careful to do nothing to forfeit them. The 
accusation against the Christians and Jason, which the 
Jews and the mob cried out before the magistrates, was 
therefore well formed to increase the excitement. 
It 
was in substance this:
“These men, who are setting the whole world in confusion, are come 
hither at last. 
And Jason hath received them into his house. 
And 
they are all acting in the face of the Emperor's decrees, for they declare 
there is another King, whom they call Jesus."
These Jews would be glad to put themselves on the 
side of the Emperor’s authority, and to cast oif from 
tiiemselves the suspicion of the government by fastening 
. it on this new sect against Avhich their charges were in 
part true. 
Jason and his fellow-Christians did receive 
Jesus to be King, as Paul had taught; but none of 
them taught or believed that Jesus Avas an earthly king, 
in opposition to Caesar.
4 The Pro-consul, who ruled the province of Macedonia, probably 
lived in Thessalonica, but had no authority over the city.
THE MOB OF THE IDLERS. 
153
LESSON.
A
ct8 
xvii. 5-13.
T
HE Jews of Thessalonica were as envious as the 
Jews of Antioch in Pisidia. 
They did not like to 
see the multitude yielding so fast to Paul’s teaching; 
Especially when they thought how the Roman Govern­
ment looked on all Jews with suspicion, they did not 
like to see these stranger Jews, who preached strange 
doctrines, gaining influence with the inhabitants. They 
therefore quickly found means to hinder and to silence 
the two faithful preachers.
“A multitude of idlers about the market and the 
landing-places abound in every such city.” 
These low 
fellows1 the Jews got together, and, by their arts, ex­
cited them into a mob. 
They made an uproar through 
the city. 
Then they assaulted the house of the man* 
whose guests Paul and Silas were supposed to be. They 
hoped to find the two hated men; to bring them out; 
and then to get the excited people3 to pronounce a
1 ‘ Market-place loungers ’ or idlers, the phrase means.
* A ‘ Jason ’ is mentioned in Paul’s letter from Corinth to Rome 
(Romans xvi. 21) as Paul’s kinsman. YeryTikely Jason of Thessa­
lonica went to Corinth. 
The name is one Greek form of Joshua or 
Jesus.
a The word translated ‘ people ’ in the fifth verse means the people 
gathered in the forum to judge and try causes, the demus, the public 
assembly; a different word from 1 people’ in verse 13
154
(TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY.)
If the accusation was true, there was cause for alarm 
to the magistrates and to the people. 
The charge was 
a charge of sedition. 
The freedom of the city might 
be in peril. The people and the magistrates were there­
fore 4 troubled.’ 
44 It is evident that the magistrates 
were excited and unsettled as well as the multitude. 
No doubt they were anxious to stand Avell with the 
Roman government, and not to injure themselves or 
their city by a wrong decision in this dispute between 
the Christians and the Jews.” Their course was a wise 
one in the circumstances. 
It was to 4 take security ’ 
from Jason and his companions. 
By this expression it 
is most probably meant that a sum of money was de­
posited with the magistrates, and that the Christian 
people of the place made themselves responsible that 
no attempt at sedition should be made against the gov­
ernment, and that the peace should be kept in Thessa- 
lonica itself. In this way the disturbance was quieted.”
But though the magistrates had gained quiet in the 
Paul and Silas were in peril. 
The lower classes 
Avere still excited. 
The Jews, were in a state of un­
reasonable and fanatical rage. 
The Apostles could not 
appear in public as before, without danger to them­
selves and to their fellow-Christians, Avho were security 
for their good-behavior. 
They must be silent, if they 
remained. Silence was impossible with Paul. He must 
preach. 
That was the one great command to the dis­
ciples ; and to the earnest heart of Paul it was woe if 
he did not preach. 
Under the same watchful care of 
4 brethren,’ which let Paul down in a basket from the 
Avails of Damascus, the two pilgrim-preachers departed 
the same evening from Thessalonica.
“ Passing under the Arch of Augustus and out of the 
Western Gate, the Great Road crosses the plain and 
ascends the mountains.” 
Paul and Silas, in the silence
of the night, took their way again along the paved 
highway. 
Gradually separating from the hay, they 
crossed the broad river whose waters flow from the dis­
tant mountains of the north and west, through nearly 
the whole length and breadth of Macedonia. 
If they 
had gone on as far as Edessa, they would have had 
from the high lands “ a glorious view of all the coun­
try ” which stretches leagues on leagues from the nearer 
mountains to the sea. 
To that place, however, Paul 
was not directed, but turning south, away from the 
great thoroughfare and into a smaller, they went down 
to Berea. 
“ If this journey was at all what it is now, 
the travellers first passed the gardens in the neighbor­
hood of Thessalonica, and then crossed a wide tract of 
fields of grain, and then the bed of ‘ the wide-flowing 
Axius,’ near which the day must have broken upon 
them.” 
Then there was another wide, long stretch of 
plain: then a river, with high artificial banks to guard 
against floods. 
Then the road enters a vast forest, in 
which were “ spaces of cultivated land and villages 
concealed among the trees.” Then, after miles of travel 
through the woods, the road begins to ascend, and 
leads up to the gate of Berea.
We know little of this city as it was. At the present 
day, it is one of the most pleasant towns in the re­
gion. 
“ Plane trees spread a grateful shade over its 
gardens: streams of water abound in every street.” 
There are some few remains of Greek and Roman build­
ings. 
But Berea has a more noble renown than that 
which springs from splendid walls and temples. 
The 
Jews here were more noble-minded than those whom 
Paul and Silas had left. When Paul and Silas present­
ed, in their synagogue, the arguments to prove that 
Jesus was the Messiah, “ they not only listened, but 
examined the Scriptures themselves, to see if his argu-
THE MOB OF THE IDLERS. 
155
(TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY.)
156 
(:TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY.)
ments were confirmed by prophecy.” They persevered 
also. 
Daily they did it. 
‘Therefore many of them 
believed,’ as every one who candidly and diligently 
and .obediently searches the Scriptures, to know and to 
do the truth, will believe. 
Because a man searches the 
Scriptures rightly, therefore will he believe. Here, too, 
were ‘ honorable women ’ who believed. 
At Antioch 
in Pisidia,4 honorable women ’ had aided to persecute 
Paul, but at Thessalonica 4 chief women,’ and at Berea 
4 honorable Greek women,’ were his helpers and disci­
ples. 
But just as persecuting Jews followed Paul from 
Antioch to Iconium, so they did from Thessalonica to 
Berea, as soon as they knew they were preaching there 
their doctrine of the Messiah.
How long Paul was here, it is not said. 
44 From the 
fact that the Bereans were 1 daily ’ searching the Scrip­
tures for arguments in favor of or against the Apostle’s 
doctrine, we conclude that he remained in Berea sev­
eral days, at least.” It would be a week or two weeks, 
before the Thessalonian Jews would get knowledge 
that the preachers were at Berea, and before they could 
make the journey, for Berea was sixty miles from Thes­
salonica.
QUESTIONS.
What was the cause of the Jews’ persecution ?
Were they envious of the same thing as the Pisidian 
Jews ?
What especial reason in Thessalonica for their envy? 
What is meant by ‘ lewd fellows ’ ?
What did they accomplish with these fellows ?
In what other place is there a Jason mentioned ?
What did they hope to accomplish ?
What does ‘people,’ in the fifth verse, mean ?
Who were taken besides Jason ?
What kind of authority is now exercised ?
What is meant by a free city ?
Who were the rulers before whom Jason was brought ? 
What were the people and the magistrates very jealous
What was the general accusation ?
Against whom was it made ?
What was the charge against Jason ?
What was the definite accusation ?
Against whom was this made ?
Why would the Jews be glad to make such an accusa­
tion ?
Was the accusation true ?
What was the crime in the accusation ?
Was there any reason why the people should be 
4 troubled ’ ?
What course did the magistrates take ?
Bid they act hastily, like the magistrates at Philippi? 
What is meant by 4 taken security ’ ?
Why were the Apostles still in peril ?
Why did not Paul remain silent in Thessalonica ?
Why did they send them by night ?
What road did the Apostles take ?
In what direction was Berea ?
What kind of a town is it now ?
(45)
Why were the Jews here more noble-minded than those of 
Thessalonica ?
What things were ‘ those things’ ?
What proves that they persevered ?
' 
Why did many Bereans believe ?
What is the reason why many persons do not believe ?
How should the Scriptures be examined ?
What difference between the ‘chief women’ of Berea 
and of Antioch in Pisidia ?
Who followed the Apostles from Thessalonica ?
Is it meant that Paul preached at this time all the doc­
trines of ‘ the word of God’ ?
How long was Paul in Berea ?
What difference in the departure of Paul from Philippi, 
Thessalonica, and Antioch ?
How does it compare with his departure from Pisidian 
Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra ?
(46)
('TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY.)
THE JOURNEY TO GREECE.
LESSON.
Acts xvii. 13-16.
THE Thessalonian Jews “came like hunters on their 
prey,” but they could not take away the faith al­
ready in many hearts, nor prevent others still from re­
ceiving it. They made it, however, unpleasant, and no 
doubt unsafe, for Paul to preach in Berea. The Berean 
Bible-readers were his steadfast friends; and although 
they thought it best to send Paul away, they kept Silas 
and Timothy1 to instruct and to assist them. Perhaps 
the fact that Silas and. Timothy might be of some 
service to the new church of Thessalonica was an ad­
ditional reason for their remaining. It was no doubt 
some of the Berean converts who went with Paul on 
his way. Luke and Timothy and Silas had been taken 
from him: who else than these warm-hearted converts 
was there to go with him in his trials ?
Why did Paul go to Athens ? He could not, of 
course, go back to Thessalonica. If he had gone back 
to Edessa or further west, the busy thoroughfare of the 
Roman road would soon have brought the Thessalonians
1 If Timothy was not at Thessalonica with Paul and Silas, (see be­
ginning of Twenty-second Sunday,) the Thessalonian persecutors 
would not be so bitter against him. Besides, it might not be wise in 
them, in a Greek city, to attack a man whose father was a Greek, 
(xvi. i.) Timothy may have brought the gifts from Philippi to Thes- 
salonica, perhaps just as Paul came away.
Twenty-fourth Sunday
on his track. It would be better to pass out of the 
province and far beyond their reach. It seems proba­
ble, therefore, that he went directly to Athens by sea, 
although it is supposed by some persons that the phrase,
‘ to go as it were to the sea,’3 shows rather that he went 
by land. We suppose that he took ship somewhere 
near Dium,3 to which place there was a road from Berea. 
Here, near the lofty Mount Olympus, with its broad base, 
its sides dark with woods, its glittering, snowy sum­
mit rising above the clouds and on which was thought 
to be the throne of the gods—here, where all the as­
sociations of ancient Greece begin to suggest them­
selves—Paul embarks for the ancient capital. “The 
shepherds from the heights above the celebrated Vale 
of Tempe may have watched the sails of his ship that 
day, as it moved like a white speck from the waters of 
the Thermaic Gulf into the JEgean Sea.”
As Paul looked back, the gigantic Olympus was close 
behind, with its many ridges and many vales: the moun­
tains beyond Thessalonica grew dim: Mount Athos, 
away off towards the north-east, far out on its penin­
sula, seems ‘ like an island floating in the horizon.’ 
“ Gradually the nearer heights of snowy Olympus 
recede into the distance, as the vessel approaches 
nearer and nearer to the centre of all the interest of 
classic Greece. All the land and water in sight be­
comes more eloquent as we advance. Poetry and his­
tory are on every side: every rock is a monument. 
every current is alive with some memory of the past. 
The long island of Euboea shuts them off from a distant 
view of the pass of Thermopylae, where Leonidas and 
his three hundred Spartans defied the mighty host of 
Xerxes, and from the plain of Marathon, where the
3 The Greek words translated 1 as it were’ do not mean that there 
was any deception. 
3 Map on page 146.
158 
(TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY.)
THE JOURNEY TO GREECE.
159
Athenians bravely stood against the armies of Persia. 
At length the island is passed, and the ship rounds the 
southern extremity of Attica, “ Sunium’s high promon­
tory-still crowned with the white columns of that
temple of Minerva which was the landmark to Greek 
sailors,” and which showed Athens was near at hand.
“ To one who travels in classic lands, no moment is 
more exciting than when he has left the cape of Su- 
nium behind, and eagerly looks for the first glimpse of 
that city which was ‘ the eye of Greece, mother of arts 
and eloquence.’ ” As the ship sails slowly up the gulf, 
a light suddenly flashes in the distant air as from a mir­
ror. It is the flashing of the armor of Minerva’s great 
statue, standing with poised shield and spear on the 
summit of the citadel of Athens. And now from the 
deck of the vessel you can see Athens itself, its famous 
buildings, its surrounding hills. Directly before us is 
the illustrious island Salamis, near which Xerxes, from 
his high throne on the coast of Attica, saw his fleet, his 
last hope, destroyed. The atmosphere, famous for its
clearness, reveals even the distant mountains, which 
seem nearer than they are. And now, as we approach 
the harbor, the high craggy peak which we see crowded 
with temples and statues, in the centre of the city, is the 
citadel/ from the top of which the colossal Minerva 
looks over her idolatrous kingdom. White sails are 
plying in the harbor, and making their busy errands 
from the Piraeus to Genchrcea — from the harbor of 
Athens to the harbor of Corinth. The Piraeus was to 
Athens what Seleucia was to Antioch, what Neapolis 
was to Philippi.5 As we near the entrance to the Pi­
160 
(:TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY.)
raeus, “ the land seems to rise, and conceals all the 
plain. Idlers come down on the rocks to watch the 
coming vessel. The sailors are all on the alert. Sud­
denly an opening is revealed; and a sharp turn of the 
helm brings the ship in between two piers, on which 
towers are erected,” and from one to the other of which 
a chain was sometimes thrown to keep out hostile ships. 
“ We are in smooth water, and we cast anchor in the 
basin of the Piraeus.
“ Had Paul come to this spot four hundred years be-
4 The Acropolis: aero, top or summit, polis, city—the highest part 
of the city, the citadel, (the armory and defence.)
0 See pages 41 and 131.
THE JOURNEY TO GREECE.
161
fore, he would have been in Athens from the moment 
of his landing at the Piraeus. At that time the two 
cities were united by a double line of walls, made fam­
ous by the name of ‘ the Long Walls? ” Between 
these walls a populous street five miles in length then 
stretched across the plain. Since that time wars had 
often swept over the land. The Romans now ruled 
here as everywhere ; and “ on each side. of the road, as 
Paul went up to Athens, were broken fragments of the 
masonry which had once been the pride of Athens.” 
Passing along this ruined street—this street of ruins— 
Paul came to the gates of Athens; and through them 
entered at once a city well described in those three 
short words of inspiration, 1 full of idols?6 Here, 
close by the gates, is “ an image of Neptune on horse­
back, hurling his trident.” Here is a temple to Ceres, 
the goddess of agriculture, “ on the walls of which an 
inscription tells us the statues within were the work of 
the celebrated Praxiteles.” Paul goes through the gate. 
“ Sculptured forms of Minerva, Jupiter, and Apollo, of 
Mercury and the muses, stand near a sanctuary of Bac­
chus. Temples, statues, altars abound on every side.” 
In every street are seen the works of art, designed to 
serve the purpose of idolatry. There were statues to 
all the mythological divinities. There were images of 
every god on Olympus. There were chiselled forms 
of fabled heroes, such as Hercules and Theseus. “ Every 
public place and building too was a heathen sanctuary. 
The Record House was a temple of the mother of the 
gods. The Council House had statues of Apollo and 
Jupiter, with an altar of Yesta. The theatre was con­
secrated to Bacchus. And as if the idolatrous imagina­
tion of the Athenians could not be satisfied, altars were
6 See the margin of the sixteenth verse.
162
(TWENTY-FO URTH 8 UN DA Y.)
erected to Fame, to Modesty, to Energy, to Persuasion, 
and to Pity.” “ One traveller tells us, ‘ There were more 
gods in Athens than in all the rest of the country;’ and 
the Roman satirist hardly exaggerates when he says it 
is easier to find a god there than a man.
Here, in the midst of all this magnificent workman­
ship and beauty, Paul reflected. “ His path had been 
among the forms of great men and deified heroes, among 
the temples, the statues, the altars of the gods of Greece. 
In every form of beauty and grandeur wrought out by 
the sculptor and the architect, he had seen the vain 
fancies of the Greek mythology.” And men were wor­
shipping these dumb, dead, beautiful things which they 
themselves had made, and knew nothing of the one 
true God or of the true Messiah. In all that great, 
eager, thinking city, only one man’s great heart ‘ was 
stirred in him ’ for the sin and folly of this worship, 
when he saw Athens, the pride and beauty of that land, 
‘full of idols?
The friends who came with Paul now returned. They 
bore with them Paul’s command to Silas and Timothy 
to hasten to him. There was much work to be done; 
and there was need of help.
(TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
WHY did the Bereans send Paul away ? .
'' 
Who remained ? For what reason ?
Who ‘conducted’ Paul?
Why did Paul go to Athens ?
Did he go by sea or land ?
What has ‘as it were’ been thought to show?
Was there any deception ?
Where may we suppose he took ship ?
Near what mountain ?
What celebrated Yale did he pass ?
What other mountain on the other side ?
What celebrated battle-fields on the main-land?
Who fought there ?
What was the most southern point of land?
What would he see as he sailed up the Saronic gulf ? 
What was the Piraeus ?
What was Cenchraea ?
What other places similar to the Piraeus and Cenchraea ? 
How would it have been different, if Paul had come to the 
Piraeus four hundred years before ?
What were the ‘ Long Walls’ ?
What were at the gates of the city ?
What inside the gates ?
What were some of the particular objects in the streets ? 
How were the public buildings idolatrous ?
To what virtues and abstractions were altars erected ? 
What did one traveller say about the gods of Athens ? 
What Homan sarcasm is given?
What does ‘ wholly given to idolatry ’ mean ?
What characteristics of the Athenians would a worldly- 
minded man have noticed ?
What has the city of Athens always been admired for? 
What things were the pride of the people ?
What one principal thing did Paul notice ?
(TWENTY-FO URTII S UNDA Y.)
Why was it not as right for Athenians to worship Jupiter 
as for the Jews to worship Jehovah ?
Were they both different conceptions of the same being?
Is it right to worship God through images ? 
Why ?
Do you suppose the heathen worship the image simply, 
without the idea of a God in it ?
Why may we not use a picture or an image to help our 
conception of God ?
Is there any Mediator in heathen religion ?
Can men he saved without a Mediator ?
Is anything more meant by ‘his spirit was stirred’ than that 
Paul pitied the Athenians ?
When men commit sin, what ought we to think of be­
sides their wretchedness ?
When ‘ they departed,’ where did they go ?
What message did they bear ?
Why ‘ with all speed’ ?
If the Spirit of God is all-powerful to assist, why can 
not one man do the whole work as well as more ?
Have we any account of Silas and Timotheus coming to 
Paul?
(48)
Twenty-fifth Sunday
THE 
GRECIAN 
CAPITAL.
LESSON.
Acts xvii. 16-21.
Paul was alone in Athens. Doubtless he went, as 
usual, at once to the synagogue, but we have no 
account of what was said or done there. While he 
waited for Silas and Timothy, he had time to see the 
beautiful city and its idolatry. Three places would at­
tract his attention, as they did the attention of every 
traveller: the Market-place, (the Forum,) Mars’ Hill, 
{Areopagus,') and the Citadel, (the Acropolis.)
The Forum, or market-place, was the meeting-place 
of the people. It was a little valley formed by three 
hills on three sides. On the east of it was the citadel, 
“ towering high above the city of which it is the glory 
and the crown.” On the north is the craggy Mars’ 
Hill. On the west side was “ a sloping hill partially 
levelled, (the Pynx,) the famous meeting-place for politi­
cal assemblies.” From the Pynx and the Forum, in 
ancient times, the orators and the statesmen spoke to 
the people. Here poets recited their verses to an au­
dience skilled in all the points of nice criticism: here 
the artists exhibited their statues and paintings: here 
goods of all descriptions were bought and sold: here
1A compound Greek word, from pagus, hill, and Areo, of Mars, 
the god of war.
the public assembly of ‘ the people ’2 met to discuss 
and to make the laws of the city, to sit as council and 
to decide as judge in many of the legal questions. In 
Paul’s time, “ when Athens could be proud only of her 
recollections of the past,” the Forum was still the cen­
tre “of philosophy, of idleness, of conversation, and of 
business.” This ‘ market ’ was far more than the open 
market-spaces, to be seen in many modern cities. It is 
“ rather to be compared to the beautiful squares of such 
Italian cities as Verona and Florence, where historical 
buildings have closed in the space with narrow limits, 
and sculpture has peopled it with impressive images.” 
“Among the buildings of greatest interest in the Forum, 
were the porticoes or porches, which were decorated 
with paintings and statuary.” Two of these were, the 
Portico of the King, on the roof of which wrere statues 
of Theseus, the ancient hero, and of the God of Day; 
and the Portico of Jupiter, in front of which was Jupi­
ter’s image, and within which were paintings illustrat­
ing the rise of the Athenian government. Among the 
trees were statues of great men, such as Solon the Law­
giver, Cimon the Admiral, and Demosthenes the Orator. 
Here were statues to Mercury, the messenger and the 
orator of the gods; to Apollo, who had delivered the 
city from the plague; “ and in the centre of all, the 
altar of the Twelve Gods'.” “ If from this point we 
look up to Mars’ Hill, we see the temple of Mars, and 
we know that the sanctuary of the Furies is just hid­
den by the projecting ridge of rock. If we look to the 
Citadel,we see in the distance, on the ledges of rock, a 
series of little temples to Bacchus and Aesculapius, to 
Venus, to Earth, and to Ceres.
Areopagus, or Mars’ Hill, had also its decorations; 
but it was mainly famous for being the place where the 
1 See page 152, note 3.
164 
(!TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY.)
THE GRECIAN CAPITAL.
165
highest and most awful court of the nation held its sol­
emn sessions.3
The Acropolis,4 or citadel was the top of the tower­
ing hill which we saw from the sea. It was in the cen-
A. Areopagus. 
B. Pynx. 
C. Museum. 
D. Temple of Jupiter. 
E. Temple of 
Theseus. 
E. Lyceum. 
G. Temple of Fortune.
tre of Athens, as it was also the very centre of the 
pride and patriotism of the Athenian people. It was 
a steep mass of rock, and could be ascended only 
from one side. While therefore it was the security 
of the city, it was made also the polished ornament 
for the display of Grecian art. An orator said: “ it
* A fuller description of Mars’ Hill will be given in the next chap­
ter.
4 See page 160, note 4.
166
(!TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY.)
was the middle space of the five circles of a shield, of 
which the four outer circles were Athens, Attica, Greece, 
and the world.” The top of this hill was “ a museum 
of art, of history and of religion, of architecture and of 
sculpture, dedicated to the glory of the nation and to 
the worship of the gods.” If Paul went up the flight 
of rocky steps which led hither, and entered the mag­
nificent gateway, we can imagine what he saw. At the 
splendid entrance was a statue of Mercury, guarding 
the gate: then statues of Yenus and the Graces : then 
a bronze statue of Minerva, as the goddess of Health: 
then the image of Diana. Then there were statues of 
Pericles, the orator and statesman, “ to whom the glory 
of the Acropolis was due:” of Agrippa, and of Augus­
tus Caesar: of Theseus contending with the Minotaur, 
and of Hercules strangling the serpents. In the centre 
was the Parthenon of Minerva, “ the glorious temple 
which rose in the proudest period of Athenian history, 
and which, through ages of war and decay,” remains 
‘ still tolerably perfect.’ Within it was the great ivory 
and gold statue of Minerva, the work of Phidias, and 
unrivalled in the world except by his own statue of 
Jupiter. In another smaller temple, was another small 
statue of Minerva, which, like that of Diana at Ephe­
sus, was believed to have fallen from heaven.5 There 
was still another statue of Minerva, the largest of all in 
the city. It was made of brass, “ from the shields and 
brazen spoils of the battle of Marathon, and rose in gi­
gantic proportions above all the buildings of the Acrop­
olis, and stood with spear and shield as the guardian 
deity of Athens and Attica.” It was this huge but 
beautiful statue which Paul perhaps saw as he sailed 
up the gulf towards the Pirseus. “ How he had lauded 6
6 Act« xix. 35.
THE GRECIAN CAPITAL.
167
and had seen the wonders of the city. Here perhaps, 
by this great statue, Paul looked down on the city 
‘full of idols? ”
If Paul looked from the Acropolis ¿way over the city 
walls into the open country, he saw in one direction 
the place where Aristotle, and in the opposite direction 
the place where Plato, both pupils of Socrates, held 
their famous schools. Aristotle, the teacher of Alex­
ander the Great, once taught in another part of the 
surrounding groves. There were other schools within 
the city, -in Paul’s day. In one of the porches of the 
Forum the Stoics met: those stern, proud men, who 
taught “ that men should be free from passion, unmoved 
by joy or grief, and submit without complaint to the 
necessity by which all things are governed.” In one 
of the gardens, the Epicureans met—the easy, free men, 
who believed that pleasure was the end of life. These 
Stoics and Epicureans, the representatives of Pride and 
Pleasure, Paul was soon to meet in the Forum, in his 
discussions there.
How different were the thoughts of Paul from those 
of many men who have visited Athens, and have seen 
all these beautiful works of art. “ He burned with zeal 
for that God whom he saw dishonored all through the 
city. He was melted to pity for those who, notwith­
standing their intellectual greatness, were ‘wholly 
given to idolatry.’ He was not blinded to the reality 
of things by the appearance of art or philosophy. 
Earthly beauty and human wisdom were of no value, 
were worse than nothing, if they made falsehood good 
and made vice a god.” Paul, therefore, could not be 
silent. He exhorted in the synagogue of the Jews, 
reasoning, as before, from their Scriptures. He dis­
puted with those who gathered in the Forum to dis­
cuss every new and strange subject or philosophy. He
168
(TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY.)
would have no dull nor weak antagonists. He would 
he persecuted by no' mob. He would be beard with 
respectful attention, if he had anything to say which 
the Athenians thought worthy their attention. There, 
to the mingled gathering, he preached Jesus and the 
resurrection; and there, while he taught these simple 
doctrines, he met the human philosophers, in all the 
pride of their worldly wisdom—the Stoics and Epicu­
reans who came into the Forum. One man said, What 
does this talking-fellow6 say ? And another, He seems 
to be a proclaimer of strange gods.
How contrary Paul’s simple doctrines were to all 
their philosophy. He preached simply that Jesus was 
the Saviour of men from sin, and that there would be a 
resurrection from the dead. Neither the Stoics nor 
Epicureans believed there was any need of being saved, 
or that there would be any resurrection. The Stoics 
were pantheists: they believed the world or the uni­
verse was itself God, a great living machine that rolled 
on from eternity to eternity. The Epicureans were 
atheists: they believed there was no God. Both said 
that the soul of man would expire with his body, and 
so that there could be no resurrection. The Stoics 
taught a proud indifference to all joy, grief, anger, 
change in life, care, thought for the future. The Epi­
cureans taught a love for everything which could give 
pleasure, without thought of right or wrong; that men 
should not of course seek pleasure which brought pain 
with it, unless the pleasure would be more than the 
pain ; but that men should do what would give them
6 The Greek word rendered ‘ babbler ’ meant originally a seed- 
picker, like a bird who picks up seed, and afterwards one who picked 
up items or scraps of knowledge. 
In the light of all their ideas of 
eloquence, it was therefore a sharp sarcasm when the Athenians said: 
1 What does this item-monger, or dealer in small-talk, say ? ’
THE GRECIAN CAPITAL.
169
the greatest amount of pleasure in the whole life. The 
Stoic was therefore taught to depend on himself for 
everything. He scorned to receive aid from any per­
son or thing; and so he did not wish, he thought he 
did not need a Saviour. The preaching of Jesus was 
foolishness to him. The Epicureans sought gratifica­
tion only. The doctrines of Paul forbade many kinds 
of pleasure as wicked. The preaching of Jesus was 
foolishness to them.
Still there were some in the gathering who wished 
to know more of this new doctrine ; and they, eager to 
know the latest kind of religion, as well as the latest 
news, brought Paul to Areopagus. “Demosthenes, 
four hundred years before, had rebuked the Athenians 
for their idle curiosity, telling them they were always 
craving after news and excitement, even when destruc­
tion itself was hanging over their liberties;” and in 
Paul’s time, the Athenians were still as eager as ever 
‘ to tell or to hear some new thing.’
(:TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDA Y.)
QUESTIONS.
JO what place in the city would Paul go first ?
How would a synagogue he esteemed in Athens ?
What three public places would attract Paul’s notice ? 
What was the Market-place ?
What three hills on three sides ?
What was done in this market-place and at the Pynx ? 
What 4 people ’ met here ?
How would it compare with the open business-squares 
of modern cities ?
What peculiar class of buildings ?
What two especially noted ?
What statues of great men ?
What could be- seen on Mars’ Hill from the Forum ? 
What does Areopagus mean ?
What was it mainly famous for ?
What does Acropolis mean ?
Where was it ? 
What was it ?
To what did an orator liken the Acropolis ?
What was on the top of this hill ?
Name some of the gods and some of the men whose 
statues were there.
What was the principal building of the Acropolis ?
To whom was it dedicated ? 
Who was she ?
What three statues of her, and what were their charac­
teristics ?
Do you suppose Paul failed to visit the Acropolis ? 
What, outside of the city, could Paul have seen from the 
Acropolis ?
What schools were within the city ?
What was the difference between a Stoic and an Epicu­
rean ?
What was the chief cause of Paul’s earnest zeal ?
What is the significance of '■Therefore disputed he’ ? 
Who were 4 the devout persons ’ ?
Whom would Paul meet in the Forum ?
(49)
(TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY.)
How would he be received ?
What two opinions were expressed in respect to them ?
What does 4 babbler ’ mean ?
What did such a question mean »in the mouth of an 
Athenian ?
What does 4 setter forth ’ mean ?
What did Paul preach in the Forum ?
Was this the doctrine of the general resurrection or of 
the resurrection of Jesus ?
Why was this doctrine especially connected with the 
preaching about Jesus ?
What did the Stoics and Epicureans believe ?
What were the Stoics in respect to their belief in a God ? 
the Epicureans ?
What other difference was there in their teachings ?
Why was the preaching of Jesus foolishness to the Stoic ? 
Why to the Epicurean ?
Why did they take Paul to Mars’ Hill ?
What does 4 new doctrine ’ refer to ?
What did Demosthenes rebuke the Athenians for ?
Is it wrong to wish to learn 4 the news ’ ?
Is it wise to be seeking a new religion ?
Were the Athenians right or wrong in seeking to learn 
the new religion which Paul brought ?
Was Paul right in taking advantage of their curiosity ?
(50)
Twenty-sixth Sunday
MARS’ 
HILL.
LESSON.
Acts. xvii. 22-34.
44 THE place to which the Athenians took Paul was 
the summit of the hill of Areopagus, where the 
most awful court of Athens had sat from the earliest 
times, to pass sentence on the greatest criminals, and 
to decide the most solemn questions of religion. 
The 
judges sat in the open air, on seats hewn out in the 
rock; and the place was reached by a flight of stone 
steps directly from the Forum. 
On this spot, a long 
series of awful causes connected with crime and religion 
had been decided.” 
The first one of all was fabled to 
have been a trial of Mars, on charge of murdering a 
son of Neptune. 
Mars was acquitted, and hence the 
place was called Mars’ Hill, (Areopagus.1) The temple 
of Mars was on the brow of the hill. 
The sanctuary of 
the Furies, the avenging goddesses, who punished the 
condemned by taking away peace of mind and giving 
misery and misfortune, was just below the judges’ seat, 
in a broken cleft of the rock, and gave great solemnity 
to the place. 
“ Even in the decay of Athens, in Paul’s 
time, the people regarded this spot and this court with 
superstitious reverence. 
Here they thought of the 
dread recollections of centuries. 
It was the place of 
silent awo in the midst of the gay and frivolous city.
’See page 103, note 1.
MARS' HILL.
m
To come from the Forum to Areopagus, was to come 
into the presence of a higher power. No place in Athens 
was so suitable for a discourse on the doctrines and 
mysteries of religionand when the novelty-loving 
and religious Athenians found Paul’s conversations and 
address to the people in the Forum were about religion, 
they brought him hither to hear him. 
“ They took the 
Apostle from the tumult of public discussion, to the 
place most convenient and most appropriate. 
There 
was everything in the place to incline those who came 
to a reverent and thoughtful attention. 
It is probable 
that Dionysius and other Areopagites, were on the 
judicial seats. 
The dread thoughts associated with the 
hill of Mars, may have solemnized the minds of some 
of the people who crowded up the stone steps with the 
Apostle, to hear his announcement of new divinities.” 
Think now of the Apostle on the summit of Mars’ 
Hill. 
Think of the intense earnestness of Paul, and of 
the frivolous character of his hearers. 
Think of the 
certainty, the truth, the solemn meaning of the Gospel 
he preached, and of the worthless religion and mytholo­
gy which made Athens famous in the earth. 
Think of 
all the temples, statues, idols, altars around him, and of 
what he said about temples and idols. 
Close to him 
was the temple of Mars. 
Just below him was the 
abode of the Furies. 
Opposite, on the Acropolis, was 
the splendid Parthenon of Minerva. 
Yet here Paul 
boldly declares that ‘ God dwells not in Temples made 
with hands.’ 
“ Wherever his eye turned, he saw a 
Multitude of statues in every form and situation. Right 
ln front of him, towering from its pedestal on the rock 
°f the Acropolis, was the immense brazen statue of 
Minerva, armed with spear, shield, and helmet, as the 
champion of Athens. Standing almost in its very shade,
172
(TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY.)
he declared that the Godhead is not to be likened to 
that work of Phidias, or to any other image in gold, 
silver or stone, graven by art or man's device.”
Among all the altars, he had noticed one with the 
singular inscription, ‘To the Unknown God,’ as though 
the superstitious people would not omit from their wor­
ship one possible god whom they might not know. 
This inscription Paul took for the text of his address on 
Mars’ Hill.
THE ADDEESS ON MAES* HILL.
It is not the object of this address to prove that Jesus 
is the Messiah, as it was in the address at Antioch of 
Pisidia;3 but to prove to idolaters that there is one 
God, and that Jesus, .of whom he had spoken in the 
Forum, would be the final Judge of men’s good and 
evil deeds.
I. 
The Introduction: The Unknown God, (verses 22, 
23.)
Notice with what courtesy and with what carefulness 
Paul adapts his introduction to his Athenian audience. 
He was speaking to men accustomed to oratory and to el­
oquence. He was speaking in a place where men had been 
condemned for religious offences. 
He does not com­
mence, therefore, by saying that it was wrong to make 
these statues and idols. He might have lost the attention 
of his audience, and the opportunity for an argument: 
he might even have put his life in danger, if he had at­
tacked at once their national gods. 
In commencing, 
therefore, he only speaks of what he, as a traveller and 
stranger, had seen in their city. 
Every ear would be 
delicately attentive: “Ye men of Athens, I perceive 
that in all things you are very religious.3 
For, passing
3 See pages 66, 67.
5 Our English translation is generally correct, but does not quite
MARS' HILL.
173
through your city, and beholding the objects of your 
worship, I saw an altar on which was written : To the 
Unknown God. This God, whom you worship igno­
rantly, I wish to make known to you.”
II. This unknown god is the one only God, (verses 
24 to 26.)
The reasons why he only is God, are:
1.. (Verse 24.) He created all things. 
He is Ruler, 
therefore, of all heaven and all earth. 
He is therefore 
infinitely greater than the human temple of any other 
god, or than the temples of all other gods.
2. (Verse 25.) He does not need worship, as other 
gods seem to do. 
He himself gives life, breath, all 
things, to the very worshippers.
3. (Verse 26.) He created all men. He made them 
all of one blood.4 
He fixed the time of their existence 
in the world, and the length of their stay on earth.
III. All men alike ought to worship this one God, 
(verses 27, 28.)
1. Because he declares that he created all things, 
that he created men, that he decides the length and 
place of every life in order that men should seek him 
and find him, that is, worship him.
2. Because, as he created us at the first, so he now 
gives us life and breath, every day and every hour. 
Your own poets, too, say the same thing: that we are 
the offspring of God: that is, that we obtain life from 
him.
express the idea of the Greek, in the words, ‘ too superstitious.’ The 
Greek words rather mean, ‘ more careful about religious things ’ than 
other people. 
How true it was!
4 l0f one blood.' 
The Greeks boastfully claimed an origin for 
themselves, dilferent from the rest of the world. 
All beside Greeks 
were ‘ Barbarians.’ 
Homans i. 14.
MARS' HILL. 
175
And yet the result from all liis labor was successful; 
for a few souls heard and believed: even one of the 
Areopagites, and also one of the common crowd, a 
woman, and some others.
“ It is a serious and instructive fact, that the mercan­
tile people* received the message of God with greater 
readiness than the highly cultivated and polished Athe­
nians. Two letters to Thessalonica and two to Corinth, 
cities on either side of Athens, show the flourishing 
state of those churches. But we have no letter written 
by Paul to the Athenians; and we do not read that 
Paul was ever in Athens again.”
* Of Thessalonica and of Corinth.
l74 
(:TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY.)
IY. God, then, cannot be a statue or an image, (verse 
29.)
If we are the offspring of God, he is our Father. As 
we are living flesh and blood and spirit, our Father 
cannot be a gold or silver image, carved and graven by- 
art, or a marble statue, chiselled by man’s device, like 
all these images and statues, like the beautiful and co­
lossal image of Minerva yonder, formed by the art and 
device of the sculptor Phidias.
Y. God overlooks the past, provided you will now 
repent and prepare for his judgment-day, (verses 30,31, 
first part.)
YI. Jesus of Nazareth is to be the Judge at that day, 
(verse 31.) That Jesus of whom I spoke to you in 
the Forum, is God’s appointed Judge for that day, 
when every man shall give account of himself to 
God. God has given us proof that Jesus is to be his 
Judge at that day, because he raised Jesus from the 
dead.
Paul was perhaps going to show why the resurrec­
tion of Jesus proved that he would be the Judge at the 
judgment-day, but he was suddenly interrupted. “ Some 
■ of those who listened broke out into laughter and de­
rision. The doctrine of ‘resurrection’ was to them 
ridiculous. Others said, with a polite indifference, that 
they would hear him again on the subject. We have 
no knowledge that they sought Paul to hear him again. 
Curiosity was gratified. For the rest, they simply did 
not care.
Although Paul’s address was adapted to win them, 
the cultivated and polished Athenians politely declined 
to hear him, the common people derided him. In the 
midst of the derision of some and the indifference of 
others, Paul was dismissed and the assembly dispersed.
(:TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
"WEIERE ¿¡q the Athenians take Paul?
'' 
How was this place reached from the Forum P 
What made this place especially sacred ?
"Why was it called Areopagus ?
Why was it a suitable place to which to bring Paul ? 
Contrast now some of the things around Paul with Paul’s 
spirit.
Show the force of ‘ God dwells not in temples,’ etc.
Show the force of ‘ the Godhead is not like unto gold,’ 
etc.
What was the text of Paul’s address ?
How does the object of this address differ from his ob-. 
ject at Antioch in Pisidia ?
L What verses contain the Introduction ?
What is the subject of the Introduction ?
Did Paul say at once that idolatry was wrong ? 
Why ? 
What kind of an audience was he speaking to ?
How does he gain their eager attention ?
What does ‘ too superstitious ’ mean ?
What does ‘ devotions ’ mean ?
Do you think any particular ‘ unknown god ’ was meant 
by the inscription ?
Was it right for Paul to apply this inscription to the true 
God?
II. 
What is the second head of the Address ?
What is the first reason ?
Does God never dwell in earthly temples ?
What is the second reason ?
If God does not need worship, why should we worship 
him ?
If God gives all things to men, why should we ask him 
for them ?
What is the third reason ?
What did the Greeks boast for themselves ?
(51)
(:TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY.)
What does ‘ determined the times before appointed’ 
mean ?
What is meant by ‘ bounds of their habitation ’ ?
III. What is the third head of the Address ?
1. Why did God create all men and fix their times ? 
What does ‘feel after him and find him’ mean ?
2. What does God besides create us ?
W hich requires more power, to preserve us or to create us ? 
What quotation does Paul make in proof ?
IV. What is the fourth head ?
Give the meaning of the twenty-ninth verse ?
What gold and ivory image was there on the Acropolis ? 
What image of brass ?
What kind of stone images at Athens ?
V. What is the fifth head ?
What is meant by ‘ the times of this ignorance ’ ?
What is meant by ‘ winked at’ ?
Does God overlook ignorance of his law ?
How far is ignorance an excuse for sin ?
What does he now require for which we cannot offer ig­
norance as an excuse ?
What ‘ day ’ has God appointed ? 
For what ?
What does ‘ in righteousness’ mean ?
Will there be any complaint then that our ignorance 
or our weakness was not considered in the deci­
sion ?
VI. What is the sixth head ?
Whom does ‘ that man ’ mean ?
Where had Paul spoken of Him before ?
How has God given proof that He is to be the Judge ? 
Why did the Athenians break in upon Paul’s speech at this 
point ?
What two kinds of conduct were shown ?
What two kinds of people probably were represented ? 
Was Paul’s address successful?
What is an Areopagite ?
When is preaching successful ?
(52)
«THE CITY OF THE TWO SEAS.”
LESSON.
Acts xviii. 1-5.
pAUL must have gone to Corinth by one of two 
routes. He took either the coast-road through Eleu- 
sis and Megara or the shorter sail of a few hours in one of 
the many ships plying between the Piraeus and Cenchrea. 
When he reached Corinth, he was in a place far differ­
ent from Athens. Athens was a Greek free city. Corinth 
was a Roman colony. It was like going from Thessa- 
lonica to Philippi.1 Athens was a university town: 
Corinth was a business town. It was something like 
going from Oxford to London. Athens had once been 
greater politically than Corinth; but hi Paul’s time 
Athens had lost its business character, retaining chiefly 
its renown for learning, while Corinth was ‘ a new and 
splendid city,’ rebuilt by Julius Caesar, after having 
been once destroyed, and now kept in order by a Ro­
man Pro-consul. It was a most important town. It 
was situated on the isthmus between the two seas. By 
mounting to the summit of the hill2 at Corinth, we gain
1 Sec page 153, and 132, 133.
2 The fortified citadel called, like the Acropolis at Athens, (see note 
4, page 160,) Acro-Corinthus, summit of Corinth. 
It was two thou­
sand feet High above the sea, its sides steep, and the shadow reached 
half-way across the isthmus. 
The space on the summit was large 
enough for a town.
“ THE CITY OF THE TWO SEAS.” 
Ill
a ‘ magnificent and extensive view.’ There is a sea on 
the north and a sea on the south-east. The Acropolis 
of Athens can be seen forty-five miles away. The moun­
tains of Attica are in the eastern horizon. On the other 
side “ are the large masses of mountains of north-eastern 
Greece, with Mount Parnassus towering at Delphi.” 
The city lies at your feet. On either side at the coast 
is a harbor: on the eastern sea, Cenchrea, on the west­
ern sea, Lecheum. 
Hence Corinth was called by the 
poets ‘ The City of the Two Seas.’ It had been and 
still was to some extent the crossing-place of two great 
routes of travel: the land-travel along the isthmus from 
the continent to the Peloponessus and the travel across 
the isthmus from sea to sea. It had been therefore and 
still was a city of great military importance; for it 
controlled both routes. In ancient and in more modern 
times, nations have fought for the control of this town 
and its citadel.
Here, more than anywhere else, would you see the 
Greek race in all its life and activity. For hundreds 
of years before Paul’s time the inhabitants of Corinth 
had gone out in companies and colonized on many of 
the coasts of Europe in the west and east. As the col­
onies grew, the people of these towns used to come 
back to Corinth to trade and to see their native city. 
Ships came from every sea to her two harbors. In this 
city, too, were manufactures in metals, in dyeing and in 
porcelain, from which wares were sold to all countries. 
At certain times in the year the streets were crowded 
by strangers who came to attend the Isthmian Games. 
In Paiil’s time there was much of the ancient activity and 
life, although the old city had been destroyed and a 
new one, years afterwards, founded by the Roman em­
peror. We must think of Corinth, then, when Paul 
landed at Cenehrsea, as a colony of the Roman Empire,
Twenty -seventh Sunday.
178
(:TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY.)
in which Jews and Greeks were more numerous than 
Romans, and as the capital3 of the Roman province of 
Achaia.
We can think of three reasons why Paul came from 
Athens to Corinth: First. The discouragement he met 
at Athens. Secondly. Corinth “ was a large business city, 
in immediate communication with Rome and the westei n 
Mediterranean, with Thessalonica and Ephesus in the 
JEgean Sea and with Antioch and Alexandria in the 
east: the Gospel, if established there, would spread 
everywhere.” Thirdly. Jews were numerous in Corinth. 
There were “ communities of scattered Jews in various 
parts of the province,” more or less connected with 
Corinth. 
“A religion which was first to be planted in 
the synagogue, and intended thence to scatter its seeds 
over all parts of the earth, could nowhere find a more 
favorable soil than among the Hebrew families at 
Corinth.”
“At this particular time there was a greater number 
of Jews than usual in the city; for they had lately been 
banished from Rome by command of the Emperor 
Claudius Csesar.” 
One historian says “ that Claudius 
drove the Jews from Rome because they were inces­
santly raising tumults at the instigation of a certain 
Chrestus. 
Much has been written concerning this sen­
tence of the historian. 
Some have thought that there 
was really a Jew called Chrestus, who excited political 
disturbances t others that the name is used by mistake 
for Christus, and that the disturbances arose from the 
Jewish expectations concerning the Messiah or Christ. 
The events at least followed the actual appearance of 
Christ.”
3 
Athens was the ancient capital, before Greece was conquered. 
But under the Romans Corinth was capital of Greece, and Greece was 
now the province of Achaia.
Aquila and Priscilla were among the Jews banished 
and among those who came to Corinth. 
They were 
natives of Pontus, a province on the Euxine (Black) 
Sea, directly north of Antioch in Syria. 
When Peter 
preached on the day of Pentecost at Jerusalem, there 
were men from Pontus1 in the assembly. 
Possibly 
Aquila and Priscilla were there; or they may have heard 
the Gospel at home in Pontus from those who were 
in Jerusalem at the feast of Pentecost. 
For some rea­
son they had gone to Rome; and they were now ban­
ished from Rome to pursue their trade in Corinth. As 
they were tent-makers, Paul ‘abode’ with them. 
If 
they were not already Christians, they soon became so.* 
With them Paul labored at the trade which no doubt 
his father taught him in his youth. “ Those who visited 
Aquila at Corinth, in the working hours found Paul 
quietly occupied with the same work as his fellow-labor­
ers. Though he knew the Gospel to be a matter of life 
and death to the soul, he gave himself to an ordinary 
trade with as much zest as though he had no other oc­
cupation. 
He ‘ labored working with his own hand ’ 
among the Corinthians, as he afterwards reminded 
them,”6 so that no one could reproach him with in­
dolence or any selfish motives in preaching.
“ The Sabbath was a day of rest. 
On that day the 
Jews laid aside their tent-making and their other trades, 
and amid the derision of their Gentile neighbors went 
to the synagogue.” 
There, as often as the Sabbath re 
turned, Paul reasoned with both Jews and Greeks. 
“ His countrymen listened with incredulity or convic­
tion, while he ‘endeavored to persuade’ them to be­
lieve in Jesus the promised Messiah and the Saviour of 
the world.” The result seems to have been that he was
4 
Acts ii. 9. 
6 Terse 2G, 
01. Corinthians iv. 12.
“THE CITY OF THE TWO SEAS.” 
179
180
(TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY.)
far more successful among the Greeks than with his 
countrymen.
While he was thus working in the week and preaching 
on the Sabbath, Timothy and Silas returned. 
It seems 
they did not reach Athens before Paul left that place. 
Perhaps they sailed directly from Thessalomca or Dium 
to Cenchrgea; or they may have come by land to Attica, 
and from Athens down the isthmus. What news would 
they bring from Thessalonica ? 
Good news it was in­
deed, as we know from the first letter of Paul to the 
Thessalonians: news of steadfast converts, of men of 
aith, of diligent and careful ‘ Christians.
Their arrival, and the good news they brought, pro­
duced “ an instant increase of zeal and energy” in Paul, 
especially against the opposers who now began to re­
sist his teachings 
“ He himself declares that he was 
in Corinth ‘ in weakness and in fear and in much trem­
bling,’8 but ‘ God, who comforteth those that are cast 
down, comforted him by the coming ’9 of his friends. 
It was not the only time that Paul derived strength, 
when ‘he saw the brethren and thanked God and took 
courage.’10 And now, with much greater emphasis than 
before, he preached to his fellow-Israelites and urged 
them to receive Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah.
T Sec page 158. 
81. Corinthians ii. 3. 
* II. Corinthians vii. R.
10 
Acts xxviii. 15.
(TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
WHAT two routes from Athens to Corinth ?
How do we suppose Paul went ?
What difference between Athens and Corinth ?
Why was it like going from Thessalonica to Philippi ? 
Why was it something like going from Oxford to Lon- 
don?
Which was the greater city?
How had Athens changed ?
What advantage was there in the situation of Corinth ? 
What was the Acro-Corinthus ?
What could be seen from it ?
Why was this citadel important ?
What two harbors had Corinth ?
What two lines of travel passed through Qorinth ?
Would Paul see more of the real Greek people in Athens or 
in Corinth ?
Why did the people come back to the city ?
What manufactures in Corinth ?
Why were the streets crowded at certain times of the 
year ?
What was the capital of Greece in Paul’s time ?
What was the'name of the province then ?
What three reasons may be given why Paul came to Corinth ? 
Why were there more Jews than usual in the city ?
Who was ‘.Claudius ’ ?
What reason is given why he drove the Jews from 
Rome ?
What is that historian supposed to mean ?
What two banished Jews came to Corinth ?
What country were they natives of ?
Where wa,s that province ?
Where had men from that province heard the Gospel ? 
Ho you suppose they were Christians ?
How could they have heard the Gospel ?
What was their trade ?
(53)
(:TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY.)
Was it necessary for Paul to labor?
Was it degrading to his Apostolic authority to labor ?
Is it honorable to be unwilling to labor ? Is it right ? 
Where does he remind the Corinthians of his labor 
among them?
What reason may be given for his labor ?
On vhat day of the week did the Jews go to their synagogue ? 
What especial doctrine would Paul ‘ reason ’ about ?
In respect to what did he ‘ persuade ’ them ?
Who came during this time ?
Had Paul been in Corinth over more than one Sabbath ? 
From what place had Paul sent word to Timothy and 
Silas ?
How did they come from Macedonia ? From what 
place ?
What news did they bring ?
What is mfcant by ‘ pressed in the Spirit ’ ?
Was this the effect of the good news or of the immedi­
ate influence of the Spirit ?
Why is it a good thing to have news from earnest 
churches and of revivals, told in other churches ? 
Is it right to rely on human sympathy for our religious 
earnestness ?
What other time was Paul strengthened by the coming 
of friends ? Where ?
What did Paul’s earnestness lead him to do ?
What is meant by ‘ testified that Jesus is the Christ ’ ? 
What is the test of genuine religious labor ?
(54)
THE 
FIRST 
EPISTLE.
LESSON.
Acts xviii. 5-7; I. Thessalonians i. 1.
T) AUL’S increase of zeal and energy “ was net the 
• only result of the arrival of Timothy and Silas. 
Timothy had been sent while Paul was at Athens to 
revisit and strengthen the church of Thessalonica.1 And 
now the news he brought on his return led Paul to write 
to his beloved Thessalonian converts. Paul wrote this 
letter partly to show his affection for these converts and 
to encourage them in the midst of their persecutions, 
and in part to correct some errors into which they had 
fallen.” No doubt the Jews who excited the idle rab­
ble of Thessalonica against Paul and Silas and Jason 
would continue to molest the Thessalonian church when­
ever they had opportunity. And it was perhaps but 
natural that these believers, who had had so little in­
struction, should fall into some mistakes. “ Many of 
the new converts were uneasy about the state of their 
relatives or friends who had died since their conver­
sion. Others, thinking Christ was soon to appear at 
his second coming, were persuading themselves that 
they need no longer continue their usual labor. Others 
were despising the gift of prophesying.” To assist them 
in these troubles, and to correct their error, Paul writes 
them a most affectionate letter, in which he most kindly
11. Thessalonians iii. 1, 2.
Twenty-eighth Sunday.
182
(:TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY.)
praises and encourages them. 
This letter is the First 
Epistle to the Thessalonians.
As we suppose this is the first epistle2 which Paul 
wrote to a church of believers, and his other epistles 
are more or less like it, it is well for us to stop and 
think a moment of the general subject of the epistles 
before we go on. 
By settling two or three questions in 
respect to one, we settle them in respect to all.
I. 
First, then, How do we know the epistles of Paul 
were written on his journeys ? 
They must have been 
written in towns on his journeys; for the churches to 
which they are addressed were established on'his second 
and third journeys, and he journeyed all his life after­
wards, till he was prisoner at Rome. Paul first preached 
the Gospel in Galatia and Philippi and Thessalonica and 
Corinth and Ephesus; and it is not likely that he wrote 
his letters to Galatians, Philippians, Thessalonians, Co­
rinthians, Ephesians, during the very short time between 
his second and third journeys, when he was in Jerusa­
lem, nor during that turbulent time when he was taken 
prisoner and sent off under a Roman guard to Caesarea. 
It is more likely that he wrote them in places where he 
remained a much longer time, such as Corinth. 
It 
would be unnatural to suppose that they were all writ­
ten from Jerusalem ; for while there are many allusions 
to Greek and Roman names and places and events, 
there are few allusions to indicate that the writer was 
in Judea. 
The ancient inscriptions added at the end 
of the Epistles,3 though uninspired, and though it is 
thought they are not all correct, yet all show they were 
written in the towns along his journeys.
n. How can we tell where each epistle was written ? 
We cannot certainly decide. 
We can only judge of
2 See note 12 page 184.
3 See the end of the various Epistles.
THE FIRST EPISTLE.
183
the place and the circumstances in which the Apostolic 
writer is by what the Apostle says of places and per­
sons and circumstances. 
For example, in this first 
epistle to the Thessalonians, (l.) Paul speaks as if he had 
but recently come from Thessalonica, and as if the 
Thessalonian believers had but recently leen converted. 
He writes: ‘And ye became followers of us* having 
received the word in much affliction‘ Ye were en- 
samples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia; 
for they show what manner of entering in we had 
unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols ;’5 ‘ Ye 
know, brethren, our entrance unto you that it was not 
in vain, but after that we suffered at Philippi, as ye 
know:’6 ‘We, brethren, having been taken from you 
for a short time in person?1 In these things, Paul cer­
tainly writes as if to new converts, and as if he had 
lately been among them. 
(2.) Paul says that he has 
lately been in Athens.8 
(3.) He declares that Timothy 
had just come from Thessalonica.9 
This letter to the 
Thessalonians must have been written, then, after Tim­
othy reached Paul, and after Paul left Athens; and as 
Timothy reached Paul at Corinth, after Paul had left 
Athens and after Paul had just come, a few weeks be­
fore, from Thessalonica, and as ships were often sailing 
too from Cenchrtea to Thessalonica, there can be little 
doubt that Paul wrote this first letter to the Thessalo­
nians from Corinth.10 
In the same manner, we are to 
decide where each epistle was written.
4 
L Thess. i. 6. 
6 i. 1. 
* ii. 1, 2.
7 ii. 1Y. 
The Greek participle is past, not present.
8 üi. 1. 
8 iii. 6.
10 You will notice the uninspired inscription at the end of the epis­
tle, added by another writer, says the epistle was written from Athens. 
This is generally thought by scholars to be a mistake. 
They agree 
that the Thessalonian epistles were written from Corinth.
184
(:TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY.)
III. 
If these epistles are simply letters written by a 
Christian traveller to Christian churches, how is it that 
they are inspired Scripture to us ? Some persons may 
think the dignity and authority of these sacred epistles 
are lessened by the thought that they were written in 
journeying; but we must remember that the journeys 
were missionary journeys, and the missionary divinely 
inspired. Some of the most solemn and most forcible 
appeals to Christian churches in modern times have 
been the letters of missionaries. If they had been in­
spired, they would have been binding on us, like the 
Scriptures. If what an inspired missionary Apostle 
spoke to the people of Thessalonica when he was in 
their city is the word of God to us,11 then surely what 
an inspired missionary Apostle wrote to the believers of 
that same place, from a city a few hundred miles away, 
is the word of God to us.
It is well for us also to take up one of these epistles, 
and by dividing it into parts to see how full it is of per­
sonal kindness and affection. We will see in this epistle 
the largeness of Paul’s affectionate nature.
THE FIKST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.1*
I. Paul thanks God for their conversion.
Remembering their faith, love, and hope while he 
was in Thessalonica,13 and how earnestly they received 
the Gospel in those solemn meetings,14 he gives thanks 
that, in affliction or persecution, they followed his own 
example, and became examples to all believers in Mace­
donia and Achaia.15 Recalling to their minds his im-
11 Acta xvii. 2, 3.
12 This First Epistle to the Thessalonians, it is agreed, is the first 
of all Paul’s Epistles. 
There is difference of opinion in respect to the 
order of time in which all the Epistles were written; but in the fu­
ture lessons we will follow that which Conybeare and Howson have 
adopted.
131. Thess. i. 3. 
14 i. fi. 
15 i. 6-9.
THE FIRST EPISTLE.
185
prisonment in Philippi, and the boldness necessary to 
preach afterwards in their city,16 he calls them to wit­
ness the faithfulness of his preaching,17 his affectionate 
treatment of them, as a nurse18 and a father19 their own 
children, his daily labor to support himself,20 and gives 
thanks to God the more earnestly, because in persecu­
tion they did not hesitate to follow him, a persecuted 
Apostle, as the churches in Judea had followed others.11 
(Chapters i. ii. 1-16.)
II. After he left them, he longed greatly to see 
them.
Though he had been absent from them only a little 
while, he wished more than once to return, but was 
hindered. 
He calls them his ‘glory and joy.’ 
(ii. 
17-20.)
III. As he could not then come himself, he sent Tim­
othy to them.
Timothy was sent to strengthen them in the faith 
and to comfort them in the persecution which Paul 
himself had foretold would come upon them. 
(iii. 1-5.)
IV. He is full of joy at the good news Timothy 
has brought, 
(iii. 6-13.)
V. He advises them in respect to their temptations 
and in respect to Christian virtues:
In respect to impurity and defrauding,2* brotherly 
love, quiet, and good order :23 in respect to those who 
have died and the Lord’s second coming. 
He comforts 
them in respect to the dead by declaring those asleep 
ln Jesus shall live with Jesus. 
He comforts them in 
respect to the second coming by saying they ‘ are not in 
darkness,’ and hence not likely to be overtaken by the 
day of the Lord ’ as by a thief in the night. “ Where­
fore comfort one another with these words.”24 
He
16 »• b 2. 
»
ii. 3-6. 
18 ii. 1. 
>2 ii. ii. 
so ¡i. 9m
21 li. 14. 
52 iv. 1-7. 
23 iv. 9-12. 
24 iv. 13, 14-18 ; v. 11.
180 
(!TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY.)
gives them directions in respect to their teacheis or 
pastors,25 the ‘unruly,’ the ‘feeble-minded,’ and the 
‘ weak ;’26 and in respect to the practical virtues of 
forgiveness, joyfulness, prayer, thankfulness, treatment 
of the Holy Spirit, and of prophesying.27 
(Chapters iv. 
v. 1-22.)
YI. In concluding, he asks God’s blessings on them, 
requests their prayers for himself, and commands that 
this letter be read to all the brethren, (v. 23-28.)
Such was the first inspired epistle, written by the es­
pecial influence of the Holy Spirit, and adapted to the 
wants of the Thessalonians : from which we, taking 
into account our changed circumstances, may learn the 
‘ mind of the Spirit.’
In Corinth again the Jews resisted Paul j and again 
Paul turned to the Gentiles. 
“A proselyte named 
Justus, concerning whom we know nothing more, 
opened his door to the rejected Apostle.” 
He pro­
bably ‘ entered into ’ Justus’s house to meet his flock 
there. 
He was shut out of the synagogue, and he 
must have some place to teach and preach. 
“ He 
doubtless continued to lodge with Aquila and Pris­
cilla.28 “ He abode there, as afterwards at Rome in ‘ his 
own hired lodging.’ ”29 
“ It may readily be supposed 
that there was no convenient place for teaching in the 
manufactory of Aquila and Priscilla.” 
Greeks would 
not be likely to come there and mingle with Jews 
lately exiled from Rome. 
“Justus, being a proselyte, 
was exactly in the position to receive under his roof 
both Greeks and Hebrews.”
ÏS v. 12 13. 
26 v. 14. 
27 V. 16-22. 
28 Luke x. 5-7.
• 
M Acts xxviii. 30.
{TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
WHAT other result of the arrival of Timothy and Silas was 
" there?
Where had Timothy been sent?
What had probably continued to trouble the Thessalo- 
nian church ?
What three mistakes does this especially show they 
had evidently fallen into ?
What is the object of this letter?
How do we know Paul’s epistles were written on his jour­
neys?
Where was Paul between the third journey and his 
journey as prisoner to Rome ?1
Might not some of these epistles have been written from 
Csesarea ?
Why may we not think some of them were written from 
Jerusalem ?
Will the same reason apply to Csesarea ?
Are the inscriptions at the end of the epistles a part of 
the epistles ?
Are they all thought to be correct ?
What do they all show ?
Can we certainly decide where each epistle was written ?
What is the first reason why we suppose the first epistle to 
the Thessalonians was written at Corinth ?
Which orte of these passages shows most clearly that 
Paul had lately been in Thessalonica ?
What is the second reason ?
What is the third reason ?
Do these facts agree with the account in the Acts ?
At what place does the inscription at the end of this 
epistle say it was written ?
What two persons were with Paul when he wrote it ?2
1 Acts xxi. 33 ; xxiii. 31, 33, 35 ; xxiv. 27.
1 In I. Thcss. i. 1, Silvanus is the same name as Silas. Silas is the 
short or contracted form.
(55)
TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY.
From the reasons given, does Athens or Corinth seem 
to you the more probable place ?
How is the dignity and authority of all his epistles affected 
by the fact that they were written on Paul’s journeys?
What is this First Epistle full of?
I. What is the first subject of the epistle ?
How far does it extend ?
Turn to the first chapters of the epistle and show how 
Paul alludes to their Christian virtues at the 
first.
Show how he alludes to his imprisonment at Philippi.
Show the allusion to the faithfulness of his preaching 
and to his kind care for them.
Show the allusion to his daily labor, and their own 
faithfulness in persecution.
II. What is the second subject of the epistle ?
Show the passage in the epistle.
What affectionate titles does he call them by ?
III. What is the third subject of the epistle ?
At what place was he when he sent word to Timothy 
to go to them ?
What did he send Timothy for ?
IY. What is the fourth subject of the epistle ?
How far does it extend ?
V. What is the fifth part of the epistle ?
How far does it extend ?
Point out the passages in respect to brotherly-love, quiet 
and good order.
Show the passages in respect to believers who have died 
and 1 the second coming.’
What other kind directions can you show ?
VI. ' What is the conclusion of the epistle ?
Why is this epistle adapted to us ?
Did all the Jews of Corinth obey Paul’s preaching?
Where did Paul teach afterwards ?
What reason is there for supposing that he still lodged 
at Aquila’s house ?
(56)
Smite.
A PERSECUTOR PERSECUTED.
LESSON.
Acts xviii. 8-17.
T
HE opposition of the Jews at Corinth did not pre­
vent the real success of Paul’s preaching. A church 
was soon formed, and rapidly increased. Many heard, 
believed, and were baptized. We have the name of 
the first convert in Achaia. When Paul afterwards 
wrote from Corinth his letter to Rome, he mentioned 
Epenetus1 as the ‘ first fruits of Achaia.’ But when, 
after he left the Corinthians, he wrote a letter back to 
them, he said ‘ the household of Stephanas ’ were the 
‘first fruits of Achaia.’3 Perhaps Epenetus was a 
member of Stephanas’ household. Another convert’s 
name was Gaius,3 in whose house Paul staid during 
his next visit at Corinth.4 Not many philosophers, not 
many wise men, not many mighty, not many noble,B but 
many of the degraded and the profligate6 were called 
into the kingdom of God. Yet one man of eminence 
received the Gospel as a little child; Crispus,3 the ruler 
of the synagogue, probably a “ man of learning and of 
high character.”
1 Romans xvi. 5. 
31. Corinthians xvi. 15.
3 In I. Corinthians i. 14, Crispus and Gaius are mentioned togeth 
er. 
It seems likely that both were converted at the same time.
4 Romans xvi. 23. 
61. Cor. i. 26. 
* I. Cor.vi. 10, 11.
188
(!TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY.)
A PERSECUTOR PERSECUTED.
189
Paul was not to be driven away by opposition. God 
spoke to him in a vision, directing him to speak boldly 
and his success would be great. For the long period 
of a year and six months, he continued to teach and to 
preach. The promise of God was abundantly fulfilled. 
The Corinthian church became large and flourishing. *'
Two important events, we suppose, occurred while 
Paul labored and preached in Corinth, during the year 
and a half. One was the writing of a second letter to 
the Thessalonian Christians. The other was the com­
ing of a new Pro-Consul to the capital of the province.
Paul had no doubt heard again from Thessalonica. 
There seems to have been much excitement among 
these Christians in respect to the second coming of the 
Lord: What he had written in his first letter about 
that subject7 had been either misunderstood or pervert­
ed. Their wrong notions of that great and mysterious 
event—‘ the day and the hour,’ of which ‘ no man nor 
angel knows, but the Father only ’—was creating much 
trouble and needless anxiety. And therefore, to com­
fort and to correct them again, Paul writes
THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.8
First, he praises their ‘ growing faith ’ and ‘ abound­
ing charity,’9 their patience and faith in persecution 
and trouble,10 and speaks of his prayers for them.11
Secondly, he tells them not to be ‘ shaken in mind 
nor troubled ’ about the second coming of the Lord;12 
that there would be a ‘ falling away from the faith first;’ 
that they ought to be steadfast and hold firm what 
they had been taught by preaching and by letter,13 and 
prays the Saviour and God to comfort their hearts.14
71. Thessalonians iv. 13 to v. 11. 
See, too, pages 181, 186.
8 See note 10, page 1S3. 
8II. Thess. i. 3. 
10 i. 4.
"ill. 
19 ii. 3-11. 
13 ii. IB. 
»Mi. 16, 17.
Thirdly, he asks their prayers,15 and commands them 
to be ‘orderly’ and ‘industrious,’16 to ‘note’ and ‘ad­
monish ’ the man who does not obey his letter.17
Such was the second inspired epistle written by 
divine direction, adapted to the present wants of the 
Thessalonians, and containing the doctrines which were 
to govern and to comfort the children of God for all 
time.
We need not suppose that Paul’s preaching in the 
city and his writing to the Thessalonians occupied all 
his time during his long residence in Corinth. It is 
said he ‘ continued there ’ a year and a half. It need 
not be meant at all that he did not sometimes go out 
of the city to preach. “ The expression may only de­
note that it was his head-quarters or general place of 
residence. Communication was easy and frequent by 
land and water with other parts of the province. Two 
short days’ journey to the south were the Jews of Ar­
gos. About the same distance to the east was the city 
of Athens, which had been imperfectly evangelized. 
Within a walk of a few hours, along a road busy with 
traffic, was the sea-port of Cenchrsea.’’ We know there 
was a church established at Cenchrsea,18 and there were 
at other places many ‘ churches of God,’19 among which 
Paul praised ‘ the patience and faith ’ of the Thessalo­
nian disciples.
While Paul was thus busy in his work from month 
to . month, a new Pro-Consul of the province was an­
nounced. His arrival from Rome was an event of great 
and grave importance. An exacting, rigorous, cruel 
man might make the people of the province wretched. 
A just, candid, and well-disposed man might make 
them contented and happy. We know little of Gallio, 
• iii. l, 2. 
16 iii. 7-13. 
17 iii. 14,15.
18 Romans xvi. 1. 
19II. Thess. i. 4.
390
(TWENTY-NINTH SUND A Y.)
except that he was the brother of the philosopher Sen 
eca, and that Seneca speaks of him with much affection, 
saying that he was “ not only an honest man, but also 
one who won general favor from his amiable temper 
and popular manners.” This coincides with the descrip­
tion given in the Acts.
The Jews took advantage of the change of govern­
ment to assault Paul, and get a decision against him 
from their new officer. “ It is quite evident that the 
act was preconcerted and the occasion chosen. The 
Jews, making use of the privileges they enjoyed as a 
separate community, and well aware that their worship 
was protected by the Roman state, accused Paul of 
violating their own religious law. They seem to have 
thought that if this violation of Jewish law could be 
proved, that Paul must be held responsible to the law 
of the empire; or perhaps they hoped that he would 
be given up to them for punishment.” They hoped, 
perhaps, too, that Gallio would be glad to please them, 
or would not notice the difference between their own 
law and the Roman law.
We must see, then, Gallio seated as judge in the 
pro-consular court, with his military and civil officers 
around him, with the robes and emblems of Roman 
authority. “ Before this heathen ruler, the Jews are 
making their accusation with eager clamor. Their chief 
speaker is Sosthenes, the successor of Crispus, or, it 
may be, the ruler of another synagogue. The Greeks 
stand around to hear the result, and to learn something 
of the new Governor’s character: they hated the Jews, 
and were ready rather to take Paul’s side than that of 
the Jews. The Jews of Corinth were not so crafty in 
the statement of their accusation as the Jews of Thes- 
valonica had been: the exact charge was that Paul 
taught men to worship ‘ contrary to law.’ What law ?
A PERSECUTOR PERSECUTED.
191
The Jewish law, or Roman law ? Perhaps the perse­
cutors meant to leave that point undecided, hoping Gal­
lio would condemn Paul for teaching another God than 
the Roman gods. Gallio showed by his reply that ho 
knew the duties of his office. He did not permit Paul 
to make a defence. If the case had been one of wrong 
or of crime against Roman law, he would have given 
it investigation, but as it was only one of Jewish law 
and superstition, they must look to that themselves. 
They might excommunicate Paul from their church, if 
they liked. He would be no judge of such questions.
The persecutors were completely baffled. But this 
was not all. Now their wicked artifice recoiled on 
themselves. The Greeks were gratified by Gallio’s de­
cision. Excited and glad, and enraged at the Jews, 
they caught the chief persecutor and beat him right 
before the Pro-Consul. With easy negligence, Gallio 
left the persecutor to his persecutors. He thought, 
perhaps, that a bitter and cruel man, like Sosthenes, 
did not deserve the interference of a Judge, even 
though law was on his side, when others, bitter and 
cruel, assaulted him. When it is said, therefore, that 
‘ Gallio cared for none of these things,’ it is not meant 
that he was indifferent to religious things, (although 
that might be true,) but that he would not meddle 
with what did not belong to his office and duties. It 
raay be doubted, however, whether he ought not to 
liave prevented the public beating of any man, even a 
hitter and malignant persecutor.
The result was, that the accusers were disgraced; 
Gallio was popular among the Greeks; and Paul was 
respected as an injured man. How wonderfully had 
the words of the vision been fulfilled! The enemies 
who had ‘ set on ’ Paul, had not ‘ hurt ’ him.
(TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
D
ID the Jews succeed in their opposition ?
How do you know a church was formed ?
Who was the first convert ?
How do you reconcile the two passages in Romans and 
in I. Corinthians ?
What other person was probably converted at this time ? 
How is he especially connected with Paul ?
From what classes were the converts taken ? 
Prove it. 
What eminent man was converted ? Eminent how ? 
What result followed as in the case of Lydia and of the 
jailer ?
How was Paul’s duty now made known to him ?
Was this more than a dream ?
Has God ever given directions by dreams ?
Is it right for us to rely on any such direction ?
What was Paul told not to do ?
What was Paul told to do ?
If Paul had not obeyed the direction, what would have 
been the result to the ‘ much people ’ ?
When is it wrong for us to be silent ?
How did Paul know when to flee and when to stay, in 
time of persecution ?
When is it wrong to fear receiving injury ?
How long did Paul remain in Corinth ?
Had he been in Corinth more than two or three weeks 
ibefore the vision ?
What two important events do we suppose occurred during 
this residence ?
Could Paul have lived in Corinth so long without hear­
ing from Thessalonica ? 
Why ?
What especial subject gave anxiety to the Thessalonian 
Christians ?
•Do you suppose all were excited about this subject ? 
What had Paul written about ? 
Where ?
What is the object of Paul in writing this inspired letter ? 
(57)
(:TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY.)
Turn to the Epistle, and point out some of the subjects 
of the first part.
What is the second part? 
Show the subject and the 
recommendation.
Point,out the subjects of the third part.
What is meant by ‘ continued there’ ? 
Read the margin. 
What else may Paul have done ?
If the games at the Isthmus were celebrated during this 
time, would Paul have visited them ?
To what places may he have gone ?
Who arrived about this time ?
What is meant by ‘ deputy ’ ?
Why was this event of great importance ?
Whose brother was Gallio ?
What kind of a man did his brother say that he was? 
What advantage did the Jews try to gain ?
What did they charge upon Paul?
What would they probably hope ?
What three parties made up the court ?
Who is evidently the Jews’ chief-speaker?
What was the exact form of the accusation ? 
What law ? 
Why did not Gallio permit Paul to defend himself ? 
Was there any recognised violation of Roman law ? 
Was ‘your law’ civil or religious law?
Was it right for Gallio to refuse to decide ?
What did the Greeks now ?
What did Gallio probably think ?
Does ‘ cared for none of these things ’ mean ‘ indifferent 
to religious things ’ ?
What was the result ?
What words had been fulfilled ?
(58)
djxribi^f 
Smûrag.
THE SECOND RETURN HOME.
LESSON.
Acts xviii. 18-22.
AT length the time came when Paul thought best to 
leave Corinth, and to return to Judea. It had been 
along time since he and Silas left Antioch in Syria. 
The journey had been long and wearisome, but it had 
been even more successful than Paul’s first journey with 
Barnabas. In Corinth, Paul had at last found a place 
in which he could preach and rest without fear of suc­
cessful persecution. If the Greeks of Corinth did not 
all welcome his preaching, neither would they permit 
the malignant Jews to persecute publicly a man who 
they well knew had committed no offence against the 
laws of the province. His work there, as the founder 
of churches, had now been accomplished. He wished 
to be at the coming national festival at Jerusalem.1 It 
may be that Aquila and Priscilla were about to remove 
to Ephesus; and if so, the removal may have had some­
thing to do with Paul’s return. His home in Corinth 
would be broken up, and he could go with them part 
of the way.
After giving farewell to the Corinthian church, the 
three went down to Cenchrsea. “ Descending from the 
table-land on which Corinth was situated, the road
1 ‘ This feast that cometh,’ in the 21st verse, means probably the 
Feast of Pentecost.
THE SECOND RETURN HOME.
193
stretched eight or nine miles across the Isthmus,” to 
this harbor. Here, at different times, might be seen 
ships from Egypt and from Syria, from ‘Asia ’ and from 
Macedonia, and smaller craft from Crete and the islands 
of the iEgean Sea. All the sea-commerce of Corinth 
from the east came through this harbor. It was there­
fore a town of considerable size. Whether Phcebe was 
a convert, and the church was already formed at this 
place,2 we are not yet told. If Paul had not preached 
here before, he may have remained here a day or more 
now. But here, where he landed from Antioch, the 
three step on board the ship which was to carry them 
to Ephesus.
Before the vessel sailed, however, or more likely be­
fore they embarked, a religious ceremony was performed 
which we must stop to notice. Either Paul or Aquila 
had previously taken a vow. The time of this vow had 
expired. “ Such vows the Jews, even when in foreign 
countries, often took on themselves, in consequence of 
some mercy received or some deliverance from danger, 
or some other occurrence which had produced a deep, 
solemn impression on the mind.” The obligations such 
persons took were: to abstain from wine and all strong 
drinks, not to enter any house in which was a dead 
body, not to attend any funeral nor to allow themselves 
to be made unclean according to the Mosaic law, and 
not to cut the hair till the end of a fixed length of 
time.
There is a difference of opinion about the person who 
took this vow. The words of the Scripture may mean 
either Paul or Aquila. Some persons think that Paul 
could not have made such a vow, because it would have 
been in violation of his own principles—the principles
2 Romans xri. 1.
194
(:THIRTIETH SUNDAY.)
he had so earnestly advocated in respect to the law of 
Moses, and which were confirmed at the great council 
of Jerusalem. They say, too, that elsewhere in the 
Scriptures the man’s name is mentioned first in lAquila 
and Priscilla,’3 and that in this place the man’s name 
is mentioned last, Aquila’s name being put next to the 
phrase about the vow. Other persons think that it was 
not contrary to the decision of the. council for Paul to 
take a vow: that, by that decision, he was freed from 
obligation to the law and customs of Moses, but that he 
might, if he chose, practise those customs, just as we 
Gentiles now may observe Moses’ law about clean and 
unclean meats, if we choose. And they say, too, that 
Paul wished to show that he had respect for Moses’ cus­
toms and laws.
If it was Paul“ who had been for some time conspic­
uous, even among the Jews and Christians at Corinth, 
for the long hair which showed that he was under a 
peculiar religious vow,” and who now had his hair shorn 
in Cenchraea, at the end of a fixed time, we can see an 
additional reason why he hastened on past Ephesus/ 
He wished, it may be, to reach Jerusalem before the 
days for the offering of the sacrifice required after the 
head was shorn, had ended. It certainly seems most 
natural to suppose that it was Paul who cut off his hair, 
to show that he was no longer under a vow.
“ The voyage from Corinth to Ephesus was among 
the islands of the Greek Archipelagoand over waters 
which from the earliest times have been the scenes of 
stirring life. Legends, traditions, poetry, history, had 
their home among these beautiful islands of the AEgean 
Sea. “No voyage across the Aegean was more fre-
^ See xviii. 2 and 26 ; I. Corinthians xyi. 19. But see, too, II. 
Timothy iv. 19, and Romans xyi. 3.
1 Yerscs 20 and 21,
TEE SECOND RETURN HOME.
195
quently made than that between Corinth and Ephesus. 
These two places were the capitals of the two peaceful 
and flourishing provinces of Achaia and Asia: the two 
great business towns on the opposite sides of the sea. 
We may say that the relation of these cities of the 
eastern and western Greeks to each other, was like that 
between New-York and Liverpool. Even the time of 
the voyage between the opposite sides of the sea, (from 
ten to fifteen days,) was alike. Cicero says that his 
passage from Corinth to Ephesus, which was a long
°one, was in fifteen days, and that his return from Ephe­
sus to Corinth was thirteen days in length.”
The spear of Minerva’s image on the Acropolis of 
Athens was again visible to Paul, if he sailed down the 
Saronic Gulf in a clear day. Off the cape of Sunium, 
the ship would leave the track on which he came from 
Berea. As he wound his way among the thousand 
islands, he would think of the voyage ‘ in a straight 
course,’ far, far to the north, from Troas to Neapolis, 
two or three years before. Passing, morning, noon
196
(:THIRTIETH SUNDAY.)
and night, some beautiful island or some cluster of 
islets, at length the long Icarus and the long Samos 
(reminding him of the Thracian SamosB) passed slowly 
by; and if the wind was fair, the coast off the city of 
Ephesus is soon before them. “ It seems that the ves­
sel' was bound for Syria, and staid only a short time in 
harbor at Ephesus. But even during the short interval 
of his stay, Paul made a visit to his Jewish fellow-coun­
trymen, and (the Sabbath being probably one of the 
days during which he remained) he held a discussion 
with them in the synagogue about the Messiah. Their 
curiosity was excited by what they heard; and perhaps 
if he had staid longer, the curiosity would soon have 
been followed by persecution, as at Antioch in Pisidia. 
But he could not grant their request.” He was anxious 
to reach Jerusalem in time for the national festival; 
and, if he should not go on in the ship, he might have 
no other opportunity. He saw, however, enough to 
encourage him to promise the Ephesian Jews that he 
would return, if it should be God’s will. We shall see 
how exactly Paul kept his promise.
From Ephesus, the ship sailed past Cos and Rhodes, 
two islands afterwards mentioned in Paul’s voyages6. 
Then Paul was almost in familiar waters. Possibly the 
cliffs of Lycia could be seen. The previous sail of Paul 
and Barnabas from Paphos to Perga was in the neigh­
boring seas. Far away to the left lay the shores of 
Pamphylia. Rough Cilicia lay hid behind the watery 
horizon in the north-east. A-little further on their 
course, and Cyprus rose into sight, and for a day or 
more lay in the sea, a high, black line of land off on the 
left. Then came another long sail, and finally the dis­
tant outline of Palestine appears, and then the familiar
‘ See page 181.
* Acts xxi. 1.
THE SECOND RETURN HOME.
197
coast about Caesarea. Here Paul, after a long, tiresome 
ride on the water, stepped ashore: in this Roman cap­
ital of the Roman province of Judea, although he was 
on his way to the ancient Hebrew capital oi the Land 
of Promise.
“ The journey from Caesarea to Jerusalem is related 
in a single word.” 7 Nothing is said of what occurred 
at Jerusalem: nothing of meetings with other Apostles, 
of controversies about disputed points of doctrine: 
nothing of Paul’s recitals of ‘ all that God had done 
with them,’8 nor even of the festival, if indeed Paul ar­
rived in time. He simply made a short visit of sympa­
thy and of courtesy to the church, and then he went 
down to Antioch. It is likely the journey to Antioch 
was made by land; and if it was, he passed over the 
same coast road which we have supposed he travelled 
when he went up from Antioch to the council of Jeru- 
salem with the ‘ difficult question.’
With Paul, Antioch, more than Jerusalem, was the 
point of starting and of return. This visit to Antioch 
was probably his last; and he was to make but one 
more visit to Jerusalem, and that one of persecution, 
of suffering and of final separation.
7 The two words, ‘ gone up,’ are one word in the Greek. Some 
persons think that Paul did not go to Jerusalem at all, but he cer­
tainly intended to, when he was at Ephesus, (verse 21;) and why 
did he come to Caesarea, if not to go to Jerusalem ?
8 Acts xiv. 27. The reason why nothing is said about Paul’s visit 
at Jerusalem, doubtless is, that nothing occurred in respect to his 
great work among the Gentiles.
QUESTIONS.
TTOW does this second journey compare with the first ?
What kind of a place had Paul found Corinth ?
Why did he now wish to return ?
What was the 1 feast that cometh ’ ?
What else may have led Paul to return ?
To what town did the three go first ?
What person mentioned afterwards by Paul lived in this 
place ?
Is it probable that Paul preached here at any time ? 
What took place before they sailed ?
* 
When were such vows taken ?
What obligations were taken ?
Who may ‘having shorn his head’ refer to ?
Was that vow in violation of Paul’s principles ?
What reason for supposing that it was Aquila who took 
the vow ?
Which one do you think took the vow ?
If it was Paul, what additional reason for hastening to 
Jerusalem ?
Through what waters did the voyage lie ?
What made journeys frequent ' between Corinth and 
Ephesus ?
The connection between the two cities was like what in 
our own day ?
Where would Paul leave tne course of his journey to
Greece ?
What ‘straight course’ would he think of?
What two islands, among others, did he pass ?
What did one of them remind him of ?
Where was the vessel bound for ?
What did Paul in Ephesus ?
What did the Jews wish ?
■ Wrhy did not Paul consent ?
What was this visit the first beginnings of ?
What did Paul promise ?
(59)
(.THIRTIETH SUNDAY.)
Did Paul observe the Jewish feasts ?
Was not this keeping Moses’ law?
Did he it from obligation or from choice ?
Who remained at Ephesus ?
Why could they not teach the Ephesians as well as Paul t 
What two islands did Paul sail past ? Where are they men­
tioned ?
The track of what previous voyage were they near?
cliffs ? shores ? horizon ?
What island on the left ?
What distinction between Caesarea and Jerusalem ?
What does ‘gone up ’ mean ? What‘ church ’ ?
Did Paul go to Jerusalem ?
Why have we no account of Paul’s visit in Jerusalem ? 
What is meant by 1 saluted the church ’ ?
How was the journey made to Antioch ?
When had he been over the road before ?
What was Antioch in relation to Paul’s missionary 
journeys ?
What visits were there to the two cities ?
(60)
(:THIRTIETH SUNDAY.)
Thirty-first Sunday
THE THIRD JOURNEY.—APOLLOS OF ALEXANDRIA.
LESSON.
Acts xviii. 23-28.
P
AUL must have been gone from Antioch, on his 
second journey, two years or more. To make the 
journey through Syria and Cilicia,1 Derbe and Lystra, 
and other ‘ cities,’2 remaining long enough in each to as­
certain the condition of the * churches,’3 to go ‘ through­
out Phrygia and the region of Galatia,’4 travelling all 
the way on foot to Troas, must have taken from one to 
two months: from Troas to Philippi, Thessalonica,5 and 
Berea, six or eight weeks: from Berea to Athens and 
Corinth, three or four weeks. He was at Corinth pro­
bably more than ‘ a year and a halfand he must have 
been nearly two months from Corinth to Caesarea by 
the way of Ephesus, and from Caesarea to Antioch by 
way of Jerusalem. It seems likely that he was in some 
of these places much longer than we have supposed 
in this reckoning; and therefore that the time of ab­
sence from Antioch had been from two to two and a 
half years.
He was now among the ‘ Christians ’ of Antioch ‘ a 
good while.’ He related to them the story of his long 
and successful journey. He had found the churches 
in Lycaonia steadfast: he had explored Phrygia and
1 xv. 41. 
4 xvi. 6.
a xvi. 4. 
6 xvi. 12,13 ; xvii. 1, 2, 10,
8 xvi, 5. 
'xviii. 11.
Galatia and preached the Gospel there. Flourishing 
churches had been planted in the far-distant lands of Ma­
cedonia and Achaia. No ‘difficult question’ was now 
raised, by envious or narrow-minded Pharisees, when 
Paul told how he had lived with the Gentiles all along 
his journey. Neither famine nor controversy sent him 
now on an errand to Jerusalem. With other ‘pro­
phets and teachers,’ he continued to instruct publicly 
and privately the believers of the city, until his desire 
to know the condition of the Phrygian and Galatian 
converts, and his promise to the Jews of Ephesus, led 
him to plan his third missionary journey.
Barnabas and Mark are no longer spoken of. Even 
Silas is not mentioned. It is probable that Silas re­
mained at Jerusalem, where he had already been ‘a 
chief man” in the church. We shall find afterwards 
that Timothy was one of his companions. Perhaps he 
was from the time of leaving Antioch.
It is evident that this was a systematic visit of churches 
and places. He went over ‘ all the country of Galatia 
and Phrygia in order: He must have visited some of 
the Syrian and Cilician churches, if he travelled in the 
track of his former journey to Tarsus and through the 
dician Gates. In Galatia and Phrygia Paul may have 
Visited other places than those he visited before. He 
seems to have gone through the principal towns of 
t ese two provinces without persecution or interruption, 
making more thorough the incomplete visit of two years 
efoie. Two things Paul designed to accomplish : first 
to encourage and strengthen the converts in their trials 
and against error, and secondly to make collections for 
the poor Christians in Judea. When James, Peter and 
°hn, at the council of Jerusalem, declared that Paul
THE THIRD JOURNEY. 
199
7 xv. 22.
20.0
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was the Apostle to the Heathen or Gentiles, they di­
rected him to remember the poor.8 It is to these very 
Galatians that Paul writes when he mentions this direc­
tion of the three Apostles, and when he says: ‘ I was 
forward to do the same.’8 We know, too, what the 
order was which he gaAe to the churches of Galatia. 
It was the same which he afterwards gave to the church 
of Corinth :9 ‘ that each one, on the first day of the 
week, should save a certain portion of his earnings as 
God had prospered him, and have it ready to send, 
when an opportunity offered, to Jerusalem.9
With this twofold object in view, we think of the 
beginning of this third journey. Nothing is said of 
Paul’s exact route, till he arrived at Ephesus.10 He no 
doubt passed over again the sunny Cilician plain; 
looked up again at the frowning cliffs at the Great 
Mountain Gate; and again trod the high table-land of 
Lycaonia.
After Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch in Pisidia, 
we cannot fix on any cities which he visited. We only 
know that in the Scripture account Galatia is mentioned 
first, while in the account of the former journey Phry­
gia is first mentioned.11 “We are at liberty to suppose, 
therefore, that he travelled first from Lycaonia through 
Cappadocia into Galatia, and then by Phrygia to the 
coast of the Aegean. The great road from Iconium 
to Ephesus passed along the valley of the river Mean­
der and near the cities of Laodicea and Colosse; and 
we naturally suppose that the Apostle approached the 
capital of ‘Asia ’ along this well-travelled line.” ' While 
the Apostle is making this long journey from Phrygia
8 Galatians ii. 9, 10.
81. Corinthians xvi. 1, 2.
10 See frontispiece map for the supposed route.
11 Compare xviii. 23 with xvi. 6.
THE THIRD JOURNEY.
201
to Ephesus, the route of which and the incidents of 
which we know nothing about, our attention is directed 
to another great and good man, who arrived at the cap­
ital of Asia before him.
Aquila and Priscilla had remained at Ephesus some 
time after Paul sailed for Caesarea, when there came a 
man who was destined to do the church great service. 
This man was a Jew and an orator. He was skilled in 
the Scriptures, having been taught no doubt, as Paul 
himself had been, by earnest and faithful parents. Be­
sides being thoroughly acquainted with the Jewish 
Scriptures, he possessed, doubtless, like Paul, the know­
ledge of the best schools of his age. He was born in 
Alexandria in Egypt, “ the emporium of Greek com­
merce, where literature, philosophy, and criticism ex­
cited the utmost intellectual activity,” and where were 
famous schools for the training of orators. In this city, 
which had been “ the - most wealthy and splendid city 
°f the known world,” and which in Paul’s time “ exer­
cised, next after Athens, the strongest intellectual influ­
ence over the age,” Apollos was trained up. In this city, 
where Jewish learning mingled with Gentile cultiva­
tion, and which is noAV as famous for its translation of 
the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek and for its Jewish 
theology as for its Museum and Library,19 he had had 
better opportunities to become an orator than even 
Paul at Tarsus; for the Jews abounded in Alexandria 
and possessed learned schools of their own. “ With 
the eloquence of a Greek orator, the subject of his 
study and teaching Avas the Scriptures of his forefathers. 
His reputation in the synagogue was that of a man 
mighty in the Scriptures.’ ” Whether he came to
The Museum was “ an establishment in which men devoted to 
literary pursuits were maintained at the public cost.” The Library 
contained at one time 400,000 volumes.
202
(THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY.)
Ephesus directly from Alexandria or from other cities 
whither his earnest spirit led him to advocate his reli­
gion, is an undecided question.
But Apollos was yet only a disciple of John the Bap­
tist. Apollos may himself have listened to the hold 
teaching of that honest reformer, ‘ clothed with camels’ 
hair and a leathern girdle.’ The sturdy doctrines of 
the great forerunner had seized fast hold of his earnest 
mind. Filled with zeal to spread John’s doctrines of 
repentance, reformation, and the new coming of the 
Messiah, he taught that ‘ way of the Lord™ which iris 
accepted Master taught. “We may conceive of him 
as travelling, like a second John the Baptist, outside ot 
Judea, expounding the prophecies of the Old Testa­
ment, announcing that the time of the Messiah had 
come, and calling unholy Jews to repentance in the very 
spirit of Elias.”
“ Thus burning with zeal and confident of the truth 
of what he had learned, he spoke out boldly in the syn­
agogue of Ephesus, where an intense interest must have 
been excited about this time concerning the Messiah. 
Paul had recently been there and departed with the 
promise of return. Aquila and Priscilla, though taking 
no forward part as public teachers, would keep what 
Paul had said before the minds of the Israelites. And 
noAV an Alexandrian Jew had introduced himself in the 
synagogue, bearing testimony to the same Messiah with 
singular eloquence and with great power in the in­
terpretation of Scripture. Thus an unconscious pre­
paration was made for the arrival of Paul, who was al­
ready approaching Ephesus through the up-lands of 
Asia Minor.”
“ The teaching of Apollos, though eloquent, learned, 
ra Matthew iii 1-3 ; Luke iii. 4; John i. 23; Isaiah xl. 3
THE THIRD JOURNEY.
203
and zealous, had a very grave defect in it. But God 
had provided among his listeners” those who could 
teach even this learned and earnest orator his deficiency. 
Two humble tent-makers knew the Messiah had come. 
The prophecies which Apollos expounded so convinc­
ingly in favor of the near approach of the Messiah, 
Aquila and Priscilla showed to mean Jesus of Nazareth. 
The faithful arguments of Aquila and Priscilla con­
vinced the great-hearted and humble-minded Apollos 
that Jesus was the One who was to follow John the 
forerunner.
Apollos soon embarked for Corinth. News from 
Corinth may have led him to think he could assist the 
church there. The Ephesian Christians gave him letters 
of introduction and commendation to their Corinthian 
brethren. To the Corinthian Christians he proved a 
most valuable help; for even the Jews, it would seem, 
who had rejected Paul, were ‘ mightily convinced ’ by 
the eloquent arguments of Apollos that the Jesus cruci­
fied at Jerusalem was the Messiah. “And yet evil 
grew up side by side with good. For while Apollos 
was honestly cooperating with Paul, he was unwillingly 
held up as a rival of the Apostle himself. In this city 
of critics and orators, the learning and eloquent speak­
ing of Apollos were contrasted with the unlearned sim­
plicity with which Paul had purposely preached the 
Gospel to his Corinthian audience.” Some held to the 
new teacher, and some to the old. And this was no 
doubt the origin of those divisions of Paul and of Apollos 
which afterwards gave so much anxiety to the Apostle.'4 
“ We cannot imagine that Apollos himself wished or 
tolerated such unchristian divisions.”
141. Corinthians i. 12.
(:THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
JJOW long had Paul been gone on the second journey ?
Can you distribute the time ?
How long did he remain in Antioch ?
What did he there ?
What two things led him to plan a third journey ? 
Where were Barnabas and Mark ?
Where was Silas ?
Who was his companion ?
What kind of a visit was this ?
What two things did Paul design to accomplish ?
What especial direction of the Apostles did he wish to 
carry out ? 
What Apostles ?
To whom does he mention this direction ?
What order did Paul give in respect to this ? to whom ? 
What is the first city named on this journey ?
Did Paul go through Syria and Cilicia to reach Galatia ? 
What cities can you say he visited ?
How are Galatia and Phrygia named differently in the 
previous journey ?
What may you suppose, then, in respect to the route ? 
Whom had Paul left at Ephesus ?
Who came to Ephesus during Paul’s absence ?
What was he ? 
From what place ?
How did this city compare with Athens and Tarsus ? 
What had it to do with orators ?
What four things was it famous for ?
What was the subject of this orator’s eloquence ? 
Whose disciple was Apollos ?
How did he become his disciple ?
What is meant by 1 way of the Lord ’ ?
What had John the Baptist preached ?
What is meant by ‘ present in the Spirit ’ ?
Did Apollos teach the immediate coming of the Mes* 
* siah ?
What else did he teach ?
(61)
(:THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY.)
What does ‘knowing only the baptism of John’ mean? 
Where did Apollos speak ?
What combined to increase the interest concerning the
Messiah ?
What effect would this have on Paul’s coming ?
Who instructed Apollos ?
What was the one particular point in their instructions ? 
Should believers in humble station despair of convincing 
the most learned or eloquent ?
What previous preparation had Aquila and Priscilla for 
approaching Apollos?
Is it right at all times to inform a man in error that he 
is wrong ?
How should it be done ?
Where did Apollos go ? 
Why ?
What did the Ephesian Christians for him ?
Whom did Apollos help in Achaia ?
What does ‘ believed through grace ’ mean ?
Why did Apollos accomplish what Paul did not ?
How did the subject of Apollos’ preaching at Corinth 
compare with Paul’s at Antioch in Pisidia ?
How did he show that Jesus was the Messiah ?
What evil mingled with the good ?
What led to .this ?
How do you know there were these divisions ?
Is it not right to prefer one preacher to another ?
Why were these divisions wrong ?
(62)
MIRACLES 
AND MAGIC-WORKERS.
LESSON.
Acts xix. 1 - 20.
14 EPHESUS was the greatest city of Asia Minor as 
well as the metropolis of the province of Asia ; and 
as it was constantly visited by ships from all parts of the 
Mediterranean, and united by great roads with the mar­
kets of the interior, it was the common meeting-place 
of various characters and classes of men.” Among 
these various classes who had gathered in this stirring 
city were a few disciples of John the Baptist. There 
were ‘ about twelve men’ who had learned John’s doc­
trines in diiferent places or had been converts to Apol- 
los’ preaching in Ephesus. If they had heard of Jesus 
as the Messiah, they did not fully understand the doc­
trine. Apollos must have been gone some time before 
Paul arrived ; and it may be these disciples came to 
Ephesus after Apollos had departed. If they had re­
ceived instruction from Aquila and Priscilla, that in­
struction was not sufficient. “ They had only received 
John’s baptism, and were ignorant of the great out­
pouring of the Holy Ghost.”
Paul had now come down from the upper country1 and 
on one of the great roads from the east entered Ephesus. 
He found out the Jews to whom he had given his pro-
1 ‘ Upper coasts.’ 
Coasts does not mean, of course, coasts of the
aea, but the upper parts or provinces.
MIRACLES AND MAGIC-WORKERS. 
205
mise of return ;2 and he now met this small company 
of John’s disciples. Paul’s simple, earnest question 
seemed to perplex them. Though they sincerely wished 
to do right, they were ignorant of the Holy Spirit’s es­
pecial appearance at the day of Pentecost and since 
that time. Though baptized by John, they had not 
been baptized with that outpoured Spirit which the 
Saviour promised. They were therefore reminded that 
John himself told the people to believe on him who 
should come after him, that is, on Jesus of Nazareth, 
the Messiah. Convinced of the Messialiship of Jesus, 
they received the baptism which he commanded his dis­
ciples to administer; and then, on them, as on the gath­
ered multitude at Pentecost, the gift of tongues and the 
gift of prophecy descended.
Paul now took up his residence in the city. Aquila 
and Priscilla were still there without doubt, as they are 
mentioned both before and after this time.3 It is very 
likely that Paul again worked at his trade with these 
tent-makers; for he afterwards told the Ephesian Christ­
ians that ‘ his own hands had ministered to his neces­
sities and to those who were with him.’4 Sabbath by 
Sabbath he went to the synagogue to reason with the 
Jews. He was present at many other meetings, or 
whenever opportunity offered, to argue with his coun­
trymen, with proselytes or with Gentiles. For three 
months he was permitted to preach the Messiahsliip of 
Jesus of Nazareth. Those who had invited him to re­
turn to Ephesus did not persecute him; and although 
some of them would not be convinced, and even ‘ spake 
evil’ of the spiritual truth Paul preached, opposing him
3 xviii. 21.
3 xviii. 26; I. Corinthians xvi. 19. 
This Epistle, as will soon be 
8een, was written soon after this time from Ephesus.
4 xx. 84.
Thirty-second Sunday
206
(.THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
publicly, yet they do not seem to have attempted to in­
jure Paul himself.
Paul, however, separated himself and his disciples 
from the synagogue. As at Corinth, when he was com­
pelled to leave the synagogue, so in Ephesus, God pro­
vided him a friend and opportunity to continue his 
work. “ Tyrannus was probably a teacher of philoso­
phy or rhetoric, converted by the Apostle.” He opened 
his c school’ to Paul, and most likely assisted Paul in 
his ‘ daily ’ discussions. The converts were now there­
fore formed into a distinct organization; and thus the 
Ephesian church to which Paul wrote his Epistle was 
founded.
During the two years while Paul taught and preached 
in the school of Tyrannus much more good was done 
than simply within the city. Jews and Greeks through­
out the whole province of Asia heard of the Christian 
doctrine. No doubt other churches in other places 
were founded. If Paul himself did not go out of the
MIRACLES AND MAGIC-WORKERS.
20 7
city, Timothy and Erastus,5 Epaphras6 and Archippus,7 
may have gone out to Colosse,6 Hierapolis,7 Laodi- 
cea,7 and other neighboring towns.
We know indeed how faithful Paul was in his 
Christian work : that lie not only taught publicly in the 
school of Tyrannus, but went about ‘ from house to 
house :’8 that affectionately and ‘ with tears’9 he warned 
them all, ceasing not, ‘ night and day,’9 when opportun­
ity offered: that he most earnestly enforced that one 
great lesson of the Christian preacher, ‘ repentance and 
faith and while, for example’s sake, supporting him­
self by labor, he ‘ shunned not to declare all the coun­
sel of God.’11 Such faithful labor God always blesses. 
The Ephesian church became large and flourishing; the 
Gospel became known through all the province; and 
special miracles, beside the miraculous gifts of tongues 
and of prophecy, confirmed the divine doctrine earnestly 
preached.
_ ^e city of Ephesus was famous through all the an­
cient world for two especial things: the worship of 
Diana and the practice of magic. We shall soon see 
how Paul’s preaching came in conflict with the wor­
ship of Diana. At present, we are called to notice how 
the unusual miracles which Paul wrought came in con­
flict with the practice of magic. The practice of magic, 
indeed, was closely connected with the worship of 
Diana. It was said that certain “mysterious symbols, 
called ‘ Ephesian Letters,’ were engraved on the crown, 
the girdle, and the feet of the goddess.” When these 
mystic words were pronounced, they were considered 
a charm, especially against evil spirits. When they 
were written, they were carried about as amulets or 
Worn on some part of the body. “ Curious stories are
xix. 22. 
6 Colossians i. 2, I. 
7 Colossians iv. 12, 13, 15-17.
* Xx• D, 18, 20. 
8 xx. 31. 
10 xx. 21. 
11 xx. 27.
208
(:THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
told of their influence. The rich Croesus is said to have 
repeated them on his funeral-pile; and an Ephesian 
wrestler is said to have been always successful against 
his antagonist from Miletus till lie lost the parchment 
on which they were written. The study of these sym­
bols was an elaborate science ; and books both numer­
ous and costly were written by learned professors ” of 
the science. Magicians naturally flocked to Ephesus even 
more than they did to Paphos in Cyprus.12 “Among 
those who were in the city during Paul’s residence 
there, were several wandering Jewish magic-workers.” 
The Jews had from the earliest times a strange fond­
ness for these practices; and sorcery was sternly for­
bidden by the law.13 And now even more than ever, 
in an evil age of superstition and imposture, worthless 
men of the chosen nation wandered from city to city, 
even among the Gentiles, disregarding their God and 
disgracing alike the law and the religion of their fathers. 
Seven brothers, who were magicians, soon became no­
torious from their conduct towards Paul in Ephesus. 
Their father’s name was Sceva. He “ is called a chief- 
priest, either because he had really been high-priest at 
Jerusalem or because he was chief of one of the twenty- 
four courses of priests.” There must have been a neg­
ligence indeed in the father, like that of Eli of old, to 
permit his sons, so many of them, to go so far astiay 
from the very worship and ordinances of Moses.
The ‘ especial miracles,’ or, as the words mean, the 
‘ not ordinary miracles,’ wrought by Paul, consisted in 
the communication of healing power to the diseased 
and the demoniac by means of garments, handkerchiefs,
12 See page 52 in Eighth Sunday.
13 Deuteronomy xviii. 10, 11; Leviticus xx. 27 ; Exodus xxii. 1 i 
I. Samuel xxviii. 3, 9.
141. Samuel ii. 12, 17
MIRACLES AND MAGIC-WORKERS.
¡09
and aprons. Here was a far greater effect, openly ob­
served, than anything ever known to be produced by 
the charms and amulets of the ‘ Ephesian Letters.’ It 
was publicly known that real cures had been effected by 
Paul. Persons known to have been possessed of de­
mons had been made sound in mind. A strong impres­
sion must have been made “ on the minds of those who 
practised curious arts in Ephesus.” The wandering Jews 
thought there must be some peculiar magic charm in the 
name which Paul used. Especially Sceva’s sons, consid­
ering nothing sacred which would add to their arts of de­
ception, did not scruple at once to profane the name of 
Jesus by pronouncing it over a demoniac. The demons 
were subject neither to them nor indeed to Paul, but 
only to Jesus. The authority of Jesus, used by Paul the 
appointed servant of Jesus, they were forced to obey; 
but they scorned and defied the authority of wicked 
men, who profanely tried to use even the holy name of 
Jesus for their own purposes. In maddened frenzy, 
the demoniac sprang upon the apostate priests, over­
powered and wounded them, and in violent rage drove 
them naked from the house.
“The fearful result of the profane use of the holy 
name of the Saviour soon became notorious throughout 
Ephesus. Consternation and alarm took possession of 
the minds of many: the name of the Lord Jesus began 
to be reverenced and honored. The conscience of 
many that believed515 was moved by this testimony 
against their magic arts ; and they came and made full 
confession to' the Apostle,, and publicly acknowledged 
and forsook their sorcery.
“ The fear and conviction seems to have extended 
beyond those who made a profession of Christianity.
15 Or the words may mean, 1 those who had previously believed.’
210
(THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
A large number of the sorcerers themselves openly re­
nounced their practice; and they brought together the 
books that contained the mystic symbols and burnt 
them before all the people. When the volumes were 
consumed, they proceeded to reckon their price. Such 
books, from their very nature, would be costly; and all 
books of that age were vastly more expensive than the 
dearest books of our day. Hence we must not be sur­
prised that the whole cost thus surrendered and sacri­
ficed amounted to as much as nine thousand dollars.16 
This scene must have been long remembered at Ephe­
sus. It was a strong proof of honest conviction on the 
part of the sorcerers and a striking witness of the 
triumph of Jesus Christ over the powers of darkness.”
16 The ‘ piece of silver ’ was doubtless the drachma, the Greek coin 
of the time: its value was about eighteen cents.
(:THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
WHY was Ephesus the meeting-place of many classes of 
^" men ?
What was one class now in Ephesus ?
How many men were there of this class ?
Do you suppose they had seen Apollos ?
What promise did Paul now fulfil ?
What does ‘ upper coasts ’ mean ?
What was Paul’s question to these disciples ?
Can men believe without receiving the Holy Spirit ? 
What answer did these disciples make ?
Is the Holy Spirit a person or an influence ?
Was it possible that these'men could not have heard of 
Divine influence?
In whose name did the Apostle baptize ?
What connection has the question about baptism with 
the former question ?
How did John’s baptism differ from this baptism?
Did John preach faith as well as penitence ?
What two effects followed Paul’s baptism ?
What other manifestations were these effects like ?
Why may we think Paul worked at his trade ?
How many Sabbaths did Paul speak in the synagogue ? 
What was the result?
What friend received Paul ? What was he ?
Did Paul preach more or less often than before ?
How long was he teaching in Tyrannus’s school ?
Who else heard the Gospel besides the Ephesians ?
What other persons might have gone out of Ephesus ? 
Where are their names mentioned ?
To what places may they have gone ?
What description have we of Paul’s life while residing in 
Ephesus ?
Point out as many particulars of it as you can.
What was the one great lesson he taught ?
(03)
(THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY.-)
Are repentance and faith to be exercised towards the 
same person (xx. 21) ?
What was the success of Paul’s work in Ephesus ? 
What confirmed the doctrines he preached ?
What two things was Ephesus famous for ?
How was magic connected with Diana ?
What stories are told of these symbols ?
What books were written ? By whom ?
What magic-workers were at that time in Ephesus ? 
What does ‘ vagabond ’ mean ?
What had been the tendency of the Jews? for how 
long?
What seven brothers ? Who was Sceva ?
What does ‘ special miracles ’ mean ? What were these mir­
acles ?
How did these miracles come into connection with the 
magic-workers ?
What did the magicians think the power of Paul con­
sisted in ?
What is the meaning of ‘ adjure ’ ?
What did the demoniac answer ?
What was the result throughout Ephesus ?
Is the ‘ many ’ in the eighteenth, the same as that in the 
nineteenth verse?
What was the cost of the books burned ?
How do you account for this large cost ?
What did the whole occurrence prove ?
(64)
Thirty-third Sunday
THE 
TEMPLE 
OF 
DIANA.
LESSON.
Acts xix. 21-34.
PAUL was never satisfied with one success in his 
Master s cause. "When the Gospel was received by 
multitudes in one place, or when opposers, like Elymas 
the sorcerer of Paphos, or like the sons of Sceva at 
Ephesus, were overcome by some triumphant demon­
stration of God’s power, Paul, confident and unwearied, 
pressed on to new journeys and new labors. The suc­
cess of his first missionary journey with Barnabas only 
caused another and longer and more laborious journey 
to be planned. The greater success of the second jour­
ney with Silas, oniy led him to plan a third and more 
particular journey over all the same broad region. And 
now, here at Ephesus, on his third journey, we find 
him already thinking of a fourth missionary journey.
The outline of Paul’s plan of such a journey is given us. 
After again going over Macedonia and Achaia, and re­
turning to Jerusalem with the collections for the poor, 
the great Apostle intends to make a fourth and still 
more extended journey, to Rome itself. What a dif- 
ferent journey did he make to Rome when that time 
came! as a prisoner; and yet an Apostle and a preach- 
er, though a prisoner! At present, however, Paul re­
mained in Ephesus, to finish his work there, only send- 
ing forward Timothy and Erastus to visit the churches
212 
(THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY.)
of Macedonia. ' And while he remained, a remarkable 
tumult took place in the city, connected with the wor­
ship of Diana. 
We need to know something more of 
Ephesus and of Diana to understand it.
Ephesus had become “ the chief city of Asia Minor,”
“ the metropolis of the province of Asia,” because it 
was situated where it naturally received the trade of 
the interior provinces, and because its admirable harbor 
brought to it ships from all countries. 
To the north­
east, a road led through mountain defiles to Sardis and 
to Phrygia. 
To the east, through a gorge, and then up 
the valley of the crooked river Meander, went a branch 
road of the great thoroughfare to the distant Euphrates, 
through Iconium. Along these roads, and many smallei, 
the slow and stately caravan of merchants wound, or 
the petty traffickers of petty towns and villages brought 
their goods for sale. 
From the north, from the west, 
from the south and the east, from Smyrna and Troas, 
from Philippi and Thessalonica, from Corinth and 
Athens, from Miletus and Crete and Alexandria and 
Antioch and Tarsus, came ships laden with merchan­
dise to anchor in her harbors. 
Partly on a mountain- 
slope, partly on a smaller, round-shaped hill, and partly 
in the plain between these heights and the sea, were 
the buildings of the city. 
The river Cayster flowed 
through the plain in its winding channel to the sea. A 
lake near its mouth made the inner harbor. 
Within 
the walls, which stretched along the plain and up and 
down the uneven surface of the mountain-slope, were 
the principal public buildings. There was a forum with 
its public buildings around the open space through which . 
the excited multitude “ rushed up to the well-known 
place of meeting.” 
There was a gymnasium, betw een 
the hill and the mountain, where wrestlers and raceis 
were trained for their contests. 
There were temples to
THE TEMPLE OF DIANA. 
213
Jupiter and to Julius Caesar. There was a vast theatre, 
with marble seats, one of the largest in the world, not 
far from the foot of the mountain. 
There were build­
ings for bathing.
But outside the walls, “ one building surpassed all the 
rest in magnificence and in fame. This was the Temple 
of Diana, which glittered in brilliant beauty at the 
head of the harbor, and was reckoned by the ancients 
as one of the wonders of the world. 
The sun, it was 
said, saw nothing in its course more magnificent than 
Diana’s Temple. 
Its immense foundations were care­
fully laid in the marshy ground,” to prevent its being 
shaken by earthquake, it is said. 
Its walls were built 
of marble, from neighboring quarries. 
“All the Greek 
cities of Asia contributed to the building.” 
Croesus 
himself, the rich King of Lydia, helped to rear the 
idolatrous temple. 
The most distinguished architects 
c u’ected the work. 
After many years, it reached its 
completion, and was then set on fire on the night in 
which Alexander was born. 
“ It was rebuilt, with new 
and more sumptuous magnificence. The ladies of Ephe- 
sus gave their jewelry. 
Alexander the Great offered 
all the spoils of his triumphant eastern campaign, if he 
might inscribe his name on the walls. 
The Ephesians 
continually added new decorations and side buildings, 
with statues and pictures by the most famous artists.”
It was the Temple of Diana which gave fame to the 
city. "Oxford in England is not more Oxford on ac­
count of its University, than Ephesus was Ephesus on 
account oi the Temple of Diana.”1 
This temple was 
very different from what we now conceive a temple to 
be. 
Like other temples of the ancients, it was not 
roofed over, so as to receive an assembly of worship-
1 Dr. Hodge.
214 
(:THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY.)
pers, but consisted of several colonnades round tbe cham­
ber in which the idol was. 
A great part of the space 
was open to the sky. 
The graceful beauty of these col­
umns was superior to anything the world had befoie 
seen. 
Each, column was the gift of a king, and the 
number of them was one hundred and twenty-seven, of 
which thirty-six wrere enriched with ornament and color. 
The long rows of these graceful and beautiful columns, 
sixty feet high, enclosed a space two or three times 
larger than the largest churches of our cities, for the 
temple was four hundred and twenty-five feet long, and 
two hundred and twenty feet broad. 
“ The folding- 
doors were of cypress-wood; the part which was not 
open to the sky was roofed over with cedar; and the 
stair-case was formed of the wood of one single vine 
from the island of Cyprus. 
The value and fame of the 
temple were increased by the fact that it was the tieas- 
ury, in which a large portion of the wealth of western 
Asia was laid up.5 
It is probable that there was no 
religious building in the world, in which was centred 
a greater amount of admiration, enthusiasm, and supei-
stition.” 
. 
.
It would naturally be supposed that the image within 
this splendid temple would be a beautiful statue of tie 
goddess, like the statues of the Athenian Acropolis. It 
was not so. 
The image of Diana was a rude figure 
carved from wood, resembling more the ugly idols of 
India, than the graceful statues of Greece. A woman's 
form above, “terminated below in a shapeless block. 
In each hand was a bar of metal. 
The dress was cov- 
ered with mystic symbols, and the small chamber where 
it stood, within the temple, was concealed by a cur
3 One modern writer says, “that the temple of the Ephesian Diana 
was what the Bank of England is in the modern world.”
THE TEMPLE OF DIANA.
215
m front.” 
Such was the rude image which was wor­
shipped with devout veneration at Ephesus. 
Like one 
of the statues of Minerva on the Acropolis at Athens, 
it was believed to have ‘ fallen from the sky.’ And this 
belief added to the blind idolatry of the superstitious 
Ephesians.
The idolatrous pilgrims who came to the Temple of 
Diana, would like some memorial of their visit, some 
image of the goddess or model of her temple; and 
hence at Ephesus, as at other like idolatrous cities, an­
other heathen custom grew up. 
Little images, either 
of the chamber in which the goddess dwelt, or of her 
magnificent temple, were made and sold to the chang­
ing crowd which thronged the streets. 
These were 
called ‘ shrines.’ 
“ They were carried in processions, 
on journeys and military expeditions, and sometimes 
set up as household gods in private houses. 
The ma­
terial might be wood or gold or silver.” 
Those men­
tioned in the Acts were made of silver. 
These had 
become scattered over the province, and borne up the 
roads into the interior, and carried away on ships sail­
ing to almost every part of the known world.
We see now the cause of the excitement which De­
metrius raised. 
The three years3 of Paul’s ministry in 
Ephesus were drawing to a close without any disturb­
ance from the idolaters. 
Paul was too discreet a man 
to attack any person’s occupation directly in this heath- 
en city, although he preached as boldly as at Athens 
that the ‘ Godhead is not like to gold or silver or stone, 
graven with art and man’s device.’ 
“ Paul’s character 
had risen so high as to obtain influence over the wealth- 
iest and most powerful persons in the place, and the in­
terest of one of the prevalent trades was seriously
8 XX. 31.
216
(!THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY.)
threatened.” Demetrius gathered together liis fellow- 
silversmiths, and excited them against Paul. “ He ap­
pealed first to their interest and then to their fanati­
cism.” He told them their profitable business was in 
danger; and more than this, the temple of the great 
goddess Diana, (to which we can imagine him pointing 
as he spoke,) was in danger of being despised, and her 
honor and her worship, extending throughout their 
province of Asia and the civilized world, would soon 
be destroyed. His speech was like flame among sti aw. 
The crowd was instantly in a fury. In boisterous rage, 
they burst into a cry in honor ol their goddess : ‘ Gieat 
is Diana of the Ephesians! ’ They soon filled the city 
with a tumult. Citizens and strangers were quickly 
excited by the violent outcries of this influential class 
of artisans. A general rush was made towards the 
theatre. Paul in some way escaped. But his travelling 
companions, Gaius and Aristarchus, were hurried off 
with the mob. As soon as Paul knew it, “ a sense of 
the danger of his companions and a fearless zeal for the 
truth, urged him to hasten to the theatre and present 
himself before the people.” His converts knew too 
well the violence of such a mob to permit him to run 
this hazard. Perhaps they would not have succeeded 
in preventing him, had not other influential friends in­
terfered also. “And now is seen the advantage which 
is secured to a righteous cause by the upright character 
and unflinching zeal of its champion.” Some of the 
leading men, who held the office of 4 Presidents of the 
Games,’4 at certain times of the year, had learned to re­
spect Paul’s character. “ Whether converted or not,
«‘The chief of Asia’ were ten men of wealth, who were annually 
elected to preside over the games, to provide the necessary expenses, 
and to maintain order. 
“ They were men of high distinction and 
extensive influence.”
THE TEMPLE OF DIANA.
217
they had a friendly feeling towards the Apostle; and 
well knowing the passions of an Ephesian mob when 
excited, they sent an urgent message to him to prevent 
him from venturing into the scene of disorder and 
danger. Then Paul reluctantly consented to remain 
in privacy, while the mob crowded violently into the 
theatre, filling the stone seats, tier above tier, and rend­
ing the air with their confused and fanatical cries.” 
Never was a mob better described than when it is said 
‘ the greater part knew not why they were come to­
gether.’
Why was Alexander ‘ put forward ’ to address the 
assembly ? “ It is most natural to suppose that the 
Jews were alarmed by the tumult, and anxious to clear 
themselves from blame, and to show they had nothing 
to do with Paul.” The Jews, however, were enemies 
of idolatry, and the idolatrous crowd would not hear 
Alexander, but broke out into a wild, uproarious clamor, 
shouting and crying, especially around Gaius and Aris­
tarchus, for two long hours, the name and the praise 
of their goddess.
QUESTIONS.
WIIAT did the success of Paul’s first journey lead him to do ?
' * 
To what did the second journey lead ?
What journey does Paul plan while on his third journey ? 
Did he accomplish what he designed ?
Whom did he send on before him ? Where ?
What is the significance of * so he sent ’ ?
What natural advantage had Ephesus in its location ?
What routes by land ? What by sea ?
When was the city built ?
What were the principal buildings within the city ? 
What are outside the walls ?
What was thought and said of Diana’s Temple ?
How were its foundations laid ? It was built of what ? 
Who helped build it ? When burned ?
How was it decorated ?
How is Ephesus compared to Oxford ?
Describe the form of the Temple.
How was its value increased ?
With what great modern institution has it been com­
pared ?
What was the image of Diana ?
Where was it placed ?
Where did this image come from ?
What other image had the same thing said of it ?
What models of Diana’s Temple were made at Ephesus ? 
Who bought them ? For what ?
What were they used for ?
What were they made from ? Carried where ?
How long had Paul been in Ephesus ?
Had he had any persecution ?
Had he preached against idols ?
What created the ‘ no small stir ’ ?
What does the interference with this sale show in r®* 
spect to Paul’s character ?
Whom did Demetrius gather ?
(65)
('THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY.)
What two things does he appeal to ?
What did he tell them first ?
What did he next refer to ?
What is meant by «almost throughout all Asia’ ?
What does the twenty-sixth verse show in respect to 
Paul’s success in Ephesus ?
What is meant by ‘ ail the world ’ ?
What was the effect of Demetrius’ speech ?
What was the meaning of their cry ?
Why would the city soon become excited ?
What building was filled ?
Who were carried off by the crowd ? Why ?
Do you think Paul knew of the disturbance at tho-first ? 
Would Paul have withdrawn ?
What did he now wish to do ? Why ?
Who prevented him ? Why ?
Who now proved Paul’s friends ?
Who were these men ?
By what name are they called in the Acts ?
What message did they send ? Why ?
What few words describe this mob ?
Why was Alexander ‘ put forward ’ ?
Why wouldn’t the crowd hear him ?
Pi hat especially provoked their outcry ?
Around whom would the clamor be loudest f 
(66)
(:THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY.)
Thirty-fourth Sunday
THE TOWN-CLERK OF EPHESUS.
LESSON.
Acts 
xix. 35-41.
A
NOTHER person now appears among the excited 
multitude. We can see him making his way through 
the clamorous crowd to the stage of the theatre. And 
either because the excitement of the mob had worn itself 
out, or because the character and office of the man in­
spired respect, the uproar gradually died away at his ap­
pearance. It was the ‘ Town-Clerk’ of the city. Whether 
we think of his official position or his character as shown 
by his speech, we have reason to say: “No one in the 
city was so well suited to calm this Ephesian mob.” 
Ephesus was a free city, like Thessalonicaonly the 
Romans were willing to pay more respect and honor to 
Ephesus than to Thessalonica. 
“Asia was always a 
favored province ” with the Romans, and Ephesus was 
among the most favored of the Greek cities. 
The city 
had therefore its own magistrates, elected by the people. 
One of these magistrates was the ‘ Town-Clerk.’ 
Per­
haps the title of ‘ Chancellor ’ or of ‘ Recorder ’ or of 
‘ Chief Magistrate ’ would have described better his of­
fice and duties. 
There is little doubt “ that he was a 
magistrate of great authority in a high and very pub­
lic positidn. 
He was the keeper of the state papers 
and of the city records; he read what was of public
1 See page 153 in Twenty-third Sunday.
THE TOWN-CLERK OF EPHESUS.
219
importance before the senate and assembly; he was 
present when money was deposited in the Temple of 
Diana; and when letters were sent to the people of 
Ephesus, they were officially addressed to him. 
Hence 
no magistrate was more before the public at Ephesus. 
His very looks were familiar to all the citizens, and no 
one was so likely to calm and disperse an angry, ex­
cited multitude.” 
When the multitude had grown suf­
ficiently quiet to hear him, the Town-Clerk made a 
short address to them, which is an admirable model of 
candor, good-judgment, tact, and argument.
SPEECH OF THE TOWN-CLERK.
He presents four short, strong arguments against this 
turbulent excitement, every one of which is stronger 
than the preceding.
First Argument. 
(Verses 35, 36.) 
What man is he 
who does not know that Ephesus is temple-keeper2 of 
the great goddess Diana? 
“The contradiction of a 
few insignificant strangers cannot affect what is notori­
ous in all the world.” 
‘ Ye ought therefore to be quiet 
and do nothing rashly.’
Second Argument. 
(Verse 37.) 
These men whom 
you have brought here are not guilty of robbing or 
profaning the temple3 nor of outraging our feelings by 
blaspheming our goddess. 
They have committed no 
crime against Diana. 
They have not even done any­
thing to warrant this great and prolonged outcry about 
our goddess. .
2 See the margin. 
The word meant at first temple-sweeper, and 
was the title of the servant who took care of the temple. 
“ It be­
came afterwards a title of the greatest honor, and was eagerly appro­
priated by the most famous cities.”
81 Robbers of churches ’ that is, of temples. 
The Greek word 
means 1 temple-robbers'
220
(:THIRTY-FOURTH SUNDAY.)
Third Argument. (Verses 38, 39.) In respect to 
the complaint of Demetrius and the silver-smiths, why 
do they not make their accusation according to the reg­
ular course of law ? If these men have done them in­
justice, there is a remedy provided. The Court is in 
session. There are the city magistrates—for the very 
purpose of trying such offenders. Or let them appeal 
to the pro-consul of the province!
Fourth Argument. (Verse 40.) This is the most 
forcible argument. Such an uproar as this puts our city 
and its freedom in peril. The government may call us 
to an account; and we have no excuse for this tumult. 
And you know what the Roman law is, against riotous 
assemblies of this kind, and the heavy penalty on us all 
for disobedience.
“So having rapidly brought his arguments to a 
climax, he calmed down the excited multitude and at 
once pronounced the legal words which declared the as­
sembly dispersed.” Demetrius and the silversmiths now 
saw they were in especial danger; for they had excited 
the tumult. The matter had gone perhaps farther 
than they intended. The people saw that they might 
be entangled also in an accusation against Demetrius. 
“ The stone seats were gradually emptied. The up­
roar ceased, and the rioters dispensed to their various 
occupations and amusements.” TLus God used the 
Greek and Roman authorities to protect Paul, in 
his perilous work of introducing tho religion of Jesus 
into pagan and superstitious countries. The magis­
trates of Philippi had been compelled to respect his 
rights: the candid good sense of Gallio, the Pro-Con­
sul of Corinth, had defeated Paul’s persecutors: the 
eloquence of the Ephesian Town-Clerk had forced a 
riot against him and his fellow-travellers to disperse.
It would seem that this was one of the last occur-
THE TOWN-CLERK OF EPHESUS.
221
rences of Paul’s three year’s residence. But before we 
see him take his farewell, we must notice one other 
important thing which no doubt occurred some time 
during his stay in Ephesus. This was the writing of 
The First Fpistle to the Corinthians. Among other 
reasons why we suppose this letter was written while 
Paul was in Ephesus are four:
First. Paul spoke of remaining at Ephesus when he 
wrote the letter.4 The letter could not have been writ­
ten after he left Ephesus.
Secondly. Apollos had been in Corinth.6 Paul could 
not have well known this before he reached Ephesus: 
so that the letter must have been written after he came 
down from the ‘ upper coasts ’ and found that Apollos 
had gone over to Corinth.6
Thirdly. Aquila and Priscilla were with him when 
he wrote it.7 It is clear that they resided in Ephesus.8
Fourthly. There was constant communication across 
the sea from Ephesus to Corinth. And Paul was in 
Ephesus about three years. Paul must have heard 
often from Corinth. It seems therefore most natural 
to suppose that he wrote at this time to the Corinth­
ians.9
Indeed it is not only probable that Paul wrote this 
letter to the Corinthian Church, but that he visited 
Corinth while at Ephesus; for when he wrote his 
second letter to the Corinthians, shortly after he left 
Ephesus, he said that he -was now coming a third time
hi. Corinth, xvi. 8. 
6 i. 12; iii. 4, 22.
^ Acts xix. 1. 
’ I. Corinth, xvi. 19.
‘ Acts xviii. 18, 19, 26.
t 
The ancient inscription (see the end of the Epistle) says this let-
Was written at Philippi. 
Apply the above reasons, and see what 
y°u think.
THE TOWN-CLERK OF EPHESUS. 
223
I. Their divisions into parties. He wishes and tries 
to have them do away with these. (Chapter i. 10-13 ; 
iii. 3-9, 21-23 ; iv. 6.)
II. Their permission of shameless immorality. ('Chan­
ter v. 11.)
III. Their legal prosecutions of each other, (chapter 
vi. 1, 5-7,) while they ought to exercise brotherly love 
(or charity) towards each other. (Chapter xiii.)
IY. The resurrection of the dead. (Chapter xv.)
In the conclusion of the letter, he directed the Co­
rinthians to make collections for their poor Christian 
brethren in Judea, and to have these collections ready 
for him when he came, so that he might take them to 
Jerusalem.12 He tells them also that he is expecting to 
visit Macedonia,13 and that perhaps he will spend the 
winter in Corinth,14 that he has sent the youthful Tim­
othy on before him, and if he came to Corinth to give 
him no cause of fear,15 that Aquila and Priscilla and the 
believers who assemble in their house, as at Corinth, 
send their salutations and Christian love,16 and that ho 
sends his own salutations and love.17
15 xvi. 1-3. 
13 xvi. 5. 
14 xvi. 6.
ls xvi. 10 ; iv. 17. 
16 xvi. 19. 
17 xvi. 21, 24.
222 
[THIRTY-FOURTH SUNDAY.)
to them.10 
If he was on his way to a third visit, when 
he left Ephesus, then there must have been a second, 
before he left Ephesus. No doubt Apollos or some other 
Christian had come across to Ephesus from Corinth 
and told Paul of the state of things among the Corinth­
ian Christians. 
He had much to tell which was joyful 
and hopeful; but much also which was painful; for 
shameful sins had crept into the church. 
There were 
tares among the wheat. 
Corinth was a most corrupt 
and vicious city; and Corinthian Christians had be­
come defiled like Christian unbelievers. 
If Paul made 
them a visit at this time, it was to correct and to ad­
monish the Corinthian believers for their sins.
After his return to Ephesus from this second journey, 
(if the supposition is right,) we suppose he sent Tim­
othy and Erastus on before him to Macedonia; and 
then after some time had passed, ‘ some members of the 
household of Chloe, a distinguished family at Corinth, 
arrived;’ and from them Paul learned more fully what 
was the state of things in the church of Corinth.11 An­
other evil had sprung up. 
The church had become di­
vided into parties. There was a Paul-party, an Apollos- 
party, a Peter-party, and even a Christ-party.11 
Some 
professed believers had become vilely and shamelessly 
impure in their life. Some were showing their want of 
brotherly love by prosecuting their brethren in the hea­
then courts of law. Some, who had gone back into open 
immorality, had even begun to doubt the resurrection 
of the dead.
And therefore Paul writes to them
THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.
And therefore do we find, among other subjects, that 
four of the great subjects about which Paul writes are:
10II. Corinth, xii. 14 ; xiii. 1. 
111. Corinth, i. 11-13.
{THIRTY-FOURTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
WIIAT person now makes his appearance ?
'" 
What place would he take to speak ?
Why would the uproar die away ?
How was Ephesus like Thessalonica ?
Which city did the Romans respect the more ?
Did the Romans appoint the magistrates in Ephesus ? 
What other name might he substituted for ‘Town- 
Clerk’ ?
What were the duties of his office ?
Would the multitude know him when they saw him ? 
How many arguments does the Town-Clerk present ?
What was the object of his arguments ?
What was the first argument ?
What is the meaning of ‘worshipper’ or ‘temple- 
keeper ’ ?
Explain the meaning of the thirty-sixth verse.
What was the second argument ?
What is the meaning of ‘ robbers of churches’ ?
What was the third argument ?
What is meant by ‘the law is open’ ?
Who were the deputies ?
What is the fourth argument ?
Who might ‘ call them in question’ ?
What were they in danger of ?
Who would be responsible for the riotous assembly ? 
Which of these arguments is the strongest ? 
Which the 
weakest ?
What was done by the Town-Clerk after he finished his 
speech ?
What did Demetrius now see ?
Coippare Paul’s escapes at Philippi, at Corinth, at Eph 
esus.
What other thing probably occurred while Paul resided i'1 
Ephesus ?
(67)
(.TH1RTY-FO URTH SUNDA Y.)
How many reasons were given for this supposition ? 
What is the first reason ?
Before what time must it have been written ?
What is the second reason ?
How do you know he had been there ?
After what time must it have been written then?
What is the third reason ?
How do you know they were living in Ephesus ?
What is the fourth reason ?
What makes it probable that Paul visited Corinth during 
these three years ?
What persons brought news to Paul from Corinth ? 
What evils had sprung up in the Corinthian church ? 
What is the first of four great subjects in this Epistle ? the 
second ? the third ? the fourth ?
What is the subject of the thirteenth chapter of this Epistle! 
What is the subject of the fifteenth?
What direction does Paul give in the conclusion?
To what other church had he given this order ?
When was it to be made ?
How was it to be sent ?
What does Paul write in respect to his visiting them t 
What about Timothy ? 
Aquila and Pliscilla ?
(68)
Cjraiir-fiff|j Smtirag.
TITUS, 
THE 
MESSENGER.
LESSON.
Acts xx. 1, 2; II. Corinthians ii. 12,13; vii. 5-7.
D AUL’S work was now finished in Ephesus. At least 
he thought it best to remain no longer. His presence 
might be the cause of new excitement and perhaps of 
trouble or of persecution to others than himself; and 
as there were now many who could teach and preach 
the doctrines of Jesus, the good work could be carried 
on without him. 
He therefore called the disciples to­
gether, and affectionately bade them farewell. 
How 
much had been accomplished during the three years! 
There had been many converts : a large church had been 
established: enemies had been convinced: many had 
ceased to worship Diana: the sale of shrines had de­
creased: the whole province of Asia had heard the 
■word of God: perhaps it was at this very time that 
the other six of the seven churches of Asia1 were 
founded. 
(See map on page 127.)
After the affectionate parting between Paul and the 
Christians of Ephesus, we are told very little of Paul’s 
labors during nine or ten months. 
All the notice we 
have of this period in the Acts is in the first two verses 
of the twentieth chapter. 
We have, however, many 
hints given us in his letters in regard to his journey, 
his visits, and his labors. 
We shall soon see that the 
second epistle to the Corinthian Christians was written
Revelation i. 11.
TITUS, THE MESSENGER.
225
from Philippi, and therefore from that epistle we are 
able to learn about Paul’s second journey from Asia 
into Macedonia.
Who were Paul’s fellow-travellers now from Ephesus 
to Macedonia ? Timothy we have supposed was with 
him from Antioch to Ephesus. But he had sent Tim­
othy on before him.2 Two disciples from Asia are men­
tioned when he returns from Corinth,3 and one of them 
was an Ephesian.4 They both continued faithful friends 
of Paul in his journeys and labors afterwards.5 Even 
when Paul was prisoner in Rome he mentions these 
two natives of Asia as his ready helpers and followers.6 
These are Tychicus and Trophimus. It is not unlikely 
that they were with Paul on the way from Ephesus to 
Macedonia and Greece.
Paul stopped at Troas7 on his way. If he went by 
ship, he sailed again among the islands of the Archipe- 
lago, and at length anchored in that harbor from which 
he went before, ‘in a straight course’ to Samothrace.8 
Before, he had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to 
preach here,8 but now his preaching was successful. 
The way was open for him to do great good. He evi­
dently intended to remain longer in Troas, but he was 
greatly troubled in spirit because Titus did not meet 
him there as he expected. Titus, it will be remem­
bered, was the Greek who was not circumcised at the 
council of Jerusalem; and it is supposed that Paul 
sent him from Ephesus to Corinth9 on an errand to the 
church, in part if not wholly to make ready the collec-
s Acts xix. 22. 
3 xx. 4. 
4 xxi. 29.
Xx'. 29 ; Ephesians vi. 21; Colossians iv. 7; Titus in. 12.
He mentions them in II. Timothy iv. 12, 20; and that Paul was 
ln Home when he wrote that epistle, see clapter i. verse 17.
7 U. Corinthians ii. 12, 13. 
8 Acts xvi. 6, 8, 11.
8II. Corinthians xii. 18; vii. 13.
226
(THIRTY-FIFTH SUNDAY.)
tions for the poor in Judea. Paul, before he left Ephe­
sus, had no doubt expected to hear from Titus an ac­
count of the condition of the Corinthian church, but as 
the uproar in the theatre led him to depart sooner than 
he had anticipated, and before Titus returned, he left 
word for Titus to join him on his journey. Paul grew 
most anxious at Troas to see Titus, and to learn how the 
Corinthian Christians had received his advice and his 
rebukes. “ He had resolved to wait for Titus at Troas, 
expecting he would come soon. He was disappointed: 
week after week passed, but Titus did not come. It 
was to be hoped that he would bring news of the tri­
umph of good over evil at Corinth; yet it might not 
be so. The Corinthians might have forsaken the faith 
of their first teacher, and have rejected his messenger. 
Paul appears to have suffered all the sickness of hope 
deferred. ‘ My spirit had no rest, because I found not 
Titus my brother.’ ” His anxiety did not prevent his 
preaching. In the synagogue as usual, and first to the 
Jews no doubt, he preached1 Christ’s Gospel ’—the glad 
news of the Messiah. Some, if not many, -were ready 
to hear. “And the foundation of a church was laid 
which we shall find him revisiting not long afterwards.” 
But now his anxiety about the more important Corinth­
ian church and the importance of meeting Titus urged 
him on. Embarking, therefore, and ‘loosing from Troas,’ 
and sailing over the waters of the upper Archipelago, 
past the familiar islands and jutting points and moun­
tain-heights, he came again to Neapolis, and from thence 
to Philippi.10
Here were warm friends for the Apostle: the simple- 
hearted Lydia with her open house, only too glad to
10 As one of the objects of Paul’s visit was to make collections lor 
the poor Christians of Judea, he would not pass by a church so im­
portant as that of Philippi.
TITUS, THE MESSENGER.
227
receive him: the brethren who had assembled in 
Lydia’s house to bid Paul farewell: the jailer and his 
family. Some or all of these, and others who had since 
believed, were full of joy and of cordial affection. “ For 
of all the churches which he founded, the Philippians 
seem to have been the most free from fault and most 
attached to Paul.” When Paul wrote his epistle to 
them afterwards, he finds no fault, but highly praises 
them; and so ardent was their love for Paul that they 
had sent to him gifts to cheer and to, support him.11 
But even all their warmth of affection and tender kind­
ness did not take away the gloom from Paul’s mind. 
He himself says, that when he ‘ came into Macedonia,’ 
he ‘ had no rest,’ he was ‘ troubled on every side,’ he 
had ‘fightings without’ and ‘fears within.’ It was 
the time perhaps, more than any other in his life, when 
Paul seemed to be weighed down by his afflictions, 
and more than all, by anxiety from the ‘ daily care of 
all the churches.’1* But how nobly and bravely he tri­
umphed over all his afflictions and anxieties!
“At length the long-expected Titus arrived at Philippi 
and relieved Paul’s anxiety by better news than he had 
hoped to hear. The most of the Corinthian Christ­
ians had yielded to Paul’s advice and rebuke, and shown 
the deepest sorrow for the sins into which they had 
fallen.” They had ceased to permit the gross, open im­
moralities. They had already made in part at least 
their collections for the poor believers of Palestine.
But there were a few who did not submit with the 
rest of the church. They were louder and more bitter 
than ever in their tone against the Apostle. They were 
even ready to charge that he was selfish in making the 
collections, insinuating most probably that he had some
11 Philippians iv. 15, 1C.
w II. Corinthians xi. 28.
228
(:THIRTY-FIFTH SUNDAY.)
selfish interest in this plan of raising money and gifts 
for others. “ The same opponents accused him also of 
vanity and of cowardly weakness : they declared that he 
was continually threatening without striking and pro­
mising without performing ; always on his way to Co­
rinth, hut never venturing to come ; and that he was 
as fickle in his teaching as in his practice ; refusing to 
circumcise Titus, yet circumcising Timothy ; a Jew 
among the Jews and a Gentile among the Gentiles.” 
It would seem, also, that there were unkind compari­
sons made between Paul and other religious teachers in 
Corinth.
Having received this information from Titus, Paul 
directed Titus to return and to continue the collections 
in the churches of Achaia. And he sends by him an­
other letter, not addressed as the first epistle had been, 
simply to Corinth, but to all the churches in the pro­
vince of Achaia ; perhaps in Athens and Cencliræa, in 
Argos and Sicyon and Megara. 
The object of the 
Apostle was to encourage and calm the larger number 
of the believers ; and, at the same time, to warn and 
denounce those who despised his Apostolic authority 
and the commands of the Messiah.
TITUS, THE MESSENGER.
229
V. His joy at the good news Titus brought. (Chap­
ter vii. 6-9, 13, 16.)
VI. Directions for the collections. The example of 
the Macedonians ought to teach them how to give. 
(Chapter viii. 1-4, 6 ; ix. 6, 7.)
VII. Answer to those who were bitter against him, 
(chapter x. 1, 2, 10, 11 ; xi. 18, 22-31,) and to those 
who denied his Apostleship. (Chapter xii. 11, 12.)
VIII. Warning of punishment to those who were not 
penitent for sin. (Chapter xii. 20, 21 ; xiii. 1, 2.)
Any one who reads this Epistle carefully through, 
will find two whole chapters (viii. ix.) devoted to the 
subject of the collection. It was a thing of great im­
portance in Paul’s mind, not only because he wished all 
believers to be generous, but because he saw that gen­
erosity exercised by the Gentiles abroad towards the 
Jews at Jerusalem would bind both Jews and Gentiles 
together in Christian love, and so prevent that foolish 
and wicked division in the church to which they were 
so liable.
Titus, the earnest-minded Greek disciple, bore this 
epistle to his Corinthian countrymen. When the Apos- 
t e exhorted’ him to do it, he ‘ went of his own accord.’ 
ome brother whose name we do not know, but whose 
piaise was ‘ throughout all the churches,’13 went with 
litas to Corinth
1 II. Corinthians viii. 16-18.
SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.
Among the many subjects in respect to which this 
epistle was written, we may notice,
I. Thanksgiving for deliverance from great danger m 
‘Asia,’ probably in Ephesus. (Chapter i. 3, 4, 8-10.)
H. The reason for postponing his visit to Corinth. 
(Chapter i. 15, 16, 23.)
III. Forgiveness to those who grieve for their im­
morality. (Chapter ii. 10.)
IV. His distress at not hearing from them by Titus. 
(Chapter ii. 12, 13 ; vii. 5.)
(THIRTY-FIFTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
WHY was it best for Paul to leave Ephesus ?
"' 
State as many things as you can which were accoim 
plished during the three years.
How long a time is passed over in these two verses of the 
twentieth chapter ?1
Where have we any particulars given in respect to this 
period ?
Where was the second letter to the Corinthians written ? 
W ho were fellow-travellers of Paul into Macedonia ?
What had become of Timothy ?
Where were Tychicus and Trophimus, Paul’s faithful 
friends afterwards ?
What place did Paul stop at ?
What had he been forbidden to do, when at Troas be­
fore?
What was the prospect in his preaching now ?
What is meant by ‘ a door was opened unto me,’ etc. ? 
What troubled Paul ?
Who was Titus ? Where mentioned first before ?
Where is it supposed that Paul had sent him ?
On what errand had he sent him ?
What word had Paul probably left at Ephesus for Ti­
tus ?
Why was Paul so anxious to see Titus ?
What is meant by '‘Christ's Gospel’ ?
How was it right for Paul to leave Troas, when there 
were such prospects of good from preaching ? 
Why is it probable that Paul now went directly to PhilipP* * 
Whom did he see there ?
How did the Philippian church compare with other 
churches ?
What was the state of Paul’s mind ?
What especially weighed him down ?
Had Paul good reason to be downcast ?
'A note in the next lesson will show how this time is reckoned. 
(69)
(ITHIRTY-FIFTH SUNDAY.)
Did he yield to it, so as to give way before it ?
What was the effect of the arrival of Titus ?
What news did he bring from Corinth ?
What was the state of a few in Corinth ?
What direction did Paul give immediately to Titus?
What letter did h a send by him ?
To whom is this letter directed ?
What other churches were there besides that in Corinth ? 
What were the two objects of this letter ?
Turn to this Epistle and point out his thanks for escape from 
nriL
Show the reason for putting off his visit to Corinth, 
(twenty-third verse especially.)
Show his forgiveness towards his enemies.
Point out his distress at the absence of Titus.
Show his joy at the coming of Titus.
What are his directions for the collections ?
What was the example of Macedonia ?
What did he say to his opposers ?
What answer to the deniers of his Apostleship ?
What were the ‘ signs of an Apostle ’ ?
What warning against the impenitent church members, 
(xiii. 2 especially) ?
What was one thing of great importance in Paul’s mind ? 
How many chapters are given to the subject ?
Why was it of so much importance ?
Who went with Titus ?
(70)
Thirty-sixth Sunday
SIX MONTHS IN MACEDONIA AND ILLYRICUM.
LESSON.
Acts xx. 2, 3.
AFTER Titus had gone, Paul still continued in the 
regions to the north of Greece. As he must have 
been ten months at least in going from Ephesus to Co­
rinth and hack to Philippi, and as only three months 
of this time were spent in Corinth, seven months at 
least1 must have been spent on the journey to and from 
Corinth, and the greater part of the seven months must 
have been passed in Macedonia or Illyricum. Paul 
might have wished that the Corinthians should have 
full time to consider his letter before he reached Co­
rinth. He might have desired to avoid any further bit­
terness or excitement in his opposers, till they should 
have considered his warnings and should have had 
space for repentance. He had more than time, there­
fore, to visit the churches of Philippi, Thessalonica, and 
Berea. As a Roman citizen with established rights, he 
could quietly instruct the Philippian believers. Per‘ 
haps he preached now in Amphipolis and Apollonia. 
No mob of idlers forced him again to leave Jason’s
1 From Pentecost (I. Corinthians xvi. 8) in May till ‘ the days of un­
leavened bread,’ (Act3 xx. 6,) that is, the Passover in the next March, 
was ten months. 
Three months in Corinth leaves seven months
on the road. 
If Paul left Ephesus before Pentecost in May, on ac­
count of the uproar in the theatre, the time must have been longer-
IN MACEDONIA AND ILLYRICUM.
231
house in Thessalonica. When he reached Corinth, he 
wrote to Rome that he had ‘ fully preached the Gospel 
of Christ round about unto Illyricum.’2 It is most 
likely, therefore, that this was the time when he went 
to the prominent cities of Macedonia, as far as the very 
boundaries of Illyricum, or when he even preached in 
the towns of Illyricum. All this may reasonably be 
included in the words, ‘ when he had gone over those 
parts and given them much exhortation.’ If this is true, 
then he would naturally follow the great road west from 
Thessalonica. And this time he must have climbed the 
mountains towards Edessa, from which he looked down 
on the broad and beautiful valley of the Axius. In 
Edessa he may have preached, and in other cities, till 
he came even to Dyrrachium, from which place he 
might have been ferried across to Italy.3 On the west 
side, as on the east side of the Adriatic Sea, it was the 
same road which led to Rome. Whether Paul went 
mto those distant regions, or never passed over the 
mountain boundary of Macedonia, there was enough to 
occupy his time till he deemed it best to turn his 
footsteps southward towards Greece.
‘ During his stay at Ephesus, and in all parts of his 
journey in Troas and Macedonia, his heart had been 
continually at Corinth. He had been in frequent com­
munication with his inconsistent and rebellious con­
verts.” He had written them letters. He had sent 
messengers and messages. He had probably made 
them a visit. Now there were even more than ever 
urgent reasons why he should be in Corinth. His se­
cond letter had reached them some time before. His 
presence would be of great service in aiding the well- 
disposed and in restraining the evil-minded. He wished 
to receive the collections for the poor Christians of
Romans xv. 19. 
8 See map on page 146.
232
(THIRTY-SIXTH SUNDAY.)
Judea, so that he could take them with him on his 
return to Jerusalem.
If the calculation which has been made in respect to 
the length of time during which Paul was on the way 
from Ephesus to Corinth is correct, then it must now 
have been near the winter season. It was in Novem­
ber or December that Paul and his fellow-travellers 
turned southward, taking no doubt Berea in their 
course; “ and this makes it likely that he went by land 
rather than by sea.” 
(See the frontispiece map.) 
We know the ancient ship-masters did not like to ven­
ture out on the boisterous winter seas.'4 “A good road 
to the south had long been formed from the neighbor­
hood of Berea, connecting the chief towns of Macdo- 
nia with those of Acliaia. Opportunities would not 
be wanting for preaching the Gospel at every stage of 
his journey; and we may infer either that churches 
’were formed in every chief city between Thessalonica 
and Corinth, or that the glad tidings had been unsuc­
cessfully proclaimed.”
“ It was probably already winter when Paul once more 
beheld in the distance the lofty citadel, towering above 
the isthmus which it commands. The gloomy season must 
have harmonized with his feelings as he approached. 
The clouds which hung round the summit of the Acro- 
Corinthus and cast their shadow upon the city below, 
typified the mists of vice and error which darkened the 
minds even of its Christian citizens. Paul knew that, 
for some of them, he had labored in vain. He was re­
turning to converts who had become immoral: to friends 
who had forgotten his love: to enemies who denied his 
apostolic authority. It is true the most of the Corint 
ian Christians had repented of their worst sins; ye 
even towards the penitent he could not feel all the con
4 Acts xxvii. 9.
iiV MACEDONIA AND ILLYRICUM. 
233
fidenee of earlier affection. And there were still left a 
few obstinate ones, who would not give up their habits 
of impurity, and who, when he spoke to them of right­
eousness and judgment to come, replied by openly de­
ending their sins or by denying his authority. Ho 
now came prepared to put down this opposition with the 
utmost decision. He was resolved to cast out of the 
church these opposers of truth and goodness, just as, 
m the exercise of his apostolic authority, he had warned 
them a few months before, ‘ when I come again, I will 
not spare.’5 His weapons are not now carnal, as when 
he went with horsemen and spearmen to Damascus, but 
spiritual, ‘ mighty through God to pull down the strong­
holds ’ of his wicked enemies.
As Paul came along the isthmus road, looking out 
now on one sea, now on the other, and perhaps from 
some height catching a view of Athens, his thoughts 
must have gone back to happier times: when after land- 
ing at Cenchraea, discouraged from his ill-success at Ath­
ens, in a few short months a large church had been 
gathered in Corinth: when God visited him in a vision 
and promised him ‘ much people in this citywhen no 
persecutors nor opposers succeeded against him. From 
this busy wicked, polluted city God had gathered a 
great number to be his children. “Hundreds of be- 
lievers now called on the name of Jesus, who, when he 
first came to Corinth, worshipped nothing but gods like 
their own ambition and anger and lust. It was painful 
to think their conversion so incomplete that they were 
still defiled by heathen pollutions, but the most of them 
had repented; the obstinate ones were few; and if the 
older ones were tied by chains of habit, the children 
might be trained up in the service of the Lord. Such
5II. Corinthians xiii. 2.
234
(THIRTY-SIXTH SUNDAY.)
may have been some of Paul’s thoughts, as his little 
company drew near the city walls and entered the well- 
known gates. And what thoughts of the faithful breth­
ren thronged Their minds, of Erastus the Treasurer,6 of 
Stephanas and Epenetus,7 of Fortunatus and Achaicus,8 
of Gaius,6 as they threaded their way amid the noise 
and bustle of the crowded streets. Aquila and Priscilla 
were not there to open their doors to Paul, (we shall 
soon find they had returned to Rome,) but the hospita­
ble Gaius, who was ever ready to entertain his believ­
ing brethren,9 received the Apostle into his house.
It is supposed that at Corinth Paul received news 
from the churches in Galatia: that painful tidings had 
come across the iEgean from Ephesus concerning the 
condition of the Galatian Christians which aroused his 
astonishment and his indignation. “ His converts there 
were forsaking his teaching in respect to obeying the 
customs and rites of Moses’ law,10 and were listening to 
false missionaries from Palestine, who, like those who 
had once come down to Antioch, said that they could 
not be saved unless they were circumcised and kept the 
law of Moses.11 They said, too, like the party hostile to 
Paul in Corinth, that Paul was not an Apostle, “ for he 
had not, like the twelve Apostles, been a follower of 
Jesus on earth : that he was only a teacher sent out by 
authority of the Twelve, and his teaching was to be re­
ceived only so far as it agreed with theirs.” And so 
the Galatian Christians, more simple-minded than the 
Christians of Corinth or of Ephesus, were being troubled 
about that‘difficult question’12 which had been care-
6 Romans xvi. 23. 
7 Romans xvi. 5; I. Corinthians xvi. 15.
8 I Corinthians xvi. 17.
9 Romans xvi. 23. 
‘ Gaius mine host and of the whole church.’
10 Circumcision, washings, unclean meats, etc. 
11 Acts xv. 1,5.
12 See Fifteenth Sunday.
fully and emphatically decided by all the Apostles at the 
council of Jerusalem.13 Some of them were even being 
circumcised, and were trying to keep the law of Moses.
Paul therefore wrote a most earnest letter to the Ga­
latians, in which sadness and severity mingle, the sad­
ness of a warm-hearted man who finds his friends leav­
ing him, and the severity of a faithful Apostle who finds 
his converts leaving the truth.
THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
Notice two of the principal subjects in this letter:
I. Paul proves that he is an Apostle independent of 
the Twelve.
1. Because he received his authority to preach by re­
velation from Jesus the Messiah, (i. l, H, 12.)
. 2- Because he was made an Apostle without consult­
ing at all with the other Apostles. After his conversion 
he did not go to J erusalem to be taught, but into Arabia, 
(i. 15-17.)
3. Because he saw only the two Apostles, James and 
etei, for fifteen days, when he was in Jerusalem the
first time after his conversion, and could not therefore 
have been made an Apostle by the assembly of all the 
other Apostles, (i. 18, 19.)
4. Because when he went up to the council at Jeru­
salem, James, Peter, and John recognized him as the 
Apostle to the Gentiles, (ii. 1, 7-10.)
5. Because he himself by Apostolical authority had 
rebuked the Apostle Peter at Antioch, (ii. 11-14.)
II. Paul shows that obedience to Jesus and faith in 
him, and not obedience to the law of Moses, is to save
a man. (iii. 1, 2, 10, 26.) He who goes back to the 
law of Moses is a slave: he who believes in Jesus is a 
son. (ir. i_7.)
IN MACEDONIA AND ILLYRICUM. 
235
8 See Sixteenth Sunday.
{THIRTY-SIXTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
S
HOW how Paul must have been ten months on the way 
from Ephesus to Corinth, and from Corinth back to Phi-
lippi.
How long, then, must he have been in Macedonia and 
Illyricum ?
Why might Paul have delayed his visit to Corinth? 
What was there to occupy his time so long ?
Why may we suppose this is the time when he preached 
‘ round about unto Illyricum ’ ?
What is meant by ‘ those parts ’ ?
Show where Paul may have gone.
To what country did Titus afterwards go ?
What shows that Corinth had been much in his thoughts ? 
What two especial reasons why he should now press on 
to Corinth ?
Why is it likely that he now went by land to Corinth ? 
What opportunities to preach on the way ?
What sad thoughts would be natural for Paul as he ap­
proached Corinth?
Converts? friends? enemies?
The penitent ? the obstinate ?
What was he prepared to do ?
How does this journey compare with Saul’s journey to 
Damascus ?
What happy thoughts would be natural also ?
Church ? vision ? ‘ much people ’ ?
The imperfect ? the obstinate ? the children ?
Of whom did Paul and his friends think, when they en­
tered the streets ?
To whose house did Paul go ?
What news did Paul probably receive at Corinth ?
What were these converts doing ?
To whom were they listening ?
What did they say about Paul’s Apostleship ?
What1 difficult question’ was giving them trouble?
(71)
{THIRTY-SIXTH SUNDAY.)
What epistle did Paul now write ?
What two things mingle in it ?
Sadness of whom ? severity of whom ?
What is the first of two principal subjects in this Epistle? 
Could a man become an Apostle who was not one of the 
twelve Apostles ?
Turn to the Epistle and show where Paul declares his 
authority came directly from the Saviour.
^ What is the second reason why he was an independent Apos-
How does he prove that he was not made an Apostle by the 
election of all the Apostles ?
What is the fourth reason ?
M hat is meant by ‘ perceived the grace that was given 
unto me ’ ?
W hat is meant by * the right hand of fellowship ’ ? 
What is the fifth reason why he is an independent Apostle ? 
What is the second of two principal subjects in this Epistle ? 
Is all of the law of Moses done away ?
Can a man have faith in Jesus who does not keep the 
Ten Commandments ?
If a man lives a strictly moral life, by these laws of 
Moses, can he not be saved without faith ?
Is there any power in faith itself to save a man ?
Is there any power in works to save a man ?
Why is a man a slave w'ho lives according to all the law 
of Moses ?
How is he a son who lives by faith on Jesus ?
(72)
Thirty-seventh Sunday
" PHOEBE CARRIES A LETTER TO ROME.
PHCEBE CARRIES A LETTER TO ROME.
237
less, the neighboring churches. 
As his letter from 
Philippi was addressed to the Christians of Achaia as 
well as of Corinth,3 it seems that the churches through­
out the province had the same faults as that at Corinth. 
While therefore he went from church to church, in Ar­
gos, in Sicyon, in Megara, in Cenchnea or in other 
places, he encouraged the good and corrected the bad. 
Some of the Corinthian brethren went with him perhaps; 
Gaius, or Stephanas, or Fortunatus, on some of these 
excursions. 
At the same time, the collections for the 
Christians in Judea were gathered from these places. 
Considerable money must have been gathered, for they 
had been laying by their gifts a year or more.4 
The 
whole sum collected was now intrusted to Paul, or else 
to certain persons appointed, as Paul had directed,5 to 
carry their donation to Jerusalem.
We suppose that it was sometime during this three 
months that a Christian lady of Cenchrasa left Corinth 
t° go to Rome. She was a lady of position and of some 
wealth, for she was a patron or helper6 of many Christ­
ians, Paul among the number. She was also a deaconess 
in the church of Cenchraea.T Her name was Phoebe, and 
she was about to sail to Rome upon some private busi-
3 II. Corinth, i. 1.
4 II. Corinth, ix. 2 ; I. Corinth, xvi. 2. 
5 I. Corinth, xvi. 3.
6 In Romans xvi. 2, the word ‘ succorer ’ means in the Greek, a 
chief person, a patron, one who stands before another: when applied 
to men, a front-ranlc man. 
The fact that she had business at Rome 
also shows that she must have possessed some little property.
In Romans xvi. 1, the word 1 servant ’ is the same which in other 
places is translated deacon. 
It here means deaconess, an office which 
separation of women from men in the East made necessary. The 
oness was an experienced and respected woman, who had charge 
e sick and poor women, as the deacons did of the poor and sick
men.
LESSON.
Acts xx 3; xix. 21. 
Romans i. 8,11, 13,15; xv. 19, 20, 23-26, 
28; xvi.
W
HEN tbe messenger wbo bore tbe letter to the 
Galatians bad gone, Paul resolutely set himself to 
work to accomplish the objects for which he came. 
It 
has been supposed that he established his authority as 
an Apostle beyond all dispute, and to the dismay of 
those who denied it, by showing ‘ the signs of an Apos­
tle,’ 1 that is, by working miracles. 
But it is hardly 
necessary to suppose miracles were wrought. 
The sol­
emn presence of the Spirit of God could overpower all 
opposition, and demonstrate to the conviction even of 
enemies, Paul’s claim, nay, his absolute duty to be an 
Apostle. 
The wilful and stubborn and immoral mem­
bers of the church were no doubt brought before the 
solemn assembly of the church for trial: the presence 
of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Lord Jesus, 
were sought in prayer: the worst offenders, those 
whose open and shameless sins required so heavy a pun­
ishment, were publicly cast out of the church, as Paul 
had directed when he wrote them.*
Paul was three months in Corinth. 
The writing of 
the letter to the Galatians, and the discipline of im­
moral church-members, must have consumed some lit­
tle time. 
When these were done, he visited, doubt-
1II. Corinth, xii. 12. 
a I. Corinth, v. 3-5.
238
(THIRTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY.)
ness. We know Paul was intending to visit Rome in his 
next journey.8 We know that he was already acquaint­
ed with some of the Christians of Rome. He therefore 
took this opportunity to send a letter to these Roman 
Christians. Paul may have been on one of his visits to 
Cenchrsea, when he delivered his letter, ready prepared, 
to Phoebe, or Phoebe may have come over from the 
eastern sea-port of Corinth, Cenchrsea, to the western 
sea-port, Lecheum, which was much nearer to Rome. 
She then passed through Corinth, and took in charge
patjl’s epistle to the rowans.8
Although Paul had not been in Rome, he had reason 
to think very highly of the Christians there.10 The 
church at Rome seems already to have grown large and 
flourishing. Rome was so constantly in communication 
with all parts of the empire, especially towards the east, 
that it would have been strange if some believers had 
not found their way there. There were £ strangers of 
Rome’ at Jerusalem some years before, when Peter 
preached at the Pentecost.11 Some of these Romans 
may have been among the ‘ three thousand ’ converts 
that day, and on their return may have preached the 
doctrines of Jesus.
There is no reason to suppose an Apostle had been 
in Rome. We know Paul had not, and we know too 
that Paul was very careful not to interfere unasked 
with wrork which another man, especially another Apos­
tle, had begun.12 Certainly Peter could not have been 
in Rome at this time, or even before this, without Paul
8 Acts xix. 21.
9 It is generally agreed that the inscription at the end of the Epis* 
tie to the Romans is correct. 
See it.
1C ‘ Your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.’ 
Romans
i. 8.
11 Acts ii. 10, 41. 
1 Romans xv. 20.
239
taking some notice of it in this letter. Paul was too 
earnest and too warm in his feelings not to make some 
allusion to his fellow-Apostle, if he was there; but, 
among the many names mentioned in this epistle, the 
name of Peter does not once occur.
Were these Roman Christians Jews or Gentiles ?
rom many of Paul’s expressions in this letter, it seems 
that the most of them were Gentiles. Yet as the Jews 
were in all large cities, and would be in unusual num- 
. ®rs in the capital of the empire, and as there are Jew­
ish names among those to whom Paul sends his greet­
ing in Rome, we must suppose that there was a goodly 
number of Jews also in the Roman church.
To this church of mingled Jews and Greeks and 
Romans, Paul wrote his epistle. Unlike his letters to 
t ie Thessalonians, to the Corinthians, and to the Gala­
tians, this letter to the Romans is a long and careful 
and learned discussion of the great doctrines of the new 
religion which Jesus the Messiah had introduced. Paul 
had not been in Rome, as he had been in Galatia, Thes- 
salonica, and Corinth; and therefore he was not so well 
acquainted with the Romans as he was with the Gala­
tians and Thessalonians and Corinthians. He himself 
ad not founded the church in Rome, as he had these 
others. And for these reasons, the epistle has few allu­
sions to himself, and has less of that warm aflectionate- 
ness which breathes and throbs all through these other 
loving letters. Still, although he is not acquainted 
with the great majority of the Roman Christians, he 
tells them that ‘ he longs to see them,’ that ‘ he had 
often intended to visit them, but had been prevented,’
that he wanted to preach in Rome,’ as well as in Cor-
inth and Ephesus.
He then discusses the one great subject, in which 
both the Jews and Gentiles of the Roman church would
PHCEBE CARRIES A LETTER TO ROME.
be deeply interested: That Jews and Gentiles are loth 
equal in the kingdom of God, through faith in Jesw 
the Messiah: that both are sinners: both need^ a Sav­
iour : that Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, is equal­
ly a Saviour for both, if they both have faith in him.
Near the end of this letter, he told them that although 
they were strangers, he had ‘written boldly, because 
God had made him the Apostle to the Gentiles.’13 
And now we see that the great heart of the Apostle 
was not to be satisfied with making Rome the end of 
his next journey, but that he had already extended his 
plan to the very distant end of the Roman empire. His 
plan now was, after he had returned to Jerusalem, to 
make his fourth journey reach to Spain. And therefore 
he promised to the Romans that ‘ when he should take 
his journey to Spain, he would make them that visit 
which for many years he had longed to make.’ 
As he 
was just about to start with his collections for Jerusa­
lem, he said nothing to the Romans about making col­
lections. 
He probably hoped to teach them Christian 
liberality, as he had the other churches, when he should 
make his visit.
And then, at the end of the epistle, there is a chapter 
of kind remembrances sent to his friends, which show s 
that Paul was not only the Christian Apostle, but the 
Christian gentleman. 
How kindly he recommends 
Phoebe, the deaconess of Cenchrsea, to their attention 
and assistance. 
How affectionately and gratefully he 
sends his greetings to Priscilla and Aquila. Wherever 
these good people were, at Corinth, at Ephesus, or at
Rome,14 their house was always open for the assembly 
of Christians; and once at least, probably at Ephesus,
“ xv. 15,16.
14 Acts xviii. 2,3; I. Corinth, xvi. 19; Romans xvi. 3.
240 
(THIRTY-SEVENTH S UNDA Y.)
they were willing to put their own life in danger to 
pr itect Paul. 
All the churches had heard of Aquila 
and Priscilla, and were thankful to them. Paul wished 
to be remembered, too, to Epenetus, one of his first 
converts in Achaia, who was now in Rome. 
The most 
of the other names in the chapter are Greek, which 
seems to show that they were from Greece, and that 
they were converted in the regions of Greece. 
Some 
of the persons were Jews, and were kinsmen of Paul.
Other persons than Paul send their good wishes to 
the brethren of Rome : Timothy, his youthful and faith­
ful ‘ work-fellowLucius, perhaps the very Lucius who 
was at Antioch when he started on his first journey:1S 
Jason, the very Jason of Thessalonica it maydie, Sosipa- 
tei, another kinsman, (who was perhaps the same person 
who soon afterwards went with Paul back to Corinth:16) 
Oaius, the hospitable friend of the whole Church, and 
at whose house Paul is now writing; and Erastus, the 
Treasurer of the city of Corinth.17
Acta xiii. 1. 
See page 44.
xx. 4.
In Romans xvi. 23, the word chamberlain means in the Greek,
when applied to a household officer, a steward, or overseer: when ap- 
plied to a city, a financial officer, a treasurer.
PHOEBE CARRIES A LETTER TO ROME. 
241
(THIRTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
WHAT did the Apostle resolutely do after the letter to the 
’' Galatians had gone ?
How has it been supposed that he established his Apos* 
tolic authority ?
Is this supposition necessary ?
What was probably done with wilful, immoral church-
members ?
When had Paul directed this course before ?
How long was Paul in Corinth ?
Why may we suppose other neighboring churches had 
the same faults as the Corinthian church ?
Where were these churches ?
Who perhaps went with him ?
What was gathered ?
To whom was it entrusted ?
What direction had Paul given in respect to opposing 
such persons ?
Who left Cenchrsea about this time ?
What shows she was a person of position ?
What does the word ‘succorer’ mean?
What does the fact that she had business at Rome show? 
What does the word ‘servant’ mean?
What was a ‘ deaconess ’ ?
What was Paul intending to do after this journey ?
What did Paul send by her ?
Where did Paul deliver it to her ?
How do you know Paul thought highly of the Roman 
Christians ?
How is it probable the Christians first went to Rome ? 
Where did ‘strangers of Rome’ hear Peter preach? 
Had Peter ever been in Rome ?
Why would Paul have mentioned him, if he had been 
there? 
.
What was Paul’s rule about preaching where »notin' 
Apostle had been ?
(73)
(THIRTY-SEVENTII SUNDA Y.)
Were the Roman Christians Jews or Gentiles?
How does this Epistle differ from those Paul had written be­
fore ?
What reason is there for not alluding to himself ?
What does he say about wishing to see them ?
What is the one great subject of the Epistle ?
Who are equal ? 
How are they equal ?
Who are sinners ? 
Are they equally sinners ?
What is a sinner ?
What is the Saviour a Saviour from ?
How can we have him for our Saviour ?
What is faith ?
What reason does Paul give for writing boldly to strangers ? 
How far does the great Apostle now purpose to make his 
next journey reach ?
After what did he hope to do this ?
What was he going to Jerusalem for ?
Why doesn’t Paul speak of the collection in this 
Epistle ?
What is the last chapter of the Epistle to the Romans ?
Turn to the chapter, and point out there Paul’s kind care 
for Phoebe.
Point out his attention to Priscilla and Aquila.
Where had they perilled their life for Paul ?
In what places have these Christians been mentioned be­
fore?
Why were the churches thankful to them ?
What is meant by ‘ church in their house ’ ?
Point out the name of another convert of Paul’s.
What does ‘ first fruits ’ mean ?
Of what nation were the most of these persons mention­
ed in the chapter ?
Point out the names of those with Paul at Corinth who sent 
their good wishes to their Roman brethren.
Who perhaps was Lucius ? Jason ? Sosipater ?
At whose house was Paul living ?
What does ‘ chamberlain ’ mean ?
(74)
Thirty-eighth Sunday
THE GAMES AT THE ISTHMUS.
THE GAMES AT THE ISTHMUS. 
243
tliis ‘ three months ’ of his last visit to Corinth, since he 
reached Philippi by March,1 yet it is likely, from careful 
calculation, that the games were celebrated during the 
two years which he spent in Corinth the first time. 
It 
is proper, therefore, for us to stop and look in upon this 
' great national festival.
Just at the narrowest part of the Isthmus was a tem- 
 ple to Neptune, and near it a theatre and a race-course. 
These buildings were about eight miles from Corinth, 
and Paul would pass the very spot, if he went at any 
time by land from Athens to Corinth, or from Corinth 
to Athens. 
The entrance to the temple was through 
an avenue of statues of the victors, and through groves 
of pine-trees, from the leaves of which the victor’s chap­
let was woven. 
The games celebrated near this tem­
ple were made sacred to Neptune. 
The people came 
pouring in from all parts of the country, to the celebra­
tion. 
In early times, the Athenians were especially 
honored at the games ; they came across the gulf from 
Athens in a sacred vessel, and seats in a space as large 
as the sail of their vessel were reserved for them. 
The 
crowds of men came not only to see the games, but to 
buy and to sell, to visit, and to learn of the latest pro­
ductions in literature and music and art. The best way 
to make known a newly-written book or poem, a paint- 
ing or a statue, was to read it or exhibit it at these jubi­
lant celebrations, when people from all Greece were 
present. Musical and poetical contests sometimes formed 
a part of the games ; but the reading of a book or ex­
hibition of a painting was not a part of the regular cel­
ebration.
Both the theatre and the building for foot-races at 
the Isthmus, were built of white marble. The building
1 See page 230, note 1.
LESSON.
Acts xx. 3, 4, 5; I. Corinthians ix. 24-27; Galatians v. 7; Philip- 
pians iii. 13, 14; I. Thessalonians ii. 19; II. Timothy ii. 5, iv. 6-8; 
Hebrews xii. 1-4.
ONE thought which very naturally arises, as we think 
over all that Paul had seen in Greece, is in respect 
to the Grecian Festivals. 
Did Paul see the famous 
games which have helped to make Greece so celebrat­
ed? 
We know that there are many vivid figures of 
speech in his epistles, which are taken from the various 
feats of strength and of agility performed in these places 
of amusement. 
To be sure there was the separate and 
peculiar building for the race-course in almost every 
city which he had visited. 
He had been familiar with 
the phrases and customs of the athletic sports from early 
years, for at Tarsus itself was the race-building, and 
when a boy, he might have witnessed the contests. 
And especially at Ephesus, these contests of strength 
and of speed, and the training for them, were subjects 
of absorbing interest to all the people. But on the very 
Isthmus of Corinth, which he so often trod, was held 
one of the four great festivals of Greece. And in Paul’s 
time, these 1 Isthmian Games ’ were in their most suc­
cessful operation. 
They were celebrated every third 
year, and in the spring or summer. 
While, therefore, 
it is not likely that Paul witnessed fhese games during
244
(THIRTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY.)
for the foot-races was called the Stadium, (a measure 
of length, equal to our furlong,) because the race-course 
in it was just a stadium long. It was a long, open edi­
fice, with a circular end. 
In the circular space at the 
end, the various feats of wrestling, boxing, etc., took
place. The race-course itself was straight. The marble 
seats rose on each side. 
The judges sat on one side, 
opposite the goal. 
Directly across from them was the 
priestess’ altar and seat. 
The open space for the racers 
was adorned with altars and statues. 
At the starting- 
place was a square pillar, with the motto, be the best. 
Half-way down the course was another square pillar, 
with the word hasten. 
On the square pillar which 
was the goal, was the word turn. The runners turned 
around the goal, when the race was twice or more 
times the length of the stadium.
The prize in the foot-race of the stadium was the 
most ancient and the most honorable of all the prizes at 
the games. 
In the time of Paul it was simply a gar 
land of pine leaves. 
The simplicity of the reward was 
designed to heighten the value of the honor.
The men who entered their names as competitors for 
the prize were required to be examined, to show they 
were freemen, that they were Greeks by birth, and that 
they were not guilty of great and infamous crimes.
THE GAMES AT THE ISTHMUS. 
245
Then for ten months before the day of the race, they 
were trained by regular teachers, who had the care of 
such candidates. 
Strict rules were enforced in respect 
to food and sleep and exercise. 
The rules in respect 
to the manner of running were also carefully taught. 
The violation of any one of these, forfeited the crown. 
No unfair pushing or pulling or other advantage was 
allowed to be taken.
The games at the Isthmus were much the same as the 
Olympic games, and the description of one will answer 
in general for that of the other. 
We must imagine the 
whole Isthmus alive with people, as the day approached. 
We must see tents spread on the turf, beneath the clear 
and sunny sky of Greece. We must see traffickers bring­
ing their wares of all kinds to this great fair; and the 
whole space around Neptune’s temple and the theatre 
and the stadium filled with an eager, gay, lively, and 
witty people. 
The slow and tedious training of the 
candidates for the high honors of the Isthmian games, 
is done. The morning of the first day has arrived. The 
sacrifices to Neptune have been performed: the athletes 
have taken their solemn vows at the altar, that they have 
passed through the regular ten months’ training, and 
that they will use no unfair means in the combats. The 
people pour into the seats, filling tier above tier, till a 
great multitude hover over the narrow race-course. 
Relations and friends of the racers are in the crowds: 
shouting and laughter and a great hum of voices fill the 
air: the judges, clad in their official robes, take their 
seats. 
A herald steps forth into the area, and the busy 
hum of voices dies into silence, while he makes pro­
clamation : 'Let the, runners in the stadium advance? 
The runners enter and take their places by lot. 
The 
herald calls out their names and their country one by 
one. If any one had taken the prize before, the an-
246 
(THIRTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY.)
nouncement by tbe herald is received with the loudest 
applause. All is silent again, while the herald calls: 
“ Can any one here present reproach these athletes with 
having been slaves or with leading an immoral life ? ” 
The universal silence proclaims them all the noble free­
men of Greece, and every heart throbs with the sense 
of the mere honor of admission to the area of the sta­
dium. Many an eye of the eager racers has fallen on 
the motto of the pillar at the starting-line; many a high 
resolve echoes in the heart the words, be the best. 
The hope of friends, the glory of success, the garlands 
on the ivory table in plain sight, the disgrace of defeat, 
the cheering cries of the great multitude, all unite to 
swell the high thought of every man as he is placed in 
position. The attendants leave them: the herald puts- 
his trumpet to his mouth. The signal sounds, and every 
man bounds for the goal. The crowds of spectators 
cheer and shout. Their cries of derision drive those 
who fall behind quickly from sight, while redoubled 
applause fills the air, as the two or three who are fore­
most pass the pillar Hasten. The wild confusion and 
clamor cease for a moment, as the rival racers bound 
past the goal into the open space beyond; and sharp 
and loud debate, mingled with the still louder and re­
doubled war of voices, almost overpower the blast of 
the herald’s trumpet, as he proclaims silence, and an­
nounces from the judges the name and the city of the 
victor.
Other and more difficult races follow: races twice the 
length of the course, with the exciting turn at the goa^ 
then other races, up to six and twelve times across the 
track. Some racers bear off more than one prize, run­
ning again and again. Some, unsuccessful at the fi> sb 
in the first trial of the stadium, at last gain the prake 
of the multitude, and the honor of the prize. 
Other
THE GAMES AT THE ISTHMUS. 
247
gymnastic feats of boxing, wrestling, leaping, quoiting, 
fill out the later part of the day.
The victor did not receive his prizes till the games 
were all over; but friends and relations crowded to 
him, congratulated and embraced him, “and lifting him 
on their shoulders, held him up to the applause of the 
spectators, who strewed handfuls of flowers over him.” 
On the last day of the festival, the conquerors in all 
the games of foot-racing, horse and chariot-riding, etc., 
were summoned by proclamation to the place where 
the honors were awarded. “ The victors, dressed in 
rich garments, bearing palm branches in their hands, 
and almost intoxicated with joy, proceeded in grand 
procession to the theatre, marching to the sound of 
flutes and surrounded by an immense multitude, who 
made the air ring with their acclamations. When they 
reached the theatre, the chorus of singers saluted them 
With the ancient hymn, composed by the poet Archilo- 
chus to exalt the glory of the victors, the surrounding 
multitude joining their voices to those of the musicians. 
Then the trumpet sounded, the herald proclaimed the 
name and country of the victor, and the nature of his 
prize, the acclamations of the people within and without 
the building were redoubled, and flowers and garlands 
were showered from all sides upon the happy conqueror, 
who at this moment was thought to have gained the 
loftiest pinnacle of human glory and felicity.” The vic- 
tors' names were inscribed in the archives of the Isth­
mian Games; and with all the pomp of triumph they 
were escorted by proud friends and relations and neigh- 
bors to their native city'.
Such were the games to which Paul alluded in the 
imagery of his letters. It may be that he mingled with 
the busy crowds of the Isthmus, and gathered a knot 
of Greeks around him to hear of Jesus. Whatever we
248
(■THIRTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY.)
may think in respect to the probability of Paul’s at* 
tending games where sacrifices were oifered to a heathen 
god, we see plainly how Paul alluded to all parts of the 
stadium contests: both to the race and to the boxing,8 
to the herald3 and to the judge* to the eager running 
of the racer,6 to the rules of the race* and to the fading 
prize of leaves,7 compared with the unfading crown 
which Jesus gives his followers.
During Paul’s three months in Corinth, the Jews be­
gan again to persecute him. He had formed his plan 
to sail from Cenchrsea, as he did before, to Judea. As 
soon as the sea was safe, he was ready to depart. The 
old and bitter hatred which in other places had put his 
life in peril, now rankled in the hearts of the Corinthian 
Jews. A plot against his life, when he should embark, 
was discovered. “ The Jews generally settled in great 
numbers at sea-ports, for the sake of commerce, and 
their occupation would give them peculiar influence 
over the captains and owners of merchant-vessels, in 
one of which Paul must have sailed. They might, 
therefore, form the project of seizing or murdering him 
at Cenchrsea with great probability of success.” Pmil 
therefore changed his plan. He determined to return 
on the route by which he came. By the time he reached 
Philippi, quite a little company was gathered to cross 
with him into Asia. These may have been the persons 
appointed by the different churches to carry their col­
lections. Sopater may have joined him at Berea: 
Aristarchus and Secundus, at Thessalonica. Timothy
a I. Corinthians ix. 26.
3 In I. Corinthians ix. 27, the figure is carried out in the Greek as 
it is not in our translation. The meaning of the original is, ‘ When 
have been a herald to others, I myself should be rejected.’
4II. Timothy iv. 8. 
8II. Timothy ii. 5.
6 Philippians iii. 14. 
T I. Corinthians ix. 26.
TIIE ISTHMIAN GAMES.
249
had either been with him all the way from Macedonia 
to Corinth, or joined him in Macedonia. Gaius and 
Tychicus and Trophimus came all the way from Corinth. 
Luke became one of the company at Philippi, or earlier 
in the route. Paul and Luke remained a little time at 
Philippi, while the rest of the company sailed for Troas.
(:thirty-eighth Sunday.)
QUESTIONS.
HAT striking figures of speech in Paul’s Epistles?
What peculiar building in almost every city ?
Why had Paul been familiar from youth with theM
games?
What was true of Ephesus ?
What one of the great festivals was held near Corinth ? 
How often were they celebrated ?
Did Paul see these games during the three months at 
Corinth ? Why ?
Was Paul ever in Corinth at the time of one of these 
celebrations ?
That buildings on the Isthmus ? Where ?
Did Paul ever pass them ?
Describe the entrance to the temple.
To whom were the games consecrated ?
How had the Athenians been honored at the Isthmian 
games ?
What besides these games did people come to see ? 
What was the name of the building for foot-races ?
Why was this name given ?
What kind of a building was it ?
Circular space ? race-course? seats? judges? pillars? 
How did the prize of the foot-race compare with other 
prizes ?
What was the prize ? Why so simple ?
What was first required of men who wished to become com­
petitors ?
How long were they required to make preparation ? 
What other strict rules ?
What rules on the race-course ?
What was the appearance of the Isthmus on the morning of 
the contest ?
What sacrifices ? What vows ?
Describe the appearance of the stadium.
(THIRTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY)
What was the herald’s proclamation,?
When the runners enter, what does the herald an­
nounce ?
What is the next proclamation of the herald ?
What effect has this on the multitude ?
Who decides the race ? Who announces it ?
YYhat besides the name of the rider is announced?
W hat other races and games followed, ?
YY hen did the victor receive his prize ?
YYrhat were the ceremonies ?
In what were the victors’ names written ?
Who accompanied them home ?
Do you think Paul would attend such games ? 
Why ?
YY"hat parts of the games are referred to in the passage from 
h Corinthians ?
What is meant by 1 is temperate in all things ’ ?
What is meant by ‘ corruptible crown ’ ?
What is alluded to in ‘ So'fight I,’ etc. ?
What does ‘keep under my body,’ etc., mean ?
What is meant by ‘ when I have preached,’ etc. ?
YY hat is referred to in the passage from Philippians ?
What in I. Thessalonians ?
What in II. Timothy ?
What three things in the eighth verse of the fourth 
chapter ?
YYhat allusion in Hebrews ?
What does the ‘ great cloud of witnesses ’ refer to ?
What allusion to the games may there be in the fourth 
verse ?
YVhat did the Jews begin to do again in Corinth ?
YYrhat had been Paul’s plan ?
YY hy did he change it ?
What would help the Jews in their plans ?
Who composed Paul’s company ?
Where did each join him probably ?
Who remained at Philippi ?
(76)
Thirty-ninth Sunday.
‘THE COASTS OF ASIA.’
THE COASTS OF ASIA. 
251
Paul hastened on to be in Jerusalem atrPentecost.1 But 
few and short visits could he made on the way, if he 
would reach the holy city in seven weeks. 
“ The voy­
age seemed to begin unfavorably.” Two days was suf­
ficient time to sail from Neapolis to Troas, with a fair 
wind, and this was all the time taken on that first voy­
age across to Europe, when they passed the night at 
Samothrace.3 
But now five days were occupied. 
A 
calm, or a contrary wind, must have detained the ship. 
If it was a contrary wind, the track of the vessel was 
not now ‘ straight,5 4 but zig-zag, from 4 tacking5 from 
one point to another for the sails to catch the wind.3
If the 44 fragments of colossal masonry among the oak 
trees, the huge columns of granite lying in the har­
bor,” the broken arches of a towering theatre conspic­
uous from the sea, if these ruins in our day indicate 
with any certainty what Troas was when Paul sailed 
towards it,44 we may he certain that the city, both on 
the approach from the water and to those who wander­
ed through its streets, presented an appearance of 
grandeur and prosperity. 
Like Corinth, Ephesus, or 
Thessalonica, it was a place where the Apostle must 
have wished to lay firm and strong the foundations of 
the Gospel.”
We have a description of only one of the seven days 
which Paul spent in Troas, but that was an important 
day. And the whole passage is a most important one, 
because it shows the observance of the first day of the 
week as the Sabbath day. 
It gives us also a vivid pic* 
ture of an evening service. 
The sacred services of the 
day were made doubly solemn and doubly precious by 
the celebration of the holy communion. 
And in the
1 Pentecost, meaning fifty, was fifty days—seven wedks and one 
from Passover day.
y 1 Acts svi. li. 
3 See the map on page 20(5.
LESSON.
A
cts 
xx. 
6-16.
TT may be that Paul and Luke remained in Philippi to 
-I- keep the Jewish Passover. A new and higher mean­
ing was now given to that sacred festival. 
The Lamb, 
the blood of which, sprinkled on the hearts of men, pre­
vented the death-angel from destroying the soul, had 
been slain for man’s redemption. 
Jesus was the great 
Passover for all men. 
Paul and Luke could not fail to 
think of the comparison between the ancient Passover 
and the new. 
They either observed the Jewish feast 
of seven days, removing all leaven and all impurity 
from their houses, or they celebrated that simple and 
solemn rite which our Saviour gave to his Church in 
place of the burdensome ceremonies of the Hebrew 
Passover week. 
No doubt the Philippian Christians 
with Paul and Luke gathered around the Lord’s table 
to commemorate the ‘ broken body ’ and ‘flowing blood 
of the Lamb of Calvary.
But there was another Jewish festival which had 
been made most sacred to Christians. 
It was at the 
Feast of Pentecost that the sacred Spirit first descended 
on the Christian Church. How hallowed was that day, 
especially in Jerusalem! 
With what praise, with what 
devout rejoicings did the disciples of Jerusalem cele­
brate its annual return! 
After the Passover, therefore,
252
(THIRTY-NINTH SUNDAY.)
evening they came together again with mingled feelings 
of joy and of sadness. 
The vessel was to sail on Mon­
day morning. 
“ The place was an upper room, with a 
recess or balcony projecting over the street or court. 
Many lamps were burning in the room where the con­
gregation was assembled. 
The place was hot and 
crowded. 
With the feeling that the next day was the 
day of his departure, and that souls might be lost by 
delay, Paul continued in earnest discourse, prolonging 
it even to midnight, when suddenly an accident occurred 
which filled the assembly with alarm, though it was af­
terwards changed into an occasion of joy and thanks­
giving. 
A young listener, whose name was Eutychus, 
was overcome by exhaustion, heat, and weariness, and 
sank into deep slumber. 
He was seated or leaning in 
the balcony, and, falling down in his sleep, was dashed 
on the pavement below, and was taken up dead.” Loud 
outcries of terror and confusion followed. 
Paul alone 
seems to be calm and unmoved. The power of the great 
Master was with his disciple. 
He went down and 
stretched himself upon the body, as Elisha did on the 
body of the child,4 and calmly said: ‘ Do not lament; 
for his life is in him.’
The interruption seems to have broken up the regu­
lar order of the services. 
After the long labors of the 
day and evening, Paul took food to strengthen him. 
Even then the earnest, warm-hearted Apostle was not 
fully satisfied. 
Till the very breaking of the day, he. 
continued to converse familiarly with the disciples. 
Then the congregation broke up, for it was time to go 
to the ship. 
Only Paul’s fellow-travellers went on 
board. 
For some reason Paul chose to walk across the 
promontory to Assos. 
Possibly he might gain a few
4II. Kings iv. 84.
THE COASTS OF ASIA. 
253
hours with the disciples at Troas, for the distance around 
was twice as far as it was across to Assos. More likely 
owever, the Apostle preferred to be alone. 
Solitude 
communion with his own thoughts and with his Saviour’ 
and prayer, were precious to him. « The discomfort of 
a crowded ship is unfavorable for devotion; and prayer 
and meditation are necessary for maintaining the reli­
gious life even of the Apostle.” 
Strength and peace 
were surely sought and obtained by him from that 
Saviour who often prayed in solitude, as Paul pursued 
his lonely road across the neck of the peninsu-
la. 
His walk was on the Roman road, and therefore 
safe and easy. 
It was “through the oak woods, then 
in full foliage, (for it was now the opening spring-time,) 
Whick cover all that shore with greenness and shade.” 
He made no stop in Assos. "We may suppose that 
the vessel was already hove to and waiting when he ar- 
rived; or that he saw it approaching from the west 
through the channel between the island Lesbos and the 
main shore. He went on board, and the Greek sailors 
and Apostolic missionaries continued their voyage. As 
to Assos itself, we must conclude, if we compare the 
description of the ancients with present appearances, 
at its aspect as seen from the sea was magnificent. 
On a wall of rock rising out of the water, was a sloping 
bank with a long portico on it. Above this was a mag­
nificent gate, approached by a flight of steps. 
Higher 
still was the theatre, which commanded a glorious view 
of Lesbos and the sea. 
The whole was crowned by a 
citadel of Greek masonry on a cliff of granite. 
Such 
was the view which gradually faded into indistinctness 
as the vessel retired from the shore, and the summit of 
Mount Ida rose in the evening sky.”
Southward, across the Gulf of Adramyttium, the 
pilot guides the ship between the island and the conti-
254
(:THIRTY-NINTH SUNDAY.)
nent. 
On the right the hold, high, mountainous island 
rises: on the left lies the mainland: in front is the 
‘ beautiful Mitylene,’ the chief city of Lesbos. Here on 
this island, here in this very city, lived the famous 
poetess Sappho, surrounded by her literary circle. “ The 
beauty of the capital of Sappho’s island was celebrated 
by the architects, poets, and. philosophers of Rome” 
Here the ship probably anchored for the night, protect­
ed from wind and waiting for daylight before they tried 
the difficult channel between the southern end of Les­
bos and Asia.
A long sweep around an irregular projection of land, 
brought them sometime during Tuesday abreast the 
coast of Chios. “ On one side were the gigantic masses 
of the mainland: on the other was the rich, fertile 
island, with its gardens of oranges, citrons, almonds, 
and pomegranates, its luxuriant vineyards and its white, 
scattered houses, overshadowed by evergreens.” 
On 
the next day, Wednesday, the ship was in scenery fa­
miliar to Paul. 
They were crossing the bay in front 
of Ephesus. 
Sails in sight were set for Ephesus, ves­
sels were coming out of the harbor of the great and 
busy city. 
If the sun was in the west, so that the rays 
were reflected from the city, the glittering columns of 
Diana’s temple may have been in view. 
Paul thought 
of his Christian converts, and yearned to see them, but 
he ‘ had determined to sail by Ephesus.’ 
If he would 
be at Jerusalem at Pentecost, he must not leave this 
ship. 
He might not find another which would take 
him to Palestine in time for the national festival. Before 
night, they were close by the side of Samos. Through 
a narrow pass, where the water is shut in between the 
island and a high, long ridge, lies the course to the 
town of Samos, and directly opposite, on the coast, and 
not more than a mile from Samos, is “ the anchorage
THE COASTS OF ASIA.
255
of TrogyUium.” 
Here Paul might have gone ashore, 
if he had wished to visit Ephesus, which was now twen­
ty or thirty miles to the northward. 
A better plan 
suggested itself to his mind. 
He found the ship was 
to stop some time at the next landing-place, and that 
place was Miletus, which was in direct communication 
with Ephesus. Though he could not visit the Ephesian 
church himself, he determined to send word to some 
of the principal members to meet him at Miletus.
“ The sail from Trogyllium, with a fair wind, would 
require but a little time. 
If the vessel weighed anchor 
at daybreak on Thursday, she would be in harbor long 
before noon. 
The message was sent to Ephesus imme­
diately on her arrival; and Paul remained at Miletus, 
waiting for those whom the Holy Spirit, by his hands, 
had made c overseers ’ over the fleck of Christ.”
(:THIRTY-NINTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
W
HAT were ‘ the days of unleavened bread ’ ? 
Why so 
called?
What new meaning had been given to it ?
Would Paul and Luke observe the Jewish festival? 
Would they fail to observe the Christian form of the 
feast ?
Was our Lord’s Supper celebrated more or less often 
than now in the early Church ?
What other Jewish festival had been made sacred to Christ­
ians ? Why ?
What is the meaning of the word ?
Why did Paul hasten on ?
How long was the voyage to Troas ?
How long had Paul been in going from Troas to Philippi 
on a former journey ?
What made the difference ?
Would the course be ‘ straight ’ ?
How long was Paul at Troas ?
Which one of these days is described ?
What day of the week, then, did Paul reach Troas ? 
Why is this description an important one ?
Was there a synagogue at Troas ?
When Paul went into the synagogues on 1 the Sabbath, 
what day was it ?
What day did the disciples at Troas assemble ?
How came there to be disciples in Troas ?
What is meant by ‘ to break bread’ ?
Do you think there was a second assembly in the even­
ing ?
In what place was the meeting ?
Why did Paul continue preaching so late ?
Are there ever reasons now why preaching should some* 
- 
times be continued equally long ?
Is Eutychus to be blamed for falling asleep ?
Is there any excuse in this for sleeping in church.
(77)
Show how Eutychus might have fallen from an eastern 
window.
W hat would this accident produce in the audience ? 
What was the effect on Paul?
W horn was he like, in falling on him and embracing 
him ?
Was Eutychus dead or in a swoon?
How do you reconcile ‘taken up dead,’ and ‘life is in 
him’ ?
Did Paul go on with the preaching ?
Does ‘ had broken bread,’ in the eleventh verse, differ 
from ‘ to break bread,’ in the seventh verse ?
How long did the conversation continue ? What was it 
about ?
Who went aboard the ship ? Why did not Paul ?
How was it l :at Paul could walk to Assos as soon as 
the ship could sail there ?
W hat day was it when Paul walked to Assos ?
How long was Paul in Assos ?
What island was to be seen from Assos ?
How did Assos appear from the sea?
What mountain in the north-east ?
What gulf did they cross ? to what island? 
iat was Mitylene ? 
What famous poetess had lived here ? 
W ho celebrated the praises of Mitylene ? for what P 
Did the vessel stop here ?
°'v far did they sail on Tuesday ?
W hat was on either hand ? 
here was the ship the next day ?
W hat could be seen ?
Why did not Paul stop at Ephesus ?
W hat was Samos ? 
Trogyllium ? 
here was Thursday’s sail ? Was it all day ?
^ hat message was sent ?
Might it have been sent from Cape Trogyllium?
(THIRTY-NINTH BUND A Y.)
(78)
Jforiuilj 
Swnbaü.
THE ELDERS OF EPHESUS.
LESSON.
Acts xx. 17-38.
M
ILETUS was a more ancient town than Ephesus. It 
was famed for having sent out many colonies, some 
to the Euxine (Black) Sea, some to Egypt, some to the 
distant -west. 
But it was a town of far less importance 
than Ephesus; for the immense quantities of earth 
brought down by the river Meander had filled up the 
harbor and made the city only a second-rate sea-port. 
Here, however, the captain of the ship remained on 
business for a day or two.
What gladness and joy was there among the Christ­
ians of Ephesus when they heard that Paul was at Mi­
letus. 
How eagerly they would take the journey oi a 
few miles to see their old instructor and pastor, who 
taught them at the school of Tyrannus. 
“ The elders 
of the church must have gathered together in all haste 
to obey the summons, and gone with eager steps out of 
the southern gate which leads to Miletus. 
By those 
who travel on such an errand, a journey of twenty or 
thirty miles over a good road is not thought long an 
tedious.” 
Nor would they think the steep ascent orer 
the mountain-ridge nor even the darkness of night as 
any obstacle. 
“The elders of Ephesus might easiy 
reach Miletus on the day after Paul’s message was re 
ceived.” 
A modern traveller who went over this same 
mountain-ridge in the same month of April, had,110
257
THE ELDERS OF EPHESUS.
doubt, a similar journey, when he said: “ The weather 
was unsettled: the sky was blue and the sun shone, but 
a wet, wintry north wind swept the clouds along the 
mountain-range.” 
From these heights the country, 
ike a perfect and beautiful map,’ can be seen far be­
yond Miletus and the Meander. Weariness from rapid 
journeying would soon be forgotten at the sight of 
Paul’s face. There was Timothy, too, and other ‘ breth­
ren' more or less known or heard about. 
There at 
Miletus the two parties mingled: Paul and his band 
of steadfast converts, the missionary party; and the 
delegation of intelligent Christian men from the great 
metropolis of Asia Minor. 
Going one side to some 
quiet spot on the shore, they thanked God that they 
were permitted to see each other’s faces again; and 
there - in some such solitary spot - can see the 
Apostle speaking earnestly, in subdued and solemn 
manner to those to whom God had given the Christ­
ian oversight of the great and wicked Ephesus. What 
singular contrast ” did this little party form “ with 
le great crowds which used to assemble in the im- 
mense theatre of Miletus ! 
But that vast theatre is 
now a silent ruin, while the words spoken by a common 
traveller that day to a few despised strangers are still 
living to teach lessons for all time, and to make known 
eternal truths to all who will hear them. 
At the same 
time they reveal to us, as though they were merely 
human words, all the tenderness and affection of Paul, 
the speaker.” '
ADDRESS TO THE ELDERS AT MILETUS.
This address to a regular and formal argument, 
like the other addresses of the Apostle which we have 
noticed on his journeys, but rather a simple, short,
earnest exhortation. 
It is not an argument to convince
258
(.FORTIETH SUNDAY.)
men, to lead them to believe what they do not believe, 
but an appeal to men to do faithfully what they already 
are trying to do. It is, therefore, simply the outpour­
ing of Paul’s earnest heart in a short, urgent, free talk 
with the responsible elders from Ephesus. TVre are not, 
therefore, to expect the regular, divisions of a speech. 
We may, however, notice a natural division into five 
parts :
I. His life in Ephesus. (Verses 18 to 21.) 
You 
know what my life in Ephesus was for the three years 
during which I lived among you, whether it enforced 
the doctrines of penitence and faith which I preached 
or not.
II. His journey to Jerusalem now is with foreboding 
of evil. (Verses 22 to 24.) He is going to Jerusalem, 
not free in spirit, as we would expect one to go who 
eagerly presses on to attend the national Festival, hut 
bound in spirit. The Holy Spirit of God had revealed 
that4 bonds and afflictions ’ were among 4 the things 
which would certainly 4 befall him there.’ Not once or 
twice, but in every city the Spirit of God plainly told 
him these things, yet he pressed directly on to Jerusa­
lem. Nothing moved him, not the prospect of the loss 
of life itself, from the path of duty. Was there ever a 
more heroic courage ?
IH. His duty to them is done. (Verses 25 to27.) 
When on my former return to Jerusalem, I promised 
to come again, if God would permit. But now I shall 
not see you again. My whole work for Ephesus is 
done. I am innocent. I have done it faithfully* 
have spoken the whole word of God to you.
IV. 
His warning. (Verses 28 to 31.) You are now 
thè overseers of the Ephesian church. Feed it. Watch 
it. Greedy, cruel men will enter it, like wolves into a 
sheep-fold. There are even men among you who will
THE ELDERS OF EPHESUS.
259
pervert the truth to make themselves a party. Watch 
without ceasing. Remember my example. For three 
whole years I have watched and warned you all, day 
and night, and with tears.
V. 
His farewell. (Verses 32 to 35.) As I now leave 
you, I commit you to God. He is able to build up 
your church, and to give you all the eternal inheritance.
Remember these words and all my words. I have not 
preached for silver or gold or apparel. These very 
hands, which you see, have labored to support myself, 
and indeed others also. And you ought to labor also 
to support the helpless. Remember again my example 
of unselfish labor; and remember more the words of 
our Saviour, how He said; It is more blessed to give 
than to receive.
Two things are worthy of notice in this address of 
Paul. First, how much Paul speaks of himself in it! 
In every one of these subjects on which he spoke, he 
referred freely to what he himself had done and was 
about to do. We must remember that he was among 
warm personal friends, and that it was proper for a 
faithful man like Paul to refer to himself as an example.
And yet notice, secondly, how solemnly the word of 
God is made superior to all his own work. In every 
subject of his address, God is made more prominent 
than himself Does he refer to his life at Ephesus? 
It was to preach to Jews and Greeks penitence and 
faith towards Jesus our Lord and our Messiah. Does 
he speak of his journey to Jerusalem? It is to say 
that the Holy Ghost has revealed to him what is to be- 
fall him and to speak of the ministry of Jesus. Does 
he speak of his duty as ended ? It was his duty to 
preach the kingdom of God. Does he warn them?
The Holy Ghost made them overseers. And when
ids them farewell, it is to commit them to God,
and to repeat as Lis last words the words of the 
Saviour.
Paul’s address at Iconium was to Jews: his address 
at Athens was to Gentiles: his address at Miletus was 
to Christians. At Iconium he argued from the Hebrew 
Scriptures : at Athens he argued from nature and from 
the truth which he found in heathen altars and Greek 
poets: in Miletus he argued from the words of Jesus 
and from his own Apostolic authority derived from 
Jesus. What boldness, what wisdom, what affection, 
what solemnity was there in Paul on all these occa­
sions ; and how does he exhibit all these virtues as he 
now, at Miletus, leaves his missionary life, thenceforth 
to be more than ever a sufferer for his Master.
When Paul’s warm and pungent address was ended, 
one impulse prompted all to seek God’s blessing in 
prayer. What would a stranger have thought who 
should have seen that company in that solitary place all 
kneeling in prayer to an unseen God! It was indeed to 
an invisible but powerful God, who was establishing an 
invisible and powerful kingdom, that these insignificant 
men prayed—a kingdom which was to overturn Diana’s 
temple at Ephesus and Minerva’s statue on the Acro­
polis at Athens, to overpower the great Roman empire, 
and at length to triumph over all heathen authorities; 
and these kneeling, praying men were the mighty powers 
on earth which were laying the foundations of this king­
dom under the direction of their unseen King. “ In Pray* 
ing with them, Paul knelt down—that unusual posture 
being a token of his fervor and of how much he was 
overcome by the scene. The posture for prayer was 
standing, both in the Jewish and in the early Christian 
church.”1 “And then followed an outbreak of natural
260 
(.FORTIETH SUNDAY.)
1 Mark xi. 25.
THE ELDERS OF EPHESUS.
261
grief, which even Christian faith and resignation were 
not able to restrain. They fell on the Apostle’s neck 
and clung to him and kissed him, sorrowing most be­
cause of his own foreboding announcement that they 
should never behold that countenance again on which 
they had so often gazed with reverence and love. But 
no long time could be devoted to grief. The wind was 
fair,2 and the vessel must depart. The Christian brethren 
were torn from the embrace of their friends.” The 
ship pulled off from the shore and stood out to sea. 
The saddened elders of Ephesus turned at length their 
eyes from the receding vessel, and took their slow and 
melancholy journey home.
2 ®ee 
1. 
‘ With a straight course: ’ the wind must have been 
fair.
(.FORTIETH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
WHICH was more ancient, Miletus or Ephesus? which the 
'' 
more important ?
What had the river Meander to do with Miletus? 
Describe the journey from Ephesus to Miletus. 
How 
far was it ?
Who now made up Paul’s company ?
How does this address to the elders differ from other ad­
dresses of Paul on his journeys ?
What verses contain the first division of this address ? 
What is the subject ?
WThat time is meant by 1 the first day that I came into 
Asia ’ ?
Had the Jews ‘ laid wait ’ for Paul in Ephesus ?
What doctrines had he preached ?
What kind of life must Paul have lived to have appealed 
to their knowledge of it ?
What is the second subject of the address ?
What does ‘bound in the spirit’ mean?
What caused his feeling that evil would come upon 
him?
How did this certain information affect Paul ?
What is meant by ‘ finish my course ’ ?
How could Paul speak of finishing it with joy, when ho 
expected evil ?
What is the third subject of the address ?
What one thing did Paul certainly know ?
How did this farewell differ from his former farewell at 
Ephesus ?
What does ‘ take you to record ’ mean ?
What is meant by ‘ pure from the blood ’ ?
What does the twenty-seventh verse mean ?
What is the fourth subject of the address ?
Who makes pastors or elders in the church ?
Can a person be pastor or elder without His appoint­
ment ?
(70)
Whose blood is ‘ his owrn blood ’ ?
Does this prove that Jesus is God?
What is meant by ‘ grievous wolves ’ ?
What are ‘ perverse things ’ ?
What is the last strong argument with wrhich Paul en­
forces his warning ?
What is the fifth subject of the address ?
What is the meaning of ‘commend to God’ ?
How can ‘ the wTord ’ ‘ build up ’ a person ?
Had Paul labored at common work for himself alone ? 
Whose words does he quote ?
Are these words found in the four Gospels ?
What two things are especially to be noted in this address ? 
Why was it proper for Paul to speak of himself ?
Show how, in each division of the address, God’s work 
is made more prominent than his own.
W hat three classes of persons did Paul address in Iconium, 
Athens, and Miletus ?
What three different sources of argument ?
Give some of the characteristics of this address.
W hat does ‘ kneeled down ’ show ?
What caused the greatest sorrow in parting ?
Did Paul take leave of his missionary life here ?
(80)
(FORTIETH SURE AY.)
Forty-first Sunday
THE 
THIRD JOURNEY 
HOME.
LESSON.
Acts xxi. 1-16.
THE difference in the description of the two voyages 
of Paul from Ephesus to Csesarea is so marked that 
it is worthy of our careful notice. The account of the 
voyage on Paul’s second return home passes quickly 
over the whole distance between the two cities. It is 
simply said: ‘And he sailed from Ephesus. And 
when he had landed at Caesarea.’1 But in the account 
of the third return to Palestine, we have mentioned 
every stage of his voyage. The principal islands, the 
towns, the change of ships, and the incidents of the 
journey are noticed. Notice how particularly we have 
had Paul’s journey described ever since Luke joined 
Paul at Philippi. It seems probable, therefore, that 
Luke described more minutely those things which he 
saw as an eye-witness, just as on the second journey at 
Philippi we had a full description of the demoniac slave 
and of Paul’s imprisonment in the jail; and when Paul 
went on to Thessalonica, leaving Luke behind, there is 
only a general description given.®
Paul and his little company from the deck of the ship 
may have watched the little company of good men, from 
whom they had just separated, till the vessel had with*
1 xviii. 21, 22.
5 Compare chapter xvi. 12-40 with xvii. 1-10, and see note 1 
Twenty-second Sunday.
THE THIRD JOURNEY HOME.
263
drawn far from the shore and was headed down the 
Icarian Sea. “ With a fair wind she could easily run 
down to Cos the same afternoon.” The wind must 
have been in their favor, for they sailed in ‘ a straight 
course.’3 “With this wind the vessel would make 
her passage from Miletus to Cos in six hours, pass­
ing the shores of Caria (see map on page 127) and 
the high summits of Mount Latmus in the interior on 
the left, and groups of small islands studding the sea 
on the right.” The rocky and barren island of Patmos, 
used by the Roman government as a place of banish­
ment, where the Beloved Disciple so soon afterwards 
saw his wonderful visions,4 would be seen now and then 
through these smaller islets. The name of the town 
as well as of the island itself to which the vessel held 
its course was Cos. “ It is described by the ancients as 
a beautiful and well-built city, and surrounded with for­
tifications ; but its beauty had been injured by an earth­
quake.” The island was renowned for its wine, silks, 
and beautiful cotton : the city, for its harbor, sheltered 
fiom winds, and for its medical school. Here was a 
temple to Æsculapius, the god of healing, which was 
crowded with models,’ so as to become in effect a mu 
seum of anatomy.” Hippocrates, the most celebrated 
physician of antiquity, was born here, and wrote, taught, 
and practised his profession in his early home. Luke, 
the physician,5 “who knew these coasts so well, could 
hardly be ignorant of the scientific and religious celeb- 
city of Cos.” How thankful would he be that he was 
not a victim to the vain superstitions with which idola­
trous Greeks had filled the profession of medicine. 
Apelles, too, the most celebrated painter of Greece, 
who painted the portrait of Alexander the Great, and
8 See note 2 page 131. 
4 Rev. i. 9. 
‘Col. iv. 14.
264
(.FORTY-FIRST SUNDAY.)
whose most famous paintings were in the temple of 
¿Esculapius at Cos, was said to be a native of the island. 
Opposite Cos, and on the coast of Caria, was Halicar­
nassus, where Herodotus, ‘ the Father of History ’ and 
the extensive traveller, and Dionysius, the literary critic 
and historian, were born.
Turning short around the corner of this island, the 
next morning the long promontory of Cnidus, which 
looked so much like an island, was in sight.6 The north­
west winds blow steadily and with violence along this 
coast during the good season. 
"When, therefore, they 
passed the high precipice which forms the end of Cnidus, 
they ran swiftly down to Rhodes. 
The city was at the 
northern end of the island. Situated at the western end 
of the eastern Mediterranean, and at the entrance to 
the iEgean Sea, with a good harbor, it was the natural 
stopping-plaoe of very many trading vessels. The island 
furnished “copious supplies of ship-timber,” and the 
city was renowned for ship-building, 
fthodes was 
“famed in ancient times, and is still celebrated, for 
its delightful climate and the fertility of its soil. 
The 
gardens are filled with delicious fruit, every gale is 
scented with the most powerful fragrance wafted from 
groves of orange and citron-trees, and the number­
less aromatic herbs exhale such a profusion of the rich­
est odors, that the whole atmosphere seems impregnated 
with spicy perfume.” The city itself “ rose in the midst 
of its perfumed gardens and its amphitheatre of hills, 
so united and so symmetrical that it appeared like one 
house.” 
Statues abounded. 
The fragments of the im­
mense statue to the sun, which was called ‘ The Colos­
sus of Rhodes,’ and one of the seven wonders of the
‘ Paul sailed past Culdus afterwards when be went to Borne. 
Acts xxvii. 7.
THE THIRD JOURNEY HOME.
265
world, and which had been shaken down and broken 
to pieces by an earthquake, still lay on the ground at 
the entrance to the harbor,7 when Paul’s vessel arrived. 
Beauty and luxuriance were on every side; and through 
the clear and sunny atmosphere the islands of the Arch­
ipelago and the coasts of Asia could be seen for many 
miles around. 
“ It was a proverb, that the sun shone 
every day in Rhodes.” 
“ We do not know that Paul 
landed, like other great conquerors who have visited the 
city. 
It would not be necessary even to enter the har- 
bor, for a safe anchorage would be found for the night 
outside; and the vessel which was seen by the people 
of the city to weigh anchor in the morning was pro- 
bably not distinguished from the other coasting craft 
with which they were daily familiar.”
The course of the ship was now to the east, towards 
the splendid scenery of Lycia, which is visible from the 
heights of Rhodes. 
In front of them was "a long line 
snowy summits on the coast, and the sea between is 
ruffled beneath the blue and brilliant sky.” 
The point 
towards which the helmsman now directs the prow of 
ship is near the further end of these mountains— 
Patara, the harbor of Xanthus, the chief city of Lycia, 
as Neapolis was the harbor of Philippi. 
Either the 
vessel was to stop here, or was to follow the coast of 
Asia Minor eastward. Whatever was its destination, it 
was not going immediately to Palestine. Possibly Paul 
intended to sail in it as far as he could towards Judea, 
hoping to find a ship in some one of the ports at which 
they should stop bound directly for Caesarea. 
If this 
was so, he may have made inquiry off the harbor of 
Rhodes whether any ship was in port bound directly
7 So enormous was this brazen statue, that when at length these 
fragments were sold, it took nine hundred camels to carry them
away.
266
(.FORTY-FIRST SUNDAY.)
for any port of Judea. 
At any rate, he found a ship at 
Patara, which was to sail to Phoenicia. 
From Phoeni­
cia he could reach Jerusalem by land along the road he 
had travelled before, provided there should be no ves­
sel ready to depart for Caesarea. 
Hastening, therefore, 
to be at Jerusalem at Pentecost, “ they went on board 
without delay; and it seems evident, from the mode of 
expression, that they sailed the very day of their ar­
rival. 
Since the voyage lay across the open sea, with 
no shoals nor rocks to be dreaded, and since the north­
west winds often blow steadily over these seas during 
the spring, there could be no reason why the vessel 
should not weigh anchor in the evening, and sail through 
the night. 
We think of Paul, therefore, no longer as 
passing through narrow channels or coasting along in 
the shadow of great mountains, but as sailing directly 
on through the midnight hours, with a prosperous 
breeze filling the canvass and the waves curling and 
sounding round the bow of the vessel.” 
Before a 
strong wind, the trip across to Tyre might have been 
made in two days. 
One phrase especially indicates 
that the voyage was a quick one. It is said that ‘ when 
they had discovered Cyprus, they left it on the left 
hand,’ “ as if they had hardly more than seen it in the 
distance on the left hand in front, before they left it 
behind on the left hand. It was probably towards even­
ing of the second day that the highest mountain of Cy­
prus appeared. 
“ There would be snow on it at that 
season of the year.” 
The next morning Paphos and 
the whole island were past: indeed fast passing into the 
north-west horizon. 
(See map on page 195.) “ The first 
land in sight now would be the high range of Lebanon 
in Syria, and they would easily arrive at Tyre before 
evening.”
Tyre from the earliest times had been a place of traf
THE THIRD JOURNEY HOME.
267
fic. 
Since Hiram, King of Tyre, furnished Solomon 
materials for the Temple,8 it had been a rich, busy, 
prosperous city; but in Paul’s time the height of its 
prosperity was past. 
It still had some manufactures 
and some commerce. 
The ship which brought Paul 
stopped at Tyre to unload her cargo. 
It is not neces­
sary at all to suppose that her whole voyage had been 
from Patara. 
She “ may have brought grain from the 
Black Sea or wine from the Archipelago, with the pur­
pose of taking on at Tyre a cargo of Phoenician manu­
factures.” 
It seems likely that the same ship went 
on to Ptolemais. 
While the change of cargoes was 
being made, which required several days, Paul found 
out the Christian disciples of Tyre. 
Some of the Ty­
rian disciples were prophets, and they foresaw the perils 
of a visit by Paul to Jerusalem. 
But they could not 
prevent Paul from carrying out his purpose. 
He was 
there over one Sabbath, and then, as fathers and moth­
ers and children affectionately accompanied him to the 
ship, he kneeled down as at Miletus, on the shore, and 
prayed to God. 
The ship took its course southward, 
and after the greater part of a day’s sailing along the 
coast, reached Ptolemais, its destination. 
Across from 
this city, on the next point of the coast, was Mount 
Carmel, jutting out into the sea. 
A line from Ptole­
mais to Capq Carmel was like the string of a well-bent 
bow, for the sandy shore swept round from one point 
to the other in a regular curve. 
Here also Paul found 
out again ‘ the brethren ’ and spent a day with them. 
Another day’s travelling by land brought them to Cae­
sarea. 
The journey all the way from Troas had been 
accomplished in abundant time for him to reach Jerusa-
8II. Sam. v. 11 and I. Kings v.
268
(.FORTY-FIRST SUNDAY.)
lem before Pentecost; and therefore he had a few leisuro 
days in Caesarea.9
At Caesarea Paul and his company found a home in 
the Christian family of Philip. As Caesarea is the last 
place in which the Scripture previously mentions Philip,10 
it is likely he had his permanent residence here; and that 
his four daughters, by their superior devotedness and the 
gift of the prophetic office, assisted him in his work. It 
is natural to think that these inspired women foretold 
the sorrows to come upon Paul. Another prophet did 
plainly predict what the sufferings of Paul would be. 
In ‘ every city m along the voyage the Holy Spirit had 
revealed to him bonds and afflictions awaiting him. At 
Tyre, the first place he landed on the Syrian coast, he 
met a voice of warning. At Caesarea, four prophets in 
the very house in which he stays point out the future 
evil. And now that same prophet, who many years 
before at Antioch foretold the famine which came to 
pass,12 came down from Jerusalem and foretold chains
• From Passover to Pentecost was, as we have seen, (page 251 note 
1,) seven weeks and a day. 
How long was Paul on the journey ? 
From Philippi to Troas, (xx. 6,) 
.
At Troas,................................................
From Troas to Assos and to Hitylcne, (xx. 13, 14,)
Mitylcne to Chios, to Samos, to Miletus, (xx. 15,)
At Miletus and to Cos, (about 3 days,) .
From Cos to Rhodes, to Patara, (xxi. 1,)
From Patara to Tyre, 
.
.
.
.
At Tyre, (xxi. 4,) 
..............................
Fixm Tyre to Ptolemais, and at Ptolemais, (7,)
From Ptolemais to Caesarea, (8,) 
.
Leaving for the 1 many days’ (10) at Caesarea and in Je­
rusalem, before the day of Pentecost,
5 days.
10 Act3 viii. 40.
11 xx. 23.
7
a
1
u
3
it
3
a
2
a
2
u
7
u
2
a
1
a
33
a
17
50
a
xi.28.
THE THIRD JOURNEY HOME.
269
and imprisonment for Paul. By binding his own hands 
and feet, m the manner of the ancient prophets 13 lie 
solemnly represented the imprisonment of Paul. Luke 
and Trophimus and the disciples of Caesarea were greatly 
distressed at this sad prediction, and wept and besought 
I aul not to go where he would certainly be delivered 
up, to wicked men. But what could ever daunt the 
courage of Paul? He was ready not only to be im­
prisoned, but to die, for Jesus’ sake. When they saw 
his unfaltering purpose, and that they caused him only 
sorrow, they submitted to the Lord’s will. Loading 
up with their baggage,14 they journeyed up to the holy city, 
comforted with the presence of one of the disciples of 
Caesarea and of a disciple formerly of Cyprus, who then 
resided in Jerusalem—“ who may indeed have been one 
of those Cyprian Jews who first made known the Gos­
pel to the Greeks of Antioch.”15
13 Isaiah xx. 2-4; Jeremiah xiii. 1-11.
14 'Took up our carriages' means took up the packages or bundlesthey had to carry. 
15 A
c
t
s
 
x
i. 1
9
. I h
a
s b
e
e
n
 c
o
n
je
c
tu
re
d
 th
a
t 
M
nason was called
an 'old disciple' because he was one of the seventy whom Jesus sent 
forth Luke x. 1.17.
(.FORTY-FIRST SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
WHAT different descriptions of Paul’s second and third voy 
' 
ages home are there ?
Who is with Paul on this voyage who was not on the 
other ?
What other instance is there of this writer’s minute de­
scription of what he himself saw ?
What is meant by ‘launched’ ?
Why must the wind have been in their favor ?
What famous island did they pass on their right ? 
What was the first island on their course ?
What city on this island ? 
Famous for what ?
What temple ? 
What physician born here ?
Why interesting to Luke ?
What painter born here ? 
What was he famous for ? 
What town opposite Cos ? 
Famous for what ?
What promontory did they pass the next morning?
Where is it mentioned in the Scriptures ?
What winds prevail here ?
Why would the voyage be swift to Rhodes ?
Where was the city of Rhodes ?
Why was it the natural stopping-place for vessels ? 
What was Rhodes renowned for ?
The city ? the atmosphere ? the proverb ?
What was ‘ the Colossus of Rhodes ’ ?
In what direction was the voyage after leaving Rhodes? 
Towards what country ? To what city ?
What was the city ?
What was the destination of the vessel ?
Why did Paul exchange ships ?
Where was Phoenicia ?
What change in the voyage now ? 
?
Why may we think the passage to Tyre a quic 
Was Tyre in Phoenicia or in Syria ?
Where is Tyre first mentioned in the Scriptures 
" 
Was it more prosperous then or in Paul’s time 
Why did the ship stop at Tyre ?
(81)
Was Patara the beginning of the ship’s voyage ?
Was Tyre the end of her voyage ?
Can you point out any passage in the Acts which indicates 
how there came to be disciples in Tyre ?
Did the Spirit command that Paul should not go to Je­
rusalem ?
What is the meaning of the verse ?
Who came out of the city to the sea-shore ?
Where was Ptolemais ? In what country ?
How was the journey probably made to Caesarea ?
Had Paul’s journey from Philippi to Caesarea been made 
in time to reach the feast of Pentecost ?
Can you show it ?
Whom did Paul find at Caesarea ?
Have we any notice of this man before ?
What is meant by ‘ Evangelist’ ?
What does * one of the seven ’ mean ?
Why is the fact mentioned that the daughters prophe­
sied ?
What other prophet comes to Caesarea ?
Where else is he mentioned ?
What did he foretell ? How ?
Whom did he resemble in doing this ?
What was meant by ‘ deliver him into the hands of the 
Gentiles’ ?
Could this result be avoided ?
Who besides the Christians of Caesarea ‘besought’ 
Paul ?
Would it have been right for Paul not to have gone to 
Jerusalem ?
Was Paul’s resolution mere wilful determination ?
What is the proper manner in which to meet unwelcome 
providential events ?
What does ‘ took up our carriages ’ mean ?
Who went with Paul ? Whom did they bring ?
Why has it been thought he was called ‘ an old dis­
ciple ’ ?
What significance in his coming from Cyprus ?
(.FORTY-FIRST SUNDA 7)
(82)
Forty-second Sunday
A MOB IN JERUSALEM.
LESSON.
Acts xxi. 1Y — 36.
THE ‘ brethren ’ of Jerusalem had no doubt heard by 
this time of Paul s return. 
No sooner, therefore, 
was Paul in Jerusalem, and settled in the house of 
Mnason, than he received their glad welcome. 
Every­
where he went, he found some warm friends, whose 
attachment no opposition nor persecution nor forebod- 
ing, could break. 
Silas might have been among them: 
possibly Barnabas and Mark, as it was the time of 
Pentecost.
Paul seems to have had three objects in mind in vis­
iting Jerusalem : to present the collections1 taken in the 
Gentile churches for the poor Christians of Judea, to 
attend the Pentecost, and to overcome the hostile feeling 
to. him which existed in the minds of many of the 
Christians. 
Friendly as his Christian brethren were, 
there were still some of them who were ‘zealous of the 
law,’ and were far from liking Paul’s manner of preach­
ing to the Gentiles about keeping the law of Moses. 
The old and difficult question* still gave them trouble 
in some of its forms. 
Indeed, it was these persons, 
and the missionaries which they had sent out, whom 
Paul had found to be making disturbance in the churches 
of Galatia3 and of Corinth.4 
Before he went to Rome,
3 See page 234.
4 See page 228.
1 See chapter xxiv. 17, 18. 
3 See Fifteenth Sunday.
A MOB IN JERUSALEM.
271
he would wish, therefore, to have all misunderstanding 
and difficulty removed: “ to win, by the force of Christ­
ian love and forbearance, the hearts of those whom he 
regarded, in spite of all their weaknesses and errors, as 
brethren in Christ Jesus.”
We suppose Paul, therefore, to have spent the even­
ing of the day on which he arrived with his friends, 
prepared on the next day to meet the church and to 
show ‘ what God had wrought by his ministry.’
In the morning, the elders of the church and the 
Apostle James were gathered together. 
The brethren 
who had brought up the collection from the Gentile 
churches, Luke5 and Trophimus,8 and whatever others 
had continued on the journey past Troas and Miletus,7 
went into the assembly, and ‘ Paul with them.’ 
It is 
likely, therefore, that at this meeting the charities of 
the Gentile churches were presented to the church at 
Jerusalem, to be distributed to the poor of Judea.
After the salutations, either by ‘ the kiss of peace ’ or 
by words of Christian courtesy, or both, Paul told the 
story of his journey. 
He had been gone about four 
years,8 since he left Antioch. 
He had been on a long 
and eventful journey; and every particular would be 
full of interest to his hearers. 
He therefore ‘ declai cd 
particularly what things God had wrought. ^ He spoke 
of the systematic visitation of the churches in Galatia 
and Phrygia, of his long and peaceful and profitable 
residence in Ephesus, of Apollos and the disciples o 
John, of Aquila and Priscilla, and ‘the church in their
61 With tw,’ verse 18. 
Verae -9.
7 in xx. 4, it is only said that the seven brethren mentioned accom-
panied him into Asia.1
8 From Antioch to Ephesus, from one to two months. At Ephesus, 
three years. From Ephesus to Corinth and back to Troas, ten months, 
from Troas to Jerusalem, about seven weeks, (fifty days.)
272
(FORTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
house,’ of the school of Tyrannus, of those who had as­
sisted him to preach the word in the towns of Asia,9 of 
the seven sons of Sceva and the mighty triumph of 
God’s cause over Ephesian magic-workers, of that other 
great triumph over the superstitious worship of Diana, 
of God’s gracious protection through the Town Clerk 
from the Ephesian mob, of the troubles at Corinth, of 
Troas and Philippi and Illyricum and Corinth, of his 
letters and how he had tried to win back offenders and 
punish the obstinate, of his care to remember the poor 
and the collections they had now brought back with 
them, of the miraculous restoration of Eutychus at 
Troas, of the elders at Miletus, and of brethren at Tyre, 
and of his prosperous voyage and safe arrival.
Great results had been accomplished. 
Especially in 
the chief metropolis of Asia Minor, a large and flourish­
ing church had been gathered, and he had assurance 
from the elders whom he met at Miletus, as well as from 
the Divine Spirit, that God would be with and bless his 
people at Ephesus.
“ In such a discourse, Paul could scarcely avoid touch­
ing on subjects which would excite painful feelings and 
arouse bitter prejudice in many of his audience. 
He 
could hardly speak of Galatia without mentioning the 
attempts made there to turn aside his converts. He 
could not describe the condition of Corinth without 
alluding to those who came from Palestine, who had 
introduced confusion and strife among the Christians 
of that city. Yet he dwelt, no doubt, so far as he could, 
on topics in which all present could agree.”
Whatever of personal feeling or personal prejudice 
there was, the whole assembly could but give devout 
thanks to God and glorify him for what he had done*
0 xix. 10.
A MOB IN JERUSALEM. 
273
It was thought best, however, by the assembly, to repre- 
to Paul the state of mind in many of the Jewish 
believers in Jerusalem in respect to him, and to devise 
some means by which no open difficulties should occur. 
They told Paul, therefore, that many Jewish believers 
in the city who were ‘ zealous of the law,’ believed that 
he had been teaching the Jews in foreign cities not to 
circumcise their hildren nor to keep the customs of Moses.
This was not true in respect to Paul. He had taught 
en i es that they need not circumcise their children, 
nor keep the law of Moses, unless they preferred. He 
had not said that Jews ought not to circumcise their 
children. They could if they liked. Indeed, he himself 
had circumcised Timothy, the son of a Jewess. Yet 
we can easily see how sincere men, especially prejudiced 
men, would think Paul had been constantly teaching 
Jews not to circumcise their children and not to keep 
the customs of Moses. It would be prudent to show 
these ardent advocates of Moses’ customs, that Paul 
was quite willing at. all appropriate times to do what 
the customs of Moses required, although he did not 
admit that he was obliged to do it. 
What, therefore, is it proper to do ?10 was the ques- 
tion of the assembly. “ It was of great consequence 
not to shock the prejudices of these brethren too rudely, 
lest they should be tempted to make shipwreck of their 
faith and renounce their Christianity altogether. Their 
feelings would be easily excited by any appeal to their 
Hebrew law. They might easily be roused to fury 
against one whom they were taught to regard as a 
despiser of the law and a reviler of the customs of their 
forefathers."
10This must be the meaning of 1 What is it, therefore ? ’
274
(.FORTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
‘ What is it proper to do ? 
It will soon be known 
that you have come,’ the elders said. 
‘A multitude 
will gather. 
There may be violent and angry dispute 
and clamor. 
They may claim that you have gone far 
beyond the decree and the letter of the council in respect 
to this difficult question.’ A plan was suggested which, 
it was thought, would take away all ill-feeling, by show­
ing that Paul himself ‘ kept the law,’1 walked orderly,’ 
and that these charges ‘ were nothing.’ 
Four Jewish 
Christians were in the city who had a vow11 according 
to the law of Moses. 
The time of the vow would soon 
expire, and then they would offer the customary sacri­
fices required by the law of Moses from those who take 
vows. 
If Paul would purify11 himself with them, go 
with them to the temple, and pay for them the expense 
of the sacrifices offered at the termination of the vow,13 
it would be an open denial of the charges made against 
him. By doing this, he would be a sharer of their vow, 
and would show, by observing one of the ceremonies 
of the law of Moses, that he respected the law, and did 
not mean to treat it contemptuously. And if he should 
do this, he would not at all show that he wished Gen­
tiles to do the same thing; for the decree of the council 
and the letter which had been sent to the churches, and 
which Paul himself had carried to the Gentiles, had told 
them they were required to ‘ observe no such thing. 
Paul, who himself had taken a vow on his former jour­
ney abroad,15 was quite willing to do this, if it would 
be the means of preventing outbreak or difficulty.
The next day Paul took the men and attended to the
a See pages 193, 194.
53 “ In the case of poor Nazarites, it was customary for others to be 
at the expense of the sacrifice by which their vow was terminated, 
who thus became partners in their vows.”—Dr. Robinson.
13 Acts xviii. 18.
A MOB IN JERUSALEM. 
275
customary acts of purification for himself. 
He then 
went with them to the temple: he purchased (as Paul 
was not rich, the brethren no doubt helped him, or 
money was taken from the poor fund which had been 
established by the collections) the animals for sacrifice: 
he announced to the priest that the time of a vow made 
by four of his friends had come to an end, and that he 
had purchased the animals for sacrifice, and wished to 
share their vow with them by waiting till the sacrifice 
was made and their hair shorn and burned on the altar.
It was towards the end of a certain ‘ seven days ’ that 
the excitement occurred about Paul. These seven days 
may have been the period of the vow, or the time after 
Paul had given notice that he would pay the expense of 
the four men. At! his time, multitudes of Jews from for- 
eign parts were in town: worshippers from every land 
thronged the temple. 
Among them were some Jews 
lom Asia, who had seen Paul at Ephesus. 
They had 
een perhaps among the Jews of the synagogue there, 
om which Paul had withdrawn when he and his dis­
ciples went to the school of Tyrannus; and with bitter 
atied they had seen Paul building up a Christian 
church in Ephesus. 
Their strong feelings had drawn 
them home to the sacred festival and the holy temple; 
and they “now beheld, where they least expected to 
find him, the apostate Israelite, who had opposed their 
teaching and drawn away their converts. 
An oppor 
tunity of revenge had suddenly presented itself. 
They 
Sprang upon their enemy and shouted, while they held 
him fast: ‘Men of Israel, help! 
This is the man that 
teacheth all men everywhere against the people and the 
law and this place.’ ” 
A crowd rushed towards the 
spot; and the Jews of Asia added to the excitement 
by crying out that the man whom they held fast had 
brought Greeks into the holy temple. This was enough
m
(.FORTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
to make a Jewish multitude frantic with anger, horror 
and indignation. The exciting and awful news ran 
through the city. The multitude was multiplied. The 
crowd rushed upon Paul. They would not shed his 
blood in the sacred temple, but they dragged him out 
beyond.those columns “ on which inscriptions in Greek 
and Latin warned all Gentiles against going beyond 
them on pain of death.” Pulling him down the steps 
and beating him, they were on the very point of killing 
him. The Levites quickly rolled together the gates of 
die temple, “ lest the Holy Place should be polluted 
with murder.” But before the more malicious of the 
Jews copld get at Paul to take his life, a company of 
Roman soldiers, commanded by the officer of the gar­
rison, wheeled through the crowd and rescued him. 
Chaining him fast to two soldiers, and finding it impos­
sible to get any good answer from the clamorous mul­
titude, the officer commanded him to be taken up into 
the garrison. Their strength was but barely sufficient. 
The surging violence of the people was so great that 
they carried their innocent prisoner in their arms up 
the stairs, the maddened people shouting behind: ‘Away 
with him! away with him!’
(FORTY-SECOND SUNDAY.) 
•
QUESTIONS.
^HO were among the disciples at Jerusalem ?
What were Paul’s three objects in visiting Jerusalem ? 
Can you prove that two of these objects were his ?
Can you find any proof in respect to the third ?
Who did not like Paul’s manner of preaching ? In what re­
spect ?
What question still gave trouble ?
Who were gathered to receive and hear Paul ?
Who probably presented the collections ?
How long had Paul been gone ?
How did Paul ‘declare’ the story of his journey?
What particulars can you mention ?
What was one of the greatest results of this journey ? 
Had not Paul preached in almost every place to Jews ? 
Why is it then said, ‘Among the Gentiles ’ ?
Whom did the Christians at Jerusalem recognise as 
causing all these results ?
What painful feelings would be probably excited ?
What two places especially would bring up the difficult 
points ?
How many Jews were there who were sensitive in re­
spect to the law ?
What had they been ‘ informed ’ in respect to Paul ?
Was this true ?
What had Paul taught ?
What had Paul himself done ?
What was Paul’s position in respect to this question? 
What is the meaning of ‘ What is it, therefore ’ ?
What was it best to avoid ?
What was likely to take place ?
What plan was suggested ?
What is meant by ‘a vow’ ?
What is the meaning of 1 purify thyself with them ’ t 
Explain ‘ be at charges with them.’
(83)
(.FORTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
What would 1 the shaving of the head ’ openly show ? 
Would this be a violation of the decree of the council? 
In which verse is the decree of the council referred to ? 
How soon did Paul go with these four men to the temple ? 
How might the necessary animals have been purchased ? 
Explain ‘ signify the accomplishment of the days,’ etc. 
What were the ‘ seven days ’ ?
Who would be in the temple at this feast ?
What foreign Jews saw Paul ?
From what place were they probably ?
What probably added to their excitement and hatred ? 
What did they now do and say in the temple ?
Were they in the temple itself, or in one of the courts? 
Why should the words they cried excite the people so 
much?
What was the most exciting thing in what they said ? 
Had Trophimus been in the temple?
What courts of the temple was Paul dragged out of ?
What inscriptions were on what columns 5 
Who closed the doors ? 
Why ?
Do you suppose all the Jews would have taken Paul’s 
life?
Would it have been right to have taken his life, accord­
ing to their law ?
Would the mode have been right ?
How was Paul rescued ?
How was he chained ?
Why was he commanded to be carried off ? 
Where ? 
What shows the power and violence of the crowd ? 
What other outcry was the outcry of the multitude 
like?
(84)
THE ADDRESS FROM THE STAIRS.
Forty-third Sunday.
LESSON.
Acts xxi. 37-40; xxii. 1-29.
THE ‘castle,’1 or garrison, from which the Roman 
soldiers came, who rescued Paul, was the Fort An­
tonia, which was close beside the temple, and command- 
ed the temple as the temple commanded the city. This 
fortification was very large. “ Within, it had the ex­
tent and appearance of a palace, being divided into 
apartments of every kind, with galleries and baths and 
broad halls or barracks for a thousand soldiers, so that 
it seemed like a city.” Its towers looked down on the 
temple, and from them the sentinels could see what was 
going on in the various courts; and flights of stone stairs 
led down to the level spaces on the sides of the temple, 
so that the soldiers could at any time enter and prevent 
tumults. It was not always filled with soldiers, but at 
the time of the festivals a military force was kept there 
to suppress any outbreak against the Roman power, 
Indeed, at this very time the soldiers of the fortress and 
the people of the city were in great excitement in con­
fluence of an Egyptian Jew “ who, as a pretended 
Prophet, had led off a vast number of fanatic followers 
into the wilderness, to be slain or captured by the 
Roman troops.”
The Greek word translated ‘ castle,’ means strictly an encamp- 
ment, or ‘barracks.’
278
(.FORTY-THIRD SUNDAY.)
The Roman sentinels on the towers and the walls 
had watched the growing excitement in the courts of 
the temple; and as the multitude and the uproar in­
creased, they sent word to Claudius Lysias, the officer of 
the garrison, that the whole city was in commotion. It 
might be a case of uprising against the Roman govern­
ment, and not a moment was to be lost. With a few 
sturdy companies of soldiers, under their centurions, he
(THE TEMPLE AND FORTRESS ANTONIA.2)
rushed down the stairs into the temple-area. As he 
pushed directly forward to the man who was the centre 
of all this excitement, the crowd gave way before “ the 
flashing arms and disciplined movements of the Imperial
3 We must remember the difference between the temple and the 
courts of the temple; and also that each court of the temple was higher 
than the court outside of it, and that the temple was highest of all. 
The tower at the south-east corner of Antonia overlooked all: the walls 
of the fort overlooked the lower courts. 
We do not know exactly at 
what point in the wall between Antonia and the temple-area the flight 
of stone steps was, but the crowd of Jews were on the marble pave­
ment of the court of the Gentiles. They accused Paul of taking 
Gentiles past the forbidden boundary up into the court of the Israel­
ites,
soldiers;” and Paul was borne off up the stair-way, out 
ot the reach of the shouting crowd.
Once out of the reach of the mob, Paul was 
up 
towards the fortress. “At this moment, the Apostle, 
with the utmost presence of mind, turned to the com­
manding officer who was near him, and addressing him 
in Greek, said respectfully: ‘ May I speak with thee ? ’ 
Claudias Lysias was startled to hear his prisoner ad­
dress him in Greek, and asked him if he was not the 
Egyptian ringleader of the late rebellion.” Paul’s calm 
reply comprised much in its simple statement. He was 
not an Egyptian Jew, but a Jew of Tarsus, He could 
speak Greek, for Tarsus was a city of Greek learning.
e was no robber nor ringleader of rebels, but a re­
spectable citizen of a distinguished city. Therefore he 
besought Lysias to allow him to speak to the people.
"The request was a bold one, and we are almost sur­
prised that Lysias should have granted it; but there 
seems to have been something in Paul’s aspect and 
manner which from the first gained an influence over 
the mind of the Roman officer, and he did not refuse 
his consent. And now, in a moment, the whole scene 
was changed." Paul turned about on the stairs, and 
motioned with his hand to the noisy crowds below. 
Something in his appearance, as of a man accustomed 
to address gatherings of people, commanded their atten- 
tion. The turbulent ' sea of heads ’ became tranquil, 
and there was a ‘great silence.’ We can see Paul’s out- 
stretched wave of his hand, as he says:
"Men, brethren, and fathers, hear now my 
defence to you."3
Paul s wisdom and skill and courtesy are again shown 
speaking in Hebrew. 
The confused multitude evi-
3The words in italics in the Bible are not in the original Greek.
THE ADDRESS FROM THE STAIRS. 
279
280
(FORTY-THIRD SUNDAY.) 
.
dently thought some vile Gentile or Gentile Christian 
had been dragged out of the inner sacred enclosure of 
the temple. 
The sound of the Hebrew language half 
disarmed them. If Paul had spoken in Greek, the most 
of the people would have understood him. 
“ But the 
sound of the holy tongue in that holy place fell like a 
calm on the troublous waters. The silence became uni­
versal and breathless; and the Apostle proceeded to 
address his countrymen:
“I am myself4 an Israelite, born indeed8 at 
Tarsus in Cilicia, yet8 brought up in this city, 
and taught at the feet of Gamaliel in the strict­
est doctrine of the law of our fathers.”
Paul’s defence from the stairs.
Two charges had been made against Paul, which had 
caused the uproar: one, that he had everywhere spoken 
evil of the Jews, of their holy law, and of their holy 
temple; and the second, that he had polluted the tem­
ple by bringing Greeks into it. It was no doubt Paul’s 
purpose to answer fully both these charges. 
The sec­
ond charge, we know, was entirely false. 
The men in 
the temple with him were Jews. 
Trophimus was not 
in the temple, though he had been in the street with 
Paul. 
Paul was not permitted to reach that point of 
his speech where he could have defended himself from 
the second accusation. 
His address up to the point 
at which it was broken off, was in defence of himself 
against the first charge. 
He gives three reasons to 
show that he had not spoken disrespectfully of the 
Jews nor of their holy law nor of the temple.
First. He was himself a Jew by birth and by educa-
4 ‘ Verily ’ is meant to emphasize I. 
I, verily, am : I myself am.
8 The ‘ yet ’ shows an opposite meaning in the previous clause,
4 bom indeed, yet brought up.'
tion, (verse 3.) He was indeed born in a distant Greek 
city, but was educated in Jerusalem, by Gamaliel him­
self, and was zealous for the law.
Secondly. There was nothing in his conversion which 
showed any disrespect to the law or to the temple, 
(verses 4 to 16.) 
He had indeed been converted from 
an enemy of Jesus and of this sect of Christians, to a 
preacher of the Messiahship of Jesus, but he had, dur­
ing his conversion, honored both the law and the tem­
ple. 
1. For the high-priest and the elders could bear 
witness that he persecuted these Christians because he 
thought they were violating the law, and that he went 
to Damascus to imprison them. 
There was no disre­
spect to the law in this, but eagerness to obey it. 2. On 
the road to Damascus he had been miraculously struck 
blind, by the glorious appearance of Jesus of Nazareth, 
and from that time he knew that Jesus was the Mes­
siah ; but in all that was said and done, there was noth­
ing against the law or the temple. 
3. In Damascus, 
a man who reverenced the law had miraculously restored 
him to sight and baptized him in the name of Jesus, 
telling him that he was to bear testimony of what he 
had seen and heard to all men.
Thirdly. When he came back to Jerusalem and was 
praying in the temple, he had a vision, in which Jesus 
appeared to him and directed him to hasten away from 
Jerusalem to avoid being killed. (Verses 17 to 21.) lie 
himself had wished to remain and to convince those who 
knew how bitter a persecutor he had been, that this 
Jesus was the Messiah predicted in the law, but the 
voice in the temple had told him that his testimony 
Would not be received by his acquaintances and friends, 
and had said: ‘ Depart, I will send thee far hence unto 
the Gentiles.’
“ Up to this point, Paul had riveted their attention.”
THE ADDRESS FROM THE STAIRS. 
281
282
FORTY-THIRD SUNDAY.)
Many of them knew that he spoke the truth in respect 
to his early life and his persecution. 
“ Even when he 
told them of his miraculous conversion, of Ananias, and 
of his vision in the temple, they listened still.” 
"W hat 
a solemn stillness there must have been when he ac­
cused himself of the murder of Stephen! 
But when 
the word ‘ Gentiles ’ was spoken, “ one outburst of fran­
tic indignation rose from the temple-area and silenced 
the speaker on the stairs. 
Their national pride bore 
down every argument which could influence their rea­
son or their reverence. They could not bear the thought 
of uncircumcised heathen being made equal to the sons 
of Abraham. 
They cried out that such a wretch ought 
not to pollute the earth with his presence, that it was a 
shame to have preserved his life; and in their rage they 
tossed off their outer garments and threw up dust into 
the air with frantic violence.”
If Paul had been permitted to go on with his de­
fence, he would no doubt have tried to show, fourthly, 
that since he had been a preacher to the Gentiles, he 
had said nothing evil of the Jews or the law or the tem­
ple to the Gentiles: that the law and the prophecies 
themselves were being fulfilled by the conversion of 
the Gentiles: that Jesus himself was the Messiah ac­
cording to the law and the prophets and according to 
the very ceremonies of the temple. 
And then 
he 
would have shown, no doubt, fifthly, that he had not 
taken any Greeks into the temple: that the charge of 
pollution was altogether a mistake. 
But the outcry of
the people prevented him from answering farther.
Lysias, the Roman officer, seems not to have under- 
stood Paul’s Hebrew speech. When he saw the people 
suddenly break out into such imprecations and violent 
actions, “ he concluded his prisoner must be guilty of 
some enormous crime. 
He ordered him, therefore. to
be taken immediately from the stairs into the barracks,” 
and to be scourged till he confessed his guilt. 
The 
centurion proceeded to have Paul ‘ stretched out,’ and 
bound like a criminal, ‘ to receive the lashes.’ The rude 
oman soldiers would not be very tender in their cruel 
woik. 
Paul had, however, an abundant protection. A 
few simple words were like magic. 
He simply said to 
the centurion: “Is it lawful for you to put to the 
scourge a Roman citizen, uncondemned ? ” 
The centu­
rion ordered the soldiers to stop: he went to Lysias 
and said significantly: “Take heed what thou doest, 
or this man is a Roman citizen.” 
“Lysias was both 
astonished and alarmed. 
He knew that no man would 
are to assume the right of citizenship if it did not 
really belong to him, and he hastened to his prisoner.” 
He found that Paul was not only a Roman citizen, but 
a more honorable citizen than himself; “for while 
Claudias Lysias had purchased the right for ‘ a great 
sum,' Paul was 'free born.'"6 Paul was instantly re­
leased; and the commanding officer of Fort Antonia, 
like the magistrates of Philippi, was 'afraid' of the 
innocent, unthreatening Apostle, ‘ because he had bound 
him.'
THE ADDRESS FROM THE STAIRS. 
283
6 See page 5.
(.FORTY-THIRD SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
W
HAT is the meaning of the word 1 castle1 ?
What ‘ castle ’ was this ?
Its size ? its towers ? its garrison ?
What excitement about this time among soldiers and 
citizens ?-
How had news of the disturbance probably been brought 
to the chief captain ?
Was his object, in sending soldiers, to rescue Paul ? 
What is the difference between the temple and the courts of 
the temple ?
How was the fortress situated, with reference to the 
temple-courts ?
In what court was the multitude ?
What did they accuse Paul of ?
Had not Paul been led all the way from the temple-court? 
What did Paul now say ?
Why may we suppose he spoke in Greek ?
What shows the chief captain was surprised ?
* Could not Egyptians speak Greek ?
Did not Lysias know that Paul was a Jew ?
What Egyptian did the ‘ chief captain ’ refer to ?
Show what points are comprised in Paul’s reply.
Why did the noisy multitude grow quiet so soon ?
Do you think many in the multitude knew Paul? 
What were the first words Paul said ?
Why are words put in italics in our translation of the 
Bible?
Would the multitude have understood Greek?
Why did Paul speak in Hebrew ?
What is the force of ‘verily’ ?
What is the force of ‘ yet ’ ?
What two charges had been made against Paul (xxi. 28).
Did Paul answer both of these charges ? 
Why ?
How many reasons did he give against the first charge. 
What is the first reason ? 
In what verse ?
(85)
(FOIiTY-THIRD SUNDAY.)
What is the second reason ? 
In what verses ?
YV hat is the first point in this reason ?
How had he honored the law in this ?
What is the second point in this reason ?
-f" (^oes 
bear on the general argument ?
^ at is the third point in this reason ?
What was there especially in the character of Ananias
which should have led Paul to obey him?
W
hat did the miracle show in respect to Ananias’s mes­
sage ?
What is the third reason ? 
In what verses ?
What does ‘prayed in the temple’ show?
"Why did Paul wish to remain ?
Why was he sent away ?
What were the words of the divine direction to Paul?
rWhat points in Paul's address had especially kept the at-estention of the people?
What words made the outcry against him ?
Why did they ‘ cast off their clothes ’ and throw up 
dust?
What fourth and fifth reasons was Paul intending doubtlessto give?
Why would Lysias think Paul guilty of great crime?
Why did he order him to be scourged?
What protection had Paul?
What was the difference between the Roman citizenship 
of Lysias and of Paul ?
What does ‘ examined him ’ mean ?
What did Lysias fear ?
(86)
Forty-fourth Sunday.
PAUL A PRISONER BEFORE THE SANHEDRIM.
LESSON.
Acts xxii. 30; xxiii. 1-24.
T
HE most natural way now for Lysias to find out 
Paul’s crime was to bring bim down to the regular 
Jewish court. He called together, therefore, the mem­
bers of the Jewish Sanhedrim and the chief priests; 
and then he brought Paul down the stone stairway, 
no doubt with an escort of soldiers for his safe-keeping, 
and ‘ set him before them.’
“ Only a narrow space of the Great Temple court 
was between the steps which led down from the tower 
of Antonia and those which led up to the hall Gazith, 
the Sanhedrim’s accustomed place of meeting. If that 
hall was used on this occasion, no heathen soldiers 
would be allowed to enter it; for it was within the ba­
lustrade which separated the sanctuary from the court. 
But the fear of pollution would keep the Apostle’s life 
safe within that enclosure. There is good reason, how­
ever, for believing that the Sanhedrim met at that period 
in a place less sacred, to which the soldiers would be 
admitted.” The scene is no longer Roman, but Jewish. 
What a change had twenty-five1 years wrought! Then
1 Fourteen years after his conversion Paul came with alms to Jer- 
salem; (see page 41;) his first journey occupied a year at least, his 
second journey occupied about two and a half years; his third jour- 
ney about four years; and the different times at Antioch (xii. 25 and 
xiii. 1-2; xiv. 23; xv. 35, 36; xviii. 22, 23) must have amounted to 
as much as three and a half years.
PAUL A PRISONER. 
265
Stephen stood before the Sanhedrim, and Paul was one 
ho gave his vote.’ Now Paul was a prisoner before 
the same council. On the seats he may have seen some
of the very same persons who then heard Stephen's speech. 
Some of the elders may have been his fellow-disciples 
at the school of Gamaliel. Some of them may have 
been with him in his mad persecutions of the sect of 
Christians. They well knew the truth of his speech on 
the yesterday. But no consciousness of guilt now 
flushed the cheek of Paul. The blood of Jesus had 
caused away all which he had long ago acknowledged 
to be the vilest of crimes. Now, undaunted, he could 
look earnestly and steadily around on the council. Paul 
spoke the first words: "Men and brethren, I have al­
ways lived a conscientious life before God up to this 
very day 
That unflinching look and those confident 
words so enraged the high-priest that he commanded
those near Paul to strike him on the mouth. This 
brutal insult roused the Apostle's feelings, and he ex-
claimed: "God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: sit-
test thou to judge me according to the law and then,
in defiance of the law, dost thou command me to be
struck?" These words may have been an indignant as
sertion of his rights, or Paul may have uttered “ a pro- 
phetic denunciation." If they were a prophecy, they 
were terribly fulfilled, when afterwards assassins, in the 
Jewish war, set fire to this same high-priest’s house, 
drove him out of it, and, finding him in an aqueduct, 
caught him and murdered him. The members of the 
Sanhedrin "treated Paul’s words as profane and rebel- 
lious." 'Revilest thou thou God’s high-priest?’ was now 
their indignant exclamation. Paul’s reply was, with all 
becoming submission to that very law they had accused 
him of violating, that he did not consider that Ananias 
was high-priest, or he would not have violated a well-
286
( FORTY-FO URTH S UNDA 7.)
known law. 
Precisely what Paul meant, it is difficult 
for us to say,2 but it seems likely that he meant that he 
could not consider Ananias, who had done such an un­
just and improper thing for a high-priest, really to he 
the regular higli-priest, though he occupied the-posi­
tion.
This aet of cruel injustice showed Paul that he would 
have no fair trial by the Sanhedrim: that they were 
ready to condemn him, whatever he might say. 
See­
ing, then, that the council was composed both of Phari­
sees and of Sadducees, and knowing that the two par­
ties were more bitter against each other than they were 
even against him, and that the Pharisees did agree with 
himself in the great doctrine of the Scriptures on which 
the Messialiship of Jesus was founded, he wisely deter­
mined to rid himself out of the hands of these wicked 
men by the division of the council. 
He therefore de­
clared himself to be a Pharisee, and said that he was 
really persecuted because he so earnestly advocated the 
great doctrine of the Pharisees—the resurrection of the 
dead. 
We know that this wras one strong argument 
which Paul had used in proving Jesus of Nazareth to 
be the Messiah,3 and that when he wrote his first letter 
to the Corinthians, he occupied no small space in prov­
ing the resurrection of the dead.4 
It was probably 
well known that Paul everywhere made much of this
3 Five different meanings have been given to these words. 
(1.) 
Paul confessed that he had spoken without reflection: ‘ I did not con­
sider, when I spoke, that he was high-priest.’ (2.) Paul spoke ironically: 
‘ Pardon me, brethren. It did not occur to me that a man who could 
do this thing could be God’s high-priest.’ (3.) Paul did not know the 
fact that Ananias was high-priest. (4.) Paul’s eyesight was poor, and 
he made a mistake. 
(5.) Paul did not acknowledge any one but 
Jesus to be high-priest.
3 See page 69. 
41. Corinth, xv.
PAUL A PRISONER.
287
argument of the resurrection of Jesus, to prove that 
Jesus was the Messiah. The Sadducees would hate him 
the more for that. 
When Paul was arraigned for his 
teaching, the doctrine of the resurrection was ‘ called in 
question.’ 
He might rightly, therefore, put himself 
with the Pharisees, and say that they had a common 
doctrine at stake. 
Instantly there was a division and a 
dissension. 
The rival parties lost sight of Paul in their 
bitterness against each other. 
At length the Scribes 
on the Pharisees’ side said they had no fault to find with 
Paul : that if he really had seen a vision in the Temple, 
or had heard a voice from God—if a spirit or angel had 
spoken to him—they ought not to fight against God. 
And now the judgment-hall was filled with contention 
and violence ; “ and soon Claudius Lysias received word 
of what was taking place ; and, fearing lest the Roman 
citizen, whom he was bound to protect, should be torn 
in pieces between the parties, he ordered the troops to 
go down instantly and bring him back into the soldiers’ 
quarters within the fortress.”
That night, when Paul was alone and sad, in his deso­
late condition, reflecting no doubt upon the interruption 
to his plan of a fourth missionary journey to Rome, an­
other vision appeared to him. 
The Lord Jesus himself 
appeared to him and told him to be of good cheer, that 
he should see Rome, and that he should there bear tes­
timony to His resurrection and Messiahship.
The next morning a conspiracy was made to assas­
sinate Paul. 
More than forty Jews took a dreadful 
oath either themselves to perish from hunger and thirst 
°r to slay Paul. 
The chief-priests and elders were 
wicked enough to listen to them and to help on the 
plot. 
They were no doubt more enraged than ever to 
think that Paul escaped from the Sanhedrim the day 
before. 
What a horrible crime was this which they
288
{FORTY-FOURTH SUNDAY.)
agreed to do and which they concealed under the ap­
pearance of justice and religion!—to ask that Paul 
might be brought to a court of justice, and to murder 
him on the way!
“ The plot was ready: the next day it was to be car­
ried into effect; but God confounded the plans of the 
conspirators.” 
One of Paul’s relatives here appears. 
The only member of that household in Tarsus of whom 
we have any knowledge is mentioned: the sister of 
Paul’s childhood. 
The kind and affectionate act of 
Paul’s nephew, in the midst of so much danger to him­
self, shows that his mother must have had something of 
her apostolic brother’s kind and tender and loving dis­
position, and that she had trained her son into the prac­
tice of her own virtues. 
This young man went to Fort 
Antonia, gained entrance into the barracks, got per­
mission to see his uncle, and told him of the plot against 
his life. 
Paul’s Roman citizenship, as well as his per­
sonal character, had already won him respect in the 
garrison; and the centurion promptly listened to Paul s 
request that the young man might be taken to the head­
quarters of Lysias. 
And the chief-officer himself either 
respected Paul so much, or feared him so much because 
he had bound him, or was of such a kind and obliging 
disposition, that he took the young stranger by the 
hand and went with him into a private place and asked 
him what he wished. 
Then Paul’s nephew not only 
told the story of the conspiracy, but entreated Lysias 
not to yield to the request of the Jews. How earnestly 
Lysias must have listened as the young Jew went on 
with his story! 
How the resolution and patriotism of 
the Roman soldier rose when he knew that the Jews 
out of malice were plotting against the life of a Roman 
citizen. 
He promptly decided wdiat to do, but did not 
tell his informant. 
He simply dismissed him by charg­
PAUL A PRISONER.
289
ing him to tell no man whatever that he had brought 
him this information.
Two centurions were immediately called : they were 
ordered to get ready two hundred of the regular sol­
diers, seventy of the cavalry, and two hundred spear­
men : to be ready to start for Csesarea at nine o’clock 
in the evening, and to take Paul the prisoner in safety 
to Felix the governor. 
And besides, as the journey 
was long, and they must go rapidly, they were ordered 
to have more than one horse for Paul. 
“We may be 
surprised that so large a force was sent to secure the 
safety of one man; but we must remember that this 
man was a Roman citizen, while the garrison in Fort 
Antonia, a thousand strong, could easily spare that 
number for one day ; and that assassinations, robberies, 
and rebellions were quite frequent at that time in 
Judea.” 
No one could tell what size the conspiracy 
might reach, or to what an extent the conspirators 
would go, if any discovery was made of Paul’s depart­
ure. 
Everything was done, therefore, secretly as well 
as promptly; and an hour was fixed which would ex­
cite as little suspicion as possible. 
“At the time ap­
pointed, the troops, with Paul in the midst of them, 
marched out of the fortress, and at a rapid pace took 
the road to Caesarea.”
(FORTY-FOURTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
WAS it right or wrong for Lysias to bring Paul before the 
' ’ 
council ?
What was the council?
What two places were there where this ‘ council ’ met ? 
llow many years since Stephen’s trial ? 
Show it.
Whom may Paul have seen in the council ?
How would they think of Paul ?
How could he boldly face that court, when he had ac­
knowledged himself guilty of murder?
How can the greatest criminal gain again the feeling of 
right ?
Why does not Paul now say, 4 Men, brethren, and fathers' ? 
What is meant by 4 all good conscience ’ ?
Can a conscience be good which will permit a man to 
persecute and murder ?
Why did the high-priest give his command ?
What two explanations of Paul’s reply?
If a prophecy, what was the fulfilment ?
Why had the high-priest done wickedly ?
Were those who ‘stood by’ right in their reply?
What does 4 resist not ’ mean ?
What five meanings have been given to this answer of 
Paul’s ?
Which one do you think correct ?
What did the act of the high-priest show Paul ?
What two parties were there in the council ?
With which party did Paul agree ? on what point ?
How was the doctrine of 4 resurrection ’ called in ques 
tion?
Where had Paul advocated this doctrine ? for what ?
Do you think Paul’s position on this doctrine was well 
known ?
What would the Sadducees think of Paul’s declaration ? 
Was it right for Paul to make this declaration for this 
purpose ?
(87)
In what other way can you explain this declaration ? 
Why did the Pharisee Scribes take Paul’s part ?
Why did they declare Paul innocent ?
What other doctrine than resurrection did they refer 
to?
To what time did they refer, when an angel or a spirit 
might have spoken to Paul ?
Why did the chief captain take Paul again from the Jews ? 
What would Paul be likely to think of when alone ? 
Why was the vision an especial comfort to him ?
What conspiracy was made ? 
By whom ?
Is it at any time right to call upon ourselves such 
curses ?
Who helped the conspiracy on ?
Why is it wicked to listen to such proposals ?
Why was their wickedness especially horrible ?
How was the plan defeated ?
What does this show in respect to Paul’s sister?
What did Paul’s nephew ?
now did Lysias receive him ? 
Why ?
What was the effect on Lysias ?
Why was this heathen officer more noble than the tem­
ple-councillors ?
What was the plan of Lysias ?
Would there he so many men and horses in this fort­
ress ?
Why were so many sent ?
Was there more than one 4 beast ’ for Paul ?
What was the hour ? 
Why ?
(88)
(.FORTY-FOURTH SUNDAY.)
Forty-fifth Sunday
THE CAPITAL AND THE GOVERNOR OF JUDEA. 
LESSON.
Acts xxiii. 25-35; xxiv. 1-26.
T
HE conspirators were perhaps in session arranging 
the details of the plot, when the armed men tramped 
along the street and the striking of the horses’ hoofs on 
the pavement rang out on the night-air. 
But the pass­
ing of armed companies of Roman soldiers had become 
too common a thing in Jerusalem to call especial at­
tention to it, or to awaken suspicion that Paul was on 
the way to a place of safety.
Till about midnight the centurions would take their 
course directly northward, and probably along the very 
road which Paul took when he went to Damascus. 
How different the journey now! 
Then, an escort of 
soldiers at his own command: now, himself a prisoner 
under a Roman guard! 
At midnight they would he 
about at Gophna, (see the map on page 24,) and then 
would leave the Damascus road, turning to the left to­
wards the coast. 
“ Soon they began to descend, start­
ling the shepherd on the hills of Ephraim and rousing 
the village peasant, who woke to curse his heathen op­
pressor as he heard the voices and the well-known tramp 
of the Roman soldiers.” 
About day-break they must 
have been near the foot of the hilly ridges which make 
up the broken mountain-range. 
From the last hill they 
descended, they overlooked the plain of Sharon. “ The
♦
road then turned northwards across the rich land of the 
plain of Sharon, through fields of wheat and barley, al­
most ready for the harvest.” 
Some low, wooded hills 
now shut off their view of the sea. Early in the forenoon 
they reached the town of Antipatris. They were now out 
of the mountain-passes, in an open, level country. The 
foot-soldiers were no longer needed for protection, and 
they might be wanted at Jerusalem. 
One centurion 
turned back therefore with them to Fort Antonia. The 
cavalry and spearmen went on, probably under the 
orders of the other centurion; and in the afternoon 
“ their weary horses entered the streets of Ctesarea.” 
They went at once to the house or quarters of Felix, 
delivered the prisoner, and presented the letter which 
Pysias had sent. 
The Governor broke the seals and 
read the following official despatch:
“ Claudius Lysias sends greeting to his Excellency 
Felix the Governor. 
This man was apprehended by 
the Jews and on the point of being hilled by them, when 
I came and rescued him with my military guard ; for 
I learned that he was a Roman citizen.1 
And when I 
wished to ascertain the charge which they had against 
him, I took him down to their Sanhedrim ; and there I 
found that the charge had reference to certain questions 
of their law, and that he was accused of no offence 
worthy of death or imprisonment. 
And now, having 
received information that a plot is about to be formed 
Against the man’s life, I send him to thee forthwith, 
and I have told his accusers that they must bring their 
charge before thee. 
Farewell.”
“Felix raised his eyes from the paper and said: ‘To 
what province does he belong ? ’ It was the first ques­
tion which a Roman governor would naturally ask in
1 This was false, but Lysias craftily inserted it to save himself from 
disgrace. 
He did not rescue Paul because he was a Roman citizen.
TEE CAPITAL AND THE GOVERNOR. 
291
292
(.FORTY-FIFTH SUNDAY.)
such a case. 
The Roman law had strict rules for all 
legal communication between provinces. In the present 
case, there could be no difficulty. 
A Roman citizen, 
with certain vague charges brought against him, was 
placed under the protection of a governor of a province, 
who was bound to keep him in safe custody till the 
cause should be heard. 
Having found, therefore, that 
Paul was a native of the province of Cilicia, Felix 
simply ordered him to be kept in c Herod’s prsetorium,’* 
and said to Paul himself: ‘ I will hear and decide thy 
cause when thy accusers have come.’ ”
The city to which Paul was now brought was one 
through which he had passed several times. 
It was 
built up by Herod the Great from an insignificant place 
to be a splendid city. 
In twelve years he built a wall 
around the town and decorated it with splendid build­
ings. He named it Caesarea in honor of Augustus Caesar 
the Emperor. The buildings were made of white stone. 
There was a theatre (from which Herod Agrippa was 
carried out to die3) and an amphitheatre. 
There were 
aqueducts for the conveyance of water. 
There was a 
temple dedicated to Caesar. 
There were many other 
splendid buildings. 
There were statues and heathen 
sanctuaries. 
“ The city was provided with everything 
that could contribute to magnificence, amusement, and 
health. But its great boast was its harbor.” The west 
winds swept with great fury against this unprotected 
coast. 
At immense expense and with immense labor, 
Herod built a stone harbor, equal in size to the natural 
harbor of the Piraeus of Athens.4 
“ Vast stones were 
sunk in the sea to the depth of twenty fathoms, and 
thus a stupendous breakwater was formed, curving
* The palace and 1 judgmrnt-hall ’ (verse 35) combined.
8 See pages 41, 42. 
1 See map page 160.
THE CAPITAL AND THE GOVERNOR. 
293
round so as to give complete protection against the 
south-westerly winds. It was open only on the north.” 
“ Within it a fleet might ride in perfect safety in all 
weathers.” Into this harbor the ships which had borne 
Paul on his different voyages across the sea to Caesarea 
had entered and here had cast anchor. 
When Herod’s 
great work in the city and the harbor had been com­
pleted, Herod himself fixed his palace (or pmtoriura) 
there, and Caesarea became the capital of the Roman 
province of Judea. ‘Herod’s prsetorium’ was probably 
the residence of Felix and other governors after Herod’s 
death.
Although Caesarea was the capital of Judea, it seems 
to have been as much a Gentile city as it was a Jewish 
city. 
Many ‘ heathen strangers ’ lived there. 
“ The 
harbor was called the ‘Augustan Harbor:’ the city, 
‘Augustan Csesarel’ 
Even in the Jewish synagogues 
the Greek translation of the Scriptures was read.
Felix, the Governor of this Roman province, was a 
singular example of those persons who have risen from 
the lowest rank to high authority. 
He was at first a 
slave. 
For something which he had done, we do not 
know what, he was made free by the emperor. 
W hen 
he was the freedman of the emperor he was strangely 
honored with military appointments, until he was made 
Procurator5 or Governor of J udea. 
He was cruel, un­
just, oppressive, unscrupulous and profligate. A Roman 
historian says: “ That in the practice of all kinds of lust 
and cruelty, he exercised the power of a king with the 
temper of a slave.” 
He had caused one high-priest to 
he murdered by a gang of villains at the very steps of 
the temple. 
He had enticed Drusilla, a daughter of 
Herod Agrippa, who was celebrated for her beauty, to
6 The Procurator had much more power and dignity than the Pro- 
"yusul. 
See page 51.
294
(-FORTY-FIFTH SUNDAY.)
leave her husband and to live with him. Yet he did the 
Jcws some good services. « He cleared various parts of 
the country from robbers : he pursued and drove away 
that Egyptian fanatic ” who had attempted to raise se­
dition under pretence of prophetic power, and for whom 
Claudius Lysias mistook Paul. 
The story of Paul’s 
imprisonment by him, in the Scriptures, shows, as will 
he seen, his servile meanness. 
He was now only wait- 
ing foi Paul s accusers to arrive before bringing on his 
trial.
“The law required that causes should be heard 
speedily; and the Apostle’s enemies were not long in 
arriving. 
Five days either after Paul’s departure from 
Jerusalem or after his arrival at Caesarea, his accusers 
appeared. 
They brought with them “one of those 
advocates, who practised in the law-courts of the pro- 
\ inces where the forms of Roman la tv were imperfectly 
known and the Latin language imperfectly understood.” 
His name, Tertullus, is Roman: perhaps he spoke in 
Latin. 
The formal accusation was made before the 
governor; the prisoner was brought in; and Tertullus 
made a speech in which, after flattering Felix with un­
merited praise, he charged Paul with three crimes:
I. With sedition or illegal disturbances among all 
the Jews throughout the empire.6
IL With being a ringleader of ‘ the sect of the Raza- 
renes.’
in. “ With an attempt to profane the temple at Je­
rusalem.”
The first was a charge of treason against the Roman 
empire: the second was the charge of heresy against 
the law of Moses: the third was the charge of sacri-
# ‘ Throughout the world.’ 
The Roman empire occupied almost 
the habitable world.
THE CAPITAL AND THE GOVERNOR.
*295
legey an offence against the Roman law as well as the 
Jewish, for the Roman law protected the Jews in their 
worship.
Tertullus finished his speech by saying that Lysias, 
the Jerusalem chief-captain, had forcibly taken away 
Paul from the regular course of justice, when the Jews 
would have given him a fair trial according to their own 
ecclesiastical law; and that he had sent him from Jeru­
salem down to Caesarea, to be tried here, when he 
might as well have been tried in Jerusalem. 
Ananias 
and the elders agreed to what Tertullus had said.
“ The Governor now made a gesture to the prisoner 
to signify that he might make his defence. 
The J ews 
were silent; and the Apostle refuted Tertullus step by 
step.”
Paul’s reply to tertullus.
I. Paul expresses his satisfaction that Felix has been 
governor of the province for many years, because he 
can easily ascertain whether he himself had at any time 
raised sedition during those years, and also that it had 
been only twelve days since he came to Jerusalem at 
all.7 
(Verses 10,11.)
II. In respect to sedition, Why does not Tertullus 
bring the proof of his charges ? 
Why does he not 
prove the time and the place at which I committed 
these offences ? 
Neither in the temple nor in the syn­
agogues nor about the city have I been found disputing 
°r exciting the people.8 
(Verses 12, 13.)
7 
Felix had been governor six or eight years; and Paul had not 
been in the country, during Felix’s reign, before his recent return 
from his missionary journey, more than a very few days, if at all. 
What opportunity had there been for him to raise sedition ?
6 It is worthy of notice that Tertullus had accused Paul of sedition 
everywhere throughout the empire ; Paul justly answers the charge 
only so far as respects the province of Judea. THe jurisdiction of 
Felix was confined to his province.
298
(.FORTY-FIFTH SUNDAY.)
IIL In respect to heresy, Paul confessed lie belonged 
to a 4 sect,’ but tbat lie believed in the Jewish law and 
in the Jewish prophets. 
There is indeed a 4 sect’ of 
the Jews called by some the ‘sect of the Nazarenes,’ 
just as there is a sect of the Pharisees and a sect of the 
Sadducees. As the Roman law protected these sects of 
Jews in their national faith, Paul claimed protection for 
the sect to which he belonged. 
He said too that in 
one most important point, the doctrine of the resurrec­
tion, his own sect agreed with the sect to which his 
accusers belonged; and that, as for himself, in respect 
to all these things, he tried to live a conscientious life. 
(Verses 14 to 16.)
IV. In respect to polluting the temple, Paul declared 
that he was in the temple after regular purification, 
“not gathering a multitude nor causing a tumult:” 
that those very Jews of Asia9 W'ho first saw him 
there were the proper witnesses to bring against him, 
and they ought to state what the act of pollution was 
which he had committed. 
(Verses 17 to 19.)
V. In respect to the trial before the Sanhedrim, let 
these members of the Sanhedrim present say whether 
any accusation was made against me there; or whether 
there was any disturbance there, except what arose from 
the doctrine of the resurrection, which both many of 
them and I myself believe. 
(Verses 20, 21.)
Paul had made a strong argument for himself, even in 
the mind of this wicked governor. 
Felix knew some­
thing of the Jews and their quarrels. 
He must have 
known something of the Christian religion too, for it 
had been known in Caesarea for years. But Felix could 
not quite make up his mind to acquit his prisoner, as he 
ought to have done. 
He simply said he would wait till 
Lysias came before he would give his final decision.
8 xxi. 27.
Even that which seemed to be kindness towards his 
prisoner was selfishness. 
He gave him all the freedom 
he well could, and even called Paul often into his pre­
sence; but he hoped by this means to receive from 
Paul’s friends a bribe for his liberation. 
In his bold 
wickedness, he even had the effrontery to invite Paul 
to speak of the pure and holy religion of Jesus to him, 
while his adulterous Drusilla sat by his side. 
Ho won­
der the convicted man trembled when Paul44 reasoned 
of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come.”
THE CAPITAL AND THE GOVERNOR. 
297
{FORTY-FIFTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
WHY would not so large a company of troops excite suspi- 
n cion?
What direction did they take ? Along what road ? 
Where was Antipatris ? Describe the journey there. 
Why did the footmen return ?
To whom did the horsemen deliver Paul ?
What did they present him ?
What was the opening sentence of Lysias’s letter ?
What is not true in the second sentence ?
Why did Lysias write it ?
What is meant by 1 an army ’ ?
Why did Lysias send Paul to Felix, if he was innocent? 
Was Lysias right or wrong in sending him ?
What was the Governor’s first question ? Why ?
Was he doing his duty in imprisoning Paul ?
Ought Paul to have been discharged without waiting for 
his accusers ?
Was Paul kept in a common prison ? Why ?
What is meant by ‘judgment-hall’?
What was Caesarea ? Who built and adorned it ?
How many years in building ? Prominent buildings ? 
What was the especial pride of the city ?
Was Caesarea a Jewish city ? Why ?
How had Felix risen to authority ?
How did the office of Governor in Judea differ from the 
same office in Cyprus ?
What kind of a man was Felix ?
What crimes had he committed ?
What favors had he done the Jews ?
Why did Paul’s accusers come down to Caesarea so soon? 
Whom did they bring ? Why ?
Was the opening sentence of his speech true ?
What is meant by 1 providence ’ ?
What three crimes did he accuse Paul of?
What does ‘ pestilent ’ mean ?
(89)
m
{FORTY-FIFTH SUNDAY.)
What does ‘ throughout the world ’ mean ?
Was the claim of Tertullus that the Jews were proceed­
ing legally, true or not ?
Who said Tertullus’s speech was true?
Is Paul’s speech a reply to Tertullus’s speech or not ?
What is the first division of Paul’s speech ?
How long had Felix been Governor ?
Why should Paul be glad of this ?
What is the second division of Paul’s speech ?
Did Paul in this answer one of the charges fully f 
Temple, people, synagogues, city: why did he name 
these ?
What is the third division of the speech ?
What is heresy ? How could it be charged upon Paul ? 
How did Paul refute this charge ?
In what two things did Paul agree with qther sects ? 
What is the fourth division of the speech ?
What proof did Paul demand of this charge ?
What is the fifth division of the speech ?
What was the Governor’s decision?
What is meant by ‘ having more perfect knowledge of 
that way ’ ?
Was it right or wrong in Felix to ‘ defer’ this matter ? 
Why did Felix let Paul have liberty ?
With whom did Felix hear Paul preach ?
What do you suppose was his motive in asking Paul to 
preach ‘ of Christ’ ?
Why should Felix especially tremble when Paul preach­
ed on these subjects ?
Why would we tremble, if we should see clearly the 
meaning of these same subjects ?
What is meant by ‘ temperance ’ ?
Did Felix see Paul after this time ?
Have we the power to fix 1 the convenient season ’ when 
we will be converted ?
(90)
Forty-sixth Sunday.
THE APPEAL TO THE EMPEROR.
LESSON.
Acts xxir. 27; xxv. 1-22.
FOR two whole years the unscrupulous Felix kept 
Paul in custody at Caesarea. “ He was not hound 
to fix any definite time for the trial, but might defer it 
at his pleasure, and keep the accused in custody during 
the interval. The prisoner was given in charge to a 
soldier, who was responsible with his own life for the 
safe keeping of his prisoner; and the keeping of the 
prisoner was made sure by chaining the prisoner’s right 
hand to the soldier’s left.” Paul might have been kept 
at the barracks of the soldiers or in a private house, 
under charge of his keeper. No doubt many of his 
Christian friends did visit him. As it was customary 
for the Roman troops to remain in one place a num­
ber of years, Cornelius, the centurion, may possibly 
have still been in Caesarea. At least his Christian influ­
ence and that of his * kinsmen and near friends,’ may 
have lingered in many converts among both soldiers 
and people. The Apostle, who remained two years in 
Corinth and three years in Ephesus to instruct and 
direct the Corinthian and Ephesian churches, would 
find enough to do for two years, even though a prison­
er, in teaching the church in Caesarea. “ Many mes­
sages and even letters, of which we know nothing, may 
have been sent from Caesarea to brethren at a distance.”
THE APPEAL TO THE EMPEROR.
299
It has been supposed that Luke, during these two years, 
wrote his Gospel under the direction of Paul.
During these two years, the cruelty of Felix to the 
Jews became more and more unendurable. At last 
there was a terrible outbreak between the Jews and the 
Greeks of Caesarea, and many Jews were slaughtered 
in the streets. “ In the end, Felix was summoned to 
Rome, and the Jews followed him with their accusa­
tions.” Felix, anxious to lay up favor with the Jews,1 
left Paul bound. And so it happened that “ the same 
enmity of the world against the Gospel which set Bar­
rabas free, left Paul a prisoner.”
Festus, the new Governor, appointed by the Emperor, 
seems to have been an upright and honorable man. And 
now, just as the Jews of Corinth when Gallio was first 
appointed tried to get the influence of the new Pro- 
Consul in their favor, so the Jews of Jerusalem, when 
Festus, the new Governor, came to Caesarea, tried to 
take advantage of the change to get Paul into their 
own power. On the very first visit of Festus from the 
modern to the ancient capital, to make himself acquaint­
ed with the people and with their favorite city, only 
three days after assuming authority over the province, 
the Jews made an accusation against Paul. They 
crowded around him in a multitude and declared that 
Paul ought not to live.3 What their open hatred did 
not accomplish under Felix, they hoped by plausible 
arts to gain under Festus. “ They asked Festus, as a 
favor, (and they had good reason to hope that the new 
governor, on his arrival, would not refuse it,) that ho 
would allow Paul to be brought up to Jerusalem. The 
plea doubtless was that he ought to be tried again be-
1 ‘Willing to show the Jews a pleasure.’ 
The Greek words mean 
very nearly the English phrase, 1 wishing to be in the good graces of 
the Jews.’ 
3 xxv. 24.
fore the Sanhedrim. The real purpose was to assassi­
nate him on the road.” Two years had not jsoftened 
the bitterness oí their hate. “ The answer of Festus 
was dignified and just, and worthy of his office. He 
said that Paul was in custody at Caesarea, and that lie 
himself was shortly to return thither: that it was not 
the custom of the Romans to give up an uncondemned 
man as a favor:” that his accusers must meet him face 
to face, and he must have full opportunity to defend 
himself. “ Those therefore who were competent to the 
task of accusers, should come down with him to Caesa­
rea, and there make the accusation.”
After ten days spent in Jerusalem, Festus returned 
to his capital. The very next day he ordered a session 
of his court, and took his place among his councillors3 
on the judgment-seat. The prisoner was brought in. 
The accusers made many charges, but they gave no 
proof of them to the fair-minded Festus. These charges 
are not described by Luke in regular form, as those of 
Tertullus were, but we may remember that Felix did 
not acquit Paul of Tertullus’ accusation, and therefore 
that it still remained. Paul’s reply was the same as be­
fore. He declared himself innocent of heresy, (‘ against 
the law of Moses,’) of sacrilege, (‘ against the temple,’) 
and of treason, (‘ against Ctesar.’)
Festus soon saw that Paul had committed no crime, 
especially one worthy of death.4 He saw the difficulty 
was one of religious prejudice and of Jewish law, and 
was not of political character. He was therefore in 
some perplexity;5 for he did not wish to lose the 
opportunity of gaining the good wishes of the Jews.®
“ He proposed, therefore, to Paul, that he should go up 
to Jerusalem and be tried there, in his presence, or at
* Verse 12. 
4 See verses 25, 26. 
6 Verse 20, with margin.
* The words in verse 9 are the same as in xxiv. 27. 
See note 1.
300 
{FORTY-SIXTH SUNDAY.)
THE APPEAL TO THE EMPEROR.
301
least under his protection.” Paul could, by his own 
consent, if the Governor should agree to it, transfer 
himself from the jurisdiction of the Governor’s court to 
that of the Sanhedrim. But he knew too well the dan­
ger of such a change; and he knew, too, that it was 
his right as a Roman citizen to be tried by the Roman 
and not by the Jewish law. He quickly declined, there­
fore, the proposal, and boldly claimed his rights from 
Festus. At Philippi he had claimed one of the three 
great privileges of Roman citizenship,7 the freedom 
from scourging, and now, before Festus, he claimed 
another, the right of appeal to the Emperor. Paul’s 
reply to this governor of a Roman province, was full 
of dignity and power:
“ I stand before Caesar’s tribunal, and there 
ought my trial to be. To the Jews I have done 
no wrong, as thou knowest full well. If I am 
guilty of breaking the law, and have done any­
thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die ; but 
if the things whereof these men accuse me are 
nought, no man can give me up to them. 
I 
appeal unto Caesar.”
Festus was no doubt surprised ; but he had no choice. 
“ By the mere pronunciation of those powerful words, 
<’Jappeal unto Caesar, Paul instantly removed his cause 
from the jurisdiction of the magistrate before whom lie 
stood, to the supreme tribunal of the Emperor at Rome. 
Only one thing was to be determined by Festus, and 
he had nothing to do but to send his prisoner to Rome. 
u There were a few cases in which the right of appeal 
was not permitted: a bandit or a pirate, foi example, 
might be condemned and executed by the magistrate 
of the province, notwithstanding his appeal to the Em­
peror. Festus therefore consulted his councillors. It 
7 See page 143.
302
{FORTY-SIXTH SUNDAY.)
was clear that Paul’s case was not one of these excep­
tions. The appeal would stand. Festus “ immediately 
pronounced the decision of the court ” : ‘ Thou hast 
appealed unto Cæsar : to Cæsar thou shalt go.’ .
It may seem strange that Paul should have made this 
appeal, when he was evidently so near acquittal. There 
are, however, three sufficient reasons : the danger of 
some other attempt to take him to Jerusalem, the prob­
ability that he would be kept in prison for years in 
Cæsarea, and the fact that Paul wished to go to Rome. 
He might as well be prisoner in Rome as in Cæsarea. 
If he should be acquitted speedily at Rome, he would 
be precisely where he wanted to be ; and if not, there 
might be many opportunities, even while a prisoner, as 
there had been in Cæsarea, of teaching, even among 
soldiers and jailers, the doctrines of Jesus.
After the appeal was decided, Festus had one other 
duty to perform. “ He was bound to forward to Rome 
all the acts and documents bearing on the trial, the 
statements of the witnesses, and the record of his own 
judgment on the case. And it was his further duty to 
keep the accused person in safe custody, and to send 
him to Rome for trial at the earliest opportunity. Fes­
tus was in new perplexity. Paul had appealed ; he had 
allowed the appeal: but no crime had been proved 
against the prisoner. Justly enough, it seemed absuul 
to him to send a prisoner to Rome without any charge 
of crime.8
During the days while Festus was in this state of 
perplexity in respect to Paul, a distinguished visitor 
came to Cæsarea to congratulate Festus on his new 
position as governor of the province. This was the 
great-grandson of Herod the Great, (who built Cæsa-
8 Terse 27, (xxv.)
THE APPEAL TO THE EMPEROR.
303
rea,) who was at this time King of Chalcis, a small city 
and district east of Antioch and of the river Orontes. 
He was the brother of Drusilla (who lived with Felix) 
and of Bernice; and his sister Bernice accompanied 
him to this city which their great-grandfather had built. 
“This prince had been acquainted from his youth with 
all that related to the Jewish law, and was at this time 
superintendent of the temple, with the power of appoint­
ing the high-priest. Festus took advantage of this op­
portunity of consulting one better informed than him­
self on the points in question.” He told Agrippa the 
story of his prisoner ‘ left in bonds by Felix,’ and spoke 
especially of Paul’s earnest declaration concerning a 
certain Jesus who had been dead but was alive again. 
“ This cannot hate been the first time that Agrippa 
had heard of the resurrection of Jesus, or of the Apos­
tle Paul. His curiosity was aroused, and he expressed 
a wish to see the prisoner. Festus readily yielded to 
his request, and fixed the next day for the interview.”
(.FORTY-SIXTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
TN what kind of confinement was Paul kept ? 
How long ? 
Where might he have lived ?
What Roman centurion may have still been in Caesarea ? 
What was Paul doubtless doing all this time ?
What has been supposed in respect to Luke ?
Why did Felix cease to be Governor of Judea?
What is the meaning of ‘willing to show the Jews a 
pleasure’?
What kind of a man was the new Governor ?
What advantage did the Jews try to take ?
Why would the new Governor go to Jerusalem so soon ? 
What three verses show how they besought Felix ? 
What was probably their plan ? their purpose ?
What kind of an answer was the Governor’s ?
What did he require ?
How long before Felix returned ?
What just Roman law did he enforce ? 
(Verse 1G.) 
Why did he return to Caesarea ?
Where was the court held ?
If the ‘accusers’ could not ‘prove’ their ‘complaints,’ 
why did Paul make any answer ?
What three points did Paul’s reply comprise ?
What did Festus see the difficulty to be?
How did Festus resemble Felix ?
What proposal did he make to Paul ?
What power had Paul in respect to this proposal ?
Why was not this a good plan ?
What does it show in respect to the honesty of Festus? 
What right did Paul now claim ?
What other privilege had Paul claimed before ?
How was the Governor’s judgment-seat Caesar’s tri­
bunal ?
What did Paul really accuse Festus of in the sentence:
‘ To the Jews I have done,’ etc.
How did Paul sustain the Roman law ?
(91)
{FORTY-SIXTH SUNDAY.)
Is it right always to sustain the law ?
What must have been the effect of Paul’s reply on Festus ? 
What was the effect on Paul’s trial ?
What one thing must Festus now determine ?
Whom did he consult ? 
Why ?
What was the decision ?
How many reasons can you give why it was best for Paul to 
make this appeal ?
After the appeal was decided, what other duty had Fes­
tus?
What new perplexity was he in ?
What came to pass in these days ?
What was their object in visiting Festus ?
Who was Agrippa ? Bernice ? Drusilla ?
How were these three interested in Caesarea ?
King of what ? acquainted with what ? with power of 
what?
Why did Festus consult Agrippa about Paul ?
What did he tell this king ?
Which did the Jews wish first from Festus, ‘judgment’ 
or trial ?
What is meant by ‘ their own superstition’ ?
Was there more than one Jesus ?
Do you suppose that Festus did not understand what Paul 
meant by the resurrection of Jesus ?
What is meant by 4 doubted of such manner of ques­
tions’ ?
What Caesar was Augustus ?
Why was King Agrippa’s curiosity excited ?
(92)
Forty-seventh Sunday
THE 
ROYAL 
VISITORS.
LESSON.
Acts xxv. 23—2*7; xxvi.
F
ESTUS was determined to give his royal visitors 
- the fullest entertainment possible from the speech 
of his eloquent prisoner. The occasion was therefore 
to be made dignified and ceremonious. He sent invita­
tions to the principal men of Caesarea to be present. 
He ordered the captains of the thousands to attend him 
on his entrance into the audience-chamber. And then 
with King Agrippa and Bernice, with his retinue of 
military officers and distinguished citizens, with great 
display he seated himself and his illustrious guests in 
the conspicuous part of the chamber, and ordered Paul 
to be brought in.
One of the times had indeed come when Paul was to 
bear ‘ the name of the Lord before kings.’1 Here, in 
this royal city of Caesarea, he was to speak before the 
king whose ancestor built up all this splendor, and 
whose father had been publicly hailed as a god by the 
multitude in the great theatre where he made an im­
pious oration ;* he was to speak before that king’s beau­
tiful, courtly and wicked sister Bernice, as he had once 
spoken before his other beautiful and wicked sister Dru-
1 ix. 15.
1 xii. 21-23. 
That was Herod Agrippa I. This was his son, Herod 
Agrippa IL
THE ROYAL VISITORS.
305
silla; and he was to speak again before Festus, the Gov­
ernor of Judea. The members of the Herodian family 
were well acquainted with Jewish customs and usages, 
but were thoroughly negligent of them and thoroughly 
unprincipled. The new governor of the province, though 
inclined to do justice, was the representative of an art­
ful, designing, oppressive empire. On the one side was 
worldliness in all its dignity and authority: on the other 
the simple spiritual power of the Gospel.
Festus himself made an opening address to the as­
sembly and especially to King Agrippa. It was simply 
the statement which he had made to Agrippa before in 
private, but now it was in the form of a ceremonious 
and stately speech. Festus, with much display, directed 
King Agrippa’s attention to Paul. He declared that 
Paul was innocent of any crime punished by death. He 
said that Paul had appealed to the Emperor; and then 
he declared his own perplexity in making out a state­
ment of Paul’s case, to be sent to the Emperor. That 
Agrippa might hear the prisoner’s own story, he had 
ordered this audience, and now Paul might be permit­
ted to speak for himself.
THE ADDEESS BEFOEE KXtiG AGEIPPA.
As Paul was now invited to speak before a Jewish 
king, he does not try to defend himself from the charge 
of treason against the Roman law, but rather from the 
charge of heresy against the Jewish law. Indeed it 
had been decided that he should go to Rome and be 
tried before the Emperor in respect to the accusations 
made against him. In his speech therefore before King 
Agrippa Paul gives the reasons why the Jews have 
sought his life, and earnestly speaks of Jesus as the 
Messiah of the Jews.
I. Paul first declared King Agrippa’s familiarity with
306
(FORTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY.)
Jewish customs and usages a source of satisfaction to 
him in making his address. 
(Verses 2, 3.) 
When 
Paul spoke to Festus, a Roman, recently arrived from 
Rome, he could not of course speak so freely of cus­
toms and sects among the Jews.
II. In respect to heresy, or violating the law of Moses, 
which the Jews had accused him of, he was as far from 
committing that crime as any Jew. 
(Verses 4 to 8.) 
For (1.) In all his early life he had been educated and 
had lived as a Pharisee, keeping the law in the strictest 
manner, as the Jews themselves knew. 
(4, 5.) 
And 
now (2.) The very thing the Jews accused him of was 
that he believed the great promise of the Messiah made 
to the Jews was fulfilled. 
(6, 7, 8.) 
All the tribes of 
Israel claimed that the time would come wrhen that 
great promise would he fulfilled. He had only claimed 
that it was already fulfilled; that Jesus of Nazareth 
was this Messiah; and that his resurrection from the 
dead proved him to he. And why should it he thought 
incredible among the Jews and especially among the 
Pharisees, who believed in the resurrection of the dead, 
that God should raise Jesus from the dead? 
By 
believing that Jesus of Nazareth had risen from the 
dead and therefore was the Messiah, he was as really 
keeping the law as the Jews were in expecting a Mes­
siah at all.
III. The real ‘ causes ’ why the Jews seized him in 
the temple and tried to kill him in Jerusalem were 
not heresy, but that he had changed from a persecutor 
of Jesus and of his followers to their friend, and had 
preached to the Gentiles, in obedience to Jesus’ com­
mand. 
(Verses 9 to 23.) 
This change had taken place 
in the following manner:
1. He had first been a most fierce persecutor of Jesus 
and his followers. 
(9-11.)
THE ROYAL VISITORS.
307
2. On his way to Damascus the evidence of a mirac­
ulous light, a miraculous voice and a miraculous ap­
pearance of Jesus himself, which he could not resist, 
had convinced him that Jesus was the Messiah of the 
Scriptures. 
(12-15.)
3. Jesus the Messiah, in that vision, commanded him 
to preach to the Gentiles, that they might be saved also. 
(16-18.)
4. And because he obeyed the words of the Messiah 
and preached to the Gentiles, the Jews tried to kill 
him. 
(19-21.)
5. But from the time of his change from an enemy 
to a friend of Jesus, up to that very day, there had been 
no heresy/ for he had said nothing but what the Jew­
ish Scriptures themselves taught: that the Messiah 
should suffer: that he should rise from the dead: that 
he should give the light of religion to the Gentiles as 
well as to the Jews. 
(22, 23.) And these were now 
the things in respect to which Paul claimed that he bore 
witness to small and to great. The overwhelming evi? 
dence of that miraculous vision could never be taken 
from his mind. Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah of 
the prophets and of the law of Moses. He knew it; 
he believed it; and he obeyed the voice of the Messiah.
King Agrippa could fully comprehend all this. All 
the points in Paxil’s speech he could well understand. 
But to the Roman Festus, there was much that was 
strange and unmeaning. This strange vision of which 
Paul spoke: what was it? And the doctrine of the 
resurrection of the dead: “ To the cold man of the 
"world, as to the inquisitive Athenians, it was foolish­
ness.” To him, Paul “ seemed like a mad enthusiast, 
whose head had been turned ” by incessant study of 
the religious writings to which he referred. He broke 
in, therefore, upon the Apostle’s speech:
308
(.FORTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY.)
“ Paul, thou art beside thyself: much learning 
makes thee mad.”
Much learning is literally ‘ many letters ’—much study 
is making thee mad. It is not unlikely that in his im­
prisonment Paul had other manuscripts beside the He­
brew Scriptures; and that he had been diligently study­
ing the ‘ rolls ’ of the prophets and of the law and of 
other religious writers. It may be that Festus referred 
to this when he saw the fiery earnestness of this strange 
prisoner before his royal guests. Paul had not been 
speaking to Festus, but to Agrippa; but with perfect 
self-possession, he calmly and earnestly replies to Fes­
tus :
“However mad I may seem to thee, most 
noble Festus, my words are most reasonable 
and sober, as King Agrippa, being a Jew, 
fully knows and understands. 
These things 
were not secretly done, but most openly and 
publicly.”
“ Then turning again to the Jewish voluptuary who 
sat beside the Governor, he made this solemn appeal to 
him:
“ King Agrippa, dost thou believe these pro­
phets ? 
I know that thou believest.”
The King had been educated into full belief in the in­
spired prophets of the Hebrews. The next natural 
thought therefore must have been and perhaps Paul 
was intending to put it into words: “Then must thou 
believe that Jesus is the Messiah spoken of in the 
prophets.”
The King’s reply prevented him, and turned the cur­
rent of Paul’s address: “ Thou wilt soon3 persuade me
3 “ It is universally admitted that the phrase rendered1 almost ’ can­
not bear that translation. 
The name ‘ Christian,’ of heathen coinage, 
in the mouth of Agrippa, does'not imply any sincere or decided emo-
T1IE ROYAL VISITORS.
309
to be a ‘ Christian.’ ” As the word Christian cannot 
have been an honorary name in the mind of a Jew like 
Agrippa, but rather a name of contempt, “ the words 
were doubtless spoken in irony and contempt.”
But Paul was not to be put off in this way. He 
made a most earnest reply, as though the King’s words 
were spoken in earnest — a reply which was as com­
prehensive and sublime as it was earnest—“ sweeping 
round the bench and the audience, and ending with a 
touching allusion to his own captivity
“ I would to God, that, whether soon or late, 
whether with little persuasion or with much 
persuasion, not only thou, but all that hear 
me this day, were such as I am, except these 
bonds.”
“ King Agrippa had no desire to hear more: he rose 
fiom his seat, with the Governor and Bernice and those 
that sat with them. As they retired, they discussed 
the case. ’ They agreed that Paul had not only done 
nothing worthy of death, but nothing worthy of im­
prisonment. “Agrippa said positively to Festus: ‘ This 
man might have been set at liberty, if he had not ap­
pealed to the Emperor.’ But the appeal had been 
made. There was no retreat either for Festus or for 
Paul.” Festus had no wish to keep Paul in bonds, as 
Felix had done, and he only waited for a good oppor­
tunity to send his prisoner to Rome.
lion; for he was a haughty and light-minded voluptuary. 
The sense 
may be, ‘really, without much ado, thou art trying to make me a 
Christian‘you would make a Christian of me, as easily and in as 
off-hand a way as you were made yourself.’ ”—Dr. Eadie.
(FORTY-SE VENTH SUN DA Y.)
QUESTIONS.
WHAT shows that Festus meant to make Paul’s eloquence 
an entertainment for his guests ?
What prediction made to Paul had come to pass ?
hat associations added to the force of this prediction ? 
What two powers were represented here ?
Did Festus say anything in his speech which he had not 
already told Agrippa ?
What high testimony did he give to Paul’s character? 
Who was Augustus ? Why called ‘ my lord ’ ?
Could Festus have helped doing this ‘unreasonable’ 
thing ?
What is Paul’s purpose in his speech ? Why ?
What is the introductory part of Paul’s speech ?
Why was Paul more glad to speak before Agrippa than 
before Festus?
What is the second part of the speech ?
What is the first point in this part of the argument ? 
What circumstances can you state which show that 
Paul had been well known to the Jews ?
What to show that he had been one of the ‘ stricter t 
sect’?
What is the second point in this part ?
What * promise ’ is referred to ?
How did ‘ the twelve tribes hope to come ’ to this proa 
ise ?
What is meant by ‘instantly serving God,’ etc. ?
How was Paul accused for this ‘ hope’s sake ’ ?
What has the raising of the dead to do with this hope 
What is the third part of the speech ?
How is this connected with the second part ?
What is the first point in this part of the argument ? 
How ‘ many things ’ are here named which Paul did as 
a persecutor
What is the second point in this part ?
(93)
How many things united to force conviction on Paul’s 
mind ?
What is the third point in this part of the speech ?
What was the especial ‘ purpose ’ in Paul’s conversion ?
How was Paul ‘ delivered from the people and from the 
Gentiles ’ ?
What was God’s purpose in sending him to the Gen­
tiles ?
What is meant by ‘ inheritance among them,’ etc. ?
What are the means by which a Gentile now can obtain 
this inheritance ?
What is the fourth point in this part ?
In how many cities and countries did Paul obey.this 
command ? Why ?
Can a man ‘repent of any sin without ‘turning to 
God’?
Are all ‘good works ’ ‘ meet for repentance ’ ?
Show how the fifth point sums up this third part of the 
speech.
What was the one great thing which Paul felt and en­
forced in this part of his speech ?
What different effects did Paul’s speaking produce on the 
two rulers’ minds ?
What reason may be given why Festus thought Paul 
mad?
What does ‘much learning ’ signify ?
To whom had Paul been speaking ?
Explain the meaning of the twenty-fifth and twenty- 
sixth verses.
How is the twenty-eighth verse connected with the pre­
vious speech ?
What is the next natural thought ?
How was that close of the argument prevented ?
Did Agrippa mean that he was on the point of yielding 
to Paul’s arguments ?
Explain the force of the Apostle’s reply.
Why did not Agrippa listen longer ?
What was the result of the conference ?
(.FORTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY.)
(94)
THE 
PRISONER 
SENT 
TO 
ROME.
LESSON.
Acts xxvii. 1-13.
T)AUL was sent to Rome by ship. 
We do not know 
■that there were any passenger-ships in those days, 
sailing at regular times between the great cities of the 
Mediterranean; but there were large numbers of mer­
chant-ships plying between all the towns on the coasts. 
Even emperors themselves were compelled to sail in 
these ships when they took their voyages of business, 
as we know that, when Titus was besieging Jerusalem, 
his father, the Emperor Vespasian, took a merchant- 
ship at least as far as Rhodes, and that, when he had 
ended the siege and hastened to Italy, Titus himself 
went by a merchant-ship which touched at Rhegium 
and Puteoli, places at which Paul himself touched on 
his voyage.1 
“ If such was the mode in which even 
royal persons travelled from the provinces to the metro­
polis, we must of course conclude that those who trav­
elled on the business of the state must have been con­
tent to go in the same manner. 
The sending of state- 
prisoners to Rome from various parts of the empire 
W'as an event of frequent occurrence. 
Such groups of 
prisoners as this which now went aboard the ship at 
Caesarea must often have left Caesarea and other eastern 
ports in merchant-vessels bound for the west.”
It is worth while to stop a moment and think of the
1 xxviii. 13.
THE PRISONER SENT TO ROME.
311
busy Mediterranean, and Rome as the centre of its com­
merce, to help our thoughts of Paul’s voyage. 
The 
many provinces on all sides sent up to Rome their 
many articles of traffic. 
From the province of Africa 
on the south came “ heavy cargoes of marble and gran­
ite” and of furniture-woods. 
From the coast of Asia 
Minor, on the east, came the silks and spices which had 
been brought “ from beyond the Euphrates to the mar­
kets and wharves of Ephesus.” From the Black Sea 
came fish, and from the Archipelago ship-loads of wine. 
From the distant west, ships with wool and other ar­
ticles anchored in the harbors of Italy. 
Egypt espe­
cially was a country rich in the merchandise sent off 
to the great metropolis. 
From the distant Indian 
Ocean, up the Re d Sea, and then down the valley of 
the Nile to Alexandria, poured the constant flow of 
trade in spices, dyes, jewels and perfumes. 
Added 
to these articles of traffic, the ships of Alexandria for 
Rome and for the north and west were laden with 
linen, paper and glass. 
And still more, the great ar­
ticle of trade which occupied many more of its vessels 
was the Egyptian wheat, which grew along the fertile 
banks of the Nile and which helped to feed the mul­
titudes of Italy. 
“The Egyptian grain-vessels were 
usually bound for the harbor of Puteoli,” and we shall 
soon see the Apostle aboard one of these very ships, 
and at length landing at that very port.2 
Besides the 
larger vessels employed in this direct trade between tne 
different provinces and with Rome, we must think of 
the multitude of smaller ships which were in the coast­
ing trade, and which did not venture so boldly out on the 
great deep.
It was probably on one of these consting-\ essels then
* See frontispiece for illustration of this and the two following 
lessons.
Forty-eighth Sunday
812
(.FORTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY)
in port at Caesarea, that Festus the Governor placed 
Paul. It was a ‘ ship of Adramyttium,’ a town in My- 
sia which Paul had himself passed when he came down 
from Phrygia to Troas. It was found that the captain 
intended to follow closely the coasts of ‘Asia,’3 a voy­
age which would be quite familiar to Paul.4 Most 
likely, however, the centurion who had charge of the 
prisoners meant to sail in this coasting-vessel only till 
he could find a larger and faster vessel bound more di­
rectly for Italy.
We can see, therefore, the mingled company which 
was gathered on the ‘ship of Adramyttium’ as she 
turned her prow towards the northern entrance of the 
splendid stone harbor of Caesarea. There were the 
captain and the crew: there wex*e Julius the centurion 
and his Roman soldiers: there were Paul, his two com­
panions, Luke and Aristarchus of Thessalonica,5 and 
the other prisoners : there were the passengers bound 
for longer and shorter voyages. Once out of the har­
bor, the vessel stood to the north. Passing Mount Car­
mel and Ptolemais and Tyre, the next day she “ put 
into Sidon.” There were passengers to land, or there 
was something to be added to or taken from the cargo, 
or the wind made it more convenient to run into this 
harbor. 
*
In this ancient city, for so many centuries connected 
with Tyre, there were undoubtedly fellow-disciples. 
Christian preachers must have visited this town as one 
of the chief cities of Phcenice;6 Paid and Barnabas them­
selves must have stopped here, on their way up from 
Antioch to Jerusalem.7 The Sidonian Christians must
* Not Asia Minor, but the province of Asia. 
* xx. 13-17; xxi. 1.
4 Aristarchus may have been one of the prisoners. See Colossians 
iv. 10, written after Paul reached Rome.
4 xi. 19. 
7 xv. 3.
THE PRISONER SENT TO ROME.
313
have heard of Paul’s landing at Tyre on his last voyage 
from the west to Jerusalem, two years before. Through 
the courtesy of the Roman centurion, (who had no doubt 
known Paul before he left Caesarea,) these ‘ friends ’ at 
Sidon were permitted to show Paul kind attentions. 
Paul was permitted to go on shore to meet them.
The ship met with opposite winds after leaving Sidon. 
“ The direct course from Sidon to the ‘ coasts of Asia ’ 
would have been to the southward of Cyprus, across 
the sea over which the Apostle sailed so prosperously 
two years before.” But as the same strong wind which 
then drove the ship swiftly towards the east now hin­
dered his direct course to the west, the captain took 
the course to the north of Cyprus, through the seas of 
Cilicia and Pamphylia. There is another reason, too, 
for passing Cyprus on the north. There is a current in 
the great sea between Cyprus and the main shore, which 
continues along the coast of Asia Minor to the Archi­
pelago ; and when they should fall into this current, the 
progress of the voyage would be easier. The whole 
passage must have been made by ‘ tacking ’ against the 
wind. Paul was in familiar waters. Seleucia and Sa- 
lamis were on either hand as they came around the 
eastern end of Cyprus. The coast of his native pro­
vince, the high summits of the mountains of Taurus be­
hind Tarsus, the lofty cliffs of Pamphylia, the towns of 
Attalia and Perga were slowly passed, and the ship 
came to a harbor in Lycia not far from Patara.8 This 
was the harbor of Myra, a city of which little is known. 
Rut as at Patara, on his last voyage to Judea, Paul 
made a change of ships, so at Myra the centurion trans­
ferred his soldiers and prisoners to another vessel. For 
here at Myra the centurion found an Egyptian grain- 
ship9 from Alexandria bound for Italy. Myra was di- 
8 xxi. 1. 
9 See verse 38.
rectly north from Alexandria; and it is not unlikely 
that the powerful west wind which Paul’s ship had 
encountered in coming from Sidon, had forced the 
heavily-laden Alexandrian ship out of her direct course. 
To escape the fury of a head-wind in the open sea, 
and to gain the advantage of the shore-current, she had 
come over to the opposite coast of the Mediterranean. 
Even in our own day it is no uncommon thing for ships 
from Alexandria coming westward to sail to the north 
for the sake of the current. The Apostle was now no 
doubt in a much larger ship. This vessel Ave know was 
able to accommodate two hundred and seventy six per­
sons,10 passengers and crew. But in this heavy-laden 
ship, and Avith an adverse wind, the voyage Avas very 
slow. Patara and Rhodes Avere slowly passed, and it was 
‘ many days ’ before Cnidus Avas reached. Cnidus had 
a good harbor; and when they should pass this pro­
montory, they could have no longer the protection of 
the coast nor the advantage of the current, but would 
meet the full fury of the north-west Avind. It Avas im­
possible. to take the regular course straight across the 
-¿Egean, past the island of Cythera. Instead, however, 
of getting into shelter in this excellent harbor of Cni­
dus, the seamen hoped to run down to the southern side 
of Crete, and then, with this long island as a protec­
tion, to make their way across the mouth of the Arch­
ipelago.
Here therefore the course of Paul’s voyage left the 
scenes of his former journeys. When once exposed to 
the full force of the wind, the seamen found it a diffi­
cult task to bring the ship around the end of the island. 
Having passed Cape Salmone, they were able to get on 
slowly, as they had done from Myra to Cnidus, until
314 
(.FORTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY.)
10 Verse 37.
THE PRISONER SENT TO ROME.
315
they reached a place called Fair Havens. “ There seems 
to have been no town at Fair Havens,” but only an an­
chorage sheltered from the winds, near Lasea. Yery like­
ly the passengers and sailors visited Lasea, and so the 
name came to be mentioned. 
Much time had noAV been 
spent since they left Caesarea, enough probably for the 
ship in an ordinary voyage to have reached Rome, for the 
time of year had come when it Avas thought dangerous 
to try the open sea. 
The Fast of the Atonement Avas 
already past, which occurred near the end of Septem­
ber, after which time the ancients thought the seas es­
pecially dangerous, from the storms which occurred 
about that time. It was, as Ave Avould say, past the 
equinox, or about the time of the equinoctial storm, 
the time when the severer storms set in. 
Paul warned 
those Avho had control of the ship of the danger of 
going on. 
His good judgment taught him the risk of 
further exposure: he had had no little experience, too, 
on the sea: perhaps there Avas also prophetic foresight 
of what Avas to happen. It is not surprising, however, 
that the centurion thought more of the opinions of the 
helmsman and of the captain11 than of his prisoner. 
Fair Havens Avas not Avell situated to pass the winter 
in. 
Farther on Avas Phenice, Avhich the sailors de­
scribed as a good harbor and as having a coast lying 
towards the south-west and north-Avest; and which 
Avould therefore give protection against the violent 
winds from those quarters. 
Waiting then till the fu­
rious north-west Avind had ceased, and a gentle south 
wind had sprung up, the sailors pushed on close along 
the shore, not doubting but that they would soon reach 
Phenice.
11 In verse 11 the word 1 master ’ means the governor, pilot, helms- 
man; and ‘ owner,’ the ship-owner, or ship-master, master and owner 
often being one.
(FORTY-EIGHTH SUNDA Y.)
QUESTIONS.
TTOW did passengers sail from one country to another in 
Paul’s time ?
What illustrious examples are given ?
Did the sending of state-prisoners to Rome often occur ? 
How was Rome the centre of commerce ?
What was sent from Africa ? 
Is the continent of Africa 
meant ?
What came from Asia Minor ? 
Through what harbor 
especially ?
The Black Sea ? the Aegean? the West ?
Why did Egypt send so much to Italy ?
What other articles from Alexandria ?
What was the Egyptians’ great article of traffic with 
Italy ?
In what Italian harbor did these ships usually discharge 
their cargo ?
What other vessels on the Mediterranean besides these 
larger ones ?
Into whose care did the Governor of Judea deliver Paul? 
How many men had a centurion under him ?
What is meant by Augustus’s band ?
Into what kind of a ship was Paul taken ?
Where was Adramyttium ?
Do you think Julius meant to sail in this ship to Italy ? 
What does ‘ coasts of Asia ’ mean ?
When had Paul seen these coasts ?
What four classes of persons were on the ship ?
Who was Aristarchus ?
Why did they touch at Sidon ? 
What places had they 
passed ?
With what city was Sidon connected ?
Why must we think there were Christians here ?
What respect for Paul did Julius show ?
What is meant by 1 sailed under Cyprus ’ ?
On which side of Cyprus was the sea of Cilicia ?
Was this the direct course ?
(95)
{FORTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY.)
What two reasons are there for taking this course ? 
What is meant by ‘ tacking ’ ? 
Why must they have 
1 tacked ’ ?
What familiar objects between Sidon and Myra ?
Where was Myra ? near what city ?
What one event connected with Paul’s travels occurred 
in both these cities ?
Why was a change of ships now made ?
What kind of a ship was the new one ?
Was it larger or smaller than the one Paul left ?
Where bound ? 
From what port ? 
Its cargo ?
Were there other passengers than those on the Adra- 
myttium ship ?
In what direction was Alexandria from Myra ?
Why should an Egyptian ship sailing to Italy come so 
much out of its way ?
What is true of the sailing of such ships now ?
Why was the sailing now so slow ?
What two places did they pass where Paul had been 
before ?
Where was Cnidus ? 
What was it ?
Why did not the ship stop at Cnidus ?
What is meant by ‘ sailed under Crete’ ?
Why did they try to do this ?
Why was it difficult to pass Cape Salmone ?
What was Fair Havens ? 
Why is Lasea named ?
Why was sailing now dangerous ?
' 
What time of the year was it ?
What reason had Paul for warning sailors in respect to 
sailing ?
Do you think Paul meant this as a prophecy, or as his 
opinion ?
What does ‘master and owner’ mean?
Why were they determined to push on ?
Did they mean to leave Crete during the winter ?
What is meant by ‘ lieth towards the south-west and 
north-west ’ ?
What induced them to leave Fair Havens ?
(96)
#0iin-mnti) Siutbim,
STORM 
AND 
SHIPWRECK.
L E S S 0 If.
Acts xxvii. 13-44.
A LL on board seem now to have given up reaching 
Rome till the next spring, hut they thought they 
were certain of a good harbor to winter in. The light 
south wind was bearing the ship along the coast of 
Crete; the sailoi s were in good spirits; the passengers 
were filled with hope of rest and safety; the very land 
about Phenice may have been in sight: when in a mo­
ment all was changed. A swift, fierce storm, one of 
those unforeseen eastern hurricanes, struck the vessel, 
and catching it in its awful grasp, made it completely 
unmanageable. It was a typhoon, or eurodydon, (a 
word meaning ‘east wind and waves,’) rushing down 
the mountainous sides of the island.1 The sea was in­
stantly in a foam : the sails had been ‘ trimmed ’ for a 
favoiing breeze from another direction : the ship would 
not obey the helm, or, in the expressive words of the 
Geeelc, ‘ would not look the wind in the face,’2 and the 
best the sailors could do, was to let her ‘ scud before 
the gale.’ The vessel was of course driven ‘ off the 
island, and so swiftly that the sailors feared they
Oui translation, * arose against it,’ does not fully express the sud­
denness and fury which are expressed in the Greek words : the Greek 
■« ords mean, the tempest ‘ cast itself down or along it (the island.)’
Our translation, ‘could not bear up into the wind,’ has the same 
meaning.
STORM AND SHIPWRECK.
317
would be carried into the dreadful quicksands3 on the 
coast of Africa. What was now to be done in such 
danger ? Four things were done. First, the sailors 
took advantage of the direction of the storm to get un­
der the protection of the little island, Clauda. “ Here 
they would have the advantage of a temporary lull and 
of less boisterous water for a few miles.” Taking this 
temporary advantage, secondly, ‘ the boat was hoisted 
on board."1 * It would be the height of folly, with such 
a load of passengers, to let go this boat, the only hope, 
if the ship should spring a bad leak; but to get a boat, 
half filled with water, over the sides of the ship in a 
gale of wind, was ‘ much work? Thirdly, they ‘ under- 
girded ’ the ship. This was a precaution against the 
starting of the planks in the hull of the ship. ‘ Helps,’ 
that is, ropes or cables, were passed around the frame 
of the ship to strengthen it and to prevent a leak. 
Fourthly, they dowered the gear?5 They either took 
in the sails or pulled down the ropes and yards. These 
different preparations were made so that they might 
‘ weather out the storm.’
To one unacquainted with the sea it might appear 
that they were now beaten in all directions by the wind 
and waves; and on some maps the track of the ship 
laid down changes towards all points of the compass ; 
but it has. been shown, with no little reason, that the 
course was nearly straight till they reached the island 
on which they were wrecked. Sailors know quite well
8 The word ‘ quicksands,’ in Greek, is ‘ Syrtis,’ the name of the 
famous quicksands on the African coast, directly towards which the 
ship was driving. See the frontispiece map.
4 ‘ To come by the boat,’ is to get mastery of it, so as to hoist it 
into the ship. It must have been towing behind.
6 
‘ Strake sail,’ verse 17. Literally, ‘they lowered the gearing.' 
The sails, or only the ropes and yards, may be meant.
318
(.FORTY-NINTH SUNDAY.)
that sometimes it is far more dangerous to let the ship 
roll at the mercy of the storm, or to ‘ scud under hare 
poles,’ than it is to head the ship nearly towards the 
wind and to spread a sail. 
Any one who knows what 
the seamen's phrase ‘to tack’ means, knows that a ship 
can be made to sail in good weather in a direction 
nearly contrary to the wind; and although this could 
not well be done in a storm, yet by keeping the head 
of the ship nearly towards the wind, and a small sail 
set, the vessel would be steadier, and would be driven 
slowly backward. 
This is called ‘ lying to,’ (that is, 
lying to the wind,) and the vessel is allowed to ‘ drift,’ 
“ a plan constantly resorted to, when the object is not 
so much to make progress as to outride the gale.” For 
Paul’s ship “ to have scudded before the gale under bare 
poles, or under storm-sails, would infallibly have strand­
ed them in the Syrtis.” 
But if the vessel was laid to, 
and was allowed to drift in a straight course, in four­
teen6 days she must have been very near the island 
Malta.
The second day of the storm, they ‘ lightened the 
ship.’ 
The vessel had probably sprung a leak; and the 
crew cast overboard the things which they could aiford 
to lose best. 
It was not enough, however. 
The leak 
continued; and the third day, the passengers helped the 
sailors7 throw out all the ‘ tackling ’—the heavy ropes, 
spars and yards—which could be spared. 
Then for 
many days and nights there was great distress, such as 
no one who had never been out on the sea in a long and 
furious storm and in a leaking ship, can know. 
The 
constant work of passengers and crew by day and by 
night, the anxious watching against leak in all parts of 
the ship, the violent dashing of the waves over the ves-
* Verse 2'7.
7 
Notice that in verse 18, ‘ they ’ is used, and in verse 19, * we.’
STORM AND SHIPWRECK
319
sel and the pumping out of the water, the throwing 
over of one heavy article after another, the ceaseless 
plunging and rolling of the vessel, the creaking and 
straining of the ship’s frame and rigging, the terror of 
frightened passengers and the sickness of others, the 
benumbing cold and wet, the wearisome strain of mind 
and body, all united to increase their helpless suffering. 
And besides all this, the sky was entirely overcast. 
There was neither sun nor stars to steer by.8 
“ It was 
impossible to know how near they might be to the 
most dangerous coast. Yet the worst danger was from 
the leaky state of the vessel, and this was so bad that 
at length they gave up all hope of being saved,” and 
thought the ship must go down. 
Besides all this dis­
tress, there could have been no regular meals. 
Much 
of the provisions might have been spoiled by the sea­
water ; and the food which they had, must have been 
taken only between their labors. 
Despair was in every 
heart but one.
Paul, the prisoner, is hopeful and confident. 
While 
the heathen sailors had been trying in vain to save the 
ship, praying no doubt to their gods, God, who holds 
the winds, had spoken to his Apostle and had answered 
his prayers. 
Paul had another vision, like the one at 
Troas,9 in which God directed his course. In the midst 
of the despairing sailors, Paul reminded them of his 
warning at Fair Havens, not to reproach them, but to 
show that his words were worthy of their respect and 
confidence. 
And now he declares that not one of all 
the crew and passengers should be lost. 
Only the ship 
would go down. God’s angel had told him the destiny 
of the ship and those on board. God’s purpose that his
8 
They had no compass, of course; and the sun and stars were the 
reliance of the ancient helmsman, when out of sight of land or at 
night. 
a 3 vi. 9.
320
(.FORTY-NINTH SUNDAY.)
Apostle should stand in the presence of the Emperor 
should not be defeated. And for Paul’s sake, God 
would preserve all his fellow-voyagers. We are not 
told whether the sailors believed that God whom Paul 
believed, and took heart as Paul urged them to do. 
Paul’s high hope could but have made them more 
hopeful.
Still the storm continued. 
Day and night followed, 
perhaps more than once. 
The danger did not cease. 
At length, it was fourteen long days since they had 
been driven out into the lower Adriatic Sea.10 
About 
midnight of the fourteenth night, as they were tossed 
up and doAvn, “the sailors suspected that they were 
nearing land.” 
As they could not see, they must have 
heard the breaking of waves on the shore. 
“ The roar 
of breakers is a peculiar sound, which can be detected 
by a practised ear,” although persons not sailors might 
not distinguish it from other sounds of a storm. 
On 
sounding, they found they were rapidly running into 
shallower water. 
The anchors were quickly cleared 
and cast out of the stern, which would prevent the ves­
sel from swinging around.11 
How anxiously they must 
have waited for daylight! Who could tell what might 
occur from the breaking of an anchor-cable ? 
A cold 
rain was falling ;12 the wind was rattling the rigging, 
if indeed there was rigging left; and no one could yet 
see the rocks or what kind of shore was right before 
them. 
The ship itself might go down before morning. 
This the sailors kneAV better than the passengers; and 
in the darkness, and without knoAving whither they 
Avould be carried, they selfishly attempted to get away
10 Adria was the Adriatic Sea, including then the Ionian Sea.
11 If they had anchored like modem vessels, from the bow, the ves­
sel might have swung around on to rocks, since the wind was from 
behind. 
12 xxviii. 2.
STORM AND SHIPWRECK.
321
from the ship in the boat. Pretending to lower anchors 
from the bow, (which no doubt Avould have steadied 
the ship,) they got the boat down to the water’s edge. 
Paul satv the sailors Avere intending to flee and to leave 
the rest to their fate, and his appeal to the centurion 
stopped their selfish plan. 
The soldiers instantly cut 
the loAvering-ropes; the boat fell, instantly filled with 
Avater and went to the bottom, or drifted off into the 
darkness.
Paul the prisoner now is the chief and commanding 
person in all that large number. 
He persuades them 
to take food to strengthen them, himself setting the 
example, reverently giving thanks to God, when all 
others were on the point of despairing. 
From such a 
heroic courage, they also took heart. Instead of giving 
up to despair, they now Avent to work to make the ship 
as light as possible, so as to run her far up on the land 
and from her to get to shore. The cargo of wheat in the 
hold, Avliich while tossing on the open sea they proba­
bly could not well get at, they noAV poured out into the 
sea. 
When this Avork of some hours was done, the day 
had daAvned, and the land could be seen. Ho one could 
tell what land it Avas ; but they saw a small inlet13 Avith 
a beach, into which they resolved to thrust the ship. 
But to do this Avould require the greatest care. 
The 
rudders (of which there Avere tAvo in ancient vessels, 
and which Avere large, strong oars, at the sides of the 
stern) seem to have been bound up out of the Avay of 
the cables, Avhen the anchors were cast out of the stern. 
The rudder-bands were now unlashed, the anchor-cables 
cut, the sail hoisted, and the ship was run aground. «It 
does not appear quite certain whether they exactly hit
13 The word 1 creek,’ in verse 39, is used in the maritime sense. 
See the Dictionary.
322
(.FORTY-NINTH SUNDAY.)
the point at which they aimed.” 
But the bow stuck 
fast on a spot where two opposing seas had thrown up 
a hidden bank of earth or sand, and the waves dashing 
against each other just there, the stern was soon broken 
to pieces.
Another incident is given at this point, quite charac­
teristic of Roman soldiers. “ The soldiers were answer- 
able with their own lives for their prisoners, and were 
afraid some of them should swim out and escape; and 
therefore, in the spirit of true Roman cruelty, they pro­
posed to kill them at once. 
Paul’s influence over the 
centurion was again the means of saving his own life 
and the life of his fellow-prisoners. 
The centurion 
might care little for the rest, but he was determined to 
save Paul. 
He therefore prevented the soldiers from 
accomplishing their heartless purpose, and directed 
those who could swim ”—soldiers and prisoners togeth­
er, no doubt — to cast themselves into the sea first, 
“ while the rest made use of spars and broken pieces 
of the wreck.” Most wonderfully, not one of the whole 
two hundred and seventy-six failed to reach the shore 
through the breakers.
(FORTY-NINTH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
WHEN did the ship’s crew now expect to reach Italy ?
'' 
What was the Euroclydon ?
What is the meaning of the word ?
What is meant by ‘ arose against it ’ ?
1 The ship was caught ’ ? ‘ could not bear up into the 
wind ’ ? 1 let her drive ’ ?
Where was the vessel driven ?
What was the first thing the sailors did ?
What was the second thing done ? Why ‘ much work ’ ? 
What was the third thing done ? Why ?
What was the fourth thing ? ‘ Strake sail’ ? Why ?
Is it likely that the wind now beat them in all directions ? 
What three ways are there of managing a ship at such 
a time? Which is the safest?
What is ‘ lying to ’ in a storm ? ‘ drifting ’ ?
What is the object of permitting a vessel to drift ?
Why would it have been unsafe for this ship to run be­
fore the gale ?
How long did the ship drift ? Where would they have 
been by this time, if they drifted ?
What was done the second day of the storm ? Why ?
What the third day ?
How do you know the passengers helped ?
What is the ‘ tackling’ ?
What circumstances must have united to increase their 
suffering ?
How long did this continue ?
Why did the overcast sky add to their danger ?
What was the danger worst of all ?
Did every one yield to despair of saving life ?
Why did not Paul yield ?
Is there anything in religion to produce hope in great 
dangers and trials ?
Why is ‘long abstinence’ mentioned in the twenty-first 
verse ?
(97)
(.FORTY-NINTH SUNDAY.)
Does it mean that Paul, or all, abstained ?
Why did Paul allude to his warning at Crete ?
Iiow did Paul know without this vision that his own 
life would not be lost ?
Can you mention any other instance of wicked men 
preserved for the righteous’ sake ?
What especial prediction did Paul make ?
‘ The fourteenth night had come ’: fourteenth after what ?
What is meant by ‘ driven up and down ’ ?
What was ‘Adria ’ ?
How could tne sailors tell they were near land ?
What did the ‘ sounding ’ show ?
Would they be likely to continue drifting backwards, 
after they thought land near ?
Why did they cast the anchors 'out of the stern'?
Were these anchors like our anchors ?
What does the sailors’ attempt to get out of the ship 
show in respect to their opinion of saving the 
ship ?
What effect would casting anchors from the low have 
had ?
Do you suppose Paul meant that they had eaten nothing for 
fourteen days ?
Was not this a time when thanks to God before a meal 
might have been omitted, if ever?
What do the thirty-sixth and thirty-eighth verses show in 
respect to the influence of Paul’s hope upon the ship’s com­
pany ?
Why didn’t they cast out the wheat before? Why 
now ?
What does ‘creek’ mean? What were the ‘rudder- 
bands ’ ?
Why should the ship run aground ‘where two seas 
met’?
Why would the waves be violent there ?
What characteristic of the Roman soldier is here seen ?
Why were the prisoners saved ?
How many persons escaped to land ? How ?
(98)
Fiftieth Sunday
SICILY AND 
ITALY.
LESSON.
Acts xxviii. 1-16.
T
HE whole large number of passengers and crew was 
at length safe on shore. ‘ Not a hair ’ had ‘ fallen 
from the head of any ’ of them. The wreck lay off on 
the sunken sand-bar. The loss had been only ‘ of the 
ship.’ Paul’s predictions had been fulfilled. They 
were the words of God given to him to utter to his 
fellow-men.
People were soon found. The island was declared 
to be Melita. Perhaps the sailors themselves soon re­
cognised some prominent feature of the island, by 
which they knew it. There were anciently two islands 
of this name, one of which is now called Malta and the 
other Meleda. Malta is no doubt the one on which 
Paul was wrecked, although there are those who have 
thought it was Meleda. Meleda was far up in the 
Adriatic Sea, on the coast of Illyricum. It would be 
very strange indeed if a vessel could have been driven 
so far up the gulf, without coming in conflict with any 
island or coast. Why, too, should not Paul have gone 
to Rome directly across Italy, instead of going away 
around by Sicily, as we shall see he did ? It is by far 
more natural to suppose that Malta is the island; and 
there are some strong reasons for believing that the bay 
to this day called St. Paul’s Bay, was, as the tradition 
declared it to be, the place of Paul’s shipwreck.
324
SICILY AND ITALY.
The people are said to have been ‘ barbarous,’ but it 
is not meant that they were savage, uncultivated and 
cruel. They did not speak the Greek language; and 
therefore to one who, like Paul or Luke, made use of 
the ordinary division of all mankind into Greeks and 
barbarians,1 they were ‘ barbarous people.’ ' Still they 
■were as superstitious as they were kind. They kindled 
a blazing fire in the cold October rain. It was not sur­
prising that Paul, in gathering hastily a bundle of brush­
wood from the wet ground, should not have noticed a 
viper in it. And when the heat revived the reptile 
from the stupor ivhich the cold rain had produced, it 
clung to Paul’s hand. It is not said that Paul was bit­
ten, but the superstitious people thought, from the na­
ture of the reptile, that he must be bitten, and that he 
would fall dead. And just as the people of Lystra first 
said Paul was a god and then stoned him as a magic- 
worker, so the people of Malta suddenly changed from 
calling Paul a murderer to calling him a god. Paul of 
course did not permit them to give him any such title, 
but preached to them the same doctrine which he did 
to the Lystrians, that he was a man of like passions 
with them, and that there was only one God, who made 
heaven and the earth and the sea. Very soon, too, 
miracles were wrought to confirm the truth of his 
words. The father of ‘the chief man of the island,’ at 
whose house Paul and Luke and others no doubt were 
hospitably entertained, was restored from an aggra­
vated disease. Publius may have been the Roman gov­
ernor, for his name is Roman. Malta belonged to Rome, 
and Publius was the ‘ chief man ’ of the island. But the 
cure was wrought by prayer to that one God whom Paul 
preached, and in the name of that Jesus through whom 
only, Paul everywhere taught men could be saved. The 
1 See Romans i. 14 • I. Corinthians xiv. 11.
(FIFTIETH SUNDAY.)
325
healing of the governor’s father, or of the father of so 
well known a man as Publius, was quickly known 
throughout the little island, and many other sufferers, 
brought to Paul, were healed. Every one who was 
healed, heard also of Jesus the Messiah, for Paul 
wrought no cures in any other name or power. The 
kindness of the people was returned to them therefore: 
health for hospitality.
All honor and attention were paid to. Paul and his 
companions during his stay of three months. Julius no 
doubt gave him his liberty. The inhabitants, soldiers, 
passengers, sailors, must have heard Paul’s earnest 
preaching during this providential delay. Perhaps 
many a convert thanked God for the blessing of the 
shipwreck.
It was soon known that another Alexandrian ship 
was in a harbor of Malta, passing the winter. At the 
prow of the vessel were sculptured images or painted 
figures of the twin gods, the sons of Jupiter, which were 
the sign or the badge of the vessel. Castor and Pollux 
were the patron gods of sailors. The centurion put his 
sailors and prisoners aboard this ship, (for it was bound 
for Italy,) and in the month of January5 they ivere on 
their way toAvards Rome. Sicily must have been visible 
soon after they set sail, the distant blue mountains rising 
above the black line of the shore. The two promonto­
ries on the south-east corner of the island once passed, 
the burning Mount Etna was seen, fifty or sixty miles to 
the north, lifting its cone-like form, with its plume of 
smoke, far up into the air; and the city of Syracuse, 
partly on a little island in its harbor and partly on the 
shore, was directly before them. Syracuse Avas the 
wealthiest and largest toAvn of Sicily; and Sicily, from 
its abundant fruits and its immense harvests of wheat, 
2 See xxvii. 9, (with page 315 ;) xxvii. 21; and xxviii. 11
826
SICILY AND ITALY.
was called by the Romans, ‘ the store-house of Italy.’ 
In the harbor and in the town many a battle had been 
fought with revolutionary parties and with foreign in­
vaders. In Syracuse, Plato and Cicero had lived; in this 
city, the poet Theocritus and the philosopher Archimedes 
were born; and here Archimedes, at work on a mathe­
matical problem, was killed by Roman soldiers, when 
the Roman army captured the city. The beautiful bay 
swept around a circumference of five miles, and the lit­
tle island on which the city had been first built had be­
come gradually united by buildings to the shore. Here 
the ship remained three days. Julius, the centurion, 
who had been so kind at Sidon, and who had learned 
to respect Paul still more in the storm and shipwreck, 
would not refuse to let Paul go ashore. In such a busy, 
trafficking city as this, Paul would find hundreds of 
Jews; and if there was an opportunity for Paul to meet 
them in their synagogue, Jesus the Messiah was cer­
tainly proclaimed: so that the tradition may be true 
which says that Paul was “the first founder of the 
Sicilian church.”
Sailing out of this splendid harbor, the ship turned 
her painted head to the north, towards the straits of 
Sicily. The wind does not seem to have been favora­
ble, for they were obliged to make a circuit. If the 
wind was in the west and they were close to the shore 
and the high mountains, “ they were obliged to stand 
out to sea to fill their sails, and so they came to Rhe- 
gium by a circuitous sweep.”3 The ship, which had for 
its protecting divinities Castor and Pollux, had come 
to a city over which ‘ the Great Twin Brothers ’ were 
supposed to be protectors. The Rhegians worshipped
s A traveller says that “ when he made a voyage from Syracuse to 
Rhegium, the vessel in which he sailed took a similar circuit for this 
reason.”
(.FIFTIETH SUNDAY.)
327
Castor and Pollux as their divinity. At Rhegium and 
at the Rhegian Pillars, twelve miles north, was the 
regular crossing-place from Italy to Sicily. In this an­
cient port, the first port of Italy at which Paul touched, 
the ship staid one day, waiting for a favorable wind to 
carry them through the difficult straits. The south 
wind bore them safely through the channel between 
Scylla and Charybdis, and in one day to Puteoli.
As they drew near the point of land which shut off 
from their view the bay on which Puteoli is situated, 
they could see more clearly the rich fields and vine-clad 
mountain sides of lower Italy. Passing Cape Minerva, 
the magnificent bay of Naples, celebrated for its wonder­
ful beauty by all travellers, ancient and modern, burst 
upon them. Back of the middle point of the curve 
was Mount Vesuvius, not then a fiery volcano, but 
‘ green and sunny,’ ‘ with its westward slope covered 
with vines.’ “ Little did the Apostle dream, when he
328
SICILY AND ITALY.
looked from the vessel’s deck to the right, that a ruin 
like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, hung over the fair 
cities at the base of the mountain, and that the Jewish 
princess Drusilla,” before whom he preached at Caesa­
rea, “ and ber child, would find their tomb in that ruin.” 
The coast curves in most graceful forms; and at the 
opposite end of this magnificent bay is1 the little recess 
in front of Puteoli. “ In all this wide and sunny ex­
panse of blue waters, no part was calmer or more beau­
tiful. Puteoli was the Liverpool of Italy.” In its fine 
harbor and at its piers lay the Alexandrian grain-ships, 
at the end of their long, heavy voyages; and it is said 
that crowds of idlers came down to the pier to watch 
these ships come in. In this very bay, the sailors of 
one of these ships had paid divine honors to the Em­
peror Augustus, saying that he had made their voyages 
safe and their trade prosperous. But now the Alexan­
drian sailors had a greater than Augustus on board 
their vessel, the messenger of a kingdom and a King 
which were to outlast the crumbling foundations of his 
mighty empire. The Scripture story says nothing to 
ns of the business of the city, the beauty of its surround­
ing scenery, the strength and size of the great piers in 
the harbor, the mineral springs not far off, nothing of 
the fact that here armies embarked for Spain, and here 
ambassadors landed from Carthage, but only that Paul 
found * brethren ’ who wished him to stay in Pute­
oli ‘seven days.’ Here too Christ had been preach­
ed: here in the distant West, disciples of Jesus were 
found, ‘ brethren ’ of the one great household of faith : 
here the famous Apostle, who had written his instruc­
tive letter from Corinth to Rome, was well known. He 
was now a prisoner in chains, escaped from shipwreck. 
Julius permitted Paul to remain. Why should he not 
favor the man who had saved his life ?
(.FIFTIETH SUNDAY.)
329
To go up from Puteoli to Rome was something like 
going from Liverpool to London. At a little distance 
from Puteoli, the great southern Roman state road 
passed, connecting at Brundusium with the road across 
Macedonia to the Sast, by a ferry. After a short jour­
ney from Puteoli up to Capua, the Roman soldiers and 
their prisoners would strike the very road which Paul 
and Luke had before trodden from Philippi to Thessa- 
lonica. Leaving the important town of Capua, the sol­
diers took up the last stage of their journey: the first 
mile-stone told them it was ‘ one hundred and twenty- 
five miles to Rome.’ Along the stone pavement, so 
perfectly fixed in its place that after hundreds of years 
much of it still remains perfect without repairing, over 
arched bridges, they came down to Sinuessa, on the 
sea. Here the hills shut off the view of Mount Vesu­
vius. Then around the shore of another beautiful bay, 
they pass through the “ long street of Formise, with its 
villas on the sea-side and above it,” where Cicero had 
“one of his favorite retreats from the turmoil of the 
political world,” and where, in a palanquin, he was at 
last assassinated. Thence, the next principal town is 
Anxur, on a bold coast of precipices, “ with its houses 
and temples high above the sea.” Then the road passes 
through miles of marshes, and for twenty miles there 
is a canal by its side, on which the party may have 
rode, as the poet Horace once did, in a boat drawn by 
mules. At Appii Forum, “ full of low tavern-keepers 
and boatmen, the mules were unfastened;” and there, 
a few Christian men, who had heard that the Apostle had 
landed at Puteoli, and who had hastened to meet him, 
recognized the Apostle in the crowd and greeted him 
with holy joy and thanksgiving. Ten miles further on, 
at Three Taverns, more Christians met him. The weary 
and worn Apostle took heart and strength when he saw
830
SICILY AND ITALY.
his friends, (perhaps Aquila and Priscilla were among 
them,4) and devoutly thanked God for their comfort and 
friendship. With this pleasant company, the rest of 
the journey quickly passed. Horsemen and carriages, 
vehicles of all descriptions, and people of all classes, 
increase rapidly. The villas and gardens of wealthy 
citizens are all along the slope of the Alban hills. On 
the upper side of the road now lies Aricia, the last town 
before Rome comes into sight; “and on the hill-side 
swarms of beggars beset travellers as they passed. On 
the summit of the next rise, Paul of Tarsus would ob­
tain his first view of Rome. No conspicuous building, 
rising above the rest, attracted the eye.” Ancient 
Rome had no dome nor tower, no cupola nor spire. 
Fiom where Paul was, it was one wide-spread mass of 
buildings, the dwellings of poor and rich mingled to­
gether, and the temples and palaces, theatres, colon­
nades and baths, were not distinguishable. After 
descending to the plain, the road is in a straight line, 
with the sepulchres of illustrious families on either 
hand. The old pavement then lay through gardens 
and new-built houses; and throngs of people, in various 
costumes and on various errands, vehicles, horsemen 
and foot-passengers, soldiers and laborers, Romans and 
foreigners, became more crowded and confusing. The 
houses grew closer. They were already in Rome,” 
Julius and his prisoners had but to move on under the 
arch of the gateway, “ which was perpetually dripping 
with the water of the aqueduct that went over it,” and 
they were within the walls of the Imperial city.
4 Romans xvi. 3, i.
(.FIFTIETH SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
W
HAT prediction had been fulfilled ?
What two islands were there called Melita ?
Which one of the two do you think this was ?
What is meant by ‘barbarous people’ ?
What added to the cold and wet?
What time of the year was it ?
What shows the superstition of the people ?
Did the viper come out of thvjire?
Did it bite or sting Paul?
What did the superstitious people think?
Why did they change their minds ? 
Like what other 
people ?
What promise of our Saviour was here fulfilled?
What did Paul probably say when they gave him this 
name ?
Who lived in these ‘ quarters ’ ? 
Who was he ?
To whom did the island belong ?
While Paul was guest at his house what did he ?
How long did Paul stay at the house of Publius ?
How do we know that many on the island heard Jesus ? 
How long was Paul in Malta ?
What attention was shown while he staid? 
What 
when he departed ?
What ship was in port on the island?
Was this harbor at the place of shipwreck?
What is meant by ‘ whose sign ’ ?
Who were Castor and Pollux ?
How do you know what time of year it was when they again
Set) Still ?
What three things were seen after they left Malta ? 
What was Syracuse ? 
What was Sicily called ?
What historical events had taken place in Syracuse and 
its harbor ?
What celebrated death occurred here ?
The bay ? the island ? 
How long in port ?
Did Paul probably go ashore? 
What opportunities? 
What tradition ?
(99)
(.FIFTIETH RUNDA Y.)
In what direction did the ship sail from Syracuse ?
Where was Rhegium ?
What does ‘fetched a compass’ mean ?
Why did they fetch a circuit ? 
What docs a modern 
traveller say ?
What gods were the supposed protectors of Rhegium ? 
Rhegium and Rhegian Pillars ?
IIow long was the ship at Rhegium ? 
Why ?
What celebrated strait ? What celebrated dangers ? 
flow long was the voyage to Puteoli ?
W hat was to be seen as they neared Cape Minerva ? 
What after passing it ?
What mountain was visible ? 
What was it then ?
Who perished in an eruption ? 
What cities ?
Where was Puteoli in respect to Naples and its bay ?
Puteoli ? its ships ? idlers ? divine honors ?
What facts in respect to Puteoli does the Scripture say 
nothing of ?
How came these brethren at Puteoli ?
Did Paul tarry or did he not ?
What road did Paul strike after leaving Puteoli ?
At what point have we supposed ? 
In what direction 
. from Puteoli ?
What other point on the road was as near as this ?
How far was Capua from Rome ?
What is there remarkable about this road ?
What was the first place on the coast ?
M hat was there of interest at Formise ? Anxur ?
What marshes further on ? 
What else ?
Low did the poet Horace once travel these twenty 
miles ?
What did the poet say Apii Forum was ‘full of’ ?
Whom did Paul find there ?
How far on was Three Taverns ?
Who may have been among the brethren here ? 
flow was Paul affected at seeing the Roman brethren f 
The Alban Hills? Aricia? the view of Rome?
Sepulchres ? throngs ? horses ? gateway ?
(100)
fifty-first Sunday.
PAUL’S 
RESIDENCE 
IN 
ROME.
LESSON.
Acts xxviii. 16-31; Philippians i. 13; iv. 22.
W
E cannot tell whether the centurion Julius ordered 
his soldiers with their prisoners through the nar­
row streets to the Forum, and then to the palace of the 
Emperor and that part of it called the preetorium, or to 
the great praetorian camp outside the city wall. The 
preetorium was the quarters of the Emperor’s body­
guard ; and as it is likely that the Emperor would wish 
his guard near him, we may reasonably think that the 
praetorium of which Paul writes from Rome to his 
Christian friends at Philippi1 was the barracks of the 
Imperial guard which were attached to the Emperor’s 
palace. Julius delivered up his prisoners to the Pre­
fect of the Praetorian Guard, as the Greek word means, 
or to the Captain of the (Imperial or Emperor’s) Guard, 
as this word is. properly translated into English. It was 
the duty of this Prefect “to keep in custody all accused 
persons who were to be tried before the Emperor.” 
Here, on the Palatine Hill, close by the Forum, sur­
rounded by all the illustrious buildings of Rome, by all 
the places where the most stirring scenes of Roman 
history occurred, Paul the prisoner is given up to the
1 The words, ‘ in the palace,’ in Philippians i. 13, are in the Greek, 
‘ in the preetoriumIt is the same word which we saw was translated 
‘judgment-hall’ in chapter xxiii. 35.
332
PAUL'S RESIDENCE IN ROME.
keeping of the Emperor Nero’s’ chief captain. 
What 
a prisoner was he to be in the power of such an Em­
peror ! 
We may well believe that Julius was reluctant 
to give up his prisoner, from very attachment to him. 
Nero had not yet arrived at that degree of cruelty which 
has made his name a perpetual scorn and terror; and 
his prcBtorianprefect at this time was probably Burrus, 
who was a good man. 
We suppose that the statement 
which Julius made in reference to Paul’s heroic conduct 
on the voyage from Judea, and the letter of Festus, ob­
tained for Paul from the captain of the guard, favors 
which other prisoners did not enjoy. Burrus soon per­
mitted Paul to dwell by himself: probably in some 
other part of the city, only the soldier to whose arm he 
was chained must be with him as his guard.
Perhaps Paul went at first to lodge again with Aquila 
and Priscilla. 
Afterwards he had a hired lodging3 of 
his own. 
He at once inquired what was the state of 
the church in the city. 
As the Emperor Claudius was 
dead, who some years before had driven the Jews from 
Rome,4 * no doubt many other Jews besides Aquila and 
Priscilla returned to Rome. 
The friends to whom he 
sent his greetings from Corinth may have been Jews 
expelled from Rome and converted by Paul’s preach­
ing while absent. 
There was Epenetus, one of the first 
converted in Achaia, and many others with Greek 
names, who may have been converted while away from 
Italy.6 
And there were women, too. 
There were the 
kind-hearted Mary, the beloved Persis, the working 
Tryphena and Tryphosa, and the respected mother of
3 Claudius, who was Emperor when Paul was at Corinth the first
time (xviii. 2,) was now dead. Nero was Emperor,
8 Notice the difference between ‘ lodging,’ in verse 23, and 1 own 
hired house,’ in verse 30. 
4 * xviii. 2.
6 See for all these names Rom. xvi. 5-15.
(.FIFTY-FIRST SUNDAY.)
333
Rufus. 
Many others now, we may believe, had been 
gathered into the church of Christ. 
And all of them 
had received much instruction and help from Paul, 
either directly from his preaching in other cities or 
from his epistle to the Roman Christians. 
They must 
have heard of his seizure at Jerusalem and of his im­
prisonment at Caesarea, and must have watched with 
eagerness when the new Governor Festus was sent to 
the province of Judea, to see what would become of 
Paul. 
They were expecting that he would make that 
visit which he had promised them,6 if he should be re­
leased. 
Perhaps they had heard of his appeal to the 
Emperor. 
Perhaps they were expecting him as a pri­
soner, although they may not have known that he was 
a prisoner till the news came that he was at Puteoli.
But although there was already a Christian church in 
Rome, there were also multitudes of unconverted Jews. 
They all lived in a separate part of the city, across the 
river Tiber. 
They were not now cruelly treated, but 
had returned from the exile of Claudius, to live for a 
while in peace; for “ in the early years of Nero, which 
were distinguished for a mild and lenient government 
of the empire, the Jews in Rome seem to have enjoyed 
complete toleration, and to have been a numerous, 
wealthy and influential community.” 
In Rome, there­
fore, as everywhere else, Paul spoke to his own coun­
trymen first. 
He had been in Rome only three days, 
when he sent for the principal men among the Jews, to 
tell them why he, their fellow-countryman, was a pri­
soner, and waiting a trial before the Emperor. 
These 
Roman Jews might already have prejudices against the 
Preacher to the Gentiles. 
Or they might think that, 
as he had appealed from the Jewish law to the Roman, 
had refused to go to Jerusalem to be tried and had 
6 Rom. xv. 24.
334
PAUL'S RESIDENCE IN ROME.
preferred to come to Rome, that Paul was false to his 
own country and nation. 
Paul sets the whole matter 
right at once, by declaring that he was forced to appeal 
to the Emperor. In his address to them, Paul declares, 
(b) His innocence of the charges made against him. 
(b erse 17.) 
(2.) That he would have been acquitted at
Caesarea, if the Jews had not opposed him contrary to 
all law. 
(Yerse 18.) 
(3.) That he had no complaint to 
make of a just trial by the laws of his own nation, but 
that the unlawful opposition of the Jews had forced 
him to protect himself by appealing to the Roman law 
and to Caesar. ^ (Yerse 19.) 
(4.) That so far was he 
iom disrespecting the laws and customs of his nation, 
that his only crime was believing that God would de­
liver his people by the Messiah, the Hope of Israel. 
“And therefore he said, ‘Men and brethren, for the 
Hope of Israel I am bound with this chain: ”
'Their answer was comforting and encouraging to 
Paul. “ They had received no written communication 
from Judea concerning him;” and none of the Jewish 
brethren who .had arrived at Rome had spoken any evil 
of him. They had therefore no accusation to make 
against Paul; but they wished to hear him speak of the 
doctrines which .he taught. They said that these doc- 
tiines of Jesus were unpopular everywhere among the 
Jews, but as Paul was the one great preacher of these 
doctrines, they would be glad to hear from him the 
truth in respect to them. A day was therefore ap­
pointed for this purpose, and a meeting, to beheld at 
Paul’s lodgings.
On that day Paul spoke long and earnestly to the as­
sembled audience. His subject was the same great 
subject which he had preached about at Antioch in 
Pisidia and at all other places: Jesus of Nazareth, the 
Messiah. The proofs were shown in the prophets and
(FIFTY-FIRST SUNDAY.)
335
in the law of Moses. All the day long the earnest dis­
cussion between Paul and the Jews continued. Some 
were convinced. Some would not believe, but it was 
because they were not willing to be convinced. Towards 
evening those who disbelieved were just about to with­
draw, when Paul solemnly warned them of the awful 
sin of closing their eyes to the light and their ears to 
the truth. He earnestly warned them with those awful 
words which Jesus himself had quoted fiom Isaiah in 
respect to the stubborn and wilful; and warned them 
also that the salvation which was intended for them 
would, if they rejected it, be given to the Gentiles. And 
so the separation of the Apostle from the Roman Jews 
took place, they withdrawing to dispute among them­
selves about this new ‘ sect,’ and Paul remaining to 
preach Jesus and his salvation to all who would hear.
Burrus permitted Paul now to hire a house of his 
own, and to preach in it to all who chose to come. 
How strangely God had ordered Paul’s career and an­
swered his prayers! The desire of his heart for years 
had been to visit Rome, and to preach the Gospel there. 
He had come to Rome-how differently from what he 
expected! He was permitted to preach in Rome for 
two whole years, as freely as at Corinth or at Ephesus. 
No man could harm him; no enemy could persecute 
him; for he was under the protection of the Roman 
Government, the strong arm of the Praetorian Prefect 
supporting and sustaining him. “ We must not forget, 
however, that he was still a prisoner under military 
custody, chained by the arm, both day and night to 
one of the Imperial body-guard, and thus subjected to 
the rudeness and caprice of an insolent soldiery. 
Who can say that even the soldiers chained to his side
7 Matthew xiii. 14, 15 ; Isaiah vi. 9, 10.
336
PAUL'S RESIDENCE IN ROME.
were not subdued by the Gospel of Jesus exemplified 
in the preaching and in the life of the Great Apostle ?
But though Paul was permitted to preach for so long 
a time, yet his trial was delayed. Two years seem a 
long time for a prisoner to wait at the very door of the 
Emperor for a decision on the charges against him. 
Four reasons may be given for this delay. First. The 
Emperor might postpone the trial at his own pleasure. 
Secondly. The prosecutors might not have reached 
Rome. “The Roman courts required the personal 
presence of the prosecutor.” If the prosecuting Jews 
from Syria did not set sail till spring or summer, they 
would not reach Rome till the summer or autumn after­
wards. If the prosecutor did not appear, the law at 
this time did not bring the prisoner to the bar and 
acquit him, but was very indifferent about the time 
during which he was kept in prison. Thirdly. The 
witnesses might have been delayed. The evidence which 
failed at Caesarea would be likely to fail at Rome; and 
the Jews might demand time to bring more witnesses. 
The charge of sedition brought against Paul was that he 
had excited sedition, not in one place only, but through­
out the world,8 that is, everywhere throughout the 
empire, and time might be required to collect witnesses 
from Judea, from Syria, from Cilicia, from Pisidia, from 
Macedonia, from Achaia, from “ all the cities from Da­
mascus to Ephesus.” This would take a year or more. 
Fourthly. The official notice of the case, sent by Festus, 
might have been lost in the shipwreck at Malta. No 
case of appeal to the Emperor could be tried without 
such a notice. It would take no little time to send to 
Festus for a new notice.
Paul was not only preaching during all this time, but 
caring personally for his converted friends in Rome,
6 xxiv. 5.
(FIFTY-FIRST SUNDAY.)
and instructing his converts in distant countries and 
cities. Letters and messengers were sent from the 
‘hired house’ in Rome to the churches over which ho 
watched with such tender care. During these two 
years were undoubtedly written
The Epistle to the Colossians ; and by the mes­
senger who carried it to Colosse was sent also
The Epistle to Philemon, who is thought to have 
lived in Colosse;
The Epistle to the Ephesians ; and
The Epistle to the Philippians.
Paul was not without his near and intimate friends 
at this time. Near him in the city must have resided 
some of those faithful companions who were true to 
him in adversity. Timothy was with him perhaps m 
his own house.9 Luke, his fellow-traveller through the 
long and fearful voyage, was there also and was re­
membered to the brethren of Colosse10 in the letter. 
Tychicus, who five years before had travelled with him 
from Corinth through Troas to Ephesus,11 was his mes­
senger to carry his letters to Ephesus and to Colosse. 
Mark, whom Paul would not take with him on is 
second journey, was again with him.13 Demas w o 
afterwards forsook him for his love for the world, was 
there 11 Aristarchus,18 who, when at Ephesus, had been 
carried by the mob into the theatre, and who came with 
Paul from Cssarea,18 and Epaphras,16 were his fellow- 
prisoners. His imprisonment was cheered, too, by an 
occasional visit of a Christian brother from some one 
of the many places in which he preached, as when the
9 Col. i. 1, 2; Philemon 1; Philip, i. 1.
10 Col iv. 14; Philemon 24. 
11 ■Acts xx' 4‘
12 
Eph. vi. 21, 22; Col. iv. 7, 8. 
 13Col iv. 10; Philemon 24.
14 
Phil. 24 ; Col. iv. 14; II. Tim. iv. 10.
 
15 Acts xix. 29; xxvn. 2. 16 Col . 7 ; Philem
on 23.
33V
338
PAUL'S RESIDENCE IN ROME.
warm-hearted Epaphroditus of Philippi came to Paul, 
bunging him a present of contributions for his sup­
port,17 and bearing back with him, when he had re­
covered from sickness, the Letter to his steadfast and 
much praised Christian friends in Philippi.18
Philip, iv. 18. See the margin.
Philip, ii. 25-30. 
The Epistle to Philippi is full of praise, and 
has hardly any censure. The simple-hearted faith of Lydia and of the 
jailer was enduring in its effects.
{FIFTY-FIRST SUNDAY.)
QUESTIONS.
To what place in Rome was Paul taken ?
What does the verse in Philippian s mean ?
What two places were there with this name ?
Who was the Captain of the Guard ? 
What was his 
duty ?
Who was Emperor at this time ?
Who was ‘ Captain of the Guard’ during these years ? 
Why was Paul permitted to dwell by himself ? 
Who 
was with him ?
What difference between the Apostle’s dwelling at first 
and afterwards ?
Why had many Jews no doubt returned to Rome ?
What converts perhaps ? 
What women ?
What instruction had all the Roman Christians received 
from Paul ?
What other Jews were there in Rome ? 
Where did they 
live ? 
Why were they not persecuted ?
Why did Paul send for them ? 
What persons among 
them ?
What is the first point in Paul’s address to them ?
What is the second point ?
What is the third point ? 
‘ Spake against it: ’ against
what ?
What does ‘had aught to accuse my nation of’ mean ? 
What is the fourth point ?
What is meant by the Hope of Israel ?
How was it that Paul was a prisoner ‘ for this cause ’ ? 
What kind of answer did the Jews make to Paul ?
Do you think they had heard nothing at all of Paul’s 
arrest and trial ?
What kind of communication may ‘ letters ’ mean ? 
What did they wish to hear from Paul ? 
Why ?
What arrangement was made ?
Was there no synagogue in Rome ?
Show how the argument of Paul’s address was the samo 
as at Antioch in Pisidia.
How long did the discussion continue ?
(101)
What was the result ?
What warning did the Apostle give ? To whom ?
Who used this warning before Paul ? From what pro- 
phet is it taken ?
What does ‘ hearing, ye shall hear,’ mean ?
What is the meaning of ‘ waxed gross ’ ?
Did God mean to prevent their being converted ?
What prediction is there in the last words of this warn­
ing ?
What especial force was there in such a prediction in 
Rome?
Has the prediction of this warning been fulfilled in re­
spect to both Jews and Gentiles ?
To what Gentiles now does this warning apply as well 
as to those Jews ?
What division took place after this time ?
Where did Paul dwell ? Why must Roman soldiers have 
heard him preach ?
What especial advantage for preaching had Paul now ?
What three reasons may be given why Paul’s trial was de­
layed so long ?
What else besides preaching was Paul doing during this 
time ?
What two Epistles were probably sent together ? Why ?
What other two Epistles are thought to have been writ­
ten there ?
How do you show that Timothy was with Paul?
What other fellow-traveller ?
Who carried the letters to Ephesus and Colosse ? Show 
it.
What early companion was in Rome? What ‘fellow- 
prisoners’ ?
Who visited Paul in his imprisonment ?
To what place did he carry an Epistle ?
Prove that he had been sick.
What is a pleasant peculiarity of this Epistle ?
From what persons in Rome did Paul send salutations 
to these Christian brethren ?
(102)
(■FIFTY-FIRST SUNDAY.)
fifty-second Sunday
THE TRIAL AND THE EXECUTION.
LESSON.
Acts xxviii. 30, 31; Philippians i. 12-14, iv. 22; Philemon 9; 
II. Timothy iv. 6-8, 16, 17.
W
HEREVER Paul’s residence was in the city, there 
" was a Roman soldier always with him. Of course 
it could not always be the same soldier; and in the 
course of two years, many changes were made. In this 
way many soldiers saw Paul and knew him. Some­
times too he went perhaps to the barracks of the Prae­
torian Guard, whether the Prcztorium was near the 
palace of the Emperor or was a camp without the city. 
So remarkable a prisoner must have excited great at­
tention and great talk among the soldiers. At length 
Paul could write what he did to his Christian friends 
at Philippi: that his troubles had helped the preaching 
of the Gospel, for his imprisonment for Christ’s sake 
was well known in all the praetorium:1 that his Christ­
ian brethren were more bold to speak out for Christ, 
on account of the well-known fact of his imprisonment 
and the cause of it. God’s wise and mysterious pur­
pose was now seen in sending Paul as a prisoner to 
Rome. .How could he in any other way have gotten 
into the Emperor’s very household ? But now converts 
were made even among the Emperoi s guard or the 
Emperor’s servants. Cruel soldiers, under their still 
more cruel master, Kero, sent by him perhaps to do
1 ‘ In all the palacein the Greek, ‘ in all the pmtorium.
340
THE TRIAL AND THE EXECUTION.
some heartless murder or barbarous injustice, must have 
been surprised at the uniform goodness of such a man, 
and tenderly touched by the Christian love which bound 
Paul and his converts together. Servants of the royal 
family, familiar with the crime and the shame of the 
Emperor’s palace, and disgusted with all the horrible 
vice they saw, may have heard the words of the aged 
and venerable Paul, telling of another and a better life, 
of sins forgiven and real happiness received through 
Jesus the Messiah. Whoever these converts ‘ of Caesar’s 
household5 were, they sent their Christian salutations to 
their brethren of Philippi in the letter Paul sent by 
Epaphroditus.
Nero was already growing more public in his acts of 
cruelty. He had divorced and murdered one wife to 
-marry another. The wicked woman who was now his 
Empress, professed to be a proselyte to the Jewish re­
ligion ; and any man of less courage than Paul might 
have trembled when he thought that he was soon to be 
tried by an unprincipled Emperor, whose unscrupulous 
wife might eagerly listen to the accusations of his ene­
mies.
We have now come to the end of the Acts of the 
Apostles. It did not seem best to the spirit of inspira­
tion that the last years of Paul’s life and his death 
should be described in the sacred Scriptures. Yet how 
eagerly we desire to know how the last hours of the 
great Apostle’s life were spent, what kind of a death 
he died and in what manner he met death. It is surely 
not wrong for us to gather together what testimony 
we can «bout these things, and so complete the biogra­
phy of this great man.*
* This testimony is gathered from those writers in the first centu­
ries, called the early Christian Fathers. 
There have been two opin-
(.FIFTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
341
“ It was universally believed by the ancient Church 
that Paul’s appeal to Caesar ended successfully; that he 
was acquitted; and that he spent some years in free­
dom ‘ before he was again imprisoned and condemned.’ 
Though there is not very much evidence on this subject, 
“ it is all one way.” * According to this supposition, 
the story of the rest of his life will be given, dividing 
it into three parts: his first trial: his absence from 
Rome: his arrest and second trial, and condemnation.
After the long delay of two years, it is supposed 
Paul’s trial was at length ordered by the Emperor. 
The Emperors Tiberius and Claudius usually heard ap­
peals made to them in the Forum; but Nero held his 
great tribunal in the Imperial Palace, on the Palatine 
Hill. There, “ at one end of a splendid hall, lined with 
the precious marbles of Egypt and of Lybia, we must 
imagine the Csesar seated.” Around him, we see twenty 
counsellors, men of the highest rank. Two are Con­
suls, others are high magistrates of Rome and the rest 
are Senators. “ Over this distinguished bench of judges, 
presided the Absolute Ruler of the whole civilized 
world,” Caesar Nero, whose terrible power made men 
tremble with fear and horror, whose vices made them 
despise him, whose murder of his wife and mother and 
adopted brother was only the beginning of more general 
cruelty throughout Italy, and whose pitiable love of
ions among learned men in respect to the time, of Paul’s death, one 
class holding that Paul was. executed at the end of his first imprison­
ment, the other that he lived some years after his first trial, and was 
executed after a second trial. 
There is a general and substantial 
agreement in respect to the fact and the method of Paul’s execution, 
and no contradiction; and we have given the opinion of those who 
believe there was a second imprisonment, so as to give the fuller ac­
count of the two. 
The lesson would be made too long by giving quo­
tations from the fathers. 
The principal names are, Clement, Tertul- 
lian, Eusebius, Chrysostom and Jerome.
342
THE TRIAL AND THE EXECUTION.
vulgar applause led him to degrade himself by “ pub- 
licly performing as a musician on the stage and as a 
charioteer in the races.”
Before the tribunal of this blood-stained adulterer, 
Paul the Apostle was now brought in fetters, by his 
military guard.” Paul did not quail. God, who guard­
ed his life, was greater than Nero; and in God was his 
trust. 
The prosecutor was called to bring forward his 
witnesses. 
Proof of the charges was required: that he 
had disturbed the worship of the Jews, secured to them 
by law; that he had polluted their temple; that he 
had broken the peace of the empire by stirring up sedi­
tion in many cities, as the ringleader of the Nazarene 
sect. 
The last charge would be considered a solemn 
crime by the body of counsellors and by the Emperor. 
Pei haps there were witnesses from Jerusalem, from 
Ephesus, from Corinth, to giye testimony against him. 
Perhaps another orator, like Tertullus, complimented 
and flattered the Emperor, while he painted in dark 
colors the great offences of Paul. 
From his previous 
speeches, we .can think how Paul would reply. 
The 
testimony of those present with him in the temple, 
would show that he did not profane the temple. 
He 
would show that he had reverenced and had not vio­
lated the law of the Jewish religion; that he belonged 
to one of several sects of the Jews. 
He would prove 
that his teachings everywhere, in his letters as well as 
in his preaching, had been to submit to the law of the 
empire. 
The very letter he had sent to Rome to his 
friends, (and which may have been shown in the court,) 
instead of stirring up sedition against the government, 
had taught them to submit to the ‘powers that be?3 It 
may be that he spoke again of the doctrines of his sect,
! Romans xiii. 1.
(FIFTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
343
and reasoned of resurrection, righteousness, temperance 
and judgment to come. 
Nero was too much hardened 
in crime and shame to tremble, like Felix, at these 
awful realities.
“ When both sides had been heard, and the witnesses 
all examined and cross-examined, (a process which per­
haps lasted several days,) the judgment of the court 
was taken. 
Each of the counsellors gave his opinion in 
writing to the Emperor, who never discussed the judg­
ment with his counsellors, as better Emperors had done, 
but after reading their opinions, gave sentence accord­
ing to his own pleasure.” 
When we think what the 
Emperor was and that his wicked wife sympathized 
writh the Jews, we might expect that Paul would have 
been condemned. 
But God so ordered it that the Em­
peror, from mere caprice, or from contempt of the petty 
quarrels of Jews, or for some other reason, acquitted 
Paul, ordered his chains to be struck off and that he 
should be set at liberty.4
With what profound thanksgiving to God did the 
Christians of Rome, and indeed everywhere, where 
Paul had been, receive the news of the Emperor’s de­
cree. 
The great Apostle was now free to go, and to 
preach again for his divine Master.
Paul’s absence from Rome is thought to have been 
about five years. 
These five years are supposed to 
have been spent in the following manner. 
First, he 
went through Macedonia to Asia Minor. 
Just befoie 
his trial, in his letter to the Philippians, he wrote that 
he hoped to visit Philippi soon,6 and in his letter to 
Philemon in Colosse, he told Philemon to prepare him 
a lodging, for he trusted his prayers for his deliverance
4 We may suppose, however, that either the prosecutor or the wit­
nesses did not appear, and that Paul was dismissed from lack of evi­
dence. 
6 Philippians ii. 24,23.
344 
THE TRIAL AND THE EXECUTION.
would be answered.8 
If be went to Philippi and to 
‘Asia,’ his journey would be down the great road, 
through Italy, to Brundusium, across the Adriatic to 
Dyrrachium, through Illyricum on the great road to 
Thessalonica and then through familiar places to Philip­
pi. 
Then after a happy, glad time with his Philippian 
children, he went on to Ephesus7 and to the surround­
ing towns, among which was Colosse, and enjoyed the 
friendship of Philemon and the ‘ brethren,’ staying at 
the ‘ lodgings ’ prepared. The next year, it is supposed, 
he took his long thought of8 journey into Spain. 
It is 
not likely that he would go by Rome, for the fury of 
Nero had now broken out in persecution.
SUPPOSED JOURNEYS OF PAUL AFTER THE FIRST TRIAL.
If he went at all, he probably went by sea from Eph­
esus to Massilia, from which city he could, on any day, 
reach towns in Spain. 
In Spain, he is thought to have 
labored two years, founding churches along the coast 
in the principal cities. 
It was just about the time that 
he took this voyage that the great fire in Rome oc­
curred which was the occasion of Nero’s violent perse-
8 Philemon 22.
T ^an you reconcile this supposition with Acts xx. 25 ?
8 Romans xv. 24, 28.
(FIFTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
345
cution of the Christians. 
Paul would not of course go 
back to Rome at this time. He more likely sailed back 
to Ephesus. 
He had now become an aged man, be­
tween sixty and seventy years old.9
Timothy was now at Ephesus as the preacher and 
pastor of the Ephesian church. 
From Ephesus Paul 
went to Macedonia10 for a while, where he wrote
THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY,
in which he gave Timothy instructions about the sacred 
office of the ministry, about worship and about the 
character of deacons.11 
The aged Apostle is about now 
to leave his mantle on his beloved son in the ministry. 
Soon after, Paul returned to Ephesus.13 
And after­
wards he made, it would seem, a short visit with Titus 
to the island of Crete. 
Titus he left in Crete,13 and 
soon after his return to Ephesus wrote to him
THE EPISTLE TO TITUS,
in which he gives Titus instruction in respect to the 
churches which Christians had already founded in 
Crete. 
If this letter to Titus was written at Ephesus,
» At his conversion he was thirty years old or over, (see page 16.)
30 years.
‘Fourteen years after,’(Gat ih 1, Acts xv- 2,) 
he went from Antioch to Jerusalem with the
4 difficult question,’............................................^ years.
His second journey and stay at Antioch was
about............................................................. 3 
y«ar9-
His third journey was about 
.
.
.
 
4
At Caesarea,.......................................................^
Journey to Rome and in Rome, nearly 
. 
3
From his acquittal to Ephesus, were about 
4
60 years old or over.
101, Timothy i, 3. 
111. Timothy iii. 1-6, 14, 15, 8-10.
12 iii. 14. 
11 Titus i. 5.
346 
THE TRIAL AND THE EXECUTION.
it shows where Paul was intending to spend the next 
winter, for he directs Titus to come to him before the 
next winter at Nicopolis,“ a town of considerable im­
portance in lllyricum; and if the second letter to Tim­
othy was written afterwards at Rome, it seems to show 
that Paul went from Ephesus to Miletus and to Co- 
nnth,'s on the way to Nicopolis and on his way to
Rome ; for he says that one of his fellow-travellers was
left at Miletus sick, and that Erastus, the former Trea­
surer of Corinth, had staid behind in that city. From 
^icopolis, perhaps Paul hoped to visit and to preach in 
many of the towns of lllyricum.
 
 Paul was now not very far from Rome. The Christ­
ians of Rome had been accused of setting fire to the 
city. Nero had persecuted them with savage fury. 
The first great slaughter of Christian martyrs had 
begun. Paul was the very chief of the Christians. He 
would soon be known, wherever he was, and every­
where he would have enemies. Perhaps for this reason he 
had not remained long in one place except in’distant 
Spain. “There is nothing improbable in supposing 
that, upon the testimony of some informer, he was ar­
rested by the magistrates of Nicopolis and forwarded 
to Rome for trial. The second imprisonment was se- 
verer than the first. It was now dangerous for Christians 
to make themselves known publicly as friends of the 
Apostle. The horrible wickedness of Nero had been 
fully and publicly seen. The people were greatly ex­
cited and indignant on account of the tremendous con­
flagration which had burnt to ashes half their city. Nero 
himself was accused of setting the city on fire. The 
unprincipled and murderous Emperor tried to turn sus­
picion from himself, by accusing the Christians of the 
crime and by persecuting them. “ Some were cruci­
11 iii. 12.
15II. Tim. iv. 20.
(FIFTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
347
fied : some were disguised in the skins of beasts and 
hunted to death by dogs: some were wrapped in robes 
impregnated with inflammable materials and set on 
fire at night to illuminate the circus and the gardens of 
Nero. ‘A very great multitude’ perished, the whole 
body of Christians being considered as involved in the 
crime of firing the city.” This was in the first excite­
ment, and the first excitement was past when Paul 
reached Rome. But the city had in it many informers, 
who were ready to accuse any unhappy Christian of 
this great crime. It could not have been long before 
Paul was brought up to the court. His case was not 
now tried by the Emperor, but by the single judge 
whom the wicked Emperor had appointed over the 
city. At the first hearing he escaped, although his 
friends all deserted him.16 ‘ Nevertheless,’ he wrote to 
his dear son Timothy, ‘the Lord stood by me and 
strengthened me; and I was delivered out of the mouth 
of the lion.’17 What the charge at this first hearing 
was is not told us: perhaps the charge of firing the 
city. Paul perhaps was able to make it appear to his 
judge that he was innocent of that charge; for he was 
absent from the city at the time. While in prison 
again, waiting a hearing probably on another charge, 
the venerable Apostle wrote his last letter. His heart 
yearned over Timothy, and he longed to have him a 
faithful minister of the Messiah. He wrote therefore 
to urge upon Timothy his solemn duties,
the second epistle to timothy.
He did not expect to escape condemnation and exe­
cution ; but he wrote like one whose spirit was lifted far
16II. Timothy iv. 16, 17.
17 It may be that Paul actually saved himself from being thrown to 
the wild beasts by declaring himself a Roman citizen.
348
tee trial and the execution.
above all human suffering. Almost alone in that great 
and wicked city, Luke the only one of his constant friends 
who was with him,'8 with an unjust sentence, the bench 
and the sword of the executioner plainly in the path be- 
fore him, Paul is a triumphing conqueror. Hear the 
Christian hero: “ 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 i HENCEFORTH THERE IS LAID 
UP FOR ME A CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, WHICH THE
Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that
DAY.”
In these, his last days, he cannot forget those dear 
fiiends who had been his comfort in so many hours 
of trial, Aquila and Priscilla, who had fled, we may 
suppose, from the persecution to Ephesus,19 and he 
could but wish for the kind sympathy and presence of 
some of his faithful fellow-laborers. He urges Timothy 
to come to him.20 He had no longer any reproach for 
Mai k, but wishes him to come to him in his old age.20 
If Timothy and Mark reached Home, to cheer their 
great teacher’s last days, there could have been but avery 
little time before his condemnation. We do not know 
vrhat crime Paul was accused of, nor what was the rea­
son for the sudden end of his trial; but we know that 
he was condemned.
The privileges of a Roman citizen saved Paul no 
doubt from the wild beasts, from torture, or from cru­
cifixion. He was sentenced to be beheaded, according 
to general tradition; and tradition says too that the 
place was outside the gate, on the road to Ostia, the 
harbor of Home. (See map on page 327.) The throngs 
of people, merchants, sailors, travellers, letter-bearers,
II. Tim. ir. 11, 10, 12. 
10 Verse 19. 
20 Verse 11, see pajje 60.
(.FIFTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
319
messengers, priests, citizens from all provinces, stran­
gers from all countries, who hastened that day from the 
harbor to Rome and from Rome to the harbor, little 
knew that a greater hero than Roman historian or Ro­
man poet ever praised wras being led out to execution. 
“ Through the dust and tumult of those busy crowds 
the small troop of soldiers silently threaded their way, 
under the bright sky of an Italian midsummer.” There, 
not far distant from the city, the axe of the lictor or 
the sword of a military executioner severed the head 
of Paul the Apostle from his body; and the heroic and 
enraptured spirit took its eager flight to the presence 
of Jesus. “Weeping friends took up the corpse and 
carried it for burial to those subterranean labyrinths 
where, through many ages of oppression, the persecuted 
church found refuge for the living and sepulchres for 
the dead.”
The Roman emperors are dead: the great Augustus 
could not preserve his empire from destruction after he 
vTas gone : the detestable Hero is remembered only to 
be execrated. But Paul of Tarsus is not dead. He 
lives in all the churches of Christendom to-day. He is 
revered by thousands and by millions as a great teacher. 
The kingdom he helped to establish is stronger now 
than when he was on earth, a kingdom which cannot 
be moved. Multitudes of Gentiles thank the great 
Apostle to the Gentiles for his sufferings and courage 
and martyrdom. And in the Last Great Day myriads 
of souls will thank him for that life and those words 
which taught them the forgiveness of sin through 
Jesus of Hazareth, the Messiah of the world.
QUESTIONS.
WHAT wise providence is now seen in sending Paul to 
" Rome?
How were Paul’s ‘ bonds manifest in all the praetorium ’ ? 
What was the effect of Paul’s imprisonment in Rome on the 
Christians there ?
How was Nero changing about this time ?
Who was the Empress ?
Have we any account of Paul’s last days in the Scriptures ? 
From what authorities is the remaining narrative of 
Paul’s life gathered ?
What two opinions have there been in respect to the 
time of the Apostle’s death ?x 
In what respect do the opinions agree ?
Which one of the two general opinions is here adopted ? 
Into what three parts is the remainder of his life divided ? 
Where did Tiberius and Claudius hear their appeals ? Nero ? 
Who sat with him ? Three classes ?
Nero’s power ? vices ? murders ? love of applause ? 
What proof would be required at the trial ?
Which charge would be thought to contain the greatest 
crime ?
How can we tell what Paul would answer ?
What especial evidence could be produced in court 
against the principal charge ?
How was the decision given ?
What reasons may be given for Nero’s acquittal ?
How long is it thought that Paul was absent from Rome ? 
What reason is there for supposing he went to Philippi ? 
What for thinking he went to Colosse ?
Over what route would he go to these places ?
Can you reconcile his visiting Ephesus with Acts xx. 25 ? 
Where did he go the next year ?
What is the probable route ?
How long is it supposed that he was in Spain ?
1 Ou either supposition the passages in the lesson refer to the clos­
ing scenes of liis life.
(.FIFTY-SECOND SUNDAY.)
(103)
To what place did he return ?
Show what Paul’s age must have been at this time.
In what passage does Paul allude to his age ?
Who was at Ephesus ? What Epistle did Paul write ?
Point out the passages which show the object of his letter. 
What Epistle was next written ?
Where was Titus ? Show what the instructions to him 
were about.
What indication do you get from this Epistle in respect to 
other places where Paul lived ?
On the supposition made, where did Paul go next ? 
What would he do there ?
Where was Paul arrested? For what reason?
How did the second imprisonment differ from the first ? 
Why was it dangerous for a Christian to be in Rome? 
Would Paul be tried by the Emperor ?
What happened at his ‘first answer’ ?
Who ‘stood by him’? What does the rest of that 
verse mean ?
What was Paul’s last Epistle ?3 
Who only was with him ?
What was plainly before him ?
Who conquers, Paul or Nero ?
What is the figure in the words written to Timothy ?
Show the points of comparison.
What especial kind wishes and requests of affection 
does he express ?
W hat advantage would Paul’s Roman citizenship be to him 
now?
W here does tradition say Paul was executed ?
How was he executed ?
What is the result of Paul’s whole life ?
What was the one great lesson which he everywhere taught ? 
If the evidence of Paul's arguments and life do not lead 
you to believe in Jesus as your Messiah and Saviour, can you 
be less guilty than the Jews who rejected the Messiahship of 
Jesus f
5The Epistle to the Hebrews has not been included in these lessons. 
(104)
{FIFTY-SECOND SEND A Y.)
KNOX, CHARLES E 
A year with St. Paul
Andrews
BS
2507
.
K 6
1864 
HER.