The south wind which sprang up after the one day's waiting was the most favourable for their purpose, and

setting their course due north, the next day the vessel arrived at Puteoli, a distance of about 182 miles. Fifteen miles

from Rhegium the vessel would pass between the famous Scylla and Charybdis, and, once more, we can imagine the

apostle and his companions gratefully remembering the snares and pitfalls through which, by grace, they had been

safely guided. Puteoli stood in the bay of Naples, and was the great port of the Roman capital. In the apostle's day

Vesuvius was a lovely mountain, whose westward slopes were covered with vines (Mart. iv. 44), and no one could

have suspected the near approach of the time when the admiral of the fleet would be lost in its fiery eruption, as

though the judgment of another Sodom and Gomorrah were about to fall.

The advent of a grain ship made no uncommon stir among the populace of Puteoli. From a letter written by

Seneca we learn that upon rounding into the bay all other ships were obliged to strike their top-sail, but the

Alexandrian corn-ships were permitted to enter it with all sail set, and thus were instantly recognised. He speaks of

the crowds that gathered to welcome these ships, and we can thus picture the scene that met the eye of the apostle as

he drew near to land.

Once again the Roman Centurion treated the apostle courteously, and permitted him to spend a week with certain

Christian brethren who met him there. This interval gave time for news of the apostle's arrival to reach Rome

before him, and so for a company of brethren to be in time to meet him on the Appian Way. From Puteoli to Rome

was a distance of about a hundred and forty-one miles. The Appian Way, along which the Centurion and his

prisoners travelled to Rome, was described as Appia - Regina viarum, `The Queen of Roads', and was the most

crowded approach to the metropolis. Should the reader desire fuller knowledge of this most ancient road, Gell's

Topography of Rome and its vicinity, the quotation from it in Lewin's work on the Acts, or the description of the

apostle's journey in Conybeare and Howson, should be consulted. Space will not permit of this interesting aside

here and so, with the marvellous brevity of the scriptural narrative, we pass over all descriptive matter, and rejoice

with the apostle that:

`When the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appii forum, and The three taverns: whom when

Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage' (Acts 28:15).

How many pages have been, and could be written, to describe the city to which the apostle drew near! Yet not

one word is given by Luke. All he says is, `And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to

the captain of the guard'. Just that, and no more. Here was the answer to the apostle's earnest wish, expressed in

the words, `I must see Rome'. Here was the fulfilment of the Lord's promise; a promise that had sustained him alike

amid the fury of the fanatical Jews and the fury of the storm. He had entered Damascus blind, and he entered Rome

bound, but in both blindness and bondage, the Lord was with him, and the word of the Lord was glorified.

The character of Burrus, who was an honest, bluff, soldier, was such that we might expect that the high opinion

which the centurion held of the apostle, together with the character of the charge against him, would allow him to

treat his prisoner with humanity. This indulgence is indicated by the words: `But Paul was suffered to dwell by

himself with a soldier that kept him'. After the lapse of three days the apostle called the chief of the Jews together,

the outcome of the interview being that a day was appointed in which the peculiar tenets of the sect of which Paul

was the reputed ringleader could be discussed.

As in our next pages we shall want all available space to deal with the great dispensational landmark of Acts 28:

23-31, we will set out here the structure of the section that ends with verse 22 of chapter 28.

a l,2. Arrival. No little kindness.

A1 28:1-10.

BARBARIANS.  b 3-6. Evidential miracle. The viper.

c 7. Courteous reception by Publius.

AT MELITA.

b 8,9. Compassionate miracles. Dysentery, etc.

a 10. Departure. Honours.