confidence as a mere romance at variance with all reality; if we have the gospels and the epistles, the church and the Spirit, all attesting our faith, the lives of so many to illustrate its powers, and the deaths of so many to show its triumphs—then, if we be faithless, we are surely without excuse, and our doom must be that of those of whom it is written" They could not enter in because of unbelief." "He that believeth not is condemned already"—" shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." Paul's further exposition is called speaking "the word of the Lord"-delivering the message of Jesus. It was a strange locality and an unusual hour; but the gospel triumphed. The terror of the night passed away, and joy came in the morning. The jailor was a new man; he led the apostles to his house, washed their stripes with all tenderness, was himself baptized, "set meat before them," for evidently none had been given them previously; hunger, fasting, and cold had embittered their imprisonment. The prætors send the serjeants-lictors-with an order to the jailor to dismiss them-a curt and contemptuous message "let these fellows out." But Paul and Silas refused to take such a dismissal. No doubt the jailor thought that Paul would gladly listen to such a message; but the apostle at once demurred, and avowed himself a Roman citizen"They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? nay verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out." A heavy crime it was to scourge a Roman citizen, and it forms the point of one of Cicero's invectives. The words—“I am a Roman citizen," had usually acted RIGHTS OF A ROMAN CITIZEN. 157 like a charm. But the majesty of the empire had been violated in Paul's person-he had been beaten with the lictors' rods; he had not been convicted or even tried; the flagellation had been in public, which, according to law, was an aggravation of the offence, and besides he had been cast into prison. All this indignity had been done in a city which was a "Roman colony;" such a colony being in fact a reproduction of the mother city, Rome-a military settlement founded by Roman citizens and retired soldiers and not a place built and governed by a body of emigrants. Why the apostle did not, as afterwards, avail himself of his privilege, we know not. Some suppose that his words were unheard amidst the clamour; and others that he yielded to the outrage for higher ends-showing what he could suffer for Christ's name, and guarding the infant church from extinction through the lesson which he taught the magistrates. Himself says-"Thrice was I beaten with rods "this being one of the occasions; nay, he was "in stripes above measure;" for he adds-" Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one." He would not raise a civil action or make an accusation to the proconsul-though both processes were legally open to him; but he wished that some reparation be made him—that the magistrates should attend in person and liberate him and Silas. These officials "feared," were well aware what a penalty they had incurred; for they had violated the Porcian and the Valerian laws. There were instances, and some of them recent, of the swift and heavy vengeance which Rome took on such as broke those statutes. She 66 was proud of her citizenship, and would not on any pretext tolerate the smallest infraction of its rights. The duumvirs, therefore, came and besought them, and brought them out, and desired them to depart out of the city." But they would not sneak away like culprits, afraid to be recognized. No, they rejoiced "that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.” Boldly and in the face of all "they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia: and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed." Such were the apostle's experiences when he first trode the soil of Europe; and such the first conflict of Christianity with Hellenic heathenism and the savage caprice of Roman authority. IX.-PAUL AT THESSALONICA. ACTS xvii. 1-9. 1ST & 2ND EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS. THE apostle had been beckoned into Macedonia by a vision, and that vision still haunted him. Every temple he beheld, and every form of idolatry he witnessed, brought back the picture. Help was needed everywhere in the province, and he had brought it. The cruel treatment at Philippi did not detain him from the farther prosecution of his labours. His spirit sank not, though he had been subjected to the scourge. That indignity was a severe trial to him-to few more than to him. The knout brings no disgrace to a Russian serf, and wheals are usually found on the backs of American slaves. But the lash must have been felt as an unspeakable ignominy by one of Paul's refined and elevated temperament; and he afterwards characterized the treatment as "shameful." But he bore it as did the Lord before him. He did not sink into sullenness, and feel self-degraded at such outrage done to him as a man, and such a violation of right inflicted on him as a Roman citizen. It did not stand out in solitary gloom and bitterness as "One fatal remembrance, one sorrow that throws He left Philippi because it afforded no prospect of immediate usefulness. But he prosecuted his great work, and travelled south and west along the Egnatian road thirtythree miles to Amphipolis on the Strymonic gulf, but did not stay there; advanced thirty miles farther to Apollonia, but rested not there either; journeyed onwards other thirtyseven miles, and arrived at Thessalonica. This city, at the head of the Thermaic gulf, had then and has still a large population, and the Jews in it were so numerous as to have a synagogue, which probably was also a place of worship for the Jews of the surrounding district, for the correct reading is--"Where was the synagogue of the Jews." Thessalonica contained a far greater population of Jews and heathen than Philippi-was, in fact, the capital city; but Paul had first visited Philippi, which is called "the chief city of that part of Macedonia." The epithet "chief" or first may admit either of a political or geographical meaning -either a primary city, or the first on his road. If it was the first city of Macedonia that lay on his journey, then he naturally commenced to give it the help which the man of Macedonia had prayed for; if it was a chief city in that part, there was every inducement to fix upon it as the centre of farther operations; and if it enjoyed special advantages as a city and colony, then, its importance in itself, and in relation to other towns and districts, made it a fitting place both for present work and subsequent enterprise. You may either say Paul went to Philippi as the first city on his path, for he had been summoned into Macedonia, and he could never think of passing the first city which he came to; or he formally selected Philippi |