distinctive term. That sound was so often upon the
apostle's lips, that she characterized his addresses by it.
Salvation, and the way of salvation, formed the refrain of
his oratory. Yes ! it was " the way of salvation " which the
apostle proclaimed not the road to wealth, or health, or
greatness, but the path to peace and heaven. Blessed work
to exhibit to a lost world, not how God made it, but how
He redeems it ; not how it travels in its orbit, or how its
winds and waters are governed, but how it may be recov-
ered from its moral apostacy ; not how its countries should
be ruled, their laws enacted, their battles fought, their
freedom maintained, and their capabilities developed, but
how its population may be brought out of guilt and misery,
fitted for serving God in time, and enjoying Him through
eternity. It was this message that the apostle brought.
And he spoke it so fully and so often, dwelt upon it with
such intense reiteration, that no one could mistake its
substance ; and he stood in such a pure and lofty relation
to it, as to appear in tone, gesture, and conduct, a " servant
of the Most High God." Such was the impression made
on the fortune-teller, with whose nervous and superhuman
excitement and visions her masters were working to such
advantage. Her clamour grieved wearied the apostle, and
he disenchanted her, commanding the spirit to be gone. Her
power of divination being gone, her owners saw that their
hope of gain "was gone" too. The same word is used three
times in Paul's command to the spirit to " come out," in
recording the fact that he " came out," and in describing
the result that in his exit the owners' hope of gain came out



148 PAUL AT PHILIPPI.

too. Her nervous susceptibility had subsided, and all that
eagerness and frantic clairvoyance on which they had traded
was gone. The capital which they had invested in her,
and which had yielded a handsome return, was rendered
suddenly unproductive. Their avaricious rage at once
vented itself on Paul and Silas. The sickly and possessed
slave's restoration excited no sympathy, they would rather
have her again under the mastery of the python or serpent
the prince of deluders ; for her value must have greatly
fallen in the market. They hurried Paul and Silas to the
forum, raised a tumult against them, first as Jews, and then
as religious innovators. Toleration was not known to the
Roman law, though it was sometimes practised. Thus
Judaism was allowed, but proselytism forbidden. It was,
as Livy tells us, one of the laws of the Twelve Tables the
great Roman Charter " Let none have gods apart, neither
let new or strange gods be privately worshipped unless
publicly received."

The " masters " had become suddenly conscientious ii
defence of the old established faith. Not that they cared
in truth for any altar ; their motive was pelf and nc
piety ; and having so strangely lost one source of weall
under the plea of religion they thirsted for vengeanc
The bench yielded to the clamour, and the clothes of th(
preachers being torn off them by the lictors, they wei
scourged, not as under Jewish law, by which the castigatioi
was inflicted by thongs, and limited to stripes " forty save
one," but "many stripes" inflicted by rods were laid upoi
them. With their backs unwashed, and their woum
bleeding, were they thrust "into the inner prison ;" am



THE PRISON. 149

to augment the torture, the raw and quivering flesh was
further bruised, jagged, and irritated by the friction and
the unnatural posture, for " their feet were made fast in the
stocks." But their courage did not fail them. On losing
a battle in that neighbourhood, Cassius, " the last of the
Romans, 7 ' hid himself in his tent, and bade his freedman
strike, while Brutus, in his sullen desperation, fell upon
his sword. But, so far from drooping and murmuring,
and calling God to account, who had beckoned them to
Europe, and yet had permitted them to be so " shamefully
entreated;" so far from resolving to desert a Master who
had not protected them, or deeming the vision at Troas a
lure to draw them on to stripes and a dungeon, " Paul
and Silas" prayed, and not only poured out their hearts
in supplication, but "sang praises unto God," and that
in no whispered melody, for " the prisoners heard them."
Peter slept soundly in prison " between two soldiers,
bound with two chains," and that on the eve of expected
martyrdom ; for Herod was " intending after Easter to
bring him forth to the people." There was more peace
in Paul's heart than in that of the damsel's masters who
were cursing their loss ; more than in the hearts of the
praetors who had caused him to be scourged, for it is
plain by their conduct on the following day, that their
minds were uneasy as to their rash and cruel procedure.
A Hebrew melody was chanted in that inner prison at
the dead hour of night. The sleep of the prisoners had
been often broken by oaths, groans, and terrible noises;
but that hymn, falling and swelling with its strange
music and foreign words, produced a profound sensation.



150 PAUL AT PHILIPPI.

And as the prisoners heard were listening, to the song as
its dying cadence was echoing through the vaults and
corridors, the edifice was shaken, the massive doors were
opened, and " everyone's bands were loosed." The con-
cussion awoke the jailor, who staring around him in
consternation, and guessing the result, would have com-
mitted suicide a miserable but common Roman refuge.
Paul prevented so insane an act, and the keeper, with a
light in his hand, " sprang in" to the cell of the apostle,
and, in an agony of alarm, cried " What must I do to be
saved?" Self-murder was often eulogized by Eoman
sages, and had been practised by not a few of them. The
jailor would have reckoned it a less disgrace to die by his
own hand than by a military execution. But his hand
was arrested by the apostle's abrupt command " the life
that now is " was prolonged, that he might be soon put in
possession of the life " that is to come."

" What must I do to be saved?" was his exclamation ;
and it shows that he was no stranger to the general
lesson of the apostle's preaching. Like the fortune-telling
demoniac, he had heard the word " salvation." He knew
that Paul proclaimed this, and, terror-stricken by the phe-
nomenon which had happened ay, and convinced by it,
that a supernatural power guarded the two prisoners, he
eagerly demanded how it could be got by him. It was
the best thing for him as he now imagined, but how was
he to attain it ? He might previously have laughed at the
term, but he had caught some idea of what it meant. It
was a blessing which he had not, and now his soul was on
fire to have it. Did he deem that he was unworthy of it



ANSWER TO THE JAILOR. 151

that his conduct yesterday to its preachers excluded him
from it ? Must there be some other path for him than that
which the Jewish stranger ordinarily pointed out? I
know what is presented to others, but as for me, so cruel
and guilty as for me, who have acted savagely to the
strangers "What must I do to be saved?"

"What must I do to be saved?" The response the
immediate and unhesitating response was " Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." A
true reply. If a man wishes salvation, let him accept
the Saviour. If he will have the gift, let him confide
in the giver. Can he have redemption, and yet reject
Him who wrought it out? Can he be taken out of the
pit, and yet spurn from him the arm that alone can lift
him?

"What must I do to be saved?" Believe on Him
who provided and who bestows this salvation. This is
the only effectual process. He is able and He is willing.
The lash on the back of Paul and Silas may have cut their
skin into ribands, and the jailor did not dress their wounds;
he put them in the inner prison, and by a refinement of
cruelty locked them in the stocks ; his office in a Koman
jail was one which few could discharge without misgiving,
for torture and outrage were often resorted to ; and yet
let him, even him, but believe, and the coveted blessing
would without doubt be conferred upon him. Yes, let
a man's station be what it may, his position what it may,
his past life what it may, he is not placed beyond the
pale of this salvation. He is welcome, and he is warranted
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not the idea



152 PAUL AT PHILIPPI.

of belief, nor the desire of it, nor the hope of it, but actual
belief itself, which secures salvation. One may not be
able to analyze it, far less to define it ; he may not discover
its adaptation, nor understand why it should be selected
as the means of safety ; yet he may possess it, and enjoy
all the fruits of the possession. The Lord Jesus Christ is
so exhibited in power, truth, and love, that they who see
Him may be attracted to believe on Him ; the Lord
Governor on the throne, because He died on the cross ;
Jesus the Saviour, His name taken from his work ; Christ
the Anointed One, commissioned to redeem humanity, and
qualified for the great enterprise by the unction of the Holy
Spirit. What can keep us back from faith in Him ? Has
not He the arm of God and the sympathy of a brother ?
Has He not given Himself to death, and what higher
of attachment could He tender ? Is He not anxious that
His salvation be dispensed ? He that provided it in His
blood, He it is that rejoices to confer it. Are not all those
invitations and promises sealed in His blood ? Are they
true, then, or are they false? Yea or nay? Let there
be no ambiguity decide. Is God duping you, that you
refuse to trust him ? Did anyone ever find it so ? Why,
then, be " slow of heart " to believe? " Be not faithless,
but believing;" yea, let the individual response be "Lord,
I believe, help thou mine unbelief."

" What must I do to be saved ?" Believe, and salvation
is obtained in its fulness not a segment of it, as if its
perfect fruition depended on some other grace. The state
of salvation is attached to faith and every blessing con-
nected with it. There is pardon we are "justified by



FAITH AND SALVATION. 153

faith;" there is acceptance, for "faith is counted for
righteousness;" and there is also perseverance, for we are
" kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation."
Belief gives sweep and power to prayer. " Whatsoever
ye ask, believing, ye shall receive ;" and He is " able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think."
The possessor of faith enters into God's family ; for " as
many as received Him, to them gave He power to become
the sons of God." He has tranquillity of soul; for "we
which believe do enter into rest ; " and he has a growing
purity ; for he is "among them which are sanctified by faith
that is in Christ." There is guidance, for " we walk by
faith;" and life, too, "for the just live by faith;" and
triumph also, " for this is the victory that overcometh the
world, even our faith." There is, in conclusion, a char-
tered fulness of gift "Blessed is she that believed, for
there shall be a performance of those things which were
told her from the Lord." And thus it is that " the end of
your faith is the salvation of your souls."

"What must I do to be saved?" Believe, and sal-
vation is certain. It is not believe and you may be
saved, or there is a chance or even a probability of salva-
tion. The result is immediate. Nqt at some distant day,
or when you come to die ; but at this moment faith pos-
sessed is safety enjoyed. To say, Believe, and thou shalt
be saved, is equivalent to saying, Take it and you have it.
Guilt is cancelled, and the Spirit descends into the soul.
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life"
" is passed from death into life." Not only do believers
possess salvation, but they are conscious of it : " being



154 PAUL AT PHILIPPI.

justified by faith, we have peace with God " " by faith ye
stand." " He that believeth on the Son of God hath the
witness in himself." He is not told about safety only,
but he enjoys it he has experience of it. Tell the
mother that her strayed child is safe, and she credits the
statement ; but let her clasp it to her bosom, and she has
the witness in her rapture. Show a man the electric
machine and describe its results to him, he does not deny
them so far as he comprehends them ; but let him feel the
shock, and then he has the witness in every nerve as it
tingles and vibrates. He that feels what peace is, what
a changed heart is, what the spirit of adoption in prayer
is, what advancing purity is, and what the hope of glory
is ; feels as well as knows, rejoices in the record, but also
has experience of its truth and power.

If all depend on faith, it is a truism to say that the want
of it must be fatal. Nay, to disbelieve God, is to call him
a liar. Devils do not commit so insulting and flagrant a
crime. They believe, and they tremble through their
belief; they cannot sink into unbelief. But, alas! if a
man wants faith, he wants every spiritual blessing ; for
God does not thrust His salvation on an insulting heart.
0, then, give Him credit for what He has done, and take
Him at His word for what He has said. And your faith
rests on decisive evidence. There needs no great trial of
it; it is not beset with obstacles. Abel believed, and
acted out his belief, when the testimony was scanty and
the ceremonial not very transparent. Enoch believed and
maintained his faith, when faith seems to have fled the
earth, and all around were " ungodly men," full of "ungodly



POWER OF FAITH. 155

deeds" and " hard speeches" against God. Noah believed,
and persisted in building the huge fabric from keel to
deck, under a cloudless sky, and in a country which gave
no token of earthquake and inundation. Abraham became
an emigrant through faith, yea, went out under this lode-
star, "not knowing whither he went." Moses, with the eye
of faith, saw " the reproach of Christ to be greater riches
than the treasure of Egypt," when the crown of the country
might have devolved on him as the son of Pharaoh's
daughter. Joseph believed that his mummy should not lie
in Egypt though laid up there, and ll gave commandment
concerning his bones," at a time when Pharaoh was strong
and his own people were but a handful. Job was smitten
with terrible calamities, but his faith did not waver ; and
even when he contemplated the worst, he would not
renounce it " Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him."
In Christ's days there were many external barriers to faith
in the carpenter's son, and yet many believed. The
woman of Samaria accepted as Messiah the way-worn Jew
who sat upon the well and asked for a draught of water.
And though it was a Jew, one of a despised and obnoxious
race, one who had been scourged and thrown into the
inner prison by himself; though it was a poor, defenceless
stranger, bruised, bleeding, pale, hungry, and ragged, who
preached unto him Jesus the jailor u believed, with all his
house." And if we have clearer evidence no ambiguity
or mystery ; not types, but facts ; not prophecies, but
annals ; if we are not summoned to do battle against
appearances, and soar on strong pinions above what seems
dark and hostile, as it mocks our heroism and brands our



156 PAUL AT PHILIPPI.

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 illus-
trate 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 belie veth 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; hun-
ger, fasting, and cold had embittered their imprisonment.
The praetors send the Serjeants lictors with an order to
the jailor to dismiss them a curt and contemptuous mes-
sage " 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 OP 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 " Koman colony ; " such a colony being in
fact a reproduction of the mother city, Rome a military
settlement founded by Roman citizens and retired sol-
diers 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 pro-
consul 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 Por-
cian 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



158 PAUL AT PHILIPPI.

was proud of her citizenship, and would not on any pre-
text 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 Chris-
tianity with Hellenic heathenism and the savage caprice
of Koman authority.



IX. PAUL AT THESSALONICA.



ACTS xvii. 1-9. Isx & 2:n> 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 Kussian 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 char-
acterized 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
Koman citizen. It did not stand out in solitary gloom
and bitterness as



" One fatal remembrance, one sorrow that throws
Its bleak shade alike o'er his joy and his woes;
To which life nothing darker or brighter can bring,
For which joy hath no balm, and affliction no sting.'



160 PAUL AT THESSALONICA.






He left Philippi because it afforded no prospect of imme-
diate usefulness. But he prosecuted his great work, and
travelled south and west along the Egnatian road thirty-
three 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 thirty-
seven 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 enter-
prise. 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



THE SYNAGOGUE. 161

"because of its rank, and because of its privileges as a
Roman colony. If the apostle had taken this tour of his
own accord, or as the result of plans previously matured ;
if he had traced out the itinerary of an evangelistic cam-
paign before he set out, then the latter hypothesis would
appear the more plausible: but if, as was the case, his
purpose was hastily formed, and the general idea of travers-
ing the province, without any distinct regard to the order
or arrangements of the visits, was suggested by the prayer
of the representative man, then the first would appear to
be the more natural and simple hypothesis.

Though the apostle was invited into Europe by a man
of Macedonia personating its heathen tribes, yet he never
forgot his own nation, but entered at once into the Thessa-
lonian synagogue. Though labouring under a special
commission for the (Jentiles, he did not deviate from his
usual practice, but spoke on three consecutive sabbaths to
his countrymen. He and they had common ground the
scriptures. Both acknowledged the divine authority of the
Old Testament, and all who read it cherished anticipa-
tions of a Messiah. And this was the one point which
the apostle discussed. His study was to show how Mes-
siah had been portrayed, and how the portraiture was,
feature for feature, the likeness of Jesus of Nazareth. It
is plain that an erroneous or one-sided interpretation of
these old oracles would either becloud or warp the mind,
so that it could not recognize their fulfilment. The Mes-
sianic oracles must be understood clearly, fully, and in
harmony. No error is safe, and error on certain points is
fraught with imminent danger. If a man misunderstand

L



162 PAUL AT THESSALONICA.

a prophecy, he of necessity misapplies it. The question,
whom does it lit depends on the solution of a previous
query, what does it teach ? If I take up the notion that
teaching was the special and only function of the Mes-
siah the prophet like unto Moses that His great work
was to enlighten the world by bringing unknown truths
into it, and casting a new radiance on principles already