- ward of all these exertions? For no crime whatever, and for no
reason except that they had rescued a gentle and unfortunate spirit from a most degrading thraldom to demoniac agencies, and to men more vile and wicked than demons, they had been mobbed,—abused by a parcel of mercenary scoundrels,—stripped naked in the forum, and whipped there like thieves,—and at last thrown into the common jail among felons, with every additional injury that could be inflicted by their determined persecutors, being fettered so that they could not repose their sore and exhausted bodies. Was not here enough to try the patience of even an apostle? What man would not have burst out in furious vexation against the beguiling vision which had led them away into a foreign land, among those who were disposed to repay their assiduous "help," by such treatment? Thus might Paul and Silas have expressed their vexation, if they had indeed been misled by a mere human enthusiasm; but they knew Him in whom they had trusted, and were well assured that He would not deceive them. So far from giving way to despondency and silence, they uplifted their voices in praise! Yes, praise to the God and Father of Jesus Christ, that he had accounted them worthy to suffer thus for the glory of his name. "At midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God, and the prisoners heard them." In the dreary darkness,—inclosed between massive walls, and bound in weighty fetters, their spirits rose in prayer,—doubtless for those persecutors whom they came over to "help," and not for themselves,—since their souls were already so surely stayed on God. To him they raised their voices in praise, for their own peace and joy in believing. Not yielding like those inspired by the mere impulses of human ambition or wild enthusiasm,—they passed the dreary night, not
"In silence or in fear.—
They shook the depths of the prison gloom,
With their hymns of lofty cheer.—
Amid the storm they sang,"
for He whom they thus invoked did not leave them in their heroic endurance, without a most convincing testimony that their prayers and their songs had come up in remembrance before him. In the midst of their joyous celebration of this persecution, while their wondering fellow-prisoners, waked from their sleep by this very unparalleled noise, were listening in amazement to this manifestation of the manner of spirit with which their new companions were disposed to meet their distresses,—a mighty earthquake
