gates, and the King of glory, the Lord of powers, entered into His kingdom, which He had acquired by His sufferings and death.

Descent of the Holy Ghost.-Acts, ii.

Our blessed Saviour, before His ascension, had commanded His Apostles not to depart from Jerusalem until the promise of the Father should be fulfilled, and they should be filled with the Holy Ghost. In obedience to that order, they returned from Mount Olivet to the city, where they retired to an upper room, and persevered steadfastly in prayer with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus.

During that interval, St. Peter began to exercise the prerogative of his Primacy; he informed his brethren that, according to the Scriptures, they must fill up the place of Judas Iscariot who, by his traitorous prevarication, had fallen from the Apostleship; he advised, therefore, that they should choose some one of those who had followed Jesus from the time of His baptism to the day of His ascension, and who could thus bear witness to His resurrection. Two were immediately named in preference to all others, Matthias, and Joseph, surnamed the Just. To determine which of these was to be preferred, the Apostles had recourse to lots, devoutly praying to Almighty God, that He would be pleased to manifest His will to them. The lot fell upon Matthias, aud he was consequently associated with the other Apostles.

When the time of Pentecost, that is to say, the term of fifty days after the Paschal festival,* was accomplished, a sudden noise was heard, as of a mighty wind rushing from the heavens, which filled the whole house where the Apostles were assembled. Then, over the head of each of them, appeared the form of a fiery tongue, and all of them were immediately filled with the Holy Ghost. At the same moment they were endowed with the gift of tongues, and they spoke in different languages, as the Holy Ghost

See Note, p. 115.

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inspired. They were no longer those timid and fainthearted men who had hitherto trembled at every noise and shrunk from danger; they went boldly into the streets of Jerusalem, and, in defiance of their enemies, preached the Gospel of the crucified Jesus.

Jerusalem at that time was crowded with Jews, devout

men of every nation under Heaven, who had come thither

to celebrate the feast of Pentecost. Astonished to hear the Apostles, in various tongues, speaking the wonderful works of God, some asked one another what it meant; while others, in derision, said that these men were full of new wine. St. Peter arose, to refute the calumny: in a pathetic discourse he informed his hearers, that what they saw and wondered at, was not the effect of wine, but of the Holy Spirit which God had promised by His prophet Joel to pour out upon His people. He expatiated upon the miracles, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, in language so inspired and persuasive, that no less than three thousand of the assembled people, convinced by his discourse, embraced the true faith, and were baptised in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of their sins.

On that day of Pentecost, when the law of Jesus Christ took the place of the law of Moses, the Church, the new Jerusalem, as St. John speaks in his Revelations, descended from Heaven, like a bride decked out to meet her bridegroom; and Jesus Christ, the eternal Priest according to the order

of Melchisedech, erected a new temple to the honour of His Father. The mystery of the death and resurrection of a God-man was announced to the various inhabitants of the earth who were then at Jerusalem, that no nation under the sun might be ignorant of it. On that day, Jesus Christ victoriously triumphed over those who had nailed Him to the cross; He convinced them that all their schemes against Him had been vain, and were made to serve as means to accomplish the designs of God. On that day, He set up His Apostolic Church as an everlasting monument of His victory: to the latest posterity that monument shall stand, in defiance of every effort that man or devils can raise against it. For, the Spirit of Truth, as we are assured by the infallible promise of Christ Himself, shall abide with the Church, and shall teach her all truth to the end of the world.

Cure of the Lame Man.-Acts, iii.

The multitude of believers in Jerusalem became every day more and more numerous. Being as united in charity as they were in their faith, they no longer retained any possessions which were not devoted to the common service of their brethren; thus they had no poor amongst them. Devoted to prayer and to the pious exercises of their religion, they were not swayed by passion, nor led astray by private views; their chief concern was to serve and honour God. The admirable holiness of their lives, combined with the preaching and miracles of the Apostles, commanded respect from their fellow-citizens.

Of the many miracles wrought by the Apostles in confirmation of their doctrine, the most memorable was that which St. Peter wrought in favour of a lame beggar. The holy Apostle, accompanied by St. John, went one day, at the ninth hour, to perform his devotions in the Temple. They entered at the gate which was called the Beautiful, where a poor man, who had been a cripple from his mother's womb, lay helpless and unable to move. The poor man fixed his eyes upon the Apostles, as if expecting an alms, when St. Peter, addressing him, said: "Gold and silver I have

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none, but what I have I give thee: in the name of Jesus. Christ of Nazareth, arise." The man that instant stood upright upon his feet, and walked joyfully with the Apostles into the Temple, giving thanks to God for the favour he had received at their hands.

Struck with wonder and amazement to see the man thus instantaneously cured, the people cast their eyes upon the two Apostles. St. Peter observing them, said: "Ye men of Israel, why do you wonder, and why do you look at us as if by our own power we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has glorified His Son Jesus, whom the Prophets foretold, whom the God of our fathers sent amongst you for your salvation, but whom you and your rulers accused before Pilate, and crucified. But I know, brethren, that you did this through ignorance, else you never would have put to death the Author of Life. Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out."

While he was thus speaking to the people, the Priests, with the Sadducees and the officers of the Temple, came up, and being exasperated at the subject of his discourse, proclaimed silence, and took both him and St. John into custody. Next morning, the Great Council of the Jews assembled, and ordered the two Apostles to be brought before them. Upon their appearance, they were asked by what power and in whose name they spoke and acted as they did. St. Peter answered: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; for there is no other Name under Heaven given to men, whereby we can be saved. He it is whom you crucified, whom God hath raised from the dead, and by whom this man hath recovered the use of his limbs." The man was present; every one saw him standing upright upon his feet; his cure was a fact which could not be denied.

The Apostles were then ordered to withdraw, and the members of the Council began to confer amongst themselves as to how they were to act in this case. They could not deny the miracle, and as they might cause a tumult among the people if they were to punish the Apostles for having relieved a poor cripple, they therefore agreed to exert themselves in suppressing the report, and to have nothing more said

either of Jesus or of the miracle which had been wrought in His name. Then they called in the Apostles, and seeking to terrify them by menaces, bade them to begone, and to be careful for the future not to speak nor to teach in the name of Jesus. But the Apostles were not to be intimidated by such threats. "We leave yourselves to judge," was their reply, "whether it be right to obey you, rather than God. We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”

This answer of the Apostles deserves to be well considered by every Christian in those circumstances, where God commands one thing and man another: it never can be justifiable to obey man in preference to God.

Ananias and Saphira.-Acts, v.

St. Peter and St. John, when thus set free by the Jewish Council, went to seek their friends, whom they knew to be in great concern about them. They related how the proceedings of the Council had been conducted, and how they had ended. The brethren with one accord lifted up their voice to God in thanksgiving, and devoutly prayed that He would continue to protect His servants, and that He would inspire them with confidence to resist the impious men who had combined against the Lord and against his Christ. When they had finished their prayer, the place wherein they were assembled shook; they felt the invigorating effects of the Holy Ghost; and, filled with new courage, they preached the word of God with confidence.

The multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul. No one had anything belonging to him, which was not at the service of the community; and they who sold their lands or their houses, brought the money and laid it at the feet of the Apostles to be distributed as the wants of the individual members of the Christian community should require. Attracted by the example of such virtues and struck by the miracles of the Apostles, great numbers flocked to the standard of Jesus Christ. St. Peter is celebrated by the inspired writer, as the chief and most active instrument