Acts 1

The oldest known division of the Greek text of the Acts, by Euthalius, who lived in the sixth century, was into forty chapters. The present division into twenty-eight was made by Cardinal Hugo, in the thirteenth century, to facilitate the use of his Concordance to the Latin Vulgate, and was not adopted in the copies of the Greek text till the fifteenth century. The division into verses first appears in the margin of Stephens’s edition (1551), and is said to have been made by him during a journey between Paris and Lyons. The actual separation of the verses, by printing them in paragraphs, appears for the first time in Beza’s edition (1565), and although discontinued in the latest publications of the Greek text, still prevails in most editions of the English Bible and of other modern versions. The history of these divisions should be clearly understood, not only to prevent their being thought original, or even ancient, but also to deprive them of an undue influence upon the exposition of the text itself. The distinction of the chapters in this book is often injudicious and unskillful, and at best these conventional divisions are mere matters of mechanical convenience, like the paragraphs and pages of a modern book. J. A. A.

The Book of Acts embraces the period from A. D. 31 to A. D. 64, in which there reigned as Roman emperors: (1) Tiberius (from 19th August, 14), until 16th March, 37; (2) Caligula, until 24th January, 41; (3) Claudius, until 15th October, 54; (4) Nero, until 9th June, 68. The great conflagration of Rome under Nero broke out on 19th July, 64 (Tac. Ann. 15, 41), whereupon commenced the persecution of the Christians. Meyer.

It seems most probable that the book was written in Rome during the latter part of the imprisonment of Paul, narrated in the closing chapter. B.

1. THE former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and 2 teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had 3 given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: to whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and 4 speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: and, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the 5 promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with 6 water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time re- 7 store again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the 8 times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. 9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud 10 received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he 11 went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. 12 Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day’s journey.

THE ascension of Christ is the great pledge and proof of our eternal state; that our nature is for ever identified with his, so that as long as he is Man we must be happy, as one with Him; that the great value of this transcendent fact is, not merely that it is an example of our future ascension, but that it is our ascension begun—we in him having risen to heaven, we in him being at this time present before God, we in him being united with the eternal plans and procedures of heaven, so that we are for ever blended with Christ—his property—his purchased possession—the very members of his body; insomuch that they who succor his suffering disciples in this world shall be pronounced to succor himself. And if this be so

—if Christ Jesus has thus borne with him our nature into the inmost sanctuary of heaven, if he has not hesitated to wear the form that Adam wore, in that Holy of Holies where angels tremble as they gaze—what ought to be our feelings, as we reflect upon this astonishing transit? How ought we to be animated, as we remember that a body spiritual indeed, but yet tangible and visible—a nature immaculate indeed, but yet human and ours—has been uplifted by the energy of indwelling Godhead, and set in the center of the Paradise of God! To know that it has happened mainly with a view to our own future exaltation; that it is but the prologue of a drama which is to take in the whole blessed company of the redeemed; that it is a preparatory measure which is to introduce an endless procession of future entrances like itself—saint after saint rising into the glory thus secured by this Captain of Salvation, and each met at the threshold by him who thus has scaled the skies that he might be there before us!—to know this, and to believe it, is to awake to emotions that annihilate earth and open heaven already to the exulting soul! W. A. B.

1. With these words we enter on a new stage of history and of doctrine, and they are words which connect it with the past. The links of Scripture uniting one part to another, and assisting our sense of the continuity of the whole, are worthy of especial notice. Thus does the Book of Acts at its opening attach itself to the preceding record; throwing back our thoughts on “the former treatise of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,” and then passing rapidly in review the last circumstances which connect the apostles with their Lord, as the instruments which he had chosen and prepared for the work which he had yet to do. Thus the history which follows is linked to, or welded with, the past; and the founding of the Church in the earth is presented as one continuous work, begun by the Lord in person, and perfected by the same Lord through the ministry of men. “The former treatise” delivered to us, not all that Jesus did and taught, but “all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up.” The following writings appear intended to give us, and do in fact profess to give us, that which Jesus continued to do and teach after the day in which he was taken up. T. D. B.—From the arrangement of these words in the original Greek, two things are plain which escape the English reader: First, there is an emphasis on the verb “began”; secondly, there is none on the word “Jesus.” The contrast is not that the former treatise related what Jesus began, and this relates what some other person or persons continued; but it is that the former treatise related what Jesus began to do and to teach; and this relates what he, the same Jesus, continued to do and to teach. A.—There was nothing then on the lips of the preachers of the gospel, but what had been “begun to be spoken” by its first preacher; and in following to their utmost the words of the apostles we are still within the compass of the words of the Lord Jesus. T. D. B.

Mark expands and explains this statement to refer to Christ’s ministry, by the Spirit, through his witnessing disciples: “They went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and con-

firming the word with signs following.” B.—The Lord working with them. Yes! in all his rest he is full of work, in all their toils he shares, in all their journeys his presence goes beside them. Whatever they do is his deed, and the help that is done upon the earth he doth it all himself. This blessed conviction of Christ’s continuous operation in and for his Church underlies the language of this introduction. The Gospel records the beginning; the Book of the Acts the continuance; it is one biography in two volumes. Everywhere “the Lord” is the true actor, the source of all the life which is in the Church, the arranger of all the providences which affect its progress. The Lord adds to the Church daily. His name works miracles. To the Lord believers are added. The Gentiles turn to the Lord because the hand of the Lord is with the preachers. The Lord calls Paul to carry the gospel to Macedonia. The Lord opens the heart of Lydia, and so throughout. Not the Acts of the Apostles, but the Acts of the Lord in and by his servants, is the accurate title of this book. A. M.

The kingdom of God was indeed first to be exhibited as a communion of men bound together by the same spirit, inspired by the same consciousness of God; and this communion was to find its central point in Christ, its Redeemer and King. As he himself ordered and directed all things in the first congregation of his disciples, so he was subsequently to inspire, rule, and cultivate this community of men by his law and by his Spirit. The revelation of the Spirit, shared by all its members, was all that was to distinguish it from the world, so called in the New Testament, that is, the common mass of mankind, as alienated from God. And Christ was gradually, through this community, his organ and his royal dwelling-place, to establish his kingdom as a real one, more and more widely among men, and subdue the world to his dominion. N.

2. Through the Holy Ghost. A remarkable statement, as showing how, to the very end, it was through the Spirit that he did and said everything; and this even after his resurrection. It was not as “God over all” that he instructed his apostles, but as the man Christ Jesus, full of the Holy Ghost. As Prophet, Priest, and King, he was anointed by the Spirit; and it was as one full of the Spirit, and on whom the Spirit rested (Isa. 11: 2), that he came to discharge these his offices. As our Moses, our Aaron, our David, our Melchizedek, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. Thus we see him full of the Spirit for us, dispensing that Spirit to us according to our need, that we may come behind in no gift, but receive from him grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Bonar.

3. He shewed himself alive by many infallible proofs.** The resurrection of Christ was the great fact in proof of his divinity that the apostles were to preach. And the proof was ample to them. During forty days Jesus appeared ten or eleven times to one or many disciples, in various circumstances, for brief periods of time, when they could judge without excitement; by words and acts simple and significant establishing in their minds such an absolute conviction of the fact, that it controlled their after-life, and led them through persecution to death. B.—This period of the forty days was full of the future. During it, his discourses were concerning the kingdom of God—that is, the Church of the future—her constitution and her fortunes. During it were uttered by him those commandments by which their future course was to be guided. A.

4. He commands them to tarry in Jerusalem for the Promised Spirit.**—They were to remain in order that the miracle of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them might be more striking and convincing, as wrought in the capital of Judea, and at the next great festival after the crucifixion, when strangers from all parts of the world would be gathered at Jerusalem, who would carry back the tidings of that manifestation into all lands; and also that the Christian Law might go forth from Mount Zion (Isa. 2: 3; Mic. 4: 2) and so show its harmony with the Levitical dispensation. W.—The promise of the Father. Because it is the one sum and substance of all the Old Testament promises, in that dispensation which was especially declaratory of the Father’s purpose and will: it is “the promise of the Father,” as embracing in one all other promises, and as the inclusive blessing of the covenant, being no less than the entire renewal of man by the indwelling Spirit: a blessing unknown to the earlier dispensation, and by virtue of which the least under the latter covenant is greater than the greatest under the former one. This baptism by the Holy Ghost was to be the fulfillment of that which the baptism of John only foreshadowed.

5. Not many days hence.** Why was this especially the time for this indwelling of the Holy

Ghost in our nature to begin? John furnishes us with the answer, when he tells us (7: 39), “the Holy Ghost was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” On him, the inclusive head of our humanity, the Holy Spirit alighted in his baptism. To him the Spirit was given without measure. But the fullness of the outpouring of this Spirit from him over all flesh summed up in him, awaited the full acceptance of all our flesh in him, when he had by himself purged our sins and sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on High. It is this which so closely binds on the narrative of the Ascension to all that is to follow. It is this which makes the “not many days hence” so pregnant with deep meaning, as assigning to the greatest event in the Church’s history its proper and only place. A.—The time is indefinite of purpose. “Not many days,” says Chrysostom, “that they may hope, but he does not say how few, in order that they may watch.” The interval was ten days.

6. The apostles’ question about the kingdom** was a strange one, yet it had a grand measure of faith in him in it. He was the Restorer! They called him LORD, the same word used in the Greek Old Testament for Jehovah. But the question was all wrong in its meaning and spirit. It is at once the most affecting and conclusive proof of their “slowness of heart to comprehend” the essential truths Christ had been gradually disclosing all the way to his betrayal. B.—In spite of all that our Lord said and did during his lifetime, and even with the advantage of his second ministry, “speaking to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God,” the apostles never advanced till after the ascension to the understanding and apprehension of Christ’s peculiar redemptive work. Even after having followed the finger of the Master from scroll to scroll, and from page to page, as he showed to them what was written in the law, the psalms, and the prophets concerning himself, they do not seem to have retained the meaning of the exposition. Their understandings though “opened” got closed again; and, instead of rising to the height of the great argument and learning to preach “repentance and remission of sin to all nations,” they sank down into mere expectants of secular glory and national deliverance. This is evident from the fact that, on the very morning of the ascension, they actually proposed the question, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"—thus still dreaming about mere political ascendancy and national advantage, when such pains had been taken, by his opening to them the meaning of the law and the prophets, to make them understand that which had been said, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth” (signifying by what death he should die), “will draw all men unto me.” T. B.

7. One department of knowledge, our Lord here teaches us, is kept by God within his own power, or, in other words, is reserved to himself, and not laid open before the eyes of mortals. The coming history of the world, the future life of every individual man lies beyond conjecture. Even the events which are to affect his own kingdom of grace God has kept in his own power. He has disclosed a little, he has made the final winding up sure, but this is a region of knowledge where he reigns alone, and shares the particulars of the boundless plan with no other. T. D. W.

If, from a prophetic text or two, we were able to count on our fingers how many years the world will last, such knowledge would puff up, and lead us to talk and speculate, instead of doing with our might what our hand finds to do. It is not enough that we submit to leave the ages and epochs in the Father’s hand, because we can not wrench them out of it; we should be glad and grateful that he spares us such sights into the future as we should not be able to bear. It is the part of a dear child to read eagerly all that the Father reveals, and to trust implicitly wherever the Father indicates a design to conceal. “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find”—not predicting, but—“watching.” In removing the speculative inquiry, he placed a great practical work in their hands. Arnot.

He did not reveal to them plainly the fall of the Mosaic dispensation, accompanied with the destruction of the Jewish state, and scattering of the nation over the world for so many centuries. This was the breaking up of all that they clung to as patriots and Jewish believers. The whole foundation of their faith would be convulsed by the thought of it. It was only the unfolding of Christianity in its spiritual power, the fulfillment of types and sacrifices in more glorious realities, the transference of their affections to a higher fatherland, and the view of the heavenly beauty of the Jerusalem above, that could enable them to bear the loss of their gorgeous ritual, and the dispersion of their race. Ker.

8. How wisely kind is his answer! No rebuke now for dullness. Our Lord intimates that there shall indeed be a restoration, though not in the way, nor with the results, they imagined. The final results are in the Father’s ordering. But, he says, turning to indicate the very way by which ultimately his kingdom should be established, and really answering their question in an affirmative spirit, ye shall receive power from the Holy Ghost and shall be witnesses unto me in the whole earth. “Strike in upon the work, and leave the issue with God” (Arnot). You shall be qualified for the work. Power shall be imparted to you by the Holy Ghost. Of that “all power given unto me,” shall He bestow upon you, matching the gift always to your needs. Use the gifts bestowed in toiling to establish my kingdom in human hearts. And we know how, when Christ had ascended and the Holy Ghost had descended, they dropped out of thought for ever their old conceptions about rich rewards and lordly places in Israel’s kingdom; how, taught by the Holy Spirit, they linked together in a beautiful completeness all that Christ had taught about humiliation, serving, and suffering, as the way to the kingdom, and faith in Christ with the inward joy and peace of God the Holy Ghost, as itself the kingdom. B.—Ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. In these words we have a brief table of contents of the whole book. The testimony in Jerusalem occupies the history as far as the end of chapter 7; in chapter 8 it spreads to all Judea and Samaria; in chapter 9 we have the preparation, by the conversion of the apostle to the Gentiles, for its being carried over all the world; in chapter 11 we pass from Jerusalem to Antioch, thence over Asia Minor and into Greece, thence, finally, to the world’s great capital, Rome. A.—Mark the exactness with which he indicates the lines in which they should go on their journey of witness-bearing and service—the same which in their spirit bind all Christian sympathy and activity to the end of time. First, Jerusalem, their own city; next, Judea, their own country; then Samaria, their next neighbor, an enemy at that; and finally, the whole earth. B.—The charity that will convert the world is a charity that begins at home—begins, but does not end there. Unless our love be of such a kind as greatly to disturb a godless neighborhood at home, it will not set on fire a distant continent. We must go out to the uttermost parts with our message, but must let the men beside us feel the glow of our zeal as it passes by. The command of the Lord is still the rule for his people—beginning at Jerusalem, but not ending till we reach the uttermost part of the earth. Arnot.

There is for all of us also a “Jerusalem,” a “Judea,” a “Samaria,” if not an “uttermost part of the earth”—some well-dressed city with its ragged fringe of want and wickedness, some country district with its neglected and untrained families, some sophisticated brain that has gone astray from the old standards and home of the faith and set up its Gerizim rivalry—some that you can minister to by your charity and win back by your witnessing, if that witnessing is only as zealous as Peter’s, and as patient as Paul’s, and as loving as John’s. F. D. H.

9-11. The Ascension and the Angel’s Message.—His last words, “ye are my witnesses,” spoken—and what intense significance this fact carries to all disciples!—He lifts his hands in blessing, and in the act of blessing rises. Of all that is sublime and tender in this beautiful and attractive life, nothing surpasses in power over a true human heart this spectacle, upon which we still are looking. The last act, an abiding memory to us of blessing; hands—once outstretched in cruel agony, shame, and death—now for ever outstretched with a benediction, from the living, risen, reigning Christ, of joy, of promised glory, and of everlasting life to every uplooking, fervid, trusting, hoping soul! And we know that the bright cloud that has taken will restore him, in that blessed day when we shall rise with all believers to meet him in the air. This is the message to us of the angels who spake from the hallowed spot on Olivet upon that bright day of Christ’s ascension. B.

9. Our Lord after his resurrection seems to have done nothing like a common man. Whatever was natural to him before seems now miraculous; what was before miraculous is now natural. On earth he had no longer any local residence; his body required neither food for its subsistence, nor a lodging for its shelter and repose; he was become the inhabitant of another region, from which he came occasionally to converse with his disciples; his visible ascension, at the end of forty days, being not the necessary means of his removal, but a token to his disciples that this was the last visit—an evidence to them that “the heavens had now received him,” and that he was to be seen no more on earth “till the restitution of all things.” Horsley.

Taken up. They saw with them, as Master, Comforter, Consoler, and Protector, a man, such as they saw themselves. If they saw not something of this kind, they were fain to think him absent; whereas he is everywhere present by his majesty. And it was needful that they should now begin to have spiritual views of him, as the Word of the Father, God with God, by whom all things were made; and these the flesh, which they saw, suffered them not to have. It was therefore expedient for them to be confirmed in faith by his converse with them during forty days; but it was more expedient for them that he should withdraw himself from their eyes, and that whereas upon earth he had been conversant with them as a brother, he should succor them from heaven as God, and they should learn to think of him as God. They would not think of the God, until the man were removed from them and from their sight; so that, when the familiar intercourse which they had had with the flesh was cut off, they might learn, even in the absence of the flesh, to think of his Godhead. Aug.—If faith and spiritual affection are the life of the Church, it was for the advantage of the Church that Jesus, instead of remaining in the midst of her, should go away. Before the departure of Jesus Christ there is no Church, but there is one immediately after. Those men who, after a long residence with their Master, put questions to him, and start doubts which almost make us blush for them, are after his departure enlightened, intelligent, resolute men. This Church, in which he leaves only his remembrance, and in which the visible signs of his power lasted only a very short time, still subsists, and even now, amid the decline of all belief and the overthrow of all systems, is the only thing which has strength, life, and a future. A. V.—Inasmuch as a cloud received him out of their sight, it was declared to them that the human form of the Lord which thus departed from among them has not disappeared into the air, but has entered heaven, the abode of God, and is there working and acting. But how? Entering heaven as the glorified King, it is concerning his kingdom that he is acting and working; but inasmuch as he is withdrawn from them, and no longer personally among them, it is not outwardly and visibly that he is thus working; not concerning a visible earthly kingdom, but only by that outpouring of the Spirit which he is gone up to receive, and concerning an inward and Spirit kingdom. A.—There is among us, ever since that wondrous day, a power beyond all powers, a strength to nerve the feeble heart, an unction to anoint the sightless eye, an energy to revivify the spiritually dead. There is a secret, subtile, unseen power—mightier than all that fabling romance ever dreamed of its magic—it is near us if we will but know it, within us if we will but call it—this is the heritage of the believing world ever since that day of Olivet. W. A. B.

What tongue of the highest archangel of heaven can express the welcome of the King of Glory into those blessed regions of immortality? Surely, the empyreal heaven never resounded with so much joy: “God ascended with jubilation, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet.” It is not for us, weak and finite creatures, to conceive those incomprehensible, spiritual, divine gratulations that the glorious Trinity gave to the victorious and now glorified human nature. Certainly, if, “when he brought his Only-Begotten Son into the world, he said, Let all the angels worship him”; much more now that he “ascends on high and hath led captivity captive, hath he given him a name above all names, that at the name of JESUS all knees should bow.” And, if the holy angels did so carol at his birth, in the very entrance into that estate of humiliation and infirmity, with what triumph did they receive him now, returning from the perfect achievement of man’s redemption! Bp. H.

We see humanity glorified when the Son of man thus mounts his Father’s throne; and not too high, assuredly, sounded the ancient vaunt of faith,

“that our flesh is in the heaven.” “To-day,” so spoke the famed Chrysostom, in the most ancient ascension sermon of the Christian Church which has been preserved for us—“to-day are we, who do not seem worthy of earth, taken up into heaven: we win the royal throne; and the human race, who were driven by cherubim from paradise, take even a place above the cherubim.” Van O.

10. It is said that the apostles “looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up”; methinks it is so that we also, as we read or hear this wondrous event, should fix eye and heart upon that heaven which he, the first-born, has preoccupied; that we should feel that in him a portion of ourselves has departed thither, a sinless type of humanity, which keeps its place for the rest; and that our heart, in Christ, being already there, all else should struggle, with holy impatience, to follow. W. A. B.

The final demonstration of his Messiahship is complete. Henceforth the Redemption of Jesus, his incarnation, his life, his redeeming death, his resurrection and ascension, enter as living truths, the most vital and grandest truths, into human history. Roman falsehood, Jewish malice, Grecian skepticism, can never crush them out of human thought, or palsy their ennobling power over human hearts. From soul to soul these eternal realities pass into possession; men feed upon them and grow pure and strong. The sphere of faith enlarges from generation to generation, and as it enlarges, new power, new joy, new hope exalts and strengthens man. S. W. F.

Read in the gospels, repeated in sermons, faintly reflected in Christians, that matchless life is every day humanizing, stimulating, rebuking, consoling thousands; impelling to deeds of generous self-sacrifice and difficult self-conquest, which he was himself the first to exhibit, and inspiring with hope those lovers of their race who would otherwise despair of mankind. The perfection of beauty, a full-orbed Sun of Righteousness, there he stands and will ever stand, history’s great miracle and the world’s great hope, a sign that is still spoken against, but a name which is continually making progress, and daily working miracles. And ever since over Bethany he spread forth his hands and blessed the men of Galilee, a balm has lingered in earth’s atmosphere, which was not there before; and we all feel that earth will never again be so bleak since Jesus has been here, nor the grave again so dark since Jesus has been there; just as we feel that goodness has new charms since he showed us what it is, and that heaven has most nearness since he said, “I go to my Father,” and “Lo, I am with you always.” Hamilton.

11. He will come again; but times and seasons which man can not number will intervene. These are times of witnessing for all the disciples of Christ. They must receive the Spirit; they must be witnesses for Christ; they must begin at Jerusalem; they must reach the ends of the earth. After that shall the end be. The time seems long; and yet it is approaching quickly. That fixed star seems fixed indeed to our eyes; there it has stood in the deep of heaven, and glittered down on the upturned eyes of longing disciples these eighteen hundred years—the bright promise of his coming; but though it seems to stand still, it is moving; it is approaching. Be of good cheer, disciples, your redemption is nearer than when those Galileans first left their nets to follow Jesus. Arnot.—The return of Christ is that ultimate and yet most proximate point to which the believer constantly looks, toward which is all his hope, and from which he receives constantly the deepest impulses and motives for purification and diligent labor. The grace of God, bringing salvation, hath appeared—this is our sunrise—teaching us to wait for the appearing of our great God and Saviour—this is our perfect, never-ending day. A. S.

This question, “Why stand ye gazing up?” is the first thing in the order of events, and in the Bible narrative, after the closing of Christ’s earthly ministry. Only a little breathing space was to be given them first to gather up their energies, and even that was not to be an interval of idleness. They were to go at once to Jerusalem, as the chosen headquarters of the great warfare for the world’s conversion, and their waiting there was to be like the waiting of the still midsummer elements, before the mountain winds sweep down and the tongues of fire leap out—a busy waiting—a preparation for this long campaign of many ages. They were to occupy the ten days from Ascension to Pentecost, with its mighty wind and flame, in making ready incessantly for the coming of the Holy Spirit to inaugurate their work. They were to be earnest and constant in prayer and praise. They were to cease wasting their time on the empty cloud through which the Saviour’s form had gone, that they rather might find and follow and possess for ever the living Saviour himself, in doing by faith the substantial service of his love, for his sake. F. D. H.

13. AND when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew,

14. James the son of Alphæus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

15. And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of

16 names together were about an hundred and twenty,) Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before con-

17 cerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. For he was numbered with us,

18 and had obtained part of this ministry. Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed

19 out. And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called

20 in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood. For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his

21 bishoprick let another take. Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all

22 the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a wit-

23 ness with us of his resurrection. And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who

24 was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which know-

25 est the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might

26 go to his own place. And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

WHAT an epoch of prayer was that! So elevated are these ardent and consecrated souls toward heaven, so open toward God’s spirit, so conscious that they have only to ask to receive, that devotion seems to have become an instinct, and they pray as they breathe. And what followed? The Church grew before men’s eyes with such swiftness that a thousand converts were gathered in the time that it takes us to gather ten: in the short lifetime of a single generation the worship of Christ raised itself to power in the chief cities of three continents; the swords of all the Herods and Cæsars and their legions could not strike fast enough to cut down one Christian where twenty sprang up; hundreds were baptized in a day; the times of refreshing had come; the prediction was literally accomplished; the windows of heaven were opened, and the blessing was so poured out that there was not room enough to receive it. These were the fruits. How can we fail to connect together the fruit with the seed—the glorious movement and the motive power—the Church pure in doctrine and victorious in converting the world with the multitude of her members not only standing full-clad in all the panoply of the Christian warfare, but praying always, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit? All along since the last of the twelve laid down his life, this rule has never had an exception—the Church has been both strong and pure, victorious abroad and peaceful with itself, just according to its spirit of supplication, according to its devotional nearness to Christ. F. D. H.

12-26. From the parting with their ascended Lord, with the vision still in thought of those hands outstretched in blessing, the apostles returned to Jerusalem. In a large chamber in the upper story of a certain house, probably the room already hallowed by their last intercourse with the Master, they gather together, and many other disciples with them. For ten days this first assembly of the Christian Church remained in almost continuous prayer, and in perfect unison of feeling, calmly expecting the fulfillment of the Lord’s many promises respecting the Holy Ghost. Luke’s Gospel tells us that “they went to the Temple daily,” at the usual hour of prayer. The whole number was one hundred and twenty, and they are distinguished into four groups: the apostles, the women who had followed Jesus, his mother Mary, and his brethren—Mary seen for the last time in the beautiful attitude of prayer with the other believers, sharing their spiritual aspirations and sympathizing in their trust and hope, and equally looking for and depending upon the Holy Spirit; and his brethren, now also believing, rejoicing, expectant; and, lastly, the larger assemblage of disciples.

Peter now proposes that the vacancy in the apostleship be filled. After consideration as well as prayer, resort was had to the lot to determine the choice of Christ. This was their last conformity to a usage of the old dispensation, for they were to have from henceforth a better guide to the will of God. Matthias was chosen and numbered with the apostles. Concerning him, as concerning several other apostles, we have no further definite information. This we know, they all fulfilled the ministry appointed them. Each had a history and performed a life-work whose record of fruitfulness and blessing shall be gratefully traced in the studies of the redeemed.

With singleness of expectation and absolute assurance of faith, every heart in perfect oneness with every other, asking, as He had bidden, in his name, they quietly awaited the time appointed for the advent of the Comforter. B.

14. There was perseverance in the prayer of the primitive Church—“they continued.” There was unity in those early prayer-meetings—they prayed “with one accord.” The prayers were not soon broken off, and were not hindered by disagreements among the suppliants. They ascended straight to heaven in a pillar of pure incense, and descended soon in showers of blessing—a great refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Arnot.

Mary. The Holy Spirit takes leave of her here, associated with the apostolic company of worshipers in the upper room at Jerusalem. She is one of those who there continue steadfast in prayer. How unlike the spirit and language of the Holy Ghost is that will-worship which takes her out of that holy fellowship and makes her an object of adoration! W.

We see her to have been a devout Jewish maiden, a faithful wife, a loving mother, illustrating in her life a true womanhood. Her faith, her study of the Scriptures, her humility, her modesty, her fidelity—all commend her as an example of the character produced by the grace of God. Not a single hint is given of her sinlessness, or that she differed in her nature from Elizabeth or Anna, or any of those devout and loving women who followed Christ to the cross and early visited his sepulchre. Her honor, her peculiar blessedness consisted in this, that she was chosen to be the mother of Jesus. As woman in Eve bore her part in the fall, so woman in Mary bore her part in giving birth to him who is the Redeemer of the world. To the Church she sustains no official relation whatever. Christ himself expressly disclaims all such human relationship in his kingdom. The moment he appears she retires. A few allusions, and she vanishes from the scene. The apostles never once allude to her. She is put as entirely aside as if she never had existed. To those inspired men she is utterly unknown in any other relation to the Church than that of a simple believer, saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. There is nothing in the early records, nothing in the early fathers of the Church for the first five centuries, which indicates that Mary was anything more than an honored member of the Church. S. W. F.

John has nothing to say of her, or to report from her. If he had her with him even for years, speaking freely of what she knew, how many things could she have told him that we so much long to hear! And yet the apostle, beginning his gospel far back in the solemn arcana of the Eternal Word, and passing directly over Mary to speak, fourteen verses after, of “the Word made flesh,” gives not so much as a trace of mention concerning her maternal place and office in the story. Making no report of her conversations, he is equally silent as regards her death; telling never when she died, or how she died, or in what place she was buried. And it is well; for there was even a much higher necessity in her case, than in that of Moses, that her burial-place should be hidden from mortal knowledge. Otherwise it would be the center of a vaster idolatry than the world has ever known. The divine wisdom somehow took her aside, with a set purpose not to let her mix her human-story products, beautiful and graceful as they were, with Christ’s immortal life-word from above. H. B.

15. It is the commencement of God’s kingdom on which we gaze with quiet admiration, and it may be to us as though we stood beside the hidden source of a stream which thence speeds along to water regions vast beyond belief. These hundred and twenty persons, what a small beginning compared with the vigorous progress and the fair destiny! Still the spiritual kingdom of God stands toward the unbelieving world as for ten days the humble upper chamber stood toward the powerful and magnificent Jerusalem; yet it appears here, too, that the great question is not on what side is the majority to be found, but on what side is the truth. Van O.

18. It is natural to suppose that Judas hanged himself on some tree growing out of a precipice; and that the branch breaking, or whatever he hanged himself with, he fell down headlong, and dashed himself to pieces. M.—Supposing this part of Hinnom to have been the scene of the suicide, it fits in exactly to the narrative in the Acts. There are places with overhanging trees of various kinds, at which the rugged rock rises sheer up to

forty or fifty feet; and supposing an individual to be suspended by the neck from a branch of one of those trees, there is nothing improbable in the branch breaking, in his falling body being torn by some jagged projecting stone as he descended, and in his being dashed to pieces by the hard rock at the bottom. The potter’s field, which was purchased with the thirty pieces of silver, is shown on the same eminence. We found its soil to be clayey as we walked over it; and if you ask almost any potter in Jerusalem where he finds his material, he will direct you to this very Acedama. A. Thomson.—I felt, as I stood in the valley and looked up to the rocky terraces which overhang it, that the proposed explanation was a perfectly natural one. I was more than ever satisfied with it. Trees still flourish on the margin of these precipices, and in ancient times must have been more numerous. A rocky pavement exists, also, at the bottom of the ledges, and on that account, too, a person falling from above would be liable to be crushed and mangled, as well as killed. Hackett.

with tongues in a few years: but the event of Pentecost remains in all its presence and all its power. The filling, teaching, indwelling Spirit is as much with us as he was with them. A.—The condition of the descent of the Holy Ghost with converting power in the Church is ever the same as at his first coming. Oneness of heart, and united, believing, persevering prayer on the part of Christ’s banded disciples, will assuredly bring the largest blessing that is asked or desired. “For this I will be inquired of,” is still the divine utterance, and the promise yet stands good, I will “increase with men like a flock.” Prayers, unhindered by disagreements, by lukewarmness of desire, by diversion of interest and purpose, by wavering faith, or for-

forgetfulness of the objects, will never be denied; they will be, must be answered, as God is true. B.—Every accessory, every instrument of usefulness, the Church has now in such a degree and of such excellence as was never known in any other age; and we want but a supreme and glorious baptism of fire to exhibit to the world such a spectacle as would raise ten thousand hallelujahs to the glory of our King. Let but this baptism descend, and thousands who have been but commonplace or weak ministers would then become mighty. Prayer earnest, prayer united, and prayer persevering, these are the conditions; and, these being fulfilled, we shall assuredly be “endued with power from on high.” Arthur.

have crucified both Lord and Christ! (Verses 32, 33, 36.) B.