"So they set the crowd against them; and the officials tore the clothes off Paul and Silas and ordered them to be flogged. And after inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to guard them safely. Upon receiving these instructions, he threw them into the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to GOD, and the other prisoners were listening. Suddenly, a severe earthquake shook the place, rocking the prison to its foundations. Immediately, all the doors flew open and the chains of all the prisoners fell off. The jailer woke up to see the prison gates wide open. Thinking that the prisoners had escaped, he drew his sword to kill himself, but Paul shouted to him, 'Do not harm yourself! We are all still here.'
The jailer asked for a light, then rushed in, and fell at the feet of Paul and Silas. After he had secured the other prisoners, he led them out and asked, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' They answered, 'Believe in the LORD JESUS CHRIST and you, and your household, will be saved.' Then they spoke the word of GOD to him and to all his household.
Even in that hour of the night, the jailer took care of them and washed their wounds; and he, and his whole household, were baptized at once. He led them to his house, spread a meal before them and joyfully celebrated with his whole household his new found faith in GOD." - Acts 16:22-34
(In Roman jails there was a main room and in the center of the pavement a grill closed the opening through which the most dangerous prisoners were thrown into an underground cell. They throw Paul and Silas there. They are perfectly free in spite of their chains. Though they have been beaten and are wounded, they feel like praising GOD. In the silence of the night, the jailers and the other prisoners listen to them praying and singing hymns.
GOD is also listening. How many similar episodes, wherever a witness of Christian freedom has been at the risk of one's life and liberty!
We who take the time, and rightly so to prepare for Baptism, might be surprised by this very swift Baptism of a whole family. It could be said that it was a special case: let us stress also that all this happened in a very different world from our own.)
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