"The Jews came in great numbers at the appointed time. Then followed an impressive scene, like that at Troas (Acts xxi.)--the Apostle pleading long and earnestly,--bearing testimony concerning the kingdom of God,--and endeavouring to persuade them by arguments drawn from their own Scriptures,--'from morning till evening.' The result was a division among the auditors--'not peace, but a sword,'--the division which has resulted ever since, when the Truth of God has encountered, side by side, earnest conviction with worldly indifference, honest investigation with bigoted prejudice, trustful faith with the pride of scepticism. After a long and stormy discussion, the unbelieving portion departed; but not until St. Paul had warned them, in one last address, that they were bringing upon themselves that awful doom of judicial blindness, which was denounced in their own Scriptures against obstinate unbelievers; that the salvation which they rejected would be withdrawn from them, and the inheritance they renounced would be given to the Gentiles. The sentence with which he gave emphasis to this solemn warning was that passage in Isaiah, which recurring thus with solemn force at the very close of the Apostolic history, seems to bring very strikingly together the Old Dispensation and the New, and to connect the ministry of Our Lord with that of His Apostles:--'Go unto this people and say: Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive: for the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.' " ... During the long delay of his trial St. Paul was not reduced, as he had been at Cæsarea, to a forced inactivity. On the contrary, he was permitted the freest intercourse with his friends, and was allowed to reside in a house of sufficient size to accommodate the congregation which flocked together to listen to his teaching. The freest scope was given to his labours, consistent with the military custody under which he was placed. We are told, in language peculiarly emphatic, that his preaching was subjected to no restraint whatever. And that which seemed at first to impede, must really have deepened the impression of his eloquence; for who could see without emotion that venerable form subjected by iron links to the coarse control of the soldier who stood beside him? how often must the tears of the assembly have been called forth by the upraising of that fettered hand, and the clanking of the chain which checked its energetic action.