them into the market-place to the rulers. And presenting them to the magistrates, they said: These men disturb our city, being Jews; and preach a fashion which it is not lawful for us to receive, nor observe, being Romans. And the people ran together," excited "against them; and the magistrates, rending off their clothes, commanded them to be beaten with rods (1). And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them diligently. Who having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks (2)."

"And at midnight (3) Paul and Silas praying (4), praised God. And they that were in prison heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and the bands

(1) St. Luke mentions only this one flagellation of St. Paul, but he suffered many others. Thrice, says he, was I beaten with rods. Of the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes, save one (2 Cor., xi.). The Jews were forbidden by their law to give more than forty stripes, and, for fear of exceeding that number, they never gave more than thirty-nine. They made use of leather thongs for the purpose, whereas the Romans employed rods; but unlike the Jews, the latter people had no fixed number of lashes prescribed by law.

(2) Stocks. Called by the French ceps, a name which comes from the Latin word cippus. They are hollow pieces of wood, into which the feet of the prisoners are thrust and there made fast. It is said that they are sometimes used as instruments of torture. (3) It was a common practice amongst the primitive Christians to arise in the night to sing the praises of God. If even the lay brethren did this, we may well believe that the apostles were not unmindful of a practice so good and pious. The latter had indeed learned it of their divine Master, of whom we read in several parts of the Gospel that he spent the night in prayer. This custom, however, dates higher still, for David says of himself: I arose in the night to sing thy praise (Ps. cxviii., ver. 62). It has been perpetuated to our own times by the ministers of religion, and by pious persons of both sexes, who are accustomed to rise during the night to sing matins. It must be owned that within the last century it has fallen so much into disuse amongst us, that there is reason to fear that it may be entirely abolished. I say amongst us, and not in the whole Church, because whatever comes from God and his Spirit, shall subsist within her pale till the end of time; the works of grace having no less stability than those of nature, which are to last till the final consummation of all things, in so far, at least, that no one kind shall ever be entirely destroyed.

(4) Though outraged, scourged, covered with wounds, imprisoned, and in chains, still they are as exact in the practice of their devotions as though they were in their lodgings, free and tranquil-what a miracle of fidelity! They sing, in that condition, hymns and canticles of praise-what a miracle of fortitude!

of all were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the doors of the prison open, drawing his sword, would have killed himself (1), supposing that the prisoners had fled."

"Paul," in the darkness of night, and the obscurity of his dungeon, could not see what was going forward, but being divinely in formed of the jailer's design, he "cried with a loud voice, saying: Do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Then calling for a light, he went in, and trembling, fell down at the feet of Paul and Silas. And bringing them out, he said: Masters, what must I do that I may be saved? But they said: Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they preached the word of the Lord to him and to all that were in his house. And he, taking them the same hour of the night, washed their stripes; and himself was baptized, and all his house immediately (2). And when he had brought them into his own house, he laid the table for them, and rejoiced with all his house, believing God." Whether it was that the jailer had privately apprised the magis trates of what had passed during the night, or that the latter began to repent of the cruelty wherewith they had treated these strangers, without having any certainty of their guilt, "When the day was come, the magistrates sent the sergeants (3), saying: Let those men go. And the keeper of the prison told these words to Paul: The magistrates have sent to let you go: now, therefore, depart and go in peace. But Paul said to them: They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men that are Romans, and have cast us into prison, and now do they thrust us out privately? Not so; but let them

(1) He would kill himself, in order to escape being put to death. We see by this instance, together with certain others in this history, that those who had charge of prisoners were bound to give them up again under pain of death.

(2) Were they then sufficiently instructed? Certainly they were, because the Holy Ghost, who accommodates his operations to the circumstances of time, place, and persons, had taught them as much in one hour as they might have learned in a month, if they had had so long a time to prepare themselves.

(3) These were a kind of hussars who walked before the magistrates, bearing axes, wrapped up in bundles of rods, which they untied, either to scourge or to behead those who were sentenced to undergo either punishment, and sometimes both together.

come (1), and let us out themselves. And the sergeants told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid (2), hearing that they were Romans. And coming, they besought them; and bringing them out, they desired them to depart out of the city (3). And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia: and having seen the brethren, they comforted them (4), and departed" from Philippi. The few faithful people whom they left there were, as it were, blessed seed, which produced fruits the most abundant. Of this we have a proof in the epistle which the apostle wrote to the Philippians, when he was a prisoner at Rome, for the first time.

(1) It was neither pride nor resentment that made St. Paul demand this satisfaction; it was merely the effect of his zeal, because he considered that his own personal disgrace, if not removed, might in that country be a stain upon the Gospel itself. Besides, a man is not only permitted, but actually obliged, to defend his own honor, according to the saying of the Wise Man: Try to have a good reputation (Eccle., xli. 15). Nevertheless, it is so hard to exclude all human passion from such a defence, that a Christian, not having the advantages possessed by St. Paul, should never undertake it without consulting an enlightened director, who will be an impartial judge in the case.

(2) He would, therefore, have escaped the flagellation, had he, at first, declared himself a Roman citizen. It was thus that he escaped when the tribune Lysias would have had him scourged, as will be seen (chap. xxii.). We are not to seek for any other motive, on either occasion, than the impulse of the Holy Ghost, who inspired him at one time to submit to the punishment, and again to avoid it.

(3) Some Greek copies add that they said to them: Depart from this city, lest they again rise up against you, and cannot be quelled. This looks very much like a commentary which has found its way into the text. Whatever it may be, it gives a very probable reason for urging them to quit the city.

(4) The afflicted are here the consolers, while they who have suffered nothing stand in need of consolation. The unction of grace in the former, and in the latter a tender feeling of compassion, are the causes of these opposite effects. The former, especially, was a phenomenon which had never yet been seen, and which was just as great a prodigy in those days as the wondrous cures and resurrections effected by the apostles.

CHAPTER XVII.

PREACHING AT THESSALONICA.-A TUMULT CAUSED BY THE JEWS.-ST. PAUL IN ATHENS. HIS DISCOURSE IN THE AREOPAGUS FOLLOWED BY THE CONVERSION OF DENIS THE AREOPAGITE.

PAUL and Silas (for it does not appear that the apostle had then any other companions, and from the manner in which St. Luke speaks, it is sufficiently evident that he was not of the party), Paul, then, and Silas, "(a) when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, according to his custom, went in unto them; and for three Sabbath-days he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, declaring and insinuating that the CHRIST was to suffer (1) and to rise again from the dead; and that this is JESUS CHRIST," said he, "whom I preach to you. And some of them believed, and were associated to Paul and Silas, and of those that served God (2), and of the Gentiles a great multitude, and of noble women not a few."

"But the Jews, moved with envy, and taking unto them some wicked men of the vulgar sort, and making a tumult, set the city in an uproar: and besetting Jason's house, sought to bring them out unto the people. And not finding them, they drew Jason and cer tain brethren to the rulers of the city, crying: They that set the city in an uproar are come hither also, whom Jason hath received; and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there (a) Acts, xvii. 1.

(1) It is so clearly proved in Scripture that Christ was to suffer, that some of the Jews, who could not deny the fact, have been reduced to the necessity of imagining two Christs, or two Messiahs-the one suffering and humble, the other glorious and triumphant. The latter is he whom they still expect. "The former is already come," say they, "and is concealed in Rome, amongst the poor, with whom he eats the bread of charity."

(2) The Greek has it, a great number of Gentiles, serving God, that is to say, Gentile proselytes. They are here separated, after the Vulgate; and if they are made two dis tinct classes, then those that served God are the proselytes, and the Gentiles are those who were still idolaters till they were converted by the preaching of St. Paul.

is another king, JESUS. And they stirred up the people; and the rulers of the city hearing these things, and having taken satisfaction of Jason, and of the rest (1), they let them go. But the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who when they were come thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, who received the word with all eagerness, daily searching the Scriptures (2), whether these things were so," even as they told them. "And many indeed of them believed, and of honorable women that were Gentiles, and of men not a few. And when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was also preached by Paul at Berea, they came thither also, stirring up and troubling the multitude. And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul, to go unto the sea; but Silas and Timothy remained there," the latter, it would seem, having followed them thither. "And they that 'conducted Paul, brought him as far as Athens, and receiving a com

(1) It was the magistrates whom Jason satisfied, and not either the Jews or those whom they had stirred up, all of whom were people who were incapable of reasoning. Many commentators are of opinion that in this satisfaction given by Jason, he took upon him to answer for Paul and Silas. That, however, seems very improbable, for if Jason had given any such security, it is not at all likely that St. Paul would have made his escape, as he did on the following night, leaving his host in such a cruel predicament. It is much more probable that Jason satisfied the magistrates by force of reasoning, his arguments being seconded, perhaps, by an assurance that Paul and Silas should immediately quit the city.

(2) A Jew who undertakes to test by Scripture the truth of the Christian religion, has a right to seek out those texts which he is told establish its divine origin, and to see for himself whether their meaning is such as it was represented to him. Such was the case with the Jews of Berea, in regard to St. Paul. But it does not follow, as Protestants say (in abuse of this example), that these Jewish converts were at liberty to discuss every article of faith by Scripture, and to form a creed for themselves on their own private interpretation. The difference is very easily seen. The Jew, before his conversion, is in quest of the true religion, and he has a right to examine whether that which is proposed to him has the distinctive marks thereof. After his conversion, he has found and embraced it, and it only remains for him to believe what it teaches, and to do what it ordains. Otherwise he should contradict himself, since, after having been convinced of its truth, he should still doubt whether it was not false.

It is, nevertheless, permitted to seek in the Scriptures the proof of dogmas decided by the Church, so as to ascertain the foundations on which her decisions rest, to penetrate farther into their meaning, in order to explain them to the people, and to refute those who oppose them, but never with a view to reform or amend them.