absolution and remission of their sins. He pardoneth and absolveth all those who truly repent and unfeignedly believe His Holy Word." The use of this authority is confined only to the bishops and the priests. It is formed upon the authority our LORD gave His Church (St. Matt. xvi. 19, xviii. 18; St. John xx. 23). A charge thrice repeated at different times, first while preparing the Apostles for their work and then immediately after His resurrection. It is an integral part of the ministry of the Church to men, as it is involved in the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. But its practical use was also long before involved in all sacrifices in the Levitical dispensation; and a notable instance of the declaration of absolution is in Nathan's reply to King David, "The LORD also hath put away thy sin" (2 Sam. xii. 13). Our LORD making all forgiveness flow from His own person pronounced His absolution authoritatively. "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. . . . That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins." So to the sinful woman, "Thy sins are forgiven." Then it was a development into Christian use of the germ which lay in the Mosaic dispensation, and was ordained by our LORD for the comfort of His own. As all power is His in heaven and in earth, and as He is ever with His Church to the end of the world, and has by a direct gift of the HOLY GHOST for that end endowed the Apostolate with the Commission, it must be of continuous and continual use in His Church.

"The special acts or ways in which the ministers of CHRIST are commissioned or authorized to exemplify this their power of retaining or remitting sins appear to be four acts of the ministry whereby the benefit of absolution is ordinarily dispensed unto men. "The power of administering the two sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper to all such as are qualified to receive them, which is, therefore, called 'sacramental absolution.'

"The power of declaring or publishing the terms or conditions upon which the Gospel promises pardon and remission of sins, which is called the 'declaratory absolution of the word and doctrine.'

"The power of interceding with GOD for pardon of sins through the merits of CHRIST, which is the absolution of prayer.'

The power of executing Church discipline and censures upon delinquents, which consists in excluding flagitious and scandalous sinners from the communion of the Church, and receiving penitents again into her communion when they have given just evidence of a sincere repentance.

"In these four acts, regularly exercised, consists the ministerial power of retaining or remitting sins, so far as the delegated authority of man can be concerned in it." (Bingh. Chr. Ant., bk. viii.)

"The minister can only lend his mouth or his hand toward the external act of absolu

tion; but he cannot absolve internally, much less the unqualified sinner. CHRIST Himself has assured us, that unless men repent, they must inevitably perish; and that unless they forgive men their trespasses, their heavenly Father will not forgive them their trespasses. Now, it would be absurd to think, after this, that a sinner who performs neither of these conditions should, notwithstanding, be pardoned by GoD, continuing impenitent still; and only because he chances surreptitiously to be loosed on earth by some error or fraud, that, therefore, he should be also most certainly loosed in heaven. This were to imagine one of the vainest things in the world, that CHRIST, to make His priests' words true, would make His own words false, as they must needs be if any outward absolution, given by a fallible and mistaken man, could translate an impenitent sinner into the kingdom of heaven." (Bingh. Chr. Ant., bk. iii.)

The very formal words which our Church requires to be used in the ordination of a minister are these: "Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained." (The Form of Ordering of Priests.) We acknowledge most willingly that the principal part of the priest's ministry is exercised in the matter of "forgiveness of sins,"-the question only is of the manner, how this part of their function is executed by them, and of the bounds and limits thereof.

That we may therefore give unto the priest the things that are the priest's, and to GOD the things that are GOD's, and not communicate unto any creature the power that properly belongs to the Creator, who "will not give His glory unto another" (Isaiah xlviii. 11), we must, in the first place, lay this down for a sure ground, that to forgive sins properly, directly, and absolutely, is a privilege only appertaining unto the Most High. "I, even I, am He that blotteth out any transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins" (Isaiah xliii. 25). "Who is a GOD like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity ?" says the prophet Micah (vii.18); which in effect is the same with that of the scribes (Mark ii. 7, and Luke v. 21): "Who can forgive sins but GOD alone?" And therefore, when David says unto GoD, "Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sins" (Ps. xxxii. 5), Gregory, surnamed the Great, the first Bishop of Rome of that name, thought this to be a sound paraphrase of his words: "Thou, who alone sparest, who alone forgivest sins. For who can forgive sins but GoD alone?" (Gregor. Exposit. xi., Ps. Poenit.) Irenæus tells us that our SAVIOUR in this place, "forgiving sins, did both cure the man and manifestly discover who He was. For if none," says he, "can forgive sins but GOD alone, and our LORD did forgive them, and cured them, it is manifest that He was the Word of GOD made the Son of man; and that, as

man, He was touched with compassion of us, as GOD He hath mercy on us, and forgiveth us our debts which we do owe unto our Maker" (Irenæus, adv. Hæres., lib. v. cap. 17). Tertullian (lib. iv. adv. Marcion, cap. 10) says, that "when the Jews, beholding only His humanity, and not being yet certain of His deity, did deservedly reason that a man could not forgive sins, but GOD alone, He, by answering of them, that 'the Son of man had authority to forgive sins,' would by this remission of sins have them call to mind that He was 'that only Son of man prophesied of in Daniel, who received power of judging, and thereby also of forgiving sins'" (Dan. vii. 13, 14). St. Ambrose also observes, upon the history of the woman taken in adultery (John viii. 9), that "JESUS being about to pardon sin, remaineth alone. For it is not the ambassador," says he, "nor the messenger, but the LORD Himself that hath saved His people. He remaineth alone, because it cannot be common to any man with CHRIST to forgive sins. This is the office of CHRIST alone, who 'taketh away the sin of the world'" (Ambros. Epist. lxxvi., ad. Studium). So, too, St. Chrysostom is careful to preserve God's privilege entire, by often interposing such sentences as these: None can forgive sins but GOD alone" (Chrysost. in 2 Cor. iii., Hom. vi.). "To forgive sins belongeth to no other" (Id. in John viii, Hom. liv., ed. Græc., vel liii., Latin). "To forgive sins is possible to GOD only" (Id. in 1 Cor. xv, Hom. xl.). "GOD alone doth this; which also He worketh in the washing of the new birth" (Id. ib.). Whence it is seen that the work of cleansing the soul is wholly GoD's, and the minister hath no hand at all in effecting any part of it. Having thus, therefore, reserved unto GoD His sacred rights, we give unto His underofficers their due, when we "account of them as of the ministers of CHRIST, and stewards of the mysteries of GOD" (1 Cor. iv. 1, 2), not as lords, that have power to dispose of spiritual graces as they please (Chrysost. in 1 Cor. iv., Hom. x.), but as servants that are bid to follow their master's prescriptions therein (Id. in 2 Cor. iv., Hom. viii. circa init.); and in following thereof do but bring their external ministry, for which itself also they are beholden to GoD's mercy and goodness, GOD conferring the inward blessing of His Spirit thereupon, when and where He will. "Who then is Paul?" says St. Paul, “and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the LORD gave to every man ?" (1 Cor. iii. 5.) "Therefore," says Optatus (lib. v.), "in all the servants there is no dominion but a ministry." "It is He who is believed that giveth the things which is believed, not he by whom we do believe" (Id. ib. Similiter et Chrysost. in 1 Cor. iii., Hom. viii.). Whereas our SAVIOUR then said unto His apostles, "Receive the HOLY GHOST; whose sins you forgive shall be

forgiven" (John xx.). St. Bazil (lib. v. adv. Eunom, p. 113, ed. Græco-Latin), Ambrose (de Spir. Sanct., lib. iii. cap. 19), Augustine (contra Epist. Parmenian, lib. ii. cap. ii. et Hom. xxiii. Ex. 50), Chrysostom (in 2 Cor. iii., Hom. vi.), and Cyril. Alexand. (in Joh., lib. xii. cap. 56), make this observation thereupon: that this is not their work properly, but the work of the HOLY GHOST, who remitteth by them, and therein performeth the work of the true GOD. "For, indeed," says St. Cyril (Id. ib.), "it belongeth to the true GOD alone to be able to loose men from their sins. For who else can free the transgressors of the law from sin but He who is the author of the law itself?" "The LORD," says St. Augustine (Hom. xxiii. Ex. 50), "was to give unto men the HOLY GHOST; and He would have it to be understood, that by the HOLY GHOST Himself sins should be forgiven to the faithful, and not that by the merits of men's sins should be forgiven. For what art thou, O man, but a sick man that hast need to be healed? Wilt thou be a physician to me? Seek the physician together with me." So St. Ambrose (de Spir. Sanct., lib. iii. cap. 19), "Behold, that by the HOLY GHOST Sins are forgiven. But men to the remission of sins bring their ministry; they exercise not the authority of any power." St. Chrysostom, though he makes this to be the exercise of a great power, yet in the main accords fully with St. Ambrose, that "it remains in GoD alone to bestow the things wherein the priest's service is employed" (Id. in Joh. xx. Hom. lxxxvi., ed. Græc., vol. lxxxv. Latin). "And what speak I of priests ?" says he (Id. ib.). "Neither angel nor archangel can do aught in those things which are given by GOD; but the Father and the Son and the HOLY GHOST do dispense all. The priest lendeth his tongue, and putteth to his hand." "His part only is to open his mouth; but it is GOD that worketh all" (Id. in 2 Tim., cap. i. Hom. xi.). And the reasons whereby both he and Theophylact (Id. in Joh. viii., Hom. liv., Græc., vel liii., Latin) after him do prove that the priests of the law had no power to forgive sins, are of as great force to take the same power from the ministers of the Gospel. First, because (Theophylact in Joh. viii.) it is GOD's part only to forgive sins, which is the moral that Haymo (Halberstat in Evang. Domin., xv., post Pentecost) makes of that part of the history of the Gospel, wherein the lepers are cleansed by our SAVIOUR before they be commanded to show themselves unto the priest, "because (Theophylact in Joh. viii.) the priests were servants, yea, servants of sin, and therefore had no power to forgive sins unto others; but the SON is the LORD of the house, who was manifested to take away our sins, says St. John (1 John iii. 5)." Upon which saying of his, St. Augustine writes: "It is He in whom there is no sin that came to take away

sin. For if there had been sin in Him too, it must have been taken away from Him; He could not take it away Himself" (August., Tract. iv., in 1 John iii.). There then follows another part of the ministry of reconciliation, consisting in the due administration of the sacraments, which being the proper seals of the promises of the Gospel, as the censures are of the threats, must therefore necessarily also have reference to the "remission of sins" (Acts ii. 38; Matt. xxvi. 28). And so we see the ancient fathers held that (Cyprian, Epist. lxxvi. sec. 4, ed. Pamelii, 8 Goulartii; Cyril. Alexand., in Joh., lib. xii. c. 56; Ambros. de Pœnit. lib. i. c. 7; Chrysost. de Sacerdot., lib. iii. tom. vi.. ed. Savil., p. 17, lin. 25; vide et tom. vii. p. 268, lin. 37) the commission, "Whosoever sins remit, they are remitted unto them" (John xx. 23), is executed by the ministers of CHRIST, as well in the conferring of baptism as in the reconciling of penitents; yet so in both these, and in all the sacraments likewise of both the testaments, that (August. Quæst. in Levit. clxxxiv.; Optat. lib. v. contra Donat.; Chrysost. in Matt. xxvi., Hom. lxxvii., edit. Græc., vel lxxxiii., Latin; in 1 Cor. iii., Hom. viii.; et in 2 Tim. i., Hom. ii. circa finem) the ministry only is to be accounted man's, but the power Gop's. "For," as St. Augustine observes, "it is one thing to baptize by way of ministry, another thing to baptize by way of power" (Aug. in Evang. Joh., Tract. v.): "the power of baptizing the LORD retaineth to Himself, the ministry He hath given to His servants" (Id. ib.): "the power of the LORD's baptism was to pass from the LORD to no man, but the ministry was; the power was to be transferred from the LORD unto none of His ministers; the ministry was both unto the good and unto the bad” (Id. ib.). And the reason which he assigns is, "that the hope of the baptized might be in Him by whom they did acknowledge themselves to have been baptized. The LORD, therefore, would not have a servant to put his hope in a servant" (Id. ib.). And therefore those schoolmen argued, "It is a matter of equal power to baptize inwardly, and to absolve from mortal sin; but it was not fit that GOD should communicate the power of baptizing unto any, lest our hope should be reposed in man. Therefore, by the same reason, it was not fit that He should communicate the power of absolving from actual sin unto any" (Alexand. de Hales, Summ., part iv. quæst. xxi. Memb. i.). Our SAVIOUR, therefore, must still have the privilege reserved unto Him of being the absolute LORD over His own house. It is sufficient for His officers that they be esteemed, as Moses was, "faithful in all His house as servants" (Heb. 1. 5, 6). The place wherein they serve is a steward's place; and the Apostle tells them that it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful" (Cor. iv. 2). They may not, therefore, carry themselves in their office

as the unjust steward did, and presume to strike out their Master's debt without His direction, and contrary to His liking (Luke xvi. 6-8). But our LORD has given no authority unto His stewards to grant an acquittance unto any of His debtors that bring not unfeigned faith and repentance with them. "Neither angel nor archangel" can; "neither yet the LORD Himself (who alone can say, 'I am with you') when we have sinned, doth release us, unless we bring repentance with us," writes St. Ambrose (Epist. xxviii. ad Theodosium Imp.); and Eligius, Bishop of Noyon, in his sermon unto the penitents, "Before all things, it is necessary you should know that howsoever you desire to receive the imposition of our hands, yet you cannot obtain the absolution of your sins before the divine piety shall vouchsafe to absolve you by the grace of compunction" (Eligius Noviamens, Hom. xi. tom. vii., Biblioth. Partr., p. 248, ed. Colon). To think, therefore, that it lies in the power of any priest truly to absolve a man from his sins, without implying the condition of his "believing and repenting as he ought to do," is both presumption and madness in the highest degree.

And Cardinal Bellarmine, who censures this conditional absolution in us for idle and superfluous, is driven to confess that when the priest (Bellarmin, de Pœnitent., lib. ii. c. 4, sect. penult.) says, "I absolve thee," he "doth not affirm that he doth absolve absolutely, as not being ignorant that it may many ways come to pass that he doth not absolve, although he pronounce those words; namely, if he who seemeth to receive this sacrament" (for so they call it) "peradventure hath no intention to receive it, or is not rightly disposed, or putteth some block in the way. Therefore the minister," says he, "signifieth nothing else by those words but that he, as much as in him lieth, conferreth the sacrament of reconciliation or absolution, which, in a man rightly disposed, hath virtue to forgive all his sins."

"Evil and wicked, carnal, natural, and devilish men," says St. Augustine (de Baptism, contra Donatist., lib. iii. cap. ult.), "imagine those things to be given unto them by their seducers, which are only the gifts of GOD, whether sacraments or any other spiritual works concerning their present salvation." But such as are thus deceived ought to listen to this grave admonition of St. Cyprian (de Laps., sec. 7, ed. Pamel, 14 Goulart): "Let no man deceive, let no man beguile himself; it is the LORD alone that can show mercy. He alone can grant pardon to the sins committed against Him, who did Himself bear our sins, who suffered grief for us, whom God did deliver for our sins. Man cannot be greater than GOD, neither can the servant by his indulgence remit or pardon that which by heinous trespass is committed against the LORD; lest to him that is fallen this yet be added as a further crime, if he be ignorant of that

which is said, Cursed is the man that putteth his trust in man.'" Whereupon St. Augustine (in Evang. Joh., Tract. v.) writes, that good ministers do consider that "they are but ministers; they would not be held for judges; they abhor that any trust should be put in them; and that the power of remitting and retaining sins is committed unto the Church, to be dispensed therein, "but according to the arbitrament of GOD" (Id. de Baptism, contra Donatist., lib. iii. c. 18). Repentance from dead works is one of the foundations and principles of the doctrine of CHRIST (Heb. vi. 1). "Nothing maketh repentance certain but the hatred of sin and the love of God" (August. Serm. vii., de Tempore). And without true repentance all the priests under heaven are not able to give us a discharge from our sins and deliver us from the wrath to come. 66 Except ye be converted, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. xviii. 3). "Except ye repent, ye shall all perish" (Luke xiii. 3, 5), is the LORD'S saying in the New Testament. And in the Old, 66 Repent, and turn from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed, and make you a new heart and a new spirit; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" (Ezek. xviii. 30, 31). (Dr. Stephens's Notes to Book of Common Prayer.)

66

Abstinence. A reduction of food for the sake of self-discipline. It implies a certain degree of voluntariness on the part of him who practices it, and also a power to determine how far he will or will not abstain. It is not to be confounded with fasting, though it is so often. As for total abstinence, i.e. from alcoholic liquids," no Christian can take the vow in its fullest sense, as he must receive for his soul's health the Holy Communion. But St. Paul gives us the only true principle in, "It is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth or is offended or is made weak."

Accidents. This term of ancient philosophy, which referred to the changeable parts of matter, as form, color, taste, as opposed to substance, proper, and the immutable properties of matter, was appropriated by later mediæval theologians to the alleged change in the elements after consecration at the Eucharist. The "species," or "accidents," were said to remain of bread and wine, but the substance was transubstantiated. It was a mere subterfuge for a logical difficulty in endeavoring to explain what is given us as a mystery.

Accommodation. A word used to express the manner in which Divine teachings convey and adapt Divine truths to our comprehension. These, it is evident, must be fitted to the capacity, development, and circumstances of those receiving these truths. Abraham, with his surroundings, could not receive what was given to David, or Isaiah,

or Daniel, though he was the Father of the Faithful. So, again, the use of parables is an instance of accommodation. But, again, it is an accommodation to our limited power to speak to us of GOD's anger or jealousy, or that His Eye is upon us, His Hand upholds us. It would be impossible for us to understand many things revealed to us of GoD without some such accommodation from Him. But while fitted to our dwarfed power, yet they are themselves truths, which we are gradually enabled to understand better and to throw aside grosser, materialistic conceptions which the mere words would teach. Another form of accommodation is in the gradual additions to the fundamental elementary truths first revealed. Eve received a prophecy of CHRIST, but a fuller one was given to Abraham, and a still fuller to David, and so on. We practice this mode, rather of development than of accommodation, in teaching children. So St. Paul gave the Corinthians milk rather than meat. But a positive accommodation perverts the truth and therefore it is inadmissible, and any attempt to explain difficult passages upon such a principle must be condemned.

Acephali (without a head). Certain heretics who separated from the Church, following Nestorius, or who held Eutychian principles and were condemned by the Synod at Constantinople 536 A.D. The Church in Cyprus was acephalous, not being under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Antioch. So, too, priests who refused to be under a bishop were said to be acephali.

Acolyte. A sub-officer assisting in Divine service in the Latin and Greek Churches. His duty is to light the candles, hand the bread and wine, the water, etc., to the priest. In the Greek Church it is another name for a sub-deacon. In the English Church, before the Reformation, the name was corrupted into Collet.

Acrostic Psalms. Certain Psalms in Holy Scripture begin with the several successive letters of the alphabet, each stanza beginning with each letter in its order. There are twelve such poems in the Old Testament: Psalms xxv., xxxiv., xxxvii., cxi., cxii., cxix., cxlv., a part of Prov. xxxi., Lamentations i.-iv. But Psalm cxix. is the most remarkable of these compositions. It is divided into twenty-two sections, of eight couplets each; each division beginning with that letter of the alphabet in its order, and every couplet in the division beginning with the letter of its division, e.g., the first division begins with Ashre, etc., and each couplet begins with the letter A. Psalms xxv., xxxiv., and cxv. are of twentytwo stanzas each, the first line only of each couplet being acrostical. Psalm xxxvii. is in twenty quatrains, the first line of each quatrain being acrostical. Psalms cxi. and cxii. are of twenty-two lines each, and each line begins with a new letter in alphabetical order. But Proverbs xxxi. is in twentytwo couplets; Lamentations chs. i. ii. in

twenty-two triplets, the first line of each triplet being acrostical. Lamentations ch. iii. is in twenty-two triplets, each triplet being in each line acrostical, while Lamentations ch. iv. is in twenty-two couplets, each couplet, in its first line, being acrostical. These remarkable poems exhibit well the rhythmical and antithetical character of Hebrew poetry, and its peculiar style of parallelisms.

Acts of the Apostles (The). Probably St. Luke did not give any title to his work further than would be implied in the term by which he designates this gospel," the former treatise" (Acts i. 1). In this, then, as in nearly all the other books of the Bible, there was no title or name supplied or prefixed by the writer. And as the heading Acts of the Apostles does not literally conform to the contents of the history, it would be better to give it its truer meaning, "Practice of the Apostles," which is probably nearer the idea intended by those who supplied the title. For the treatise only records, and, too, partially records, the Acts and the Practice of four Apostles, SS. Peter, John, Paul, and Barnabas, with scarcely more than a reference to St. James. In fact, SS. John and Barnabas appear only in connection with, or in relation to, SS. Peter and Paul. The history, then, may be considered as the inspired record of what should be the Apostolic policy and practice historically illustrated by the actions of these representative Apostles; also as unfolding the expansion of the Gospel from Jerusalem to Samaria, and thence to the Gentiles; as beside in a peculiar way declaring the controlling power of the ascended LORD JESUS.

It is no lessening of the authenticity and inspired accuracy of St. Luke to suppose that he may have used written documents, easily accessible to one so situated as himself, for his earlier facts, and to have recorded what came within his own personal knowledge later in his attendance on St. Paul. But the whole tone of the Acts implies that though he may not have taken an active part, yet he was not only an eye-witness of the general course of the events he records, but had intimate relations with some of the principal actors. The minute touches in his narrative prove this, e.g., the description of St. Stephen before the Sanhedrim, and the spirited condensation of his speech; the mention of significant surnames; the detailed account of St. Peter's deliverance from prison, and his reception at the house of Mary, the mother of Mark, whose surname is John. Even the narrative of the conversion of Cornelius renders it probable that he was one of the brethren who went with St. Peter from Joppa to Cæsarea. Of course in the journeys of St. Paul we have the record of an actual companionship, though St. Luke was often separated from the Apostle by the exigencies of the mission work, as is clearly marked by the pronoun "we" used in many places, and then (when St. Luke was away) dropped for "they."

The plan of the book, while the narrative passes on in a perfectly natural way from event to event, is not always evident to ordinary readers. But when we remember that the HOLY SPIRIT caused certain facts to be set down, and others seemingly even more important to be omitted, and that there is no waste or uncertainty in His purposes, His purpose, we may reverently say, is to record the work given to the Church to do, not the achievements of His servants. With this clue we can well see that it is an outline, sufficient, clear, definite, but very concise, of the work to be done, of the lines upon which the future officers in the Church were to move forward. It contains in its history the true solution of the problems which can be presented to the Church in the several epochs of her career. It is (to borrow the illustration of Bishop Wordsworth) the journal of the movements, directed by the Captain of our Salvation, of His officers leading His army to its final victory. The Apostles had much the same difficulties to encounter. And their mode of surmounting obstacles and their strategy and tactics are lessons to us in the present day. The plan of the Acts is simply a development of our LORD's direction, "But ye shall receive power, after that the HOLY GHOST is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."

Beginning with the Ascension (ch. i. 1-12), St. Luke goes on to record the continuance of the company of the one hundred and twenty faithful in prayer and supplication (vs. 13, 14), and the election of Matthias into the place of Judas (vs. 15-26); then the wondrous outpouring of the HOLY GHOST (ch. ii. 1-4), and the attention it attracted, and the resulting conversion of the three thousand (vs. 5-41). Thereupon he describes the practice of the new community (vs. 4247). Chapter iii. narrates the miracle of healing the lame beggar at Solomon's Gate, and St. Peter's appeal, and ch. iv. the arrest and imprisonment by "the priests, the Captain of the Temple, and the Sadducees," with St. Peter's manly boldness, and their dismissal (vs. 1-22), and the thanksgiving, and their renewed courage by the grace of the HOLY GHOST (vs. 23-31). Then the community life is described (vs. 32-37), with the stern retribution that fell upon Ananias and Sapphira (ch. v. 1-11); the continued growth of the Church through the signs and wonders wrought by the Apostles (vs. 12-16); the indignation this produced in the Jewish rulers; the arrest of the Apostles and their defense; the private consultation and the counsel given by Gamaliel; their illegal stripes and release (vs. 17-42).

Then the narrative relates for us another

step in the Church's development. It has nearly outgrown the swathing-bands of a mere community life. The increase of their number demanded a new arrangement for the government of the rapidly-growing