like the one in which he had been wrecked—a corn ship from Egypt. She had "wintered in the isle." Her sign is given, "Castor and Pollux." The ancient ships, besides the sign of some tutelary god upon the stern, bore a carved or painted figure-head upon the prow, which gave name to the vessel; but in some cases, and, perhaps, in this, the insignia and tutelar were the same, Castor and Pollux, literally Dioscini, i.e., the boys or sons of Jupiter (and Leda), regarded by the ancients as the gods of navigation and the guardians of seamen. This particular is mentioned, not to show the piety or superstition of the mariners, nor to show how Paul was brought into compulsory contact with heathenish corruptions, but as a lively reminiscence on the part of an eye-witness. 66 II. HIS VOYAGE TO PUTEOLI. "...And landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days." "Syracuse is the capital of Sicily, a town in the eastern part of the island, the birthplace of the famous mathematician and philosopher, Archimedes, and celebrated for its wealth, splendour, and arts. Its modern name is Syracusor; it has a population of about 20,000."-Livermore. The three days' residence here was probably for commercial purposes. From thence we fetched a compass." That is, coasted round. "... And came to Rhegium," the name of a town and promontory situated on the Italian coast, in Calabria, across the straits from Sicily. It was ruined by an earthquake in 1783. From thence, in one day, they reached Puteoli. "The port of Puteoli was, in the century before and in the century after Christ, the most famous in the western coast of Lower Italy, particularly for Eastern produce. Here the Egyptian corn-ships were accustomed to unload. It was the custom also to land here from Syria and to proceed to Rome by land."Lange. "The voyage from Syracuse to this port took them through the straits between Italy and Sicily, on the Italian side of which were the noted rocks called Scylla, and, on the Sicilian, the whirlpool called Charybdis." At this place the apostle "found brethren " who desired him "to tarry with them seven days." How the Gospel reached this place, and who were the instruments of converting these men to Christianity we are not told. Probably some of the disciples from Jerusalem who had been scattered abroad in time of persecution, went through Italy preaching the Gospel." And so III. HIS WALK FROM PUTEOLI TO ROME. “. we went toward Rome. And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appii Forum, and The Three Taverns: whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage." Tidings having gone from Puteoli to Rome of Paul's arrival, brethren from the imperial city hastened to meet him, and they meet at Appii Forum and The Three Taverns, two well-known stopping places on the oldest and most famous Roman roads. Appii Forum was a market-place, and Tres Taberna a group of shops and inns; the former about forty miles from Rome, the latter ten miles nearer. The meeting of these brethren gave new inspiration to the apostle. "He thanked God and took courage." His mind was inspired First With gratitude for the past. What a past was his ! Secondly Courage for the future. What a future was before him! Rome was now in the very zenith of its glory. It was the home of millions gathered from every corner of the earth. Its dominion was world-wide and irresistible. The capital, with her palaces, temples, columns, theatres, arches, baths, with the prowess of her armies, the vastness of her dominions, and the splendour of her arts, was the wonder and admiration of the world. Into this city, where the bloody Nero reigned, Paul was now entering, a poor prisoner, with the hope of striking a new life into its heart, and working out its spiritual reformation. CONCLUSION. Paul's journey from Malta to Rome suggests several subjects for homiletic thought. First: The finding of good men where least expected. Little perhaps did the apostle think to find disciples of Christ either at Puteoli or hastening to meet him from Rome. There is more goodness in this world than bigotry will admit, or even perhaps charity will venture to believe. Elijah once fancied that he was the only good man in Israel. "I am left alone," said he. But what was the answer of God unto him? "I have reserved unto myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal." Secondly: The power of the Gospel to fraternalize men. The men found at Puteoli and those who came from Rome are both called "brethren." Though Paul had never seen them before, though he belonged to a different class of men, Christianity had made these strangers brothers to each other and brothers to him. Sin has broken the brotherhood of humanity; Christianity restores it. It binds all the diverse races of mankind into a heavenly brotherhood of soul. Thirdly: The realizing of the Divine purposes under immense improbabilities. The Great God had revealed long before this to Paul that it was his purpose that he should visit Rome (Acts xxiii. 11), but how many circumstances on land and water intervened, suggesting the high improbability to all human thought of his ever seeing that great city. But he is in it now. Trust God. His word must come to pass, however improbable its fulfilment may seem to us. "Heaven and earth shall pass away," &c. Fourthly: The prosecuting of spiritual campaigns, independently of numbers or wealth. Here goes a lonely man and he a prisoner to conquer Rome for Christ. Y Germs of Thought. THE BYEWAYS OF THE BIBLE.-No. I. "They laughed him to scorn."-Matt. ix. 24. Analysis of Homily the Seven Hundred and Seventy-Fourth. OU must often have noticed the effect of introducing a lamp into a darkened apartment. You see the lamp itself. You see a thousand other things by its light. So with the five words of our text. Spoken, as it were, by the way, they have all the vivid light of reality in themselves. They also throw light on the whole history in which they occur. In particular they do so-On the Nature of our Saviour's Work, and, On the Right Interpretation of his Words. First: HIS WORK. How wonderfully they reveal to us the great depth of his humiliation. He was man; that is much-a poor man; that is more-more still, one of the "homeless poor" (Luke ix. 58); most of all, a man derided and despised. So psalmists and prophets had foretold, and so evangelists relate. Did it ever occur to you how complete must have been the obscuration of his glory-how total the eclipse of that sun--before this could occur? Had there been one scintillation or glimpse to the natural eye of the burning brightness of his Godhead, would any one have dared, would any one have been able to "deride" him? They "laughed him down," is, perhaps, meant! They drowned his words in contempt! "Worship Him, all ye gods" (Ps. xcvii. 7; Heb. i. 6) that was his right. To be the laughing-stock of men such as these, the idle crowd that collect and gossip about a death; the hireling mourners who feel least and pretend most that was his experience. The distance from that right to that experience is the measure of his humiliation. : He was Notice, also, the [completeness of his sorrow. "acquainted with grief," with every side and shape and variety of it, even with that form which we should have expected to be the farthest of all from his lot. As one "born of woman" we can partly understand his exposure to the sinless infirmities of our race, hungering, thirsting, fainting, wearying, sleeping, bleeding, dying. In so wicked a world, again, as this, his having to suffer from the opposition of enemies, and from the treachery and desertion of professed friends, is more disgraceful than surprising. But, coming as He did, and being such as He was, speaking as man never spake, silencing the wisest, curing the most desperate, casting out the strongest, changing the vilest, and speaking mercy to all-that He should, nevertheless, be derided and scorned; this is, indeed, strange. Any trial except this-so our expectation would have said. The inference is clear. If he was exposed to this, He was exempt from none. He must have exhausted all the rest of the cup before He partook of these dregs. This consideration may teach us, yet further, the greatness of his love. All this depth of suffering was for our sake. half-exhausted cup would not have saved us. Therefore He Like one descending a coal compelled Himself to drain all. shaft, who does not stop short of the very lowest depth because those he would rescue are known to be trembling there, so was it with the Lord. He endured even the scorn of contemptible man in order to save man. Strange, indeed, was that scorn. Stranger still his reply-not in judgment, not in anger, scarcely even in rebuke. Those who despised Him should not be witnesses of his power. That was all. Was there ever such a combination of majesty and mercy? Wherein is He the more admirable -in his forbearance or his power-in saving the living or in raising the dead? II. HIS WORDS:-The Right Interpretation of our Lord's Words, and so, generally, of those Holy Scriptures which bear testimony to Him. The special saying which called forth this outburst of scorn was the following:-"The maid is not dead, but sleepeth"; and the special ground of it was the intimate conviction of the hearers that she had actually died-" knowing that she was dead.' It is evident, therefore, that they took the words in their most ordinary and obvious sense, never stopping to search for another, and never considering whether such a teacher and miracleworker could have meant anything so absurd. It was a confounding the obvious with the true--mistaking the apparent for the real-and considering "first thoughts" so much better than "second," that no second thoughts are required. The mistake is very common. "He that believeth on me shall never die"; "Ye must be born again"; "Destroy this temple"; "This is my body," are all cases in point. The mistake arises from not recollecting-(1.) That the true signification of a passage is not that which the hearer imagines, but which the speaker himself designed; (2.) That, in the sayings of the Bible, where God is practically the speaker, and man the bearer, these two meanings are often so far from identical that they are as wide asunder as the poles. The common clay of our earthly language must frequently be employed by the Almighty after a super-earthly and heavenly manner, and must frequently mean then other and more than if it had come from our lips. We must, never, therefore, run away with the notion, which seems to fur |