And they cast lots for them, and the name of Matthias came forth in answer to their prayer; so he was numbered with the Eleven Apostles.

Twelve, now, once more, ready to bear their witness to the twelve tribes of Israel so soon as they shall be endued with power from on high. For that they wait from day to day, continuing with one accord in prayer and supplication to their Lord that He will remember and fulfil His promise.

Two things especially we may notice in this first group of believers : their courage and their joy. Their courage, for surely it was an act of no common courage to take upon themselves to elect and consecrate a new Apostle. How many of us would have thought it safer to leave all exactly as Christ had left it! Not so these hundred and twenty : they see the wisdom of St. Peter's counsel that they should at once complete their organization; and they act upon it, certain that their unseen Lord and Master will stay them if they are wrong. And clearly they were right! Dead things only are fixed and stationary. Living things are ever growing and acting. Life, and life means growth, is the essential condition of Christ's Church; growth by action, by a courageous energy. This is the first lesson they teach us. And let us mark next their joy. 'They returned' from Olivet 'with great joy,' St. Luke tells us. Christ was more to them now than He had ever been,-in humiliation no longer, but on His throne, all power given to Him in heaven and in earth.

During these ten days of prayerful watching and waiting, we may well believe that the thought of His great glory was their one, their only thought, absorbing into itself for the moment all their other thoughts.

His joy was fulfilled, and they were partakers of His joy. Never till now had they known how deeply they loved Him. It is often so: we do not realize our love till he whom we love is withdrawn.

They loved Him not as a human friend, but with that far deeper and more spiritual love which God alone can draw forth from us. And here was the secret of their joy. All along there had been a mystery about Him; and now in these last days it had been more and more borne in upon them that He into whose friendship, into whose communion, into whose joy they had been admitted, was none other than He in whom Abraham trusted, the Angel of the Covenant who spake with Moses; that in worshipping the Lord Jesus they were worshipping the God of their fathers.

And would we know what their prayer was during those ten days between the day on Olivet and the day of Pentecost? Surely in substance none other than our own at that same season of the year :-' O God, the King of Glory, who hast exalted Thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph into Thy kingdom in Heaven; we beseech Thee leave us not comfortless, but send to us Thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place (¿.e., into that higher communion) whither our Saviour Christ is gone before, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.'

IN

CHAPTER II

The Gift of the Paraclete

N the first chapter we endeavoured to picture to ourselves that Church of the upper chamber, consisting exclusively of those who had known our Lord on earth, 120 in all, continuing from day to day in prayerful expectation of the promised gift of power from on high. Nor had they to wait long ;—on the tenth day after the Lord's ascension came the great feast of wheat-harvest-Pentecost or Fiftieth Day (as the Greek-speaking Jews called it), when Jerusalem was once again, as at the Passover, filled to overflowing with foreign Jews and proselytes from almost every nation under heaven.

In another and far higher sense it was to prove, ere nightfall, a day of harvest, a day of first-fruits, to the Christian Church. Early in the morning1 they had assembled as usual, the 120, doubtless the holy women among them, in their upper chamber, for their daily worship; the thought of their Lord's resurrection in their minds, for it was the first day of the week; and, blending with it perhaps, the thought of the giving of the Law, as on this day, in fire and storm on Sinai ;-when suddenly a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind entering and filling the whole house! and over the head of every one of them2,

1 Acts ii. 5.

2

Aug. in Johan., xcii.; Chrys. Hom. in Acta, iv.

men and women1, a separate flame of light, not momentary, but abiding for some minutes! And along with these outward symbols each one felt himself impelled by some new power to ejaculate prayer and praise in languages which he had never heard2.

Like the school of the prophets of old who went forth to meet king Saul, so 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.

The foreigners, amazed to hear these Galileans chanting in their several languages the praises of God, rapidly gather round them with murmurs of wonder; while the Jews of Jerusalem, not understanding the strange sounds, set it down to intoxication.

Then St. Peter, with the Eleven around him, filled with the new inspiration, addressed to the assembled multitude his first Christian sermon :

'This sudden ecstasy (he said) was no intoxication; -the early hour of the day might satisfy them on that point ;-no! it was that pouring forth of God's Spirit which Joel had foretold, as a sign of the last days, and of impending judgment.' Having thus awakened attention, and dwelt for a while on the terribleness of that approaching judgment, he pointed to the one only salvation, to 'call upon the Name of the Lord.' And who was the Lord upon whom they were to call? That Messiah whom they had rejected, that Messiah whom

1 That women as well as men received special gifts of the Spirit appears from Acts xxi. 9.

2Tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not' (1 Cor. xiv. 22); on which Chrysostom remarks that the purpose of the gift was 'to astonish, not to instruct.'-Hom. in 1 Cor., xxxvi. i.

by Gentile hands they had crucified and slain! For, that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, was clear from the 16th Psalm ;-when David said, 'Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell, neither shalt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption,' he could not be speaking of himself: David had seen corruption : clearly he was speaking of the promised Messiah. And Jesus of Nazareth had fulfilled the prophecy. Did they require proof? First, there were twelve eye-witnesses before them who could attest His resurrection; and, secondly, this sudden outpouring of the Holy Ghost, which all Jerusalem was now witnessing, was abundant proof that He was even now at God's right hand, uninjured by death and the grave. 'Therefore (he concluded) let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made Him both Lord and Messiah, even this Jesus whom ye crucified.'

So Peter spoke in all the power of his new inspiration. His words went right to the heart of that great multitude as to the heart of one man. They were stung with remorse. They had, then, crucified their Messiah! The wrath of God might even now break forth upon them! They came crowding round Peter and the rest :-'Sirs, brethren, what shall we do?' 'Repent!' was the Apostle's reply; 'repent, and be baptized every one of you, in the Name of Jesus the Christ, for remission of sins: so shall ye too become sharers of this gift of the Holy Ghost! For (as Joel testified) the promise is to you and to your children, and to those of every land, even as many as the Lord our God shall call !'

Such was the first sermon of Christ's Church, and mark the effect: three thousand were there and then gathered into covenant with God in Christ by Baptism.