Ver. 44.-Safety at last, somehow. Luke succeeds in presenting a very vivid picture of the exciting scene, when he says, "And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it ea.me to pass, that they escapt<l all safe to land." St. Paul gave o_rders that "every one who could swim should first fling himself over- board, and get to land. The rest seized hold of planks and other fragments of the fast-dissolving wreck. The wind threw them landwards, and at last, by the aid of the swimmers, all were saved." St. Paul was probably one of the swimmers, and we may be quite sure one of the most active in helping the others. We may find in this thrilling scene, and in the various experiences of such a time, a picture of the getting home to God at last of human souls. l. SOME GET HOME AS SHIPS THAT SAIL INTO HARBOUR AFTER A SUCCESSFUL VOYAGE, Somewhat bruised and battered, indeed, by the wild winds and the stormy seas, but whole and sound, and with sails all set, and ropes trimmed with flags, and shouts of joyous welcome from the shores. And thus all God's redeemed children ou_ght to go home to him, and would go home, if in the voyage and the storms of life they fully trusted and fully used his offered grace. '!'here ought to be for us all "the abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom." Il, SOME GET HOME AS BWPWRECKED MARINERS COME ASHORE. 'With life hardly saved. With nil the works 'lf the life abandoned and lost, like a shipwrecked vessel. Illustrate cases of Christian lives in which the conflict against siu has not been main- tn.ined, and the poor sonl is almost lost; or cases in which the frailties and easy besetments are unrnnstered to the end; or cases m which intellectual doubts spoil 318 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [on. xxvw, 1-31.
Christian faHh up to the very hour of pa.ssing ; or ca.ses in which the pBseion for luxury anrl worldliness and pleBSures give " wrong tone to Christ111n conduct al. through life ;-1111 such cases me.y ooincide with " genuine and saving faith in God, but in all such cl\Ses the home-coming is sadly like the picture of the atrugglers for dear life given in our text. St. Paul presents the same thought under another figure. He spe11ks of some as "saved, yet so as by fire." In the great testing-de.y, every man's life-work is to be " tried by fire, of what sort it is." Some will find t,heir life-work, in which they had so prided themselves, prove nothing but wood and hBy and stubble. It will all bnrn up, e.nd burn a.way, if God can find nothing but self- seeking e.nd self-serving in it, a.nd the poor soul will enter into life like one plucked naked from a burning house. Surely if we magnify the exceeding grace which permits us all to reach safe home at last, we may well long and pray and strive to win onr way to heaven and God with all sa.ils set, bringing safely in the full cargo of a. life of good works, done in a good spirit, under Divine .leadings. Suoh a cargo as God may make to" enrich the markets of the golden year,"-R. T,
EXPOSITION. (Smith, p. 24) to be Phcenician. But this is CHAPTER XXVIII. extremely doubtful. It is far more pro- Ver. 1.-We for they, A.V. and T.R. bably, not to say certainly, the corrupt (twioe). Was oalled. It reads as if it was Africa.no-Arabie dialect of the island, as I the answer to their question to the ne.tives, venture to affirm on the high authority of "What is this isle.nd called?" Melita. Thai Professor Wright. Gesenius is also dis- Melita. is the isla.nd of Malta, e.nd not Meleda tinctly of opinion that there are no remirins off' the coe.st of De.lmatie., is demonstre.ted in of Phamician in the Me.ltese, and that all Smith's• Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul,' the words in the Maltese le.ngue.ge which and it is not worth while here to consider have been thought to be Phcenician are the arguments in favour of Meleda. Melita really Are.hie. Four genuine Phcenici.an appears to be a Phmnician name, from the inscriptions have, however, been found in root in Hebrew c~, to esae.pe (Bochart, 'Ca- the island (' Monument. Phcenic.,' pars naan,' i.26), meaning, therefore,a "refuge," prima, pp. 90-111, 252, and 341). a harbour of refuge, 1 so ea.lied from sa.ilors Ver. 2.-Barbaria11,8 for barbar0!/,8 people, often running into Vu.letta during a gale; A.V.; common for little, A.V.; all for e'f/e'l'y one, A.V. Barbaria.Ila; i.e. not Greeks or or possibly from ~. cl&y, in Italian ma.Ua, Romans, or (in the mouth of a Jew) not from the cla.y which forms the bottom of the J ewe. The phrase had especial reference sea. 11.S you approsch Ma.I.ta, and which makes to the stre.nge le.ngue.ge of the "barbarian." the anchorage so 811.f'e. Ii was origioally See St. Panl's use of it (Rom. i. 14 ; J colonized by Phmnicians, whether from Cor. xiv. 11; Col. iii. 11); and compare Tyre or Carthage ca.nnot be pronounced Ovid's saying (' Trist,' iii. 10, 37), "Bar- with certainty, though we know it was a barns hie ego sum, qnia non intelligor ulli;" Carthaginian pOS110ssion at the time of the and that of Herodotna (ii. 158), that the first Punio War. It fell into the hands of Egyptie.ns call all barbaria11,8 who do not the Romans 11.0. 218, and at the time of St. speak the Egyptian langue.ge(Kuinoel). The Panl'a shipwreck was annexed to the pro- word is thought to be formed onome.to- vince of Sicily. The population, however, poetieally, to express the confuaed sound was Phmnician or Pnnic, and probably which e. strange langue.g'e has in a me.n'e knew little Greek or Latin. The name ea.re. Kindness ; r/n]'J,.118p""'lrz, here e.nd of a fonntaio in St. Paul's Bay, Ayn ta], Titus iii. 4 (comp. eh. :uvii. S). Reoeived .Bazzul, " The Apostle's Fountain,'' is said UI all. The whole party, numbering two hundred aod seventy-six. The present rain, 1 In the article "Melita," in the 'Diet, and ... oold; showing that the gale still of Greek and Roman G,:g,,' the writer continued, and the wind was still north-east. de11Cribee it casually as ' a harbour of re- The plight of the shipwrecked pe.rty must fuge " for Phcenician mariners. Diodorus have been lamentable, drenched to the skin, Sionlns, quoted by Gesenina (' Monument. with no change of clothes, a cold wiod blow• Phamic.,' para prime., p. 92) says that the ,ug. Probably the hearty meal they had Pbcenicians had Malta for a ,c11-,a.4>iry11, a re- taken oo board ship was the means of saving fuge, in their voyages to the Atlantic, OD their Ii vea. account of us l&t.ving good harbour11- Ver. 3.-But for and, A.V.; a viper came OU, XXVIII. 1-31.] 'rHE ACTS OF THE APOS'J'LES. 3U)