lteelC ill touched, wakens responsive to ~ho touch, and takes upon it&elf to speak for its owner sounds that have the sounds of hfe. Men hear, and are " pricked in the heart." 2. The first immediate couree resorted to under the circumstances. Thoee whoee hearts are thus "pricked," whose conscience is thus touched, begin to make inquiry and inqui~Y. of who.~ ~hoy" shall do." They play not the r6le of excuse for the p;st, of morahzmg remm1scenco, or of any other of the pretexts for procrastination. It is the moment for undoubted action, for decided action, and, if hmuist ignorance exist as to tho shape of that action, for prompt inquiry as to the way: " What shall we do?" No doubt, when the men and the time and the circumstances and those to whom they now addressed themselves,-when these all are pnt together, it must be granted that there was here the reality and the best part of genuine confessitm. 3. Reliaious inter- O rogatories made, not under the probing of the confessional-expert; not under the conditions of morbidness, and it goaded ; not in secrecy and solitariness. These, ae between man and his fellow-creature, may be often more than doubtful. But it is in open day that this confossional-scene is placed. And safety invests it, and spiritual health and even symptoms of robustness are indicated. 4. Preachers not priest, doctrine not ritual, practice not penance, lively repentance not remorseful reflection_ are the order of that well-omened hour. Yet, to speak of nothing else, if ever remorse- ful reflection-something short of remorse itself-might have put in a reasonably opportune claim, it was surely now, while Peter's stinging words still rang in their ears: "'!'his Jesus whom ye crucified" (Revised Version). But no; the answer to the questions put at this honourable, open confessional is " Repent," altering at once the thing you have been, though alter you cannot the crucifiying thing that you have done; "Repent," and show it before men, by being "baptized, every one of you," actually in that very Name, "the Name of Jesus Christ," whom you rejected and crucified, acknowledging thereby that you are bounden to him for "the remission of sins ; " " Repent," and be baptized, and enter at once on the inheritance of long promise, "the gift of the Holy Ghost." That" gift of the Holy Ghost," after repentance and after baptism and after the remission of sins, as distinguished from the prevenient quickening effected by his sacred breath, would be the conclusive, surest token of the absolution of sin. For .them and for ourselves this may sufficiently distinguish the ever-necessary work- ing of the Holy Spirit in quickening the human heart from death, necessary equally with Abel and Enoch as with Paul or any man of modern days, from that special endowment of the Spirit for other uses, vouchsafed to the "new covenant" from the day or Pentecost downward to this day. This is the special grace and crown of the Christian Church, though probably still little understood, and its conquering force accordingly still little tested. From the language or ver. 40 we may understand that we have but a sketch of all that Peter said from the moment that he stood up to vin- dicate the prophesying army from the charge of drunkenness, to the moment that the actual administration of the rite of baptism began. Unstintingly he" testified," unweariedly he "exhorted," and this the burden of his enthusiastic and impassioned appeal, that those who heard &hould show themselves willing, anxious, e3oaer to be rescued from the following and from the belongings of an inherently " crooked generation." VII. A GLORIOUS A.ND MOST HEART-GLADDENING HARVEST. (Ver. 41-47). Three thousand were that day added to the hundred and twenty or thereabout, who began the day as believers in Christ. The multiplication was twenty-five for every one. 'l'hey are those who"' received his word." It will not be going beyond chapter and verse ifwe regard this as equivalent to "receiving the Word." Still, this is not the exact meaning of the historian, and as it is very possible that some of these very thousands at some subsequent time were guilty of defection, we may prefer to hold that those who came to be thus guilty did not receive" with meekness the engrafted Word, which was able to save their souls." They only caught a transient enthusiasm as they listened to Peter. Any way, some then also did not " receive" the word of Peter. " Some" tMn, also " believed and some believed not." Some tares thffl also were mingled with the" good seed." Glorious, therefore as that harvest was of the "latter day," it falls very short of the glory that shall be ~f"the last day." Then no Peter shall baptize, and no Church shall charit- ably judge, and no adulteration shall be possible. 'l'hen "the angels shall come forth, and sever the.wicked from among the just" (Matt. xiii. 49); "The Son of Man shall send 80 THE AOTS OF THE APOSTLES. [on. IL 1-47,
forth his _angels, _a~d !he{, shall gat~~r out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do m1qmty . (Mat_t. Xlll, 41); "The Son of man shall come in bis glory, and all the holy angels with him .. , , And he shall separate," etc. Meanwhile the spiritual harvest an~ ingathering into the Church visible and militant of that day of Pentecost WBB glonous and heart-reviving. The thought of it is so still. It is still unique for one time, one place, and one preaching. Yet these are but the clothing of circumstance ; and perhaps m~ny a day since, the eye that surveys all, and sees every- where at one and the .~me time, may have witnessed equal proofs of the converting ~wer of Word and Spmt, the one spoken by the lip of man, the other teaching that hp to speak.-B.