they saw the assembled believers to be. Acts ii. 16-21.

28, 29. Upon all flesh. The prophet announces a full and general outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as distinguished from the partial and limited impartations which had been known before. Instead of drops, as it were, there should be a copious stream. Instead of a few single prophets, all should be filled with the prophetic Spirit. The pouring out should be upon men without distinction of age, sex or rank. This is the force of the specifications, sons, daughters, old men, young men, etc., which are explanatory of the term all flesh. The prophecy as regards females, for example, had its direct fulfillment in the circumstance that women were of the number of the disciples to whom the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. Acts i. 14. Shall prophesy. A comprehensive term to describe the extraordinary effects which the coming of the Spirit should produce. We see the fulfillment of the prophecy in the speaking with tongues and the remarkable experiences in general by which the presence of the Spirit in the disciples manifested itself, as related in Acts ii.

30, 31. In immediate connection with the promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the prophet intimates the destruction of the enemies of God, and foretells the signs and wonders which should precede "the great and terrible day of the Lord." This prediction is substantially one with our Saviour's prophecies of the signs and portents which should precede His coming and the end of the world. Matt. xxiv. 29; Luke xxi. 25. In each case there is the same uncertainty as to the precise meaning of the particular predictions; on which account it is not deemed advisable to enter into details here.

which, in the process of fulfillment, turn out to be separated by wide intervals of time. Moreover, we must remember that, according to the New Testament view, the appearance of Jesus Christ in the flesh constitutes "the last days," or the last times." Heb. i. 2. An indication of this is contained in the circumstance that St. Peter, in quoting this prophecy, deviates from the actual language of it, so as to say, " In the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit;" whereas, in the book of Joel, the words are, "And it will come to pass afterwards," etc To the apostles, as to the prophets before them, with the advent of Christ, the end of all things was at hand. His incarnation was the culmination of the world's history; and the whole interval between His first and His second coming, however great a lapse of time it may embrace, constitutes but one period, the period of the last days, of which the Second Coming is simply the consummation. It is quite natural, therefore, and thoroughly in accordance with the laws of prophecy, that the prediction of the judgment should here be blended with the prediction of the coming of the Holy Ghost, which great fact, as completing the mystery of our Saviour's incarnation and the establishment of His Kingdom, fully inaugurated the "last times."

32. The prophecy closes with words of mercy. Amid the terrible judgments which shall destroy the enemies of God, His people shall find protection and deliverance. "Whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered." Thus, also, our Saviour, amid His announcements of the fearful judgments of the last days, says: "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." Matt. xxiv. 13. view of "the great and terrible day of the Lord" should teach us to be grateful for the salvation of Christ, to call upon the name of the Lord in faith, and to consecrate our hearts and lives to Him.

The

COMMENTS.-Trinity Sunday is the beginning of the second great division of the Christian Year. It has its meaning, not, as the name might seem to imply, in holding up the doctrinal statement that God is One in Three and Three in One; but, rather, as marking the commencement of a process of development in the bosom of our human life corresponding to the process of revelation just completed at Pentecost. Hitherto, God has revealed Himself in a succession of outward historical facts. He has made Himself known, in accordance with the law of His own being, as Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the coming of the Holy Ghost being the last act of the revealing process. The completion of this revelation of the Trinity constitutes, according to its very idea, the world of grace, the Kingdom of God, the new creation, the Holy Catholic Church, in which "the powers of the world to come are at hand for our redemption. And now, what is to follow this, is, that what has thus been an outward revelation in the world's history, should become an inward revelation, in the world of our human life; that we, being implanted into this world of grace, should internally experience for ourselves the full power and glory of this heavenly mystery, in that process which, in every child of God, cleanses from sin and reaches out continually towards the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. The first step in this process is our being translated, by a new. birth, from the kingdom of nature into the kingdom of grace. It is this which Trinity Sunday stands for, and this is its significance as related to what goes before and what follows after.

That the above is the idea which gave birth to Trinity Sunday, is witnessed by the circumstance that the Gospel for this day does not contain any direct or formal allusion to the Trinity, as a doctrinal truth, but consists of our Saviour's interview with Nicodemus, containing, as its essence, the entrance into the kingdom of God by a birth of water and the Spirit. The significance of the day, and of the process of which it marks the beginning, is beautifully expressed in the Collect for Trinity Sunday, which

see.

The Lesson places us at a point of

time corresponding to the position of Trinity Sunday in the Christian Year, being the opening of that one of the New Testament writings whose chief object is to relate the history of the foundation and beginnings of the Christian Church; in other words, to describe the commencement of that process, by which, after the facts of the Gospel as related by the Evangelists had been completed, the glorified life of Christ began, through the Spirit, to unfold itself in the hearts and lives of men, for their salvation.

1. The book of the Acts was written by St. Luke, the pupil and companion of St. Paul. Like his Gospel, to which he here alludes, calling it "the former treatise," it was addressed to Theophilus. Of Theophilus, little is known. It is probable that he was a Gentile of rank and consideration, who, under the teaching of St. Luke or St. Paul, had been converted to the Christian faith. Began both to do and to teach. This points out the intimate connection between the Gospel and the Acts; the latter being, as it were, the continuation of the former history. What is related in the Gospels is here viewed as a beginning; which implies that the activity of Jesus, since His Ascension, in His exalted and glorified condition, is the continuation of His terrestrial life and activity, which closed with His Ascension. The history of the Acts of the Apostles is at the same time the history of the activity of the ascended Christ, manifesting His glorified life in and through them.

2. Taken up. Signifying His Ascension; see Mark xvi. 19; Luke xxiv. 51. The Gospels close with the Ascension; the book of Acts begins with it. It is the one event of the Gospel common to both; it is the turning point of both, being at once the end of Christ's visible, and the beginning of His invisible, presence and ministry. Commandments. Referring particularly to those commandments or commissions which constituted for them the last will of their Lord. Matt. xxviii. 19, 20; Mark xvi. 15.

3. Showed Himself alive. One object of the forty days' interval between our Saviour's Resurrection and His Ascension, was, that His apostles might be fully convinced of His being alive;

not in the sense of having returned to His previous life, but as having passed through death, and come out of it living and having eternal victory over it. Without this, they could never have been His Apostles. They could not have gone forth preaching a Christ who had remained under the power of death. To this end, therefore, He gave them "many infallible proofs" of His being alive. He showed Himself unto them, not merely once, but often, and gave them evidences, which appealed to the eye, the ear and the touch. See, as to the appearance of Jesus, after His resurrection, Matt. xxviii. 9, 16, 17; John xx. 11-29; Luke xxiv. 13-35; 1 Cor. xv. E-8.

Speaking of the things, etc. Another object of this interval was, that Jesus might instruct His disciples concerning the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and prepare them more fully for their work. Accordingly, we find Him, on the occasions of His manifold appearances, "speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God."

4. Being assembled together. This meeting is probably the same with that mentioned in verse 6. The place, as we learn from verse 12, was Mount Olivet. Not depart from Jerusalem. It was our Saviour's will that the establishment of His kingdom should begin at, and go forth from, Jerusalem. This, also, had been prophesied; see Isaiah ii. 1-3. He gives a special commandment to this effect, because, had the disciples followed their own inclinations, they would probably have abandoned a place so painful in its associations, and where, as it seemed, they had so much to dread. The promise. That is, the promise of the Holy Ghost. Called the promise of the Father, because God the Father had, by the prophets, promised this gift. Isaiah xliv. 3; Joel ii. 28, 29. Which ye have heard of me. Our Savior Himself, also, had, before His death. given them this promise. John xiv. 16, 17, 26; xv. 26; xvi. 7.

5. The baptism of John the Baptist with water is here used as an image of the effusion of the Holy Ghost. There is also an allusion to the words of John: "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." Luke iii. 16. That they should be baptized with the Holy Ghost signifies that He should be

fully poured out upon them, in distinction from such previous partial communications as that mentioned in John xx. 22. Not many days hence. The promise was fulfilled ten days after our Saviour's Ascension.

6. It is a question, whether, or how far, this inquiry of the disciples indicates an adherence to their previous worldly expectations in regard to the Messiah's kingdom, such as are intimated, for instance, in Luke xix. 11; xxiv. 21. We can hardly suppose that the resurrection of Jesus and the instructions of the Forty Days were without effect in opening their eyes to the essentially spiritual character of His kingdom. It is more probable that, in this instance, their error consisted, not so much in mistaking the nature of the Redeemer's kingdom, as in mistaking the time of the development of its full power and glory. They no longer expected or desired a kingdom of earthly power and temporal deliverance for their nation, but, having some true conception of the nature of the kingdom of Christ, they seem to have supposed that the Old Testament prophecies respecting it, as a kingdom promised to Israel, might now in the fullest extent of their glory, be on the very point of fulfillment. Our Saviour's words, "not many days hence," probably occasioned, and seemed to justify, this expectation.

7. The answer of Jesus seems to accord with the above view. He does not rebuke the disciples; He does not pronounce their expectations false; He simply corrects them as to time, declaring that this cannot be known by them. Times and seasons. Referring to the periods of time through which His kingdom should develop itself, and the epochs through which its history should pass.

8. Our Saviour recalls His disciples from their speculation as to the time of future events, and reminds them of the duty and work before them in the present. They should receive power, when the Holy Ghost should come upon them; that is, the Holy Ghost should qualify them for their work as Apostles, by granting them the knowledge, strength, fortitude and courage for it. They should not only bear witness. They should be His witnesses. Begin