as to the number and the position of the anchors. But there was good reason for it, for the ship's head must be kept facing the unseen danger. In this position, there being nothing further to do until daylight, the sailors wished that it would come. With the first rays of morning the seamen realized their own, but not thinking of any one else's, danger, plotted a base scheme for saving their lives by pretending that they were about to cast out anchors from the fore-ship also, and were lowering the boat "under colour" to do this, but in fact to row away and leave the rest to their fate. But the Eye of God was upon them, and the Holy Spirit opened Paul's eyes to their design. Without speaking to the seamen, or to the master, or the owner, who perhaps were in the plot, but turning to the centurion, he cried, "Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved." He does not say we cannot. The soldiers cared nothing for the lives of their prisoners, nor did Paul fear for his own; but he regarded the promise made, that God had given him the lives of all that sailed with him, and, like a sensible man, he used means to secure the realization of the promise.

Moved by this warning, the soldiers cut the ropes by which the boat was fastened, and let it fall into the sea, which at once threw it upon the rocks, where it was broken up.

By this time the daylight had appeared, and Paul knew that they would very soon be in need of all their bodily strength in struggling against the waves. He once more took the lead which had become natural to him, and was cheerfully accorded by the ship's company and, urging, that having now been fourteen days suffering through great scarcity of food, he entreated them to take some nourishment to strengthen themselves, repeating the assurance that he knew from God that not a hair of their heads should be injured. With manly simplicity, fearless of looks or

remarks, he took bread in his hands, lifted up his eyes to Heaven, and besought God, with thanksgiving, for a blessing, in the sight of all. They all knew that Paul worshipped an unseen God unknown to them. How forcibly the simple and dignified action of St. Paul must have brought a measure of conviction to their minds, that his God must be King of kings and Lord of lords!

So all these two hundred and seventy-six exhausted men took food, and recovered strength and spirit for the impending shock. All due preparations were made for running the ship end-on to the shore, only seeking out, if possible, a safe place for stranding her, and with this object in view, they threw overboard the whole lading of Egyptian wheat. Straining their eyes to the utmost, they could not tell on what land they were about to be thrown; but they discovered a creek with a gradually shelving shore, which seemed to promise some degree of comparative safety, and hither they resolved to cast their ship ashore if it were possible. To be in readiness to steer her, the rudders were unlashed and lowered into the water, at the same time that the cables were cut, and the anchors left in the sea. Then hoisting the foresail or storm sheet to the wind, and committing themselves to the mercy of the winds and the waves, they made rapidly for the land. In a place hard by the little island of Salmonetta is a shore, the very nature and soundings of which correspond exactly with the description here given, the bottom being tenacious, consisting of fragments pulverized from the disintegrating rocks that gird the bay. Here the unfortunate ship struck, and became firmly fixed by the keel under the bows to the muddy bottom, while the advancing waves beat upon her stern, and her timbers creaking and groaning, threatened instant destruction.

The soldiers' first thought was for their own lives and safety, even after they had reached the shore; for they

knew that if the prisoners under their charge should escape, their own lives would be forfeited. To prevent this they drew their swords, and were about to slay their prisoners, when Julius, immediately thinking of Paul, whom he loved and esteemed, with a voice of stern authority commanded them to forbear, and gave orders that the crew, the soldiers, and the prisoners, should throw themselves into the sea, and save their lives as best they could. And thus, on broken planks and floating articles of whatever kind, or by swimming, every man escaped safe to land.

CHAPTER XXIX.

MALTA.

ACTS xxviii. 1-14.

Winter of A.D. 60-61-Nero, Emperor.

"Let love of the brethren continue. Forget not to shew love unto strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”HEB. xiii. 2 (Revised Version).

O by a wonderful deliverance was every man of those who sailed with Paul and whom God had given to him saved from imminent death. It is evident to all that know St. Paul's Bay, that the Divine interposition alone could have saved every life there without an exception. On reaching land, drenched and cold as they were, the most important question to be answered was, Where are we? for as yet not a man knew. The mariners would be well acquainted with the harbour where Valetta now stands, and at which ships of Alexandria were wont to touch; but this bleak and desolate coast was unknown to them, until they were informed by the kindly natives that they had been wrecked at Melita, now Malta.

It seems unaccountable that there should ever have been doubts whether the Melita mentioned by St. Luke was the island now called Malta, or the small island of Melita, now Meleda, off the coast of Illyricum, 140 miles N. W. of Dyrrachium. The first to whom the latter theory occurred was Constantine, the Purple-born (A.D. 911-959), who has been followed in later times by Bryant and by Mr. Falconer

the learned editor of Strabo, and others; but to support this theory, they must limit the name of Adria to the Gulf of Venice, though it extended from Crete to Sicily, and as far as Carthage. They must establish that “ barbarian" meant what it means now, and not people speaking other languages than Greek and Latin; and they of course assume, that because there are no vipers in Malta now, therefore there never were any. All of these premises being false, the theory falls to the ground, and Malta, which fulfils every condition, is found to be the spot where St. Paul was cast ashore alive, and where he wintered for three months.

Malta in the time of St. Paul was peopled by immigrants from Phoenicia, or the Carthaginians of North Africa, and was in the possession of the Romans. The native modern Maltese language into which the Bible and Prayer Book have been translated, is a corrupt form of the Phoenician. It has been in English possession since 1800, and assured to us by the Treaty of Paris in 1814. With Gozo, it contains an area of 115 square miles, and the total population, inclusive of British troops, being 160,000, the number of persons to the square mile is nearly 140, a remarkably dense population for so small an island. It would be little to the credit of the active and industrious Maltese if they had left to breed among them poisonous serpents, and that in a country where there is so little wood.

It is too well-known to need repetition here, that with the Greeks and Romans the words "barbarian" and "barbarous" had very different meanings from the present. "I am debtor," says St. Paul, "both to Greeks and to Barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish" (Rom. i. 14). "If then I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be to him that speaketh a Barbarian, and he that speaketh will be a Barbarian unto me" (I Cor. xiv. 11). It was simply equivalent to foreigner. How the north coast of Africa came to be