The "Inner Prison."
With their hands tied, and their backs bared to the whip, the elders were beaten "with many stripes." Bleeding and faint they were then taken to the prison. As the jailor received them, he was ordered to "keep them safely." Hearing this order and thinking the prisoners must be wicked men indeed, the jailor took them and "thrust them into the inner prison." The inner prison of a Roman jail was a dark, damp, gloomy dungeon. One writer calls it a "pestilential cell, damp and cold, from which the light was excluded, and where the chains rusted on the limbs of the prisoners." But not content with shutting the elders up in such a gloomy hole, "the jailor made their feet fast in the stocks." In fastening only their feet, however, he showed a little mercy for there were holes in the stock for the wrists and for the neck also.
Happiness in Gloom.
With their backs sore and bleeding, their bodies chilled by the cold and dampness, their legs cramped and aching, hungry and sleepless and surrounded by the blackness of midnight, Paul and Silas who knew they were suffering for the sake of the true Gospel, could rejoice and praise the Lord. This they did at midnight by praying and singing "praises unto God." Their voices rang out through the prison cells; and prisoners, hard hearted and sinful, listened in surprise to the first Christian hymn they had ever heard. The power of the Lord manifested itself not only in the hearts of His true servants, but in the entire prison and the town as well; for "suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken." All the bolts and bars at the doors fell from their sockets and the doors of the prison flew open, and "every one's bands were loosed," but not a prisoner tried to escape.
The Jailor's Fear.
Aroused from his sleep by the commotion and earthquake, the jailor hurried to the prison only to find the doors wide open. Remembering his injunction to "keep the prisoners safely," and knowing that he would forfeit his life if any had escaped, he drew his sword to take his own life, when Paul cried out:
"Do thyself no harm; for we are all here!"
PAUL AND SILAS IN PRISON AT PHILIPPI.
"Then he called for a light, and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas."
"Then he [the jailor] called for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas."