ANTIOCH IN SYRIA.

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657.-PROPHETIC TESTIMONY TO CHRIST.

Acts x. 43.-"To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins."

Expository.-We may conclude that the two clauses in this verse are in close connection, and though an unbroken line of testimony might be traced, through all the series of prophets, along which the Messiah is referred to, with more or less distinctness, as the Chosen Messenger God would one day send, it might not be so apparent, at first, that they associated this advent with the pardon of sin. Some, like Isaiah, did so in plain terms; and of the others, with scarcely an exception, it might be averred that one object of their teaching was to show the valueless nature of ritualism, except as a type of some worthier atonement, whereby the sinner could be forgiven, and brought home to God.

ACTS XI.

658.-SAVED BY WORDS.

Acts xi. 14.-"Words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved."

Expository.-Even in the ordinary experience of life men are saved by words-the words of their fellows. When a blind man avoids a precipice and turns into a path of safety at the warning voice of a benevolent passenger, he has been saved by words. When the various portions of an army, at a critical moment, make a combined movement by the orders of its chief, conveyed by the lips of bold young men, who gallop with them through the battlefield, they are extricated from impending ruin, and conducted to a place of safety, by words. Words, false and meaningless, however reverently they may be received, will not save; and, on the other hand, words true and divine will not save those who despise and neglect them.-REV. WILLIAM ARNOT.

659.-ANTIOCH IN SYRIA.

Acts xl. 19.-"Travelled as far as ..... Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only."

Descriptive. It was the capital of Syria, and the residence of the proconsul of the province. It contained a mixed population, including many Jews, who resided in a separate quarter under their own governor. This city speedily became the head quarters of Gentile Christianity, and the second great centre of missionary operations, from which the light radiated through the heathen world; and it long retained a pre-eminence among the Eastern churches.-Annotated Bible.

Acts xi. 26.-"And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." Expository. This (with Acts xxvi. 28, and 1 Peter iv. 16) is the only place in the New Testament where the name Christian occurs. It is plain that for a long time there was no commonly recognised term of this kind. Hence Christ's followers are called variously, "they that believed" (Acts ii. 44), "the disciples" (vi. 1), "those of the way" (ix. 2), &c. Again, the name of Nazarenes was applied to them by the Jews, as a term of re proach, but it plainly arose before the extension of the faith to the Gentiles It was at Antioch that the large accession of Gentiles first made it impossible to look upon them merely as a Jewish sect, and required the use of some more distinctive title. It was natural, therefore, that the use of such a title should first prevail at Antioch. When the book (Acts of the Apostles) was written, towards the close of Paul's imprisonment at Rome, the formation of churches in the chief cities of almost every province would awaken inquiry as to the origin of this new name, that was already in every one's mouth. How suitable, then, would be this passing remark of the historian (Acts xi., 26), to show when and where it began to be current."-BIRKS's "Hora Apostolicæ,” p. 345.

"The word xonμarioai, used by St. Luke ('they were called,') implies the thing to have been done by some public and solemn act and declaration of the whole church; such being the use of the word in the imperial edicts and proclamations of those times, the emperors being said Xpypariri, 'to style themselves,' when they publicly proclaimed by what titles they would be called. . . . Such being the general acceptation of the word, St. Luke (who was himself a native of this city) makes use of it to express that solemn declaration whereby the disciples of the religion entitled themselves to the name of Christians."-CAVE'S Lives of the Apostles.

"It is merely a subordinate matter, but yet I might just observe how strikingly what we know from other quarters confirms the accuracy of this account, which lays the invention of this name to the credit of the Antiochenes.

"Antioch, with its idle and witty inhabitants, was famous in all antiquity for the invention of nicknames. It was a manufacture in which they particularly excelled; and thus it was exactly the place where beforehand we might have expected that such a name, being a nickname, or little better, in the mouths of those that devised it, should have sprung up."-TRENCII.

PRAYER UNCEASING.

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It is worthy of remark that the name "Christian was given, for all time, to the followers of Christ in that great Syrian capital, Antioch, in which the persecutor of God's people, Antiochus Epiphanes, had reigned, whose own name was connected by origin with that city, and who was a type of Antichrist.-WORDSWORTH.

661,-GIVE ACCORDING TO YOUR ABILITY.

Acts xi. 29.-"Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judæa."

Illustrative.-MR. MULLER'S Orphan Houses.-Among the contributions to this noble institution we find the following:-From a Christian butcher, 195., being one penny for each sheep which he has had in his shop since last he sent. In a similar way one penny is paid by several bakers for each sack of flour they bake; or bootmakers one penny for each pair of boots they sell; or dressmakers one penny for each dress they make; or shopkeepers one penny on each pound they take in their shops. A builder gives £1 for each house he sells; a poor woman who earns her money by washing gives a halfpenny out of every shilling, and another who goes out as a charwoman sends one penny out of every shilling she earns.— Brief Narrative of Facts.

NOVEL MISSIONARY COLLECTION.-Stock-raising for the Sunday school appears to be a profitable business. A school in Winnebago, Illinois, has raised 80 dols. (about £14) for home missions, one class of boys raising each a pig, others produce of different kinds, and the teacher a calf.-American Sunday School Times.

ACTS XII.

662.-PRAYER UNCEASING.

Acts xii. 5.-"Peter therefore was kept in prison; but prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him."

Illustrative.-Some time ago three Christians fixed by agreement on a merchant of Philadelphia, doing a large business, but who had no interest in Christ, to make him a subject of special prayer. They agreed to meet at the same hour each day to pray for his conversion. Having done so for two or three days, they said to a fourth, a merchant, "We want you to go and talk to that man about his soul." "I will go," he said. He went, found the merchant in his counting-house in the midst

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SLEEPING IN PRISON.

of business, and asked him for an interview. It was granted. He told him at once the object of his visit. "I have come to speak to you about Jesus." The man's head fell upon his breast; he was silent. "If you feel that you need a Saviour, I have come to tell you that His salvation is free and that you may have it if you will." "Do you say that?" he asked. "I repeat it; I have the highest authority for it," said the visitor. "Will you go with me to see my pastor to-night?" "I will go to-night,” he replied. That evening the merchant and his friend came to the minister, the former anxiously inquiring for Jesus, and sitting with the simple earnestness of a little child, begging to know the way of life.

663.-SLEEPING IN PRISON.

Acts xii. 6.-"And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers."

Illustrative.-So effectually had religious faith and hope, co-operating with natural courage and equanimity, composed his spirit (says Macaulay), that, on the very day on which he was to die, the Earl of Argyll dined with appetite, conversed with gaiety, at the table, and after his last meal lay down as he was wont, to take a short slumber, in order that his body and mind might be in full vigour when he should mount the scaffold. At this time one of the Lords of the Council, who had probably been bred a Presbyterian, and had been seduced by interest to join in oppressing the Church, of which he had once been a member, came to the castle with a message from his brethren, and demanded admittance to the earl. It was answered that the earl was asleep. The Privy Councillor thought that this was a subterfuge, and insisted on entering. The door of the cell was softly opened, and there lay Argyll on the bed, sleeping, in his irons, the placid sleep of infancy. The conscience of the renegade smote him. He turned away sick at heart, ran out of the castle, and took refuge in the dwelling of a lady of his family who lived hard by. There he flung himself on a couch, and gave himself up to an agony of remorse and shame. His kinswoman, alarmed by his looks and groans, thought that he had been taken with sudden illness, and begged him to drink a cup of sack. "No, no," he said; "that will do me no good." She prayed him to tell her what had disturbed him. "I have been," he said, "in Argyll's prison. I have seen him within an hour of eternity, sleeping as sweetly as ever man did. But as for me! '

PETER'S NIGHT VISIT TO MARY'S HOUSE.

684-ANCIENT GATES AND THEIR FASTENINGS.

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Act xii. 10.-" When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the ron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord ; and they went out and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him."

Illustrative.-Such gates are still in use in the East. "Vain," says Mr. Harmer, "would have been the precaution of building their walls high, unless the gates had been well secured also. One of the means whereby they secure them now is the plating them over with thick iron. Algiers has five gates; and some of these have two, some three, other gates within them, and some of them plated all over with thick iron. After this manner the place where St. Peter was imprisoned seems to have been secured. Some of their gates are plated over in like manner with brass." -Observations.

The gateways of cities are usually arched overhead, and the gates are guarded and closed at night. They are large, massive, and two-leaved, built of heavy timber plated with iron. A strong iron bar, hooked at one end, hangs from a heavy ring of the same metal, made fast in a strong post built into the wall behind each fold of the gate. When the gate is closed, the hooks are set into other iron rings on the back of its folds, enabling the gate to resist a very heavy pressure from without. The lock is massive, and of wrought iron, and the long handled ponderous key is carried by the keeper of the gate in his belt, or hung from a nail in his little room close by. There is always a tower, sometimes two, flanking the gate, and benches are fixed on each side of the entrance, often occupied by guards, who live in rooms opening upon the porch.—VAN LENNEP.

665.-PETER'S NIGHT VISIT TO MARY'S HOUSE.
Acts xii. 13-17.

Illustrative.—The incidents of this narrative are thoroughly Oriental. Any one acquainted with the manners and customs of the modern Syrians must be struck with this. Dr. Kitto is wrong when he says that "there are no knockers to Eastern doors." On the contrary, every house in the towns, and even large villages in Palestine, has a knocker, generally a rude massive iron ring. The mode of knocking is very different from ours. On going to a door one gives two or three loud knocks, and then pauses for a moment to listen. If there is no response he repeats them, and again listens. He thus goes on until some one from within calls, "Who?" The door is never opened, under any circumstances, without such a question being put. The person without, if his voice is known to those