ship at Adramyttium, and sailed to Sidon, where the centu rion courteously gave the apostle leave to go on shore to visit his friends and refresh himself. After a short stay, they sailed for Cyprus, and arrived opposite the Fair Havens, a place near Myra, a city of Lycia. Here, the season being far advanced, and Paul, foreseeing that it would be a dangerous voyage, persuaded them to put in and winter there. The Roman centurion, however, thought the opinion of the master of the ship preferable, and they resolved to proceed, but were intercepted in their course by a violent gale, which drove them about fourteen days, and finally forced them to anchor, to avoid being thrown upon the rocks. The country near which they were, as Paul had foretold, was an island called Melita, now Malta, situated in the Lybian sea, between Syracuse and Africa. Here they landed, and met with great civility from a barbarous people, who treated them with humanity, entertaining them with all the necessary accommodations; but while Paul was laying a few sticks on the fire, a viper, enlivened by the heat, came from among the wood, and fastened on his hand. On seeing this, the inhabitants of the island concluded that he was certainly some notorious murderer, whom the Divine vengeance, though it suffered him to escape the sea, had reserved for a more public and solemn execution. But when they saw him shake off the venomous creature into the fire, and no manner of harm ensue, they changed their sentiments, and cried out that he was a god. After three months' stay in this island, they again pursued their course toward Rome. The christians of this city, hearing of the apostle's coming, went to meet him as far as Three Taverns, about thirty miles out, and others as far as the Appiiforum, fifty-one miles distant from the capital. They kindly embraced each other, and the liberty he saw the christians enjoy at Rome, greatly enlivened the spirits of the apostle. Having refreshed himself after the fatigue of his voyage, the apostle sent for the heads of the Jewish consistory there, and related the cause of his coming to them in the following manner: "Though I have been guilty of no violation of the laws of our religion, yet I was delivered up by the Jews at Jerusalem, to the Roman governors, who more than once would have acquitted me, as innocent of any capital offense; but by the perverseness of my persecutors, I was obliged to appeal unto Cæsar; not that I had any thing to accuse my nation of: I had recourse to this method merely to clear mine own innocence." Having thus removed a popular prejudice, he added, that the true cause of his sufferings was what their own religion. had taught him, the belief and expectation of a future resurrection. But his discourse had different effects on different hearers; some being convinced, and others persisting in their infidelity. For two whole years Paul dwelt at Rome, in a house he had hired for his own use; wherein he assiduously employed himself in preaching and writing for the good of the church. Among others of the apostle's converts at Rome, was one Onesimus, who had formerly been a servant to Philemon, a person of distinction at Colosse, but had run away from his master, and fraudulently taken with him some things of value. Having rambled as far as Rome, he was converted by Paul, and by him returned to his master, with a short recommendatory letter, earnestly desiring him to pardon him; and, notwithstanding his former faults, to treat him kindly and use him as a brother; promising, withal, that if he had wronged or owed him any thing, he himself would repay it. This epistle may be considered as a master-piece of eloquence, in the persuasive way; for in it the apostle had recourse to all the considerations which friendship, religion, piety and tenderness can inspire, to reconcile an incensed master to his servant. By what means Paul was discharged from the accusation the Jews brought against him we have no account in history; but it is natural to suppose that not having sufficient proof of what they alledged, or being informed that the crimes they accused him of were no violations of the Roman law, they durst not implead him before the emperor, and so permitted him to be discharged, of course. But, by whatever means he procured his liberty, it is thought he wrote his epistle to the Hebrews before he left Italy, from whence he dates his Salutations. The principal design of it is to magnify Christ, and the religion of the gospel, above Moses and the Jewish economy, in order to establish and confirm the converted Jews in the firm belief and profession of christianity, notwithstanding the trouble and persecutions that would certainly attend them. Having thus discharged his ministry, both by preaching and writing, in Italy, Paul, accompanied by Timothy, prosecuted his long-intended journey into Spain, and, according to the testimony of several writers, crossed the sea, and preached the gospel in Britain. What success he had in these western parts is not known; he, however, continued there eight or nine months, and then returned again into the East; visited Sicily, Greece and Crete, and then repaired to Rome. Here he met with Peter, and was, together with him, thrown into prison, doubtless in the general persecution raised against the christians, under the pretense that they had set fire to the city. How long he remained in prison is uncertain; nor do we know whether he was scourged before his execution. He was, however, allowed the privilege of a Roman citizen, and therefore beheaded. Being come to the place of execution, which was the Salvian waters, three miles from Rome, he cheerfully, after a solemn preparation, gave his neck to the fatal stroke; and from this vale of misery passed to the blissful regions of immortality, to the kingdom of his beloved Master, the great Redeemer of the human race. He was buried in Via Ostiensis, about two miles from Rome; and, about the year 317, Constantine the Great, at the instance of Pope Sylvester, built a stately church over his grave, adorned it with a hundred marble columns, and beautified it with the most exquisite workmanship. Paul seems to have been eminently fitted for the apostleship of the Gentiles, to contend with and confute the grave and the wise, the acute and the subtle, the sage and the learned, of the heathen world, and to wound them with arrows from their own quiver. He seldom, indeed, made use of learning and philosophy; it being more agreeable to the design of the gospel to confound the wisdom and learning of the world by the plain doctrine of the cross. He was humbled to the lowest step of debasement and condesce.sion; none ever thinking better of others, or more meanly of himself. And though, when he had to deal with envious and malicious adversaries, who endeavored, by vilify. ing his person, to obstruct his ministry, he knew how to magnify his office, and to let them know that he was not inferior to the chiefest of the apostles; yet, at other times, he always declared to the world that he considered himself "less than the least of the saints;" nay, "the very chief of sinners." His repentance and sobriety were remarkable, for he often abridged himself of the conveniency of lawful and necessary accommodations. What he taught to others he practiced himself: "his conversation was in heaven, and his desires were to depart and be with Christ; and hence it is very probable that he always led a single life, though some of the ancients rank him among the married apostles. His kindness and charity were remarkable; but his charity to the souls of men was infinitely greater; fearing no dangers, refusing no labors, going through good and evil report, that he might gain men over to the knowledge of the truth, bring them out of the crooked paths, and place them in the straight way, that leadeth unto life eternal. Nor was his charity to men greater than his zeal to God; laboring with all his might to promote the honor of his Divine Master. When at Athens, he saw them involved in the grossest superstition and idolatry, and giving the honor that was due to God to statues and images. This fired his zeal, and he could not but let them know the sentiments of his mind, and how greatly they dishonored God, the Maker and Preserver of the world. Nor, in the course of a most extensive ministry, was he tried with the dangers and difficulties he met with, or the troubles and opposition that were 1aised against him. He did not want solicitations, both from Jews and Gentiles; and might, doubtless, in some measure, have made his own terms, had he been false to his trust, and quitted that sway which was then every where spoken against. But, alas! these things weighed little with our apostle, who "counted not his life dear unto him, so that he might finish his course with joy, and the ministry he had received of the Lord Jesus." And, therefore, when he thought himself under the sentence. of death, could triumphantly say, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." In short, he was a man in whom the grace of God was displayed with peculiar lustre, and who gave the most convincing proof that the influence of gospel principles exceed all moral and legal obligations. CHAPTER XXIX. Barnabas and Stephen. INSTRUCTION OF BARNABAS UNDER GAMALIEL; DEVOTION TO THE CHRIS ARNABAS was at first called Joses, a softer termination generally given by the Greeks to Joseph. His fellow disciples added the name of Barnabas, as significant of some extraordinary property in him. Luke interprets it, "the son of consolation," from his being ever ready to administer to the afflicted, both by word and action. He was a descendant of the tribe of Levi, of & |