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Sketches from the Life of Paul
nothing. Wherefore, I pray you to take some meat; for this is for your
health; for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you.”
Paul himself set the example. “When he had thus spoken, he took
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bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all; and when he
had broken it, he began to eat. Then were they all of good cheer,
and they also took some meat.” That worn, drenched, discouraged
throng of two hundred and seventy-six souls, who but for Paul would
have become despairing and desperate, now took fresh courage, and
joined with the apostle in their first meal for fourteen days. After this,
knowing that it would be impossible to save their cargo, they righted
up the ship by throwing overboard the wheat with which she was laden.
Daylight had now fully come, but they could see no landmarks by
which to determine their whereabouts. However, “they discovered a
certain creek with a shore, into the which they were minded, if it were
possible, to thrust in the ship. And when they had taken up the anchors,
they committed themselves unto the sea, and loosed the rudder bands,
and hoised up the mainsail to the wind, and made toward shore. And
falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and
the forepart stuck fast, and remained unmovable, but the hinder part
was broken with the violence of the waves.”
Paul and the other prisoners were now threatened by a fate more
terrible than shipwreck. The soldiers saw that in this crisis it would
be impossible for them to keep charge of their prisoners. Every man
would have all that he could do to save himself. Yet if any of the
prisoners were missing, the lives of those who had them in charge
would be forfeited. Hence the soldiers desired to put all the prisoners
to death. The Roman law sanctioned this cruel policy, and the proposal
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would have been executed at once, but for him to whom soldiers and
prisoners alike owed their preservation. Julius the centurion knew that
Paul had been instrumental in saving the lives of all on board, and
he felt that it would be the basest ingratitude to allow him to be put
to death; and more, he felt convinced that the Lord was with Paul,
and he feared to do him harm. He therefore gave orders to spare the
lives of the prisoners, and directed that all who could swim should cast
themselves into the sea and get to land. The rest seized hold of planks
and other fragments of the wreck, and were carried landward by the
waves.