and Bulgarians, with a mixture of gypsies, and Ethiopian slaves. There is a number of Greek churches in the city, which is an archiepiscopal see, in both the Latin and Greek communions, and the synagogues are numerous. In one respect Thessalonica is the same now that it was in the time of St. Paul. A set of turbulent Jews then and now constituted the most influential part of the population.

Thessalonica was the starting point from which Greece itself received the things which belonged unto her peace; and we see from what is here stated, how important a position it was, in which to plant the banner of our Lord. Hence says Paul, speaking of the Thessalonians, "from them the word of the Lord hath sounded forth like a trumpet, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place." Thessalonica, therefore, is peculiarly celebrated in ecclesiastical history. From this, "the orthodox city," the Goths, the Sclaves, the Bulgarians of the Greek Church, and the hosts of other fierce barbarians, who overspread the country between the Danube and the Ægean Sea, have been converted to the Christian faith.

Paul and his missionary band had no sooner arrived at Thessalonica, than they began their great work of conversion; and, as before, their preaching was followed by persecution. Finding a synagogue at Thessalonica, he made to the Jews there the first offer of the Gospel, and three Sabbath-days he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, to prove that Jesus is the Christ: opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead. And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few. But here again, as everywhere else, bonds and afflictions did abide them. The Jews that believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city in an uproar,

and assaulted the house of Jason, a converted Jew, and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, "These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also, whom Jason hath received; these all do contrary to the decrees of Cæsar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus;" and they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. And when they had taken security of Jason and of the other, they let them go. And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas, accompanied by Timothy, by night unto Beroa.

It deserves to be mentioned, as being alike creditable to all parties, that while Paul was at Thessalonica, he twice received relief from the Philippians; and eleven years after, when a prisoner at Rome, he gratefully recalls the circumstance to their recollection; "Ye Philippians, know also that in Thessalonica also ye sent once and again unto my necessities." Not less creditable was it to St. Paul, that he supported himself by "his own labour, night and day, that he might not be burdensome to any of them, and that he might be chargeable to none."

Jason having pledged himself not to receive Paul and Silas again into his house, and also given a promise of their immediate departing; and the common people having been so excited against them that they durst not appear in Thessalonica, they left the place, to carry on the work elsewhere. Passing along the long street which intersects the city from east to west, under the arch of Augustus, and out of the western gate, they crossed the plain, and ascending the mountains, they entered a very rugged country, lying between the Adriatic and the Hellespont. At the edge of the plain, and base of the mountains, the city of Edessa was situated, on a plateau, with waterfalls, and commanding a view over fifteen leagues of plain from the mountains to the sea, with woods, and villages, and a lake in the centre.

But they did not stop here, because they sought a more retired position, and one without the jurisdiction of the authorities at Thessalonica. Ascending the eastern slope of the Olympian range, they reached the "secluded town" of Beroa. It is a lovely locality, on the left bank of the river Haliacmon, not far from Pella, the capital of Macedonia Tertia. It possesses many conveniences, with streams of water running pure and plentiful down the streets and gardens, which are gratefully shaded with plane-trees, and every variety of shrubs. It commands an extensive view of the plain, watered by the Axius, Haliacmon, and other rivers.

Cicero says of Piso, who had been prefect of Macedonia, and whose maladministration he had been arraigning, "In oppidum devium Beroam profugisti."

Its ancient name is said to have been derived from the abundance of its waters. It was founded by Pheres, and was at first called after him, Pheroa; but the Macedonians, from a peculiar lisp, changed Ph into B, and Pherœa became Beroa. The pronunciation of the modern name has gone back to the original, and it is now called Pheria, or more commonly Kara Pheria, or Kara Veria; i.e. Veria, the Black. It stands about fifty miles to the south-west of Thessalonica. It has now lost its ancient importance; and the principal occupation of the inhabitants, at present, is hewing red marble from the quarries of the adjoining mountains. A few insignificant ruins of the Greek and Roman periods may still be noticed. The foundations of an ancient bridge are passed on the ascent to the city gate, and parts of the Greek fortifications may be seen above the rocky bed of a mountain stream. The traces of repairs in the walls, of Roman and Byzantine date, connect the early state of Beroa and its present condition. It still has, however, about twenty thousand inhabitants, and it is placed in the second rank of the cities of European Turkey.

Instead of Paul passing by the children of Abraham, on

reaching Beroa, and preaching at once to the Gentiles, he attended the synagogue of the Jews, and opened to them the doctrines of the Gospel. "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few. But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Bercea, they came hither also, and stirred up the people. And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea: but Silas and Timotheus abode there still. And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed."

CHAPTER IX.

ST. PAUL'S SECOND APOSTOLIC MISSION AMONG THE GENTILES CONTINUED, AT ATHENS.

ON leaving Beroa, Paul crossed the Haliacmon, which intersected the plain, having Pydna on the left; and came to the shore at Dium, which city and seaport was the great bulwark of Macedonia on the south, and the natural termination of the Pierian level, forming a narrow passage from Macedonia into Greece. Here was set the throne of Homer's gods, at the very foot of Olympus, dark with woods below, and glittering with snow above. Paul put to sea to sail over the edge of the Thermaic Gulf, through the Thessalian Archipelago, along the Island of Eubœa, past Sciathos, Scopolos, Preparethos, onward to the coast of Attica. Gradually as the snowy Olympus recedes into the distance, the voyager approaches nearer to the centre of all interest, the classical and poetic Greece. "All the land and water," says Mr. Conybeare, "in sight, becomes more eloquent as we advance; the lights and shadows both of poetry and history are on every side, every rock is a monument, every current is animated with some memory of the past: for a distance of ninety miles, from the confines of Thessaly, to the middle part of the coast of Attica, the shore is protected as it were by the long island of Euboea. Deep in the innermost gulf, where the waters of the Ægean retreat far within the land; over against the northern part of this island is the pass of Thermopyla: where a handful of Greek warriors had defied all