xtraordinary that so eminent a missionary
in the meridian of his usefulness was subjected to so long an
imprisonment. But "God's ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts as
our thoughts." When thus, to a great extent, laid aside from official
duty, he had ample time to commune with his own heart, and to trace out,
with adoring wonder, the glorious grace and the manifold wisdom of the
work of redemption. Having himself partaken largely of affliction, and
experienced the sustaining power of the gospel so abundantly, he was the
better prepared to comfort the distressed; and hence his letters,
written at this period, are so full of consolation. [141:2] And apart
from other considerations, we may here recognise the fulfilment of a
prophetic announcement. When Paul was converted, the Lord said to
Ananias--"He is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the
Gentiles, and _kings_, and the children of Israel, for I will shew him
_how great things he must suffer_ for my name's sake." [141:3] During
his protracted confinement he exhibited alike to Jew and Gentile an
illustrious specimen of faith and constancy; and called attention to the
truth in many quarters where otherwise it might have remained unknown.
Though he was chained to a soldier, he was not kept in very rigorous
custody, so that he had frequent opportunities of proclaiming the great
salvation. He was peculiarly fitted by his education and his genius for
expounding Christianity to persons moving in the upper circles of
society; and had he remained at liberty he could have expected to gain
access very rarely to such auditors. But already, as a prisoner, he had
pleaded the claims of the gospel before no inconsiderable portion of the
aristocracy of Palestine. He had been heard by the chief captain in
command of the garrison in the castle of Antonia, by the Sanhedrim, by
Felix and Drusilla, by Festus, by King Agrippa and his sister Bernice,
and probably by "the principal men" of both Caesarea and Jerusalem. In
criminal cases the appeals of Roman citizens were heard by the Emperor
himself, so that the apostle was about to appear as an ambassador for
Christ in the presence of the greatest of earth's potentates. Who can
tell but that some of that splendid assembly of senators and nobles who
surrounded Nero, when Paul was brought before his judgment-seat, will
have reason throughout all eternity to remember the occasion as the
birth-day of their blessedness!

The apost