. The life and Epistles of St. Paul. N MACEDONIA. [ 51] 213 As Pauls invariable practice was to make the first appeal to his own countrymen,the missionaries on the Sabbath day attended divine service at the oratory for thepurpose of preaching the new doctrine. And on the Sabbath, says Luke, wewent out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made, and wc satdown and spake unto the women which resorted thither. * Why the contrrefjationshould have consisted of women has not been satisfactorily explained; but tis inthe synagogue the women sat separately from the men, and were
. The life and Epistles of St. Paul. N MACEDONIA. [ 51] 213 As Pauls invariable practice was to make the first appeal to his own countrymen,the missionaries on the Sabbath day attended divine service at the oratory for thepurpose of preaching the new doctrine. And on the Sabbath, says Luke, wewent out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made, and wc satdown and spake unto the women which resorted thither. * Why the contrrefjationshould have consisted of women has not been satisfactorily explained; but tis inthe synagogue the women sat separately from the men, and were generally screenedby a lattice-work, it has been conjectured, and it is very possible, that from straitnessof room the service may have been performed at one time of the day to one sex andat another time to the other. The address of the Apostle was not without fruit;for at least one of his audience, Lydia by name, a seller of purple, from the city ofThyatira (fig. 107), a proselyte or worshipper of the true God, was deeply impressed. with the great truths advocated by the preacher, and became a convert, and herselfand her whole house were baptized. Lydia only is mentioned by name, and it hasbeen surmised that she was a widow, and that her whole house consisted of herchildren and domestics.^ A woman thus became the first convert by the preaching ^ Acts xvi. 13. ^ See Stier, Reden der Apost. .54. It has beenixiinted out by J. B. Lightfoot (Philippians, p. 55) tliat the female sex of Philippia, and of allMacedonia, evidently on a much higherrelative position than in other countries. Lineage 214 [ 51] ST. PAUL IN MACEDONIA. [Chap. XI. of Paul in Europe; and it is probable that Euodia and Syntyche, ?who figure in theEpistle to the Philippians, and had some disagreement which called for the Apostlesanimadversion, were also converted by the Apostle at or about the same time.
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