power, as yield obedience to a higher, a heavenly authority. We must have sure warrant for our conduct before we can claim the Apostles' example as a guide to us in like cases. But no doubt instances may occur when we may have to follow their example. If the government should enact a law contrary to God's word or the authority of the Church, we cannot obey such law, but we must be content to suffer the consequences of our obedience to God's word and the Church.

21. The conduct of the Sanhedrim was at first much more mild than afterwards, when the Gospel had made greater way.

24. It is probable that one of the Apostles uttered the prayer, and the rest of the assembly said 'Amen' to it: 1 Cor. xiv. 16. Observe how the Apostles regard the Christians as the body of Christ, and what was done to them as done to Him. The raging of the heathen and the threatenings of the kings of the earth are not so much against them as against Christ.

31. As a gracious sign that their prayer was heard, and an encouragement to their zeal and boldness, they received a confirmation of the great Pentecost gift," they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." 33. Of the resurrection, as the corner-stone of Christian belief.

36. The son of consolation, or the son of exhortation. Barnabas was a prophet, Acts xiii. 1, and it is probable that he received this appellation on ac

count of some peculiar gift of teaching. His property probably lay in Cyprus, his native country. We see from Jeremiah xxxii. 7, that in later times it was lawful for Levites to possess lands (even) in Palestine.

CHAP. V. An instance of self-denying generosity has just been afforded in the case of Barnabas, we have now an example of hypocrisy combined with covetousness. The history of Ananias and Sapphira is a very awful one. No doubt the liberality of men like Barnabas would be admired by the other disciples; Ananias and Sapphira wished to obtain the praise but without the cost. There was no necessity for them to sell their possession to give it to the Church, but it was a fearful sin to pretend to have performed an act which they had not done. This was the first danger within the Church; hitherto the enemy had attacked from without. This assault was the most formidable, and to be resisted with proportionate energy. The punishment was necessarily a sharp one. There have been many an Ananias and Sapphira in the Church in other ages who have escaped detection or present judgment, but the history before us is a warning to consider well what St. Paul says,"Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after." We have a type of Ananias in Achan (Joshua vii.)

3. Ananias had sinned against the Holy Ghost, and there remained for him no place for repentance. We

here have a proof of the personality of the third Person in the blessed Trinity. A man cannot lie against an attribute or a quality, but against a person.

5. We cannot fail to perceive in the death of Ananias a direct judgment from God. If it could be supposed that the shame and misery of detection in his hypocritical fraud produced such a shock as to cause the death of Ananias, the judgment was not the less directly from God. St. Peter might not have contemplated the effects of his words; he was the instrument in God's hands for warding off from His Church a danger which at the outset would have been most ruinous. He spoke under the inspiration of the Spirit, who alone can know the secrets of all hearts.

6. The young men here mentioned most probably were officers or servants of the Church, performing somewhat similar duties to those of the anacoluthi of later times. In the Greek the article is employed, the use of which certainly denotes some particular young men.

9. St. Peter here pronounces directly the sentence of death on Sapphira. She had been allowed even a longer time than her husband to reflect on what she had done: instead of confession of her guilt, she deliberately reiterates the falsehood and hypocrisy of Ananias.

13. A remarkable description of the effects of that first exercise of discipline in the Church. The punishment of Ananias and Sapphira caused a line of

separation to be drawn between the believers and unbelievers," of the rest durst no man join himself to them." At first sight this might seem a hindrance to the growth of the Church, but it was not really so: reverence and awe were increased, the presence of the Holy Ghost was acknowledged, and we have in ver. 14 the account of multitudes both of men and women becoming Christians.

15. As they could not reach St. Peter by reason of the throng, they placed the sick in such a position that his shadow (perhaps lengthening, as in the evening) might fall on them. It is not said by St. Luke whether any were healed upon whom the shadow fell, nor the contrary, though we may rather conclude that some were healed. The touching of the hem of Christ's garment has been brought forward as a parallel case; but there was a power in the Saviour's body which could not belong to any other. Still we may believe that the strong faith of those who thus brought their sick was not without its reward.

17. It is not positively stated by St. Luke that the high-priest Annas was of the sect of the Sadducees, only that this party acted in conjunction with Annas the high-priest. We learn from Josephus, Antiq. xx. 9. 1, that he had a son belonging to this sect, and it is not improbable that he himself may have favoured their views.

19. The miracle happened by night that it might be known to the believers only, and the others learn it by the effects.

21. Senate of the children of Israel means the elders out of the smaller councils in the towns, or the chiefs of the synagogues. The term geronsia in the original is the word applied to the college of Greek gerontes (elders), and here used of the Jewish council.

24. The chief-priests consisted partly of those who had served the office of high-priest, and partly of the chiefs of the twenty-four priestly classes. These were members of the Sanhedrim.

26. The violence of the fickle multitude might have been as readily excited for the apostles as afterwards it was against them. There would still appear to be hope, humanly speaking, that the Jews might receive the Gospel, since it would seem the common people heard the apostles gladly.

30. The substance of the Apostles' preaching was now, as before, the resurrection of Christ and repentance; without the acceptance of these there could be no conversion.

34. This Gamaliel (see Numb. i. 10, ii. 20) was the teacher of St. Paul, (Acts xxii. 3). He was, according to the Talmud, the son of a Rabbi Simeon, and grandson of the celebrated doctor, Hillel. Gamaliel was held in much esteem for his piety and learning. He is supposed to have been the president of the Sanhedrim in the time of Christ. It has sometimes been thought that he was a disciple, but secretly, like Nicodemus, for fear of the Jews; but there is no sufficient ground for such a notion. The advice given by him on the present occasion was