There is no evidence that there was any angry controversy here,――any thing inconsistent with the Christian integrity and brotherly kindness of the two men. Barnabas took Mark with him, and, embarking at Seleucia, sailed for the Island of Cyprus. Paul chose Silas as his companion, one of the delegates who had been sent from the council at Jerusalem to Antioch. Journeying by land, and probably on foot through Syria and Cilicia, they visited the churches in Asia Minor, in a route from east to west, instead of, as before, from west to east. Proceeding through Derbe, he came to Lystra, where, on the previous tour, he had been cruelly stoned. Here he found a young convert by the name of Timothy, for whom he formed the strongest of earthly attachments. Timothy’s mother was a Jewess; but his father was a Gentile, a Greek. His lineage was good, as Paul speaks of “the unfeigned faith which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice.”[126] Timothy attached himself to Paul, and ever after they were associated as father and son. Paul repeatedly calls him “my son,” “my own son in the faith,” and writes, “Ye know, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel.”[127] Timothy was the son of a Jewess; and his father, though a Greek, was unquestionably not an idolater, but a proselyte. While Paul was carrying “to all the churches” the decision of the council in Jerusalem,――that Gentiles were not to be forced into Judaism upon becoming Christians,――still, out of regard to the strong prejudices of the Jews among whom he was going, he caused Timothy to be circumcised. Some have regarded this as inconsistent conduct on the part of Paul; others have considered it but an indication of his far-sighted wisdom and caution. But for this, the hostile Jews would have had a new and formidable weapon of opposition to wield against him. As Timothy could not be regarded as a Gentile, the action of Paul could not be deemed inconsistent with the decision of the council at Jerusalem. Paul, Silas, and Timothy passed through the whole central region of Asia Minor, preaching the gospel in all its cities and villages; but we have no record of the incidents which attended their labors, or of the adventures which they encountered. It was undoubtedly a successful excursion; for the sacred historian writes, “And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in numbers daily.”[128]