e beginning of the work at Philippi
was not very promising and to most men would have been
very discouraging. Luke tells us that "on the Sabbath
we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was
wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the
women which resorted hither." But there they met
Lydia, an energetic business woman and a work was
begun which has had far reaching consequences. Paul
and his company had been but a short time in the city
when they came in conflict with the Roman authorities.
A damsel, possessed with a spirit of divination, who
brought much gain to her masters, testified to Paul and
his work; this spirit Paul cast out and in consequence the
owners of the girl brought the charge against Paul and
Silas that they were Jews who taught customs not lawful
for Romans to receive. Notice, the shrewdness of the
trumped-up charge against Paul and Silas. Nothing is
said about the real state of the case. In this charge the
status of the Jews is shown in this city. Paul and Silas
are beaten and thrown into prison; their feet are made
fast in the stocks; their wounds are left unwashed and
undressed. But in the earthquake, which opens the
prison doors and gives release to the prisoners, Paul has
an opportunity to preach the gospel to the jailer. How
magnificently, forgetting himself, he sets forth the way of
salvation through Christ! We turn to the Epistle to the
Philippians (see Study 9) to see how Paul loved this
church, and how this church loved him.

2. Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-9). Thinking it best
to leave Philippi, Paul and his company passed on their
way along the Egnatian road through the two beautiful
Greek cities of Amphipolis and Apollonia to Thessalonica,
distant about seventy-three miles from Philippi.
Thessalonica is one of the few cities which has retained its
importance up to the present time. It was founded by
Cassander, King of Macedon in 315 B.C. It came under
the Roman rule in 168 B.C. In Paul's time it was a
great commercial center, the inhabitants being Greeks,
Romans, and Jews. Here was a Jewish synagogue and
for three Sabbath days Paul went into it and reasoned
with the assembled Jews about Jesus Christ, declaring to
them that He was the promised Messiah, and had suffered
and was risen from the dead. We have the same results
here which followed similar preaching elsewhere
(1 Thess. 1:8). Out of the storm again emerges a
Christian church. Paul and his co