I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief."

Having thus so successfully sown the good seed throughout the whole island of Cyprus, Paul and Barnabas left it from the port of Paphos. Mark did not accompany them, for it is said, "John departing from them, returned to Jerusalem."

CHAPTER VI.

ST. PAUL'S FIRST APOSTOLIC MISSION AMONG THE GENTILES CONTINUED AND

CONCLUDED.

A CONSIDERABLE variety of very ingenious conjectures have been entertained explanatory of the motives which moved Paul and Barnabas in departing from Cyprus to sail for Pamphylia. It might be one of those circumstances, it is said, which we call accidents. There might be some small craft in the harbour of Paphos, bound for the opposite gulf of Attaleia, when Paul and Barnabas were thinking of their future progress, in the same way as there was a vessel at Myra, which Paul joined many years after, and in which he was shipwrecked, or as he was conveyed to Puteoli in a ship which had accidentally wintered at Malta. Again, the distance is said not to be great; and frequent communication, political, commercial, and by the mail-bags, were and still are conveyed from Attaleia and Perga. Or Paul, having already preached in Cilicia and Cyprus, might be desirous to carry the glad tidings of salvation among the contiguous districts whose population was similar to that of his native province; or he might think that the remote provinces of Western Asia were better subjects to influence by the Gospel scheme, than those corrupted by their intercourse with Greece or Rome. He might be desirous to visit those numerous families of Jews settled in the great towns beyond Mount Taurus, such as those in Antioch, in Pisidia, and in Iconium, or in Lycaonia. But it is better to put aside all such calculations of mere human wisdom and prudence,

and at once and for ever to attribute the whole course of his missions to the direct influence of the Holy Spirit. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without the permission of God, if the very hairs of our head are all numbered, and if all our steps are counted, surely heavenly wisdom would be imparted to these chosen vessels of the Lord to guide them in all their ways.

In leaving Cyprus Paul and Barnabas would sail past the promontories of Drepanum and Acamas. Then, crossing the Pamphylian Sea, steering north and a point or two to the south, for about a hundred and fifty miles, and leaving on the right the cliffs which are the western boundaries of Cilicia, they would enter the bay of Attaleia, the innermost bend of which is cut about thirty miles into the land near the mouth of the river Catarrhactes, and a little below the waterfalls which suggest its name. This maritime city of Pamphylia derived its name from its founder, Attalus Philadelphus, king of Pergamos. It still exists under the name of Adalia, and its extensive ruins attest the former extent and importance of the city. This deep indentation of the general coast line is bordered by a plain, which spreads for twenty-five or thirty miles from the shore to the base of the Taurus range of mountains. This level space is watered by three principal rivers, carrying the melting snow from the rugged hilly summits to the sea-the Catarrhactes, the Cestrus, and the Eurymedon, which flow eastward of the Catarrhactes, by Perga and Aspendus, to a low and sandy shore. The river Eurymedon and its banks were the scenes of two battles between the Greeks and Persians, in which Cimon the Athenian, like an excellent champion, won two actions in one day, and by which he out-did the victory of Salamis at sea, and of Platea on land.

Ariomandes, who was at the head of the Persians, lay at anchor with six hundred ships in the river, expecting a reinforcement of eighty ships from Cyprus. On the

other hand, Cimon wanted to prevent this junction, and pushed up the river to compel the Persians to fight. The Persians, after having made feeble head against the Athenians, sailed for the land. Cimon also disembarked his troops. Yet warm from the action at sea, they rushed forward with loud shouts, and at last, but with much difficulty, put the Persians to the rout. These defeats so humbled the king of Persia as to make him retire from the seas of Greece. At an after period the united squadron of Romans and Rhodians caught sight in this remarkable bay of the fleet of Antiochus, as they came on by the shore with the indomitable Hannibal on board, and defeated it. In these days the Cestrus, Strabo says, was navigable for about seven miles up to the city of Perga; and we have seen that two large fleets sailed up the Eurymedon as far as Aspendus. Now bars at the mouth of both these rivers make navigation impossible, and the cataracts on the other river cause the same to be the case with the river Catarrhactes. The name of Pamphylia signifies All Tribe land, and the inhabitants were a mixture of many races, principally of Greek extraction, and Greek was the language commonly spoken. At the time of Paul's arrival, Pamphylia, Pisidia, and Lycia formed one united province, like the rest of Asia Minor subject to the Romans, under an imperial proprætor, who resided at Antioch in Pisidia, which was regarded as the capital. Pamphylia is a beautiful and undulated province, bounded landward by rugged and lofty mountains, the snows of which reflected the rays of the burning sun in our faces like so many huge mirrors of the Almighty.

St. Paul and Barnabas entered the mouth of the Cestrus, now called the Aksoo, and sailed up it till they arrived at Perga, now the Eski Kalessi of the natives of modern times. Perga was an important town on the west bank of the river, surrounded by walls, and having, as usual, its temples, and a theatre, and a stadium. In its vicinity, and

on a high eminence, stood conspicuous a far-famed temple of Diana, greatly venerated by the inhabitants as the great goddess of the place, in whose honour an annual festival was held. The prosperity of this place was arrested by the building of Attaleia after the death of Alexander, in a more favourable situation, on the shore of the bay. Most of the public buildings in Perga are disposed after the architecture of the Greeks, but in their details there are traces of the Roman period. The site and scenery around Perga are still the same. It stands, as before, between and on the sides of two hills, having a beautiful and extensive valley in front. The same river rushes by its base, and the panorama is bounded, as of old, by the mountains of the Taurus. But the traveller to Perga finds the situation deserted and dreary. There are shepherds tending their flocks amid the ruined squares and along the grass-grown streets; there is the stately string of dromedaries moving past it, minding not to halt except it be at noon, where there is still shelter in the shade of some ruined turret or temple, or under the shadow of some great rock. All is a silent and solitary confusion of walls and temples, and towers and tombs, and columns and cornices, a theatre, and a stadium, and a broken aqueduct encrusted with the calcareous deposit of the Pamphylian streams. There are also extensive remains of vaulted buildings all in ruins.

At Perga, John departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. This wavering on the part of Mark called forth the reproof of St. Paul, who refused on his next circuit to take him with them, because he thus departed, and went not with them to the work. John seems to have been of a wise, effeminate, and rather affectionate character. This softness of disposition is often as strongly repelled as it is attracted; and in this instance his courage seems to have failed him, when he thought of encountering the fierce and lawless robbers in the hill countries those men of God were about to traverse. The child of a religious mother,