Chapter 20

  When the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples; and, after speaking words of encouragement to them, he took his leave, and started for Macedonia.

  Passing through those districts he encouraged the disciples in frequent addresses, and then came into Greece, and spent three months there.

  The Jews having planned to waylay him whenever he might be on the point of taking ship for Syria, he decided to travel back by way of Macedonia.

  He was accompanied as far as the province of Asia by Sopater the Beroean, the son of Pyrrhus; by the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; by Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and by the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus.

  These brethren had gone on and were waiting for us in the Troad.

  But we ourselves sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined them in the Troad, where we remained for a week.

  On the first day of the week, when we had met to break bread, Paul, who was going away the next morning, was preaching to them, and prolonged his discourse till midnight.

  Now there were a good many lamps in the room upstairs where we all were,

  and a youth of the name of Eutychus was sitting at the window. This lad, gradually sinking into deep sleep while Paul preached at unusual length, overcome at last by sleep, fell from the second floor and was taken up dead.

  Paul, however, went down, threw himself upon him, and folding him in his arms said, 'Do not be alarmed; his life is still in him.'

  Then he went upstairs again, broke bread, and took some food; and after a long conversation which was continued till daybreak, at last he parted from them.

  They had taken the lad home alive, and were greatly comforted.

  The rest of us had already gone on board a ship, and now we set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul on board there; for so he had arranged, he himself intending to go by land.

  Accordingly, when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and came to Mitylene.

  Sailing from there, we arrived the next day off Chios. On the next we touched at Samos; and on the day following reached Miletus.

  For Paul's plan was to sail past Ephesus, so as not to spend much time in the province of Asia; since he was very desirous of being in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of the Harvest Festival.

  From Miletus he sent to Ephesus for the Elders of the Church to come to him.

  Upon their arrival he said to them, 'You Elders well know, from the first day of my setting foot in the province of Asia, the kind of life I lived among you the whole time,

  serving the Lord in all humility, and with tears, and amid trials which came upon me through the plotting of the Jews--

  and that I never shrank from declaring to you anything that was profitable, or from teaching you in public and in your homes,

  and urging upon both Jews and Greeks the necessity of turning to God and of believing in Jesus our Lord.

  'And now, impelled by a sense of duty, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there,

  except that the Holy Spirit, at town after town, testifies to me that imprisonment and suffering are awaiting me.

  But even the sacrifice of my life I count as nothing, if only I may perfect my earthly course, and be faithful to the duty which the Lord Jesus has entrusted to me of proclaiming, as of supreme importance, the Good News of God's grace.

  'And now, I know that none of you among whom I have gone in and out proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom will any longer see my face.

  Therefore I protest to you to-day that I am not responsible for the ruin of any one of you.

  For I have not shrunk from declaring to you God's whole truth.

  'Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has placed you to take the oversight for Him and act as shepherds to the Church of God, which He has bought with His own blood.

  I know that, when I am gone, cruel wolves will come among you and will not spare the flock;

  and that from among your own selves men will rise up who will seek with their perverse talk to draw away the disciples after them.

  Therefore be on the alert; and remember that, night and day, for three years, I never ceased admonishing every one, even with tears.

  'And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace. He is able to build you up and to give you your inheritance among His people.

  No one's silver or gold or clothing have I coveted.

  You yourselves know that these hands of mine have provided for my own necessities and for the people with me.

  In all things I have set you an example, showing you that, by working as I do, you ought to help the weak, and to bear in mind the words of the Lord Jesus, how He Himself said, ''It is more blessed to give than to receive.''

  Having spoken thus, Paul knelt down and prayed with them all;

  and with loud lamentation they all threw their arms round his neck, and kissed him lovingly,

  grieved above all things at his having told them that after that day they were no longer to see his face. And they went with him to the ship.