Acts 20:10

Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him... — The act reminds us of those of Elijah (1 Kings 17:21), and Elisha (2 Kings 4:34). The close contact, the clasp of warm affection, gave a new intensity to the prayer of faith, and, as a current of vitality passed, as it were, from the one body to the other, enabled the Apostle to feel that the heart had not ceased to beat, and to give the calming assurance, “his life is in him.” The whole scene is painted, as before, vividly, as by an eye-witness. We have to think of the cries of alarm, the rush of men down the staircase from the third floor with lamps and torches in their hands, the wail of sorrow on finding what looked like death, the undisturbed calmness of the Apostle, sure that his prayer was answered, and returning quietly, leaving the motionless body in the cool night air, to finish the interrupted discourse.