The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-07-03


her rawlings. 1t was a righteous i'm
pulse in Paul that eaid to the disease in
the girl. 1 charge thee IN the name of
Jesus Christ to come out of her. The
beholding people we're astonished to
see the crazsd girl suddenly brought to
sanity, aud consequently to natural
modesty.
1. The Missionaries Cast into
PriSOn,-vs. 1924.
The owners of the crazed fortune tel
Ter had no pleasure in her restoration.
or course not. They felt themselves
wronged. A source OF income had been
taken from them. They therefore at
once laid violent hands on Paul and
Silas, and dragged them before the mag
istrates, or pratore, in the market place,
or the public square. Timothy and Silss
escaped arrest because they were not
agents in the cure which had been
wrought. The accusers, before the pra-
tore, concealed their real grievance. Ex-
orcism, they knew, was not an indictable
offence. They adroitly charged: These
men, being Je,cs. do exceedingly trouble
our city, and set forth customs a0hich 1T
is not loagful for as to receive, or to OBJ
serve, being Romans. The accusation
against them implies the now estab-
lished fact that to be Jew was at this
time an offence in Philippi. There had
been from the time of Augustus Roman
law against the introduction of any
foreign religion into the Roman prov
inces. The law had not been to any
great extent enforced. But there had
recently risen disposition among the
Romans to enforce the law against the
Jews. Just previous to this date the
Jews had been driven from Rome.
The unlawfulness of their preaching
was made the occasion Of an exciting ap.
peal to the populace. The mob-spirit
quickly responded. The pr@tors them
selves became part of the mob. They
asked the prisoners no questions. They
condemned them unheard. They gave
to their policemen the order which was
lawful only against criminals whose
guilt had been proved: Go, lictors. strip
of their garments; letthem be sco,trged.
The terrible order was promptly exc
cuted.
Paul and Silas were committed to the
jailer for safe keeping through the night.
The jailer, in obedience to his mas
ters cast them into the inner prison.
and made their feet fast in the stocks.
Their feet were stretched apart and
thrust through holes in heavy block of
wood, and securely fastened.
Can we realizs their situation? Con-
fined in the inner prison. breathing its
foul air, tortured by vermin, utter dark
ness about them, their feet painfully
cramped in the stocks, their wounds un-
dressed from their scourging,-whath hui
man condition could be more pitiable?
2. The Prison Shaken by an
Earthquake,-vs. 25-2S.
Yet these prisoners filed the night
silence with melody. The tabled Or
pheus was outdone by these missionar-
les, who, in their sleeplessness. lifted
themselves out of their hideous environ
ment and forgot their bodily pains in
the trance Of worship. Well might the
jailer and the prisoners in the adjoining
dungeons listen and marvel.
A shock! An earthquake shook the
prison to it's foundations, opening all the
doors.
In the fright which ensued, when in
slant death was expected by all. every
prisoners bands were loosed.
The jailer. in his house adjoining,
wakened by the seismic shock, seeing
the prison doors open. assumed that his
prisoners had fed. and therefore that his
Roman honor and life were forfeited.
He was about to do what Brutus had
done on the plain near by, end his life
with his own sword. But Paul behold
ing him called out of darkness, Do thy.
self no harm: for aUe are all here.
3. The Keeper COnverted,-vs
1884.
The iailer called for lights and spring
ing into the dungeon quickly brought
forth the men he had suddenly learned
to reverence. He fell down before them
saying, Lords. i0hat must I do to be
saUed.
From what did he desire to be saved?
Men flee only from the thing they act
ually dread. Could he have had the
fear of far-off doom in the invisible flu
ture world when he essayed to kill him
self moment before? We cannot con-
ceive it. He manifestly desired to be
saved from the danger at that moment
besetting him, from the penalty Of the
Roman law which was suicide; more
than all, from his sense OF unworthiness
in the presence of the men of God.
Paul's saying, Believe on the Lord
Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and
thy house. was an assurance to the un-
manned jailer that he might be rescued
from his despair, from his necessity of
cuicida and ind q aniritual aacuritV and