Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/526

 mere nonsense, but downright cruelty. When, therefore, certain spiteful Jews came to Lystra from Antioch and Iconium, from which places they had been hunting, like hounds, on the track of the apostles, and told their abusive lies to the people about the character of these two strange travelers, the foolish Lystrans were easily persuaded to crown their absurdity by falling upon Paul, who seemed to be the person most active in the business. Having seized him, before he could slip out of their hands, as he usually did from his persecutors, they pelted him with such effect that he fell down as if dead; and they, with no small alacrity, dragged him out of the city as a mere carcase. But the mob had hardly dispersed, when he rose up, to the great wonder of the brethren who stood mourning about him, and went back with them into the city. The whole of this interesting series of events is a firm testimony to the honesty of the apostolic narrative, exhibiting, as it does, so fairly, the most natural, and at the same time, the most contemptible tendencies of the human character. Never was there given such a beautiful illustration of the value and moral force of public opinion! unless, perhaps, in the very similar case of Jesus, in Jerusalem:—"Hosanna," to-day, and "Crucify him," to-morrow. One moment, exalting the apostles to the name and honors of the highest of all the gods; the next, pelting them through the streets, and kicking them out of the city as a nuisance. The Bible is everywhere found to be just so bitterly true to human nature, and the whole world cannot furnish a story in which the character and moral value of popular movements are better exhibited than in the adventures of the apostles, as recorded by Luke.

Acts xiv. 12. "It has been inquired why the Lystrans suspected that Paul and Barnabas were Mercury and Jupiter? To this it may be answered, 1st. that the ancients supposed the gods especially visited those cities which were sacred to them. Now from ver. 13, it appears that Jupiter was worshiped among these people; and that Mercury too was, there is no reason to doubt, considering how general his worship would be in so commercial a tract of Maritime Asia. (Gughling de Paulo Mercurio, p. 9, and Walch Spic. Antiq. Lystr. p. 9.) How then was it that the priest of Mercury did not also appear? This would induce one rather to suppose that there was no temple to Mercury at Lystra. Probably the worship of that god was confined to the sea-coast; whereas Lystra was in the interior and mountainous country. 2. It appears from mythological history, that Jupiter was thought to generally descend on earth accompanied by Mercury. See Plaut. Amphytr. 1, 1, 1. Ovid. Met. 8, 626, and Fast. 5, 495. 3. It was a very common story, and no doubt, familiar to the Lystrans, that Jupiter and Mercury formerly traversed Phrygia together, and were received by Philemon and Baucis. (See Ovid. Met. 8, 611, Gelpke in Symbol. ad Interp. Act. xiv. 12.) Mr. Harrington has yet more appositely observed, (in his Works, p. 330,) that this persuasion might gain the more easily on the minds of the Lycaonians, on account of the well-known fable of Jupiter and Mercury, who were said to have descended from heaven in human shape, and to have been entertained by Lycaon, from whom the Lycaonians received their name.