teoli he "found brethren," [146:4] and through the indulgence of
Julius, the centurion to whose care he was committed, he was courteously
allowed to spend a week [147:1] with the little Church of which they
were members. He now set out on his way to the metropolis; but the
intelligence of his arrival had travelled before him, and after crossing
the Pomptine marshes, he was, no doubt, delighted to find a number of
Christian friends from Rome assembled at Appii Forum to tender to him
the assurances of their sympathy and affection. The place was
twenty-seven miles from the capital; and yet, at a time when travelling
was so tedious and so irksome, they had undertaken this lengthened
journey to visit the poor, weather-beaten, and tempest-tossed prisoner.
At the Three Taverns, ten miles nearer to the city, he met another party
of disciples [147:2] anxious to testify their attachment to so
distinguished a servant of their Divine Master. These tokens of respect
and love made a deep impression upon the susceptible mind of the
apostle; and it is accordingly stated that, when he saw the brethren,
"he thanked God and took courage." [147:3]

The important services he had been able to render on the voyage gave him
a claim to particular indulgence; and accordingly, when he reached Rome,
and when the centurion delivered the prisoners to the Praetorian
Prefect, or the commander-in-chief of the Praetorian guards, [147:4]
"Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him."
[147:5] But though he enjoyed this comparative liberty, he was chained
to his military care-taker, so that his position must still have been
very far from comfortable. And yet even thus he continued his ministry
with as much ardour as if he had been without restraint, and as if he
had been cheered on by the applause of his generation. Three days after
his arrival in the city he "called the chief of the Jews together,"
[148:1] and gave them an account of the circumstances of his committal,
and of his appeal to the imperial tribunal. They informed him that his
case had not been reported to them by their brethren in Judea; and then
expressed a desire to hear from him a statement of the claims of
Christianity. "And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to
him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of
God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and
out of the prophets from morning till evening."