It is hopeless to attempt to determine positively what this infirmity was. But we may observe here (1) that Paul's sensitiveness may have led him to exaggerate this personal disadvantage; and (2) that, whatever it was, it allowed him to go through sufferings and hard- ships such as few ordinary men could bear. It certain- ly did not repel the Galatians ; it appears rather to have excited their sympathy and warmed their affection to- wards the apostle. (See below.)
Paul at this time had not indulged the ambition of preaching his Gospel in Europe. His views were lim- ited to the peninsula of Asia Minor. Having gone through Phrygia and Galatia, he intended to visit the western coast [see Asia] ; but " they were forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach the Word" there. Then, be- ing on the borders of Mysia, they thought of going back to the north-east into Bithynia; but again "the Spirit of Jesus (so the best MSS. read in Acts xvi, 6) suffered them not." So they passed by Mysia, and came down to Troas. A.D. 48. Here the Spirit of Jesus, having checked them on other sides, revealed to them in what direction they were to go. Paul saw in a vision a man of Macedonia, who besought him, say- ing, "Come over into Macedonia and help us." The vision was at once accepted as a heavenly intimation ; the help wanted by the Macedonians was believed to be the preaching of the Gospel. It is at this point that the historian, speaking of Paul's company, substitutes " we'' for " they." He says nothing of himself; we can onlj- infer that Luke, to whatever country he belonged, became a companion of Paul at Troas. It is perhaps not too arbitrary a conjecture that the apostle, having recently suffered in health, derived benefit from the medical skill and attendance of "the beloved physician." The party, thus reinforced, immediately set sail from Troas, touched at Samothrace, then landed on the con- tinent at Neapolis, and from thence journeyed to Plii- lippi. They hastened to carry the "hcl|)" that had been asked to the first considerable city in IMaccdonia. Philippi was no inapt representative of the Western world. A Greek city, it had received a body of Roman
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settlers, and was politically a Colonia. We must not assume that to Saul of Tarsus, the Roman citizen, there was anything very ncn-el or strange in the world to which he had now come. But the name of Greece must have represented very imposing ideas to the Ori- ental and the Jew ; and we may silently imagine what it must have been to Paul to know that he was called to be the herald of his Master, the crucitied Jesus, in the centre of the world's highest culture, and that he was now to begin his task. He began, however, with no flourish of trumpets, but as quietly as ever, and in the old way. There were a few Jews, if not many, at Philippi ; and when the Sabbath came round, the apos- tolic company joined their countrymen at the place by the river-side where prayer was wont to be made (oii iVOi-U^tTo Trpoaivx)) fivai, u-hei-e was the usual proseu- cha or chapel which supplied the purpose of a sj'na- gogne). The narrative in this part is very graphic: " We sat down," says the writer (xvi, 13), " and spoke to the women who had come together." Among these women was a proselyte from Thyatira {aejion'tvi} tvv Gfclj'), named Lydia, a dealer in purple. As she listened " the Lord opened her heart" to attend to what FavA was saying. The first convert in Macedonia was but an Asiatic woman who already worshipped the God of the Jews ; but she was a very earnest believer, and besought the apostle and his friends to honor her by staying in her house. They could not resist her urgency, and during their stay at Philippi they were the guests of Lydia (ver. 40).
But a proof was given before long that the preachers of Christ had come to grapple with the powers in the spiritual world to which heathenism was then doing homage. A female slave, who brought gain to her masters by her powers of prediction when she was in the possessed state, beset Paul and his company, fol- lowing them as they went to the place of prayer, and crying out, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who iHiblish to you (or to us) the way of salva- tion." Paid was vexed by her cries, and addressing the spirit in the girl, he said, " I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." Comparing the confession of this "spirit of divination" with the analogous confessions made by evil spirits to our Lord, we see the same singular character of a true acknowl- edgment extorted as if by force, and rendered with a certain insolence which implied that the spirits, though subject, were not willingly subject. The cries of the slave-girl may have sounded like sneers, mimicking what she had heard from the apostles themselves, until Paul's exorcism, " in the name of Jesus Christ," was seen to be effectual. Then he might be recognised as in truth a servant of the Most High (Jod, giving an ex- ample of the salvation which he brought, in the deliver- ance of this poor girl herself from the spirit which de- graded her. See Pythoness.