But Simon Magus is not the only magician spoken of in the New
Testament. When the apostle Paul came to Paphos in the isle of Cyprus,
he found the Roman governor divided in his preference between Paul and
Elymas, the sorcerer, who before the governor withstood Paul to his
face. Then Paul, prompted by his indignation, said, "Oh, full of all
subtlety and mischief, child of the devil, enemy of all righteousness,
wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? And now,
behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind,
not seeing the sun for a season." What wonders Elymas effected to
deceive the Roman governor we are not told: but "immediately there
fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about, seeking some to
lead him by the hand." [122]
In another instance we find certain vagabond Jews, exorcists, who
pretended to cast out devils from the possessed. But they came to the
apostle, and "confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also
which used curious arts, brought their books together, and burned them
before all. And they counted the price of them, and found it fifty
thousand pieces of silver." [123]
It is easy to see however on which side the victory lay. The apostles
by their devotion and the integrity of their proceedings triumphed;
while those whose only motive was selfishness, the applause of the
vulgar, or the admiration of the superficial, gained the honours of a
day, and were then swept away into the gulf of general oblivion.