CHAPTER IV.

VEXATION OF SADDUCEES-PERSECUTION AIDS TRUTH-NUMBER OF MEN IN PROTESTANT CONGREGATIONS-CONTROVERSY-AUTHOR OF THE MIRACLE-MARY'S IMMACULATE CONCEPTION-EVIDENCE BEING WITH JESUS-ENEMIES' ADMISSION OF A MIRACLE-NOBLE REPLY TO THREATS.

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Ir appears from the commencement of the chapter I have read, that the Sadducees, the Scribes, and the Pharisees, were deeply grieved that the apostles taught the people through Jesus this fundamental doctrine, the resurrection from the dead. Nothing could be more unreasonable than the fury of the Sadducees; because, if the doctrine was proved by the apostles to be true, it was of no use to be pained that it was taught: if it was true, and could be proved to be true, it ought to be taught; if it was false, and could be proved to be false, the Sadducees had the opportunity of proving it to be 80. But to be grieved at truth, is to indicate a heart that is painfully wrong and corrupt in the sight of God. Being grieved, they laid hands upon the apostles, and put them in prison; and it was eventide. This was a

poor way of putting an end to what they taught. Truth is not in prison when its confessors are cast into prison. Truth does not die with its martyrs: on the contrary, if you want to give popularity to error, persecute them that teach it; if you want to give wings to truth, oppose them that proclaim it. Persecution of a party for what they teach, whether that which they teach be right or wrong, never yet sustained a good cause, if it

was for a good cause they were persecuted; and it never yet put down a wrong one. There is something

in the human mind that resists coercion in the acceptance of a creed; and very properly so. No man should be browbeaten into a creed; we are nobler material than that.

Let us be convinced of the truth, and by God's grace we will accept of it; but if we are not convinced, you indicate a nobler character when you wait for conviction, or refuse that which there is no proof of being truth.

"Howbeit," we are told, "many of them which heard the word believed." Though the apostles were thus opposed and persecuted, yet the words they had spoken provoked echoes in the hearts of the people; and whilst the preachers were marched to prison, the people that were left behind rejoiced in the truths that they taught: and five thousand men were about the number. Some think that this means strictly men, as distinguished from women; though we know there were many women in the numbers of them that believed the truth in the primitive church. But if it really means that they were men, it is the more interesting. If you go into a church on the continent of Europe, the congregation is fully three-fourths women; men are wanting. And it has been often remarked by persons who have visited this country, that what strikes them most is the vast number of men that are present at public worship. Now, why is this? Because they have been so accustomed to see the puerilities and the anile forms of a miserable superstition, (as if that were Christianity,) that they think that females, being, as they egotistically. suppose, of weaker minds than themselves, may be expected to receive these things, but that thinking men

never can be expected to accept such nonsense.

Νο doubt there is so far truth in this; and if so, this would indicate that the preaching of the apostles, and the convictions in the hearts of the people, were both sustained by the strongest, the clearest, and the most vigorous reason.

At the same time, in making this remark, I do not admit that woman's mind is weaker, or that she is naturally more superstitious than man. I believe it is often the very reverse. It has been found that woman displays a heroism in circumstances of trial that man does not display. Her mind is not weaker; it is different, and it deals with different elements; it excels in subtlety, in delicacy, in intuitive apprehension of what is true, and beautiful, and good. Man's mind is coarser, more rugged, it may be, more powerful; but still it is contrast, not properly comparison.

We then read that Annas the high-priest, and Caiaphas, and Alexander, and John, who were of the kindred of the high-priest, were determined to put an end to this matter; and therefore they asked, "By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?" They knew it quite well; but in order to find a pretext for persecution, they asked it. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost as he was, answered them most honestly, and he said, "Here is the whole matter; we court investigation; we do not say these things in a corner; we want our doctrine to be canvassed." The religion that shrinks from discussion is a religion that its advocates feel will not stand it. There is no fear of discussion injuring truth. What one dreads is stagnation, apathy, indifference; we never fear discussion. Give me an earnest Roman Catholic, an earnest infidel, in preference

to a cold, indifferent, orthodox Protestant. There is far more hope of the first two than there is of the last. If men are in earnest, there is a probability they will reap truth: and the resources and the grounds of the truths of the Gospel are so mighty, and so many, and so overwhelming, that a candid mind must come to the conviction that God's word is true; and by grace it may come to the conversion which receives the truth in the power and in the love of it.

Peter therefore says, "Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole." Now, all the Jews believed that in a miracle God was present; and the fact that he ascribed to Jesus of Nazareth the miracle, was, by implication, saying that Jesus of Nazareth is God. And then he quotes the 118th Psalm, "This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders;" the rock laid in Sion. You the professional, ecclesiastical builders of Israel, have for the last thirty years, says Peter, been building on a wrong foundation; you have rejected the only right one, and the consequence will be your ruin, unless you retrace your steps; and I tell you, says Peter, there is no salvation in any other-in no other being in heaven, or in earth, or in any other name but his.

How clear is this; and what a pity that the present Pio Nono does not know it! If you have read his last encyclical letter, published in the newspapers, you will see that the poor unhappy man has been busy in the conclave of cardinals, ascertaining the extraordinary fact, whether the Virgin Mary was immaculate or not;

that is, conceived without sin or not; and what they have now decided, that the Virgin Mary, like our blessed Lord, was not only born but conceived absolutely sinless. Now, I cannot conceive a more absurd conclusion; because, if she was absolutely sinless in her birth, then she was not of the ordinary race of humanity; then Jesus is not of the seed of David; then our religion is void, and Christ is not the Restorer, in virtue of his being of the seed of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and David, that we believe him to be.

When these men, ever ready to cavil, heard all this, : and saw the man that was healed, they were of course, and very naturally, grieved and vexed. "When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived they were unlearned and ignorant men," —or rather, "private men," that is, not official men," they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus." What a remarkable and suggestive exhibition is presented in this! "the boldness of Peter and John.” John seems to have never said a single word; Peter said all; and if we read the Acts of the Apostles, we may see the constant spokesman is Peter, while John merely stands by silent. But there is an eloquence in silence often far greater than there is in the most effective speech; and there is an eloquence in a quiet, holy, consistent life, far more impressive than there is in the most powerful oration of the ablest orator; and therefore they took notice that not only Peter, the eminent and earnest spokesman, but John, his quiet, silent co-presbyter, that stood by and said nothing, had both been equally with Jesus; and they were confirmed in this when they saw also the boldness which they exhibited in their speech.