After founding Churches in the semi-barbarous regions of Phrygia and Galatia, St. Paul was led by the express direction of the Holy Spirit to an altogether new field of labour, and it is here, just on the eve of St. Paul's departure from Asia for the continent of Europe, that St. Luke joins the Apostolic company. [Sidenote: Jewish influences give way to Greece and Rome.] The Church was now spreading far westward and coming into closer contact with the philosophy of Greece and the power of Rome, whilst Jewish influences shrank into insignificance. There was no synagogue in the large and important Roman colony of Philippi, {38} and only women seem to have resorted to the place of prayer outside the walls of the city, whilst at Thessalonica, where the one synagogue for the whole district was situated, the accusation of the Jews against the preachers of the Gospel was no longer of a religious, but of a political nature. [Sidenote: Opposition to the Gospel political.] "These all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar[19]." In same way the malice of the rulers of the Jews against the Divine Head of the Church had found vent in assertions of His plotting to destroy the Temple, or to make Himself a King, according as the Jewish populace or the Roman governor was to be stirred up against Him[20]. But if Jewish prejudices no longer offered the same formidable opposition to the soldiers of the Cross, as before in Palestine and the neighbouring countries, the Apostle and his fellow-labourers had now to encounter fresh enemies not less deadly. [Sidenote: Vice and superstition mixed with intellectual unbelief.] In the highly civilized cities of Greece they encountered on the one hand the full tide of heathenism with all its degrading vices and superstitions, and on the other, Pagan philosophy with its hard sceptical temper and intellectual pride. Influences such as these may account for the comparatively small results which seem to have followed the preaching of St. Paul at Philippi, Thessalonica[21], and Berea, and the prominence given to women as being more easily touched by the good tidings of the Gospel. [Sidenote: Open conflict with Satan.] At Philippi is noticeable the conflict between the visible power of Satan and the Power of {39} One stronger than he, in the casting out by St. Paul of the evil spirit of Python from the soothsaying woman. This was an earnest of the final issue of that great contest between the kingdom of Satan and the Kingdom of God, which was now beginning in the very strongholds of darkness, and is to continue to the end of time. We may also remark the first mention of the title and rights of a Roman citizen claimed by St. Paul for himself and St. Silas after their illegal imprisonment. [Sidenote: A.D. 54. Athenians little inclined to believe.]