Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.
Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me. While the crew were toiling at the pumps, Paul was wrestling in prayer, not for himself only and the cause in which he was going a prisoner to Rome, but, with true magnanimity of soul, for his shipmates; and God heard him, "giving him" (remarkable expression!) all that sailed with him. On the morning afar receiving this divine communication, gathering all around him, he reports it, adding, with a noble simplicity, "for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me," and encouraging all on board to "be of good cheer" the same confidence. What a contrast to this Humphry well remarks) is the speech of Caesar, in similar circumstances, to his pilot, bidding him (as Plutarch reports) keep up his spirit, because he carried Caesar and Caesar's Fortune. The Roman general knew no better name for the Divine Providence, by which he had been so often preserved, than Caesar's Fortune.