for Mark, whom they had taken as their minister, deserted them, and returned to Jerusalem, where, it seems, he thought he should enjoy the greatest quiet.  Paul and Barnabas however went forward; in every city they preached the word of the Lord, entering into the jewish synagogues and first preaching Christ to them, and then to the gentiles.  They were heard with great candour and eagerness by some, and rejected by others with obstinacy and wrath, and cruel persecution.  One while they had enough to do to restrain the people from worshipping them as gods, and soon after, Paul was stoned, dragged out of the city, and left for dead.  Having penetrated as far as Derbe, they thought proper to return by the way that they came, calling at every city where they had sown the good seed, and finding in most, if not all these places, some who had embraced the gospel, they exhorted and strengthened them in the faith, formed them into a church state, and ordained them elders, fasted and prayed with them; and so having commended them to the Lord on whom they had believed, returned to Antioch in Syria, from whence they first set out, and rehearsed to the church all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith to the gentiles.

About this time a dispute arising in the churches concerning circumcision, Paul and Barnabas were deputed to go up to Jerusalem, to consult the apostles and elders on the subject.  This business being adjusted, they, accompanied with Judas and Silas, returned to Antioch with the general resolution, and continued there for a season, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord.

Paul now proposed to Barnabas, his fellow-labourer, that they might visit their brethren in the places where they had been already, and see how they did.  To this Barnabas readily acceded, but a difference arising between them about taking John Mark with them, who had deserted them before, these two eminent servants of God were parted asunder, and never appear to have travelled together any more.  They continued however each to serve in the cause of Christ, though they could not walk together.  Barnabas took John, and sailed to Cyprus, his native island, and Paul took Silas, and went through Syria and Cilicia to Derbe and Lystra, cities where he and Barnabas had preached in their first excursion.

Here they found Timothy, a promising young man, whom they encouraged to engage in the ministry.

Paul being now at Lystra, which was the boundary of his first excursion, and having visited the churches already planted, and delivered to them the decrees of the apostles and elders relating to circumcision, seems to have felt his heart enlarged, and assayed to carry on the glorious work of preaching the gospel to the heathen to a greater extent.  With Silas and Timotheus he in his second journey[2] took a western direction, passing through Phrygia, and the region of Galatia.  Having preached the word in these