Immediately after their ordination Paul and Barnabas entered on their apostolic mission.  Leaving Antioch they quickly reached Seleucia [75:1]—­a city distant about twelve miles—­and from thence passed on to Cyprus, [75:2] the native country of Barnabas. [75:3] They probably spent a considerable time in that large island.  It contained several towns of note; it was the residence of great numbers of Jews; and the degraded state of its heathen inhabitants may be inferred from the fact that Venus was their tutelary goddess.  The preaching of the apostles in this place appears to have created an immense sensation; their fame at length attracted the attention of persons of the highest distinction; and the heart of Paul was cheered by the accession of no less illustrious a convert than Sergius Paulus, [75:4] the Roman proconsul.  Departing from Cyprus, Paul and Barnabas now set sail for Asia Minor, where they landed at Perga in Pamphylia.  Here John Mark, the nephew of Barnabas, by whom they had been hitherto accompanied, refused to proceed further.  He seems to have been intimidated by the prospect of accumulating difficulties.  From many, on religious grounds, they had reason to anticipate a most discouraging reception; and the land journey now before them was otherwise beset with dangers.  Whilst engaged in it, Paul seems to have experienced those “perils of waters,” or of “rivers,” [75:5] and “perils of robbers,” which he afterwards mentions; for the highlands of Asia Minor were infested with banditti, and the mountain streams often rose with frightful rapidity, and swept away the unwary stranger.  John Mark now returned to Jerusalem, and, at a subsequent period, we find Paul refusing, in consequence, to receive him as a travelling companion. [76:1] But though Barnabas was then dissatisfied because the apostle continued to be distrustful of his relative, and though “the contention was so sharp” between these two eminent heralds of the cross that “they departed asunder one from the other,” [76:2] the return of this young minister from Perga appears to have led to no change in their present arrangements.  Continuing their journey into the interior of the country, they now preached in Antioch of Pisidia, in Iconium, in “Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia,” and in “the region that lieth round about.” [76:3] When they had proceeded thus far, they began to retrace their steps, and again visited the places where they had previously succeeded in collecting congregations.  They now supplied their converts with a settled ministry.  When they had presided in every church at an appointment of elders, [76:4] in which the choice was determined by popular suffrage, [76:5] and when they had prayed with fasting, they laid their hands on the elected office-bearers, and in this form “commended them to the Lord on whom they believed.”  Having thus planted the gospel in many districts which had never before been trodden by the feet of a Christian missionary, they returned to Antioch in Syria to rehearse “all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.” [76:6]