It was usual among the Romans, as it still is in the East, for persons apprised of the approach of friends, or of those whom they delighted to honour, to go forth to meet them on the road they must travel, the honour being proportioned to the distance. The Christians at Rome were numerous, and many of them persons of consideration. They had heard from Puteoli of Paul's expected approach; and when he arrived at the Appii Forum, he found a large party of them, who had come to the unusual distance of fifty-one miles, to honour the great Apostle of the Gentiles, and to testify the sense they entertained of his services and sufferings in the cause of Christ. When Paul saw them, 'he thanked God, and took courage.' He was deeply moved by such affectionate zeal, and was encouraged by finding that the Roman brethren were not ashamed of his chain, but were rather stimulated thus publicly to avow their fellowship with him in the bonds of the gospel. From Appii Forum the company of Roman Christians proceeded with Paul's party eighteen miles, to the Three Taverns, a well-known stage upon this road. Here another large party of Christian brethren was found, composed probably of persons of maturer age, or whose departure from Rome had been too late for farther progress. The united parties must have rendered the attendance from this point very considerable; and the approach of Paul to the metropolis of the world, was more like a triumphal procession than the forced march of a prisoner.

On arriving at Rome, the centurion completed the responsible task he had so ably and discreetly performed, by resigning the charge of the prisoners into the hands of the prætorian prefect, a dignity which was at this time held by Burrhus, one of the most influential as well as most sagacious of Nero's advisers. It was in all probability the favourable mention of Paul made to him by Julius, together with the tone of the letter which he brought from Festus to the emperor, that procured for him very considerate treatment, and as much freedom as consisted with his safe detention. Instead of being confined to the barracks of the prætorium, he was allowed to take up

his abode in a hired house, which, we must suppose, was near

enough to facilitate the military inspec

tion under which he lived, and for the convenience of the soldier that kept him,' and to whom he was chained when he went abroad, if not within doors.1 Much of a prisoner's comfort depended upon the character of the men with whom he was brought into such close connection; and therefore pains were taken, and influence used to obtain select and well-behaved soldiers for this office. Thus when Herod-Agrippa was in like custody at Rome, the Empress Antonia influenced Marco, the then prætorian prefect, to see that the centurion who had charge of the prisoner, and the soldiers who interchangeably kept him, should be men of mild and easy nature, and that he might have leave to bathe himself daily, and that his friends and servants should have free access to him. There seems every indication that, through the spontaneous kindness of Burrhus, or the influence of Paul's friends with him, similar means were taken to make his confinement easy.

Paul had been only three days at Rome when he began to bestir himself in the cause he had most at heart. He sent first for the leading men among the Jews, who were very numerous at Rome, and sought to remove any impression unfavourable to him, that they might have derived from his appearance in the imperial city as a prisoner from Judea. They assured him, in reply, that they had not yet received from Judea any information to his disadvantage. They only knew generally that he was a leading man of the Nazarenes, who were 'everywhere spoken against,' but they were very willing to hear him on that subject. There was something promising in this; but when, on the day appointed, they came to his lodging to hear him

1 The cut, from the arch of Severus, shows a Roman soldier about to fasten to his own arm the chain by which a prisoner is bound.

further, the great truths of the Christian doctrine, which he set forth with much fulness, were not found acceptable to more than a few of their number. Observing their disagreement with him, and their distaste to his teaching, he sent them away with a rebuke for the hardness of their hearts, and with the intimation, 'Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles.' Accordingly, Paul remained for two years in his hired house, preaching the gospel with eminent success to all who came to hear him. Nor was preaching all his labour, for to this period we are to ascribe his Epistle to the Ephesians, the Epistles to the Philippians and the Colossians, the Epistle to Philemon, and perhaps the Epistle to the Hebrews, of which he is generally supposed to have been the writer. To these we must add the Second Epistle to Timothy, if there was but one imprisonment at Rome. Here also was written, at the close of this period, the Acts of the Apostles by Luke; for he brings his history no further than this, leaving Paul still a prisoner, after two years' captivity at Rome. The Gospel of the same evangelist had been previously written, probably at an earlier date in this captivity, for he makes a distinct allusion to it in his introduction to the Acts.

The subsequent history of Paul, after Luke closes the record which we have hitherto followed with so much interest, is involved in great uncertainty and doubt. Whether he was liberated from this confinement, or closed it by martyrdom ; if liberated, by what means it was accomplished; the course, extent, and duration of his subsequent travels; and even the time and manner of his death, are points of which nothing can be positively affirmed. The somewhat muddy current of tradition is, however, in favour of his liberation from this imprisonment; after which he revisited the churches he had established, and executed the intention he had formerly announced of journeying through the western parts of the Roman empire unto Spain, and, as some have fancied, even to the British Isles. He then returned to Rome, whether freely or as a

1

1 Rom. xv. 24, 28.

prisoner, tradition does not pretend to settle. There he became involved in the results of the persecution which was raised against the Christians on account of the burning of Rome, falsely ascribed to them, and in consequence of which the fullest measure of Roman cruelty was expended upon them. The apostle was kept for some time in confinement; and it is alleged, that in this second imprisonment he was not allowed the comparatively easy custody of the 'soldier that kept him,' but was committed to prison. The Mamertine prison, which still exists, is indeed particularly indicated as that in which he was detained; and we are inclined to attach some credit to this indication, from finding it frequently mentioned in old martyrologies as the place in which many of the early martyrs were confined, as well as from our knowledge that it was adapted to and used for such purposes in Nero's day. The Mamertine prison dates from the earliest times of Rome. It consists of two extensive apartments, built with large uncemented stones, and lying one over the other. The upper one has no entrance but through a hole in the top, and there is access to the lower chamber only through an aperture in the floor of the upper one. The lower dungeon, called the Tullianum (from the King Servius Tullius, to whom it was

ascribed), is that in which Paul is supposed to have been confined. A more horrible abode for the detention of a human being could not well be conceived; and Sallust, who described it when still in use, says that from darkness, un

cleanness, and foul air, it was altogether a loathsome and frightful place. From this dungeon we are told that Paul was dragged to Aquæ Salvia, the Tyburn of Rome, situated about two miles beyond the present limits of the city, and there bowed to the stroke which laid his venerable head in the dust.

Fifty-second Week-Seventh Day.

THE CATACOMBS.—HEB. XI. 38.

ALTHOUGH We possess no very satisfactory information respecting St. Paul's career subsequent to the close of the Acts of the Apostles, we are not in want of information of peculiar interest respecting the early condition of that church-the church in the imperial city—which, as its importance demanded, occupied a large place in his thoughts and his prayers, and which long continued to bear the impress of his labours. The cursory reader of Scripture may be apt to underrate the extent of these labours, seeing that the record of them is embraced in a few verses at the close of the last historical book of Scripture. But a man like Paul could not labour for upwards of two years in a city like Rome, without leaving, upon a soil already broken up to his hands, the most manifest signs of his culture. Then, there is the probability of a second visit of some duration, in which far more effectually than by oral teaching, he with his blood matured 'God's husbandry' in that place. And besides, there is the great epistle which he wrote to the Christians in that city before they had seen his face, and which was well calculated, with the Spirit's blessing, to build up the church to which it was addressed, as it has since built up other churches-strong in doctrine and in faith. Verily, it was not milk for babes that he gave to them; but strong nourishing food, that they might grow thereby. And they did grow.

Deep beneath the soil of Rome, and winding off into labyrinths of unknown extent, excavations were made before the time of the birth of Christ for a species of earth or sand, now