frequent absence of the Twelve on missionary tours, most of all perhaps in their appointment of James, the Lord's brother, to be the stationary head (or —in the language of a later day—the Bishop) of the Jerusalem Church, as though the Twelve no longer regarded the Holy City as their permanent home.

Still, in Peter and James's hesitation to receive Saul, only overcome by the intercession of Barnabas, in the anxiety and doubt with which they received news of what was going on in Samaria and afterwards in Antioch, in the jealousy and anger with which the Hebrew Christians heard that Peter had eaten bread with the uncircumcised, we perceive plainly how ill prepared the Jerusalem Church was to accept the larger Gospel with which St. Paul was charged, and how any premature announcement of it might (humanly speaking) have threatened the Church with disruption within twelve years of its foundation-the Hebrew Christians cleaving to James and the Holy City on the one side, and on the other the Hellenist converts seceding under Barnabas and Saul and the survivors of the Seven.

We are now to hear how the ever-watchful care of the risen Lord overruled the crisis, and prepared the elder Apostles' to give the right hand of fellowship' to the Apostle of the uncircumcision.

St. Peter on a tour of visitation had been travelling through the towns of the great plain of Sharon. At Lydda he had healed the paralytic Æneas, and all who saw the miracle had embraced the faith. At Joppa he had restored Dorcas to her sorrowing friends by a yet more astounding effort of divine power, for the lifeless form was being laid out for burial.

The fame of these miracles may or may not have reached the Roman garrison at Cæsarea.

On an

officer of that garrison, an Italian bearing the name of one of the noblest Roman families, our attention is now fixed. Through Cornelius the Apostle's mind is to be opened to accept the approaching development of Christ's Church.

No careful reader of the Acts can fail to notice how similar was Christ's method of working in the two cases of Saul's conversion and that of Cornelius. In both cases two simultaneous revelations are made,— one to him who is to be converted, the other to him who is to baptize the convert. The purpose is evident. Saul in his vision saw a man named Ananias coming in to give him sight. Cornelius in his vision is directed to send for one Simon surnamed Peter. Thus a sign or token is given to each whereby he may know that the vision is no mere dream. How irresistible must have been the conviction of this, when Saul at Damascus and Cornelius at Cæsarea found the promised messenger at their doors, saying they too had had their visions and had been divinely instructed to come! We may notice, too, in both cases, the minute particularity of the commission. The same Lord who on earth had directed Peter and John to the street of Jerusalem and the very house where they should see the man with the pitcher of water, now, at the right hand of God in heaven, knows no less minutely where to find His saints: directing Ananias to the street called Straight, to the house of Judas where Saul lodged; directing Cornelius to send to Joppa to the house of one Simon the tanner, by the sea-side, where Peter should be found.

Nor does the parallelism end here: in both cases Christ's minister is at first reluctant; Ananias answered, 'Lord, I have heard by many of this man,

how much evil he hath done to Thy saints.' But the Lord said to him, 'Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto Me.' St. Peter too: 'Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean;' and the answer, 'What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.'

And one point more, full of instruction: in both cases he for whose salvation the Lord in Heaven is thus caring, has been praying: 'Behold, he prayeth,' is Christ's brief description of Saul's state of mind; 'Cornelius, thy prayer is heard,' is the blessed announcement to the centurion.

In one respect, necessarily, the two cases are in contrast in the one the effect on the convert is everything, and of the minister we hear no more: in the other case the effect on the Apostolic minister is allimportant, and of the convert Cornelius we hear no

more.

Whether, when the Italian cohort was ordered home, Cornelius was instrumental in founding the Church at Rome, which St. Paul addressed sixteen years later, as being men of some standing, we cannot tell.

All the interest of the narrative turns upon St. Peter. The question was forced upon him, 'Shall I preach Christ to this uncircumcised Roman?' True, the Roman was a worshipper of the God of Israel, one of those who in later times came to be called proselytes of the gate, and clearly a most devout one; but he was not a proselyte of the Covenant, he was not circumcised. Should the Apostle preach Christ to him? The vision left him no option. It was the Lord's will. But a further question remained : If he listened, and believed on Jesus, should he be baptized without being first

circumcised? Before the question arose, the Lord had answered it. Ere Peter's discourse was ended the Holy Ghost had fallen, as on the 120 in the upper chamber, so now on this Gentile and his household and friends. Whether the light was seen now, as then, over the head of each, we are not told. It is most probable, for it is implied that the outpouring was in some way visible; and certainly it was accompanied by the same gift of tongues. How could Peter forbid the Baptism by water of those whom Christ had thus Himself baptized with the Holy Ghost?

Thus Peter defended what he had done on his return to the Hebrew Christians at Jerusalem. That one of the Apostles should have eaten bread in the house of a Gentile, and preached Christ to him, and, most strange of all, admitted him to baptism, shocked 'them that were of the circumcision.' Not until St. Peter had shown how clearly he had followed the guiding hand of Christ in all this, did their scruples give way. Who was Peter that he should withstand God?

Deeply interesting is the candour with which they accept the new truth: 'When they heard these things they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.'

Thus was the Lord preparing the minds of the Apostles for the fulness of the great truth which He had Himself taught the woman of Samaria, that in no one place more than another, by no one nation more than by another, was God to be worshipped.

CHAPTER IX

Foundation of the Antioch Church and Flight of the Apostles from Jerusalem

WHETHE

HETHER it was before or after Christ's conversion of Cornelius we cannot say, but about this time tidings reached the Jerusalem Church which —but for this all-important revelation to St. Petermight have caused grievous dissension and difficulty. From the general tenor of St. Luke's narrative, he seems to intend us to understand that the facts which he is proceeding to relate had occurred before or during St. Peter's mission to Joppa and Cæsarea, but that the report of them did not reach Jerusalem until after his return.

The facts were these:-The Hellenist Evangelists, who had been dispersed (as we have seen) after the death of their great leader, St. Stephen, had planted a Church in the great capital of the Syrian province, Antioch, in the far north. In rank and population Antioch was the third city of the Empire. Luxurious Romans had built their villas along the banks of its beautiful river. A crowd of Greek adventurers and Jewish impostors ministered to their vices and superstitions. A greater contrast to Jerusalem could not be. But Antioch lay on the great thoroughfare of the nations in constant intercourse with Rome; and was destined for many years to be the great mission-centre of Christ's Church.

Hither then these Cyprian and Cyrenian refugees