“Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations which befell me by the lying-in-wait of the Jews; and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
“And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there; save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
“And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghosthath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that, by the space of three years, I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.
“And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. I have coveted no man’s silver or gold or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Luke adds, “And, when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him; sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more.And they accompanied him unto the ship.”[153]
Sailing by the Islands of Coos and Rhodes, without stopping, they landed at Patara, a small seaport in the province of Lycia, on the southern coast of Asia Minor. Here Paul took another vessel, and leaving the island on the left, after a voyage of about three hundred and forty miles, landed at Tyre, in Syria. There was a church in Tyre; and Paul remained with the Christians there a week while the ship was discharging its cargo. The brethren, conscious of the danger he would encounter in Jerusalem, urged him not to go there; but Paul was fixed in his purpose. When the time came for the ship to sail again, the brethren, with their wives and children, accompanied him to the shore. There, upon the sandy beach, they knelt down, and commended the heroic and beloved apostle to the protection of God. From Tyre the shipsailed along the coast of Syria to Ptolemais, the celebrated Jean d’Acre of modern history. The distance between the two places was about thirty miles. Here Paul was again refreshed by the society of the disciples whom he found there, and with whom he remained but one day.
Paul left the ship at Ptolemais, and continuing the journey by land, a distance of thirty or forty miles, reached Cæsarea. Philip the evangelist—one of the seven deacons chosen by the church in Jerusalem, to whom we have been before introduced as teaching and baptizing the eunuch on the road by Gaza, towards Egypt—resided in Cæsarea. His family consisted of four daughters, who were very earnest Christians, and who were endowed with the prophetic spirit. Paul remained for several days the guest of that Christian family.
While residing there, a certain prophet, by the name of Agabus,—the same who had previously predicted“that there should be a great dearth throughout all the world,”[154]—came to Cæsarea. Agabus, using the imagery of action so common with the prophets, took Paul’s girdle, bound it around his own hands and feet, and said,—
“Thus saith the Holy Ghost: So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man to whom this girdle belongs,and they shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.”[155]
The Christian friends of Paul at Cæsarea, when they heard this prophetic announcement, entreated him with the most earnest supplication, and even with tears, not to go up to Jerusalem, and thus place himself at the mercy of these cruel and inveterate foes. But Paul replied,—