proof that Luke was writing for Gentile converts, and by some that he was himself of Gentile origin, as he uses the third person, "their."-Aceldama. A Syro-Chaldaic term, composed of two words, meaning "field of blood." See Mat. xxvii. 6, 8.

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20. This verse connects well with ver. 17, from which it is separated by the parenthesis of ver. 18 and 19. In the book of Psalms. The apostle now proceeds to quote what he referred to in ver. 16, as spoken by David. - Let his habitation, &c. Ps. lxix. 25. This is a quotation, with some variations, from the Septuagint version. The Psalmist imprecates the most terrible evils upon his enemies, that their habitation might be desolate, and none dwell in their tents. Peter applies this, by way of accommodation, to Judas, to describe his utter and dreadful destruction. In the Psalms, the plural is used, but the apostle puts it in the singular, as more applicable to Judas. — His bishopric, &c. Ps. cix. 8. This rendering betrays its Episcopalian origin. The simple and proper translation in the Psalms, and here, is, "Let another take his office." The apostle, most evidently, had no reference whatever to any orders or dignities in the Christian church, but employs, as in the previous clause, an ancient scripture in a rhetorical, not a prophetical, manner, to describe more strikingly recent events. The quotations of the New Testament, from the Old, lose much of their force, when subjected, as they too often are, to a rigid preconceived theory of interpretation.

21, 22. These men which have companied with us.

Were in terms of intimate intercourse with us. The Seventy are, perhaps, alluded to, as they had been despatched on a missionary tour by our Lord himself. Luke x. 1.- Went in and out among us. Or, "consorted with us," or passed his life in our society and presence.

From the baptism of John. The sense is ambiguous, at first sight, but the meaning is, from the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, or the commencement of his ministry.Be ordained.

We must not associate any of our English ideas with this phrase, for the original is simply "be 99 or "become;" the whole reading thus, "must one become a witness with us," &c. The great office of the first teachers was to bear witness to the life, death, and resurrection, of Christ, and their preaching consisted very much of an historical sketch of his career. His resurrection. This was the most important part to be borne witness to, as it was the crowning and confirming of all the rest with an authentic divine seal of approbation. But, in thus mentioning the resurrection, might not the apostles have still entertained some of the feeling that dictated the inquiry in ver. 6, and regarded the rising of Jesus from the tomb as the prelude to the glorious temporal Messianic kingdom, rather than as the opening of the gates of immortality almost visibly to the spiritual believer? Dark shades lingered around the apostles' minds, even for many years after this period. The full liberty and spirituality of Christ was too

lofty an idea to be at once received. Gal. ii. 11-14. These verses describe the qualifications necessary for a candidate to the apostolic office, that he should have been with the disciples as an eye-witness of the life and death of Jesus.

23. The speech of Peter is concluded, and we can gather nothing from it, or any of the subsequent proceedings, to justify the Roman Catholic idea of his authorized superiority over the other apostles and over the church. He gives advice, not commands. He appears as an equal among equals, not as a superior among inferiors. He calls the disciples, not children, but brethren. He takes the lead, but it was his nature, not his office. They appointed two. The whole matter is conducted on Congregational principles. All have a voice and authority, and, so far as the history testifies, one as much as another. There seem to be no principalities and powers one above another; but a genuine Christian brotherhood, in which zeal and ability took only the natural supremacy assigned them by the Creator. Blessed model, worthy of the honor and imitation of all ages! Joseph. He is only mentioned here, and nothing further is known of his history. From the epithet bestowed on him of "Justus," the Just, as well as from the fact of his appointment as a candidate for apostleship, a favorable inference remains respecting his character. Matthias. We learn nothing more of the fortunate candidate than of the other. Oblivion has fallen upon his life, labors, and death. The sum of our knowledge

is, that he "thus closed up and made whole the sacred ring, which had been so violently broken."

Jer.

24, 25. Lord, i. e. God. No one can suppose, that, after the frequent injunctions of Christ to his disciples to pray to the Father, they would so soon violate his commands, and address their petitions and adoration to him. Dr. Adam Clarke says that they laid the matter before God, that he might decide it by the lot. We find, also, the disciples adapting their prayers to the occasions in which they were placed, and not adhering rigidly to the formula given them in the Lord's prayer. Mat. vi. 9. — Knowest the hearts, &c. A designation of the omniscient God. xvii. 10.—Show, i. e. in the manner about to be employed, that of the drawing of lots. Whether of these two. Which of these two. - Ministry. Literally, "service." That he might go to his own place. Or," proper place." While Judas was an apostle, he was out of his proper place; but, after he had acted the traitor, and committed suicide, he went to that state or place congenial to him, or proper for him; or, as the various reading, not wholly unworthy of notice, has it, "the just or fit place." He met with his deserts. Matthias was chosen to fill the station vacated by an unfaithful incumbent. Various senses, which it is unnecessary to state, have been assigned to the phrase, "to go to his own place;' but the above seems to accord best with the facts of the case, the usages of language, and the nature of retribution. Judas was covetous. He probably was impatient to have Je

sus declare himself openly as the Messiah. Greedy of the paltry sum of money, he betrayed him into the hands of his enemies, perhaps supposing that it would lead to a public avowal of his Messiahship; at any rate, that the worker of such wonderful deeds could free himself when he pleased from his enemies. But when he saw his Master ready to be put to death, without making any effort for a rescue, he thought upon his innocence. His heart smote him for his black deed. He rushed forth and killed himself, under the impulse of hopeless remorse and bitter self-reproach. He went to his own state, or place, after death; to the one for -which he had prepared himself, by his life on earth, and to which he was suited by his dispositions. In a word, he received according to the deeds done in the body. There is a profound significance in this passage. It touches the secret depths of retribution, and lays bare the realities of the spiritual world. Men go whither they are fitted to go. Punishments and rewards are not arbitrary or capricious, but take place naturally, according to the fixed laws of the Divine government. Evil is to him that is evil, and good to him that is good. Man reaps what he sows in the moral, as in the physical, world, here, and still more hereafter. Every one goes to his own place, or state, after death, by the natural operation of the great law of spiritual congeniality—the good assimilate to the good, the bad to the bad. Even the Grecian philosopher, Plato, had arrived at the lofty conviction that "The soul which has lived purely and soberly, dwells in a place suitable to itself." It is so, in some measure, in the present world; it will

be still more so in the societies of the spiritual state. To use the illustration of Olshausen, the soul, like a piece of iron between two magnets, hangs between the powers of light and darkness; and that element to which it yields the dominion, attracts it to itself, either up or down. Whither do our spirits tend, and for what society are we acquiring a love and congeniality? What more critical question than this can be pressed home upon our hearts- a question in whose answer is involved all the boundless fears and hopes of our being, all the vast interests that rise and spread over the infinite heavens, and go down to the ages of eternity?

26. They gave forth their lots. Some regard this act as the simple casting of a ballot; but the general and more correct opinion is that of Grotius, that they put their lots into two urns, one of which contained the names of Joseph and Matthias, and the other a blank, and the word, apostle. In drawing these out of the urns, the blank came up with the name of Joseph, and the lot on which was written the word apostle, came up with the name of Matthias. They thus deemed that their prayer was answered, and that Matthias was the man designated by Heaven for the holy office. The use of the lot is elsewhere spoken of in the Scriptures. Josh. xviii. 1–10; 1 Sam. xiv. 41, 42; Prov. xvi. 33, xviii. 18. It would not, of course, be proper to decide a question of right and wrong in this method, but only one of choice and moral indifference. Again, no countenance is given by this transaction to games of chance, to lotteries, and gambling, which call a thousand evil passions into exercise, and in which

The Discourse of

success itself is only the more certain way to ruin.

We learn in this first chapter the zeal of the apostles, that, even before the descent of the Spirit, they prepared themselves by completing their sacred, but broken, number, for the mighty work of planting the gospel throughout the then known world. They had regained their hearts, they had returned each "to his own place;" they girded on their armor anew, and, cheered by the sympathy and prayers of many others, the little band was ready to cast itself upon the mighty enterprise, and front danger and death for the Master's sake. They were attached, too, to the number twelve. It was a venerated number. It was the number of the sons of Jacob. The tribes of Israel were twelve. Jesus had chosen twelve. They felt that they could not go forth with the same strength and courage, unless the sad and gloomy void was filled; and they choose, with solemnity and prayer, the important substitute. Now their roll is complete; they are again THE TWELVE. Could any but a true and heavenly cause have thus sprung, phoenix-like, from the ashes of disaster and destruction, and in the name of a crucified leader, and after the treachery of one of the company, have plumed itself anew, and enlisted in the campaign of conquering the world? The voice of ages answers, No.

of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, and their illumination respecting the spiritual nature of the Messiah's kingdom. The day of Pentecost. Or, the fiftieth day, so called from its being at that distance from the feast of the Passover. This was to celebrate the goodness of God by offerings of the first-fruits of the harvest, as the wheat was then gathered. These gifts consisted of two loaves of unleavened bread, of about three pints of meal each; also various domestic animals, as lambs, rams, &c. Lev. xxiii. 1521; Deut. xvi. 9, 10. The Pentecost was one of the three great festivals, at which all the males were required to appear before the Lord. xxxiv. 22, 23. It was observed at the expiration of seven weeks after the Passover, and was hence called the "Feast of Weeks." It occurred in the month Sivan, or about the last of our May. Besides its primary object, to commemorate the ingathering of the harvest, it was also a memorial of the giving of the law from Mount Sinai, fifty days

Ex.

after the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, and was therefore called by them "the joy of the Law." The feast of the Passover is celebrated by some Christian churches as the anniversary of the crucifixion, under the name of Easter — a word derived, as is said, from Eostre, a goddess to whom the ancient pagan Britons kept a festival at that season of the year. The feast of Pentecost is also observed under the name of Whitsuntide, or White Sunday, because this was one of the stated seasons of baptism in early times, and the persons who received that rite

from heaven, as of a rushing house where they were sitting.

put on white garments, as emblems of spiritual purity. Was fully come. Or, simply, "had arrived." The fact that it was one of the great Jewish festivals accounted for what was afterwards related of the foreign Jews being present, ver. 5-11, in great numbers. They were all, &c. Probably not only the Twelve, but also other disciples, perhaps the one hundred and twenty of chap. i. 15. The unanimity of their proceedings is worthy of note, especially as even the apostles were before often contending who should be the greatest; but their spirit is now changed and changing. Instead of the dreams of worldly ambition, they begin to comprehend the realities and glories of spiritual things. At what place they now met is matter of conjecture, but they would most likely use the same apartment spoken of in chap. i. 13. Whether the descent of the Spirit occurred on the last day of the week, the Jewish Sabbath, or on the first day of the week, the Christian Sabbath, is also unknown, and immaterial.

2. It is at least an interesting coincidence, that, at the same time of year the law was given from Mount Sinai, the spiritual influence promised by Christ to his disciples, John xiv. 16, 26, xvi. 13, descended upon them in a miraculous and powerful manner, giving them the gifts of tongues, emblems of their call to preach the gospel, strengthening their faith in their Master, and enlightening their minds as to the spirituality of his religion. A sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind. It is not said there was any wind; on the contrary, the sound would have been the more remarkable in the perfect

stillness of the elements, and pointed out more clearly the coming of a power and Spirit from on high. It appeared to descend from above, whither we naturally look for the seat of infinite wisdom. It filled the whole room or house where they were sitting, as with an all-pervading presence. We behold, on this occasion, the Father of spirits teaching his children in the flesh by means of material sounds and sights, appealing to the soul through the ear and eye, and thus conveying an impression that would leave an indelible stamp upon the memory and the imagination. Those who see not the beauty of this scene should remember what is man, and through what avenues he can be approached in the most effective manner. pare Ex. xiii. 21, 22, xix. 16-19; 1 Kings xix. 11, 12. It is worthy of recollection, in this passage, that the same word, in Greek, means "wind,” and "Spirit;" and that thus the descent of a spiritual influence was not inappropriately symbolized by the sound of a rushing mighty wind. It may be mentioned, as a singular fact, that the Arabs regard Muhammed as the Paraclete, or Comforter, predicted by Jesus in John xvi. 7, and other passages.

Com

3. Cloven tongues, like as of fire, &c. Or, "tongues, as it were of fire, distributed themselves and settled upon each of them;" the word