patience, cause them to pass through much anxiety and tribulation. Let him who has a good hope through grace, that he is reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, be encouraged in the expectation of a happy issue to all his trials. Many and formidable dangers may seem to obstruct his path, but he shall surely reach the inheritance which is promised. He may escape with difficulty, like the shipwrecked company with Paul, some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship," yet like them, trust in the Lord, and he will be brought out safely at last. It will be his happiness to experience the comfort beautifully expressed in the following lines:

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CHAPTER XIX.

Paul on the Island of Melita, and his voyage to Rome.

OUR last chapter contained an account of the dreadful shipwreck of Paul and his companions. By the merciful providence of God, the whole company reached the land in safety; and they at once ascertained that the island on which they were wrecked was called Melita. It is not a matter of any great consequence, but still may be interesting to our readers to ascertain where this island was, and by what name it is at present called. On this subject, there is some difference of opinion among the learned; for there are two islands which originally bore this name. One of them is in what is called the Gulf of Venice; and may be found on the map, situated near the coast of Illyricum, and nearly opposite to Epidaurus: its name on the map is Meleta. It would be useful for our readers to take the map, and, setting out from the Island of

Crete, see whether it is very probable that the vessel was driven so far northward as the Gulf of Venice; we think not. The other island of this name is in the Mediterranean sea, between the Island of Sicily and the coast of Africa, and is now called Malta. This island is about twenty miles long, twelve miles in its greatest breadth, and about sixty miles in circumference. Tradition universally considers this place as the island on which Paul was wrecked; and any one who will inspect the maps, will find no difficulty in believing this opinion to be by far the most probable.

At the time of the shipwreck, which occurred about 1770 years ago, the island was inhabited, most probably, by the descendants of the Phenicians, who were the great discoverers and adventurers of those times. The history calls them "barbarous people;" but we are not to understand by this term, exactly the same as we now mean when we use the word barbarian. With the Greeks and Romans, and others, it was customary to call those persons barbarians whose language they did not understand. Herodotus tells us, that the Egyptians did so; and Ovid, a Roman au

thor of very great celebrity, when among the Getes, says, “Here I am a barbarian, for no one understands me." We have the same method of speaking used by Paul himself, in the 14th chapter of his Epistle to the Corinthians, where he says, "If I know not the meaning of the voice;" that is, if I do not understand the language," I shall be unto him that speaketh, a barbarian; and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me." By "barbarous people," then, we are not to understand that they were cruel or savage, beyond any other heathen people, but that they were a people whose language was not understood by the more civilized nations. That they were not barbarians, in the ordinary sense of the word is perfectly obvious; for the historian goes on to say, that after the shipwreck, when they were wet and weary, and almost lifeless, these very people "showed us no little kindness." Instead of using them cruelly, as it was rainy and cold, they made a fire on the beach, and tried to accommodate the whole company as well as they possibly could. Paul himself was not idle: he gathered a bundle of sticks to lay on the fire.

Among these sticks a viper had previously crawled, probably benumbed; as all kinds of snakes are very easily benumbed by cold. When the fire began to burn, however, the viper was roused; and, as Paul had his hands close to the fire, probably handling the wood, the viper fastened itself upon him. This the superstitious people thought was an indication of his wickedness; and they at once said among themselves,-" No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live." Knowing that he was a prisoner, they concluded that he must be one of the vilest kind, on whom God, in his justice, would inflict that punishment which he was likely not to receive from the hands of men. God does, indeed, often visit the guilty sinner with sudden vengeance, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, and as we often see now in sabbath-breakers and profane swearers: and men should tremble at the thought, that God may cut them off in their sin, and bring them to judgment. It is certain that these people, although they were heathen, and called barbarous, believed that God exercises a rule