The second foreign mission

Front matter

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Chapter I

ntroductory Remarks. How Paul became acquainted with Silas. Geography. Paul and Barnabas agree to make a second journey to Asia Minor. A dispute about John Mark. Paul and Barnabas «ep?rate. Paul takes Silas for a companion. Account of Silas. They set out by land. Journey to' Tarsus. Thence to. Derbe and Lystra. . 9

CHAPTER 11.

aul and Silas at Lystra. They take Timothy into the partnership. Some account of him. They visit the Churches in Asia together. Thoughts about love to ministers. How much the Missionaries resembled our Metho v sts, and Moravians. . 18

CHA PTER III.

phe Missionaries leave Phrygia. Account of their journey. Arrival at Troas. Paul's vision. They find Luke. Account of him. He joins the company. Why four of them, Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke, all travelled together. . . 29 iv CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV.

The Missionaries embark for Europe. They touch at Samothracia. Arrive at Neapolis. Proceed to Philippi. Curious Anecdote. Oratories. The prayer meeting. Conversion of Lydia. The Pythoness. Trouble with her. Paul casts out her evil spirit. He and Silas imprisoned. Where Luke and Timothy were at this time, and why they were not imprisoned. ....

CHAPTER V.

Description of Eastern Jails. Stocks. Behavior of Paul and Silas in their dungeon. Midnight prayer and praise. A miraculous Earthquake. The Jailer and his household converted, instructed and baptized. Paul and Silas liberated. Conduct of the magistrates. Noble conduct of Paul and Silas. Reflections. Paul, Silas and Timothy depart for Thessalonica. ......

CHAPTER VI.

Journey from Philippi to Amphipolis. Description of that city. Journey to Apoilonia. What became of Luke ? They arrived at Thessalonica. Account of this city. Its modern aspect. They stop at the house of Jason. Preaching in the synagogue. Their success. Labored on week days at tent making. Ought ministers to labor with their hands? A mob raised. Evils of idleness. The mob attack the house of Jason. Seize Jason. Liberate him. The missionaries secretly sent away in the night to Berea. ..... 76

CHAPTER VII.

Berea. Description of it. Character of the people. Reflections. Condition of the missionaries. Luke — Timothy. Thoughts on self-denial and the missionary spirit. How Paul and Silas and Timothy behaved in the common concerns of life. Their labors and success in Berea. The Thessalonian

CONTENTS. t

mob follow them. They excite the Bereans against thera. Paul sent away by sea, two hundred and fifty miles, to Athens. . • . . . 92

CHAPTER VIII.

Athens. Its size. Streets. Public buildings. Mars Hill. Character of the people. Punishments. Commerce. Silas and Timothy. Account of the Epicureans. Of the Stoics. Character of Zeno. The Epicureans and Stoics unite to oppose Christianity. 100

CHAPTER IX.

Idolatry at Athens, Paul encounters the philosophers. Their charges against him. The court of Areopagus. Paul brought before it. His speech. Difficulties about the doctrine of the resurrection. The subject considered. PanPs explanation, in a letter. Few converts at Athens. Paul's departure. 117

CHAPTER X.

St. Paul arrives at Corinth. Description of the city. Character of the inhabitants. Paul's meeting with two old friends. Lodges with them. Labors at his trade. Preaches in the synagogue. Arrival of Silas and Timothy. Paul turns to the Gentiles. His success. Long abode at Corinih. What became of Silas and Timothy. His letters to the Thessalonians. Is persecuted, but honorably acquitted. Reflections. 138

CHAPTER XI.

Voyage to Cesarea. They stop at Ephesus. Account of Ephesus. Temple of Diana. Paul preaches at Ephesus. What probably became of Timothy. Paul re-embarks for Cesarea. Safe arrival. Goes to Jerusalem. Attends a Jewish Feast there. Proceeds to Antioch. Recapitulation. Practical reflections. . . . 159

PREFACE,

The purpose of this volume, as was announced in the " First Foreign Mission " is to furnish a continuation, or Second Part of that work. I have endeavored to preserve the same spirit, and the same plain, and familiar style.

The li First Foreign Mission ' contained so much ibout the manners and customs of Eastern nations, that far less has been said on those topics in the present volume than would otherwise have been necessary. But as it was supposed that this book might fall into the hands of some who have not seen the other, it was not deemed expedient wholly to omit them; and the reader who peruses both works must not be surprised, if he finds a few thoughts which are contained in that work repeated — or perhaps amplified — in this.

tiii PREFACE.

It is hoped that these two volumes will be of service

to Sabbath Schools and to families at home, by giving

reality to those things which to many young readers

certainly appear unreal, if not visionary; and that

those who read them will come gradually to consider

the apostles in their journeyings and labors as men, and

the places which they visited and the objects which

they incidentally mention or more fully describe, as

actually belonging to the world, in which we live.

The Author.

Boston, Oct.. 1834.

SECOND FOREIGN MISSION.

CHAPTER I.

Introductory Remarks. How Paul became acquainted with Silas. Geography. Paul and Barnabas agree to make a second journey to Asia Minor. A dispute about John Mark. Paul and Barnabas separate. Paul takes Silas for a companion. Account of Silas. They set out by land. Journey to Tarsus. Thence to Derbe and Lystra.

After the return of Paul and Barnabas from Asia Minor, they remained in Syria — chiefly in Antioch — about two years. Once during this time, they went to Jerusalem, but they staid there but a short time only. As this visit proved the means, however, of introducing to Paul's acquaintance a new companion in his travels, it may be worth while to give a short account of it.

It appears that some of the first Christian teachers who came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, taught the strange doctrine that all Gentiles who were converted to Christianity must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, like the Jews. These notions were opposed with great earnestness by Paul and Barnabas ; and finally, in order to settle the question, the church at Antioch appointed a committee of their best men to go up to Jerusalem and consult with James and the other apostles, who dwelt there, on the subject. Among the number were our two friends, Paul and Barnabas.

Soon after their arrival at Jerusalem, a meeting was held, and the following conclusion was adopted. That none of the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish law ought to be required of the converted Gentiles : but onlv that they should abstain from eating meat offered to idols, from eating strangled animals, and blood, * and from

" If any animal which the Jews used for food was strangled and the blood did not drain away, their law did not allow them to eat of it ; and to this day, thev

ACCOUNT OF SILAS 11

committing fornication. A written decree to this effect, was prepared, and several men were appointed to go down to Antioch, with Paul and Barnabas, and carry it.

Among these persons was an elderly man by the name of Silas ; or as he was sometimes called, Silvanus. We know very little of his early history, only that he was a disciple of Christ, and a very wise and good man. Some suppose — I knownot with what reason — that he was one of , the seventy disciples that the Saviour sent out, two by two, as domestic missionaries in Galilee. However this may have been, we soon find him becoming an acquaintance and friend of Paul, and instead of observe this rule with great exactness In no one thing are they more particular than in their endeavors to avoid blood.

In killing an animal for food several circumstances must, they thought, be attended to. The knife must be very sharp, for it is well known that the blood of an animal flows more freely in such a case than if a dull instrument is employed. They contrive to have the blood flow either upon the ground or upon ashes. Before they put the meat in the pot for boiling they let it stand in salt an hour, to rid it of what blood still remains.

going up to Jerusalem again,* making Antioch his steady place of residence.

After Paul and Barnabas had spent nearly two years at home, chiefly in Antioch, Paul proposed one day to Barnabas to make a second tour to Asia Minor, to their former missionary stations, and see how the churches which they had established there, flourished ; and the latter consented to undertake the journey.

But now a difficulty arose. They wished to take a third man with them, and Barabas fixed his eye on John Mark again. This did not suit Paul. He remembered about his deserting them, in their former journey, just as they began to stand most in need of his services. Besides he was

* Many Sabbath School pupils have wondered what was meant by going up from Antioch to Jerusalem, when it was 420 miles to the South. In this country, north is called up, and south is called down.

But we should remember that in most countries it is called up towards the sources of the rivers. In New England the rivers have their sources northward, generally. But in the Southern States, rivers come from the westward; hence that way is up, with them. In Lower Canada, to the south-west is up. In Egypt and New Grenada, it is up, towards the south, &c.

PAUL AND BARNABAS SEPARATE. 13

himself a man of courage, and decision, and perseverance, and he preferred for companions men of a similar character. He seems to have had no confidence at all in Mark, and he was wholly unwilling to hearken to Barnabas for one moment.

The discussion about taking him at length rose to an angry dispute, and appears to have separated the two friends for a time — perhaps forever. Barnabas chose to leave Paul, rather than give up his

When there are no considerable rivers in a country, it is * up ' towards the highest land, or mountains. This was the case in Judea. For though the Jordan, on its eastern borders, ran to the south, and hence in the immediate neighborhood of that river « up ' was to the north, yet as Jerusalem was on the height of land between the river Jordan and the Dead Sea on the one side, and the Mediterranean Sea on the other, and almost equally distant from both ; and as the smaller streams in its neighborhood ran either eastward or westward, it became almost universal in the country to speak of going up to Jerusalem. Perhaps the habit of speaking thus was more common along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, at Gaza, Joppa, and Cesarea, than any where else. It was easy, however, to extend it to Tyre and Sidon, and ultimately to Antioch : for though the latter lay up the river Orontes, and not exactly on the sea-coast, yet the country around was low, while Jerusalem was elevated.

nephew ; so quitting Antioch at once, he and Mark sailed for Cyprus.*

How strange that good men and especially intimate and dear friends should suffer themselves to be led into angry sharp dispute ! The two first foreign missionaries, and two of the best men the world ever saw, contending, and obliged to separate ! It is most surprising. [s it not enough that unholy men should quarrel with each other ? Alas for the cause of God and the church, when such men as Paul and Barnabas cannot agree ! Better, however, to separate than to live together unquietly. The world was wide enough for both Abraham and Lot; and it was wide enough too, for both Paul and Barnabas. It is always wide enough for people

* Paul, though " subject to like passions" with other men, could forgive ; for we find him, some time afterward, speaking in the highest terms of his former friend and companion. Barnabas. More than this, we find that even Mark himself, who was the occasion of the quarrel between them, became his assistant and fcllow-laborer in the gospel ministry.

PAUL CHOOSES SILAS. 15

to live in it, at a distance sufficiently great to prevent quarrelling. Barnabas and Mark, there is reason to believe, did great good in Cyprus, though we do not know the particulars.

But Paul, though left alone, was not to be discouraged. He was a man of so much energy of character that he would probably have gone on his way without any person with him, in preference to staying at home, after having once made up his mind that it was his duty to go. But this was not necessary. As if Divine Providence, foreseeing the difficulty with Barnabas, had raised up a successor, Silas was at hand. He was not only worthy of his confidence as an intimate friend, but he was a very holy man ; and Paul selected him at once, to be his companion in his journey. He appears to have been rather younger than Barnabas, and of course was less acquainted with the world. Still he could not be said to be inexperienced. There are some persons who will acquire more real experience in one year, than others in three, and be wiser at thirty, than others at seventy. Silas, there is reason to believe, from what happened during their journey, was one of those who keep their " eyes open," and acquire much knowledge and experience, in comparatively little time.

When, on a former occasion, Paul and Barnabas w<ere about to go to the same country, the church of Antioch commended them to the care and favor of God. So it was now, in respect to Paul and Silas.

But instead of going by water, any part of the way, they went wholly by land, doubtless on foot. The distance to Derbe, the nearest station which Paul and Bnrnabas had occupied, was only about 250 miles ; the journey, therefore, was not remarkably tedious. The roads were good, and very direct. They were built by the Romans; were paved, and very high; so that as people travelled along on them they could overlook much of the adjoining country.

PAUL IN C1UC1A. 17

Paul and Silas, on leaving Antioch, went through the northern parts of Syria, into Cilieia. Whether they spent any considerable time at Tarsus, where Paul was brought up, and where his friends still lived, is uncertain. But as it appears he had preached in Tarsus and its neighborhood a number of years before he went to Antioch, it is probable they visited and encouraged the churches there, before they went to Derbe and Lystra and other cities in the province of Lycaonia. One reason which makes me think they did so, is because, instead of going by water, the nearest and easiest way to Asia Minor, they went by land, and contrived to pass through Tarsus and the rest of Cilieia.

Chapter II

Paul and Silas at Lystra. They take Timothy into the partnership. Some account of him. They visit the Churches in Asia together. Thoughts about love to. ministers. How much the Missionaries resembled our Methodists, and Moravians.

Paul and Silas now arrived at Derbe. From Derbe they proceeded to Lystra.

While they were at Derbe, and Lystra,* Paul entered into an agreement with Timothy to go with them. There can be no doubt that this excellent young man was very useful at home ; — useful to his parents, and also to his brothers and sisters, if he

* In the " First Foreign Mission ' much doubt was expressed whether Timothy was a native of Derbe or Lystra, but I was strongly inclined to the opinion that he belonged to Derbe. From further examination, I am convinced that he was a native of Lystra.

TIMOTHY ABROAD. 19

had any, and a comfort to his very aged grandmother. Nor was his usefulness probably confined to the family. Indeed we are expressly told, that he was not only well spoken of by the christians at Lystra, but also by those at Iconium, forty miles distant.

I cannot help thinking that, young as he was, God had, by his Spirit, already stirred him up to that work of the ministry, to which he afterwards became so much attached and devoted; and that he had already acted as a kind of deacon or under minister, in various churches. Else how came it to pass that he was so well known at Iconium, at this time, especially if he was not, as some suppose, more than twenty years old.

It was not, then, because Timothy was good for nothing at home, that he went abroad. We can never have reason to believe he was an idle young man. We are warranted in supposing, on the contrary, that he was very active in doing good, and

20 SECOND FOREIGN MISSIOxX.

that he consented to go abroad with Paul* only because he hoped to do more good.

Many people suppose that if a person is useful where he is, he ought not to go away. But if this had been the opinion of the apostles and first christians, the missionary labors of Paul, and Barnabas, and Timothy, and Silas, and Luke, and other men of the same stamp, would never have been undertaken.

It is commonly true that the very men who are most useful at home, will be most useful abroad ; and that they on the contra ry, who are useless at home, will be useless abroad. And it is well that this has become the general opinion, for now Christian churches take great pains to secure and send out as foreign missionaries, the ablest men they can find. This, I mean to say, is the general rule, to which there are, doubtless, some exceptions.

Before setting out with Paul and Silas, Timothy submitted to the Jewish rite of

TIMOTHY ORDAINED. 21

circumcision. This was done, by the recommendation of Paul, in order to avoid hurting the feelings of the Jews among whom they were to go, in Asia Minor, and leading them to complain. They knew that though his mother was a Jew, his father was a Greek ; and might therefore doubt whether he would be circumcised. They would not have been willing, I suppose, to have heard a preacher who was uncircumcised. Paul and Barnabas, and Silas, and probably all the older preachers, had been circumcised, and in other respects brought up as Jews ; and doubtless kept the seventh day, and frequented the Synagogues, as the Jews did.

Why they did not find fault with Timothy for entering upon the ministry so young, is a more difficult question. There is abundant evidence in the Epistles of Paul to his young friend Timothy, that he was at this time regularly ordained by Paul and Silas and others. And yet some of our abler commentators, think he was not more than twenty years old. Now, among the Jews, it was not lawful for a priest to go upon the duties of his office till he had entered his thirtieth year ; and even the Saviour and John the Baptist conformed to this rule. The people of Lystra knew Timothy's age. Why then was there no outcry made against him on account of his youth ?

Perhaps the only fair solution of this difficulty is, that those who think Timothy was no more than twenty years of age at this time were mistaken. The fact is that people were considered young, in those days, rather longer than they are now. Whether married, or unmarried, they lived in the family of their fathers longer, and were longer considered as under parental care. Then, parental presence and advice, and restraint even, was not so irksome to the young as now. At the present time, not a few youth, if they do not think themselves actually wiser at eighteen or twenty years of age than their parents, do not, at least, believe them-

TIMOTHY'S AGE. 2o

selves greatly benefitted by their advice and instruction. They are young men and young women, in their own estimation, very early. And when they read in the Bible or elsewhere of a young person, they do not think of him as thirty years of age, (for that they suppose would be very old,) hardly as twenty.

Now all the evidence we have on this point, so far as I know, is, that Paul calls Timothy a young man ; and says " Let no man despise thy youth." But was not Paul at least thirty years old, when Stephen was stoned °l "The witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet," &c. Was not Absalom more than thirty, when Cushi and others called him young? Nay, is it not quite common in Scripture to speak of people as still young, who are thirty, or more ? Taking all things into consideration, it may be concluded, therefore, that Timothy had entered his thirtieth year.

No sooner was Timothy ordained and circumcised, than Paul and Silas and he

2* commenced their labors together. They went round about Phrygia and Galatia and the adjoining provinces, and visited all the churches which had been established two or three years before, during the first mission, as well as those which had sprung up afterward. Galatia was at this time quite populous, containing no fewer than twentytwo cities. This visit, attended by the divine blessing, was abundantly useful. lathe language of the Bible ; " so were the churches established in the faith, and iacreased in number daily."

They also furnished each church which they visited with a copy of the opinion which was given at Jerusalem, about the Gentiles. Not that the question had ever yet been agitated in Asia Minor ; but it was easy to foresee that it might be, and it was desirable that the decision of the apostles, on the subject, should be well understood.

It may excite surprise in the minds of many readers, that Silas is not oftener mentioned during the progress of this mission.

CHARACTER OF SILAS. 25

We know he set out with Paul from Antioch, and was with him at Philippi, and afterward. But from Antioch to Philippi, there is scarcely a word said about him. "Surely" some will say "he was not a mere youth, in the capacity of a servant, as Mark appears to have been in the beginning of the ' First Foreign Mission.' Why, then, do we hear nothing of what he said and did ?"

The answer is as follows. Silas, though somewhat younger than Paul, was a man of middle age, possessing great energy of character ; and not unlike Paul, in this respect. Had he not been so, it is hard to be- ^eve Paul would have selected him for the journey. He had seen enough of timidity and irresolution in the case of Mark. Still we should remember that Silas was an utter stranger in Asia Minor, while Paul was familiarly acquainted. Besides, their business in Asia Minor, was not so much to preach the gospel anew, as to visit, encourage, and strengthen,- — confirm, as the Bible calls it, — those who had already repented and believed. It is not improbable that Silas had very little to do till they arrived in Europe, or Timothy either.

It is exceedingly interesting to read Paul's simple but striking account of his reception in Galatiaat this time, as we find it in the fourth chapter of his epistle to the churches in that province. The joy they felt at his appearance among them was as if he had been an angel sent from heaven to encourage and build them up. In testimony of their good feeling and in view of their obligations to him, the apostle assures us that they would willingly have plucked out " their eyes," had it been possible, and given them to him.

It w T ere well if our love to those ministers who are really devoted and godly men, w T ere equally great. * Not that we ought

* " Do you favor priestcraft, then ?"' some reader may say, when he reads this, and the two subsequent paragraphs. " Would you have Christians become an inefficient priest-ridden set of beings, as they once were ; and even as the poor ignorant Galatians appear to have been ?

MINISTERIAL FIDELITY. 27

to be willing to pluck out our eyes on their account, literally ; but there is no man who deserves more of the thanks of a community than the minister who does, faithfully, his whole dutv.

1 have nothing to do with priest craft ; indeed, I hardly know what it is, except from history. I am quite as little acquainted with it as with merchant- craft, physician-craft, or lawyer-craft. It is true there was a time when people suffered their ministers to think for them, quite too much, instead of examining for themselves. But I am very far from recommending this practice. It was always wrong. Nay I do not know that it ever was recommended by protestant christians or protestant christian ministers, from the days of Paul down to the present time. And no class of Paul's heaiers were more warmly commended by him than the Bereans, who " searched the scriptures daily, to see whether the things " which he stated " were so," or not. There was no priest craft about Paul.

There has been a time, as I have already said, when people took their opinions too much upon trust. But was this their ^ma fault, or that of the minister ? We ere prone to extremes. In leaving off that bad habit, we have gone, or are going quite too far. Many are for rejecting, not only the ministers opinion, but the minister.

Now this is both unwise, and unreasonable. Those vho are fifteen or eighteen years of age, and old enough to begin to think for themselves, might about as well leave off loving or regarding their parents, as the christian world leave off loving and prizing those ministers vrho are good men, merely because the world has grown §o much wiser that we do not need them to think for us. J3ut who of us is too old to need the counsels of parental wisdom ? And who too wise to need the instructions of a pious, godly minister ?

We ought, indeed, to love all mankind. But there are some persons for whom our affection ought to be peculiarly strong. Of this class are our parents, our brothers, our sisters, our particular friends, and neighbors, and teachers, both of week day and Sunday schools ; our physicians and our ministers. People may laugh, if they please, about loving and valuing a minister, and call it old fashioned or illiberal. We might about as well cease to love our teachers, who, under God, have made us wiser, or our physician, who has been the means of making: us healthier, as the minister who has been the means of making us better and hapnier.

Chapter III

The Missionaries leave Phrygia. Account of their journey. Arrival at Troas. Paul's vision. They tind Luke. Account of him. He joins the company. Why four of them, Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke, all travelled together.

Whether Paul and Silas, when they left home, intended to go any farther than Paul and Barnabas had formerly gone, does not plainly appear. We only know that when Paul first proposed this second tour to Barnabas, it was simply to go over the ground again, where they had been before. " Let us go again," said he, " and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do."

But as Barnabas and Paul had a falling out at Antioch, and Silas took the place of

Barnabas, it is not improbable that Paul changed his whole plan. He was not apt to be unsteady or vacillating ; but changing circumstances, which it is not possible for us to foresee, always justify us in varying our plans. Be this as it may, in the case of Paul, we find that when he and his company had visited all the churches in the reigion of Lycaonia, Pbrygia, and Galatia, they immediately set out for other and more remote parts of the country.

We are not to think of Asia Minor as a new and uncultivated region. Many parts of it were very old and thickly settled, and in some places the arts of civilized life were very well understood. There were numerous cities, of larger or smaller size, scattered everv where, and connected with the very best of public roads, so that the travelling was excellent.

* On leaving Phrygia the missionaries

* There were formerly three meanings to the word Asia.

1. The whole eastern world now called by that name, was even then sometimes called Asia. But this use o£ the word was very rare,

PEOPLE OF MYSIA 31

appear to have steered westward ; but for reasons to us unknown, and which, perhaps, were not known even to themselves, the Holy Spirit would not permit them to go into the western cities of Asia ; so they went into Mysia. The people here were a very low race, but as there have always been christian churches there, from that day to this, some writers suppose that Paul's

2. Asia Minor, or the Lesser Asia, now constituting the province of Anatolia, in Turkey, and surrounded on three sides by water. It is briefly described in the " First Foreign Mission." This is the Asia which is chiefly spoken of in the New Testament.