The life and work of St. Paul

THE CLOSE OF THE JOURNKT. 219
which a few stages would have brought them to the Cilician gates, and so
through Tarsus to Antioch, it might have been assumed that this would have
been the route of their return. Why did they not take it P There may be
truth in the ingenious suggestion of Mr. Lewin, 1 " that the road as is some-
times still the case had been rendered impassable by the waters of Ak Ghieul,
swollen by the melting of the winter snows, and that the way through the
mountains was too uncertain and insecure." 1 But they may have had no
other reason than their sense of what was needed by the infant Churches
which they had founded. Accordingly they went back, over the wild and
dusty plain, the twenty miles from Dorbe to Lystra, the forty miles from
Lystra to Iconium, the sixty miles from Iconium to Antioch. It may well
be supposed that it needed no slight heroism to face once more the dangers
that might befall them. But they had learnt the meaning of their Lord's
saying, " He who is near Me is near the fire." Precautions of secrecy they
doubtless took, and cheerfully faced the degrading necessity of guarded
movements, and of entering cities, perhaps in disguise, perhaps only at late
nightfall and early dawn. The Christians had early
to learn those secret
trysts and midnight gatherings aid private watchwords by which alone they
could elude the fury of their enemies. But the Apostles accomplished their
purpose. They made their way back in safety, everywhere confirming the
disciples, exhorting them to constancy, preparing them for the certainty and
convincing them of the blessing of the tribulations through which we must
enter the kingdom of God.3 And as some organisation was necessary to
secure the guidance and unity of these little bodies of converts, they held
solemn meetings, at which, with prayer and fasting, they appointed elders, 4
before they bestowed on them a last blessing and farewell. In tliis manner
they passed through Lycaonia, Iconium, and Pisidia, and so into Painphylia;
and since on their first journey they had boon unable to preach in Perga, they
did so now. Possibly they found no ship ready to sail down the Cestrus to
their destination. They therefore made their way sixteen miles overland to
the flourishing seaport of Attaleia, at the mouth of the Katarrhaktes, which at
that time found its way to the sea over a range of cliffs in floods of foaming
waterfall ; and from thence for they never seem to have lingered among the
fleeting and mongrel populations of these seaport towns they took ship to
Seleucia, saw once more the steep cone of Mount Casius, climbed the slopes of
Coryphaeus, and made their way under the pleasant shade of ilex, and myrtle,
and arbutus, on the banks of the Oroutes, until once more they crossed the
well-known bridge, and saw the grim head of Charon staring over the street
Singon, in which neighbourhood the little Christian community wore prepared
to welcome them with keen interest and unbounded love.
1
Referring to Hamilton (Retcarchcs, li. 313), who found the road from Eregli im-
from this cause.
2
Strabo, XII. vi. 25 ; Tac. Ann. iil. 48 ; xii. 55 ; Cic. ad Alt. v. 20, 5, &c.
8 Acts xiv. 22. The fob may imply a general Christian sentiment. It cannot in this
of St. Luke.
4 Acts xiv. 23, xipoToVaxT is perfectly general, as in 2 COT. viii 19.
passable
connexion be relied on as showing the presence