religion; the judges were empowered to inflict extreme and exemplary punishment upon any person who should slight the celebration of the holy mysteries, or blaspheme the gods of Greece.' 'The Areopagites were judges for life; they never sat in judgment but in the open air, and that only in the night time, that their minds might be less liable to distraction from surrounding objects.'' Their number probably was not fixed.

28. Your own Poets.-Aratus and Cleanthes.

'He animates the mart and crowded way,
The restless ocean and the sheltered bay.
Doth care perplex? is lowering danger nigh?
We are his offspring, and to Jove we fly.'-ARATUS.
'Hail! unto thee may mortals lift their voice,

For we thine offspring are. All things that creep

Are but the echo of the voice divine.'-CLEANTHES.2

34. Dionysius the Areopagite.-Of this person nothing certain is known beyond the fact here stated. On the authority of Eusebius, he afterwards became bishop of Athens, and suffered martyrdom.

CHAPTER XVIII.

3

1. Aquila. A native of Pontus, and a tent-maker. Being compelled to depart from Rome, in consequence of an edict issued by Claudius, he and his wife Priscilla proceeded to Corinth. Here, through the instrumentality of St. Paul, they embraced Christianity. They afterwards accompanied him to Ephesus, and proved of considerable service in ministering to the wants of the Christians, during his temporary absence at Jerusalem. In Rom. xvi. 4 it is stated that, for the apostle's life they laid down their necks.' This happened, possibly, when he was brought before Gallio at Corinth, or, perhaps, during the excitement caused by Demetrius at Ephesus. They subsequently visited Rome, but returned again to Ephesus.5 What became of them afterwards is not known.

4

2 Lewin, vol. i. p. 284.

1 Vide Barnes; Christian Cyclopædia, &c. 3 Some are of opinion that Aquila and Priscilla had embraced Christianity while residing at Rome.

4 Rom. xvi. 3. "Greet Priscilla and Aquila,' &c. The Epistle to the Romans, it will be remembered, was written during St. Paul's third journey.

52 Tim. iv. 19. 'Salute Prisca and Aquila.'

History of Aquila as recorded by St. Luke.

1. On account of the edict of Claudius against the Jews, he leaves Rome and takes up his residence at Corinth.

2. Being of the same craft,' he permits Paul to abide with him.

3. Accompanied by his wife, Priscilla, he proceeds with St. Paul by way of Cenchrea to Ephesus.

2. Pontus. Vide chap. ii. 9.

Italy. A country situated in the south of Europe, of which Rome was the capital. St. Paul was conveyed thither as a prisoner to appear before Cæsar.

Claudius. The Roman Emperor, vide p. 10.

8. Crispus. The chief ruler of the synagogue at Corinth, and one of the few whom St. Paul baptized with his own hands. Some affirm that he afterwards became bishop of Ægina, Athens.

12. Gallio. A deputy or proconsul of Achaia, and brother of the philosopher Seneca. He was at first named Marcus Annæus Novatus, and took the name of Gallio in honour of Lucius Junius Gallio, a rhetorician, into whose family he had been adopted. He received his appointment from the Emperor Claudius about A.D. 53. His character is summed up by his brother in the following words: 'No mortal,' says he, was ever so mild to any as he was to all, and in him there was such a natural power of goodness that there was no semblance of art or dissimulation.'

Deputy. Proconsul, vide p. 49.

17. Sosthenes.-Chief ruler of the synagogue at Corinth.1

1 Vide note, p. 133 (Simeon).

ST. PAUL'S THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY.1

A.D. 54; Acts xviii. 23; xxi. 17.
COMPANIONS-Timothy,2 Titus, Erastus,' &c.5
STARTING-POINT-Antioch in Syria.

Places Visited

1. Galatia

Vide Jour. ii. 6, 5.

The

disciples

strengthened.

and Phry!gia (xviii. 23). 2. Ephesus (xix. 1).

The metropolis of proconsular Asia, situated in part on a small plain on the river Cayster, at a short distance from the Ægean Sea. In the reign of Tiberius it was visited by an earthquake, but was shortly afterwards repaired and embellished. At the time of St. Paul's visit it was the most populous city in Asia Minor, and was celebrated for its temple of Diana, which was justly regarded as one of the wonders of the world, but its greatness

1 One special object which St. Paul had in view in undertaking this third journey was to collect money for the poor Christians of Judea (vide 1 Cor. xvi. 1-4; 2 Cor. viii. 9; Rom. xv. 25, 26; Acts xxiv. 17).

2 Vide Acts xix. 22; 1 Cor. iv. 17; xvi. 10; 2 Cor. i. 1; Rom. xvi. 21; Acts xx. 4.

s Comp. 2 Cor. xii. 18 with 1 Cor. xvi. 11, 12. Vide also 2 Cor. viii. 6. 4 Vide Acts xix. 22.

Acts xx. 4. 'And these accompanied him (from Greece, on his return) into Asia, Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus. These going before tarried for us (viz. Paul and Luke) at Troas.'

6

During some part of these two years St. Paul must have paid a short visit to Corinth, which St. Luke has overlooked (vide 2 Cor. xii. 14; xiii. 1, &c.). He must also have written an epistle to the Corinthians, which is now lost (vide 1 Cor. v. 9), as also his I. Ep. to the Corinthians (A.D. 57).

This temple, which was 220 years in building, was 425 feet long by 220 feet broad. The shrine of the goddess was surrounded by a colonnade, open to the sky, of 127 columns of Parian marble, each weighing

3. Macedonia (xx. 1).

apostle John is believed here
to have closed his mission of
love in peace, and his dust was
said to repose along with that
of Timothy among the thickets
and ruins of Mount Prion.' 2

quits the city and follows his friends into Macedonia.

Paul visits the

An extensive country of
Greece, bounded on the east by churches; giving
the Ægean Sea, on the west by
Epirus, on the north-east by
Thrace, and on the south by

them much exhortation.3

150 tons-sixty feet high-and each the gift of a king. It was decorated and beautified inside with cedar, cypress, gold, jewels, and precious stones; the roof was supported with columns of green jasper. Eight of these still remain in the great mosque of St. Sophia in Constantinople, to which they were removed along with other remains of its glory in the reign of Justinian. One picture of Apelles, which represented Alexander the Great grasping a thunder-bolt, was hung in the temple of Diana, purchased at a cost of twenty talents of gold, a sum which Chandler estimates at 38,750l. The magnificent altar was from the chisel of Praxiteles; the stair-case was made of a single vine from the island of Cyprus; the noblest pictures were hung on the walls; and among many other statues, one of pure gold was erected to Antemidorus. Besides these, much of the wealth of Asia was deposited for safety within its sacred shrine.' (Footsteps of St. Paul.)

'This celebrated edifice, after suffering various partial demolitions, was finally burnt by the Goths in their third naval invasion, A.D. 260. Travellers are now left to conjecture where its site was.' (Barnes.)

'At the time of St. Paul's visit this city probably contained over 500,000 inhabitants. Tournefort says, that when he was at Ephesus there were thirty or forty Greek families there. Chandler, in 1764, found only ten or twelve individuals.

Now no human being,' says Pliny Fisk, 'lives in Ephesus; and in Ayasaluk, which may be considered as Ephesus under another name, though not on precisely the same spot of ground, there are merely a few miserable Turkish huts.' (Christian Cyclopædia.)

The body of Timothy was afterwards removed to Constantinople by the founder of that city, or his son Constantius, and placed with St. Luke and St. Andrew in the church of the Apostles. Chandler, p. 126.' (Footsteps of St. Paul.)

So says

From Macedonia (Philippi) St. Paul wrote his II. Ep. to the Corinthians (A.D. 57); vide 2 Cor. ix. 2. It would appear that he now travelled as far as Illyricum.

After fulfilling his mission Paul intended taking ship at Cenchrea for Syria, but finding that the Jews had laid a snare for his destruction, he changed his plans and retraced his footsteps by way of Macedonia. On bis return into Asia he was accompanied by Sopater of Berea, and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus, and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.

After the days of unleavened bread,St.Paul,accompanied by St. Luke,embarksfor Troas, which they reach in five days.

Joined by their companions. During their short stay of seven days St. Paul exhorts the people with much earnestness and restores Eutychus to life.

Here St. Paul, who from the latter place had travelled on foot, panions. rejoins his com

During his stay at Corinth, St. Paul probably wrote his Epistle to the Galatians (A.D. 57), and his Epistle to the Romans (A.D. 58). Vide Rom. xv. 26 and xvi. 1.