Paul and Barnabas spent about six years in this first tour; [76:7] and, occasionally, when their ministrations were likely to exert a wide and permanent influence, remained long in particular localities.  The account of their designation, and of their labours in Cyprus, Pamphylia, Lycaonia, and the surrounding regions, occupies two whole chapters of the Acts of the Apostles.  The importance of their mission may be estimated from this lengthened notice.  Christianity now greatly extended its base of operations, and shook paganism in some of its strongholds.  In every place which they visited, the apostles observed a uniform plan of procedure.  In the first instance, they made their appeal to the seed of Abraham; as they were themselves learned Israelites, they were generally permitted, on their arrival in a town, to set forth the claims of Jesus of Nazareth in the synagogue; and it was not until the Jews had exhibited a spirit of unbelief, that they turned to the heathen population.  In the end, by far the majority of their converts were reclaimed idolaters.  “The Gentiles were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed.” [77:1] Astonished at the mighty miracles exhibited by the two missionaries, the pagans imagined that “the gods” had come down to them “in the likeness of men;” and at Lystra the priest of Jupiter “brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people;” [77:2] but the Jews looked on in sullen incredulity, and kept alive an active and implacable opposition.  At Cyprus, the apostles had to contend against the craft of a Jewish conjuror; [77:3] at Antioch, “the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution” against them, “and expelled them out of their coasts;” [77:4] at Iconium, the Jews again “stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren;” [77:5] and at Lystra, the same parties “persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead” [78:1] The trials through which he now passed seem to have made an indelible impression on the mind of the great apostle, and in the last of his epistles, written many years afterwards, he refers to them as among the most formidable he encountered in his perilous career.  Timothy, who at this time must have been a mere boy, appears to have witnessed some of these ebullitions of Jewish malignity, and to have marked with admiration the heroic spirit of the heralds of the Cross.  Paul, when about to be decapitated by the sword of Nero, could, therefore, appeal to the evangelist, and could fearlessly declare that, twenty years before, when his life was often at stake, he had not quailed before the terrors of martyrdom.  “Thou,” says he, “hast fully known my long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but, out of them all, the Lord delivered me.” [78:2]