was not a Sadducee, he had never Hellenized, he had been educated at Jerusalem,- every thing conspired to give him authority, when he ad dressed his countrymen as a "Hebrew of the Hebrews." At the same time, in his apostolical relation to Christ, he was quite disconnected with the other Apostles; he had come in silence to a conviction of the truth at a distance from the Judaizing Christians, and had early overcome those prejudices which impeded so many in their approaches to the Heathen. He had just been long enough at Jerusalem to be recognized and welcomed by the apostolic college, but not long enough even to be known by face "unto the churches in Judæa." He had been withdrawn into Cilicia till the baptism of Gentiles was a notorious and familiar fact to those very churches. He could hardly be blamed for continuing what St. Peter had already begun.

And if the Spirit of God had prepared him for building up the United Church of Jews and Gentiles, and the Providence of God had directed all the steps of his life to this one result, we are called on to notice the singular fitness of this last employment, on which we have seen him engaged, for assuaging the suspicious feeling which separated the two great branches of the Church. In quitting for a time his Gentile converts at Antioch, and carrying a contribution of money to the Jewish Christians at Jerusalem, he was by no means leaving the higher work for the lower. He was building for aftertimes. The interchange of mutual benevolence was a safe foundation for future confidence. Temporal comfort was given in gratitude for spiritual good received. The Church's first days were christened with charity. No sooner was its new name received, in token of the union of Jews and Gentiles, than the sympathy of its members was asserted by the work of practical benevolence. We need not hesitate to apply to that work the words which St. Paul used, after many years, of another collection for the poor Christians in Judæa : —“ The administration of this service not only supplies the need of the Saints, but overflows in many thanksgivings unto God; while they praise God for this proof of your obedience to the Glad Tidings of Christ."4

CHAPTER V.

Second Part of the Acts of the Apostles. — Revelation at Antioch. - Public Devotions. - Departure of Barnabas and Saul. - The Orontes. -History and Description of Seleucia.Voyage to Cyprus.— Salamis. — Roman Provincial System.- Proconsuls and Proprætors. - Sergius Paulus. —Oriental Impostors at Rome and in the Provinces. - Elymas Barjesus. History of Jewish Names. - Saul and Paul.

THE

HE second part of the Acts of the Apostles is generally reckoned to begin with the thirteenth chapter. At this point St. Paul begins to appear as the principal character; and the narrative, gradually widening and expanding with his travels, seems intended to describe to us, in minute detail, the communication of the Gospel to the Gentiles. The thirteenth and fourteenth chapters embrace a definite and separate subject: and this subject is the first journey of the first Christian missionaries to the Heathen. These two chapters of the inspired record are the authorities for the present and the succeeding chapters of this work, in which we intend to follow the steps of Paul and Barnabas, in their circuit through Cyprus and the southern part of Lesser Asia.

The history opens suddenly and abruptly. We are told that there were, in the Church at Antioch," prophets and teachers," and among the rest" Barnabas," with whom we are already familiar. The others were "Simeon, who was surnamed Niger," and "Lucius of Cyrene" and "Manaen, the foster-brother of Herod the Tetrarch," and "Saul' who still appears under his Hebrew name. We observe, moreover, not only that he is mentioned after Barnabas, but that he occupies the lowest place in this enumeration of "prophets and teachers." The distinction between these two offices in the Apostolic Church will be discussed hereafter." At present it is sufficient to remark that the "prophecy" of the New Testament does not necessarily imply a knowledge of things to come, but rather a gift of exhorting with a peculiar force of inspiration. In the Church's early miraculous days the "prophet" appears to have been ranked higher than the "teacher." And we may perhaps infer that, up to this point of the history, Barnabas had belonged to the rank of "prophets," and Saul to that of "teachers:" which would be in strict

conformity with the inferiority of the latter to the former, which, as wo have seen, has been hitherto observed.

Of the other three, who are grouped with these two chosen missionaries, we do not know enough to justify any long disquisition. But we may remark in passing that there is a certain interest attaching to each one of them. Simeon is one of those Jews who bore a Latin surname in addition to their Hebrew name, like "John whose surname was Mark," mentioned in the last verse of the preceding chapter, and like Saul himself, whose change of appellation will presently oe brought under notice. Lucius, probably the same who is referred to in the Epistle to the Romans,2 is a native of Cyrene, that African city which has already been noticed as abounding in Jews, and which sent to Jerusalem our Saviour's cross-bearer. Manaen is spoken of as the foster-brother of Herod the Tetrarch: this was Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Galilee ; and since we learn from Josephus' that this Herod and his brother Archelaus were children of the same mother, and afterwards educated together at Rome, it is probable that this Christian prophet or teacher had spent his early childhood with those two princes, who were now both banished from Palestine to the banks of the Rhone."

These were the most conspicuous persons in the Church of Antioch, when a revelation was received of the utmost importance. The occasion on which the revelation was made seems to have been a fit preparation for it. The Christians were engaged in religious services of peculiar solemnity. The Holy Ghost spoke to them " as they ministered unto the Lord and fasted." The word here translated "ministered," has been taken by opposite controversialists to denote the celebration of the "sacrifice of the mass 99 on the one hand, or the exercise of the office of preaching" on the other. It will be safer if we say simply that the Christian community at Antioch was engaged in one united act of prayer and humiliation. That this solemnity would be accompanied by words of exhortation, and that it would be crowned and completed by the Holy Communion, is more than probable; that it was accompanied

of his obscurity, both his future power and future wickedness. The historian adds, that Herod afterwards treated the Essenes with great kindness. Nothing is more likely than that this Manaen was the father of the companion of Herod's children. Another Jew of the same name is mentioned, at a later period (War, ii. 17, 8, 9; Life, 5), as having encour aged robberies, and come to a violent end. The name is the same with that of the King of Israel. 2 Kings xv. 14-22.

5 See above, pp. 26 and 51.

These religious services might

with Fasting' we are expressly told. have had a special reference to the means which were to be adopted for the spread of the Gospel now evidently intended for all; and the words "separate me now? Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them," may have been an answer to specific prayers. How this revelation was made, whether by the mouth of some of the prophets who were present, or by the impulse of a simultaneous and general inspiration, whether the route to be taken by Barnabas and Saul was at this time precisely indicated, and whether they had previously received a conscious personal call, of which this was the public ratification, — it is useless to inquire. A definite work was pointed out, as now about to be begun under the counsel of God; two definite agents in this work were publicly singled out: and we soon see them sent forth to their arduous undertaking, with the sanction of the Church at Antioch.

5

Their final consecration and departure was the occasion of another religious solemnity. A fast was appointed, and prayers were offered up; and, with that simple ceremony of ordination which we trace through the earlier periods of Jewish history, and which we here see adopted under the highest authority in the Christian Church, "they laid their hands on them, and sent them away." The words are wonderfully simple; but those who devoutly reflect on this great occasion, and on the position of the first Christians at Antioch, will not find it difficult to imagine the thoughts which occupied the hearts of the Disciples during these first "Ember Days of the Church - their deep sense of the importance of the work which was now beginning,- - their faith in God, on whom they could rely in the midst of such difficulties, their suspense during the absence of those by whom their own faith had been fortified, — their anxiety for the intelligence they might bring on their

return.

-

Their first point of destination was the island of Cyprus. It is not necessary, though quite allowable, to suppose that this particular course was divinely indicated in the original revelation at Antioch. Four

1 For the association of Fasting with Ordination, see Bingham's Antiq. of the Christ. Ch. IV. vi. 6, XXI. ii. 8.

? This little word is important, and should have been in the A. V.

It is evident that the course of St. Paul's journeys was often indeterminate, and regulated either by convenient opportunities (as in Acts xxi. 2, xxviii. 11), or by compulsion (as in xiv. 6, xvii. 14), or by supernatural admonitions (xxii. 21, xvi. 6–10).

St. Paul at least had long been conscious of his own vocation, and could only be waiting to be summoned to his work.

5 It forms no part of the plan of this work to enter into ecclesiastical controversies. It is sufficient to refer to Acts vi. 6; 1 Tim. iv 14, v. 22; 2 Tim. i. 6; Heb. vi. 2.

See Bingham, as above.

reasons at least can be stated, which may have induced the Apostles, in the exercise of a wise discretion, to turn in the first instance to this island. It is separated by no great distance from the mainland of Syria; its high mountain-summits are easily seen in clear weather from the coast near the mouth of the Orontes; and in the summer season many vessels must often have been passing and repassing between Salamis and Seleucia. Besides this, it was the native-place of Barnabas.2 Since the time when "Andrew found his brother Simon, and brought him to Jesus, " and the Saviour was beloved in the house of "Martha and her sister and Lazarus," the ties of family relationship had not been without effect on the progress of the Gospel. It could not be unnatural to suppose that the truth would be welcomed in Cyprus, when it was brought by Barnabas and his kinsman Mark to their own connections or friends. Moreover, the Jews were numerous in Salamis.' By sailing to that city they were following the track of the synagogues. Their mission, it is true, was chiefly to the Gentiles; but their surest course for reaching them was through the medium of the Proselytes and the Hellenistic Jews. To these considerations we must add, in the fourth place, that some of the Cypriotes were already Christians. No one place out of Palestine, with the exception of Antioch, had been so honorably associated with the work of successful evangelization.

6

The palaces of Antioch were connected with the sea by the river Orontes. Strabo says that in his time they sailed up the stream in one day; and Pausanias speaks of great Roman works which had improved the navigation of the channel. Probably it was navigable by vessels of some considerable size, and goods and passengers were conveyed by water between the city and the sea. Even in our own day, though there is now a bar at the mouth of the river, there has been a serious project of uniting it by a canal with the Euphrates, and so of re-establishing one of the old lines of commercial intercourse between the Mediterranean and the Indian Sea. The Orontes comes from the valley between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and does not, like many rivers, vary capriciously between a winter-torrent and a thirsty watercourse, but flows on continually to the sea. Its waters are not clear, but they are deep and rapid. Their course has been compared to that of the Wye. They wind round the bases of high and precipitous cliffs, or by richly