In Philippi Paul and Silas met a slave girl with a spirit of divination who brought her masters much profit. When Paul cast the spirit out in the name of Jesus Christ, her owners saw their income gone, dragged the missionaries before the magistrates and stirred up a mob. They were beaten with rods, thrown into the inner prison and fastened in the stocks. At midnight, as they prayed and sang hymns, a great earthquake opened every door and loosened every chain.
The jailer woke, saw the doors open and drew his sword. Paul’s cry, ‘Do not harm yourself, for we are all here,’ brought him trembling to their feet with the question of every lost person: ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ The answer was simple: ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ That night he heard the word, washed their wounds, was baptized with his household, and rejoiced, having believed in God.