Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
Ver. 6. And were forbidden, &c.] This was a heavier judgment upon those coasts than to be denied a harvest, or the light of the sun. Prize the preaching of the gospel as a singular privilege. They that are without a teaching priest are without God,2 Chronicles 15:3. There were ambassadors sent out of Nubia in Africa to the king of Habassia, to entreat him for a supply of ministers to instruct their nation, and repair Christianity gone to ruin among them; but they were rejected. a Amos's famine of the word is far more deplorable than Samaria's famine of bread in that strait siege.
a Alvarez Hist. Aethiop, c. 137.