234 ABROGATION OF THE SABBATH. 



The narrative disembellished. Acts xxi. — No observance stated. 



Paul really did " wait a wJiole week'' to meet with his brethren 

 for worship, he possessed a much smaller degree of zeal than 

 is generally attributed to him. I suppose that he abode one 

 "whole week" at Troas just as he ^^ abode three months" in 

 Greece, because the spirit moved him. And a probable reason 

 why he stayed no longer was, that he was in somewhat of a 

 hurry to get back to Jerusalem. 



Stripped, then, of all the cumbrous though flimsy scaffolding 

 which J. N. B. has so liberally piled around the text, and 

 viewed in its own simplicity, how different are its proper fea- 

 tures and proportions. All that we can certainly gather from 

 Luke's journal is, that Paul and his travelling companions, 

 being about to leave Troas after a week's sojourn, collected 

 with their friends in a third-story chamber, for the purpose of 

 partaking their social meal (the Sabbath being past, and it 

 being then "the first day of the week"), that an earnest con- 

 versation or argumentation ensued,* continuing, with some 

 interruption, till the daybreak of 'Hhe morrow,'' when Paul 

 started on his journey, hroad Sunday though it was ! 



10. The tenth text is Acts xxi. 4, 5 : "And finding disciples, 

 we tarried there seven days : who said to Paul, through the 

 Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem. And when we 

 had accomplished those days, we departed and went our way ; 

 and they all brought us on our way, with wives and children, 

 till we were out of the city : and we kneeled down on the shore 

 and prayed.'' 



It is unnecessary to waste further time by criticizing this 

 passage. Simply, "the thing," which has so constantly eluded 



* An incident which, though trivial in itself, has yet an interest as 

 probably going to illustrate the absorbing interest of "the inspired 

 Apostle" in the subjects of that long-continued discussion, and the ab- 

 Btraction of his mind from all minor matters, is left us in the circum- 

 stance of his hsivmg f or gotten his cloak and books, leaving them behind 

 at Troas. (2 Tim. iv. 13.) By Lardner's computation, this second 

 letter to Timothy was written buta fewmonths after the visit referred to. 



