in Philippi alarmed the powers of darkness, and the damsel, under the pressure of an impulse which she found it impossible to resist, told their commission.  But neither the apostles, nor our Lord, cared for credentials of such equivocal value.  As this female followed the strangers through the streets, and in a loud voice announced their errand to the city, “Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her, and he came out the same hour.” [93:1]

The unbelieving Jews had hitherto been the great persecutors of the Church; but now, for the first time, the apostles encountered opposition from another quarter; and the expulsion of the spirit from the damsel evoked the hostility of this new adversary.  When the masters of the Pythoness “saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers.” [93:2] We here discover one great cause of our Lord under the government of the pagan emperors.  The Jews were prompted by mere bigotry to display hatred to the gospel—­but the Gentiles were generally guided by the still more ignoble principle of selfishness.  Many of the heathen multitude cared little for their idolatrous worship; but all who depended for subsistence on the prevalence of superstition, such as the image-makers, the jugglers, the fortune-tellers, and a considerable number of the priests, [93:3] were dismayed and driven to desperation by the progress of Christianity.  They saw that, with its success, “the hope of their gains was gone;” and, under pretence of zeal for the public interest, and for the maintenance of the “lawful” ceremonies, they laboured to intimidate and oppress the adherents of the new doctrine.

The appearance of the missionaries at Philippi must have created a profound sensation, as otherwise it is impossible to account for the tumult which now occurred.  The “masters” of the damsel possessed of the “spirit of divination,” no doubt, took the initiatory step in the movement; but had not the public mind been in some degree prepared for their appeals, they could not have induced all classes of their fellow-citizens so soon to join in the persecution.  “The multitude rose up together” at their call; the duumviri, or magistrates, rent off the clothes of the apostles with their own hands, and commanded them to be scourged; the lictors “laid many stripes upon them;” they wore ordered to be kept in close confinement; and the jailer exceeded the exact letter of his instructions by thrusting them “into the inner prison,” and by making “their feet fast in the stocks.” [94:1] The power of Imperial Rome arrayed itself against the preachers of the gospel, and now distinctly gave note of warning of the approach of that long night of affliction throughout which the church was yet to struggle.