Pentecost was fully come, they were all together in one place, waiting for some novel manifestation of the miraculous. Long vigils spent in fasting and prayer had prepared them for the hallucinations of cerebral exhaustion. They fancied Jesus had predicted some sign from heaven; and the supposed prophecy produced its own fulfilment. Suddenly, there came a sound from heaven as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them '1-a clear case of thunderstorm. If they heard a sound like the wind, was it not the wind? If their faces were illuminated as if by fire, why not by flashing lightning? But was not the presence of the Holy Ghost fully attested by the miraculous gift of tongues, through which all present addressed a cosmopolitan crowd with colloquial fluency in several languages?

This sensational myth was, however, finally disposed of by Saint Paul in 1 Cor. xiv., according to which the fabulous gift of tongues were unintelligible sounds without meaning to speaker or auditor unless interpreted. Paul cherished extreme distrust of polyglottic mysticism; but, instead of openly condemning, he discussed the superstition with a dexterous diplomacy which was probably more effectual in its extirpation than avowed hostility. How great a master of subtle irony is Paul, when he assures the Corinthians that, although speaking with tongues more than any of them, he preferred five words of common sense to ten thousand spoken with tongues; and that there were

1. Acts ii. 2, 3.

three courses open to the possessor of the dubious gift -to find an interpreter, or interpret himself, or hold his tongue. These simple rules no doubt silenced many ambitious spiritualists, for Paul does not recur to the subject in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians.

The Day of Pentecost, therefore, witnessed a fanatical outburst of ecstatic devotion, seeking frenzied utterance in vocal sounds so destitute of meaning, that some irreverent spectators suggested new wine as the source of inspiration-an obviously impossible idea to men listening to words of wisdom in their native tongue.

But, as Peter rises to address the assembly, may we not expect so lucid an explanation from his inspired lips that our ignoble scepticism shall vanish as mists before the sun?

Marvellous to relate, this eminent Apostle, now the medium of Divinity, has added nothing to his ideas since last addressing us respecting Judas. He still moves in the fetters of prophetic fatality. The mysterious linguists of Pentecost are not drunk, for it is yet early in the day; but are simply fulfilling the predictions of the prophet Joel: ' And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; and your old men shall dream dreams; and on my servants, and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.'

Paul had, therefore, omitted to study Joel, and was ignorant of Peter's speech when he wrote his First Epistle to the Corinthians; for he makes a marked distinction between prophecy and tongues, and sternly

denies to women the gift of spiritual utterance. Did Peter therefore err in connecting Joel with the Day of Pentecost; or does Paul discredit an inspired prophet, when he quenches the Spirit in female breasts ?

The marvels of Pentecost converted three thousand souls the natural result of religious excitement which, in modern times, assumes the form of 'Revivals,' as zealous as evanescent. Jesus placed practical morality above ecstatic mysticism, and but one hundred and twenty of his followers answered to the roll-call after his death. Peter persuaded himself and his auditors that they were under the spell of supernatural influence, and, forthwith, thousands were won by this novel and exciting superstition.

As one of the important results of the Day of Pentecost, it is recorded that 'all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.' The adoption of communism from the Essenes, no doubt assumed a reasonable aspect in the eyes of men expecting the second advent of Jesus within their own generation; but if the Apostles could have foreseen that nothing would be heard of the Messiah for nearly two thousand years, they would not have invited social chaos by encouraging the idle and improvident to live at the expense of the thrifty and industrious. We have implicit confidence in the honest fanaticism of primitive Christianity; but yet there may have been some among the motley crowd who preferred the excitement of ecstatic devotion to the drudgery of earning daily bread.

But was the experiment of communistic socialism a

success? We find the answer in chap. iv. 1: And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.' Let modern Socialists take the lesson to heart that even among men and women as disinterested as primitive Christians, communism was a miserable failure.

The hasty and imprudent adoption of an Essene custom resulted in a startling tragedy. Ananias and Sapphira his wife sold some property, and kept back a portion of the price. Perhaps Ananias was a shrewd practical man, distrustful of socialism, and desirous of holding something in reserve for possible contingencies. Or Sapphira may have hinted that, if anything should happen to her husband before the Advent of Jesus in the clouds, she would not like the position of a pauper scrambling among the other widows for her daily rations. Whatever may have been the motives of the doomed couple, if they had been arraigned before Jesus, he would have assuredly condoned so trivial an offence; but under the new régime of the Holy Ghost, this unhappy husband and wife were condemned to instant execution.

Ananias enters the assembly. The president, who had, quite recently, denied his Lord and Master, and received free pardon for the offence, is now transformed into a pitiless judge, sternly interrogating this halfhearted communist- Why hath Satan filled thy heart?' Could Ananias solve this psychological mystery? Had he not, just now, been filled with the Holy Ghost; how, therefore, could Satan have gained possession? And

could he feel quite certain of his own identity, whilst passing thus abruptly from human to divine, from divine to diabolical? No time is granted for inquiry; he falls down dead, and is forthwith hurried to his grave, without even the knowledge of his nearest kinsmen.

If there had been in that assembly one true disciple of their tender and loving Master, would he not have sought out the unhappy Sapphira to gradually disclose the appalling tragedy? Did these divinely inspired men thank God, as the Pharisee condemned by Jesus, that they were not sinners like this man Ananias, whilst they waited for the condemnation and execution of Sapphira? Or were the feelings of humanity stifled in their breasts by personal fear that the horrors of Jehovistic despotism had again been restored in Israel?

Whatever may have been the motives of the assembly, Sapphira is permitted to enter the presence of her inflexible judge without one word of warning. No time is granted for confession, repentance, or absolution. She is entrapped into a lie, condemned, executed, and carried forth for burial beside her husband!

There were no coroner's inquests in those days; but, if a full and searching inquiry had been made into these mysterious deaths by some Roman official, how could Peter have explained the startling tragedy? Jesus of Nazareth had preached a gospel of repentance and forgiveness of sins, but he had died, risen again, vanished in the clouds, and sent to mankind an invisible Being, invested with the awful power of striking men and women dead who even unconsciously offend him. Would such an explanation have satisfied a Roman