Peter in Prison

Peter nr Jerusalem. Herod Aorippa. His character. Martyrdom op James. Peter arrested and imprisoned. Prater op the Ohcroh in his behalp. His miraculous deliverance. Herod’s death.

“The Apostle slept, — a light shone in the prison,
An Angel touched his side;
‘Arise, he said; and quickly he hath risen,
His fettered arms untied.

‘* The watchers saw no light at midnight gleaming, They heard no sound of feet; The gates fly open, and the saint, still dreaming, Stands free upon the street. n — J. D. Burnt,

“He is not alone who has Christ for his companion.” — Cy-rian.

“ThiB river has been a terror to many; yea, the thoughts of it also have often frightened me: but now methinks I stand easy.” — Banyan.

“The walls were never built, the chains never forged, the guards never breathed that could hold in bondage him whom God willed to be free. So it proved now.” — Dr KUto.

It was now, as nearly as we can attain cbronologjcal accuracy, about the year a.d. 44, when a new occurrence (one of those sudden dramatic incidents we have often had occasion to notice in the history of the Apostle) took place — and which appeared likely at the time to add his name to the glorious army of martyrs. It might be thought indeed not an unbefitting moment for this good and faithful servant to be called to his rest and his crown. He had been spared to nurture, strengthen, and consolidate the infant Church. Might not his natural and official life appropriately close with the last act we have narrated — opening the door of admission to the Gentiles. Having thus successfully used the symbolic “Keys of the King-. dom” with which his Lord had invested him — -might he not have retired from the scene and left others of the apostolic college to enter into his abundant labours! His Divine Master, however, had other work for him still to do. The call was once more to be sounded in his ears, “Follow thou Me.”

Persecution was still dogging the footsteps of the disciples; — indeed ever since the Pharisees had lost their most promising champion in the” perversion * of Saul of Tarsus, their hatred to the Christian sect seems to have increased in intensity. A fresh cause for exasperation and malevolence was that to which we have just alluded — the demolition of the old barriers which had separated Jew from Gentile. Peter was mainly responsible for this aggression on the old monopoly of the covenant nation, and on him therefore the weight of their vengeance fell

The Jewish rulers had a willing accomplice in the person of him who now sat on the throne of Herod the Great. This prince inherited his grandfather’s name — as well as his craft and ambition; although combined with these were features, as described by the partial pen of the Jewish historian, which certainly redeem his memory from the blemishes which stain the reputation of other members of his family. He was the son of Aristobulus, and nephew of Herod Antipas — the latter being the cruel debauchee who had imbrued his hands in the blood of the Baptist, and who had instigated his brutal soldiery to add insult and ignominy to the last sufferings of the Innocent Son of God. The previous life of Herod Agrippa, by which name he is generally distinguished, had been full of adventure; — a life in which honour and degradation, extravagance and beggary Lad strangely alternated. He bad been detected in bis earlier years in a conspiracy against Tiberius, for which he had been thrown into prison and bound with chains. The wily Edomite, however, had in youth ingratiated himself with the heir to the Roman purple; and no sooner had Caligula ascended the throne, than, faithful to this early attachment, the newly installed Emperor not only delivered Herod from prison, but — with a strange freak of friendship — presented him with golden chains equivalent in weight to the iron ones he had worn. It is one of the favourable traits in the character of the latter, and which it may well be believed tended to secure the permanent favour of the Jews, that at great personal hazard he used all his influence to dissuade the capricious despot from carrying out his purpose of having a statue of himself erected within the precincts of the Temple. Nor after the brief and inglorious rei gu of Caligula did he forfeit the imperial smile. Claudius had felt under similar obligations to him; and in addition to the Tetrarchy of Trachonitis, Galilee, and Berea, he added Idumea, Samaria, and Judea; so that his dominion, at the time we speak of, was equal in extent to that of the first Herod. His independence and the splendour of his court may be estimated by the magnificence of his revenue, which, according to Josephus, amounted to twelve millions of drachmae, or nearly half a million sterling of our money.

His past advancement had been very much the result of cunning and princecraft. He had, by dexterous and unscrupulous time-serving — pandering to the prejudices and vices of others — climbed the ladder of fortune; and his whole policy as ruler of Palestine wras formed in accordance with these antecedents. He had won his

2H throne by sycophancy, he resolved to keep it by the same. He has been well described as “a supple statesman and a stern Jew.” It required, however, all the guile of which he was master, to allay the jealousies of the Jewish leaders, and conciliate their favour. He saw at a glance that he could most successfully attain his ends by two expedients. First, by a hypocritical profession of zeal for the Mosaic law and its requirements — in which law he had himself been early educated. No Pharisee, priest, or zealot was more scrupulous than he in observing ritual punctilio. In the words of Josephus — “he did not allow one day to pass without its appointed sacrifice.” His first act two years before, on reaching the capital and assuming the sceptre, was with a parade of religious devotion to hang up the gift of golden chains with which Caligula had signalised his deliverance from prison, as a votive offering and memorial in the Temple Treasury. But a second device more acceptable and gratifying still to Jewish hate and fanaticism, was to let his vengeance fall on the obnoxious ringleaders of the Christian Church. There were not wanting counsellors around Agrippa’s throne to whisper in his ear the foul suggestion. What mercy or consideration, indeed, could have been expected for the sheep from the hands of those who had smitten the Great and Good Shepherd? Other expedients for the suppression of the hated sect had failed, — a war of extermination was now instigated; and the resolution is taken to let loose, in the first instance, the sanguinary edict on those who had “jeoparded their lives in the high places of the field.”

James the Greater was the first who succumbed. His early and life-long association with Peter may warrant a few passing words of reference to his history and character. He was the Apostle of whom perhaps we know less than any of the others of the honoured band. It is manifest, however, that he enjoyed peculiar marks of his Lord’s favour. He was one of the exceptionally privileged who were admitted on the three special occasions, to which we have previously referred, into nearer fellowship and intimacy with Jesus than the others; viz., at the raising of Jairus’ daughter — the scene of the Transfiguration-hill — and at the closing hour of the agony in Gethsemane. We need not add that he was one of the two sons of Zebedee, in whose behalf their mother had preferred the bold request that they should sit the one on the right hand, the other on the left of the Master.

He had now, in a way little dreamt of when the request was made, been brought to drink the same cup, and be baptized in the same bloody baptism. “Christ had named him a ‘Son of Thunder; ’ and this allows us to hazard the conjecture as to the nature of his offence. Gifted with a dauntless spirit, and wielding a powerful eloquence, he was not one to sit quietly by and allow Herod unreproved to lay waste the Church. He took his stand in the tyrant’s path; and paying little respect we may well believe to the kingly diadem when it served but to give authority to oppression, he said to Herod, ‘Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm; ’ and thundered against him the doom by which every oppressor of the Church of God shall sooner or later be overtaken.” 1 His end would seem to have been sudden, as if swift-handed justice had sought to strike signal terror on his fellows, as well as to show the i Dr Wjlie’a ‘< Scenes from the Bible,” p. 324. irresponsible power of the Jewish ruler. He seems to have been sisted before no Sanhedrim, otherwise his death would probably have been by stoning — the sword indicated the despotic act of the Roman judge and executioner. It is somewhat remarkable indeed, that St Luke, the narrator of this first apostolic martyrdom, who in all events of interest enters generally into circumstantial detail, should chronicle the death of Peter’s oldest friend and fellow-disciple in one brief sentence (nay, indeed, in two words — dteTXit, /taa/cjj.)1 Other writers outside the inspired Canon, in themselves reliable, have supplied us, however, with some attendant incidents. Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History preserves to us one touching anecdote which he gives on the authority of Clement of Alexandria: that the heroic testimony borne by the Apostle to his Great Master so touched the heart of his prosecutor, that the latter not only professed allegiance to the Christian cause, but was led along with the martyr to seal his testimony with his blood. On their way to the place of execution the accuser begged forgiveness at the hand of him he had wronged. James, after a moment’s hesitation, kissed him, and after giving his loving benediction, “in their death they were not divided.” Both were beheaded.

This first bloody tragedy is enacted. But the bold proceeding was tentative. It might well form matter of anxious speculation with the persecutor, as to how his swift-handed justice, or rather cruelty, might be received by a large party among the Jews. Stephen, the proto-martyr, had been judged and condemned by the

1 It has been suggested by Meyer, that Luke may have intended to write a second and supplementary treatise on the Acts of the Apostles, and that he had for it reserved the details of James’ history and martyrdom, as veil as that ol the other founders of the Christian Church.

Sanhedrim: — the very manner of his death was in accordance with Jewish antecedent and custom. But how would many — it might even be the majority — of the subject race be likely to accept of this fresh example of the arrogance of imperial Rome? Stung as they were by the growth of the Christian sect, this was but of yesterday compared to the long-standing humiliation arising out of servitude to the Caesars. What would they say to this new claim to supremacy — the despotical setting aside of their highest legislative tribunal, and the precedent which the use of the Roman Sword would establish for the future. James was a Christian, but he was by name, birth, and education, a Jew. Would these proud descendants of Abraham — his brethren according to the flesh — concur in tamely standing by, and on any pretext submit to this illegal exercise of alien jurisdiction? It was speedily made manifest, for the time at least, in the present fever of national passion and prejudice, that of the two evils — the usurpation of authority was deemed the least. The major portion at all events would willingly acquiesce in Caesar’s assumption of supreme prerogative, that Caesar might be responsible for the crime they longed to see perpetrated, but which they had not the courage themselves to commit. The politic Agrippa saw that this opening act of wanton cruelty “pleased the Jews; “and that if he added the murder of the “Rockman” to that of the u Son of Thunder,” it would be like the removal of Jachin and Boaz from the support of the Christian Temple. Save Saul of Tarsus, no one of the surviving band of believers was so obnoxious as the intrepid sou of Jonas. Quench this burning and shining light, and the lesser lights of the infant community would soon pule. Civil power, ecclesiastical tyranny, popular fanaticism joined in triple alliance, could hardly fail to accomplish their desired object. Accordingly, the Apostle of the circumcision is arrested and cast into prison.

As Jerusalem was surrounded by three walls, it has been conjectured that the place of confinement (probably the Tower of Anton ia) was situated between the outer and middle wall, and that the huge iron door entered from the latter to the street of the city. The walls of a prison, as we now know, were to Peter not strange, — this being the third incarceration to which he had been subjected. It may possibly have been considered by Herod and his abettors that a period of imprisonment, followed by a formal arraignment before a legal tribunal, would tend to strike greater terror into the hearts of his followers. But another and substantial reason is assigned for the postponement of his fate: “Then were the days of unleavened bread.1’ The politic, scrupulous formalist would not connive at so daring a breach of the Mosaic law as to assemble a legal tribunal for a criminal trial during the celebration of the greatest of the Jewish festivals. It would have been deemed an act of profanation at such a time to shed blood. He delayed the tragedy, therefore, till the conclusion of the sacred seven days ;2 and meanwhile profiting by past experience in the former release of Peter and John, took every precautionary measure by watch and ward to insure the safety of his prisoner, and render escape, whether by personal vigilance or by perfidy and intrigue, impossible.

1 This rule, it will be remembered, was set aside in the case of Jesus, who

was crucified on the week of the Passover.

3 Intending “after Easter “(xii. 4) — an unhappy rendering for “after the Paschal feast.’ It was a Jewish festival (not the yet unknown Christian

one) which was referred to.

“In military arrangements, Herod seems to have retained the Roman habits.” 1 A picket of soldiers consisting of four quaternions were selected for the critical duty. The quaternion was a body of four, who were by turns told off at each of the Jewish night-watches: thus relieved every three hours. Two were ordered to be with the prisoner in his cell, while the other two were stationed as sentries at the outer gate of the prison. According to Josephus, the usual precaution taken for the custody of a prisoner was to have his left hand chained to the right of the soldier on guard; but in the present case, to make doubly sure, both arms of the Apostle were fastened to the soldiers on either side of him.

These custodiers were doubtless made well aware of the momentous trust confided to their vigilance, and the certain penalty that would ensue did they prove unfaithful Truly in one sense there was little need of all these military precautions. Those who had a tender and loving concern for their incarcerated chief were in themselves powerless either to concoct or effect a rescue. They had no sword to measure with these sentinels of imperial Rome. To attempt deliverance would only be an act of rash folly, that would furnish a pretext to the tyrant for an indiscriminate massacre. Destitute of carnal weappns, they were equally powerless in respect of other means. No friend or intercessor had they at court to plead for leniency, or to urge postponement of the sentence. James had been murdered in cold blood without giving time for any such intervention* Was there any likelihood that one more hated still — the chief abettor and propagator of these strange doc-

1 AlfonL trines — would have extended to him respite or mercy! So far as human instrumentality was concerned, “no hope” must have been the words quivering on every lip. They had only one gleam in the cloud. But as the gloom gathered more ominously around, that ray of comfort and promise shone the more brightly. Could not He who, in answer to prayer, had delivered Daniel from his den of lions, and Hezekiah and his people from the hosts of Sennacherib, interpose in this hour of extremity? Could not some of them remember (he in the prison at all events could) how at another “fourth watch of the night,” when the darkness was deepest, One appeared to the perishing crew walking on the crest of the waves and changing the storm into a calm] “The Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, the Lord’s ear is not heavy that it cannot hear.” They will, as aforetime, carry their trouble to Heaven’s “Court of last appeal.” They will use an invisible power stronger than Roman legion — a power that can defy key and lock, bolt and bar, chain and sentinel: “With God all things are possible.” “Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him “(Acts xii. 5). Doubtless as day by day crept on, these intercessions became more fervent prayer mainly and chiefly that God would interpose to soften the heart of the persecutor and those who had a guiltier complicity in the crime, — loose His servant’s chains and set him free; and on the other hand, if death were inevitable, that He would vouchsafe the martyr grace and strength to witness a good confession, strong in faith to give glory to God, enabling him in the last hour to add the noblest testimony to his previous avowal —” Thou kuowest that I love Thee.” Words spoken years before by Divine lips, would doubtless linger in the ears of some: “Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt, xviil 19, 20). The expression, moreover, in the narrative would lead us to conclude that it was no ordinary season of intercession. “Prayer was made without ceasing;” the same emphatic word — indicative of deepest earnestness — which is employed with reference to the Saviour’s supplications in Gethsemane, when, “being in an agony, He prayed the more earnestly.1’1 How intense must have been those wrestlings of the Cburch at that time, when they can be compared to the “supplication with strong crying and tears” of the Divine Victim “unto Him that was able to save from death!”

The conjecture has been made by some commentators, that among the suffering, sympathising group which constituted that “prayer meeting,” it is not improbable may be included the names of Barnabas and Paul, recently come from Antioch. It is impossible with any certainty to pronounce on this. But even the possibility of the “son of consolation 99 and “the chiefest of Apostles” aiding with their presence and devotions, their prayers and tears, that little gathering of the faithful, lends a new interest to the scene.

It was now the last night of that solemn time. The sun had set on the mountains of Bether, and the clear

l The Greek is exres. Peter uses it in one of his own Epistles in a different sense, but also to indicate intense fervour;” have fervent charity among yourselves ’ (1 Pet. iv. 8).

Passover moon was again looking down from the silent depths of heaven. Others may have gone to slumber; the hum of the busy city was hushed; -but here and there, unseen and unheard, were gathered anxious groups of the followers of Jesus “preventing the dawning of the morning” with their fervent cries, more fervent and importunate as the fatal moment was approaching.

Still there is no response. The heavens seem as brass and the earth as iron. A few hours more, and if no answer be vouchsafed, then ere the orb of day has climbed the meridian, a bereavement will be theirs second only to that when their Great Master Himself vanished from sight on the heights of Olivet.

Others too were, doubtless, that night sleepless from a different cause. The priests and Pharisees would, with the first dawn of morn, anticipate with cruel satisfaction the triumph of their malevolence. The toils are gathering surely around their victim. Probably also the main figure in this complicated tragedy had similar sad forebodings. Yet it forms one of the most beautiful and affecting touches in the dramatic tale, that Peter “was sleeping” He had but a few hours to live — a few hours ere he were led forth to a cruel death — these cruelties intensified by scoff and ridicule and buffeting — nevertheless, he “sleeps “on his litter of straw with the tramp of the sentinels in his ears, the heavy breathings of the soldiers by his side, and the occasional clank of the chain with which he was himself bound. What his dreams were we know not. As the scenes and associations of early life come often clustering around the last moments, his imagination may have been wandering around the shores of Gennesaret; to childhood’s home at Bethsaida, or j-outh’s adventurous first hours out on the moonlit lake. Likelier still, if his thoughts reverted to distant Galilee, would Diviner forms and themes take shape and substance in these closing slumbers. The august Being that stilled the midnight tempest may have been seen yet again approaching, breathing His own sweet requiem” Peace be still,” “Fear not, it is I, be not afraid.” Be this as it may, “Peter was sleeping “calmly as a little child on its mother’s bosom! A noble and glorious testimony to that peace of God which lt keeps the heart.” It shows how his moral heroism had grown since we first knew him. He who showed a coward’s pusillanimity once, not far from the place where he at present lay, was now hushed in tranquil repose. “So He giveth His beloved sleep.” Doubtless he was prepared for whatever the will of his Lord might be; able to say in the words of his beloved brother Paul, “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” The dungeon where he lies is hallowed to him as the last abode of his now sainted fellow-apostle. James would seem to whisper in his ear that “Courage, brother,” which was handed down afterwards as a sacred watchword from age to age, and by which many a hero in the noble army braced others for witnessing a “good confession.”

We feel it only right to add, that although not in any way detracting from the strength of his faith, this representation of the Apostle’s feelings on the approach of death may be somewhat modified by the conjecture, that he had some strong ground for expecting, even to the last, that Divine succour would be extended to him. His Lord had distinctly told him in that same remarkable interview on the shores of Gennesaret, “that when he was old he would stretch forth his hands, and another would gird him and carry him whither he would not.” He was still in his mid-day career, by no means yet a veteran in the battle. May he not, therefore, as he lay powerless in his cell, have had the thought vividly impressed upon him, that the Lord he loved would in some unknown way yet come to his rescue, strike these fetters off, and send him forth once more, like his own healed cripple, “walking and leaping and praising God,” only nerved and strengthened for fresh spiritual conquests 1 We may, however, feel assured that whatever were his thoughts and expectations, whether prolonged work on earth or an early martyr’s crown, the words of the prophet were abundantly realised in his experience, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.” He was at all events readier far now, than when he originally uttered the words, to say, “I will even lay down my life for Thy sake.”

But once more, as in manifold instances in the records of the Church in every age, man’s “extremity was to be made God’s opportunity.” It was now, as is supposed by Wieseler, the last watch of the night, and being at the vernal equinox considerably before sunrise. The slumbers of the prisoner are suddenly broken by a heavenly apparition. One of those bright inhabitants of the upper sanctuary, whose office it is to minister to them who are heirs of salvation, appears standing before him. A bright light, we are specially told, illuminated the cell; but at first neither the angel’s footsteps nor the glow which encircled the sleeper disturbed his repose. The celestial visitant had to “touch his side” in order to rouse him. “Arise up quickly,” were the words which fell on his ear. As he obeyed the summons, the chains dropt from his hands and he felt himself free. There was no undue haste or precipitation, however. As was the wont among the Jews in taking rest, he had loosed his upper cloak, nngirded the cincture which fastened his inner garment, and taken off the sandals from his feet. The angel tells him deliberately to replace all these; and Peter feeling himself in safe custody, complied in each particular with the messenger’s direction. The last injunction to “put on his sandals” was a distinct indication that he was about to leave the cell.2 As the words sounded in his ears, he must have felt that mightier than Herod’s mailed bands was the arm now stretched out visibly for his rescue. The words of the Great Prophet may have been recalled by him, “Ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel, will be your rereward” (Isaiah liL 12). The God he served had sealed the eyes of his watchers, and under the guidance of the heavenly attendant he leaves the soldiers sleeping at

l Some of my readers may doubtless have visited the well-known church in Rome, St Pietro in Vincoli, on the Esquiline, built in the fifth century by the Queen of Valentinian III., for the alleged purpose of enshrining the chains which bound St Peter. These are still annually exhibited from the 1st to the 8th of August, but at other times are concealed from public view in a bronze tabernacle in the sacristy. The mythical story of these chains is thus well described and commented upon: That some of these soldiers who guarded Peter, converted to the Christian faith, should mark and take away these chains and give them to the Bishop of Jerusalem; and that they should be kept as a treasure, not only through all the Jewish wars, but about four hundred years after, until Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, gave them to Eudoxia, wife to Theodosius the younger, who gave one of them to the Church of St Peter in Constantinople, and sent the other to Rome, is a legend that smells too rank of superstition to deserve the least credit.” — Whitby’s Annntat ons It may be noted that the beautiful chapel in our own Tower of London is dedicated to St Peter ad vinculo..

* “Gird thyself (i.e., gird up thy tunic or xw&pa), and bind on thy •andalt and cast thy gaberdine (Ifidnov) about thee and follow me.” — their post with the loosened chains dangling at their sides. At first the whole thing appears unreal. Peter’s first thought was thftt he saw only a feverish vision, which the morning light would dispel. In this state of half unconsciousness he follows the angel’s footsteps. The silence is unbroken. No word is exchanged between guide and follower. They have gone through both first and second ward, and in doing so have probably passed also the other two sleeping sentinels. They have reached the ponderous gate m the prison wall, which for security had been plated and rivetted with iron. This opened of its own accord. They are now standing outside the prison; and after one other street is traversed, the angel speeds away and leaves the wondering Apostle to himself.

How strange and bewildered he must have felt in that lone, dark hour; and yet not dark, for as we have already noted, the Passover moon enabled him without difficulty to thread his way through these familiar wind-

* I have alluded in the preface to Raphael’s picture of the subject now treated, “St Peter in prison,” the centre of which is engraved in the title page, while one of the side compartments, “the sleeping soldiers,” forms the heading of this chapter. In refinement and finish it is doubtless far inferior to many of the great painter’s other and better known works, and the colouring through age has suffered. We doubt, i owever, if in any of his pictures he has displayed greater grandeur of conception and more original power of treatment. It has thus been well described : — 44 He has seized on the obvious point of effect both as to light and grouping; and we have three separate moments of the same incident, which yet combine most happily into one grand scene. Thus in the centre, over the window, we see through a grating the interior of the prison, where St Peter is sleeping between two guards, who, leaning on their weapons, are sunk in a deep charmed slumber; an angel, whose celestial radiance fills the dungeon with a flood of light, is in the act of waking the Apostle. On the right of the spectator, the angel leads the Apostle out of the prison, two guards are sleeping on the steps. On the left, the so diers are roused from sleep, and one with a lighted torch appears to be giving the alarm; the crescent moon faintly illumines the background. “-Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 202. ings. The full truth gradually burst upon him. The refreshing air of that spring morning, so grateful after the stifling damps of his cell, wakes him to the consciousness that it was no mere vision he had seen, but a glad and wondrous reality. The Lord had sent His succouring angel to deliver him from* the plot of wicked rulers and exasperated citizens.

“Touch’d, he upstarts — his chains unbind — Through darksome vault, up massy stair,
His dizzy, doubting footsteps wind
To freedom and cool moonlight air.

“Then all himself, all joy and calm,
Though for a while his hand forego,
Just as it touched, the martyr’s palm,
He turns him to his task below.”1

He pauses for a moment, and then resolves to hasten to the house of an eminent female disciple and

1 St Peter’s Day, Christian Year.” Strange and persistent are the efforts of many of the German exegetical scholars to get rid here as elsewhere of the supernatural. Bat in the words of a recent writer, “All rationalistic explanations to account for this deliverance of Peter are in direct opposition to the narrative. According to Hezel, a flash of lightning shone into the prison, jftid loosened the chains of Peter. According to Eichhorn and Heinrichs. the jailor, or others with his knowledge, delivered Peter, without the Apostle being conscious to whom he owed his freedom; and as the soldiers are a difficulty in the way of this explanation, they suppose that a sleeping draught was administered to them All this is mere trifling. Others endeavour to get rid of the miraculous by questioning the correctness of the narrative. Meyer and De Wette think that the truth is so mixed up with the mythical element that it is impossible to affirm what actually took place. Baur supposes that Herod himself delivered the Apostle, as he found in the interval that the people were not gratified by the death of James, but that on the contrary that proceeding had made him unpopular. Neander passes over the narrative with the remark, 4 By the special providence of God. Peter was delivered from prison.’ When once the miraculous in the narrative Is given up, the only resource is the mythical theory — to call in question the truth of the history — as all natural explanations are wholly unavailing. The narrative here, however, has no semblance to a myth; there is a naturalness and freshness about it which remove it from all legends of a mythical description.” See Dr Gloag’s excellent Commentary on the Acts, p. 418. Edinburgh: Clark 1870.

friend, “Mary the mother of John whose surname was Mark.” She was the sister of Barnabas; and this connection, if the conjecture be correct, that Barnabas and Paul were then in Jerusalem, renders it the more probable that the former would be present in the house of his own sister rather than at any of the other similar meetings convened on that anxious occasion. Hers, at all events, was one of several households in Jerusalem which that night had been sleepless, and whose chambers had been converted into oratories. “Many were gathered together praying.“1 While probably in the very act of supplication, the service is interrupted by a knocking at the door of the outer porch or vestibule (in our version spoken of as” the gate M). A young woman of the name of Rhoda, or Rose, perhaps the servant of the household, went out to ascertain the cause. Doubtless some present would not unnaturally surmise that Herod’s myrmidons had been despatched at that early hour to effect new captures. It would sound to many as a death-knell.

On listening, Rhoda imagines that she recognises the voice of the imprisoned Apostle. But refusing to credit the testimony of her own senses, or rather deeming the news too good to be true, she rushes back in an ecstacy of emotion to tell the company the startling intelligence. Strange that though the prisoner’s deliverance had been forming the subject of their earnest prayers day after day and hour after hour, yet when the wonderful answer really came, their weak faith

1 The traditional house of Mary the mother of Mark in Jerusalem, is pointed out in the Armenian Quarter, and is now the Syrian Convent.” “Though Luke writes that Rhoda ’ hearkened only,’ the monks do, or did show at Jerusalem, the very window through which Rhoda looked and saw Peter.” — See Maundrells Travels in loco. failed to credit the reality. They imputed the story to the girl’s heated imagination, which had got the better of her sober reason. “Thou art mad,” was the hasty and incredulous verdict on her tumult of joy. But as she earnestly reiterated her statement, they qualified their first incredulous denial, by saying, “It is his angel.” The Jews had a beautiful legend or dogma, that every good man of their nation was attended from birth to death by a guardian angel. The friends gathered in Mary’s house accordingly concluded, either that this was Peter’s tutelary angel who had assumed the tones of his voice: or we may give the alternative supposition: they may have imagined that at that instant the terrible doom had been consummated, and that the released spirit of the martyred Apostle had come thither on its way to the unseen world with the tidings they had so much dreaded.

The knocking continued; and when the door was opened and they saw the veritable head of their Apostolic Teacher standing before them, they were for the moment panic-stricken, astonished, speechless. Like the recorded feelings on the occasion of a greater restoration,” they believed not for joy, and wondered 99 (Lukexxiv. 41).

It would appear from the narrative that Peter did not enter the room where they had been assembled He was fully alive to his present danger. The morning light may already have been streaking the east, and he knew too well every hour increased the peril of his position. The Man of the Rock, whatever he may have been formerly, was now at least no coward; and we may well believe he would never have connived at an iguominious flight. Seeing, however, that a special heavenly messenger had been delegated to unloose his chains and open his prison-doors, it would have been ungrateful to contravene a higher will, had he lingered in the place of danger and failed to use every means to save his life for that farther duty and service which his Lord evidently had signified were in store for him. Accordingly, we are told, when the little band of praying followers were gathered in the outer porch of Mary’s house, and perhaps, now fully alive to the reality of the deliverance, were giving too audible expression to their joy, “he beckoned unto them with the hand to hold their peace.” Even a few hurried interchanges of sympathy and congratulation would have been perilous. After briefly narrating his miraculous rescue, and enjoining them to go and acquaint James and the rest of the brethren with the circumstance, he abruptly leaves them, and sets out, we know not where, on his solitary way.” He went into another place. 99 The Roman Catholic Church, on no conceivable or feasible ground, assigns to the City of Borne this temporary refuge. We have much stronger reason to believe that he had gone no further than Lydda or Joppa, where he might enjoy a brief exemption from the plots of the capital, the intrigues of Herod and his satellites, and still be employed in acceptable ministrations to the recent converts. The Apostle at all events is safe. Effectual fervent prayer in his behalf has availed much. We can only farther

i Dean Alford remarks on the Greek words (els trepov towof), “I see in these words, a minute mark of truth in our narrative. Under the circumstances the place of Peter’s retreat would very naturally at the time be kept secret. ... We find him again at Jerusalem in ch. xv. Whether he left it or not on this occasion is uncertain. It is not asserted in ££e$u)y9 which only implies that he left the houu.” imagine bow the supplications of these various assemblies of Christians in Jerusalem would be turned into praises. “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them. O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him” (Ps. xxxiv. 6-8). “Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder. Oft that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder” (Ps. cvii. 13-16). Their experience has left as a precious legacy to the Church of the future, alike collectively and individually, not only that “The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, unto the soul that seeketh Him,” but that in the midst of environing perils, when all seems humanly speaking at the last extremity, there is One on high, “mighty to save,” who “neither slumbers nor sleeps,” and who makes the wrath of man to praise Him.

Meanwhile the wildest consternation must have seized the sentinels, who knew well what they bad to expect from the too palpable evidences of dereliction of duty. When the day had dawned and the full revelation of the escape was known, we can feebly imagine the inflated rage of the baffled Inquisitor. An instant examination takes place. Assuming that the guard had either slept at their posts, or had connived at the escape of their prisoner, they are consigned to pay the last ignominious penalty of the Roman law.

Though not properly forming a part of our narrative, we cannot resist in a few sentences referring to the swift doom which overtook Peter’s kingly oppressor. His day of retribution was at hand. It would seem almost immediately after this averted crisis, that Herod, perhaps moping in impotent wrath at his frustrated scheme against the Christian leader, proceeded to Csesnrea. In that city, as we have previously noted, there was a large theatre erected by the elder Herod. One day about the beginning of the month of August, this building was crowded with people. The cause of the immense assemblage is to us an interesting one. The Emperor Claudius had gone to join his armies in Great Britain, and remained there for sixteen days. During this time he obtained several victories, and took, among others, the city of Colchester, which was then, what London is now, the capital of the Empire. On returning to Home there was universal rejoicing; he was called “Brittanicus,” after our island; he had a naval crown put above his palace; and an annual celebration of the event was instituted at Rome, consisting of the usual barbarous sports of fighting wild beasts, with war dances, and chariot racing. Herod Agrippa, who was both much indebted to Claudius, and desirous of retaining his favour, resolved to keep the festival also in imposing splendour in the theatre at) Csesarea. The stone seats, which rose one above another, were a moving mass of human beings. On

i This persecution of the unoffending Christians was only in harmony with other acts of cruelty which disgraced Herod’s reign. To gire one example: “At Berytus, a city which he highly favoured, he built a splendid theatre, where the most costly musical exhibitions were displayed; and in an amphitheatre in the same city, two troops of gladiators, male f.ctors, of 700 each, were let loose upon each other; and thus horribly fut filled the sentence of the law.” — if Uman’s History tfthe J cm, U. U9. the second morning all faces were turned towards a private portico, through which, in great pomp, Herod entered, clad in sparkling robes of silver. He took his seat on a purple throne When the people saw him, they shouted and cried, “Behold, a god!” adding, according to Josephus, “Be thou merciful unto us; for although we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a king, yet shall we henceforth own thee as superior to mortals.,, The same writer, in his account of it, also relates that at that moment the unhappy being they were thus worshipping, looked up and saw an owl (a bird of “evil omen “) perched on a rope above his head. He was immediately filled with dread. The great God of Heaven, who will not give His glory to another, made him to be “eaten of worms!” He was carried away to his palace in the agonies of a dreadful death. Josephus adds, that the assembled multitudes fled from the theatre, and, as was the custom with the Jews, rent their clothes and sat in ashes, making a great lamentation. “And the king being laid in a high chamber, and looking down on the people prostrate on the ground, could not himself forbear weeping. And having continued in agony five days ... he departed this life.” What a contrast between the calm Apostle (the apparently doomed man), and his tyrant oppressor, with apparently a demigod’s power and a monarch’s splendour! “I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace” (Ps. xxxvii. 35-37). “Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth.”

With this dramatic tale of deliverance and retributive reckoning, closes what may be called the continuous history of Peter in the Acts of the Apostles. Cuspius Fadus had been appointed in Herod’s place — a ruler whose name is happily unfamiliar, testifying, as the silence of the historic record does, to the toleration that was accorded to the Christian sect during his peaceful and uneventful sway. Perhaps, however, there may have been another reason for this un familiarity. The Christians in Jerusalem, justly alarmed at Herod’s high-handed tyranny, may have fled in a body from the capital, in obedience to their Lord’s own command, “When they persecute you in one city, flee ye to another/