17, 20, 23). But even at Rome the apostle abundant, in atripes above measure, in or the Gentiles wne ro.ithful to the rule, prisons more frequent, in deaths oft," is "'l'o the Jew flret." seen, as we read this hist.ory, to be no empty Vur. 29 (A.V.).-Thle verse ia entirely bo11st, hut A. simple statement of th,, trntl,. wnnting in tho R.'f. nnd R.V. It is omitted Tho springH of that mind and of that zeal in many good munusoripte nncl versions. It were ever ready to rise to fresh work, how- is condemned by Grotiu~, Mill, Tiecbondorf, ever crushing a strain ha.d been put upnn Lachmann, and ol hors; but is not abso- them. "I count not my life denr unto lutely rejeoted by Moyor, Alford, Plumpt.re, myself, so that I might finiah my course nnd others. Great ree.aoning (,ro,V..i,v uu(1,- with joy, and the ministry which I hove i-,7utv); soo oh. xv. 2, 7; and Luke xxii. received of the Lord J reus to testify tho 23; xxiv. 15; eh. vi. 9; ix. 29. The phrnee gospel of the g-race of God," is the true is in St. Luke's style, e.nd the stotement dcscript10n of th:tt life !LS delineated by seems ueeessnry to complete the ne.rrati vo. the beloved physician. And yet how r,,- Ver. 30.-He abode for Paul dwelt, A.V. markable it is that in the whole of the nrnl T.R.; dwelling for house, A.V.; went for Acts there is not one single word of pane- came, A.V. Two whole years. ll.1<Tla occurs gyric 1 The portraiture is a bare photo- nlso in eh. xxiv. 27, e.nd Ii, •.,..;,, in Mo.tt. ii. graph, without a single additional touch to lG; .,.p,ETla in eh. xx. 31. These forms are enhance its beauty. Nor must we forg"t frequent in the LXX. His own hired dwell- the singular brevity with which some epi- ing; lli(q, µ,,u0wµ,a-r,, only here. The word sodes are passed over. Had we only Luke's properly means " hire," the price paid for history, we should not know that the apostle the use of e.nything, and then by metonymy was an author----sn author whose writing-3 "the thing which is hired." It occurs fre- have moved the world of mind and spirit quently in the LXX. in the sense of" hire" more than all the writings of Plato, and or" wages;" e.g. Hos. ii.12: Deut. xxiii 18, Aristotle, and Cicero, e.nd Bacon combined, etc. This may be the (<vl<e spoken of in through a period of eighteen hundred year8. ver. 23, or he may have removed from thence Thus, to glance at the " two whole years" into some house more commodious for with the record of which the book closes, gathering Jews and Christians around him. think of the work done in that time. What Ver. 31.-The things for those things, A.V.; gatherings of holy men and women within concerning for which concern, A.V.; bold- the we.lls of the.t "hired dwelling" a.re we ness for oonfidence, A.V.; none for no man, sure must he.ve taken place I Prisca and A.V. Boldness (,rapp11uias); see above, eh. Aquila, nnd Epmnetw, o.nd Mary, and ii. 29: iv. 13, 29, 31. The verb ,raN11- Urbe.n, 11nd Apelles, e.nd Persia, e.ncl Hcr- u,&(ofJ-"' also occurs frequently (eh. ix. 27; mas, and Olympas, and all their compeers, xiii. 46 ; xiv. 8, etc.). 'l'he boldness and we me.y be sure were often there. Wlrnt freedom with which he spake the things wrestlings in prayer, what expositions of tl,o ooncerning the Lord Jesus Christ would Scriptures, what descriptions of the kin;;- naturally incree.ee more and more, as he dom of God, what loving exhorto.tions, what found himself de.y by day unchecked by sympathetic communings, must ha.ve made enemies, and encouraged by the number that '' hired dwelling II a very Bethel i11 the and earnestness of his hearers. None for- stronghold of heathenism I We think oi lhc1 bidding him; aKw;>,,~n••• only hero in the prmtorie.n soldiers to whom he was succes- New Testament; but the adjective is found sively chained; perhaps of the courtcou, in Symmachus's ver~ion of Job (xxxiv. 31), Julius; of the inmates of Nero's pnbce and in the LXX. of Wied. vii. 22; and both (Phil. iv. 22); perhaps of Eubulus, and adjective and adverb are oocasione.lly used Pudens, and Linns, and Claudia. (2 Tim. i\·. in classical Greek. But the most common 21); of Epaphras and Epaphroditus, and of use of the adverb is by medi,.al writers, who Luke, e.nd Mark, and Timothy, e.nd A.>ist- employ it "to denote freedon., unhindered nrchus, e.nd we know not how '.many mure action, in a variety of things, such as respi- besides ; e.nd there rises before our min,ls a ration, perspiration, the pulse, the muscles, crowd of agencies e.nd sober activities di- the members of the body 11 (Hobart). In rected by that master mind to the a.,h-nncc- two passages quoted from Galen (' Meth. ment of the kiugdom of God. We fed, Med.,' xiv. 15; 'Usus Part.,' ii. 15) the indeed, that, though he was chained, "the sentence ends, as hero, with the word aKa,71.v- word of God was not bound:" but that "'.,•· Somo deri vo tho word " acolyte " through the marvellous energy and unfail- hence, from their being admitted to holy ing wisdom of the gree.t prisoner, his prison functions, though not in full orders. turned out rather to the furtherance of the And so ends th(s lively nnd beautiful and gospel. And then we turn to the Epistles most fnithful sketch of one of the greo.test written o.t this time. What a contributiu,1 men, und 0110 of the greatest works, the to the litero.ture of the kingdom ofheo.veu !- world hu.i @ver seen. "In labours more the Epistles io Ule Ephesill,IlS, to the Coloa- THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [oa. xxvm. 1--31,
11ions, tc, Pl,ilcmon, Rnd to the Philippians, happened when it waa given to the Chnroh. and probably much help given t.o Luke in Instead of ve.in regret. beoause It ree.ohea the aompoeition of the Aote of the Apastles. no further, let u11 devoutly thl\nk God for Truly they were two years of mdnit<i all the.t this book he.a taught us, and strive moment to the Church of God. to show onraelvea worthy members of that "'"hat followed those two years, what Gentile Churoh, whose foundation by Bt. heaame of Paul, and what of his 11&intly Peter and Bt. Paul, and whose marvellous biogn.phel', we she.ll never know. It he.a inorement, through the labours of him wbo pleued God to draw e. onrt&in over the onoe laid it waste, baa been so well set be- eventa, whioh we oannO\ penetrate. Here fore U9 in the Book of TB■ A.OTB OJ' TBll our hi.story ends, becaue nothing more had AroSTLES.