Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/608

 and then steering straight for the Syrian coast, landed at Tyre, where their vessel was to unlade; so that they were detained here for a whole week, which they passed in the company of some Christian brethren who constituted a church there. These Tyrian disciples hearing of Paul's plan to visit Jerusalem, and knowing the dangers to which he would there be exposed by the deadly hate of the Jews, were very urgent with him against his journey; but he still resolutely held on his course, as soon as a passage could be procured, and bade them farewell, with prayer on the shore, to which the brethren accompanied him with their women and children. Standing off from the shore, they then sailed on south, to Ptolemais, where they spent a day with the Christians in that place, and then re-embarking, and passing round the promontory of Carmel, reached Caesarea, where their sea-voyage terminated. Here they passed several days in the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the seven deacons, who had four daughters that were prophetesses. While they were resting themselves in this truly religious family, from the fatigues of their long voyage, they were visited by Agabus, a prophet from Jerusalem,—the same who had formerly visited Antioch when Paul was there, and who had then foretold the coming famine, which threatened all the world. This remarkable man predicted to Paul the misfortunes which awaited him in Jerusalem. In the solemnly impressive dramatic action of the ancient prophets, he took Paul's girdle, and binding his own hands with it, said—"Thus says the Holy Spirit, 'So shall the Jews at Jerusalem, bind the man that owns this girdle, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles.'" On hearing this melancholy announcement, all the companions of Paul and the Christians of Caesarea, united in beseeching Paul to give up his purpose of visiting Jerusalem. But he, resolute against all entreaty, declared himself ready not only to be bound, but to die in Jerusalem for the Lord Jesus. And when they found that he would not be persuaded, they all ceased to harass him with their supplications, and resigned him to Providence, saying,—"The will of the Lord be done." They then all took carriages, and rode up to Jerusalem, accompanied by some brethren from Caesarea, and by Mnason, an old believer, formerly of Cyprus, but now of Jerusalem, who had engaged them as his guests in that city.

"Coos, (ch. xxi. ver. 1,) an island in the Aegean or Icarian sea, near Mnydos and Cnidus, which had a city of the same name, from which Hippocrates, the celebrated physician, and Apelles, the famous painter, were called Coi. Here was a large