long while ago-been a night and a day in the deep. Those who could not swim caught hold of boards and broken pieces of the ship, and got safe to land. Not one of the two hundred and seventy-six was lost in the wreck. No, not a hair of their heads was hurt. They were wet and cold, but they had not a limb bruised or a bone broken. Only the ship was lost. Thus all that Paul said came true. Perhaps Julius, the kind centurion, may now have believed, but the deceitful sailors and the cruel soldiers had not believed. 'All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.'-Ps. xlii. 7. LXII. THE VIPER. Acts, xxviii. 1–6. WHEN all the shipwrecked men came to land they saw people on the shore. They found that the place was an island, called Melita. (Its name now is Malta.) The inhabitants were rather wild. They were neither Greeks, nor Romans; so they were called barbarians by those proud nations. They were ignorant of books, and they wore rough clothes, but they were kind-hearted. When they saw the poor, shivering, dripping strangers on the shore, they quickly lighted a large fire, and gave to all whatever they needed. It was now raining, and the poor creatures must have wanted dry clothes. Paul, instead of warming himself by the fire, went about gathering sticks to keep it up. He did not think that a great apostle ought not to help, but let others gather sticks. No; he was ready to do anything-he was so humble. He brought a bundle of sticks and laid it on the fire,-when suddenly out of the flame sprang a viper, and lo, it fastened on Paul's hand! That viper had been coiled around some sticks that Paul had gathered, and perhaps it was then asleep, or half frozen; but the heat had revived it, and made it spring out of the fire. There it was with its fangs in the apostle's flesh, hanging down from his hand. The barbarians looked at it, and knew it to be a viper, whose bite would kill. They said to each other, 'No doubt that man is a murderer, who has escaped drowning in the sea; but justice will not allow him to live.' They thought that their gods were angry with him, and were going to punish him. |