Thus did Paul's epistles written in a Roman prison become literally "Winged messengers that can fly from east to west on embassies of love."
Released.
Certainty of what Paul did after his having been a prisoner in Rome for two years, ends with Luke's statement, that he "received all that came unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him." It is believed, however, that he was finally given his liberty and that he preached in many lands, tradition saying that he even went to England. It is thought that it was during this missionary tour that he wrote his first letter to Timothy, who had been appointed to take care of the church at Ephesus, and also the one to Titus who was with the churches on the island of Crete.
Again Arrested.
About the year 64 A. D., however, he was again arrested and imprisoned in Rome. Only a year previous the Saints had been persecuted to death by the wicked Nero. They had been thrown into the Arena, devoured by wild beasts, burned to death as human torches, and martyred in other cruel ways.
Beheaded.
It was soon after the burning of Rome by this wicked emperor, that Paul, the most energetic of all missionaries, after thirty years of constant service in the ministry, was put to death by beheading. Just before the end came, he wrote to Timothy these beautiful and pathetic words:
"I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day."'
As he bowed his head to receive the fatal stroke, we know that he could have said in very truth:
"I feel my immortality o'ersweep all pains, all tears, all time, all fears; and peal, like the eternal thunders of the deep, into my ears this truth—thou livest forever!"