From Cilicia he and his companion then passed into Lycaonia[945], and once more visited the towns of Derbe and Lystra. In the latter place he found a pleasing proof that his labours during his previous visit had not been in vain. In Timothy, who has been already mentioned[946], who had been carefully nurtured from childhood in the knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures by his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois (2 Tim. i. 5), who had witnessed the persecutions which the Apostle had undergone, and now as a Christian enjoyed the confidence of the church at Lystra and Iconium (Acts xvi. 2, 3), he saw one well fitted to do more than supply the place of John Mark, and invited him to become his companion. Timothy, on his part, was ready and willing to join him, and on account of the Jews who were numerous in the town and neighbourhood[947], and probably for the sake of his admission into the synagogue in which the Apostle intended to preach, submitted to the rite of circumcision (Acts xvi. 3). Before _many witnesses_ (1 Tim. vi. 12) he was then[948] solemnly ordained by the laying on of the hands of the whole assembly of the elders, and of the Apostle himself (2 Tim. i. 6), to do the work of an Evangelist, and proceeded with him and Silas, visiting the churches already founded, and exhibiting the decrees of the Council at Jerusalem (Acts xvi. 4). The effect of this visitation was speedily felt. Strengthened by the superintendence of three such earnest labourers, the churches were established in the faith, and _increased in number daily_ (Acts xvi. 5). The first part of their mission completed, the three advanced in a northerly direction through Phrygia[949] and Galatia[950] (Acts xvi. 6). In the last-named district it does not seem to have been the intention of St Paul to have preached the Gospel, being probably anxious at once to bear his message to the more important and promising district of proconsular Asia[951] (Acts xvi. 6). But a sharp and violent attack of a malady, to which he was subject, and which he calls _a thorn in the flesh[952], the messenger of Satan sent to buffet him_ (2 Cor. xii. 7), prostrated his physical strength, and he was constrained to linger in Galatia[953] (Gal. iv. 13, 14). But though the Apostle appeared in the capitals of Galatia――Pessinus, Ancyra and Tavium――bowed down with physical infirmity, he was received with peculiar kindness by the warm-hearted[954] Gauls. They did _not despise nor loath the temptation in his flesh_ (Gal. iv. 14). They welcomed him as _an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus_, nay, they _would have plucked out their own eyes_, and _have given them to him_[955] (Gal. iv. 15). His announcement of a crucified Saviour (Gal. iii. 1) they received with eagerness and deep fervour, and many, both Jews and Gentiles, men and women, freemen and slaves[956] (Gal. iii. 27, 28), professed themselves believers, and the churches of Galatia were added to those of Cilicia, Lycaonia and Phrygia.