Paul, and the companions of his missionary tour, first met with Lydia at one of the Jewish places of prayer by the river-side, which ran near the city. The Temple at Jerusalem, and previously the Tabernacle, were the appointed places for the public worship of God, in the open court of which, before the altar, the people assembled. But such as lived at a distance, or from local inconveniences could not constantly repair to the place of general association, were allowed to build _Proseuchiæ_, or _Oratories_, in one of which our Saviour continued all night in prayer. They had no covering like synagogues, but were surrounded by porticoes, to afford shelter from the inclemency of the weather, and were erected in the suburbs of a city, by the baths or near rivers, on account of the purifications so frequent with the Jews, and usually on very elevated spots of ground. The proseucha signalized by the devotions of Christ was on a mountain. Some have supposed that Isaac went out to meditate in the evening in a place of this description. These were probably the _high places_ of ancient times, in or near which groves were planted, and which are only condemned in Scripture when appropriated to idolatrous purposes. "I am like a green olive tree," says the Psalmist, "in the house of God." Availing themselves of the opportunity afforded by the resort of devout persons to these religious retirements, these zealous ministers of the Gospel conversed and preached to the people, who on this occasion were chiefly women. But though many were addressed, it does not appear that more than one was substantially benefitted. Her attention was excited, her heart opened, and her profession of the name of Jesus immediate and public. The several points of her character deserve particular and distinct illustration. Lydia is said to have been of the city of Thyatira; but whether she had removed to Philippi, or was only come for the purpose of trade, is not certain. She was one who "worshipped God," that is, one who, in distinction from the heathen around her, had learned the character of Jehovah, and was probably a Jewish proselyte. [46] Instructed in the ancient records of that extraordinary nation, which had been so many past ages the only depository of divine truth, she was expecting the predicted Messiah; and while, from the natural aversion of mankind to the humiliating doctrine of salvation through a crucified person, the greater proportion of Jews rejected him, she experienced a true conversion, not only from the principles of heathenism, but from those of Judaism, to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A few instances of this description occur in the evangelical record to show the sovereignty and diversified operations of the grace of God.