It would seem that the magistrates of Philippi, upon thinking calmly over the matter, felt that they had acted hastily and unjustly, in commanding two men to be scourged and put into prison, without a trial; for we read, "And when it was day, the magistrates sent the serjeants," officers under their command, to the jailor, "saying, Let those men go." The keeper of the prison, well pleased to receive such an order, told this to Paul, saying, "The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore depart, and go in peace. But Paul said unto" the serjeants who stood by, "They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? nay verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out."

Now in order to understand all this, we must remember that the Romans, who thought themselves greatly superior to any other people in the world, were very jealous of their power and privileges as citizens of Rome. Thus, if a Roman citizen was ill treated, the Roman Government would severely punish any one who had dared to ill treat him. All persons whose parents were natives and citizens of Rome, were looked upon as free-born citizens; and enjoyed from their birth, all the rights and privileges given by the Roman Government to her subjects.

Persons not born of Roman citizens, if they had done good service, either by fighting for Rome, or in any other way, were often rewarded by receiving the Freedom of the City; that is, by being looked upon and treated as Roman citizens, and having an equal share in all the privileges and benefits, granted to such Romans as were free-born.

St. Paul was not a native of Rome, nor were his parents; for they were Jews, settled at Tarsus, in Cilicia: probably some of his ancestors, his grandfather or great-grandfather, had served in the Roman armies, and been rewarded for some great service, by receiving the freedom of the city: after which, all his descendants would be looked upon as free-born citizens of Rome.

The Roman Emperors sometimes allowed strangers to buy the privileges: the Emperor Claudius did so: and for a large sum of money allowed people to have for themselves the privileges of a Roman citizen—a great advantage in those days, as the rulers of every Roman province were bound to protect every Roman citizen in it, and not suffer any one to be ill treated. To scourge and imprison a Roman citizen, without having first proved him to have been guilty of some great crime, was an offence which the Roman Government punished most severely; and therefore, we find that when the serjeants went back, and "told these words unto the magistrates, they feared, when they heard that they were Romans. And they came and besought them" not to report the treatment they had received, "and brought them out" of prison, "and desired (or entreated) them to depart out of the city."

We may be quite sure that St. Paul neither valued nor used the privileges of a Roman, further than they could serve to the glory of God. In this case, many of the people who had seen him and Silas beaten and cast into prison, would naturally think that they must have done something wrong: this would prevent the people from listening to what they taught. It was necessary, therefore, that St. Paul should show clearly that he had not deserved any punishment; and that the magistrates themselves acknowledged, that they had sinned in treating him in such a manner. St. Paul, by his conduct, plainly proved his innocence of all offence. "And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia: and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed."

Of course the brethren were very sorry to lose St. Paul; but now that he had established a Church at Philippi, they could go on without him, whilst his teaching was much wanted in other places: and consequently, he and Silas journeyed on to the south-west. "Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia," preaching the Gospel no doubt, though we hear nothing as to their success, they went to Thessalonica, an important city of Macedonia, and one in which many Jews resided; for there was a synagogue there. "And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them" in their synagogue, "and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures": showing that those holy writings, prophesied both the sufferings and the rising again of Christ the Messiah; and then plainly telling them, "this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ," the promised Messiah, of whom your Scriptures speak.

"And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few." As usual, the Jews were more bitter against the Gospel than the Gentiles; and we read that "the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort,"—men of no principle, ready at any time to do any mischief which came in their way: by the help of these men, the Jews "gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted (or attacked) the house of Jason," where they supposed the Apostles to be, "and sought to bring them out to the people," who, in their excited state, would probably have put them to death without further inquiry.

Jason was one of those who had become a Christian, and he appears to have shown hospitality to the Apostles, and lodged them in his house; though the mob did not find them there, when they assaulted the house. "And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These (men) that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of CÆsar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these things." But the rulers could find no cause to punish Jason or the other brethren that were dragged with him before the judgment seat, so "they let them go," "when they had taken security of them." What this "security" was, we do not know; probably some promise not to entertain the Apostles, nor to rebel against the Roman Emperor.

By "turning the world upside down," the accusers of Jason meant, that what the Apostles taught was so different to anything ever heard of before, that it would quite alter everything, and make the world no longer like the same place. This, let us remember, is exactly what the Gospel was meant to do.

It was not considered advisable for the Apostles to remain longer at Thessalonica, where the people were too much enraged to listen to them; and therefore, "the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea."

There was a synagogue of the Jews also at Berea, whither, when it was neither useful nor safe for them to remain at Thessalonica, Paul and Silas were sent; "who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble (more liberal-minded and unprejudiced) than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, (listened willingly to the teaching of the Apostles,) and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so": they compared the teaching of St. Paul with the written word of the Old Testament, in order to see whether they were justified in believing all he taught them. The consequence of this was, that many of the Jews believed; "also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few." But when the unbelieving Jews of Thessalonica, heard that the people of Berea were listening to St. Paul and becoming Christians, some of them came down on purpose to try and put an end to his preaching. They easily found plenty of unbelieving Jews and Gentiles ready for mischief, and stirred them up to make a riot: the brethren now acted as those at Thessalonica had done, and fearing for the Apostle's safety, immediately "sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea: but Silas and Timotheus abode," still in Berea.

Two or three of the brethren went with St. Paul to guard him from danger. We read, "And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens," either by sea or by land; "and receiving a commandment," that is, a message, from him "unto Silas and Timotheus," bidding them "for to come to him with all speed, they departed" to return unto Berea; leaving St. Paul alone at Athens.

Athens was the chief city of Achaia, the other province which, with Macedonia, formed what the Romans then called "Greece." Athens long before this had been a powerful and famous city: it was founded, or begun to be built, by a king called Cecrops, who came over from Asia during the time that the Israelites were in bondage in Egypt, before Moses was born. In the course of time Athens became, as we have said, a great and powerful city; full of beautiful temples and other buildings: some of these are even standing now; and a great many ruins are to be seen, all showing how magnificent the city must once have been.

In St. Paul's time, Athens, like most other cities and countries in the known world, was under the dominion of the Romans; and the Athenians, or inhabitants of the city, were quite devoted to the worship of false gods: we are told that there were more idols to be seen at Athens, than could be found in any other place.

Now while St. Paul waited at Athens, for Silas and Timotheus to join him, "his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry." Grieved at the state of the Athenians, the Apostle felt eager to try and teach them better things: "his spirit was stirred in him; therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons," proselytes of the gate, "and in the market daily with them that met with him"; who must have been for the most part Gentiles, or heathen idolaters. The market, as has been explained, was a public place, where people met for business of all kinds; and to talk to each other upon any subjects of importance.

There were at this time in Athens, a great many wise and clever men, fond of learning: such men were called "Philosophers." These philosophers held different opinions; some believing one thing, some another; and as they each wished to bring people over to join them, they constantly spake in the market-place, explaining their doctrines, and persuading men to believe in them.

Two chief sects (or parties) of these philosophers, were the Epicureans and the Stoics. The Epicureans thought that the gods were only so in name, and that there was no Divine Power whatever to rule over the world; therefore they held, that the wisest thing was, for every man to do exactly what he liked best, and only to think of his own pleasure, as long as he lived.

The Stoics believed, that there were gods who ruled all things in the world so completely, that man became a mere machine, not answerable for his own conduct; so that he could never be said to do right or wrong: thus they taught, that the only real wisdom was to learn to bear with indifference whatever the gods caused to happen to them, whether it was what men call good or evil, happiness or misery.

Both these "systems of philosophy" (or sets of opinions), were equally contrary to all that St. Paul was appointed to teach. We read, "Then certain of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered him." But when they had heard, his teaching, "some said, What will this babbler say?"—mocking the Apostle as if he had been talking nonsense, without any meaning, just from a love of "babbling," or talking foolishly. Others said, "He seemeth to be a setter-forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection." So little did all their wisdom help them to understand spiritual things, that they fancied the resurrection of which St. Paul spake, was some female deity called by that name, instead of understanding it to be an action done by Jesus, whom St. Paul preached. The God of whom St. Paul spake, was indeed a strange God unto the Athenian philosophers! but instead of ill using the preacher, they, like sensible men, determined to hear more on the subject.