On the whole Paul and Silas had reason to thank God and take courage, when they reviewed their progress in the first European city which they visited.  Though they had met with much opposition, their ministry had been greatly blessed; and, in the end, the magistrates, who had treated them with much severity, had felt it necessary to apologise.  The extraordinary circumstances accompanying their imprisonment must have made their case known to the whole body of the citizens, and thus secured a degree of attention to their preaching which could not have been otherwise expected.  The Church, now established at Philippi, contained a number of most generous members, and Paul afterwards gratefully acknowledged the assistance he received from them.  “Ye have well done,” said he, “that ye did communicate with my affliction.  Now, ye Philippians, know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me, as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.  For, even in Thessalonica, ye sent once and again unto my necessity.” [99:3]

CHAPTER VII.

THE MINISTRY OF PAUL IN THESSALONICA, BEREA, ATHENS,
AND CORINTH.

A.D. 52 TO A.D. 54.

After leaving Philippi, and passing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, Paul made his way to Thessalonica.  In this city there was a Jewish synagogue where he was permitted, for three successive Sabbaths, to address the congregation.  His discourses produced a powerful impression; as some of the seed of Abraham believed, “and, of the devout Greeks, a great multitude, and of the chief women, not a few.” [100:1] The unbelieving Jews attempted to create annoyance by representing the missionaries as acting “contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying—­that there is another king, one Jesus;” [100:2] but though they contrived to trouble “the rulers” [100:3] and to “set all the city in an uproar,” they could not succeed in preventing the formation of a flourishing Christian community.  Paul appeared next in Berea, and, when reporting his success here, the sacred historian bears a remarkable testimony to the right of the laity to judge for themselves as to the meaning of the Book of Inspiration; for he states that the Jews of this place “were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily" [101:1] to ascertain the truth of the apostolic doctrine.  Paul now proceeded “to go as it were to the sea,” and soon afterwards arrived at Athens.

The ancient capital of Attica had long been the literary metropolis of heathendom.  Its citizens could boast that they were sprung from a race of heroes, as their forefathers had nobly struggled for freedom on many a bloody battlefield, and, by prodigies of valour, had maintained their independence against all the might of Persia.  Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, was their tutelary deity.  The Athenians,