Amid these surroundings, Paul and his companions sat down in the proseuchæ, “and spake unto the women” who had already assembled in the place of prayer. It would seem that there were no Hebrew men in Philippi, and possibly, for the reason this city was a military, and not a mercantile centre. Even the women may have been few in number, so that the speaker could not deliver a formal address, but only engage in familiar conversation, which could be easier done in a sitting posture, and in a comparatively free and conversational intercourse, thus assuming at once the attitude of teachers. The gracious words which fell from the lips of Paul in this first attempt to introduce the gospel into Macedonia, are not reported by Luke, but he tells us that the Lord opened the heart of a woman named Lydia. There is something very beautiful in this incident, that God should honor woman with being the first convert in Europe! It was a man who stood before Paul in his vision, praying, “Come over into Macedonia and help us,” but it is a woman who is first willing to be helped. There was, that Sabbath morning, in the proseuchæ, by the rippling waters of the Anghista, one solitary woman who was in a special degree, open to the influence of the truth, and who listened with earnest attention to all that Paul said. Luke tells us that Lydia was a dealer in purple, and a citizen of Thyatira, Asia Minor, and, as Thyatira was a Macedonian colony, we may the more readily understand that circumstances connected with her trade brought her at this time to Philippi, and was probably only a temporary resident. Thyatira was celebrated, at a very early period, for its purple dyes and purple fabrics. The purple color, so extravagantly valued by the ancients, and even by the Orientals at the present day, included many shades or tints, from rose-red to sea-green or blue. Philippi being the military centre of Macedonia, the military trappings, with all their tinsel and show, made a brisk market for the purple cloth of Lydia, and, no doubt, she was a woman who prospered in her business, and was in good circumstances, and, possibly, possessed of considerable wealth, as she generously offered her home and hospitality to Paul and his companions.