The jailor uses the word kurioi, "Sirs", in his appeal to Paul and Silas, and in their

reply they point him away to Ton Kurion, "The Lord". Whether the jailor meant by the

word "saved" what the Scriptures mean, we cannot tell, but, that after being given the

answer: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house", we

read that Paul and Silas "spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his

house". It is well to remember that the "word" here, logos, implies a "logical account",

showing that after preaching the way of salvation in the simple terms of verse 31, the

preachers followed the declaration with explanation and instruction.

The jailor then washes the wounded backs of the Lord's servants, and in turn he and

his house are baptized.

The magistrates were, apparently, rather perturbed about their very un-Roman

conduct, and "when it was day" sent the sergeants (or lictors, the bearers of the rod)

saying, "Let these men go".

"How often", says Cicero, "has this exclamation, I am a Roman citizen, brought aid

and safety, even among barbarians in the remotest parts of the earth".

And so we find this terrible beginning of the Apostle's testimony in Europe overruled

for the furtherance of the gospel. The publicity that such an unfair condemnation would

give, the testimony of the character of the preachers that the trial afforded, the

intervention of the earthquake, the salvation of the jailor, the public recognition by the

magistrates at the end, would all combine to give the message of the gospel a hearing

such as a normal procedure could never have afforded.

It would not be justifiable, in entering upon a new sphere of service, actually to pray

for stripes and imprisonment, but one can take courage from these examples and stand

firm in spite of the fiercest opposition. It is a strange feeling, that has often been the

experience of the writer, to steam into the railway station of some new town, observe its

public buildings, its multitude of churches, its teeming numbers, and to contemplate the

complete insignificance to most of the people in the town of the coming into its midst of

just one mere speaker, armed only with his Bible and a desire to spread the light and

liberty of the truth. Nevertheless there are happy occasions of victory to be recorded, in

the name of the same Lord, who, in the Acts, gave the vision, permitted the indignities,

granted the salvation, and at length established such an assembly as the church of the

Philippians.

Satan's twofold attack had failed and the gospel standard was firmly planted in

Europe. Paul neither compromised with the Devil (Acts 16: 17, 18), nor gave place to

him (Acts 16: 25). He was, by grace, proof against both flattery and frown, and came

out of the conflict "more than conqueror through Him that loved us". For the sake of the