Bradford contrasts the Indians’ cruelty to the Puritans with the “unusual kindness” shown to Paul and his companions by the natives of the island of Malta, as recorded in ACTS 27 : 1-28 : 10, after Paul was shipwrecked there: “It is recorded in Scripture as a mercy to the Apostle and his shipwrecked company, that the barbarians showed them no small kindness in…
Captives of Philippi
Speaking of the drug that transforms him into Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll says in chapter 10 that it, “shook the doors of the prison-house of my disposition; and like the captives of Philippi, that which stood within ran forth.” Stevenson had obviously read ACTS 16 : 16-33. That Biblical passage confirms that while in Philippi, Paul cast a demon out of a female slave.
Imploring Angels
This sonnet begins with the speaker imploring angels to, “At the round earth’s imagined corners blow / Your trumpets…” alluding to REVELATION 7 : 1. He then speaks of the redeemed dead being reunited with Christ and of those “whose eyes / Shall behold God, and never taste death’s woe”…