Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/628



"'When sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was already past.' ver. 9. There is no question but that this is the great fast of expiation, Lev. xvi. 29, the description of which we have in Isa. lviii. under the name of a sabbath, ver. 13. The precise time of this sabbatic fast is on the tenth day of the seventh month, Tizri, which falls on the same time very nearly with our September, the first day of Tizri on the seventh of that, and so the 10th of Tizri on the 16th of September, that is, thirteen days before our Michaelmas. This being premised, the apostle's reasoning becomes clear; for it is precisely the same as though he should have said, because it was past the twentieth (the day Scaliger sets for the solemnization of the fast,) of September; it being observed by all sailors, that for some weeks before and after Michaelmas, there are on the sea sudden and frequent storms, (probably the equinoctial,) which have in modern times received the name of Michaelmas flaws, and must of course make sailing dangerous. Hesiod himself tells us, that at the going down of Pleiades, which was at the end of autumn, navigation was hazardous." (Williams.)

"Undergirding the ship. ver. 17. We learn from various passages in the Greek and Roman writers, that the ancients had recourse to this expedient, in order to save the ship from imminent danger; and this method has been used in modern times. The process of undergirding a ship is thus performed:—a stout cable is slipped under the vessel at the prow, which can be conducted to any part of the ship's keel, and then fasten the two ends on the deck, to keep the planks from starting. An instance of this kind is mentioned in 'Lord Anson's Voyage round the World.' Speaking of a Spanish man-of-war in a storm, the writer says, 'They were obliged to throw overboard all their upper-deck guns, and take six turns of the cable round the ship, to prevent her opening.' (p. 24, 4to. edit.) Bp. Pearce and Dr. Clarke, on Acts xxvii. 17. Two instances of undergirding the ship are noticed in the 'Chevalier de Johnstone's Memoirs of the Rebellion in 1745-6, London, 1822, 8vo. pp, 421, 454." (Williams's notes on Pearson, p. 85.)

They now found that they had struck on the island of Melita, (now Malta,) which lies just south of Sicily, in the direct track in which the eastern gale must have blown them. The uncivilized inhabitants of this desolate spot received the shipwrecked voyagers with the kindest attention, and very considerately kindled a fire, to warm and dry them, after their long soaking in cold water. The dripping apostle took hold with the rest to make the fire blaze up, and gathered a bundle of dry sticks, for the purpose; but with them he unconsciously gathered a viper, which was sheltering itself among them from the cold, and roused by the heat of the fire, now crept out upon his hand. He, of course, as any other man would, gave a jerk, and shook it off, as soon as he saw it,—a very natural occurrence; but the superstitious barbarians thought this a perfect miracle, as they had before foolishly considered it a token of divine wrath; and having looked on him as an object of horror, and a wicked criminal, they now, with equal sense, adored him as a God.

Another incident of more truly miraculous character, occurred to Paul soon after, in the part of the island on which they were wrecked, which had the effect of gaining him a much more solid fame. The father of Publius, the Roman officer who governed the island, as the deputy of the praetor of Sicily, was at that time very sick of the dysentery; and Paul, going to see him, laid his