Peter at Pentecost

Waiting fob the promise. Pentecost. Sound of a rushing mighty wind. the tongues of fire. peters sermon and its results.

“O golden rain from heaven!
Tby precious dewsbe given

To bless the Cb arch’s barren field I
And let thy waters flow
Where’er the sowers sow

The seed of truth, that it may yield
A hundredfold its living fruit,
O’er all the land may take deep root,
And mighty branches heavenward shoot.’

“Peter (in the storm on the lake) was the image of weak faith, staggered by the storms of this world; but after he had received the gift of the Holy Ghost, he who was like a fluent wave became a steadfast rock, unmoved by the tempest of persecution and the fear of death.” — Augustine,

“One colossal figure emerges from the gloom, now more than ever the representative of his brethren. Can we doubt that when they saw him stand forth in the front of the whole body of the believers, in their first days of bereavement, for the election of a new apostle; in their first hour of exultation on the day of Pentecost; that when they witnessed the thousands upon thousands of his converts, they felt that it was the rolling back of the everlasting doors by him who had the keys of the kingdom of heaven V — Stanley 9 Sermons on the Apostolic Age, pp. 89, 90.

“In him is found that bold spirit of the pioneer which, when purified in the crucible of trial and repentance, will make him the man of action and preponderating influence in the first period of the apostolic age.” — Piamnse.

—Lyra Oermanica.

HE vacancy in the apostolic number being now filled up, they must continue to wait patiently for the fulfilment of the great promise of the Holy Spirit, whose advent their Divine Lord had said would more than indemnify them for the loss entailed by His departure. “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but W I <h part. I will send Him unto you” (John xvi. 7). Tin- present position and attitude of the infant Church remind us of Zechariah’s symbolic vision of the candlestick “all of gold,” with its seven lamps — the Jewish number of completion — and their connecting seven pipes. All was in readiness for the distilling of the oil from the “two olive-tiees;” above all, for the Diviue jire which was to complete the object for which the candlestick was erected — the illumination of a dark world. When is the Church’s Lord to “answer by fire” 1

Peter’s feelings at this crisis were doubtless those of. a brave soldier eager to begin the assault which would lead to the deliverance of beleaguered captives, but who must continue in a state of inaction till the permissive word be given.

That word would not be delayed. A faithful Saviour had expressly said that it would be “not after many days.” What the precise boon was which was to be conferred they appear to have had an indistinct idea. It is evident that with some, possibly Peter among the number, there had lingered up to the last interview with their Master previous to the ascension, the fond dream of the setting up of a temporal Messianic Kingdom. “Lord!” was the question which very possibly emanated from the lips of our apostle as spokesman, “restorest Thou at this time the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts i. 6). It has been noted that Jesus, in His reply, does not give a precise and definite answer to their query: as if He would leave the clearer light, which this new Divine agent would impart, to dispel their darkness, and unfold the full grandeur of a sovereignty very different from what was associated in their minds with the limits of Palestine and the sceptre of Judah.

The hours, the days pass, and yet it is with them “hope deferred.” When the Sunday came round, the first Easter day after the great Assumption, we may imagine with what sanguine hearts they would look for the bestowment of the promised Gift, which was, as it were, to clothe them with invisible armour, and turn them into spiritual giants. As they sat together

PETER AT PENTECOST.

at the fellowship feast, and called to memory the events which from their recency required no outward visible memorial, how must guest have whispered to guest, “Surely it must be to-day I “How will” the promise of the Father” be communicated? Will the white-robed angels of the sepulchre be delegated to bring down this Divine Comforter from the heavenly sanctuary t Will a burst of angel-song welcome in the Paraclete, as it did the Saviour thirty-three years before on Bethlehem’s plains? Or might Peter have heard and garnered in his mind an old saying he had listened to on the banks, of the Jordan,” He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fireV Will it be the seraphim of Isaiah who will be employed to fetch some live coals from off the holy Altar before the Throne, and to touch therewith each lip of the waiting throng?

The hours of that Lord’s day pass in silence; the lengthened shadows are projected athwart the Valley of Jehoshaphat; but no sign appears in the serene heaven above Mount Olivet, where last they strained their eyes in watching the receding cloud which bore their best Friend away. Ere evening closes, surely, at all events, they will see once more the “gates ajar,” and these longing prayers of theirs will be answered! But the sun has set over the mountains of Bether; the stars resume their silent watch, and all is still. We may imagine them stealing hour after hour during the day to the flat roof of the dwelling, and gazing up into the ethereal blue of an eastern sky, longing for some harbinger of the great Gift. We may think of them at night on the outlook for some bright meteor such as that which led the sages of Persia to the manger cradle. But, like the answer of the prophet’s child, each delegate returns with the reply, “There is nothing!” No “still, small voice” steals on these saddened hearts. And so day by day, and eve by eve, all that next long week, prayer ascends — an “ecstasy of worship “— and still no answer; the earth is as brass, and the heavens as iron. Will not the outside Jewish world be confirmed in its scorn of these lofty pretensions of a crucified Galilean, and pity the reckless and persistent fanaticism of the poor dreamers who are still clinging with the desperation of drowning men to a baseless delusion? In vain the psalm is sung, and the invocation and pleading “prolonged. The God they invoke seems to be like Baal, “asleep or on a journey.” One of these whom we now know well, more impatient naturally than the others, may at times be ready to abandon hope. Fancying perhaps that something in himself might be the hindrance, he might be tempted to utter the old upbraiding cry of the misgiving prophet, “Surely my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God.” Mysterious and unaccountable delay! The reapers standing with their whetted sickles in hand, and the fie’ds “already white unto the harvest” inviting an abundant ingathering: and yet the command, amounting to a present prohibition, is “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”

It was the solemn preparation season; — “the hour of expectancy,” which has ever been found to prelude a time of true revival — the season when the furrows are being prepared to receive the precious seed and the falling shower; the tolling of the bell preceding the time and the act of worship* All God’s greatest

PETER AT PENTECOST.

works are characterised by deliberation — slowness of development. Specially is this the case in the growth of His Church, and in the hearts of His people. “He that belie veth shall not make haste.” What a discipline for persevering prayer! What an occasion for continued importunate pleading! Some of these earnest, longing suppliants would perhaps remember a parable which now-glorified lips once spake to them, ‘How that men ought always to pray and not faint.”

But “the Lord is good to them that wait for Him, unto the soul that seeketh Him.” After a few additional days, in which faith was disciplined arid prayer loaded the cloud of mercy, that cloud burst in showers of blessing on the disciples’ heads. The heavens are opened, and the true baptism of fire takes place!

It was early, probably very early in the morning (as we gather from Acts ii. 15),1 long before the smoke of the sacrifice was seen rising from the temple courts — Nature’s sweet hour of calm and refreshment, when the dews were lying thick on Olivet, and the rising sun was bathing the tops of the Moab mountains. It was, too, on the Feast of Pentecost, the great feast of Wheat-harvest, or Fiftieth Day, as it was familiarly called among the Hellenistic Jews, a feast which differed from the two other great national anniversaries of Passover and Tabernacles by occupying only a single day in its celebration. And there was a beautiful and befitting reason why our blessed Lord, in the plenitude of His wisdom, should have selected the old typical festival to form in future the commemoration of a mightier event. Pentecost occurred the fiftieth day after the killing of the Paschal Lamb in Egypt, and the sprink- 1 The third hoar of the day would be 9 a m. ling of its blood on the lintels and doorposts of the dwellings of Israel. Accordingly its first celebration took place among the valleys around Sinai, amid the thunderings and lightnings of the Mount of God. It was surely alike appropriate and remarkable that the very same day in the year on which the law was given to Israel, that law “which gave them national life and unity,” the Holy Spirit should come down to give life and unity to the Church. “As the possession of the law had completed the deliverance of the Hebrew race, wrought by the hand of Moses; so the gift of the Spirit perfected the work of Christ in the establishment of His kingdom upon earth.” 1 That mount of Jehovah in the great and terrible wilderness, was a permanent monument and memorial of the power of God; and although there was in the antitypical “Whitsunday” no element of terror or awe, though the new voice was not’ to be emitted amid cloud, and tempest and quaking precipices, yet they had reason, too, to expect some manifestation of Divine majesty or omnipotence; for it had been expressly intimated that that favoured handful of spiritual Israelites, under a new dispensation, were to be “endued with power from on high “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” Nor was this the only reason for the appropriateness of Pentecost as the season selected for the bestowment of this promised outpouring of the Spirit. There were others also. It was a harvest-festival, the great day of thanksgiving for the wheat ingathering. On the morning of the most memorable day of Peter’s life, when his Divine Master rose triumphant from His grave on Golgotha,

l Bib. Die, Art. Pentecost.

PETER AT PENTECOST.

the first sheaf of barley harvest had been waved before the Lord in the temple; and now when the main harvest-treasure, the great cereal of Palestine, had fully ripened, a’ second offering takes place: and prominent in the rite is a similar presentation before Jehovah of theT*two first wheaten loaves. While the former was eminently typical of Him who, in His glorious resurrection, was the first-fruits of a multitude which no man can number, redeemed by His precious blood; equally. beautifully and significantly surely did the latter, point to those who were to form “the first-fruits of the Spirit,” gathered in and cousecrated to God. The rite, moreover, next to the Feast of Tabernacles, was celebrated with greatest joy. It partook much more of a jubilant festival than the Passover. It was an occasion of liberality to the poor; and though its duration does not seem to have exceeded one day, brief as the ceremony was, it was attended, and more especially in later times, by Jews from all parts of the world. So Josephus specially notes (Ant. xiv. 13), and his statement is amply corroborated in the inspired narrative before us. Many Jews who, from distant homes, came up to the Passover, were in the habit of remaining till the Feast of Pentecost; and when we bear in mind the statement of the same historian, that at the siege of Titus during the former season, three millions were crowded within the walls of the city of solemnities, we may have some approximate idea of the vast throng which must have been brought together at this time. We may even believe that on the present occasion an unusual number would be assembled in consequence of that universal expectation, to which we have more than once referred, over the length and breadth of the Roman empire, as to the coming of the Messiah of ancient prophecy. Besides what we have indicated, we have no very reliable knowledge as to what were the other special symbols of joy and thanksgiving which distinguished the celebration of Pentecost They may possibly have been similar in character to those at the Feast of Tabernacles — the waving of myrtle, and olive, and palm branches; certainly the singing of the Hallel. We know that in the modern keeping of the feast, the Jews have their houses festooned with flowers, wearing chaplets of the same on th$ir heads, to testify their joy in the possession of the law. The same writer who mentions these facts adds, as a remarkable peculiarity which is of interest to us in the life we are now tracing, that “they eat such food as is prepared with milk, because the purity of the Divine law is likened to milk; hence the significance of the expression used by St Peter in his second epistle, “The sincere milk of the word.”1

On that memorable day of joy, then, the disciples were gathered in the place where prayer was wont to be made; and although the assertion cannot be made absolutely, there is another probable coincidence which adds to the interest of the occasion. Those best conversant with Jewish chronology suppose, that the present Pentecostal season must have occurred on “the Lord’s-day” — not the Jewish Sabbath, but the commemorative Resurrection-day — the new Sunday of the Christian Church. “The Jewish Pentecost,” to quote Olshausen,” in the year of our Lord’s death, fell upon Saturday; but it began at six o’clock in the evening; i Bib. Die., kri. Pentecost

PETER AT PENTECOST.

when the Sabbath was at a close, and it lasted until six o’clock on Sunday evening.” 44 If the Paschal Supper was eaten on the 13th, and Christ was crucified on the 14th, the Sunday of the Resurrection must have been the day of the omer, and Pentecost must have occurred on the first day of the week.” 1 Full of earnest hope the gathered disciples would in all likelihood be engaged in united supplication, “preventing the dawning of the morning.” We know not whose voice at the moment may have been ascending to the Great High Priest; who it was that was pleading the recently guaranteed promise, 44 Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you.” Would it be Peter, the 44 Rock-man,” wrestling as the Patriarch 454 Prince w did of old at Peniel, and prevailing? We are not told. Be that as it may, without note of warning, a noise “like to” («<wi*) the sound of a rushing mighty wind, which has been compared to that with which Ezekiel was familiar in his Chebar visious, is heard. 44 Tempests blow commonly horizontally. This appeared to come from above, and this is all that is meant by the expression 4 from heaven.’ “2 It was neither earthquake, nor tempest, nor whirlwind, as some would explain away the supernatural element in it. The walls,, and doors, and rafters of the dwelling are unmoved. The 120 startled disciples remain uninjured. 44 The Lord is in His holy place, as in Mount Sinai.” It was an unmistakable announcement, by an outer audible sign, of the advent of the promised Divine Invisible Spirit, and the direction of the sound indicated His descent from heaven. 44 It may be remarked,” observes the same commentator, 44 that this l Art. Pentecost, Smith’s Bib. Die. * Barnes. miracle was really far more striking than the common supposition makes it to have been. A tempest might have been terrific; a mighty wind might have alarmed them; but there would have been nothing unusual or remarkable in it. Such things often occurred, and the thoughts would have been directed, of course, to the storm as an ordinary, though perhaps alarming occurrence. But when all was still, when there was no storm, no wind, no rain, no thunder, such a rushing 8ound must have arrested their attention, and directed all minds to so unusual and unaccountable an occurrence.”1

Cloven or divided tongues, like as of fire, came down separately on the heads of each of them, and remained settled there.2

u The days of hope and prayer are past,
The day of comfort dawns at last.
The everlasting gates again
Roll back, and lo! a royal train,
From the far depth of light once more
The floods of glory earthward pour.
They part like shower-drops in mid air,
Bat ne er so soft fell noontide shower,
Nor ev’uing rainbow gleam’d so fair
To weary swains in parched b tvrer.
Swiftly and straight each tongue of flame,
Through cloud and breeze unwavering came.”

* Barnes on Acts, p. 29.

* Renan and his school with the usual rejection of the miraculous, suggest, to account for these appearances, a flash, or successive flashes of lightning. Others a temUanee of these fiery tongues, arising from the spectators being in a trance or ecstasy, superinduced by their prolonged devotions — the vision of distempered and excited imaginations. But all these are gratuitous, inadmissible, and totally at variance with the plain meaning of the passage. “The writer,” says Olshausen, “manifestly intends that we should form to ourselves the idea of a fiery stream which divided itself, and whose radiations spread over all. and rested upon them.”

—Christian Tear.

PETER AT PENTECOST.

If it had been intended that Peter was to become, according to the Roman theory and claim, his Lord’s ivicar and successor, doubtless on him alone would the fiery “mitre “have been placed. But while he wears this strange coronal of flame, he looks around him, and beholds his brethren and sisters bearing the same, from John and James, Andrew and Philip, to the latest chosen Matthias, and the female watchers by the Cross and the Sepulchre. Even the Virgiu Mother, doubtless, was there, crowned in a nobler sense than by the idolatries of an apostate Church of later ages. Recognising in her own case, as in that of those gathered around, the blessed token that her Son, 4 being by the right hand of Qod exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, had shed forth this, — might she not have resumed on that festival of double joy the strains of her old song of praise-r-u My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.” We may feel sure the substance, at all events, of that hymn would be on every heart and lip of that rapt assembly.

But as we linger on the scene, and behold Peter with the flaming Symbol on his head, let us pause, and more particularly inquire as to its meaning.

The Fire was no strange or novel emblem. It was the invariable token and sign of present Deity. Jehovah in ancient days preceded the Host of Israel in the wilderness by a Pillar of fire: — out of a Canopy of flame (a fire) He delivered the law: — out of a bush of flaming fire in that same wilderness He had first spoken to Israel’s leader. The vision Ezekiel had of his great Lord was that of “a cloud and a fire unfolding itself 99 (Ezek. i. 4). The Fire which now descended, therefore, was the undoubted indication and symbol of the Divine nearness and presence. It was as if the Shekinah of the first Temple had reappeared in the inauguration of the Great spiritual Temple of the future. That Temple, in a new sense, was “filled with the glory of the Lord.”

But while the fire doubtless indicated “Surely the Lord is in this place,” and converted that upper chamber into a Bethel; there was a latent significancy in the novelty of the form in which the flames appeared — “tongues,” and “cloven tongues.”

Tongues, These were symbolic of the instrumentality which was to be employed, and to become effectual in extending the kingdom of Christ. “Go ye into all the world,” were among the last words which fell from the Master’s lips, “and preach the Gospel to every creature.” “It hath pleased God,” was the comment of the greatest of ministers, on his Lord’s injunction, “by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” Human speech was to form, in the future, God’s noblest means in making known the Great Salvation. In a sense the wise seer of Israel never dreamt of, “Death and life were to be in the power of the tongue” By that mighty power, proud Pharisees, sceptic Sadducees, effeminate Greeks, haughty Romans, slaves and beggars, publicans and harlots, soldiers and merchant princes and members of Caesar s household, were all alike to accept with gratitude and joy the tidings of Bedecming Love.

And it is specially worthy of note in the conversions to which we si i .ill presently allude, that it was not the miracle which directly led to these. The manifestations of supernatural agency produced only amazement in some, and mockery and scorn among the many. But it was when the tongue of the unschooled speaker was unloosed, — in other words, when the Gospel was preached — that eyes were dimmed with tears, hearts humbled and broken, quickened and saved.

They were, moreover, Tongues of fire, the tongue of man but inflamed and inspired by God. The rushing mighty wind and the phenomenon of flame, together feign ificantly proclaimed the Divine power, and the superhuman ability with “which that power would endow.

Nor was the “cloven “tongue, the divided, forked flame, without significance. The tongues in which that Gospel was to be proclaimed were to be many: — one element of Are, but diverge in shape to suit the varied languages, and it may be characteristic of earth’s diverse peoples. For in connection with the external symbol was another marvel, and the greatest of all, that each came to speak previously unknown languages, ejaculating words probably unintelligible to themselves, but understood by those in whose dialect they spake. It was the fulfilment of one of the” wonders” predicted by Christ Himself in His memorable Sermon on the Mount of Olives: “These signs shall follow them that believe... they shall speak with new tongues” (Mark xvi. 17). Babel’s old confusion of language is no barrier to the Spirit’s divine energy.” We are at once led to ascribe to the historian the

l Chrysostom’s view, which was followed by several of the early Fathers, is untenable on several grounds, vis., that the gift was bestowed for the ultimate dissemination of Christianity: — that each Apostle was miraculously gifted at the moment with the power o speaking one language other than his own native Aramaic, and that whatever the new tongue was, it wus designed thus preternaturally to indicate to him the country he was idea that an effect was here exhibited, exactly the reverse of the separation that once took place among the nations by the confusion of tongues. The outpouring of the Spirit of God through the instrumentality of the gift of tongues, melted together again the broken fragments into a new unity. “Is not My word like fire ]” — Though a different emblem, it recalls the flight of the Apocalyptic Angel of Patmos with “the little book” in his hand, speeding “to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.”

“Then they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” Every soul was made a Temple of indwelling Deity.

Soon the strange fact obtained publicity. Soon it was noised about street and Temple-court, and crowded tent on Olivet and Jehoshaphat, that the unlearned and ignorant men of Galilee were speaking no longer in their native Aramaic, but in diverse languages, previously unknown and unacquired. Probably the small upper room is too limited to contain the crowd that is hastening to see and hear this new marvel, and so the fire-crowned company descend themselves to the streets to proclaim the Name that is above every name. “Like the school of the prophets of old who went forth to greet King Saul, this new school of prophets go forth into the streets of Jerusalem, and meet the crowds who would be already assembling for the Temple service.” * Their ecstatic theme was “The mighty things of God”

commissioned to evangelise “(Homil. on Acts, in loco). “I believe,” says Dean Alford (Greek Test. vol. ii. p. 12),’” the event related to have been a sudden and powerful inspiration of the Holy Spirit, by which the disciples uttered, not of their own minds, but as mouthpieces of the Spirit, the praises of Ood in various languages, hitherto, and possibly at the time itself, unknown to them.” 1 Olshausen, in loco.

s Canou Norris, “Key to the Acts,” p. 8.

PETER AT PENTECOST.

(Ta (jityaXua rou 0goD), a noble birth-song for this second Genesis of the Church — a prelude at least of that Gentile Hosannah which was yet to unite with the Hebrew Hallelujah, in hailing the ascended Christ of Nazareth as Son of God and Saviour of the world; and that too in every tongue and language under heaven. “They spake,” we read, “as the Spirit gave them utterance” — an unequivocal testimony that they were inspired men — uttering not their own thoughts or words — but speaking under the direct control and impulse of the Holy Ghost.

We may follow in thought the footsteps of Peter in this his first embassage of power. Shall we suppose him hastening to the cloisters of the Temple where Jews and proselytes from all countries, representatives from Europe, Asia, and Africa, were fast gathering at that early hour, to secure places at the opening Pentecostal services? It has been surmised from the word employed, that several of these foreign Jews had taken up their abode in the-ancient capital; that, in the same way as those who have visited the modern Jerusalem never fail to be struck with the many Israelites gathered from all nationalities, who have been attracted in their latter days to the city of their fathers, in order that they may lay their dust in the Valley of Jehoshaphat; — so it may have been then. It is manifest, however, that these permanent residents were exceptional — that the vast majority were composed of caravans of pilgrims who had come from a distance to attend the feast, who were naturally most familiar with the language of the varied countries of their adoption; many of whom indeed were unable to converse in the current Syro-Chaldaic speech of Palestine. There is an Egyptian here, a Roman there, a Persian there, an Ethiopian there. Peter has a word in their own native vernacular for each and all of them. The Jewish onlookers may mock and jeer, and with a contemptuous smile of disdain say ’ these men are inebriated ’ — “full of new wine” — apprehending danger and riot from the violent outward excitement. But the imputation is not credited by any means universally. Even those who can only gaze with dumb amazement have the inward conviction that something strange and unwonted has happened. The awe-struck foreigners, with the eager enthusiasm peculiar to Eastern crowds, carry the tidings from group to group, and from cloister to cloister. A congregation is speedily formed: “Yonder,” may be the cry as they see a bold figure making his way through the crowd, and taking his place on an extemporised pulpit in one of the Temple-courts, “Yonder is Simon of Galilee. Let us follow and listen to his own account of these strange things.”

So, like the Athenians of a later age, as they gathered around a more accomplished Orator on Mars Hill, to hear the new doctrine of “Jesus and the Resurrection,” the Pentecostal worshippers assemble around this bold Bethsaida fisherman. We long to obtain a momentary glimpse of the living man, and note how he comports himself in this the first great emergency after the ascension of his Master. How changed in many respects he must have been, since the day when we spoke of him in opening manhood, pursuing his worldly calling on the shores of his native lake, without having so much as a thought of his conspicuous future! The last few months — rather we should say the last few

PETER AT PENTECOST.

weeks — of the three past eventful years, must especially have left on his countenance the traces of that struggle which had so nearly ended in the doom of a traitor, but which had left him more than all- his fellow-apostles a debtor to grace — ‘that grace bringing him anew out of darkness into “marvellous light.” The last few hours had done more than all. We may imagine him coming forth like Moses from the presence of God on the mount, with his face still lustrous with the recent glory — resolute, undaunted, self-possessed. No sign of the timidity or vacillation of former years; no skulking now away in the dark from duty and peril. His subsequent words attest his fearlessness, when with unhesitating tongue, in language not to be evaded or misunderstood, he serves on his audience the awful indictment of having with wicked hands plotted and consummated the murder of the Lord of Glory! There is an end to all captious difficulties and objections, — “Thou shalt never wash my feet :w of all mistimed and unwarranted questionings as to the necessity of his Master’s sufferings, — “This be far from Thee, Lord.” The baptism of fire has shed a new and lurid light on much that was before incomprehensible regarding that cross and passion. Impressed with the dominating thought that the death of Jesus was the life of the world, his whole resolve and desire now and subsequently seems to be, like his brother- Apostle, to glory in the cross of Christ, and to lead others to espouse the creed that “there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.”

As we follow him, then, from the fiery baptism of the “upper room/9 his whole soul seems kindled with the symbolic flame which, a few moments ago, played on his head. The oft-before “Beady to halt,” is now a “Son of Thunder;*’ a mouth and wisdom has been given unto him, which all his adversaries will be unable to gainsay or resist. He knows well the complex character of his hearers, their scornful prejudices, and vengeful religious hates. There were indeed doubtless among these, not a few who were” religious according to the light they had previously enjoyed; “for we are expressly told in the narrative, that among the multitude there were” devout men out of every nation under heaven,” earnest seekers after the truth; of the same stamp as those names afterwards familiar in the Acts, — like the Ethiopian Eunuch, or the noble-born Roman Cornelius, — proselytes who had come to worship the God of Israel at His appointed festival, and who, though unattached to the person and cause of Jesus, recognised Him as a Holy teacher and prophet, worthy of all reverence. But doubtless the great majority was composed of a totally different olass; and among these again, would be comprehended wide diversities of feeling. There would be haters and bigots of every hue and type, jealous of the traditions of their fathers; from the phylacteried Pharisee and sceptic Sadducee down to the base traffickers in the Temple merchandise, who would see their godless gains imperilled in a new sect that made so little of letter and ceremonial, and so much of spirit and spiritual worship. Many of all these varied characters had been spectators of the scene on Calvary; many more, it is evident, had been active participators in the gigantic crime, — had joined in the cry, “He is a deceiver of the people, and worthy of death,” “Not this man but Barabbas,” “Crucify Him, crucify Him,”” His blood be on us, and on our

PETER AT PENTECOST.

children.” This is manifest from the language used by Peter in his sermon; for, as we have just noted, he directly impeaches them with the death of the Lord of Glory. “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, yt have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:” — “God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” And when the arrow of conviction “pricked their heart,” they cried out in the agony of conscious guilt and self-condemnation — “Men and brethren, what shall we do 3 1”

The sermon or address delivered by the Apostle is not in itself distinguished by what we would now call great qualities, It is simple in the extreme; without metaphor, or subtlety, or eloquence, or declamation. He seeks calmly yet fearlessly to convince them of the erroneous impressions of some and the slanders of others, and leads them to the acceptance of the “blessed hope” which was the anchor of his own soul It formed, indeed, an illustrative comment on words he wrote in his later life: “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter iii. 15). He begins with repudiating the false surmise of the mockers, who had mistaken the visible effects of a divine manifestation for a fit of inebriety. The very hour and season were conjointly sufficient to refute such an imputation, seeing it was” but the third hour of the day and until the sixth hour, till after the sacrifices were offered and the oblations made, the Jews observed on

l See Prof. James Buchanan on the “Office and Work of the Holy Spirit,” p. 870-L festive seasons a rigid abstinence from wine and meat. He claims for that strange scene of apparently unnatural excitement, the fulfilment of a prophecy of Joel, when that seer predicted that in the waning of the Jewish dispensation God was to pour out of His Spirit upon all flesh. “Meantime, and in the midst of these signs, the covenant of the spiritual dispensation is (ver. 21), * Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved, The gates of God’s mercy are thrown open in Christ to all people; no barrier is placed, no union with any external association or succession required: the promise is to individuals AS individuals” 2 Then at once he takes up the key-note of all future Apostolic discourses, and proclaims in the hearing of “the men of Israel,” heirs of promise, the Divine Person of Jesus of Nazareth. He feels that in thus holding up before their view the Prince of Life, he is not speaking to them of a stranger. For three years they had been conversant with His “signs and wonders,” His labours of love, His works and words of mercy and kindness, His holy life, His death of agony and humiliation suffered at their bauds. Fortified farther by one of David’s Messianic Psalms, he proceeds to refer to the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus at the Father’s right hand. In that Psalm, the inspired minstrel of

1 Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. iv. 29, with references to Josephus and the Talmndists.” What is in the A. V. rendered 4 new wine,’ ought rather to be translated ‘sweet wine,’ newly-fermented wine being an impossibility at the season of Pentecost. This sweet wine, preserved in cool places to preserve its luscious flavour, was greatly esteemed by the ancients, though very intoxicating, and as quoted in one of the satires of Horace (Lib. ii. Sat. 1), seems to have been a favourite morning draught; hence the appropriateness of the false assumption made regarding the Apostles.** — See Dr Kitto’s Pictorial Bible.

* Alforu’s Greek Test., vol. i. p. 19.

PETER AT PENTECOST.

Israel in speaking of God “not suffering His Holy One to see corruption,” but “making known to Him the way of life,” could have no primary or even secondary reference to himself, for they could point to the monarch’s sepulchre nigh at hand, on the brow of Zion, where his royal dust had been laid for centuries, and had been subjected to the common doom of mortality. He must, therefore, with prophetic insight, have been speaking of another and a Greater, even of Him who had proved Himself by many unquestionable miracles to be the “Sent of God,” who had both died and rose again, and of whose resurrection they were witnesses; and that that very outpouring of the Spirit which had caused mingled wonder and mockery, was nothing else than an attestation by the Divine Redeemer Himself of His completed work, — the promised evidence and pledge of His own exaltation and glorification. The speaker sums up all with the words, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God made Him both Lord and Christ, even this Jesus whom ye have crucified” (ver. 36).

Olshausen observes, “We discover already in this first sermon, all the peculiarities of Apostolic preaching. It contains no reflections nor deductions concerning the doctrine of Christ — no proposition of new and unknown doctrines, but simply and entirely consists 6f the proclamation of historical facts.” Although Peter refers to “the powers, and wonders, and signs” which had been done in the midst of them by “Jesus the Nazarene,” also to the great central truth of Christianity and of their teaching — the resurrection of Christ from the dead, it is noteworthy that he grounds his main appeal not on these miraculous deeds of which he had been himself a distinguished witness, bat rather on the fulfilment of prophecy. The reason of this was obvious. He was addressing those who were living in vivid expectation of the Messiah’s advent; who were moreover thoroughly conversant with the utterances of their own prophets on this great theme, and he knew well that no argument would prove more potent and convincing than to show how these predictions had their signal fulfilment in the mysterious events that had been, and were being, transacted before their eyes. Still more noteworthy is that which is remarked upon by Archbishop Whateley in his “Lectures on the Apostles” (p. 93): “Peter dwells especially on the very circumstance which had been to himself the chief stumbling-block — the sufferings and death of the Messiah; so completely at variance with all the expectations cherished by the Jewish nation. The Apostle who had, a very short time before, incurred rebuke for saying, * Be it far from Thee, Lord; there shall no such thing happen unto Thee, we now find declaring (Acts ii. 36), * Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ,”

Like the prophet Elijah confronting the King and Queen of Samaria and the scoffing priests of Baal, — with the best eloquence of earnestness he thus speaks, in the Aramaic language:” Ye men of J udea, and all ye dwellers in Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words. For these men are not drunken, as ye suppose, for it is the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet, ‘It shall be in the last days, suith God, that I will pour out of My

i See this well stated in Dr Gloag’s Commentary on the Acta, p. 104.

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Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And on My servants and on My handmaids I will pour out in those days of My Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will give wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath: blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and illustrious day of the Lord come.. And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.9 Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man approved of God among you by powers an/1 wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves know: Him, being delivered up according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, having crucified by the band of lawless men, ye have slain: whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be holden by it. For David says with reference to Him, ‘I saw the Lord always before Me, for He is on My right hand, that I be not moved. Therefore did My heart rejoice, and My tongue was glad; moreover also My flesh shall rest in hope, because Thou wilt not leave My soul in Hades, nor give Thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to Me the ways of life; Thou wilt make Me full of joy with Thy countenance.’ Men and brethren, I may speak to you with freedom of the patriarch David, because he is both dead and bnried, and his sepulchre is among us unto this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins one should sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of Christ, that He was not left in Hades, neither did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus did God raise up, of which we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He shed forth this which ye see and hear. For David is not yet ascended into the heavens, but he says, The Lord said unto my Lord, ‘Sit Thou on My right hand, until I make Thy foes Thy footstool.’ Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God made Him both Lord and Christ, even this Jesus whom ye have crucified.” — Tischendorfs Translation.

I cannot forbear to add, though in a somewhat lengthened extract, partly too rehearsing what has been already said, an able writer’s graphic description of this unparalleled gathering:” Never was such an audience. assembled as that before which this poor fisherman appeared. Jews, with all the prejudices of their race, inhabitants of Jerusalem, with the recollection of the part they had recently taken in the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, met in the city of their solemnities, jealous for the honour of their Temple and law; men of different nations, rapidly and earnestly speaking in their different tongues; one in Hebrew, mocking; another inquiring in Latin, another disputing in Greek, another wondering in Arabic; and an endless Babel beside, expressing every variety of surprise, doubt, and curiosity. Amid such a scene the fisherman stands up; his voice strikes across the hum which prevails all down the street. He has no tongue of silver, for they say, ‘He is an unlearned and ignorant man.’ The rudeness of his Galilean speech still re in ai us with him; yet, though

PETER AT PENTECOST.

’ tinl earned and ignorant’ in their sense, as to polite learning, in a higher sense he was a scribe well instructed. As respects the Word of God, he had been for three years under the constant tuition of the Prophet of Nazareth, hearing from His lips instruction in the law, in the prophets, and in all ’ the deep things of God.’... The tongue of fire by degrees burns its way to the feelings of the multitude. The murmur gradually subsides; the mob becomes a congregation; the voice sweeps from end to end of that multitude, unbroken by a single sound; and, as the words rush on, they act like a stream of fire. Now one coating which covered the feelings is burned, and starts aside; now another, and another; now the fire touches the inmost covering of prejudice, which lay close upon the heart, and it, too, starts aside. Now it touches the quick, and burns the very soul of the man! Presently, you might think that in that throng there was but one mind — that of the preacher — which had multiplied itself, had possessed itself of thousands of hearts, and thousands of frames, and was pouring its own thoughts through them all. At length shame, and tears, and sobs overspread that whole assembly. Here, a head bows; there, starts a groan; yonder, rises a deep sigh; here, tears are falling; and some stern old Jew, who will neither bow nor weep, trembles with the effort to keep himself still. At length, from the depth of the crowd, the voice of the preacher is crossed by a cry, as if one was * mourning for his only son,’ and it is answered by a cry, as if one was in * bitterness for his firstborn,...

“No part of the proceedings of the day strikes us with a deeper or more lasting impression than the amazing change in Peter which is here manifest.... Here was a man who, in all probability, had passed the period of life when eloquence is most forcible without having distinguished himself by any such power. He comes forward with a most unwelcome message, to address an unfavourable audience, himself unskilled in the arts of oratory; and yet such is the power of utterance given to him, that he produces an effect the like of which had never been known before in the history of mankind. Never has it been recorded in any other instance that three thousand men were in an hour persuaded by one of their own nation, of obscure origin and uninfluential position, to forego the prejudices of their youth, the favour of their people, and the religion of their fathers. * I will be with thy mouth ’ is more strikingly fulfilled here, in those extraordinary effects of the speaking of an ordinary man, than in any other form in which the power of God could be displayed through the instrumentality of a human tongue.” 1

I need not dwell on the exhortation which followed Peter’s sermon; — as with rent garments and loud wailing, such as may be heard and seen to this day at the wailing wall of the old Temple, the terror-struck thousands cried, “What, oh, what shall we do?”

“Luke,” says Calvin,” doth now declare the fruit of the sermon, to the end we may know that the power of the Holy Ghost was not only showed forth in the diversity of tongues, but also in the hearts of those who heard.*’ That sermon was addressed, as we have seen, to those who had been guilty of earth’s greatest sin. If any individuals could be for ever excluded from hope of pardon and mercy, surely it would be those who had joined in the savage cry against that innocent Redeemer; who

l Arthur*! ‘Tongue of Fire,” pp. 89-02.

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had uttered the blasphemous taunt and jeer; who had helped to put on the robe of mockery, or to weave the crown of thorns. But yet, in the most unqualified manner, the apostle preacher proclaims in the ears of the stricken multitude the fulness and freeness of the great salvation — that all are warranted, all are welcome, to come to the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, and have their crimson sins washed away, — the promise of the new covenant, thus ratified and sealed by the death of Jesus, being the property alike of themselves and their children: — “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, in order to the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts ii. 38, 39).

In many, in most, of the other religions of the world, their doctrines were 4 esoteric.’ They were never pub-. licly enunciated. A knowledge of them was restricted to the privileged, exclusive few, who must be content to receive dubious oracular responses.

But the world was now to be the auditory. The faithful saying was to be made “worthy of all acceptation.” As it had been in the case of their Divine Master, “the common people “were to hear His servants” gladly and, as we shall presently see illustrated, the injunction was given and obeyed, “Go, speak to the people all the words of this life.”

It is added at the close of the address, “And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.” Here, as in all cases where the truth of God is faithfully preached, if it be not the savour of life unto life, it will prove the savour of death unto death; while some are convicted and converted, some remain obdurate and impenitent; what melts and subdues the one, inflames and exasperates the other. As it was subsequently with the martyr Stephen, whose address was rudely interrupted by hostile bigots, so now, it has been suggested, amid that stricken and agitated audience, signs of hostility may have been manifested. Some adverse voices were raised, if possible to counteract the effects of the speaker’s stirring appeal. In brief, sententious language, if he cannot still the murmur of the gainsayers and disarm their opposition, he will exhort at least to steadfastness and boldness those who had, before many witnesses, avouched the Lord to be their God. He uplifts the warning voice, reminding them of their perils and temptations, that a man’s worst foes are often those of his own household — “Save yourselves from this untoward generation” — save yourselves from the certain ruin and destruction impending over the heads of those now present, who, along with their infatuated countrymen, are precipitating the ruin of their city and nation.

Thus ends the narrative of the first, and in every sense the greatest, revival in the Christian Church; one in which Peter holds, as an honoured instrument in the hands of the Spirit, the most distinguished place. “The Lord gave the word,” and if not “great” in the sense of intellect, or wisdom, or numbers, yet great in faith, and holy energy, and zeal “was the company of them that published it.” Wondrous, too, must have been the indirect as well as direct results, when we remember that the precious seed sown at the feast in Jerusalem must have been so widely disseminated. Among those congregated in the city of solemnities were

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“Partbians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Poutus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians” (Acts iL 9-11). Little, perhaps, did our Apostle calculate the ultimate consequences of that first-fruit gathering. Little did he dream that thirty years after the preaching of this his first sermon, the Gospel of his heavenly Lord would be carried to every part of the civilised world, and even among some of its savage tribes. V;;st, truly, was his privilege to be the chief speaker in this birthday of Christendom. It imparted to Pentecost in all time to come a twofold commemoration, at once of the sublimest incident of the Old Testament, and in one sense the greatest and most momentous of the New. To Peter it would ever afterwards be a special anniversary. Nor need we be surprised at the anxiety of his “beloved brother Paul,” in a future year, to go up to Jerusalem and keep this now doubly-hallowed feast — the last of Israel’s festivals probably observed by him (Acts xx. 16). He would not spend the time in Asia, for “he hasted if it were possible for him to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost” We are told, on the authority of Tertullian and Jerome, that in subsequent years these fifty days between the Passiun and Pentecost were specially set aside for the baptism of converts. Hence the new name transferred to the festival of the Christian Church, “Whitsunday” or White Sunday, because those presenting themselves to receive the sacred rite were generally habited in white garments.

1 See Dr Kitto’g “Cyclopedia of Bib. Lit.”

In speaking of the baptism of converts, it will not be out of place to close this chapter by referring to the sequel of the wondrous scene we have just been contemplating. These three thousand who had “gladly received the word” at the mouth of Peter, were also, at his- exhortation, baptized. “Repent, and be baptized every one of you.” It is the first recorded dispensation of this Christian sacrament Those who had repented of their sins, and avowed their faith in Jesus, receive the outward visible sign of admission into the Church of the Faithful That dispensation would, owing to the numbers, be shared by the other Apostles. “Almost without doubt this first baptism must have been administered, as that of the first Gentile converts was (see chap. x. 47), by affusion or sprinkling, not by immersion. The immersion of three thousand persons* in a city so sparingly supplied with water as Jerusalem* is equally inconceivable with a procession beyond the walls to the Kedron or to Siloain, for that purpose.” 1

This administration of the initiatory ordinance of the Church is mentioned in the most cursory way in the narrative; and yet we can well realise that the act must have involved, on the part of those baptized, no small amount of heroism and moral courage. It was, first of all, a public acknowledgment of their own guilt in having rejected Jesus, and given Him up to death: perhaps, in the case of not a few, of having taken active part in the cruelties inflicted on the innocent Sufferer. Doubtless, this open acceptance and avowal of a hated faith, would subject them to no small obloquy and persecution. It was pledging themselves to be the servants and faithful followers of Jesus in the very city

Alford, II. 26.

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where they had themselves slain Him as a malefactor. In the “breaking of bread,” here spoken of, we have the additional fact that the other sacrament of Divine appointment was not forgotten by them; that of ten (possibly daily) they sat round the holy table of comni union, probably at the conclusion of their agapce (evening meals), and that in the most solemn sense of the words, as Peter distributed the sacred elements, be obeyed his Lord’s farewell injunction, “Feed My sheep.” 1 It demonstrates the thoroughness and completeness of the change wrought upon them through

l Tertullian gives the following account of these agapce: — “Our feast, ‘* he says, “shows its character by its name; it bears the Greek name of love; and however great may be the cost of it, still it is gain to be at cost in the name of piety, for by this refreshment we mike all the poor happy. No one sits down at the table till prayer has first been offered to God; we eat as much ad hunger requires; we drink no more than consists with sobriety; while we satisfy our appetites, we bear in mind that the night is to be consecrated to the worship of God. The supper being ended, and all having washed their hands, lights are brought in, and every one is invited to sing, either from Holy Scripture, or from the promptings of his own spirit, some song of praise to God, for the common edification.”

In employing the word agape, however, in connection with this “break, ing of bread” in the early apostolic days (see interesting article by Dr Piumptre in “Die. of Christian Antiquities”), we anticipate the language of a somewhat later date. This special name seems not to ‘have been attached, to the meal before the clope of the apostolic age, and by that time the original simplicity, which at Pentecost characterised this “witness and bond of the brotherhood of Christians,” seems to have been departed from, and various causes led to the discontinuance altogether at the close of the third century.

When Christians came to have special buildings set apart for worship, and to look on with the same Jocai reverence that the Jews had had for the Temple, they shrank from sitting down in them to a common meal as an act of profanation. The agapce, therefore, were gradually forbidden to be held in churches, as by the Council of Laodea (c. 27) This, of course, together with the rule of the third Council of Carthage (c. 29), that the Eucharist should be received fasting, and the probable transfer, in consequence of that rule, of the time of its ‘celebration ’ from the evening to the morning, left the 4 feast of love’ without the higher companionship with which it had been at first associated, and left it to take more and more the character of a pauper meal.” — Die Christian Antiquities, p. 41. the Divine instrumentality. It was no mere ephemeral and transient outburst of emotional feeling. With a few, such may have been the case, as in all periods of intense religious excitement But with the vast majority it was evidently a season of the oft-misquoted and misapplied word “conversion” — a turning from sin, and from the great sin of hostility to the Lord of Life and Truth, and in broken-hearted penitence looking alone for salvation to the cross of Him whom they or their countrymen had basely crucified. That “day of the Lord” was a great turning-point in their lives. The saying was exemplified in their experience,” If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new/1 For neither were they content with the mere outward badge and seal of the Christian profession in partaking of the rite of baptism and communion; they persevered in the diligent use of the appointed means of grace. Many of these converts, coming from distant regions and cities to attend the yearly solemnity, must have had a very partial and imperfect acquaintance with the life and doctrines of the Great Founder of the new faith, and willingly submitted to the teaching of His followers. No longer would the one small upper room now suffice for these oral instructions and communion fellowships, but each Apostle would probably gather his separate group — a church in various private dwellings — and unfold to wondering ears their own hallowed reminiscences of Him who spake as never man spake. They came, too, to understand and value the preciousness of prayer,1 and to live under the influential power

1 It has been noted that the word Is in the plural, not in the singular (“prayers”^ apparently indicating that they had stated times for devotion

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of new principles and affections. Being forgiven much, they loved all the more. By a voluntary act they sold their worldly possessions, and consecrated these in a common fuud for the relief of their poorer brethren; remembering, doubtless, as they did so, the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, “Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it unto Me.”1 “They continued steadfastly in the Apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers.” “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the Temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart” (Acts il 46). An attractive picture, surely, as to how the new inner life, with which they were imbued, hallowed and consecrated their whole natures, diffusing an atmosphere of holy love even in the partaking of their ordinary meals, and in their hours of social intercourse — their common “daily bread” transmuted into the bread of heaven. “The joy of the Lord was their strength.” Nor could they resist giving outward expression to their feelings, “praising God.”

We need not wonder at the last entry in this beautiful description, “having favour with all the people.” Their blameless, charitable, self-denying lives disarmed opposition, — raised them from the position of a despised and hated sect, and gained them, for the time being, tolerance and goodwill. The spectacle was as winning as it was novel and strange. “See how these Christians love one another.”

over and above the appointed hoars of Temple worship. Perhaps we may add, unpremeditated or extempore prayers, in addition to those of the Jewish Psalter, which have been the common liturgy and inheritance of the Church in all Hges.

i See some excellent observations and practical thoughts on this subject In Dr Buchanan’s Work on the Holy Spirit.