the door of the prison with an order to free them. The jailor was
delighted.
"The praetors have sent to set you free," he said. "Come out then and
go in peace."
He had the greatest surprise in his life when, instead of going, Paul
turned and said:
"No, indeed! The praetors flogged us in public in the Forum and without
a trial--flogged Roman citizens! They threw us publicly into prison,
and now they are going to get rid of us secretly. Let the praetors come
here themselves and take us out!"
Surely it was the boldest message ever sent to the powerful praetors.
But Paul knew what he was doing, and when the Roman praetors heard the
message they knew that he was right. They would be ruined if it were
reported at Rome that they had publicly flogged Roman citizens without
trial.
Their prisoner, Paul, was now their judge. They climbed down from
their marble seats and walked on foot to the prison to plead with Paul
and Silas to leave the prison and not to tell against them what had
happened.
"Will you go away from the city?" they asked. "We are afraid of other
riots."
So Paul and Silas consented. But they went to the house where Lydia
lived--the home in which they had been staying in Philippi.
Paul cheered up the other Christian folk--Lydia and Luke and
Timothy--and told them how the jailor and his wife and family had all
become Christians.
"Keep the work of spreading the message here in Philippi going
strongly," said Paul to Luke and Timothy. "Be cheerfully prepared for
trouble." And then he and Silas, instead of going back to their own
land, went out together in the morning light of the early winter of
A.D. 50, away along the Western road over the hills to face perils
in other cities in order to carry the Good News to the people of the
West.
_The Trail of the Hero-Scout._
So Paul the dauntless pioneer set his brave face westwards, following
the long trail across the Roman Empire--the hero-scout of Christ.
Nothing could stop him--not scourgings nor stonings, prison nor
robbers, blizzards nor sand-storms. He went on and on till at last, as
a prisoner in Rome, he laid his head on the block of the executioner
and was slain. These are the brave words that we hear from him as he
came near to the end:
+-----------------------------+
| I HAVE FOUGHT A GOOD FIGHT; |
| I HAVE RUN MY COURSE; |
| I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH. |
+-----------------------------+
Long years afterward, men who
|