25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.



Ver. 25. Sang praises unto God] His presence turns a prison into a palace, into a paradise. "From the delectable orchard of the Leonine prison;" so the Italian martyr Algerius dated his letter to a friend. "I was carried to the coalhouse," saith Mr Philpot, "where I with my fellows do rouse together in the straw as cheerfully, we thank God, as others do in their beds of down." Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, being a long time prisoner under Charles V, was demanded what upheld him at that time? He answered, that he felt the divine consolations of the martyrs.