ey were made poorer by the persecutions which they had to
endure. These were very severe after Paul left, and they lasted long.
Of course they had broken first of all on Paul himself. Though he was
so successful in Macedonia, he was swept out of every town at last like
the off-scourings of all things. It was generally by the Jews that
this was brought about. They either fanaticized the mob against him,
or accused him before the Roman authorities of introducing a new
religion or disturbing the peace or proclaiming a king who would be a
rival to Caesar. They would neither go into the kingdom of heaven
themselves nor suffer others to enter.

101. But God protected His servant. At Philippi He delivered him from
prison by a physical miracle and by a miracle of grace still more
marvelous wrought upon his cruel jailor; and in other towns He saved
him by more natural means. In spite of bitter opposition, churches
were founded in city after city, and from these the glad tidings
sounded out over the whole province of Macedonia.

102. Achaia.--When, leaving Macedonia, Paul proceeded south into
Achaia, he entered the real Greece--the paradise of genius and renown.
The memorials of the country's greatness rose around him on his
journey. As he quitted Beroea, he could see behind him the snowy peaks
of Mount Olympus, where the deities of Greece had been supposed to
dwell. Soon he was sailing past Thermopylae, where the immortal Three
Hundred stood against the barbarian myriads; and, as his voyage neared
its close, he saw before him the island of Salamis, where again the
existence of Greece was saved from extinction by the valor of her sons.

103. Athens.--His destination was Athens, the capital of the country.
As he entered the city, he could not be insensible to the great
memories which clung to its streets and monuments. Here the human mind
had blazed forth with a splendor it has never exhibited elsewhere. In
the golden age of its history Athens possessed more men of the very
highest genius than have ever lived in any other city. To this day
their names invest it with glory. Yet even in Paul's day the living
Athens was a thing of the past. Four hundred years had elapsed since
its golden age, and in the course of these centuries it had experienced
a sad decline. Philosophy had degenerated into sophistry, art into
dilettanteism, oratory into rhetoric, poetry into versemaking. It was
a city living on its past