The Traveller
“Hark the note!
The natural music of the mountain reed — For here the patriarchal days are not
A pastoral fable — pipes in the liberal air,
Mix’d with the sweet bells of the wandering herd.”
“Once was I stoned, in journeyings often, in perils of
waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness.” — 2 Cor. xi. 25, 26.
fter this favoured visit to the lovely island of Cyprus, we find Paul and his two companions once more on the Mediterranean, sailing northwards to the coast of Pamphylia, in Asia Minor. We are not told whether God had given them special directions to direct their steps thither, or whether they just took the first vessel they found sailing for another shore, — “the field” being the world,” and perishing heathen souls everywhere equally precious. Perhaps the Great Apostle, now that he had preached in large cities, might be desirous of carrying the glad tidings, with the hopes, too, of greater success, into the less frequented regions of Asia Minor, — upland districts similar to many parts of North Wales, the Highlands of Scotland, or the valleys of the Alps, where the inhabitants were more primitive in their manners, and less corrupted with fashionable vices and sins.
Be this as it may, however, we find the three travellers once more in a Cyprian vessel coming in view of the coast of Pamphylia. On entering, as is probable, the mouth of the Oestrus, their eyes would rest on a flat plain, on either side, running a long way into the interior, till it was hemmed in by a rampart of snowy mountains. Paul’s thoughts were occupied with nobler battles and victories than those of earth; but it is not improbable that, as they were slowly steering up the river, some of the crew may have pointed out to him spots which had been rendered famous by contending armies, narrating tales of valour connected with the names of Cimon, Antiochus, and Hannibal. In entering the channel of the Oestrus, he would observe the rugged cliffs which rose perpendicularly from the sea on the east and west. If he had been a few miles further in a westerly direction, he would have seen the leap which the river Catarrhactes (as its name imports) takes over the sea-cliffs into the ocean beneath, and which must have been peculiarly grand after the heavy rains, or the sudden melting of the mountain snows. *
Pamphylia itself occupied about eighty miles along the coast, lying between Lycia on the west, and Cilicia on the east; and as its name, “a land of all tribes,” would lead us to infer, it was inhabited by different races — those principally of Greek extraction. At this time, Pisidia and Lycia formed along with it one province, under a Roman governor, having Antioch in Pisidia for its capital.t They have sailed seven miles
* * ‘The river Cataractes, which Strabo places between the cities of Olbia and Attalia, and which, he says, precipitates itself from a lofty rock with a tremendous din.” — Beaufort’s Karamania, p. 127.
t Lewin, vol. i, p. 145.
up the river we have just spoken of, and which bears the modern name of the Aksoo, when they reach the town of Perga. This city was beautifully situated in the valley through which, amid precipitous rocks, the Oestrus winds its way. It occupied chiefly the left bank of the river; it had a wall surrounding it, with the usual edifices of a Greek town — a theatre, stadium, and temples. As at Antioch and Paphos, the great attraction of the place was a temple built on a lofty eminence to Diana, and a yearly festival held in honour of this heathen goddess. Shepherds and their flocks are now found encamping amid broken shafts and columns, — all that is left to mark the spot where Perga stood, and where Paul and his friends lodged.
There was a trial waiting the great apostle here which he little expected. John Mark, who had till now accompanied them, got either timid or weary in his work, and, leaving Paul and Barnabas, he took the first ship that sailed to the land of Judea. We have no means of knowing accurately what induced the younger disciple to take this step, and desert his fellow-travellers, just when they had most need of him. Most probably he feared the “perils of floods (waters) and perils of robbers,” — the dangers and fatigues that were so well known in connexion with a journey across the Pisidian “Alps.” He could not make up his mind to “endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” It must, at all events, have been cause of deep sorrow and regret to his older companions. May we not conclude this to have been the reason of their brief stay in Perga? The good cause may there have suffered from the unkind and unmanly conduct of Barnabas’ yo&ng relative. Mark would doubtless have his own sad feelings, when, as he sailed all alone on the midnight sea, he thought of this desertion from his holy and devoted friends. The words of his divine Lord and Master must have been sounding loudly and reproachingly in his ears, — “No man having put his hand to the plough, arid looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Some have been led in charity to plead, in excuse for him, a commendable desire to be with his aged and widowed mother in Jerusalem; but even this, though it would tend to lessen his blameworthiness, would not be sufficient to justify him; for, after having undertaken his missionary work, he ought to have remembered the words of Him who said, “Whosoever loveth father and mother more than me, is not worthy of me.” We have abundant reason to conclude, as we shall by and by find, that he bitterly repented of the step, and did all in his power to atone for present ingratitude and timidity.
The two elder apostles prepare alone to resume their journey. We have already seen them gathered with their fellow- Christians in Antioch (in Syria); we are now to accompany them many miles straight north from Perga, to another Antioch (in Pisidia) in the centre of Asia Minor. There are no gently-flowing rivers, like the Orontes or Cydnus, by which they can approach this remote spot. Desolate paths and rugged cliffs must be climbed and crossed before they can reach the distant capital.
It has been supposed, and perhaps correctly, that the season of the year when the two pilgrims set out from Perga, was about the end of spring or the beginning of summer, when the heat began to be so great in and around Perga, that the inhabitants (as still is the custom in many parts of India) left the intolerable warmth of the lower plains, and went up in companies or caravans to the cool breezes of the mountains.* We are all the more willing to fix this to be the time of their journey, as these lonely passes were infested with thieves, which rendered the route very dangerous to single or unprotected travellers. Many a daring tale of robber chiefs still lingers among these mountain glens; desperate marauders or freebooters, similar to those who kept, a century ago, the Scottish Highlands in a state of lawlessness, frequently pillaged, by sudden incursions, the plains, and then retreated amid their inaccessible rocks and fastnesses. If even Roman armies and Roman valour had to quail before these savage tribes, we need not wonder at Paul speaking afterwards with such feeling (and evidently with reference to his present journey) of “perils of robbers.”
It is more than probable that our two travellers selected the period of the year for their journey when they would have that protection on the road which was so much needed. Add to this — it was hardly possible to traverse these regions with comfort or safety at any other season of the year, — there was no travelling during the severe cold and drifting snows of winter, and, in early spring, the defiles were either choked with snow, or else the melting of it on the mountains made what roads and bridges there were, in many places, impassable.
We may imagine, then, the great apostle and his
* See the entire interesting chapter in Howson and Conybeare, where the descriptions of modern travellers are made graphically to illustrate this portion of Paul’s life. — Authorities there quoted.
fellow-traveller, staff in hand, on their way from Perga to the mountains of Pisidia. Their eyes are no longer gazing on the walls of a Jewish synagogue or a Roman palace, — the apostle no longer sits wrapped in his warm “cloak” as he floats over the “great sea,” but toiling along through difficult and slippery paths, with huge precipices frowning in terror over his head. Now and then some torrent, swollen by the sudden rains, and occupying the whole breadth of the defile, as it rushes down, may remind us also of the “perils of waters” (or “water-floods”), which he couples with the more terrible one of the mountain-freebooters. Those of my readers who are familiar with the floodings of the rivers and mountain-streams in Scotland, when, after the sudden melting of the snows on the higher Grampians, sheep, and trees, and corn-stacks, are often swept along in the furious current, may form some idea of the nature of these “perils” the apostle speaks of.
The fierce heat of the sun is gradually exchanged for the cooling breeze of the uplands; the vine, the orange, the pomegranate, and, above all, the oleander, with its bright crimson flower, at that season must have been carpeting the rocks as they began their ascent.* As they approach the higher regions, these gradually disappear, and the hardier plants and shrubs of the mountain take their place; at last they come to mark only a few flowers shivering in the snow, and are glad to take refuge now and then in some shepherd’s cave or grotto, or beneath the shade of pines, to screen them from the cutting winds. Any travellers that might have accompanied them thus far, are
* Spi-att and Forbes’ Lycia, as quoted by Howson.
now left behind, and they pursue their journey alone across a flat table-land of dull and dead scenery. They have bid, for the present, at least, farewell both to the riches of the plain and the stern grandeur of the mountains, and are traversing a vast flat wilderness full of lakes and morasses, where storks and wild swans are raising their necks among the reeds and rushes.* Shepherds’ huts and folds are studded here and there, at which fires are kept blazing at night to scare away the wild animals; and the apostle doubtless sees also occasionally encampments formed of the well-known “goats ‘-hair tents,” reminding him of his Tarsus days and childhood happiness. t In the far distance a few scattered specks begin to appear; and, after an hour or two of further journey, they are glad to find their weary limbs reclining in some humble dwelling in the capital of Pisidia.
The Pisidian Antioch, founded by Seleucus Nicanor, stood on an eminence which can still be distinguished as the site of the old city from the numerous ruins which are strewn around. Among these is a magnificent aqueduct of twenty-one arches, and several churches and temples. J
One Sabbath day, somewhere between the year of our Lord 45 and 50, we may fancy ourselves in the inside of a strange, peculiar building in the city of Antioch. It is built in a circular form; seats, rising one above another, are filled with eager intelligent countenances. In the centre is a raised desk or table of wood, where an individual, with a flowing beard, is
* Fellow’s Asia Minor, p. 155, quoted by Howson. See the picture at the beginning of the chapter. f Fellow’s Asia Minor, p. 155. J Bible Cyclopadia, Arundell’s Asia Minor, &c.
busy reading from some ancient scroll he holds in his hand; beside him is an interpreter, who translates what the other has been reading in Hebrew into the Greek language; close by is an ancient ark or chest, where the roll we have mentioned, along with others, were carefully kept; other bearded rulers sit in stone seats in front, facing the people; and behind a screen or lattice in the gallery, are a number of females — the wives and daughters of those assembled worshippers.” We must not omit to note two other figures in this assemblage — two men, strangers in dress, and yet wearing the covering for the head which was the badge of every Israelite, and, with features like others around them, are seated by themselves, and attract the attention of their fellow-worshippers. I need not tell you what scene this is, nor who these two strangers are — it is the Jewish synagogue in the Pisidian capital. Paul and Barnabas, as their custom was, resorted to the Jews’ place of worship to seek an opportunity of preaching the Gospel of their Divine Master.
With what different feelings must they, and the others in that synagogue, have listened to the following prayers which had just been read: — “Blessed be thou, 0 Lord our God, the God of our fathers,... who, in thy love, sendest a Redeemer to those who are descended from them for Thy name’s sake! 0 King, our Lord and helper, our Saviour and our shield! Blessed art thou, 0 Lord, who art the shield of Abraham!”” Look, we beseech Thee, upon our afflictions,... and make haste to redeem us with a perfect redemption for Thy name’s sake.; for Thou art our God, our King, and a strong Redeemer. Blessed art thou, 0 Lord, the Re-
*Philo, ii. 4 JS.
deemer of Israel /” “Make the offspring of David, Thy servant, speedily to grow up and nourish, and let our horn be exalted in Thy salvation; for we hope for Thy salvation every day. Blessed art thou, 0 Lord, who makest the horn of our salvation to flourish!” What a solemn “Amen” must the two Christian missionaries have pronounced over these answered prayers!
The “President” has just finished reading, as was the custom, the allotted portion of the Law and the Prophets; he has carefully rolled back the parchment or vellum scroll, and given it to the officer to be replaced in the chest. He then sends a messenger to the two strangers to ask them if they have any instructions to give the audience.
We may wonder at the notice thus taken of these unknown travellers; but it seems to have been understood in Jewish synagogues, that whenever any strangers took a seat, “sat down as Paul and Barnabas now did, it was an intimation that they were in the habit of addressing their countrymen, and were desirous of doing so.” *
Paul was waiting ready to obey the invitation. We are told that, upon being asked, “he rose and beckoned with his hand,” — his usual mode of imposingsilence when he was about to speak.
His sermon possesses a peculiar interest in being the first and the only one that we have on record as preached during this missionary journey. Though in itself only an outline of what he delivered, we may feel assured it contains a complete summary of his address, and much of it in the very words he employed. He secures at its commencement their attention by reminding them how
* LigMfoct,
God had selected them to be His peculiar people — recounting His manifold mercies to their nation; briefly touching on various leading incidents in their miraculous history, till he comes to the promise of Messiah given to His servant David, of whom, according to the flesh, Jesus was to be born. He then began to open up the great subject of his teaching, viz., that that Messiah promised to their royal ancestor had already come, and that by faith in Him they were “justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses.” Neander observes, that the whole discourse is a specimen of the peculiar wisdom and skill of Paul in the management of men’s dispositions. We may well be pardoned for quoting this memorable sermon in full. Imagine, then, the great apostle standing up in the synagogue of this distant city, and thus “preaching to them ‘Jesus:’” —
“Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience. The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out of it. And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he divided their land to them by lot. And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. And afterwards they desired a king; and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. Of this man’s seed hath God, according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus: when John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.* And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not he: but, behold, there cometh one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose. Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath-day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead: and he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: but he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.” *
When Paul had finished, the Jews and Gentile proselytes t came crowding around him. The minds of the latter had been deeply impressed — they had been conscience-stricken, and the good seed sown was ere long to manifest its growth in a Christian church. They were not content with what they had just heard from his lips, they ask the apostle to return again on the next sabbath, and repeat these wondrous glad-tidings of great joy. He gladly agrees to do so. Meanwhile, ere he leaves the synagogue, he entreats them, with fatherly affection, “to abide in the grace of God.”
We may imagine how the two Christian teachers would be employed before the return of another sabbath; how busily they would be engaged in going from house to house, explaining more fully the great salvation. The strange and startling sermon which this Jew of Tarsus had preached would doubtless be the topic of general conversation during the week. Greek merchants would talk of it at their place
* Acts xiii. 16-41.
Proselytes were those heathens or Gentiles who had been con veiled to Judaism, and worshipped the only living and true God.
of business — peasants, at the market — Jews, as they met in groups on the streets. When the next sabbath came round, the fame of the apostle had spread far and wide, and at the hour of service a dense crowd of Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, and Pisidians, was collected both in and around the synagogue. “Almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.”* The greater number of these worshippers were Gentiles. Their presence excited the envy of the Jews, who would not, as on the former sabbath, listen patiently to what Paul had to say. Filled with spiritual pride, they were offended at the thought of salvation coming-in any other way but through their law, and given to any other but their nation. They drowned his voice, therefore, with their clamour, and “interrupted him, contradicting and blaspheming.” Paul tried in vain to quiet them. He offered them anew “the grace of God,” but when he found all his pleadings were to no purpose, he speaks as the apostle to the Gentiles. “magnifying his office.” “It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you; but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo! we turn to the Gentiles.” t There were, however, many sincere converts made to the faith of Jesus as the result of these sabbath-days’ services; indeed, we are told the word of God spread through the region round about. His word never returns to Him void. It is added at the close of the narrative in the Acts, that “the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost.” + ’
But the apostle was not allowed to remain and watch the bread he had thus cast upon the waters. Some
* Acts xiii. 44. Acts xiii. 46. J Acts xiii. 52.
women of influence in the city prevailed on the chief citizens to take part with the Jews against Paul. He saw that it would be needful for him again, as at Damascus formerly, to obey his Lord’s command, “When they persecute you in one city, flee to another.” They left, therefore, the gates of the Pisidian capital, and “shaking the dust from their feet,” as a testimony against its unbelieving citizens, made their way to Iconium.
This town is situated at the foot of Mount Taurus, sixty miles from Antioch, on the great highway connecting Ephesus with the Syrian Antioch. Under the modern name of Konieh, or Cogni, a corruption of its ancient one, it still exists a Turkish city, but has few remains of its antiquity, saving some slabs, columns, and pedestals, with Greek and Roman inscriptions. Iconium rose many ages after Paul visited it to much greater splendour and importance, under a bold race of eastern princes or sultans. Here they had their palace, and adorned the town with many spacious buildings. To this day, although there are few ancient remains, its walls are extensive, numbering many towers and eighty gates. A traveller already mentioned was peculiarly struck with the imposing appearance of the mosques and colleges. “Several of the gates of these old colleges,” he says, “are of singular beauty. They are formed entirely of marble, adorned with a profusion of fretwork, and a fine entablature in the Moresco fashion, far excelling anything of the kind I have seen.” * However altered in many other respects, the natural features of the city and neighbourhood must have undergone little change since the days of Paul,
* Kiuneir, p. 2J9.
THE TRAVELLER. 2(J
The same gardens and pleasant meadows which the modern traveller observed stretching along the base of the hills — the same mountains, covered with snow on all sides but one, must have been seen by the apostle. An extensive plain stretches towards the east, the largest in Asia Minor. The Saracens who conquered the country are said to have been forcibly reminded by it of their own eastern deserts; and modern tourists speak of their camels stooping to crop the same tough herbage these animals are so familiar with in the boundless and arid plains of Eastern Asia.* It is not improbable that the great apostle may have had suggested to his mind its resemblance to the plain of Damascus — standing as both cities did like green spots in a waste wilderness; the heights of Taurus, with its scantier streams, reminding him of Hermon and Lebanon, and the dry and dusty plain of Lycaonia recalling “the wilderness of Damascus.”
Our two travellers seem to have remained at Iconium for some time, preaching in the synagogue and in private dwellings. The same treatment, however, awaited them here as at Antioch. The envious Jews stirred up the people — who threatened to stone them; but, on being informed of the plot against their lives, they resolved yet again to renew their journey, and preach the Gospel in “other cities.”
The two places to which they next directed their steps, seem to differ from any they had yet visited. We have followed them hitherto chiefly into the streets of great capitals, fall of wealth and learning. Now their route lies through the desert and little-travelled region of Lycaonia, to the cities of Derbe and Lystra. Here
* Ainsworth, Col Leake, as quoted by Howson.
the inhabitants seem to have been a pastoral race, rude, uncultivated, and plunged in gross paganism. There seems, indeed, to have been neither Jew nor synagogue in either city. The very name of the God of Israel was unknown to them. As they approached the gates of Lystra, they saw a large temple, with a statue within it, or before it, of Jupiter, the king of the pagan gods. This shewed at once what the religion of this city of the desert was. Jupiter was patron or presiding deity; the ignorant citizens imagined that he watched over it, and protected it. Day after day these pagans brought animals to the temple for their priests to slay to him in sacrifice.
We have abundant evidence from pagan writers that Lycaonia was a country wholly given to heathen idolatry. The very name (Lycaonia) had a strange fabulous meaning, which it may be interesting to note, as it bears on the occurrences we shall have presently to mention in connexion with the two apostles. The word Lycaonia is said to be derived from the Greek word Xvkos, a icolf, and the story, as related by the Latin poet Ovid, is in outline as follows: —
There was a king of Arcadia, by name Lycaon, who was directed by an oracle to found a city in that region. Jupiter, the king of the gods, descended one night in bodiry shape to the palace of Lycaon; and the subjects of the king, recognising the deity, wished to pay him adoration. -Lycaon was angry; he resolved to shew to his people that they were under a delusion in supposing this inmate of his house was really Jupiter, and he took the following method of proving their mistake. Some legates had been sent to treat with him from a neighbouring kingdom. He issued the cruel order to kill one of these, and to serve up his flesh at dinner to the reputed king of the gods. The horrible order was obeyed; Jupiter, in dreadful wrath, overturned the table — caused flames to burst forth in the palace, and laid it in ashes. Meanwhile, Lycaon fled in terror — his speech forsook him — his human form was gradually changed into that of a wolf, and he turned growling with fury on the unprotected flocks browsing on the fields around.*
Such was the very foolish story and fable currently believed by the blinded pagan citizens, whose gates Paul and Barnabas were now approaching. No sooner did the two apostles arrive in town than they proceeded to sound the Gospel trumpet. It does not seem that in doing so they went into any building or house. Probably in the open streets or squares, in the market place, or under some shady trees, they began to preach the great salvation. We may imagine the strange groups that were gathered around them, — men of rude garb and rougher manners, whose city was rarely visited by learned strangers; whose ears, though doubtless they understood it, seldom listened to the polished tones of the noble tongue in which Paul afterwards spoke to the philosophers of Athens, and in which he addressed his hearers now. As the preacher, with the stately figure of Barnabas at his side,t waxed in fervour and power, the thought may have occurred to the Lystrian crowd, with the temple of their patron god in view, What! can it be, that Jupiter can have come from his throne on Olympus, attended with Mercury, the god of eloquence? The idea, as we have seen, was neither new nor unwelcome to superstitious
* Ovid, Met. lib. 1. f Described so by Ckrysostom and others.
minds, and an incident presently occurred, which either led to their delusion or confirmed it.
As Paul was proceeding with his discourse, his eye was attracted by a lame man who lay on the ground unable to walk, but whose face was turned with ardent gaze on the lips of the speaker. The same, we read, “heard Paul speak.” He was, doubtless, “hearing him speak” on the great theme of salvation through a crucified but now exalted Redeemer. We have every reason to conclude that he had been brought to believe in that holy name, by which the power of the servant of Christ was about to perform on him a “notable miracle.” There are few towns, or even villages, which have not some such helpless object as now met the eye of Paul at Lystra. They are generally well known from their infirmity; and dependent, as they generally are, on public charity, they take their station at any notable place of resort, to be in the public eye. Anything, therefore, performed on this poor Lystra cripple in the shape of a cure, would be sure to attract attention. Paul saw that “he had faith to be healed.” “Stand upright on thy feet,” exclaims the great apostle, in a strength mightier than his own. In a moment the limping sufferer springs from the ground, and walks whole and restored before the gazing crowd.
Soon the tidings of the wonderful miracle spread. The town is in an uproar. The people rush away to the temple we have spoken of; they get the priest to adorn some oxen with flowers and garlands, and walking with these in procession, they advance towards the residence of the apostles. What can be the meaning of all this! These deluded heathens verily believe that the story of Lycaon has again come true, — the king of gods and men is once more in their streets, with his constant companion! They need not worship Jupiter in his temple, for they have him in the person of Barnabas, and Mercurius has come to them in the person of Paul. The people, in the fever of their excitement, had made these remarks to one another in the old Lycaonian dialect, so that the apostles were not at first aware what they had been purposing, until, to their amazement, they beheld the procession of garlandcrowned oxen close by their lodging. How it grieves and saddens the heart of Paul to see such ignorance and superstition! He and his companion rush to the door of their dwelling — they rend their clothes — they rebuke the folly of the citizens, assuring them that they are “men of like passions with themselves,” and that it is by the power of Jesus alone they can perform such mighty works as had just been witnessed in the case of the lame man.
Ye men of Lystra, “why do ye these things 1 We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you, that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”* The conduct of the Lystrians affectingly shews us “how much more willingly the world is led by the power of Satan than by the Spirit of God.” The apostles had wrought many miracles to prove the divinity of their Lord and Master; few, comparatively, believed on Him,
* Acts xiv. 15-17.
But here one single miracle is enough to bring these blinded pagans to worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator! They refuse to believe in the divinity of Jesus; but they dishonour His holy name by desiring to pay divine honours to two poor sinful mortals He had redeemed with His blood.* I may just add, if Paul and Barnabas had been impostors, designing men, who wished to get for themselves honour or wealth or dignity, how easily might they have worked on the credulity and ignorance of the people of Lystra! Gold and silver were generally stored in abundance in pagan temples — how easily might these two reputed “gods” have got access within the gate of the temple of Jupiter, and demanded the offerings treasured there! All their thoughts, however, were bent on undeceiving the ignorant minds around them; their only desire was, that they themselves be nothing, and that their Great Lord might be “all in all.”
But where do we find the apostle next 1 We should surely at all events expect the Lystrians to shew him every kindness and respect, to lodge him in a comfortable home, and listen with solemn earnestness to his preaching. Alas, what a changeable thing the human heart is! What an instance have we before us of the vanity and emptiness of human applause! He whom they would have worshipped one hour, is lying the next apparently a lifeless man, covered with wounds and bruises, outside their city wall! Some wicked Jews had followed the apostles from Iconium. They had made the citizens of Lystra believe that they wrought these miracles by magic, or by the power of the Evil One. The fate of the martyr Stephen very nearly
* Blunt, p. 178.
becomes Paul’s own. They stone him in the midst of the street. He is dragged, cut and bleeding, outside the ramparts of the town, and left to lie there. The few disciples that loved him are gathered round the dying man with tears. Doubtless many feared he was breathing his last. Barnabas would have all the sad thoughts of preparing a grave for his honoured friend in this far off pagan city, and of a return back alone to Jerusalem with the terrible tidings — “Paul is dead!” But the Lord, in whose hand is the breath of every living thing, had more work yet for his dear servant. “Though cast down, he is not destroyed.” The Church could not spare him, and these tears are soon to be turned into joy. We know not the names of those in that mourning crowd who were bathing his throbbing temples, and staunching his wounds; but we have good reason to think that there was a little boy there, who never forgot that scene and the lessons it conveyed. It was one whom Paul was afterwards proud to call “his own son in the faith.” Timothy beheld in that meek but suffering countenance before him, what the grace of God could do. We find the great apostle, when far advanced in life, reminding Timothy, in the second epistle he writes to him, of the persecutions which “he had fully known” at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra* The old saying was here again made true, that “the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church.” Timothy’s young name was that night added to “the glorious company of the apostles.” Paul, doubtless, when he thought of the ingratitude and cruelty of the Lystrians, would go forth from them “weeping,” bearing elsewhere the precious. seed they
* 2 Timothy iii. 10.
had rejected; but at his second visit, two years afterwards, he came “with rejoicing” to bear away this precious sheaf with him.
The apostle, so far recovered from his wounds, proceeds with his companion from Lystra to Derbe. The route between these towns, and indeed their position, is only a matter of conjecture. It has been supposed that the distance between them was twenty miles. They were separated from one another by a huge mountain called Karadagh or the Black Mount, spoken of by travellers as remarkable both for its sombre colour and great height, rising like a giant in the midst of the boundless plain which, “level as the sea,”* stretches from Iconium. It has its summit capped with snow, and a thousand and one churches are said to be built upon its sides. A recent explorer mentions having looked down from the top, and seen its slopes covered with these edifices, or ruins of them.t Like the Pisidian mountains, the neighbouring range of the Taurus was infested with robbers. The historian Strabo mentions Derbe as the stronghold of a famous freebooter of the name of Antipater, who made this a central point for his daring feats, and kept the neighbouring country in terror.:y; He was at last killed by Amyntas, King of Galatia. § To the city of Derbe,
* Kinneir. t See Hamilton’s Asia Minor, Kinneir, &c.
% Strabo, xii. 1. 6, as referred to by Lewin.
§ Modern travellers in the same spot have to record similar perils of robbers with those Paul experienced. “I was desirous of visiting it” (a place at the foot of the Black Mount), says Kinneir, in 1818, “but could not prevail upon ar y person to accompany me, or even to hire me horses, as they said that the country, in addition to being covered with snow, was now the resort of a band of Delhi Bashees, who gained a subsistence by plundering travellers, and laying the adjacent countries under contribution.” — Kinneir’s Travels in Karamania, p. 212.
which we may note, in passing, was the native town of Gams, the future friend and companion of Paul, the apostles now bent their steps. It was but a few hours’ journey from Lystra, and here they seem to have enjoyed a short season of quiet after the stirring scenes through which they had passed. If Paul had been a selfish man or a coward, or rather, if love to the Lord Jesus had not burned in his bosom, he might have resolved from this place to go straight through the mountain passes to the south-east, and, like Mark, have avoided further danger and peril by retiring to his old home at Tarsus.* But he was the servant of Him who “pleased not himself;” and already “he counted not his life dear unto him that he might finish his course with joy, and the ministry he had received of the Lord Jesus.”
It has, indeed, been conjectured that the original purpose of the travellers may have been to cross into Cilicia, through the well-known pass called the “Cilician Gates,” but that they were prevented by the swelling of the great lake which lay between them and the mountains. We think it, however, more probable that the apostle, having already proclaimed the Gospel in his native Cilicia, was desirous rather of returning by Iconium and Antioch, to water the seed which had been sown amid much discouragement and persecution, and to strengthen and confirm the disciples there.
Whatever their motive was, we know that they returned by the same way they came, passing through
* “About twenty hours to the northward of Tarsus there is a remarkable defile through a great chain of moun tains, which are everywhere else inaccessible. This pass admits about eight horses abreast, and has been cut through the rock to. the depth of forty feet. The marks of the tools are still visible in its sides,” — Beaufort’s Karamania, p. 264.
Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, — there making elders in the Church, choosing among the disciples those they thought best fitted for the ministry, — telling them all, from their own experience, not to expect release from trial, but rather “that through much tribulation they must enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Once more they descended through the precipitous rocky paths to Perga; and after pausing there for a brief time, instead of sailing, as formerly, down the Oestrus, they journeyed by land south-west to Attaleia, — a city beautifully situated in the curve of a sheltered bay. There they embarked for the Syrian Antioch, to tell with joy that the name “Christian,” first known within its walls, was now gloried in within the palace of a Roman, and in sight of the temples of Diana and Jupiter!