im a clear indication of the guidance of the
Holy Ghost (Acts 16:6-11), left Troas and set out by
ship, by way of Samothracia, for Neapolis, which he
reached on the following day. There have been many
conjectures as to what the fortunes of the Christian
church would have been had Paul been allowed to carry
out his intention to visit Bithynia, and to preach the gospel
in the regions of the east. Had he done so, however, it
is quite certain, that the history of the world would have
been quite different from what it is to-day. In this
invasion of Europe Paul came within the charmed circle of
what was then the highest civilization. The gospel was
now to try its strength with the keenest philosophers and
the most seductive fascinations of immorality, masquerading
under the guise of religion in the licentious rites of the
heathen temples and groves. What could this missionary
do? What could he preach? If philosophy, if art, if
beauty could have saved the souls of men then they would
not have needed the gospel which Paul preached. But
this was a gilded age, and the gilding hid the corruption,
beneath. The message of Paul to the men in this charmed
circle of civilization was the same that he had set forth
in the rough mountain towns of Asia Minor. Human
nature, under a rough or a polished exterior, is the same
the world over. Paul was seeking men, to bring them to
a knowledge of their alienation from God through sin, and
to show them the way of salvation through repentance and
faith in Jesus Christ? Greece, over whom the Romans
held sway at this time, had been divided into two parts:
Achaia on the south and Macedonia on the north. A
great Roman road ran from east to west through Macedonia.
It was by this road that the missionaries traveled.

1. Philippi (Acts 16:12-40) will be forever memorable
as the first city in Europe in which a Christian church
was established. It had the character of a Roman rather
than a Greek city; both the civil and the military authorities
being Roman. It had the rank of a Roman colony.
Situated as it was on the great Egnatian way travelers
and traders passed through it, eastward and westward,
from all parts of the Roman world. "The Greek character
in this northern province of Macedonia was more
vigorous and much less corrupted than in the more
polished society of the south. The churches which Paul
established here gave him more comfort than any he
established elsewhere." Th