Leaving these places, they went under the direction of the Holy Spirit to Troas, which was near the place where the celebrated city of Troy had stood, on the Ægean Sea. Here a vision appeared to Paul in the night. "There stood a man of Macedonia and

prayed him, saying, come over into Ma"cedonia and help us." From this he and his companion, together with Luke, who seems to have joined them here, concluded with certainty that the Lord called them to preach to the Macedonians. They accordingly crossed the sea from Troas in Asia, and landed at Neapolis on the European side, from whence they proceeded to Philippi. This was, says the sacred writer, the chief city of that part of Macedonia'. It was originally a city in Thrace, but Philip the Father of Alexander the Great, having conquered Thrace, and added a part of it to Macedonia, changed its name to Philippi, after himself. It was situated upon the river Hebrus, which appears to have been navigable. A colony of Romans was plant

b v. 9.

c See Bishop l'ierce, on the correctness of Luke's account. d Well's Sacred Geography. e Acts xx. 6.

ed here by Julius Cæsar, which was afterwards augmented by Augustus Cæsar: so that Philippi became a great city, and enjoyed the privileges of Romans.

To this place the Holy Spirit directed the Apostle and his companions to go, that they might preach the word to the heirs of life. Here the Lord Jesus had some of his people, who were to be delivered from the bondage of corruption by his grace. The time for such deliverance was arrived, even the арpointed time, and therefore Paul and Timothy could not remain in Asia, but must pass over to Europe. In Philippi a Church was now to be gathered by the power of the Spirit, applying the Word of truth to the hearts of sinful men. Here victories were to be achieved far more splendid than those of conquerors of nations; victories over the corruptions of human nature; over the influence and arts of the prince of darkness. The means were apparently inadequate ; first successes, upon human principles of calculation, not the most encouraging. But here, as elsewhere, God chose "the foolish things of the world to confound the wise:

f Doddridge's note on Acts xvi. 12.

the

" and the weak things of the world to con"found the things which were mighty, and "base things of the world, and things which "are despised, did God choose, and things "which are not, to bring to nought things "that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence."

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says

After abiding in this city certain days, the historian Luke, v. 13, On the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither. It appears that there was no Jewish synagogue in Philippi, for the apostle and his companions would have gone to it, as they invariably did in all places in which there was a synagogue. From this fact we may conclude that there were but few Jews in this place, and these few not very zealous, or exemplarily pious. There were, however, some who observed the worship of God, according to his appointment. With them some proselytes were joined, who kept their garments unspotted in an idolatrous city. The whole company at best must have been small, and consisted chiefly of women. These assem

bled on the Sabbath, i. e. the Jewish Sabbath, our Saturday, out of the city at the river side. There" prayer was wont to "be made," says our translation: it should rather be, “An house of prayer was allowed "to be by law." These houses of prayer, or oratories, as they were called, were different from the synagogues. They were without the towns and cities, and were places compassed with a wall, or some other inclosure, but open above. Their principal use was for prayer. The synagogues on the contrary, were within the cities and towns. They were covered houses, where not only prayers to God were offered up, but the law and the prophets were read and expounded. One of the former houses, an oratory, was in Philippi allowed by the law of the Romans to be used according to the custom of the Jews and proselytes.

This oratory, situated by the river side, appears to have been well known in this place. Hither the pious women resorted on the day which God had sanctified. No mention is made of men. Either business

κ' ἐνομίζετο προσευχὴ εἶναι. Bishop Pierce and Doddridge, on the text.

had engrossed their attention too much, or they had become contaminated with irreligion. Let the cause be what it would, the fact was incontrovertible. The worship of God was attended to only by women. This is one among a multitude of facts which prove that as a general rule the female sex are more religious than the male. Examine the proportion between the sexes in the communions of different Churches, and you will find women far exceed men in numbers; perhaps they are double the number.

How shall we account for this difference? Some ascribe it altogether to the domestic habits of the female sex, which are more peculiarly suited to the influence of religious principles, than the occupations and exposure of the males. That there is plausibility and even weight in the remark, is granted; but the domestic habits of females constitute only a secondary cause of their preeminence in religion. The grand cause is to be sought in their minds, the characteristics of which correspond more particularly with the nature of religion than those of the males. Whilst men pride themselves upon the vigour of their intellect and their laborious