108. But the tide turned. At the critical moment Paul was visited
with one of those visions which were wont to be vouchsafed to him at
the most trying and decisive crises of his history. The Lord appeared
to him in the night, saying, "Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not
thy peace; for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt
thee; for I have much people in this city." The apostle took courage
again, and the causes of discouragement began to clear away. The
opposition of the Jews was broken, when they hurried him with mob
violence before the Roman governor, Gallio, but were dismissed from the
tribunal with ignominy and disdain. The very president of the
synagogue became a Christian, and conversions multiplied among the
native Corinthians. Paul enjoyed the solace of living under the roof
of two leal-hearted friends of his own race and his own occupation,
Aquila and Priscilla. He remained a year and a half in the city and
founded one of the most interesting of his churches, thus planting the
standard of the cross in Achaia also and proving that the gospel was
the power of God unto salvation even in the headquarters of the world's
wisdom.
THE THIRD JOURNEY
109. It must have been a thrilling story Paul had to tell at Jerusalem
and Antioch when he returned from his second journey; but he had no
disposition to rest on his laurels, and it was hot long before he set
out on his third journey.
110. In Asia.--It might have been expected that, having in his second
journey planted the gospel in Greece, he would in his third have made
Home his principal aim. But, if the map be referred to, it will be
observed that, in the midst, between the regions of Asia Minor which he
evangelized during his first journey and the provinces of Greece in
which he planted churches in his second journey, there was a
hiatus--the populous province of Asia, in the west of Asia Minor. It
was on this region that he descended in his third journey. Staying for
no less than three years in Ephesus, its capital, he effectively filled
up the gap and connected together the conquests of his former
campaigns. This journey included, indeed, at its beginning, a
visitation of all the churches formerly founded in Asia Minor and, at
its close, a flying visit to the churches of Greece; but, true to his
plan of dwelling only on what was new in each journey, the author of
the Acts has supplied us only with the details relating to Ephesus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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