come on for two years. The law's delays
have been proverbial in all countries and at all eras; and the law of
imperial Rome was not likely to be free from this reproach during the
reign of Nero, a man of such frivolity that any engagement of pleasure
or freak of caprice was sufficient to make him put off the most
important call of business. The imprisonment, it is true, was of the
mildest description. It may have been that the officer who brought him
to Rome spoke a good word for the man who had saved his life during the
voyage, or the officer to whom he was handed over, and who is known in
profane history as a man of justice and humanity, may have inquired
into his case and formed a favorable opinion of his character; but at
all events Paul was permitted to hire a house of his own and live in it
in perfect freedom, with the single exception that a soldier, who was
responsible for his person, was his constant attendant.

177. Occupation in Prison.--This was far from the condition which such
an active spirit would have coveted. He would have liked to be moving
from synagogue to synagogue in the immense city, preaching in its
streets and squares, and founding congregation after congregation among
the masses of its population. Another man, thus arrested in a career
of ceaseless movement and immured within prison walls, might have
allowed his mind to stagnate in sloth and despair. But Paul behaved
very differently. Availing himself of every possibility of the
situation, he converted his one room into a center of far-reaching
activity and beneficence. On the few square feet of space allowed him
he erected a fulcrum with which he moved the world, establishing within
the walls of Nero's capital a sovereignty more extensive than his own.

178. Even the most irksome circumstance of his lot was turned to good
account. This was the soldier by whom he was watched. To a man of
Paul's eager temperament and restlessness of mood this must often have
been an intolerable annoyance; and, indeed, in the letters written
during this imprisonment he is constantly referring to his chain, as if
it were never out of his mind. But he did not suffer this irritation
to blind him to the opportunity of doing good presented by the
situation. Of course his attendant was changed every few hours, as one
soldier relieved another upon guard. In this way there might be six or
eight with him every four-and-twenty hours. They belonged to t