"Brothers and Father, listen to the defense which I am about to make."

While I was still on my way, just as I was getting close to Damascus, about mid-day, suddenly there flashed from the heavens a great light all round me.

And saw Jesus saying to me 'Make haste and leave Jerusalem at once, because they will not accept your testimony about me.'

However, the son of Paul's sister, hearing of the plot, went to the Fort, and on being admitted, told Paul about it.

Having, however, information of a plot against the man, which was about to be put into execution, I am sending him to you at once, and I have also directed his accusers to prosecute him before you.'

Where my prosecutors never found me holding discussions with any one, or causing a crowd to collect--either in the Temple, or in the Synagogues, or about the city;

Except as to the one sentence that I shouted out as I stood among them--'It is about the resurrection of the dead that I am on my trial before you to-day'."

Some days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was herself a Jewess, and, sending for Paul, listened to what he had to say about faith in Christ Jesus.

But, while Paul was speaking at length about righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment, Felix became terrified, and interrupted him--"Go for the present, but, when I find an opportunity, I will send for you again."

About whom, when I came to Jerusalem, the Jewish Chief Priest and the Councillors laid an information, demanding judgment against him.

But I found that there were certain questions in dispute between them about their own religion, and about some dead man called Jesus, whom Paul declared to be alive.

Then Festus said: "King Agrippa, and all here present, you see before you the man about whom the whole Jewish people have applied to me, both at Jerusalem and here, loudly asserting that he ought not to be allowed to live.

But I have nothing definite to write about him to my Imperial Master; and for that reason I have brought him before you all, and especially before you, King Agrippa, that, after examining him, I may have something to write.

Indeed, the King knows about these matters, so I speak before him without constraint. I am sure that there is nothing whatever of what I have been telling him that has escaped his attention; for all this has not been done in a corner.

So violently were we tossed about by the storm, that the next day they began throwing the cargo overboard,

It was now the fourteenth night of the storm, and we were drifting about in the Adriatic Sea, when, about midnight, the sailors began to suspect that they were drawing near land.

There were about seventy-six of us on board, all told.

The Brethren there had heard about us, and came out as far as the Market of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. At sight of them Paul thanked God and was much cheered.

"We," was their reply, "have not had any letter about you from Judea, nor have any of our fellow-Jews come and reported or said anything bad about you.

They then fixed a day with him, and came to the place where he was staying, in even larger numbers, when Paul proceeded to lay the subject before them. He bore his testimony to the Kingdom of God, and tried to convince them about Jesus, by arguments drawn from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets--speaking from morning till evening.

Proclaiming the Kingdom of God, and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ, with perfect fearlessness, unmolested.

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ about you all, because the report of your faith is spreading throughout the world.

This is so, because what can be known about God is plain to them; for God himself has made it plain.

Because, although they learned to know God, yet they did not offer him as God either praise or thanksgiving. Their speculations about him proved futile, and their undiscerning minds were darkened.

For they had substituted a lie for the truth about God, and had reverenced and worshiped created things more than the Creator, who is to be praised for ever. Amen.

What then, it may be asked, are we to say about Abraham, the ancestor of our nation?

Sin took advantage of the Commandment to deceive me, and used it to bring about my Death.

Did, then, a thing, which in itself was good, involve Death in my case? Heaven forbid! It was sin that involved Death; so that, by its use of what I regarded as good to bring about my Death, its true nature might appear; and in this way the Commandment showed how intensely sinful sin is.

For these words are the words of a promise-'About this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.'

Nor is that all. There is also the case of Rebecca, when she was about to bear children to our ancestor Isaac.

Every one has heard of your ready obedience. It is true that I am very happy about you, but I want you to be well versed in all that is good, and innocent of all that is bad.

I always thank God about you for the blessing bestowed upon you in Christ Jesus.

Therefore let no one boast about men; for all things are yours--

With reference to the subjects about which you wrote to me: It would be well for a man to remain single.

I want you to be free from anxiety. The unmarried man is anxious about the Master's Cause, desiring to please him;

While the married man is anxious about worldly matters, desiring to please his wife;

And so his interests are divided. Again, the unmarried woman, whether she is old or young, is anxious about the Master's Cause, striving to be pure both in body and in spirit, while the married woman is anxious about worldly matters, desiring to please her husband.

I speak to you as man of discernment; form your own judgment about what I am saying.

In the next place, Brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant about spiritual gifts.

Results differ, yet the God who brings about every result is in every case the same.

If they want information on any point, they should ask their husbands about it at home; for it is unbecoming for a married woman to speak at a meeting of the Church.

Yes, and we are being proved to have borne false testimony about God; for we testified of God that he raised the Christ, whom he did not raise, if, indeed, the dead do not rise!

And, indeed, you have already partly acknowledged it about us--that you have a right to be proud of us, as we shall be proud of you, on the Day of our Lord Jesus.

I have the utmost confidence in you; I am always boasting about you. I am full of encouragement and, in spite of all our troubles, my heart is overflowing with happiness.

Although I have been boasting a little to him about you, you did not put me to shame; but, just as every thing we had said to you was true, so our boasting to Titus about you has also proved to be the truth.

If I must say anything about Titus, he is my intimate companion, and he shares my work for you; if it is our Brothers, they are delegates of the Churches, an honor to Christ.

Show them, therefore--so that the Churches may see it-- the proof of your affection, and the ground for our boasting to them about you.

So my reason for sending our Brothers is to prevent what we said about you from proving, in this particular matter, an empty boast, and to enable you to be as well prepared as I have been saying that you are.

Even if I boast extravagantly about our authority--which the Lord gave us for building up your faith and not for overthrowing it--still I have no reason to be ashamed.

And, not to speak of other things, there is my daily burden of anxiety about all the Churches.

About such a man I will boast, but about myself I will not boast except as regards my weaknesses.

About this I three times entreated the Lord, praying that it might leave me.

Put yourselves to the proof, to see whether you are holding to the Faith. Test yourselves. Surely you recognize this fact about yourselves--that Jesus Christ is in you! Unless indeed you cannot stand the test!

But I could wish to be with you now and speak in a different tone, for I am perplexed about you.

Then we shall no longer be like infants, tossed backward and forward, blown about by every breath of human teaching, through the trickery and the craftiness of men, towards the snares of error;

I am sending him to you on purpose that you may learn all about us, and that he may cheer your hearts.

And, indeed, I am justified in feeling thus about you all; because you have a warm place in my heart--you who all, both in my imprisonment and in the work of defending and establishing the Good News, shared my privilege with me.

Do not be anxious about anything; but under all circumstances, by prayer and entreaty joined with thanksgiving, make your needs known to God.

Whenever we pray, we never fail to thank God, the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, about you,

Our dear Brother, Tychicus, will tell you all about me. He is a faithful minister, and a fellow-servant in the Master's cause.

My fellow-prisoner, Aristarchus, sends you his greeting, and Barnabas's cousin, Mark, sends his. (You have received directions about him. If he comes to you, make him welcome.)

Indeed, in speaking about us, the people themselves tell of the reception you gave us, and how, turning to God from your idols, you became servants of the true and living God,

Therefore, since I could no longer endure the uncertainty, I sent to make inquiries about your faith, fearing that the Tempter had tempted you, and that our toil might prove to have been in vain.

On hearing his, we felt encouraged about you, Brothers, in the midst of all our difficulties and troubles, by your faith.

Brothers, it is our duty always to thank God about you, as is but right, considering the wonderful growth of your faith, and because, without exception, your love for one another is continually increasing.

But, Brothers, whom the Lord loves, it is our duty always to thank God about you, for, from the first, God chose you for Salvation through the purifying influence of the Spirit, and your belief in the Truth.

And not only that, but they learn to be idle as they go about from house to house. Nor are they merely idle, but they also become gossips and busy-bodies, and talk of what they ought not.

This will be brought about in his own time by the one ever-blessed Potentate, the King of all kings and Lord of all lords,

let the instruction that you give be sound and above reproach, so that the enemy may be ashamed when he fails to find anything bad to say about us.

Teach them not to contradict or to pilfer, but to show such praiseworthy fidelity in everything, as to recommend the teaching about God our Savior by all that they do.

But have nothing to do with foolish discussions, or with genealogies, or with controversy, or disputes about the Law. They are useless and futile.

I, Paul, put my own hand to it--I will repay you myself. I say nothing about your owing me your very self.

Therefore, let us leave behind the elementary teaching about the Christ and press on to perfection, not always laying over again a foundation of repentance for a lifeless formality, of faith in God--

But about you, dear friends, even though we speak in this way, we are confident of better things--of things that point to your Salvation.

In the one case the tithes are received by mortal men; in the other case by one about whom there is the statement that his life still continues.

For it is plain that our Lord ad sprung from the tribe of Judah, though of that tribe Moses said nothing about their being priests.

(These priests, it is true, are engaged in a service which is only a copy and shadow of the heavenly realities, as is shown by the directions given to Moses when he was about to construct the Tabernacle. 'Look to it,' are the words, 'that thou make every part in accordance with the pattern shown thee on the mountain.')

It was faith that enabled Noah, after he had received the divine warning about what could not then be foreseen, to build, in reverent obedience, an ark in which to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world, and became possessed of that righteousness which follows upon faith.

They were stoned to death, they were tortured, they were swan asunder, they were put to the sword; they wandered about clothed in the skins of sheep or goats, destitute, persecuted, ill-used--

Seeing, therefore, that there is on every side of us such a throng of witnesses, let us also lay aside everything that hinders us, and the sin that clings about us, and run with patient endurance the race that lies before us,

Exercise self-control, be watchful. Your adversary, the Devil, like a roaring lion, is prowling about, eager to devour you.

It is the same in all his letters, when he speaks in them about these subjects. There are some things in them difficult to understand, which untaught and weak people distort, just as they do all other writings, to their own Ruin.

It is of what has been in existence from the Beginning, of what we have heard, of what we have seen with our eyes, of what we watched reverently and touched with our hands--it is about the Word who is the Life that we are now writing.

But you--you still retain in your hears that consecration which you received from the Christ, and are not in need of any one to teach you; but, since his consecration of you teaches you about everything, and since it is a real consecration, and no lie, then, as it has taught you, maintain your union with him.

We accept the testimony of men, but God's testimony is still stronger; and there is the testimony of God--the fact that he has already borne testimony about his Son.

He who believes in the Son of God has that testimony within him. He who does not believe God has made God a liar, by refusing to believe in that testimony which he has borne about his Son.

If any one sees his Brother committing some sin that is not a deadly sin, he will ask, and so be the means of giving Life to him--to any whose sin is not deadly. There is such a thing as deadly sin; about that I do not say that a man should pray.

Every one has always had a good word for Demetrius, and the Truth itself speaks for him. Yes, and we also add our good word, and you know that what we say about him is true.

Dear friends, while I was making every effort to write to you about our common Salvation, I felt that I must write to you at once to urge you to fight in defense of the Faith that has once for all been entrusted to the keeping of Christ's People.

Yet even Michael, the Archangel, when, in his dispute with the Devil, he was arguing about the body of Moses, did not venture to charge him with maligning, but said merely 'The Lord rebuke you!'

Therefore write of what you have seen and of what is happening now and of what is about to take place--

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The Devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tempted, and may undergo persecution for ten days. Be faithful even to death, and I will give you the Crown of Life.

Because you kept in mind the story of my endurance, I will keep you in the hour of trial that is about to come upon the whole world, the hour that will test all who are living upon earth.

But now, because you are lukewarm, neither hot not cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

Then to each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to rest yet a little longer, till the number of their fellow-servants and of their Brothers who were about to be put to death, as they had been, should be complete.

And, when they spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from Heaven say-- 'Keep secret what the seven peals of thunder said, and do not write it down.'

And I was told--' You must prophesy again about men of many peoples, and nations, and languages, and about many kings.'

His tail draws after it a third of the stars in the heavens, and it hurled them down on the earth. The Dragon is standing in front of the woman who is about to give birth to the child, so that he may devour it as soon as it is born.

('I am coming like a thief! Happy will he be who is on the watch, and keeps his clothing at hand, so that he will not have to walk about unclothed and let men see his nakedness.')

The Beast that you saw was, but is not, and is about to rise out of the bottomless pit, and is on its way to destruction. Those who are living on earth will be amazed--those whose names have not been written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world--when they see that the Beast was, but is not, and yet will come.'