Acts 8:40

After the manner of the old prophets the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip from the presence of his happy Ethiopian convert, dropping him down at Azotus, which is another name for the old city of Ashdod, a Philistine capital. It seems that Philip never returned to honor the office of deacon in the Jerusalem church. God put him in a better work, i. e., preaching the gospel. We are here informed that he continued his evangelistic peregrinations northward, “preaching in many cities till he arrived in Caesarea.” It seems that he settled in this metropolis of the Mediterranean, making it henceforth his residence, from which he radiated out in his evangelistic work, as we hear no more of him till twenty-three years have rolled away and Paul stops in his home in Caesarea (Acts 21:9), while on his last journey to Jerusalem in May, A. D. 58. We now find his evangelistic force augmented by four preaching daughters, whom God has given him to assist him in his labors of love.